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What is music? Do we listen? Or do we just hear it?

Imagine a movie without music? Or a wedding? Why is

music such an integral part of those things?How does music affect our culture? How does our culture

affect music?

Is a deeper understanding of football necessary to enjoy

it? Can we employ that same logic to listening to music?

How might music that exists in a formal concert halldiffer from that which exists in a pop music venue?

What traditions does classical music follow in terms of

performance?

When do we applaud classical music?

Lets look at a sample classical music program!

What do the performers wear? And why?

Soloists perform from memory!

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Melody: what is it?

What is pitch?

How are these different from noise?

Pitch: the highness or lowness of musical sounds

Melody: a coherent series of single pitches (a tune) that

we relate as one unit

Interval: the distance between two pitches. Some

intervals are small (step-wise) and others are large.

Small intervals: Mary Had a Little Lamb

Large intervals: My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean, The

National Anthem

Ways to describe a melody:

-by its range

-by its shape (childrens songs compared to instrumental

melodies), by its upward and downward motion

Ascending and descending melodiesLets look at some melodies!

Conjunct versus disjunct melodies

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The structure of melodies:

Musical Phrases: a unit of musical meaning within a

larger structure, often coinciding with the words (if it is asung piece of music)

Cadence: a resting place, or sense of finality, which

punctuates the music, just like punctuation does in a

sentence

Lets look at phrase structure!

Amazing Grace

-4 phrases, set forth by the poetry

-abab structure

-each phrase ends in a musical cadence

-the musical climax, the excitement before we return

home, a peak in intensity (think of the high note at the

end of our National Anthem)

Countermelody: a secondary melody that either

competes with, or is complementary to, the original

melody. Sometimes it is of equal importance to theoriginal melody, sometimes not

The melody, like the plot of a book, is what the piece of

music is about

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Rhythm!!!

Rhythm organizes music in time!

Rhythm: the length or duration of musical pitches

Rhythm ties into the beat or pulse of a piece of music

Meter and measures:

-Some beats are stronger than others

-We refer to the organization of strong and weak beats

as meter

-Meter is then organized by measures. Measures are

units that visually contain a certain number of strong and

weak beats

Meter is similar to poetic meter

Lets look at poetic meter, to clarify!

-Emphasizes the natural flow of the language

-Music is organized the same way, and is natural in that

respect

Metrical patterns:

-Recurring patterns of 2, 3, or 4

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Duple meter: a feeling of two (marching, walking)

Triple meter: a feeling of three (dances, waltzes,

maritime songs, drinking songs)Quadruple meter: also known more commonly as

Common Time

-4 beats, in music this means 4 beats in a measure

-primary accent on the first beat and third beat

Examples of meter!!

Duple: Twinkle, twinkle

Triple: My Country tis of Thee

Amazing Grace

Quadruple Meter (Common Time):

America, the Beautiful

Harmony!! (What happens when we put it all together?)

Harmony: the movement and relationships of intervals

and chords. Its the simultaneous happenings in music

-Harmony, like a painting, adds the element of musical

space

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Some basics of harmony:

Chord: three or more pitches sounding together at the

same timeThe pitches of any piece are chosen from a musical

scale

Scale: A collection of pitches that are arranged in

ascending or descending order

-The basis of a scale is the tonic, or the home note. Weget back to tonic at the end of every song, as our

resting place.

Harmony only has meaning because chords are related to

one another. We go away from home (tonic) and then

come back through the use of chords. The movement

and progression of music is propelled by harmony!

Major and minor!! (Are we happy or sad?)

Major key-happy, bright

Minor key-sad, subdued-Major and minor refers to both scales and the key of

the piece of music. The key refers to the tonic (our

home.)

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