Welcome to Music 1A, Introduction to
Western Music
Instructor: Ron Dunn (please call me Ron)
Please sit in middle section of the room-- keep
side seating areas and last two rows clear
Silence, put away cell phones--This rule is
effective throughout the quarter
Introduction, Goals of course:
Why Study Music?
• Music is basic to our lives
• Music—vital part of human society
• Provides entertainment, emotional release, accompanies activities
• Heard everywhere in modern life
• Recorded music is a 20th century innovation-before that time, all
music was live
Music matters!
Is music mere “entertainment”?
Music is part of our identity
Often music in on intellectual cutting edge
Our musics transmit an incredible amount of information to us,
provided our antenna are up
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Aesthetic
Historical
Expressive
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Metaphorical
Metaphysical
Philosophical
This class is about raising your musical antennae
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Sonata in C Major, K. 545: Allegro by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
• What is “concert” music?
• A complex question…
• Concert vs. popular…
• “art,” altruism vs. monetary gain…
Concert work is generally longer, with higher information content
More melodic, harmonic, formal detail
Raising the antennae
• Knowledge of musical elements enhances perception
• Perceptive listening enhances enjoyment
The Web of Relationships
Music and cultural identity
• We all use music as part of our cultural identity
• We embrace or reject it often on cultural grounds, rather
than aesthetic
•“this music is boring…”
•“I’m not into this music…”
The Remedy
Suspend Identity!
•Become Curious!
•Engage!
Day 2
Plan for today:
• Academic success
• Review of course requirements, schedule
Taking a look at assignments
• Begin Part 1: Chapter 3, Rhythm
• Tempo designations
• Chapter 1: pitch
• Chapter 2: performing media
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Part I
Elements
Ch. 1 - Sound:
Rhythm, Pitch, Dynamics, and Tone Color
• Sound—a miracle! “Touch from afar”
• Begins as result of a vibrating object
• Transmitted through a medium - air
•
Our eardrums vibrate, too
•
Impulses sent to brain for processing
• Music: organization of sounds in time
• Four main properties of musical sounds
• Pitch
• Dynamics
• Tone color
• Duration--rhythm
Ch. 3 - Rhythm
~ The Flow of music through time
~ Particular arrangement of note lengths
Beat—basic property of rhythm
• Recurrent pulsation—evenly spaced
Divides music into equal units of time
Not all music has a regular beat
• Music with regular beat: pulsatile
• Music without beat: non-pulsatile
• Music with flexible beat: quasi-pulsatile
Example: Anonymous: Alleluia--Vidimus stellam
Meter
• Organization of beats into strong and weak patterns
Basic meters: Duple, Triple, quadruple meter
• Accent on “1” determines the type of meter
Example: John Philip Souza: “Stars and Stripes forever”
Example: Carlos Santana: Black magic Woman
Example: Johann Strauss II: Blue Danube
Other meters
• Sextuple, also known as compound duple meter
• 123456
• Strong accent on 1, less strong on 4, creates a duple pattern,
with division into 3 parts: compound duple
• Example: Augustine Barrios: “Jullia Florida”
Quintuple, Sextuple – additive meters
• Characterized by groupings of smaller units:
2+3, 3+2, 2+2+3, etc
• Example: Paul Desmond: “Take Five”
• Example: Pink Floyd: “Money”
Syncopation
• Accented note outside the regular accent pattern; accent
where not expected
Most prominent in Rock music: Back-beat (accent on “2” and “4”, rather
than “1” and “3”
Examples: almost every pop, rock, jazz song ever written!
Tempo
• The speed of the beat, the pace
• Associated with emotional effect
• Tempo indicated at beginning of piece
• As with dynamics, Italian terms are used
• Molto, non troppo, accelerando, ritardando
• Metronome—indicates exact tempo
Pitch: Highness or Lowness of Sound
• Determined by frequency of vibration
• Fast vibration=high pitch; slow vibration=low pitch
• Generally, smaller vibrating objects=higher pitches
• In music, definite pitch is a tone
• Tones have specific frequencies
e.g., 440 cycles (vibrations) per second = A
• Irregular vibrations create sounds of indefinite pitch
• Interval: distance between 2 tones
• Octave: doubling/halving of frequency
Tones an octave apart seem to blend together
• Western music divides octave into 12 tones
• Non-western music may divide into different number
• Range: distance between voice or
instrument’s highest & lowest possible tones
Dynamics
• Relative loudness of a sound
• Related to amplitude of vibration producing sound
• Changes in dynamics may be sudden or gradual
• Accent: tone played louder than tones near it
• Italian terms used to indicate dynamics
• Extremes: ppp,
pppp, fff, ffff
• Crescendo: gradually louder
• Decrescendo (diminuendo):
gradually softer
pianissimo
pp
very soft
piano
p
soft
mezzo piano mp
moderately soft
mezzo forte
mf
moderately
loud
forte
f
loud
fortissimo
ff
very loud
Tone Color – also called timbre
• Can be bright, dark,, etc.
• Unlimited variety of tone colors!
• Changes in tone color create variety and contrast
• Tone colors add a sense of continuity
• Specific melodies with specific tone colors
• Modern electronic techniques create
new tone colors
Listening Outlines, Vocal Music
Guides, and the Properties of Sound
Listening Outlines & Vocal Music Guides
Helps focus attention on musical events as they occur
Preceded by description of the music’s main features
• Listening Outline - points out notable musical sounds
• Vocal Music Guide – helps the listener follow the thought, story, or drama
* Suggestion: while listening to one passage,
look ahead to what is next.
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Listening
The Firebird, Scene 2 (1910)
by Igor Stravinsky, performed by Philharmonia Orchestra
CD 1:01
Listening Outline: p. 7
Listening Log instructions
Put your Name and Date with the heading Listening Log at the top of a
separate sheet of paper. Each entry should have the title of the piece of
music listed.
Listening Log 1: While music is going on, and using sentences (not
individual words or phrases) write about
• Tone Color contrasts through instrumentation
• Dynamic contrasts—use proper terminology
• Other interesting uses of rhythm, instruments, etc
• Subjective response: some aspect you find interesting, or evaluation of
the composition, mood, etc
Listening
C-Jam Blues (1942)
by Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra
Listening Outline: p. 8
Basic set, CD 1:10 Brief set, CD 1:3
Listen for: Tone Colors
Repeated note melody
Improvised solos
Muted brass instruments
Listening Log 2:
• Describe the tone color of several instruments
• Write about how tone color helps to create contrast in this
piece of music
• Subjective response: does the mood shift as tone colors
change?