THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

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1 THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC WORKBOOK Page 1 of 23

2 INTRODUCTION The different kinds of music played and sung around the world are incredibly varied, and it is very difficult to define features that all music shares; one piece might be characterised as a melody supported by an accompaniment of chords, but another might have neither melody nor harmony (chords) but still be regarded as music. When we try to get inside music and understand how it works, we usually do this by identifying different elements that can be described separately while remembering that in reality we hear all of these elements simultaneously. The first thing we can do in defining these elements is to distinguish the ways in which sounds are differentiated from each other from the arrangement of these different sounds in time. The ways in which sounds can be distinguished from each other are many (pitch, timbre/sonority, loudness and so on) and they need to be picked apart a little further. Pitch is defined by the frequency of vibration of a sounding body (a string, a column of air, a metal plate, etc.). Faster vibrations give rise to higher pitches, slower vibrations to lower pitches. The description of pitch as relatively high or low is reflected in the notational convention of indicating higher pitches (those involving faster vibrations) higher on a musical staff than low pitches. A succession of pitches gives rise to melody; simultaneous pitches define harmony. Most real-world sounds comprise not a single frequency of vibration but a complex mixture of frequencies, and this combination gives rise to the perception of timbre/sonority: timbre/sonority is one of the principal elements that allows us to distinguish a clarinet from a trumpet, for example, or to distinguish between the voices of two singers. Although usually considered rather lower down in the list of elements, timbre/sonority plays an essential role alongside melody and harmony in western music, and can be one of the most important elements, especially in music that uses instruments without definite pitches. Similarly, dynamic contrasts (between louder and softer sounds) are important in many kinds of music. As for the ways in which different sounds are arranged, this gives us the broad category of musical time (under which come rhythm, metre, tempo and pulse). This is also linked to other phenomena, such as melody and harmony, since they involve the arrangement of sounds in time, as noted above; melody and harmony are placed among the most important elements in western music. Finally, we must consider the ways in which different voices and instruments combine. This is partly a matter of timbre/sonority (since different combinations of instruments have distinctive timbral/sonorous characteristics) and partly of dynamics (i.e. dynamic levels and their variations), but it can also be much more than that; the ways in which different lines of the music combine together is described as its texture, which is another important aspect of music that we can investigate. This gives us the following list of musical elements which can be grouped in related clusters, in the order in which they are discussed in the following section: TIME: DURATION, PULSE, METRE, TEMPO, RHYTHM. PITCH: MELODY, TONALITY, HARMONY. TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY, DYNAMICS. Page 2 of 23

3 TIME - DURATION PULSE METRE TEMPO AND RHYTHM The way music proceeds through time is defined in several basic ways, of which the most important are DURATION, PULSE, METRE, TEMPO AND RHYTHM. Perhaps the easiest of these concepts to grasp is DURATION: any performance of a piece of music lasts a particular length of time. A song can be short, as little as two or three minutes. An opera or a musical religious ritual can last several hours. A concerto, a symphony or an Indian raga, might last anywhere between fifteen minutes and an hour or so. There may also be sections within this overall duration: three or four movements within a concerto or symphony, verses and choruses within a song. And, of course, individual sounds also have DURATION. Most music has a PULSE, which is perceived as a series of regular beats. In some music it is obvious; in other music it is subtle. In certain kinds of music there is no pulse, or a pulse that is weak or intermittent. In most music the beats are arranged into a regularly repeating pattern, in which some beats are stressed, others unstressed. This pattern is called METRE (as in poetry). It is important to be clear about the distinction between pulse and metre. Pulse underlies the basic beat, METRE is the way those beats are arranged into patterns of stressed and unstressed. The most common metres have measures (bars, groups or cycles) of two, three or four beats (though many other groups are encountered, particularly in musical traditions of the Balkans, the Middle East and India). In western music notation, the metre is indicated by a time signature (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 and so on), and by division of the score into bars. (The second or lower figure in a time signature refers to a particular note value, such as a crotchet (/4) or quaver (/8); the first or upper figure gives the number of these note values per bar.) The TEMPO of music is defined by the rate of pulse. Fast music is music with a fast pulse; slow music is music with a slow pulse. RHYTHM is the general term to describe how sounds are distributed over time (so pulse, metre and tempo are all aspects of rhythm in this broad sense). During a piece of music, notes or sounds will come and go in varying patterns in relation to the pulse, metre and tempo. These patterns are what is most often meant by the rhythm of the music. The rhythm can consist of patterns of longer or shorter notes in various combinations: even or uneven, emphasising the metre and stresses or disrupting them. Patterns tend to be grouped in identifiable PHRASES, similar to the phrases of speech. Much of the character of music is determined by this detailed rhythm and its grouping into phrases, and the way they relate to pulse, metre and tempo. Page 3 of 23

4 ACTIVITY 1 We re going to begin exploring the elements of music by looking at Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor, a piece of late eighteenth-century western art music, with a duration of about half an hour. It is divided into three sections called MOVEMENTS. We ll begin by exploring the second movement, the slow movement of the Concerto. Listen to the opening bars of the second movement on Elements Audio 1 and try to establish the METRE. How many beats do you think there are to the bar: two, three or four? Try counting the music in different ways (in twos, threes and fours) to establish what METRE you think the movement has? ACTIVITY 2 Look at the score of this passage from the second, ( Larghetto ), movement of Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor, given as SCORE 1 on the following pages. In this version of the score, the orchestral parts have been reduced onto two staves, to make them easier to read. Look at the opening bars, which are for piano only. Don t worry if you are not used to reading a score on more than one staff. All you are looking at is the number of beats in the bar how many are there? ACTIVITY 3 Now listen to Elements Audio 2, which repeats this passage, this time continuing a little further to bar 12. As you do so, try to follow the score, given as SCORE 1 on the following pages. For most of this passage you can just concentrate on the piano part, and particularly the upper staff of the piano part, which carries the melody. You only need to follow the orchestral part in bars 5-8. Think about the rhythmic character of bars How might you describe the rhythm of this music? Does it have clearly defined PHRASES is it easy to break up into short chunks or are the phrases difficult to identify? Does the rhythm have sudden contrasts, or does it flow smoothly? Does the rhythmic character of the music change during this passage? Page 4 of 23

5 SCORE ONE Piano Concerto in C minor, K491, second movement, bars 1 23 (piano reduction) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Page 5 of 23

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7 ACTIVITY 4 We re now going to look at the opening of the first movement of Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor. Without looking at the score on the following pages, listen to the opening of the first movement on Elements Audio 3. As you listen, try to establish in your mind the PULSE and METRE of this movement, as you did with the slow movement. It may take you a while to be sure, because the opening bars do not make it clear, but once the music gets going, try counting two, three or four against the music, and try to establish the metre Can you feel a regular pulse? If so, how fast is it? Is this movement in two-, three- or four-time? ACTIVITY 5 Now listen to this same passage again on Elements Audio 3 and try to follow the score, given as SCORE 2 on the following pages. Again, you don t need to be able to pick out a lot of detail, just think about the rhythmic character of the music. Use the times on your media player to identify points where you think the rhythmic character of the music changes, and mark these points on the score on the following pages. Then look specifically at bars 1-5 on the score and consider how the rhythmic character of those bars is reflected in what you see on the score. How does it compare with the rhythmic character of the second movement? Does it flow smoothly, or are there distinct contrasts in rhythm in this passage? If there are distinct contracts, what are they? Page 7 of 23

8 SCORE TWO Piano Concerto in C minor, K491, first movement, orchestral exposition, bars 1 99 (piano reduction) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Page 8 of 23

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11 PITCH - MELODY TONALITY HARMONY Most music consists of notes of particular PITCHES (though there are some exceptions music for unpitched drums, for example). Notes of different pitch occurring one after another form MELODIES. Of course, there needs to be a certain number of notes before one really perceives a fully fledged melody, as the term is commonly used. Some music for instruments is made up of little groups of two or more notes, which are more generally referred to as PHRASES, or (if they recur) MOTIFS. You could say that these are fragments of melody though it is also possible for a motif to consist of just a rhythm. The notes of a melody are chosen from the notes of a SCALE or MODE. There are many different scales in the world. In western music from the eighteenth century onwards, the two most common types of scale have been the MAJOR SCALE and the MINOR SCALE. A major scale is said to be in a MAJOR KEY, and a minor scale in a MINOR KEY. The name of the major or minor key is determined by the starting note (TONIC or key note) of that scale. So a major scale that starts on the note G is a scale of G major. When notes of different pitch sound simultaneously, the generic term for the result is HARMONY. Any single instance of notes sounding simultaneously is a CHORD. When the harmony of the music consists simply of a succession of chords, this is HOMOPHONY (CHORDAL). But it is also possible to create harmony in which one melody co-exists with another, sounding simultaneously on a different voice or instrument; this is POLYPHONY. ACTIVITY 6 Listen to the first twelve bars of the second movement of Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor again from Elements Audio 2 following the score, given as SCORE 1. This time, as you listen, think about the PITCH elements of the music. During the first four bars, what is the melody doing? Is it repeating the same note, going up, going down, moving suddenly or gradually, by small steps or by larger steps? What shape is being created by these movements up or down? Page 11 of 23

12 ACTIVITY 7 Look at SCORE 1 and listen to Elements Audio 2 again. What key is the second movement in? (Look at the key signature and the opening notes of the music and use the Key Signature Chart (Circle of Fifths) below to help you) Then, look at the melody of the first four bars. Do you think that it sticks closely to the notes of the key, or does it deviate from it? ACTIVITY 8 Look again at SCORE 2 showing the opening of the first movement of Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor. What key is the first movement in? (Look at the key signature and the opening notes of the music and use the Key Signature Chart (Circle of Fifths) below to help you) Look at the melody of the opening bars (bars 1-13). Does it stick closely to the notes of the key? Page 12 of 23

13 ACTIVITY 9 Staying with SCORE 2, now consider the shape of the melody at the beginning of the first movement and its groups into phrases. How might you describe the phrases in the first nine bars: how is the music divided into phrases and what are the melodic shapes of those phrases? How would you compare this with the beginning of the second movement from Activity 6? TEXTURE TIMBRE SONORITY AND DYNAMICS When you have several different notes sounding together, whether in simple chords or in complicated polyphony, whether voices or instruments, this creates what is known as a TEXTURE. This term is also used with a fabric, in which the combining of threads creates a particular texture fine or coarse, open or dense, for example. TIMBRE and SONORITY are the terms used to describe the tone quality of a sound, voice or instrument, for example its brightness, mellowness or purity. Finally, musicians use the term DYNAMICS to describe levels of loud or soft. The terms TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY and DYNAMICS are grouped together in this section because, in practice, they interact with each other. A TEXTURE of different instruments playing together will sound quite different, depending on the TIMBRE/SONORITY and DYNAMICS of each instrument within it. Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor is scored for piano with quite a small orchestra (by modern standards), but it contains a wealth of effects and subtleties in its use of TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY and DYNAMICS Page 13 of 23

14 ACTIVITY 10 Listen again to the opening of the first movement of Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor on Elements Audio 3. Just listen straight through the track (bars 1-52). This time, listen out for the different instruments and their combinations. Make a note of each striking change of TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY and DYNAMICS in this passage. It is suggested that you do this twice, once just listening to the recording and the second time following SCORE 2 again. Some of the changes in TEXTURE are more striking than others. Where does the most striking change occur? MUSICAL NOTATION Notation also has a profound effect on the language we use to describe music: for instance, we describe harmony as the vertical dimension of music because harmony is notated with the notes sounding together represented as vertical stacks; rhythms are referred to as dotted if their notation requires the use of dots. This section on Musical Notation thinks about the ways in which musicians use notation, what it is good for and what its limitations might be. You will be comparing three pieces of notation all asking you to listen to a piece of music while attempting to follow it in a corresponding piece of notation. This may be harder in one or more examples than it is in the others, in which case don t worry about following the score but concentrate on how the notation is presented and what sense you can make of it. ACTIVITY 11 Think back to the previous activities, where you were asked to listen to the first fifty-two bars of the first movement of Mozart s Piano Concerto in C minor while following the two-stave score given on SCORE 2. Which elements of the music you heard were indicated on the score and which were not? (Look back at SCORE 2 and listen to Elements Audio 3 again). Page 14 of 23

15 ACTIVITY 12 Repeat Activity 11, doing exactly the same thing using an audio track and printed music for a very different piece of music a song by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band called Big Eyed Beans from Venus given as SCORE 3 and on Elements Audio 4. Since far less information is contained on the printed music, you might like to make brief notes about all the things that could have been represented in notation but have not been (at least in this version). SCORE THREE Big Eyed Beans from Venus Captain Beefheart (words and music by Don Van Vliet) Page 15 of 23

16 In sum, the score of the Mozart contains enough information for suitably trained musicians to play the opening of his Piano Concerto in C minor. A pianist can sit down at a piano and play the twostave score. The full orchestral score contains more or less everything you need to know in order to arrange a performance of the concerto by an orchestra and pianist. By contrast, the printed music of Big Eyed Beans from Venus doesn t contain enough information to enable a rock group to do the equivalent job. This kind of printed music, comprising lyrics and guitar chords, is very common in popular music; it is often extremely useful in enabling bands or solo guitarists to play passable versions of songs (the same musicians would almost always refer also to recorded versions of the songs as a guide). If you are a guitarist and you like Captain Beefheart s music, you will want to figure out how his guitarists play those riffs and if this is the only notation you have got, you are going to have to figure it out for yourself! Of course, if you think of an actual rock performance for a moment, this is entirely logical; rock bands don t play from notation but from memory, and there simply isn t a score in the way that there is a score of the Mozart. Rock musicians don t generally learn songs from notation either, although they might use sheets like this to get a head start in figuring out how another band s song is to be played. The point of this is simple but fundamental: musical notation exists to do a particular job within a particular musical tradition, so the ways in which notation is used and the information that the notation contains vary between musical traditions. ACTIVITY 13 Video clips of the Mozart and Captain Beefheart pieces in performance can be found on Elements Video 1. Watch them now. How, if at all, is notation used in the two performances? Page 16 of 23

17 The basic notation of a song in pop or jazz is called a LEAD SHEET. It usually consists of the melody (the lead ), with lyrics if there are any, and indications of the accompanying harmony using chord symbols as a shorthand. In jazz, lead sheets provide an aide memoire for a core repertoire of standards (often American popular songs) with which jazz musicians are expected to be familiar, but also provide a basis for sharing new compositions. The lead sheet provides only a rough guide for performances, as the same composition can be performed in infinitely different ways. Most significantly, jazz musicians will also decide on a particular feel for their interpretation a combination of the tempo and groove, for example swing or bossa nova which provides the rhythmic basis for the performance. Even the melody and harmony are rarely performed simply as notated on the lead sheet often the rhythm of the melody is treated very freely, and different harmonies are added or substituted. Of course, many elements of a jazz performance are not usually represented on the lead sheet at all, such as a bass line, drum part and patterns for accompanying chordal instruments such as guitar and piano, which, along with solos, are usually improvised in accordance with the chosen feel for the performance. ACTIVITY 14 Listen to the first 0 54 of Veena Sahasrabuddhe s performance of a composition called Ranga de rangarejavaa given on Elements Audio 5 following notation given below as you listen. The notation has been given in two forms, firstly, the traditional Indian notation and secondary transcribed into traditional western standard notation. Ranga de rangarejavaa (Raga Madhmad Sarang, teental) as sung by Veena Sahasrabuddhe, first line in Indian notation. The top row (3, X, 2, 0) indicates the structure of the tala or metre: X marks beat 1 but occurs in the middle of the line because the piece begins on beat 12. The letters on the second row indicate the main notes to be sung. Ranga de rangarejavaa (Raga Madhmad Sarang, teental) as sung by Veena Sahasrabuddhe, first line transcribed in western standard With indications of the tala structure added. Written at the pitch used for the recording; the Indian notation indicates only relative pitch. How much does the notation tell you about the music you hear on the recording? Page 17 of 23

18 ACTIVITY 15 Read the following regarding Musical Notation filling in the missing word or words choosing from those given in the box below: Of the three examples you ve explored the Mozart Piano Concerto, the Captain Beefheart Lead Sheet and the Indian notation of Raga Madhmad Sarang, the score contains by far the most, because it is intended to enable to play the piece. Of course, it isn t all they need to know, because to be able to carry out the instructions properly requires many years of bring an enormous amount of contextual and musicians to bear in interpreting a. Nevertheless, what this kind of notation allows to do is to reproduce a very complex music, often involving the coordination of many different, with a high degree of precision. There are other examples of musical traditions involving the coordination of many different parts, such as, which use notation very little or not at all. But in these cases musicians tend to be much less concerned with playing music the same way it has been played before, and more comfortable with the idea that the piece is being recreated in a slightly different each time. To some extent then, notation can help to a piece of music in a particular form and slow down what would otherwise be an inevitable process of change; in western art music this is often considered desirable. This doesn t mean the of the music doesn t change over time, but the things that change most tend to be the things that aren t on the score: the instrumental and, precise and, rather than the actual notes. This is just one of many ways in which the nature of the notation musicians use plays a role in determining the music which is played and listened to. dynamics score stabilise western classical musicians specified information sound musicians Mozart parts technical knowledge playing techniques tempo markings timbres/sonorities Indonesian Gamelan training and practice form Page 18 of 23

19 There are many other kinds of notation in use around the world, and to get a sense of this without getting into too much detail we re going to look at how a well-known melody Greensleeves can be represented in different forms of notation. Greensleeves, in the Dorian Mode a simple transcription of melody onto a single staff Greensleeves, including chord notations for the guitar. This is similar to a LEAD SHEET in popular songs, but without the words. (Note the convention here of indicating a minor chord with a lower-case letter (e.g. e ): the alternative way of writing this same chord, Em is more common in lead sheets) Greensleeves, in a type of modern guitar TABLATURE. (Here, the horizontal lines represent not notes but strings on a guitar. The small numbers replacing note heads indicate which fret on which the string must be pressed down when it is plucked. The notation is therefore a direct instruction to the musician where to place his or her fingers. As long as the tuning is known (and here it is given as the top line of the notation), the pitches can be deduced, but they are not represented directly as they are in standard notation) Greensleeves, melody in CIPHER NOTATION using Arabic numerals (Number 1 refers to the first note of the scale, 2 the second note, and so on. It does not indicate that it is to start from the note E as the previous three examples do, and nor does it specify which scale is to be used (e.g. major or minor this version of the tune is actually in the DORIAN MODE). Page 19 of 23

20 Greensleeves, arranged for the Chinese lute (pipa) by Tsun Yuen Lui. (This is also a form of TABLATURE, but it is very different! It is written for the Chinese lute (pipa) and the two lines of characters in each column represent the pitch (indicated in cipher notation using numerals) and the right-hand plucking technique to be used). Looking at these different notations of the same melody Greensleeves tells us different things: they do not all convey the same information. The first shows us the tune that is, the pitches, the relative durations of the notes and the metre but doesn t tell us what instrument(s) it is to be played on. The second indicates chords that can accompany the melody, but leaves open the question of how they might be played (guitar symbols are given, but from the chord names, one could just as easily make a simple accompaniment on the piano, for example). The third example specifies exactly how to play the tune on a particular instrument, as does the fifth, whereas the fourth gives the least information of all and is therefore the most flexible and adaptable to different instrumental and vocal ensembles. ACTIVITY 16 Give your own definitions for the following Elements of Music Key Words on the following pages, or look back at the information given in this booklet to help you remember. Finally, complete the Learning Outcomes to monitor and evaluate your learning on the Elements of Music. Page 20 of 23

21 Key Word Chord G C S E M U S I C E L E M E N T S O F M U S I C THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC KEY WORDS Meaning Understood (tick) Signatures (staff, student, parent) Duration Dynamics Harmony Lead Sheet Melody Metre Mode Motif Movement(s) Notation Page 21 of 23

22 Key Word Phrase(s) G C S E M U S I C E L E M E N T S O F M U S I C Meaning Understood (tick) Signatures (staff, student, parent) Pitch Pulse Rhythm Scale Tempo Texture Timbre/Sonority Page 22 of 23

23 Learning Outcomes (Grade 1-3) (Grade 4-6) (Grade 7-9) Signatures (staff, student, parent) I can list the Elements of Music from memory I can describe the musical elements associated with Time Duration, Pulse, Metre, Tempo and Rhythm I can establish the Metre of different pieces of music when listening I can describe the Rhythms of different pieces of music when listening and compare and contrast rhythmic features I can describe the musical elements associated with Pitch Melody, Harmony and Tonality I can describe the Melody of different pieces of music when listening and compare and contrast melodic features, melodic movement and melodic shape I can identify the Tonality (key signature) of different pieces of music I can describe the musical elements of Texture, Timbre/Sonority and Dynamics I can identify changes of Texture, Timbre/Sonority and Dynamics when listening to a piece of music I can describe what Musical Notation is I can identify what Elements of Music are indicated on a musical score I can identify what elements of music are indicated on a Lead Sheet I can describe how musical notation is used during live musical performances I can comment on how much musical notation tells about the music heard on a recording I understand that there are different types of musical notation and can identify what different elements of music different forms of musical notations tell the performer and cab describe the limitations of different types of musical notation. Page 23 of 23