MUSC 1000Intro to Music

MWF 10-10:50

Some General Questions:

What is Music?

Where do we listen to music?

Are there any composers or bands you know or like?

What are the “classical” composers you have heard of?

What do you think about when you hear the term “classical music?”

Listening:

Can you describe what you are hearing?

Similarities? Differences?

Course Objectives:

Learn to listen to music – not just to hear it

Learning the vocabulary of music

Basics – Ch. 1

Definition of music:

Music is an art based on the organization of Sounds in Time

A sound – any sound is the result of vibrations in the air put in motion through the activation of a sounding body

Musical Sound – these vibrations are so steady and definite that they produce what is called a TONE or NOTE – the highness or lowness or which is called PITCH

Precise pitch is determined by the FREQUENCYThe faster the frequency the higher the pitch and the slower, the lower

In writing music, the higher pitches to towards the top and the lower pitches go towards the bottom of the MUSIC STAFF

STAFF – five lines on or in between which the notes are placed.

Contour of Music

Star Spangled Banner

Distance between two pitches is called the INTERVAL

Two of the same notes played at the same time is called a UNISON

The distance between two of the same notes that are higher or lower than each other is called an OCTAVE

PIANO KEYS

Distance covered over the whole piece (highest to lowest ) is called PITCH RANGE

DYNAMICS are what tells musicians how LOUDLY or SOFTLY to play music

Dynamic Range and Markings:

Very soft – pianissimo - pp

Soft – piano – p

Medium soft – metso piano – mp

Medium load – metso forte – mf

Loud – forte – f

Very loud – fortissimo – ff

Gradually getting louder – crescendo

Gradually gettting softer - diminuendo

Different instruments and voices sound differently

– these special sounds that characterize the instruments and voices is called TIMBRE

All of these small parts comprise the first element of music – SOUND

Rhythm

The ordered flow of music through time

The regular, recurrent pulsation of music is called BEAT

Some notes happen for the duration of one of these beats – and some are for longer, or shorter

LISTENING

In the same example – notice that some of the beats are stronger than others – this divides music up into what are called MEASURES – in this example – groups of three

123123123123123 etc

Notes that sound louder than the others have what are called ACCENTS

The organization of the beats into a measure is called METER

If there are 2 beats it is called DUPLE meter – and 4 beats – quadruple meter. 5 – quintuple

Notes that are in between the beats and are accented are called SYNCOPATED notes

All aspects of rhythms are affected by TEMPO – the speed at which songs are played.

TEMPOS

Very slow: largo, grave

Slow lento, adagio

Moderate andante, moderato

Fast allegretto, allegro

Very fast vivace, presto, prestissimo

MELODY

Where RHYTHM deals with the time of the piece, MELODY is the series of PITCHES that fit into the RHYTHM

Definition: “A series of notes that add up to a recognizable whole”

Notes that move right net to one another move by STEP – those that move far away move by LEAP

Notes in a melody that are connected to each other very flowingly are said to be LEGATO

Notes that have lots of space in between them are called STACATTO

Melody (Cont.)

The MELODIES of songs are often made up of shorter sections called PHRASES – these PHRASES will ultimatey find a state of rest called a CADENCE

Listening Example

In longer pieces of music, phrases that become important because the repeat themselves often are called THEMES

HARMONY

Where MELODY is the vertical line up of notes, HARMONY is the horizontal way that the notes are put together – sounded simultaneously.

Notes stacked on one another are called CHORDS – The simplest CHORD is made up of three notes and is called a TIRAD – the lowes of these notes is called the TONIC note.

Series of notes that are played not all at once, but one right after another is called an ARPEGGIO

Many of these CHORDS in a row are called a CHORD PROGRESSION

Chords that sound nice together are described as having CONSONANCE

DISSONANCE is the sound when the chords seem to be fighting with each other – waiting to resolve – this adds forward motion to music and adds to the uncertainty until the tension is released.

Chapter 2

Main Characteristic of Western Music is it’s reliance on TONALITY as an organizer.

TONALITY is the idea of the use of the TONIC – the central not on which a piece is organized. If the central note is C, then we say that the piece s in the KEY of C

C Major Scale (Piano)

C Minor Scale – is very similar, but it uses some of the black keys as well – when we use the black keys and lower the notes, the notes are called FLATS – when we raise the notes – they are called SHARPS

It is difficult to tell the exact key of a piece – however, it can be heard if a piece is in a major or minor sound – or TONALITY

Very Simply – if the piece sounds happy – it is in major – sad is in minor.

When the TONIC is different than the note C – the scale changes with different numbers of flats and sharps – These are labeled at the beginning of the staff – this label is called the KEY SIGNATURE

When all of the notes on the piano are played between two octave notes, it is called the CHROMATIC SCALE

Sometimes longer pieces of music change from one tonal center to another during the flow of the music – when this happens, we call it MODULATION

We think of the horizontal alignment of the notes as the MELODY and the vertical alignment of the notes as the HARMONY – the way that these two elements are interwoven – or how they interact with one another creates the TEXTURE of the piece –

There are many different possible textures of music – similar to different fabric types

There are three basic textures in western music

MONOPHONY

POLYPHONY

HOMOPHONY

MONOPHONICThe simplest kind of music – just one melodic line with no accompaniment

POLYPHONICWhen two or more musical lines of the same importance are performed at the same time

We will often call these “lines” of music VOICES

When we combine two or more melodic lines into a meaningful whole (a line of music that resembles a single musical idea) it is called COUNTERPOINT

Sometimes with polyphonic music one of the melodic voices is played and then a second melodic voice re-states the melodic line immediately afterwards – this is called IMITATION

HOMOPHONICA single melody line dominates with the other instrument(s) provide accompaniment (back up)

LISTENING

FORM

The organization of musical ideas in time is called FORM

Keeping the listener’s interest is achieved through two major factors:

REPETITION of musical ideas

CONTRASTING music with new and different musical ideas.

THEME AND VARIATION

TERNARY FORM (Three Part) ABA

BINARY FORM (Two Part)AB