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Week 1: "What is Music?"
The document discusses the five elements of music: sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, and growth. It defines each element and provides examples. Sound is defined by its dynamic range, timbre, and texture. Harmony involves the simultaneous sounding of pitches to create chords. Melody refers to the tune and is defined by aspects like pitch, key, and mode. Rhythm provides the steady beat and pulse, involving tempo and meter. Growth examines how musical elements develop over the course of a piece through techniques like repetition, contrast, and defined structures or forms.
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Week 1: "What is Music?"
- 1. Week 1: Whatis Music? LA RUE’S THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
- 2. La Rue’s FiveElements of Music Sound Harmony Melody Rhythm Growth
- 3. SOUND Sound iswhat we hear, that are audible Sound is comprised of three characteristics: Dynamic Range Timbre Texture
- 4. TIMBRE The difference betweenthe quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part, or piece of music. We measure the ‘dynamic range’ from quiet to load. DYNAMIC RANGE Also known as “tone color” or “quality,” Timbre is the unique color and/or quality of a sound. It is timbre that helps us to distinguish one musical instrument from another (Ex: Violin vs. Piano)
- 5. TEXTURE The number of‘layers’ of melody used in a composition/song or how many musical lines are happening within a piece of music. Monophonic – Only one melody line present, all singers/ musicians play the same melody everyone in unison (literally “one sound”) Polyphonic - Multiple (two or more) melodic lines blending together to make a piece of music YouTube Video Example HERE
- 6. TEXTURE continued… Homophonic– The word means “the same sound,” there is a single melody line with supporting harmony underneath. Musical Example: Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb_jQBgzU-I
- 7. HARMONY Harmony orharmonics is when you have multiple pitches (more than one) being played at the same time. In most cases, harmony occcurs in the simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches/notes which make up, what we call ‘chords.’ Much of the music we hear features a melody accompanied by a sequence of harmonics (a “harmonic progression”). This creates a homophonic texture as explained in Texture above. It is comprised of three factors: Consonance vs. Dissonance Musical Phrases & Cadences Key & Mode (Shared with MELODY)
- 8. Consonance vs. Dissonance Consonance Stable Pleasing Sound Sounds in ‘agreement’ with one another Dissonance Unstable Tension and Clashing Jarring Musical Example of Consonance vs. Dissonance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Ph0sa0Gc0
- 9. Musical Phrasing Justas we naturally divide our words into sentences, we can naturally divide most melodies into a number of distinct phrases. This is especially true in the case for music with lyrics (words), but musical phrasing is a common feature of instrumental music as well. A phrase is a single musical thought. Multiple phrases are put together to create a song. A phrases ends naturally, in cases with lyrics it is when one would take a breath. Phrases typically end with a cadence, the ending of a musical phrase. There are strong cadences and weak cadences. Strong cadence: at the end of a musical phrase and feel like they are “finished” Weak cadence: a midpoints in the song and feel like they want to go on to finish the thought.
- 10. Musical Phrasing continued… Forexample, in “Mary Had a Little Lamb” we have TWO phrases. There is a natural pause in between phrases. Click HERE to hear. WEAK CADENCE STRONG CADENCE
- 11. MELODY Melody isa memorable set of pitches or the “tune” of a song. Comprised of Pitch/Melodic Range Key Mode Major Minor
- 12. Pitch & MelodicRange Harmony and melody are united by a focus on pitch, a single note (one sound) or, scientifically, the relative frequencies of different sounds. We can say that a melody which varies greatly in pitch has a wide melodic range Melodic Range is the distance between the lowest and highest pitch/note in a piece. If a melody in a piece is close together with no skips or leaps it is a narrow melodic range. Also known as conjunct or close. If a melody has leaps and varying low and high notes, it has a wide melodic range. Also known as disjunct not close.
- 13. Melodic Range Narrow/LimitedMelodic Range Conjunct Wide Melodic Range Disjunct Melodic Range can also reflect the melodic shape, or the direction a melody draws. EX: “Mary Had a Little Lamb” Mary had a little lamb, little lamb little lamb | Mary had a little lamb with fleece as white as snow ||
- 14. Key The wholeidea of keys is that we can play the very same melody using different starting pitches as long as the relative distance between each subsequent pitch remains the same. Consequently, you might not hear much of a difference between a melody played starting on one note vs. one starting on another. Key is a group of pitches (scale) which a musical composition is based upon. Each key is built upon a tonic or home note. For example if a piece is in the KEY of C, then tonic or ‘home’ note is C.
- 15. Mode Unlike a changein key a change in mode, what major or minor scale a piece is stationed in, can radically alter the feel of the music. In technical terms, the pattern of whole steps and half steps that forms the minor scale begins with a whole step and a half step—unlike the major scale, which begins with two whole steps. This little change means everything. MAJOR “Happy” Sounding Starts with 2 full steps on a piano Ex: C Major MINOR “Sad” Sounding Starts with 1 full step and 1 half step on a piano Ex: C minor
- 16. RHYTHM A strong,regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound Is the steady beat that provides a rhythmic foundation for the music Most songs have a steady and regular beat. Comprised of: Tempo Meter Duple & Quadruple Triple
- 17. Tempo Is thespeed at which rhythm goes within any one piece It can be either fast or slow Keep track of the beat in a song and you can determine whether the tempo is fast or slow.
- 18. Meter The re-occurring patternof stresses or accents that provide the pulse/beat in music Duple Meter – Meter is divided into groups of 2 Quadruple Meter – Meter is divided into groups of 4 Example: Duple Meter Triple Meter – Meter is divided into groups 3 beats Quadruple Meter vs. Triple Meter
- 19. GROWTH Development Contrast Repetition Form Large-scale Forms
- 20. Development How apiece can grow or expand within itself: Contrast – how a piece can develop or grow through contrasting or different types of musical elements (melody, tempo, etc.) Repetition – how a piece can grow through repetition, Ex; the more you repeat a phrase, the bigger the piece becomes.
- 21. Form Form isthe shape or structure of a piece of music, wherein a song is divided into sections. For example: Large scale form: When a piece has multiple sections to it.
- 22.