Music 1000A
Dr. Anthony Radford
Syllabus
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Please read the syllabus
It can be found in your email and online
What are you going to learn?
1. How to Listen.
Listening is the primary tool for
understanding and enjoying music.
Repeated listening to a single piece
enables one to hear more and more,
enhancing understanding and enjoyment.
2. Musical Concepts and Terms.
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Concepts and terms aid in the process of
learning to listen attentively.
Important terms you might have heard
before . . . Pitch, Rhythm, Timbre,
Decrescendo, Cadence etc.
3. How to enjoy a new musical
experience.
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A musical experience is the cumulative
result of several factors, elements of music
working together (rhythm, pitch, dynamics
tone colour etc,); the effect of these sounds
and associated words and images on the
listener; and the listener’s interpretation of
this effect based on past experiences and
understanding.
Why is this relevant to your life?
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Because knowledge is power.
Because music is part of everything we do.
How many of you have seen an . . . Heard
an. . .
Preliminaries
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A great deal of music of all kinds begins not with
the main “song” or “tune”, or other main material,
but with preliminaries to establish a background,
usually some kind of pulse, in preparation for the
material to come.
Metallica.
Describe in one word the MOOD
of the piece
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Ave Maria Stella by Dufay CD 1 TR 7
written about 700 years ago.
Brandenberg Concerto by Bach written 300
years ago. CD 2 TR 1
Tristan and Isolde an opera by Wagner
written 130 years ago. CD 4 TR 17
Black Angels by George Crumb written
recently. CD 6 TR 18
Means and effect
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MEANS are tools . . . or put another way
musical elements which have a certain
EFFECT on us.
MEANS
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When you approach a piece of music,
evaluate the means (musical elements) by
which the composer achieves a certain
effect.
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Hard work? Or just different?
The A,B, C’s of Means
A. Vibration
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High and low frequency.
Known in music as pitch.
Some voices/instruments have high or low
pitch.
B. Dynamics
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Dynamics is another word for the scientific
term amplitude. Simply put it is how loud or
soft something is.
In music we use Italian terms to describe
loud and soft.
Forte, piano, mezzo piano etc.
Dynamic terms
Forte=loud
Piano=soft
Mezzo=medium
Pianissimo=very soft
Fortissimo=very loud
più forte=more loud
meno forte=less loud
Subito=suddenly
Crescendo=getting louder
Decrescendo=getting
softer
Diminuendo=getting
C. Tone Colour and Timbre
Sounds, whatever the pitch, or dynamic
have a certain quality.
 We call this quality “tone colour” or
“timbre”.
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D. Duration and Rhythm
A way of keeping time.
The main driving force in all music.