Area of Study - Popular Music GCSE MUSIC Area of Study - Popular Music
Musical Elements Rhythm and Metre Harmony and Tonality Texture and Melody Timbre and Dynamics Structure and Form
RHYTHM AND METRE Pulse simple and compound time regular, irregular, free augmentation, diminution, hemiola, cross rhythm dotted rhythms, triplets, syncopation poly rhythm drum fills
HARMONY AND TONALITY diatonic, chromatic consonant, dissonant pedal, drone cadence: perfect, plagal, imprefect, interrupted, Tierce de Picardie major, minor and dominant 7th chords tonal, major, minor, modal keys up to 4 sharps and 4 flats modulation to the dominant or relative major or minor
TEXTURE AND MELODY harmonic/homophonic, polyphonic/contrapuntal, monophonic imitative, canonic, layered unison, octaves, single melody line, melody with accompaniment, antiphonal intervals within the octave conjunct, disjunct, triadic, broken chords, scalic, apreggio passing notes, acciaccaturas, appogiaturas, ornamentation blue notes diatonic, chromatic, pentatonic, whole tone, modal augmentation, diminution, sequence, inversion slide/glisaando/portamento ostinato, riff phrasing, articulation pitch bend improvisation
TIMBRE AND DYNAMICS Instruments and voices singly and in combinations used in the three strands generic families of instruments as found in world music timbre, including the use of technology, synthesised and computer generated sounds and effects such as reverb, distortion and chorus instrumental techniques including con arco, pizzicato, con sordino, double stopping, tremolo/tremolando vocal techniques such as falsetto and vibrato gradation of dynamics as follows: - pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff - crescendo, diminuendo - sfz, sforzando - hair pins And common signs and symbols
STRUCTURE AND FORM binary, ternary, call and response rondo, theme and variations, arch shape sonata, minuet and trio, scherzo and trio strophic, through composed, da capo aria, cyclic popular song forms ground bass, continuo, cadenza
Street Spirit (fade out) Radiohead
ANALYSIS OF THE INTRODUCTION RHYTHM AND METRE 4/4 time with a regular pulse Tempo adagio (approx 72bmp) HARMONY AND TONALITY Diatonic Minor key – A minor TEXTURE AND MELODY Ostinato/riff TIMBRE AND DYNAMICS Quiet Picked acoustic guitar STRUCTURE AND FORM 4 bar introduction
Radiohead Street Spirit (fade out) I have chosen the following areas of study to help me analyse the rest of the song: Timbre and Dynamics Structure and Form Timbre Dynamics Form
Radiohead Street Spirit (fade out) Into – A/E guitar picked, quiet V1 – picked guitar, male voice with reverb, triangle, quiet Chorus – as verse but louder V2 – drums added, louder Chorus – strings added, bass louder,louder Inst/mid 8 – vocal ahhs added (2 parts now) louder sustained strings, more complex drum pattern V3 – additional guitar part, quieter Chorus – louder again Outro – vocal patterns, repeated crescendos, ends with quiet picked guitar.
YOUR TASK Choose a song that you like and plan a presentation about it based on at least 2 Musical Elements. You may use any medium you want or you can just talk about it. YOUR PRESENTATION MUST INCLUDE PLAYING THE SONG