1. Ms. Fowlkes: General Music
Elements of Music
Ms. Fowlkes: General Music

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

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

4. What are elements in science?

5. What are elements of art?

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

7. 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)

8. Dynamics: Listening Example
9:30

9. Dynamics: A Visual

10. 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.

11. Tempo: Listening examples
In the Hall of the Mountain King from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg
Come On Eileen
What happened?
Accelerando!

12. 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

13. Tempo: Vivace
Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, performed by the Canadian Brass
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14. Tempo: Andante Spring from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi

15. Tempo: Largo
Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Wilhelm Kempff
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16. 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!

17. 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.
Postmodern Jukebox
Three singers: very different timbres

18. 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

19. And now for something different…
THE ANATOMY OF A NOTE

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

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

22. 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.

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

24. “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…

25. Pitch

26. 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?

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

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

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

30. 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?

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

32. 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”
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33. 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
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34. Homophonic What does the prefix “homo-” mean? Greek for “same”
Chords under a melody
% of all modern popular music
Down to the River to Pray – Alison Krauss
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35. 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”
Binary form has two sections (AB)
Ternary form has different three sections (ABC)
ROUNDED Binary has three sections (ABA)
What’s the difference between rounded binary and ternary?

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