How Music Works Chapters 3-6

The Four Basic Properties of Tones

Property of Tone

Duration

Frequency

Amplitude

Timbre

Musical Correlate

Rhythm

Pitch

Dynamics

Tone color, sound quality

Rhythm: “The Alphabet Song” and More (Chapter 3) Eighth notes (“a b c d”)

Sixteenth notes (“l-m-n-o”)

Quarter notes (“p” “v”)

Beat

Subdivsion Duple, triple, quadruple

Meter (measure) Duple, triple, complex (e.g., 5, 7

– CD 1-21 – Roma), metric cycles

Syncopation (Bhangra ex. CD 1-22)

Tempo (“Zorba” CD 1-23)

Free rhythm (South India--CD 1-24)

Pitch – Chapter 4

Pitch: highness/lowness of tones Flute = high pitches, tuba = low pitches (different pitch ranges)

Melody: particular sequence of pitches that unfolds as a song progresses.

Distinctive features of a melody (e.g., “Mary Had a Little Lamb”): Melodic range

Melodic direction

Melodic contour

“Eagle Dance” (CD 1-25) Read discussion and see figure/photo, pp. 46-47

What are the distinctive features of this melody?

The Western Music Pitch System

Determinate pitches (piano, guitar, flute, trumpet, voice)

Indeterminate pitches (cymbal, shaker, most drums)

When we talk about different notes, scales, and chords in music, we are dealing with determinate pitch.

Note names—”white keys”: C D E F G A B (C) “C to C” = an octave (or D to D, etc.)

“black keys”—C# D# F# G# A# or Db Eb Gb Ab Bb

(See piano keyboard diagram, Fig 4.4, p. 48 [or next slide])

Labeled Piano Keyboard

Scales

Western types:

Major

C-major – “white key” scale

“Happy” sounding (cultural meaning?)

Tonic note, key

Pentatonic (i.e., major pentatonic)

“Black key” pentatonic (starting on F#/Gb)

Minor

Lowered third degree = minor third interval

Melodic minor scale (different ascending/descending)

Harmonic minor scale (distinctive augmented 2nd interval near top)

Blues scale

Combines elements of major, minor, and pentatonic scales as well as traditional African scales

C Eb* F (F#)* G Bb* C -- * = blue notes (CD 1-19 Charles Atkins)

Pitch and Scales in Non-Western Musics

Arab classical music: 24 pitches per octave (quarter-tones) – OMI 11

CD 1-26

Egyptian quarter-tone accordion

Also note ornamentation and articulation (staccato, legato)

Indonesian gamelan Slendro (5 per octave)

Pelog (7 per octave)

OMI 10

Indian classical music 22 pitches per octave (microtones)

Scale vs. mode?

Scales “Upside Down”: ’Are’are Music, Micronesia • Concept of ascending and

descending pitches reversed

• Instrument classification: ‘au = “bamboo” (but does it?)

• Hugo Zemp (ethnomusicologist)

• CD 1-32 (traditional)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMspIsLEOvY (contemporary)

Chords and Harmony

Chord = two or more pitches sounded simultaneously* *In an arpeggio, notes of chord are sounded in sequence rather than at

the same time (CD 1-28 – flamenco)

Harmony = a chord that “makes sense” in the context of its musical style

Chord progression = a sequence of chords (CD 1-27 – bossa nova)

Harmonization (in this text): each note of a melody becomes basis of a chord (CD 1-11 – Fijian church hymn)

Consonance vs. dissonance CD 1-4 (Japanese gagaku) – consonant or dissonant?

Modulation = changing from one key to another (e.g., same chord progression, different key) Beyonce – “Baby, It’s You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Ob7vObnFUJc

Dynamics, Timbre, and Instruments – Chapter 5

Dynamics – loudness, softness Absolute (amplitude/decibels)

Relative (heavy metal band vs. string quartet)

Dynamic levels

Dynamic range

Crescendo vs. decrescendo

Terraced dynamics

Timbre

The character or quality of a musical sound – what it “sounds like” Trumpet vs. flute, Bob Dylan vs. Louis Armstrong, orchestra

(CD 1-2) vs. steel band (CD 1-30) – Describe the timbres

Scientifically, product of relationship between fundamental pitch and its overtones (harmonics) CD 1-31 (“Axis” – didgeridoo duet)

CD 1-6 (Mongolian khoomii)

Metaphorical language “tone color”

Music Instruments

Why not “musical instruments”?

Music instrument = any sound-generating medium used to produce tones in the making of music. OMI 16 (sound illustrations of 10 world music instruments)

Hornbostel-Sachs Classification System (1914)

Chordophones (sound activation – vibration of string[s])

Aerophones (air passing through tube/resonator vibrates)

Mebranophones (stretched “membrane” vibrates)

Idiophones (“self-sounders”—body of instrument vibrates)

Electronophones and More

Electronophones Extension of the Hornbostel-Sachs system (fifth category)

”Pure” vs. “hybrid” electronophones

Digital sampling vs. digital synthesis

Sound generator vs. sound modifier

GAMES Model – Bakan et al. 1990

Recording (Edison phonograph, 1877)

Multitrack recording, overdubbing

Combination Instruments

Piano?

Tambourine?

Electric guitar (vs. acoustic guitar)?

Mbira?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdw5IoqUOhs

Texture and Form – Chapter 6

Texture = Relationships between the notes, rhythms, melodies, patterns, and vocal and instrumental parts that emerge and evolve in a musical work.

Form = the large-scale dimensions of musical organization; how musical works and performances develop and take shape from start to finish, phrase by phrase and section by section.

Types of Textures

Single-line texture, aka monophonic texture Unison

Polyphonic textures Melody-plus-drone (CD 1-16)

Harmonized (CD 1-11)

Multiple-melody (CD 2-3)

Polyrhythmic (CD 2-5) – Ethnocentric term?

Interlocking (CD 2-6 Siku Andean panpipes)

Balinese kotekan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y771-AxrFA

Call-and Response

Beatles “Money” (That’s What I Want)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_awAH-JJx1k

Types of Forms

Through-composed forms

Forms based on repetition and patterns Ostinato-based forms

CD 2-8 (“Xai” [Elephants])

Qwii people, Kalahari Desert

Nkokwane (hunting/musical bow)

Note varied ostinatos

Layered ostinatos (CD 2-9 “Oye Como Va”)

Cyclic forms

12-bar blues (CD 1-19)

Forms with contrasting sections Verse-chorus

(Ramadu, “Ingculaza (AIDS)” – CD 2-10 follow form chart, p. 82)