Music 190W Week 3

Week 3 reading

Chapter 3, Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding: The Elements of Music"; Hacker 3, 4

Week 3 Listening

CD 1 tracks 1, 2, 3

Week 3 topic: Elements of Music

The four basic elements of music are:

• frequency: how fast the sound source is vibrating, which determines the highness or lowness of musical sounds (pitch)
• duration: how long the sounds last in time (rhythm)
• intensity: how loud the sounds are (dynamics)
• waveform: the quality of the sound, which allows you to tell which instrument is playing (timbre or tone color)

We'll listen to many examples in class to illustrate the elements of music.

Listening review

Use these notes with CD 1 from the 2CD set in the CD-ROM drive of your computer.

---

"Silvy" (folk song)

This is the chorus.

The text asks how verses 3 and 4 sound different from verses 1 and 2. Use these links to compare for yourself:

verse 1
verse 3
verse 2
verse 4

The chorus of this song is a good example of the choral kind of homophonic texture. Here is the chorus in musical notation (a quick transcription) and a graphic notation made with a MIDI sequencer. Notice how the singers sing the same words at the same time on different notes: that's choral homophony.

Play entire song.

---

"Body and Soul" (combo jazz ballad from the swing era)

This is a good example of the 32-bar AABA song form used in thousands of American popular songs. Clarinetist Benny Goodman plays a slightly decorated version of the melody on the A sections. Pianist Teddy Wilson begins with just a few notes of the theme in the B section, then continues with improvisation.

• first a section, clarinet
• second a section, clarinet
• b section or bridge, piano
• last a section, clarinet

Listen to entire track, which is an excerpt from the complete performance.

---

String Quartet excerpt by Haydn

Use this piece to listen for texture and form. The first phrase is in homophonic, melody-accompaniment texture, with the melody in the first violin part. The first phrase is 10 bars long instead of the usual 8 because of two quiet bars, 5 and 6, which echo the melody without the lower parts. Use the links in the captions below to hear the corresponding excerpt from the CD:

the first phrase in graphic notation:

the first phrase in standard musical notation (SMN):

The second phrase contrasts with the first because of the imitative or polyphonic texture at the beginning.

the second phrase in graphic notation:

the second phrase in SMN:

Terms and Concepts

Here are the terms included on the handout we worked from in class:

pitch (frequency)

	register

	range

	melody

		conjunct

		disjunct

	scales

	harmony

		chords

			tonic, dominant, subdominant chords

duration

	tempo

	meter

		pulse

		strong and weak beats

	duple, triple, and quadruple meter

	nonmetrical music

	syncopation

	bar

	phrase

loudness (intensity)

	accent

	dynamics

tone quality (waveform)	

	timbre

	instruments

	two ways to classify instruments:

	winds					

	strings					

	brass					

	percussion				

	keyboard

	

	aerophones

	chordophones

	idiophones

	membranophones

	

three basic elements of musical form: repetition, variation, contrast

another way to approach form: unity and variety

unity (return)

	repetition

	variation (repetition with changes)

variety (departure)

	contrast



sequence

ostinato



forward energy: tension and release



what aspects of music create tension?



what aspects create a sense of relief?



dissonance



consonance



texture

	one melody alone = monophonic

	one main melody with similar accompaniment = homophonic: choral

	one main melody with contrasting accompaniment =

		homophonic: melody-accompaniment

	two or more main melodies at the same time = polyphonic

.genre



form



verse/chorus or verse/refrain



32-bar song form



blues form



phrase



cadence

	open cadence

	closed cadence



motive	

Hacker handbook topics

This week's topics are "balance parallel ideas" and "add needed words."

Do find anything odd about this sentence?

College students tend to be preoccupied with doing well in courses, 

meeting new people, and the need to find a job when they're done.

It's not obviously ungrammatical, but it reads more smoothly when parallel ideas are expressed with parallel language:

College students tend to be preoccupied with doing well in courses, 

meeting new people, and finding a job when they're done.

Sentences can also be combined and shortened using parallel structures:

String players produce sounds by drawing a bow across the strings. 

Reed players produce sounds by forcing air across a reed.

This can be condensed to:

String players produce sounds by drawing a bow across the strings, 

reed players by forcing air across a reed.

This sentence reads awkwardly because something is missing:

Conductors give directions and answer questions 

from members of the orchestra.

"Give directions from" is ungrammatical. This sentence needs "to" after "directions":

Conductors give directions to and answer questions 

from members of the orchestra.

Two questions on the week 3 quiz will deal with these topics.

Quiz

Take the week 3 quiz.

---

Music 190W page
This file was last modified on 16 May 2000.