Tension And Repose: Music Analysis

How is rhythm used in the control of tension and repose?

I-Introduction

Music has Expectations and surprise - tension and repose –Who controls it?

First in order to find what controls- what is tension and repose? Tension in music is the part where the simplicity of music goes past our comfort zone. Past our regular expectations and into surprises-creative, varied and complex yet simple sounding parts of music. Repose is the opposite and neutralizes the tension- where the composer places certain parts/facts/things to soften the blow. So what can be used to control tension and repose – rhythm.

How is rhythm used in order to control tension and repose? Simply by creating tension. Rhythm then has the power of diminishing, building up or simply

Pace as defined by Funes in Chapter Three of the Musical Deelopment the second Edition

“rate of activity for any musical element, perceived in relation to some norm.”

A. Essentially pace is the speed of how the music is being played. How does this control tension and repose? Well, basically if we have a piece of music and it has a consistent pace or speed we are in our comfort zone- no tension and therefore no repose- but what if we abruptly change pace? This purposely creates tension. How pace can control tension is by creating or eliminating tension. And repos can be controlled by creating the problem, which is tension, and then reverting back to our comfort zone-the original pace we began with or similar.

B. As see in example 3.3 it shows a great example of controlling tension and repose- the music begins with an unexpected fast bright starting pace -therefore a surprise, which creates the tension. Pace then continues to control as it brings in repose by beginning a regulated slower pace coming from the background. A little later in the excerpt it demonstrates if we want to lead the music to an accelerated speed without an abrupt change which will create stronger tension, the background music can begin a gradually faster

Pace can control tension and repose by creating or dissipating tension just by changing the pace of music.

2. Tempo

A. Let us begin to explain how tempo can control tension and repose as well. Naturally something in us needs to control and keep time – the pulses from a tempo give us that disapline- and as Funes says something to tap our foot to. Therefore when a piece of music does or doesn’t have a strong tempo, it creates or doesn’t create tension, in turn controlling.

B. As seen in the excerpt 3.6 sonny Rollins, “I Got it Thad” it, there are strong regulated pulses- it creates a basic pulse – we can tap our foot to it, nothing past our expectations. Another example with is alittle varied Ex. 3.8 Ludwig van beethovens Sympthony number one.1, First Movement, is creates an amount tension as a strong steady pulse isn’t easily heard at first by the listener(which causes tension), however later the violins create regulated pulse with then creates the repose!

C. In summary pace and rhythm can control tension and repose, just by the placement of themselves- which is decided by the composer.

D. Now, leading into meters –meters are needed in order to control tension and repose as pace, tempo and meters all depend on one