Music has distinct elements that audience members should learn to identify and recognize in music. This knowledge will help improve the listeners experience and improve communication between patrons. The basic building blocks of music composition will help the listener develop a greater appreciation for and interest in new music. Music is an abstract art that defies complete explanations, but learning to communicate with the appropriate terminology allows you to more accurately express your opinions on music. Learn to appreciate the richness of music and bring more fulfillment to your life by starting with a basic knowledge of the elements of music.
Melody and Countermelody
Melodies and countermelodies consist of three basic characteristics -- phrases, periods, and motives. The melody is the part of the composition that can be sung back. Most melodies, or tunes, follow a stepwise motion and can be sung by the average person. Most melodies avoid large skips or leaps in the music, as skips and leaps are both difficult to sing and create a disjunct feeling in the music. As the music becomes more advanced, melodies commonly become more abstract and skips and leaps become more common. The melodies of Webern, Schoenberg, and Berg consists of wide leaps, while the melodies of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven tends to be more stepwise. When confronted with a new piece, try listening to it at least three times before passing judgment on the composition. This will allow you to gain familiarity with the work before making a decision. The antithesis of a melody is the countermelody. As the name suggests, a countermelody plays against, or counter to the melody. Most countermelodies are played in the higher registers. For instance, the piccolo co...
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...n played at the same time will create a smooth and dark timbre.
Form
Form provides the container for a musical composition. Without form, the work would have no structure and would be difficult to make sense of. In the simplest forms, there is a beginning, middle, and end. Each part is given a letter name to indicate the place in the composition that it occurs and the materials in the music. A piece that has a form of ABA will have three sections. The first section will be called A. The B section will consist of different material and finally a return to the original material from the A section. Complex forms may have several sections, and could include several additional letters. It is not uncommon for a piece to have the form ABCADEA, where each letter represents a new section. Specific forms have names such as sonata, symphony, rondo, binary, or ternary form.
Lastly is the Organ Fugue which is basically described as two or more voices that build upon a theme introduced in the beginning of the composition. Handel’s piece, “Water Music”, comprises of many orchestral musical forms that was made for small or large orchestras. It also involves many suites including those of dance. The basso continuo is a form of music that goes along with others. It the bottom line of what the original producer meant and is told through numerals and symbols which indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones. The Four Seasons First Movement: “Spring” by Vivaldi consists of four concerti grossi that was made for string orchestra and a solo
1. Music is a strictly local expression, rich in variety since each culture expresses affective differences through art, 2. Music is a poetic process--complex, vague, and irrational--based upon borrowed traditional musical materials (melodies, rhythms, forms, etc.), 3. Music is for a religious, elitist-class performer who can understand and appreciate its mysterious nature and power, 4. Music is played softly in intimate gatherings, 5. Music making is the activity of Everyman, exacting the talents of variously trained amateurs who, with industry and practice, decorate their recreation and leisure in moments of social intercourse.
William Henry Hadow and Charles Rosen are two historians who talk primarily about musical context. Hadow sets his discussion in the framework of classical composers' movement away from Baroque forms. He says that when Beethoven and his contemporaries chose ternary form over Baroque binary, typified in the dance suite, they chose a structure that was then used successfully into the twentieth century. This was only poss...
Composition is referred to as musical ideas that has a form of structure. What makes a composition so good is all the various elements that goes along with it. Davis was more than just an extraordinary performer; he was also a dynamic composer, as being one who created compositions. Compositions typically include melody, harmonic structure, rhythm, and texture. Davis used all of these elements within his later compositions that had a lasting impact on generations to come.
The genre of pop rock has taken the music industry by storm, giving record companies enormous amounts of power and endless financial success along with a way to reproduce it. Owing its popularity to the “light” nature and simplistic, yet catchy melodies, pop music is one of the broadest genres. There’s no way of clearly defining parameters as to what distinguishes a pop music song from other genres. This is largely due to the genre's’ reliance on popularity. Pop music has taken many forms over the decades, keeping characteristics through each generation it passes through.
Few would argue against the idea that we educate ourselves and our society so that we have adequate means with which to understand and interact with elements of the world around us. Subjects such as mathematics, language, history, and the hard sciences are granted immediate and unquestioned legitimacy in our schools, and with good reason. We encounter each of these elements of our lives on a daily basis. We need to have an understanding of these disciplines in order to interact with them, otherwise they are meaningless to us. I submit that the same can be said for the fundamental concepts of music. Music is something that we encounter in our society every day. It surrounds us. Indeed it would be practically impossible to escape. Like so many other naturally occurring phenomena, a discipline has been developed over centuries to help us interact with music, and that discipline is what I and those of my profession are charged with teaching.
If one were to look back into the world’s history, one would find that an important and consistent element is the world of music. Music has presented itself in various forms throughout its spread and through our identification of its magical realm, people have been fortunate enough to come across a means of relation. Whether it is blues and reggae or rap and pop rock, there is music out there for everyone. Music can serve as a stabilizer for some, a relaxant to others, and to many a form of inspiration.
Music: the art of organized noise. The blend of pitch and rhythm combined in different mediums and enjoyed by our ears. A very interpretive art, music isn’t very clearly constricted or defined by one definition. With so many varieties of music, it’s difficult to say what aspect is really the most important. Some people think music’s history and the appreciation of music are the most important aspects to take into consideration. Some think complex in rhythms and melodies make the best music. Some people devote their whole lives to studying one genre of music in order to fully understand how that genre works. While all of these aspects of music are important, none of them can truly be compared with each other on a fair playing field. Music of different genres, eras, and geographic backgrounds were written for different purposes, different people, and different settings. Still, there is still one overarching theme that applies to all forms of music new or old: the way the composer presents his or her creation. The performance and presentation of a work of music is like the icing on the top of a cake. The cake may be the best you’ve ever tasted, but if the icing on the outside doesn’t look appealing or doesn’t taste good, chances are you’ll take a different piece of cake with better looking frosting next time. The performance of music is what appeals most to people. With live performance, an artist must “sell” his or her creation. They must put smile on their face and convey to the audience that this is their music and through the music explain why it’s awesome. They must persevere through whatever the stage, the audience, and their surroundings give them and put on a good show. In today’s popular music though, this aspect of showma...
In music. the composer must determine the rhythmic nature of his or her creation. In the broadest sense, the composer must determine how Iona he or she wishes the piece to be. At a middle level. he or she can control the rhythmic flow of the piece. For example, the piece might have a slow moving rather uncomplicated opening, followed by a sudden flurry of activity; then it may bui1d to a busy and fast climax, allowing the rhythmic tension to dissipate in the final section.
There are four main kinds of program music including the concert overture, incidental music to a play, the program symphony and the symphonic poem. The concert overture is a concert piece for the orchestra that is a single-movement. It is not a prelude to a larger symphonic work. Examples of concert overtures include Tragic Overture by Johannes Brahms and Overture in G-min...
Most pieces however, are more complex than Mozart’s Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Many have more contrast of melody, key, and mood between section B and the surrounding sections of A. For example, ternary form can be heard in the slow (second movement) of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major or better known as, Elvira Madigan Concerto. Looking at the melody, which in the Classical style are short and simple, with balanced phrases organized into antecedent-consequent (question-answer pairs)- musical units operating together: one opens and the other closes. The melody opening section A of the Piano Concerto in C major consists of the antecedent-consequent unit- each phrase lasting three bars. There’s also pulsing triplets enriching the accompaniment. With the progression of the piece, Mozart unfolds three more themes similar to the ones prior, forming section
Music is a basic part of everyday life. What makes music unique is its ability to create an emotional response in a person. A music education program should develop the aesthetic experience of every student to its highest potential. Aesthetics is the study of the relationship of art to the human senses. Intelligence exists in several areas, which includes music. The concept of aesthetics allows us to see into ourselves, which in turn helps the development of the intelligences. Not only are these intelligences brought up greatly in music education, but they can be transferred to other areas as well, allowing students to grow more through their other subjects.
There are many ways in which music affects and surrounds us. It is our creative outlet, our passion, our distraction, our night out or simply our moment of relaxation. Throughout the centuries, music has played a vital role in our lives. We as a society immerse ourselves in music day to day. From grandiose social gatherings and dances in the Middle Ages, to live concerts and monumental performances to date. Music is in films to elicit emotion and in television commercials to make us consumers of the newest technology. More importantly, it is in our preferred listening device because we choose the particular songs and artists we like and want to hear. The Marriam-Webster dictionary defines music as “sounds that are sung by voices or played on musical instruments; the art or skill of creating or performing music.” But why do we choose attend the Bruce Springsteen concert at Wrigley Field and not the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? What makes us enjoy one type of music or artist and not another? Whether you make music or simply enjoy it by listening to it, we are all connected to music in a variety of ways.
Music, a form of art, made up of unique and special sounds containing elements of pitch and rhythm can powerfully soothe one’s soul. Firstly, there are different types of music, and each has its own features. These sounds and features are what I admire in music because to me it creates a new form of communication to one’s consciousness. It stimulates our mind and gives it a sense of harmony and peace through the hardships that life poses for us. As a kid, I would always listen to music from any genre, deciding which genre would complement me the most as I grew older. In middle school, I remember going on the computer and finding a website/program where I could make my own beats. From that day on, I spent countless of hours each day making sure the tune sounded proper and pleasurable for my ears. At first, it wasn’t good, but eventua...
...s a set of rules which musicians must follow. Also just like any official language, music can be used to communicate emotions. In order for somebody to understand music they must have some sort of knowledge about rules in order to appreciate musical experiences. Every culture is different, every language is different and every music is different, but to fully appreciate the music; listeners must be musically literate. In our first week of class, “Khoomi” was our first musical example and all the students were confused about this type of music. But now with my little knowledge about music and how diverse it is, I learned to appreciate it more.