Javier A. Tabush

Chapter 1: MELODY: MUSICAL LINE

• I really like how the author gives us the tips to follow before attending a concert.

  • Prepare by doing some reading

  • Find out what works will be performed

  • Check information about the composers, works, genres or styles

  • It’s more important to read about the opera before the performance because most of the time they are in a foreign language

• What is Melody? The element in music that appeals most directly to the listener. It is a succession of single pitches that we perceive as a recognizable whole.

• What is contour? Is its overall shape as it turns upward, downward, or remains static

• What is interval? The distance between any two pitches of a melody

• What is conjunct? Melodies that move principally by small intervals in a joined, connected manner.

• What is disjunct? Melodies that move in larger disconnected intervals.

• What is Phrase? A unit of measurement within a larger structure.

 

Chapter 2: Rhythm and Meter: Musical Time

• What is rhythm? The movement of music in time

• What is Beat? The basic unit of a rhythm

• What is a meter? Organizes the beats in music, marked off in measurements.

• What is a compound meter? It subdivides each bear into three, rather than two, subbeats.

• “Composers have devised a number of ways to keep the recurrent accent from becoming monotonous”

• What is Syncopation? A deliberate upsetting of the normal pattern of accents.

• What is polyrhythm? When for example in piano, the left hand might play two notes to beat, while the right hand plays three notes to the same beat.

Chapter 3: Harmony: Musical Space

• Harmony: Describes the vertical events in music or how they sound together

• Chord: Is the simultaneous sounding of three more pitches, chords are built from a particular scale, or sequence of pitches

• Triad: a chord that has three notes built on alternate pitches of a scale

• Tonic: The central tone around which a melody and its harmonies are built; this principle of organization is called tonality

• Dissonance: is created by an unstable, or discordant, combination of tones

• Consonance: occurs with a resolution of dissonance, producing a stable or restful sound.

• “In all music, regardless of the style, certain tones assume greater importance than others”

 

Chapter 4: The Organization of Musical Sounds

• Octave: The interval spanning eight notes of the scale.

• Chromatic scale: made up of these twelve half steps, while a diatonic scale is built on patters of seven whole and half steps.

• Sharp: a symbol that raises a tone by a half step.

• Microtones: Intervals smaller than half steps

• Tonic chord: built on the first scale tone, is the home bas to which active chords need to resolve

• Transposition: When composers shift the pitch level of an entire work.

• Modulation: When composers change the center, or key during a work.

Chapter 5: Musical Texture

• Texture: the interweaving of the melodic lines with harmony in music

• Monophony: a single-voiced music without accompaniment

• Heterophony: Multiple voices elaborating the same melody at the same time

• Polyphony: describes a many-voiced texture based on counterpoint.

• Homophony: it occurs when one melodic voice is prominent over the accompanying lines or voices.

• Imitation: when a melodic idea is presented in one voice, and then restated in another.

• “The duration of imitation may be brief or it may last the entire work”

Chapter 6: Musical Form

• Form: The organizing principle in music

  • The basic elements of form are: repetition, contrast, and variation.

• Strophic form: common in songs, features repeated music for each stanza of text

• Theme: A melodic idea in a large scale work and can be broken into small, component fragments.

• Sequence: It results when a motive is repeated at a different pitch.

• Call and Response: a repetitive style involving a soloist and a group.

• Improvisation: Music that is created spontaneously in performance.

• Ostinato: The repetition of a short melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic

Chapter 7: Musical Expression: Tempo and Dynamics

• Tempo: The rate of speed, or pace , of the music

• Allegro: Fast

• Moderato: Moderate

• Adagio: Quite slow

• Accelerando: Speeding up

• Ritardando: Slowing down

• Dynamics: Describe the volume, or how loud or soft the music is played; Italian terms for dynamics include forte (loud) and piano (soft)

Chapter 8: Voices and Musical Instrument Families

• Instrument: generate s vibrations and transmits them into the air.

• The human voice can be categorized into various ranges, including soprano and alto for female voices, and tenor and bass for male voices.

• The world instrument classification system divides into aerophones, chordophones, idiophones and membranophones.

• The diversity of musical instruments played around the world defies description.

Chapter 9: Western Musical Instruments

• There are four families of Western instruments:

  • Strings

  • Woodwinds

  • Brass

  • Percussions

• String instruments are sounded by bowing and plucking

• The bowed strings:

  • Violin

  • Viola

  • Cello

  • Double bass

• Plucked strings

  • Harp

  • Guitar

• Woodwind instruments

  • Flute

  • Oboe

  • Clarinet

  • Bassoon

  • Saxophone

• Brass Instruments

  • Trumpet

  • French horn

  • Trombone

  • Tuba

• Percussion instruments

  • Xylophone

  • Cymbals

  • Triangle

  • Timpani

  • Bass drum

  • Chimes

  • Tambourine

• Keyboard instruments (They don’t fit into the Western classification system)

  • Piano

  • Organ

Chapter 10: Musical Ensembles

• A cappella singing: choral groups with no accompaniment.

• Chamber music: ensemble music for small groups, with one player per part

• Standard chamber esembles include:

  • String quartets

  • Woodwind quintets

  • Brass quintets

• Orchestra: 80 – 100 players

• Conductor: beats the patterns with a baton to help performers keep the same tempo.

Chapter 11:

• Functions of music in societies around the world

  • Religion

  • Work

  • Entertainment

• Sacred music: for religious functions

• Secular music: non religious activities

• Medium: the specific group that performs a piece

• Style: It is created through individual treatment of the basic musical elements

• Artworks are organized into historical periods

• “A real musical culture should not be a museum culture based on music of past ages... It should be the active embodiment in sound of the life of a community- of the everyday demands of people’s work and play and of their deepest spiritual needs” Wilfred Mellers

Style can also indicate the personal manner of expression of the creator.