Musical Elements
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Rhythm
Pitch and Melody
Form
Texture (density of sound)
Dynamics (loud and soft)
Timbre (tone color)
Terminology
• For your assignments and reports, use the
academic (and often Italian) terms discussed
in class—avoid colloquial terminology like
“hook,” “hit,” “outro,” “kick,” etc.
Rhythm: The flow of music through time
Primary concept in rhythm is the beat —Music may, or
may not, have a beat
Music with a beat: Pulsatile
• Beat: Steady pulses, heard or unheard that underlies
pulsatile music.
• Can be fast, slow, or in between
• Not associated with mood—there’s no “happy” or “sad”
beat. Keep categories separated from “pop” definitions
– Music without a beat: Non-pulsatile
– Music with a weak or unsteady sense of beat: Quasipulsatile
Beat, continued
Standardized Italian terms
• Tempo - the rate at which the beat passes
– Specified by beats per minute or subjective terms:
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Prestissimo—as fast as possible
Presto,—very fast
Allegro—fast
Moderato-moderate
Andante—walking speed
Largo—slow
Grave—very slow with “somber” feel
• Accelerando - a gradual speed up of tempo
• Ritardando or Rallentando - a gradual slowing down of
tempo
• Rubato – “robbing time”– expressive slowing and speeding
slightly within a phrase.
Meter - an organization of beats, divisions of beats, and
groupings of beats into distinct levels of the passage of time
▫ A meter with hierarchies of two such as this is very common,
but beats may be grouped and divided in different ways
▫ Listen for the accent of first beat of a group to determine
meter. How to listen for the beat????
▫ If we perceive a grouping of two, we call it duple
▫ If we perceive a grouping of four, we call it quadruple
▫ In This example they are grouped into twos.
▫ The beginnings of notes (the horizontal lines) nearly always
coincide with one of these divisions:
Meter, continued
• When beats are divided into two parts, they are called simple
meters—these are most common
• In this example, the beat is grouped into threes but divided
into twos
• This meter is called simple triple and is well known as the
meter for the European waltz and many Latin styles derived
from it.
More meter
• triple meter - a meter in which the beats are grouped in threes
• duple meter - a meter in which beats are grouped in twos
• In the example below, the meter is compound (beat divided into threes)
duple (beat grouped into twos).
• simple meter - a meter in which the beat is divided into two
• compound meter - a meter in which the beat is divided into three—HUH?
Example: “Yo no Compro Amores”
Example: “Altos del Rosario”
Compound Meter
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The example below shows a compound meter in which the beat is divided
by three and grouped into twos.
This meter is called compound duple
This meter is common in Latin America in the chilena, cueca, and other
dance forms
If we perceive a grouping of four beats, the meter would be called ??
Ife we perceive a grouping of three beats, the meter would be called ??
Sesquiáltera
• Sesquiáltera: The alternation of simple triple
and compound duple meters 3:2
• Bernstein’s “America” song exemplifies this
rhythmic trait
• When these two meters are combined, we still
have sesquiáltera, but we also have
polyrhythm: at its simplest, the layering of a
duple and triple meter and their rhythms
Polyrhythm and African influence
• The African influence of much Latin American
Music can create intense polythythmic
layering!
• Example: Grupo Afro Cuba “Aguado Koloya”
Syncopation
Metrical Stress and Syncopation
▫ Syncopation - rhythm in which the metrical stress of a note is displaced in
the meter so that the emphasis occurs on normally unstressed beats
 The shifting of stress normally occurs one of two ways
▫ a note which begins on a normally unstressed beat to extend through the
next stressed beat
▫ Emphasize notes on normally unstressed beats by playing them more
loudly or giving them a harder attack
Dynamics
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Loudness in Music
• Relative measurement rather than exact levels
• Forte, piano, mezzo• Dynamics – the use of loudness as a musical element
• Crescendo - gradually getting louder
• Decrescendo - gradually getting softer
• Performers in most cultures control loudness as an
expressive element
• Artful contrasts of loud and soft create effective musical
expression
Pitch and Melody
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What is Pitch?
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Pitch - the quality of a note that distinguishes a high note
from a low one
Frequency - the number of sound waves per second
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Hertz (hz) Pitch is metaphor for hz
“Middle C:” 261.62
Definite vs indefinite pitch--Not all instruments have
definite pitch
What are some indefinite pitch instruments?
Pitch and Melody, continued
– The Octave
• Interval - the distance in pitch between any two notes
• Octave - the simplest possible ratio between two
frequencies—2:1
• Parallel octaves - two otherwise identical melodies sung
simultaneously an octave apart
Pitch and Melody
Tuning Systems
– Tuning system – What pitches represented?
– 12-tone equal temperament: tuning system now
standardized in the Americas and Europe, but…
• Other cultures have different systems–more notes per octave, fewer,
different intervals.
• Indigenous cultures, especially, may use non-Western systems
• Western scale with local, non equal temperament
tuning system: “folk” intonation
• Do not confuse with “playing out of tune”
More Pitch and Melody
– Tonality
• Tonic - “home base” pitch, no matter its octave
(sometimes the tonal center or key center)
• Tonality - The feeling that a melody revolves around
the central pitch
• Tonal - music that uses tonality
• Atonal – music without tonality
– Probably safe to say that all Latin American music,
with the exception of some 20th-century and later
“art” music, is tonal
Chapter 2: Pitch and Melody
– Modes
• diatonic set - uses only seven of the available twelve pitches
at a time, represented in one form by the white keys of the
piano keyboard
– Most common are major and minor
– A common trait in Latin American Muisc is bi-modality—the
alternation of a major or minor key with its relative minor or
major key
– Example: Andean music
• Pentatonic - Modes with five pitches—common in many
Latin American Cultures
• Hexatonic - Modes with six pitches
• Heptatonic - Modes with seven pitches
• Scale - a convenient construction for illustrating the tonic
and pitch set used in a piece of music
Chapter 2: Pitch and Melody
• Melody:
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Melody: Sequence of pitches in rhythm:
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All cultures have melodic music of some kind
Melody may not be important or present in some
types of music
Concept of what makes melody beautiful differs from
culture to culture
What makes melody memorable is more than simply
sequence of pitches: all dimensions [Rhythm, for
example] work together toward a single effect on the
listener
Melody
• A series of single notes that add up to a
recognizable whole
• Comprised of rhythm, pitch
• Begins, moves, ends —can be short, long, anywhere in
between; creates tension & release
• Melodic movement
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Stepwise vs. leap motion
Range
Climax
Examples:
• Evil Ways by Carlos Santana
• Somewhere, Over the Rainbow
Melody
• Made of phrases (parts)
• Cadence: Complete vs. Incomplete
• Phrasing: balancing vs. non-balancing
• Defining phrases: lower-case letters
a
a’
Melody
• Balanced phrases—same number of beats in each
a
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Melody
• Phrases of differing lengths: non-balancing
– The sequence
a
b
Melodic Motion and Countour
Graph of melody:
Characteristics of Melodies
Melodic contour and motion
•Contour- general direction or shape of a melody over time
•Motion- conjunct and disjunct
Pitch and Melody
Ornamentation
•Enhancement or ornamentation of a melody without
changing its overall character
•Slur
•Trill (and variants)
•Glissando
•Buzzing
•Vibrato
•Other stylistic devices
Motives and Themes
•Motive- short melodic fragment that is repeated at
certain points, often used as “cell” or “building block”
• Ostinato: short repeated melodic phrase
•Theme- entire melody recognized as a discrete entity
Form
• STRUCTURE (Form)
– Architecture, design, plan or layout of music
– Structural determinants include
• Repetitions and contrasts
• Sectional changes
• Variations
– Understanding form enhances listening experience
– At low level, signs of form: cadences in melody
– At high level, signs: contrasts in loudness, harmony,
tempo, instruments
Pitch and Melody
• STRUCTURE (Form)
– Phrases and Hierarchical Structures
• Melodic phrase is the foundation of musical structures
• Phrases can form parts of larger musical compositions
• Some phrases simply strung together with no implication of higher
grouping
• When Phrases are part of a higher grouping, Use Uppercase letters to
designate differing phrases
• A, B, C, etc
– Repeating Structures
• Strophic - a song that repeats a group of melodic phrases over and over
but with different words [eg: Hymns/folk songs]
• A, A’, A”, etc
• Verse-Refrain – each verse has different words with same music; refrain
uses same words and music each time [eg: most western popular music
today]
• A B (refrain) A B, A, etc
– Varying structure
• A B A C A D, etc
Pitch and Melody
• STRUCTURE
– Variation
• Transposition - playing the melody at a different pitch
level
• Modulation – Temporary change of key or mode
Chapter 2: Pitch and Melody
• STRUCTURE
– Other common ways to vary a repetition
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increased or different ornamentation
different mode
different tonal center
different tempo or rhythmic density (number of notes
per beat)
• different instruments used
• different texture
Poetic forms: décima
A DON PORFIRIO VÁSQUEZ
¡Criollo, no: ¡Criollazo!
Canta en el tono que rasques.
Le llaman “El Amigazo”,
Su nombre: ¡PORFIRIO
VÁSQUEZ!
Es el adjetivo justo
que merece un decimista,
zapateador, jaranista,
compositor de buen gusto.
Perdóname si te asusto
pero por Dios, no me atasques,
que aunque la lengua me
masques
Escúcheme, por favor,
repetiré que es tan ducho
escúcheme aunque no quiera: que sin esforzarse mucho
cómo canta marinera,
canta en el tono que rasques.
yo lo creo un trovador.
Soy su fiel admirador,
Riqueza debía tener
lo oí y le di un abrazo;
mas Dios le dará otro premio,
donde él fui pasito a paso
pues por su alma de bohemio
por sentir su melodía.
como si fuera un deber,
Le digo, desde ese día
gozó más con proteger
¡criollo, no: ¡Criollazo...!
al que le tendió su brazo.
Hoy comentan este caso
los que de él han recibido,
y en un geto agradecido
le llaman “El Amigazo”.
Cuando le llegue el momento
—y esto no es un mal
presagio—,
como póstumo sufragio
le haremos un monumento.
Ruego al que grabe el cement
que con buen cincel recalque
y en un ángulo le marque,
donde la piedra resista,
para que por siempre exista
su nombre: ¡PORFIRIO
VÁSQUEZ!
•
Poetic forms: copla
“La Guacamaya”–traditional, performed by Los Lobos
Pobrecita guacamaya ay! Que lastima me das
Ay que lastima me das, pobrecita guacamaya
Se acabron las pitahayas ahora si que comeras
Pobrecita guacamaya ay! Que lastima me das
Poor Guacamaya, oh what a pity
Oh what a pity, poor guacamaya
The cactus fruit are all gone now,
What will you eat?
Poor Guacamaya, oh what a pity
Vuela, vuela, vuela, como yo vole
Cuando me llevaron preso senorita por usted
Vuela, vuela, vuela, como yo vole
Cuando me llevaron preso senorita por usted
Fly, fly, fly ,oh how I flew
When I was taken prisoner, señorita, All because of you
Fly, fly, fly ,oh how I flew
When I was taken prisoner, señorita, All because of you
Una guacamaya pinta le dijo a la colorada
Vamonos para tierra pa pasar la temporada
The many-colored guacamaya said to the red one
“Let us go to my land to pass the season”
Vuela, vuela, vuela, como yo vole
Cuando me llevaron preso senorita por usted
Vuela, vuela, vuela, como yo vole
Cuando me llevaron preso senorita por usted
Texture
 Texture describes the following attributes:
▫ What instrument(s)/voice(s) are performing
▫ The timbres of the instrument(s)/voice(s)
▫ The relative roles of each of the instrument(s)/voice(s)
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Changes in texture can articulate important sectional divisions
 Musicologists & music theorists divide textures into four large
categories:
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Monophony
Homophony
Polyphony
Heterophony
Texture
Monophony
• meaning one sound
– one instrument playing one note at a time/voice singing melody
• Below is a graph of a monophonic texture:
Monophony is extremely common throughout the world
Texture
– parallel octaves – called monophony because
singing in parallel octaves sounds virtually the
same as a single melody
Parallel Octaves ©
2013 Cengage
Learning
Texture
Homophony
- a single melody accompanied by supporting harmony
• In the graph of a homophonic texture below, the melody the
voice sings is the principal melody associated with the song
• The parts played by the guitar and bass accompany it.
Texture
Polyphony - several melodies of more or less equal focus at the same
time
• round or canon - one of the most familiar forms of
polyphony in the West, (ex. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”)
in which singers sing the same melody at staggered time
intervals.
• imitative polyphony - one line imitates the melody in
another line
• Non-imitative polyphony - different melodies, guided by
common structural principles, weave around one
another
– Common in non-Western music
Texture
Heterophony: Common in many cultures though not
in the West—assumes more than one
singer/instrument
– Musicians often enrich a piece by adding
ornamentation and variations to the melody
simultaneously
• Not strict monophony: Although we would perceive a
single melody, each rendition would be different
• Not polyphony: Only one melody
Texture
Heterophony - simultaneous variations of one melody
• the graph of a heterophonic texture below shows the
performances by a south Indian singer (blue lines) and
violinist (red lines)
• although they sing and play the same basic melodies, their
slight differences in notes and ornamentation create
simultaneous variations.
Texture
Other Textures
• Many textures are hybrids
The Drone
• Drone - a long, constant pitch played throughout all or part
of a composition
– Ear does not recognize it as an independent melody
Drums
• Very important for texture in some cultures
• Drums and other nonpitched percussion instruments do not
fit neatly into general classifications of texture
• drum polyphony – where each individual drum has a line all
its own, but the “melodies” of the drums are very limited, if
they can be called melodies at all