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Elements of Music

The document defines key musical elements and terms including sound, pitch, melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, form, musical expression, and musical instruments. It discusses the four main families of instruments - strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. It also provides context on musical styles, genres, and the Baroque era between 1600-1750 when major-minor tonality and other systems became established.

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MaryFifi
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132 views4 pages

Elements of Music

The document defines key musical elements and terms including sound, pitch, melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, form, musical expression, and musical instruments. It discusses the four main families of instruments - strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. It also provides context on musical styles, genres, and the Baroque era between 1600-1750 when major-minor tonality and other systems became established.

Uploaded by

MaryFifi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

MUSIC AND SOUND


Sound: air particles surrounding a vibrating object that moves to and fro producing a sound wave
Amplitude: the volume -loudness
Pitch: the highness or lowness of a sound
Hertz: number of vibrations per second
Decibel: the unit volume is measured in
Note: musical symbol that indicates pitch and duration
Duration: the length of time the vibration can be heard
Volume: loudness
Frequency: number of vibrations per second
Noise: sounds without a distinct pitch
Acoustic music: non-amplified

MELODY:
Melody: the line or tune, in music, a concept that is shared by most cultures
Contour: how it moves up and down
Range: span of pitches
Interval: the distance between any two pitches in a melody
Conjunct: a melody that moves in small connected intervals
Disjunct: a melody that moves by leaps
Phrases: units that make up a melody
Cadences: resting places where phrases end
Countermelody: a secondary melody that accompanies the melody

RHYTHM AND METER:


Rhythm: what moves music forward in a line
Meter: organizing patterns of rhythmic pulses
Measures: what meters are marked off in, in notation
Downbeat: a strong beat measures often begin with
Simple meters: duple, triple and quadruple
Compound meters: subdivide each beat into three subbeats
Rhythmic complexities: occur with upbeats, off beats, syncopation and polyrhythm
Upbeats: last beat of a measure
Off beats: in between stronger beats
Syncopation: a deliberate upsetting of the normal pattern of accentuation
Polyrhythm: the simultaneous use of several rhythmic patterns or meters
Additive meters: Patterns of beats that subdivide into smaller, irregular groups
Non-metric: has an obscured pulse

HARMONY:
Harmony: describes the simultaneous events in music
Chord: simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches
Scale: sequence of pitches
Triad: three notes built on alternate pitches of a scale
Major or minor scales: sequences of pitches from which most Western music’s’ melody and harmony are
based
Tonic: central tone around which a melody and its harmonies are built
Tonality: principle organization around a central tone
Dissonance: created by an unstable, or discordant, harmony
Consonance: occurs with the resolution of dissonance, producing a concordant sound
Drone: a single sustained tone
MUSICAL TEXTURE:
Texture: refers to the interweaving of the melodic lines with harmony in music
Monophony: simplest texture or single voiced music without accompaniment
Heterophony: multiple voices elaborating the same melody at the same time
Polyphony: describes a many-voiced texture based on counterpoint
Counterpoint: one line set against another
Homophony: when one melodic voice is prominent over the accompanying lines or voices
Homorhythmic texture: a subcategory of homophony in which all voices movie in the same rhythm
Imitation: a melodic idea is presented in one voice, then restated in another (eg. Cannons and rounds)

MUSICAL FORM:
Form: the organization principle in music (basic elements = repetition, contrast and variation)
Strophic form: features repeated music for each stanza of text
Binary form: two-part (A-B)
Ternary form: three-part (A-B-A)
Theme: a melodic idea used as a building block in a large-scale work
Motives: the smallest fragment of a theme that forms a melodic-rhythm unit
Sequence: when a motive is repeated at a different pitch
Call and response (responsorial): a repetitive style involving a soloist and a group
Ostinato: repetition of a short musical melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic pattern
Movements: sections of large-scale compositions

MUSICAL EXPRESSION:
Tempo: the rate of speed, or pace of the music
Allegro: fast
Moderato: moderate
Adagio: quite slow
Accelerando: speeding up the pace
Ritardando: slowing the pace
Metronome: a device the indicates the tempo or beats per minute
Dynamics: describe the volume
Forte: loud
Piano: soft
MUSICAL INSTURMENTS AND ENSEMBLES
VOICES AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENT FAMILIES:
Timbre: tone color (striking differences in the sound quality of instruments)
Instrument: generates vibrations and transmits them into air
Human voices: soprano and alto = female tenor and bass = male
Aerophones: produce sound using air
Chordophones: instruments that produce sound from vibrating string
Idiophones: produce sound from the substance of the instrument itself
Membranophones: drum-type instruments

WESTERN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS:


Four families: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion
String instruments: sounded by bowing or plucking
Bowed strings: include violin, viola, cello and doubles pass
Plucked strings: include harp and guitar
Woodwind instruments: include flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone
Brass instruments: include trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba
Percussion instruments: include idiophones and membranophones, some are pitched while others
unpitched
Keyboard: (piano, organ…) do not fit into the system
MUSICAL ENSEMBLES:
A Cappella Singing: performed without accompaniment
Chamber music: ensemble music for small groups, with one player per part
Orchestra: features eighty o one hundred players
Conductors: person who beats patterns with a baton to help performers keep tempo

STYLE AND FUNCTION OF MUSIC IN SOCIETY:


Sacred music: for religious functions
Secular music: for non-religious functions
Genres: categories of repertory (there are many types and some cross over)
Medium: the specific group that performs a piece
Oral transmission: preservation of music without the aid of written notation
Style: the distinctive features of any artwork
Musical style: created through individual treatment of the elements
Historical periods: periods of time each with its own characterization
THE BAROQUE AND THE ARTS:
THE BAROQUE SPIRIT:
Baroque era: 1600-1750, a time of turbulent change in politics, science and the arts. It was also a time of
religious wars (Protestants vs. Catholics) and of exploration and colonization of the New World. The era
saw the rise of the middle-class culture, with music making centered in the home, church and universities;
art portrayed scenes of bourgeois life.

MAIN CURRENTS IN BAROQUE MUSIC:


Monody: solo song with instrument accompaniment
Figured bass: a short hand that allowed the performer to supply the chords through improvisation
Basso continuo: bass part that was often played on 2 instruments
Major-minor tonality: established in this era
Equal temperament: tuning system established as well
Baroque rhythms: Baroque music did move more freely, however, its later style is characterized by
rhythms and continuous melodic expansion
Doctrine of affections: union of text and music
Women: woman musicians figured among the professional singers and instrumentalists

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