Every melody in a piece of music is different in how it moves up and down. The distance between two pitches is called an interval. The parts that make up a melody are called phrases. The climax in a melody usually represents a high point in the piece of music. In harder pieces of music there can be more than one melody playing at the same time. Melody is the basic piece of the puzzle between the person that wrote the music and listener. Rhythm is what moves music forward in time. A Meter keeps the flow of the rhythm in music organized by using patterns of rhythmic pulses.
The first accented beat of each pattern is called a downbeat; measures most of the time begin with a strong downbeat. Compound meters split each beat into three instead of two. Some pieces begin with a downbeat instead of an upbeat. There are times when music has no real beat or meter you can call it non metric. Harmony tells you what is happening in the music, or togetherness of the music. Harmony is also a combination of sounds all at once. Harmony decides the relationship of intervals and chords. Chords are built from a scale, or a connected series of pitches.
A scale is a specific collection of pitches put in ascending and ascending order. Most music is based on major or minor scales, which is where melody and harmony came from. In most music the first note of the scale is a base which others move around. Dissonance and consonance are the tension and release in a piece of music. An octave is an interval reaching eight notes of scale and is divided into twelve half steps. Made up of the twelve half steps is the chromatic scale, while made up on the seven whole and half steps that make up major and minor scales is a diatonic scale.
A sharp raises the tone of the music by a half step, while a flat lowers it by a half step. Minestrone are intervals smaller than half steps they are the other scale types that are used around the world. Built on the first scale tone is the tonic it is where music is pulled to. Writers can move the pitch level of a whole piece or change the center of it. The interweaving of melodic lines and the harmony is the texture. The most basic texture is monophonic it is a single voice in music without instruments to back it up. Heterodyne is multiple voices singing the same melody at the same time.
Polyphony explains multiple voices singing lines of music against each other. Homophony happens when one voice is dominate over the other voices, or lines. Imitation is when a melodic idea is shown in a voice, then restated in another. Rounds like row, row, row your boat is a great example of homophony. Form is what organizes the music and its basic elements are repetition, contrast, and variation. Common in songs using repeating music for each line is strophic form. Binary form and ternary form are some of the basic building blocks in music. A theme is an idea in a big piece of music and can be broken into small parts.
A sequence happens when a motive is repeated at a different pitch. There is music that is made up on a whim in a performance it’s called improvisation. Station is repeating of a short pattern that is melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic. Big pieces of music for example symphonies and sonatas, are split into sections. Tempo is the pace of a piece of music. There are Italian terms used to describe musical tempo some of them are allegro, adagio, accelerated, and retardation. Enjoyment of Music Section 1 Summary By axillaries out tempo and dynamics in music to express it. Traits of sound are pitch, length, volume, and timbre, or tone color.
An instrument creates vibrations and sends them onto the air. The human voice can be put into categories of different ranges, like soprano and alto for women, and tenor and bass for men. Specialist have come up with a way to classify instruments on the way they sound. The four instrument families are strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. String instruments use bows and plucking to make sound. Examples of strings that use bows are violin, and viola. Harp and guitar are examples of strings that are plucked. Woodwind instruments use a column of vibrating air to create sound. Some examples of woodwinds are the flute, and clarinet.
Brass instruments use the column of air and tightly stretched lips to create sound. Some examples of brass are the trumpet, and the tuba. Percussion instruments are used to intensify the rhythm. When you play the keys on a piano its strings are hit with hammers that they control. Pianos don’t fit well in the classification system. A chapel singing is singing without music. Music for small groups is chamber, with one player for each part of the piece. Normal chamber groups have string quartets, woodwind quintets, and brass quintets. Orchestras today have about eighty to one hundred players.
Large orchestra groups normally use a conductor who uses a baton to help the players keep the same tempo. Music is used in so many different ways around the world. Most cultures use music for religious practice. There are many different styles of music. The specific group that performs a piece is the medium. There is some music that isn’t written down but it is learned by word of mouth. The specific parts of any artwork make up its style. A musical style is created by an artist taking the time to make the music there own. Styles of artwork are put into historical periods, all of them with their own characteristics.
