How Music Works
Chapters 3-6
The Four Basic Properties of Tones
Property of Tone
Musical Correlate
 Duration
 Rhythm
 Frequency
 Pitch
 Amplitude
 Dynamics
 Timbre
 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)


Indian classical music


OMI 10
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/wat
ch?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)