Name: ________________________
Elements of Music Project
Ms. Nash
Date Submitted:_______________________________
200 Hundred Possible Points
Critical
Review
25 20 15 10
The graph represents the melody, pitches are in the right direction,
Melody Graph steps and leaps are represented and length
(time) of pitches are correct.
Perceptive
Listening Grid
Each section of the grid is complete and observations consistently use appropriate vocabulary throughout.
1-2 sections of the grid are not complete and appropriate vocabulary is somewhat used throughout.
3-4 sections of the grid are not complete and appropriate vocabulary is occasionally used throughout.
Form
Each section of the piece is accurately labeled and the final form is correct.
1-2 components of the graph are incorrect.
3-4 components of the graph are incorrect.
4-5 components of the graph are incorrect.
5 or more sections of the grid are not complete and appropriate vocabulary is not used throughout.
1 section of the piece is not labeled accurately and the final form is incorrect.
2 sections of the piece are not labeled accurately
3 or 4 sections of the piece are not labeled accurately and the final form is and the final form is incorrect. incorrect.
Texture
Texture image accurately represents the song characteristics and matches in thickness, lightness, etc.
_______________ _________________
Texture image does not represent the song in anyway.
Instrument
Catalog
Oral
Presentation
Student used descriptive
Appropriate words and appropriate vocabulary to answer vocabulary is somewhat used. 1 essential questions.
Each essential question question was was answered correctly.
answered incorrectly.
Appropriate vocabulary is occasionally used.
2 questions were answered incorrectly.
Appropriate vocabulary is not used. 3 or more questions were answered incorrectly.
Visual
Presentation
All components are present on the display board.
1 component is not displayed.
2 components are not displayed.
3 or more components are not displayed.
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Elements of Music Checklist
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Choose a short song. Unfortunately, rap may not be used due to melody restrictions. The song must contain PG 13 content. Make sure that you have a copy to play for the class.
Obtain lyrics, song and artist information.
Complete perceptive listening grid.
Complete melody graph.
Complete texture representation.
Answer essential questions.
Compile all information on the display board. Be sure to follow display board guidelines.
Practice answering essential questions.
Complete the instrument and voice catalog.
Complete your critical review of the piece.
Essential Questions:
1. How many different elements of music are required to be considered a musical composition?
2. How is the form of a musical composition determined?
3. How does repetition give a piece of music a sense of unity?
ARTIST
PHOTO
TITLE OF SONG
MELODY GRAPH
FORM
A
A
B
A
SONG
INFO Critical
Review
Instrument and
Voice
Catalog
TEXTURE
REPRESENTATION
LYRICS
PERCEPTIVE
LISTENING
CHART
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Rhythm
Melody
Harmony
Form
Texture
Title of Piece
Perceptive Listening__ the ability to discern musical characteristics and describe them.
Rhythm
Tempo
Melody
Dynamics
Harmony
Form
Texture
Expression
Title of Piece
Complex, simple, ostinato, etc. Do you hear mostly long sounds, mostly short sounds, both long and short sounds?
Tempo: Allegro, largo, adante, adagio, etc.
Does it move by steps, leaps, skips, up, down, etc. Does the melody include mostly high sounds, mostly low sounds or both high and low sounds?
Forte, mezzo forte, mezzo piano, piano
Consonance and dissonance. Do you hear chords? Are the chords stacked (blocks of sound) or are they broken stacks of sound?
A, AB, ABA, Rondo, AABA, etc.
Dense, thick, light, how many instruments, large or small group, etc.
Expression: mood is peaceful, solemn, depressing, thrilling, fun, active, joyful, puzzling, scary, etc.
Practice Perceptive Listening
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PITCH notation is vertical (up and down).
TIME is horizontal (left to right).
graph.
This is the Frame of a music
To make identifying pitches even easier, these lines are viewed in groups of five.
In order to help the reader quickly identify equally spaced horizontal lines are used, as a visual reference.
Many graphs do not use horizontal or vertical lines in this manner.
However, because of the unique nature of music notation, these horizontal lines are needed to help quickly identify the pitch of notes.
These five lines, called a staff. Because the position of these symbols defines TIME and PITCH , the "frame" of the graph is not needed.
This is a short section of a staff without the frame.
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Melody Graph Practice #1
The melody graph you create will contain no horizontal lines.
Remember, that high pitches
(sounds) are represented high on the graph and low pitches are represented low one staff. Time
(the length of the notes) must be represented horizontally.
Melody Graph Practice #2 Melody Graph Practice #3
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1. Rhythm__ the combination of sound and silence.
2. Melody__ a logical succession of musical tones
(pitches) combined with note durations (rhythms).
3. Harmony__ vertical blocks of different tones that sound simultaneously; a progression of chords.
4. Texture__ the way sounds are woven together.
5. Form__ the organization of musical ideas.
6. Binary Form__ a two part form represented as AB.
7. Ternary Form__ a three part form represented as
ABA.
8. Rondo Form__ a form consisting of a recurring theme alternating with contrasting sections, represented as ABACADA.
9. American Popular Song Form__ a standard 32-bar song form consisting of four sections of eight bars each, in an AABA pattern.
10. Dynamics__ the loudness or softness in a musical composition.
11. Piano__ soft dynamic level represented as p .
12. Mezzo Forte__ medium loud dynamic level represented as mf .
13. Forte__ loud dynamic level represented as f .
14. Timbre/Tone Color__ the quality of sound (often used to distinguish one instrument from another).
15. Tempo__ the speed of a piece of music.
16. Moderato__ moderately.
17. Allegro__ quick.
18. Andante__ walking speed.
19. Adagio__ slow.
20. Perceptive Listening__ the ability to discern musical characteristics and describe them.
21. Ostinato__ a repeated musical figure.
22. Hook__ the motive or “grabber” phrase in a song that often accompanies the words of the song’s title.
23. Repetition__ repeating parts.
24. Imitation__ exact repetition between parts.
25. Step__ the distance between two neighboring pitches.
26. Skip __ the distance between two notes that pass over one neighbor.
27. Leap__ the distance between two notes that passes over more than one neighbor.
28. Interval__ the distance between two pitches.
29. Consonance__ absence of tension or discord in music.
30. Dissonance__ discord in music, suggesting a state of tension.
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Introduction
Texture is one of the basic elements of music. When you describe the texture of a piece of music, you are describing how much is going on in the music at any given moment. For example, the texture of the music might be thick or thin, or it may have many or few layers. It might be made up of rhythm only, or of a melody line with chordal accompaniment, or many interweaving melodies. Below you will find some of the formal terms musicians use to describe texture, and also some suggestions for introducing young students to the idea of musical texture and to these terms.
Terms that Describe Texture
There are many informal terms that can describe the texture of a piece of music (thick, thin, bass-heavy, rhythmically complex, and so on), but the formal terms that are used to describe texture all describe the relationships of melodies and harmonies . Here are definitions and examples of the four main types of texture.
Monophonic
Monophonic music has only one melodic line, with no harmony or counterpoint . There may be rhythmic accompaniment, but only one line that has specific pitches . Monophonic music can also be called monophony.
Examples of Monophony
 One person whistling a tune
 A single bugle sounding "Taps"
 A group of people all singing a song
 together, without harmonies or instruments
A fife and drum corp, with all the fifes playing the same melody
Homophonic
Homophonic music can also be called homophony.
More informally, people who are describing homophonic music may mention chords , accompaniment , harmony or harmonies .
Homophony has one clearly melodic line; it's the line that naturally draws your attention. All other parts provide accompaniment or fill in the chords.
Examples of Homophony
 Choral music in which the parts have mostly the same rhythms at the same time is homophonic. Most traditional Protestant hymns and most "barbershop quartet" music is in this category.
 A singer accompanied by a guitar picking or
 strumming chords.
A small jazz combo with a bass, a piano, and a drum set providing the "rhythm" background for a trumpet improvising a solo.
Polyphonic
Polyphonic music can also be called polyphony, counterpoint, or contrapuntal music. If more than one independent melody is occurring at the same time, the music is polyphonic. (See counterpoint .)
Examples of Polyphony
 Rounds, canons, and fugues are all polyphonic. (Even if there is only one melody, if different people are singing or playing it at different times, the parts sound independent.)
 Much Baroque music is contrapuntal,

 particularly the works of J.S. Bach.
Most music for large instrumental groups such as bands or orchestras is contrapuntal at least some of the time.
Music that is mostly homophonic can become temporarily polyphonic if an independent countermelody is added. Think of a favorite pop or gospel tune that, near the end, has the soloist "ad libbing" while the back-up singers repeat the refrain.
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Heterophonic
A heterophonic texture is rare in Western music. In heterophony, there is only one melody, but different variations of it are being sung or played at the same time. heterophony. Listen for traditional music
(most modern-composed music, even from these cultures, has little or no heterophony) in which singers and/or instrumentalists perform the same melody at the same time, but give it different embellishments or ornaments .


There are no examples of heterophonic music that would be familiar to most
Western listeners.
Some Middle Eastern, South Asian, and
Native American music traditions include
1. Listen to the piece several times. 6. Create an abstract drawing of the texture.
2. Determine size of the group of musicians.
3. Decided on the number of vocalists and instruments used.
4. Think of words all the sounds that happen at once: thick, thin, lush, dense, etc.
5. Choose a painting or photograph to represent the texture.
7. Choose different materials to represent the texture. Some materials to consider are: tissue paper, fabric, thin metal objects, sticky labels, crayons, color pencils, paint, markers, construction paper, rubber bands, string, yarn, be creative!
Basic Representations of Musical Texture
Ib
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Listen to a recording of your piece.
Determine the types of instruments and voices used in the recording.
Catalog every instrument and voice used during the recording.
Write a description of the timbre of each instrument and voice used during the recording.
Title of the piece:
Title of CD:
Performer(s):
Composer:
Lyricist:
Producer:
Year of Copyright:
Recording Company:
Location of recoding:
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Write a Review
Clearly express your opinion about your selected recorded performance.
1.
After listening to the recording describe the music it contains. Use specific vocabulary in regard to the tempo
2.
Take a stance—either positive or negative. Make it clear to the reader where you stand and why. Use concrete terms in your examples for positive or negative support.
3.
Include some informed opinion and authority in your review.
4.
Write a minimum of three paragraphs, but no more than two pages. Use the space below to begin your
DRAFT.
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