Ms. Fowlkes: General Music 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=eVXalu0p1wo 9:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUYEvCly8Fo

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=dRpzxKsSEZg Come On Eileen What happened? Accelerando!

Tempo Names Musicians call them “Tempo Markings” Vivace (vih-vah-chay) A very fast tempo Andante (on-don-tay) 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=xZO5KTJTwhE

Tempo: Andante Spring from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKthRw4KjEg

Tempo: Largo Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Wilhelm Kempff https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=O6txOvK-mAk

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=aLnZ1NQm2uk 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) Note head Rhythm Shortens rhythm by ½ 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) A440? A442? A338? 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=Dlr90NLDp-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 =ipzR9bhei_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 =zSif77IVQdY

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=FY8SwIvxj8o 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=M7gxQpjezXA What’s the difference between rounded binary and ternary?

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