music 1000a lecture 2 review and announcements attend more than one concert before the concert...
TRANSCRIPT
MUSIC 1000A
Lecture 2
Review and announcements
• Attend more than one concert before the concert report is due.
• Course objective
• Introduction to effect and means, and some musical elements.
• Today more discussion of those musical elements starting with . . .
Rhythm
– The relationship between sounds in time– The experience of time in music
• We experience time in thousands of ways• Different cultures express musical time in
different ways
– “A rhythm” is a particular arrangement of longer and shorter notes in a musical passage
Rhythm
• Time concepts in Western music– Beat
• Regular, recurring background pulse
– Accent• Extra emphasis placed on some beats• Music can have regular, irregular, or no accents
– Meter• Regular, recurring pattern of accented and unaccented
(strong and weak) beats
Meter
– Simple meters• Duple meter (Yankee Doodle)• Triple meter (God save the Queen)
– Compound meter• Quick triple subdivision of the beat(row row)
– Irregular meters• Quintuple meter, etc.
What is the difference between rhythm and meter?– Meter background; rhythm foreground
• Meter the yardstick; rhythm the object being measured
– Rhythms can coincide with underlying meter, play with it, or even contradict it
• Some rhythms are strongly metrical• Syncopated rhythms play with meter; place accents on
weak beats or in between beats• Some rhythms imply the “wrong” meter; some are
entirely nonmetrical
Syncopation
– Syncopated rhythms displace accents away from normal metric accents
• Can put accents on weak beats– one TWO | one TWO | one TWO |
• Can put accents in between beats– one AND two AND | one AND two AND |
– Syncopation plays with meter• Most effective when meter is clearly heard• Examples: Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer or Give my
regards to Broadway
Tempo
– Rate of speed at which beats follow one another– Metronome marks tell us exactly how many beats
per minute• 60 = one beat per second; 120 = two beats per second;
and so on
– Tempo indications are approximate• Often in Italian• Can also express a specific mood
Common Tempo Indications
• Adagio• Andante
• Moderato• Allegretto
• Allegro• Presto
• Slow• On the slow side, • but not too slow• Moderate tempo• On the fast side, • but not too fast• Fast• Very fast
Tempo Changes
– Accelerando; Ritardando• Gradually getting faster; gradually getting slower
– Più lento; più allegro• Slower; faster
– Fermata• Hold a note (or rest) for an indefinite time• Temporary suspension of tempo
– a tempo• Back to the main tempo
rhythmbeataccentsforzandometermeasurebarbarlines
simple meterduple metertriple metercompound meterquintuple meternonmetricalsyncopation
Key Terms
More Key Terms– tempo– metronome marks– tempo indications– adagio– andante– moderato
– allegretto– allegro– presto– accelerando– ritardando– fermata
Let’s Listen
Pitch
• Aspects of pitch– Definite or indefinite– High or low– Most music draws from a pool of definite
pitches, or a scale– The distance between any two notes is
called an interval
Interval is the space between two pitches
• Step– Step is a small interval– Usually the distance between adjacent notes of a
scale– Two sizes: half step and whole step– Scale steps are specific notes of a scale
• e.g., scale step 1 (do) or scale step 5 (sol)
– Suggests a ladder; discrete pitches, not entire pitch continuum
Octave
• The most important interval is the Octave– Special interval relationship– Upper note seems to duplicate lower note, though
its pitch is higher– Very smooth blend derives from overtone series;
octave is the first overtone– Men and women singing a tune together normally
sing in octaves
Intervals
• Half step (semitone)– The smallest interval in most Western
music– The interval between any two consecutive
notes of the chromatic scale– On a keyboard, the distance between any
note and the note nearest to it, black or white
Intervals
• Whole step– The most common interval found in
diatonic scales– Same distance as two consecutive half
steps
Scales
– Collections of pitches used to construct melodies or entire pieces
– Diatonic scales typical of Western music• Contain seven notes in each octave
– Chromatic scale uses all notes on the piano keyboard
• Contains twelve notes in each octave
– Modern music and world music use many other scales
Diatonic Scale
– Contain seven different pitches– Seven letter names (ABCDEFG) originated with
diatonic scales– Octave (eighth note of scale) repeats the starting
letter name– Contains both whole steps (5) and half steps (2);
asymmetrical– Good examples include major scales (do re mi fa
sol la ti do), minor scales, and church modes
Diatonic Scale
Chromatic Scale
– Contains twelve different pitches; uses all black and white keys in each octave
– Consists entirely of half steps; symmetrical– Requires sharps or flats to notate black
keys– Developed later than diatonic scales, filling
in whole steps with half steps
Sharps and Flats
– The flat lowers a note by a half step– The sharp raises a note by a half step
Chromatic Scale
Diatonic vs. Chromatic
Scales and Instruments
– Western instruments are designed to play diatonic and chromatic scales
– Musicians learn to play in tune– Many instrument can bend pitches
• A little: flute, clarinet, saxophone, guitar• A lot: voice, trombone, violin, cello, timpani
– Some cannot• Piano, harpsichord, xylophone
Pitch Key Terms
– Pitch– Scale– Interval– Octave– Diatonic scale– Chromatic scale
– Flat– Sharp– Half step– Whole step– Playing in tune
Let’s Listen to some examples
Let’s look at notation