The concepts of music
- 1. The concepts of music
- 2. The 6 concepts of music • Duration • Pitch • Dynamics and Expressive Techniques • Tone Colour • Texture • Structure
- 3. Duration The way beats are grouped: time signatures. Classified as simple (eg 4/4, 3/4), compound (eg 6/8, 12/8), irregular (eg 5/4, 7/8), mixed metre, or no metre. The underlying pulse of music (strong or weak). Some music has no pulse. The speed of the beat, and whether it is altered (ritardando , accelerando or rubato) Patterns of long and short notes, and silences. Rhythms can be simple or complex. Rhythmic devices include: rhythmic ostinato, syncopation, polyrhythm, hemiola, swing, diminution, augmentation Click HERE to listen to audio examples
- 4. Pitch Melody includes melodic contour and melodic movement ascending/descending, alternating, steps, skips, leaps – stepwise, scalic, (conjunct), chromatic, triadic, or angular (disjunct) – name the actual intervals and their scale degrees Phrase structure (eg antecedent- consequent, pairs of phrases, or others: eg AAB, AA’BB’) Register (high or low) and range (wide or narrow) and melodic devices such as: sequence (ascending or descending?), motivic development (extension, decoration, fragmentation etc), countermelody, ostinato, ornamentation, melisma, blue notes, suspension, appoggiatura, passing note (diatonic or chromatic), escape note Harmony includes chords (eg major, minor, augmented, diminished seventh, dominant sevenths, added or extended chords, inversions) Harmonic structure (eg repeated chord progressions such as 12 bar blues or I V vi IV, or non-repeated chord progressions); - (modulations) Harmonic rhythm (how quickly the chords change – eg once per bar, 4 times per bar) Chord spacing (how the notes of a chord are spread over the range) Accompaniment style (how the chords are played, eg block chords, broken chords, Alberti bass, other accompanying figurations (patterns)) Chromatic harmony (using chords or notes from outside the scale) Dissonance and consonance – suspensions, resolutions, chains of suspensions, appoggiaturas, accented passing notes, or unresolved dissonance Tonality is the key and scale a piece is based around. It can be major, minor, modal, pentatonic (eg the blues scale), or atonal. There are many other types of scale too (eg Indian ragas, Japanese scales, whole tone, octatonic scales). A piece can change key, which is called modulation (find which key by looking for 1) accidentals of the new key 2) a perfect cadence (look at the bass) and give the key relationship to the tonic (eg relative minor, dominant, subdominant, flat submediant, parallel minor) Click HERE to listen to audio examples
- 5. Dynamics (and Expressive Techniques) pppp, ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, fff, or ffff decrescendo/diminuendo crescendo swell (< >) Terrace dynamics Fp < eg subito (sudden changes) Sfz (sforzando) fp (fortepiano) Accents Click HERE to listen to audio examples
- 6. EXPRESSIVE TECHNIQUES In scores, advice on how to play the music, eg “with a lilt”, “aggressively”, cantabile, maestoso etc Expressive use of tempo (eg rubato) How each note is attacked, sustained, and released: eg staccato, accented, legato, slurred, tenuto, fp, sfz Decorating a melody or harmony with extra notes: eg trill, passing notes, turn, appoggiatura, grace note, mordent, acciaccatura, blue notes Click HERE to listen to audio examples Using effects to change how each note sounds: eg tremolo, wahwah, echo, delay, feedback, autotune Instrument or voice specific techniques (see next slide)
- 7. Expressive Techniques/Tone ColourExamples of special instrumental and vocal techniques (these are common to both concepts above): STRINGS BRASS WINDS GUITARS VOICE DRUMS Tremolo Mutes Tonguing Strumming Glissando Drum roll Sul pont. Bends Slurring Fingerpicking Bend Rim shot Pizzicato Vibrato Flutter- tongue Harmonics Scoop Brushes Glissando Falls Bends Slide, bend Falsetto Cymbal bell Harmonics Doits Glissando Vibrato Vibrato Double-kick Double- stopping Growl Multiphonics Hammer- on/off Chest/head voice Con sordino Glissando (trombone) Circular breathing FX (distortion, chorus etc) Growl/ scream Speak- Click HERE to listen to audio examples
- 8. Tone Colour See previous slide. How the sound is produced: materials (eg wood, metal, string etc) production (eg hit, struck, scraped, plucked) acoustic/electronic etcThe effect of the overall tone colour of all instruments combined: eg majestic, brilliant, mournful, ethereal etc The sound quality of an instrument or voice: eg bright, dark, piercing, grating, raucous, sonorous, mellifluous, resonant, rich, reedy, honky, sweet, tinkling Name and classify the instrument or voice, and its family. How are instruments or voices combined in the music? Do they blend or contrast in tone colour? Is it a standard ensemble eg string quartet, rock band, orchestra? Click HERE to listen to audio examples
- 9. TextureHow many layers (not how many instruments) are there in the music, and what are they? Describe the ROLE of each layer (eg melodic, chordal, rhythmic, accompaniment, countermelody, basso continuo, riff, ostinato, improvisation) and describe its pitch and duration, and how the layers interrelate (rhythmic unison? Parallel, similar, oblique or contrary motion? Fugue? Canon? imitation? Antiphony (question and answer?) Polyrhythm? Heterogenous texture (layers are very different from one another ) or homogenous texture (similar parts that blend together?) How thick or thin is the texture? Are all instruments playing all the time? Is there textural contrast? Describe the overall texture (avoid simply saying thick or thin): heavy, busy, light, rich, sparse, percussive, interlocking Click HERE to listen to audio examples
- 10. StructureThe overall form of the music: eg ABA (ternary), AABB (binary), AABACA (rondo), sonata form, verse-chorus, theme and variations, 12 bar blues, strophic (eg school hymn), minuet and trio, or through-composed The structure on the smaller level: melodic phrase structures (eg open-closed, ABBA, antiphony, call/response) Use of chord progressions (harmonic structure), motifs, ostinatos, repetition, rhythmic patterns, accompaniment figuration What remains constant or recurs throughout a piece (what unifies a piece) What changes in a piece, either subtly (variety) or dramatically (contrast) Click HERE to listen to audio examples