Elements of Music

1
Elements of Music

• A Basic Introduction
• to the Fundamentals
• of Music

2
Purposes of Music

• Convey specific emotions
• Tell stories
• Imitate sounds of nature
• Persuade others
• Invoke meaning
• Recreation/relaxation

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The Main Purposes for this Course

• Ceremonial ritual, celebration, commemoration
• Recreational a means of diversion to support
  recreational activities dances, social
  gatherings, festivals
• Artistic Expression communicate emotions,
  feelings, ideas, or information (narrative)

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Basic Elements/Terminology

• Melody Main theme/tune of the piece
• Harmony Accompanying parts that are not the
  melody. They blend with/support the melody
• Rhythm Patterns of sounds and silence its the
  pulse/beat and how it is organized

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Elements Continued

• Tempo Speed of the beat or pulse and the changes
  that occur to it.
• Dynamics Degrees of loudness and softness
• Timbre/Tone Color The quality of sound as
  determined by the instruments or voices that are
  performing the music.
• Form The organization/structure of a musical
  composition.

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Pitch, what is it?

• The sound of music is actually the waves that
  carry the sound from the initial vibrating item
  (instrument/vocal chords) to the listeners
  eardrum.
• The number of waves or cycles per second
  determines the pitch. (This gives us melody and
  harmony)
• How do these have an effect on the other elements
  of music?

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Effects

• Dynamics/Volume vertical size of the wave
• Timbre/tone color shape of the wave and
  overtones created by combining waves
• Rhythm when the sounds of the waves start and
  stop

8
Melody How the pitch changes and the pitch
location

• There are four types
• Repeated pitches
• Stepwise motion
• Movement in skips
• Motion in leaps

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Harmony

• Help to determine the key or tonality (tone) of
  the music (In conjunction with the melody)
• Major happy or cheerful sounding
• Minor sad, gloomy, uneasy, spooky
• Modal major or minor but with a few notes that
  dont fit

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Things we will cover later

• Pentatonic scale
• Whole tone scale
• Atonal music

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Texture An aspect of harmony

• Texture thickness of sound
• Monophonic one sound music is performed in
  unison everyone plays or sings the same part at
  the same time. Therefore, Harmony doesnt exist
  in monophonic music.
• Homophonic same sound music has multiple or
  different parts being sung or played, but they
  are done at the same time. Melody and harmony
  exist, but melody rules!

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Texture continued

• The final texture-
• Polyphonic many sounds music has multiple,
  independent parts that are sung or played at the
  same time. Each part is as important as the
  others. Because the parts overlap, there is
  usually no silence, making this the thickest
  sounding type of the three.

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A minor point

• Vocal music that is performed without
  accompanying instruments is called a
  capella

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Tonality or Key

• Sharp raises the pitch by ½
  step
• Flat lowers pitch by ½ step
• Natural cancels a sharp or flat

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Key Signature

• Another place you will find these symbols is at
  the beginning of a piece of music. Combinations
  of these symbols make up the key signature
• The key signature tells the musicians which notes
  are played or sung throughout the piece of music.

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Key Signature
17
Rhythm

• The most complex element of music.
• Defined as the patterns of sounds and silences
  that make music move through time. Written as a
  fraction w/o the line.
• Usually top number multiple of 2 or 3.
• Multiple of 2 duple meter
• Multiple of 3 triple meter

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Rhythm continued

• Top number tells how many beats are in each
  measure.
• Bottom number tells what kind of note is equal to
  one beat.

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Silence counts as well

• The duration of silence in music is notated using
  rests. Observe the following and note the
  similarities to the note values.

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Tempo

• The speed of the beat of the music.
• Traditional tempo markings are done in Italian
  terms.
• The following are the most common tempo markings
• Allegro Fast
• Moderato Moderate
• Adagio Slow
• Largo Very Slow

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VOLUME!!!! or Dynamics

• Dynamics are the degrees of loudness or softness
  (volume) and intensity of sound.
• Based off of two main Italian words
• Forte strong and loud
• Piano soft

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Common Dynamic Markings

• pp pianissimo very soft
• p piano soft
• mp mezzo piano mod. soft
• mf mezzo forte mod. loud
• f forte loud
• Ff fortissimo very loud

23
Greek Music

• Most of what we know is associated with the Greek
  philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras.
• He discovered how mathematical proportions were
  important in creating the musical scale.
• Logically, music is mathematical in nature.

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More on Pythagoras

• Discovered certain mathematical proportions
  applied to the length of strings created pitches
  of different intervals.
• Octave 21
• Perfect 5th 32
• Perfect 4th 43

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Greek Mythology

• Music was created by the Gods and Demi-gods such
  as
• Apollo
• Amphion
• Orpheus
• People with musical talents were considered
  divine

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Thoughts on Music

• Music was almost all monophonic
• Aristotle believed that music should lead a
  person to have noble thoughts.
• Music was believed to affect character it was
  strictly regulated.
• Greek Purposes for Music instruct, inspire,
  alter mood

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Instruments

• Lyre a small handheld harp inspiration for
  lyric poetry, or poetry recited while the harp
  was played or strummed
• Aulos a cross between oboe and bagpipes. Used
  in worship of Dionysis. Accompanied the greek
  theater, and thus the name for the chorus as
  singers/chanters in the play