Elements of Music Ms Fowlkes General Music First

Elements of Music Ms. Fowlkes: General Music

First things first: what are these crazy words? ▶ Are musical terms always written in English? ▶ What other language? ▶ ITALIAN!

What are elements? ▶ Defined as. . . ▶ a part or aspect of something ▶ something that is essential or characteristic ▶ Synonyms: Component, portion, piece

What are elements in science?

What are elements of art?

What are the elements of music? ▶ Dynamics ▶ Tempo ▶ Timbre ▶ Rhythm ▶ Pitch ▶ Melody ▶ Harmony ▶ Texture ▶ Form

Dynamics… ▶ Defined as: the volume of the music. ▶ What do musicians call “loud”? ▶ f is for……FORTE (for-tay) ▶ What do musicians call “soft”? ▶ p is for……PIANO ▶ What do musicians call “medium”? ▶ m is for……MEZZO (met-so)

Dynamics: Listening Example ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=e. VXalu 0 p 1 wo ▶ ▶ 9: 30 https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=l. UYEv. Cly 8 Fo

Dynamics: A Visual

Tempo… ▶ The speed of the beat. ▶ What has beat in everyday life? ▶ YOUR HEART! (At least, I hope!) ▶ Fun fact: long ago, conductors set tempos by taking their own pulse.

Tempo: Listening examples ▶ In the Hall of the Mountain King from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=d. Rpzx. Ks. SEZg Come On Eileen ▶ What happened? ▶ Accelerando!

Tempo Names ▶ Musicians call them “Tempo Markings” ▶ Vivace (vih-vah-chay) ▶ ▶ Andante (on-don-tay) ▶ ▶ A very fast tempo A walking tempo (medium speed) Largo (lar-goh) ▶ Very slow tempo

Tempo: Vivace ▶ Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, performed by the Canadian Brass ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=x. Z O 5 KTJTwh. E

Tempo: Andante ▶ Spring from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=TKth. Rw 4 Kj. Eg

Tempo: Largo ▶ Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Wilhelm Kempff ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=O 6 tx. Ov. K-m. Ak

Timbre ▶ Pronounced “Tam-ber” ▶ Also called “Tone Color” ▶ Defined as: the differing sounds of instruments and/or voices ▶ A trumpet does NOT sound like a flute!!! ▶ Voices: everyone’s has a different color!

Timbre: Listening example ▶ Let’s take a popular song. ▶ All About that Bass by Meghan Trainor ▶ Now let’s make some changes to the TIMBRE and style. ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=a. Ln. Z 1 NQm 2 uk ▶ Postmodern Jukebox ▶ Three singers: very different timbres

Timbre: changing colors ▶ Instruments/voices can change tone colors. ▶ What color is a dark sound? ▶ What color is a bright sound? ▶ Listening example #1 ▶ ▶ Voice Listening example #2 ▶ Flute

And now for something different… THE ANATOMY OF A NOTE

A note: ▶ Stem ▶ ▶ Flag (optional) ▶ ▶ Rhythm Shortens rhythm by ½ Note head ▶ Pitch

The two main ELEMENTS of a note are… ▶ Stem/flag ▶ ▶ Rhythm Note head ▶ Pitch

Rhythm ▶ In music with text (vocal music), rhythm can be defined as “the way the words go. ” ▶ Simply put, rhythm is the “duration” of a sound or silence. ▶ Or… ▶ “How long does that sound/silence last? ” ▶ The stem of the note tells us the duration of the note.

When we think of rhythm… ▶ We probably think of percussion instruments. ▶ Percussion rhythms are the rhythm masters. ▶ (Those are timpani or kettle drums) ▶ But………

“I’ve got rhythm…” ▶ All instruments/voices utilize rhythm. ▶ Remember: rhythm is the DURATION of a sound or silence. ▶ The sound can be pitched or unpitched. ▶ Which brings us to…

Pitch

Pitch ▶ Refers to the how high or low a sound is. ▶ In science: frequency of the sound waves (in hertz) ▶ A 440? ▶ A 442? ▶ A 338? ▶ What is a tuner?

Intonation ▶ Intonation is when sounds are “in tune”. ▶ Well…what does that mean? ▶ Frequency of the sound matches ▶ Demonstration

Melody ▶ “The tune or what you remember” ▶ Or… ▶ One note at a time. ▶ Does mean there can only be one voice? ? ? ▶ Demonstration

Harmony ▶ More than one note at a time ▶ Supports melody ▶ Chords ▶ Interesting! ▶ Creates texture

Which brings us to…Texture ▶ ▶ What is texture? ▶ Food ▶ Tactile In music: How the lines of music fit together ▶ How many lines? ▶ How do those lines move? ▶ Chords? ▶ Many lines moving at once?

Hooked on phonics! ▶ What does phonic mean? ▶ Monophonic ▶ Polyphonic ▶ Homophonic

Monophonic ▶ What does mono mean? ▶ One line ▶ Melody ONLY! ▶ (No harmony allowed!) ▶ Earliest form of Art music ▶ Gregorian Chant – Dies Irae or “Day of Wrath” ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Dlr 90 NLDp-0

Polyphonic ▶ What does poly mean? ▶ Harmony!!! ▶ Many voices at once, usually staggered entrances. ▶ Singing DIFFERENT lines (NOT a canon) ▶ Toccata and Fugue by JS Bach ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=ipz. R 9 bhei_o

Homophonic ▶ What does the prefix “homo-” mean? ▶ Greek for “same” ▶ Chords under a melody ▶ 99. 99999% of all modern popular music ▶ Down to the River to Pray – Alison Krauss ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=z. Sif 77 IVQd. Y

Form ▶ Is the way music is organized or put together. ▶ Most hymns are strophic (AAAA…) ▶ Most common form in modern popular music is strophe and refrain (ABABAB…) ▶ Can also be called “verse/chorus” ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=FY 8 Sw. Ivxj 8 o ▶ Binary form has two sections (AB) ▶ Ternary form has different three sections (ABC) ▶ ROUNDED Binary has three sections (ABA) ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=M 7 gx. Qpjez. XA ▶ What’s the difference between rounded binary and ternary?

So…what does this all mean? You are now prepared to…