UNIT 2

Musical Elements

Step 1

Song X by Metheny & Coleman

Did this composition trigger an emotional response from you? 

 The frantic and clustered intro made me uncomfortable, but other than that, I didn't really have an emotional response to this song.

What were your specific feelings or thoughts in response to the music?

It just sounds like a more frantic and crazy jazz song, there is nothing really spectacular about this in my opinion.

Describe musical elements represented in this composition

The tempo was very fast and probably contained staccato notes. Dynamics seemed on the louder side with lots of crescendos to higher notes. The melody was very loud and frantic throughout the whole entire song.

Step 2

List 6 featured instruments in the order that they appear in Bolero by Ravel

1. Snare Drum 2. English Horn 3. French Horn 4. Piccolo 5. Trombone 6. Tuba

Step 3

 Describe the musical elements of tonality and form demonstrated in Alla Turca by Mozart

This piece sounds very cheerful happy and makes me picture small kittens running around a large manor. It constantly transitions between pianissimo high notes and forte or fortissimo lower notes. The rhythm and tempo are very fast, but not so fast that it appears as frantic. The cheerful pianissimo notes are the melody, and the middle/lower notes at a forte or fortissimo are the harmony.

Step 4

Es Primavera from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi

Identify where the motive first introduced subsequently reappears

The first motive appears multiple times throughout the piece, but the first time it reappears is at 1:06.

Identify changes in dynamics and discuss the effect these changes create

It constantly has crescendos and decrescendos. It sort of gives the effect of wind blowing or creatures running through a field of flowers, going from a nice piano to forte and then back down. It feels like it does not stay at the same dynamic for very long, for it is always changing. It also has the effect that the instruments are extremely close and then suddenly very far away.

Describe musical elements heard in this example

The tempo and rhythm aren't too fast or too slow, it is nice and moderate. As for the harmony and melody, it is comprised of only string instruments, the lower ones playing the harmony and the higher ones playing the melody. Like I stated before, the dynamics are almost always changing, giving it a nice variety of sound. The style is very classical and happy, basically giving off a very cheerful mood.

Step 5

Identify the texture in this Two Part Invention by J.S. Bach as monophonic, homophonic or polyphonic

Polyphonic

Scales and Melody-Chapter 3
Step 1

Notes: An interval is any two pitches with a certain distance or difference in highness or lowness between them. An octave is the first note and the last note of a scale, they don't sound exactly the same but they sound very similar and blend nicely. A vibrating string that is exactly half as long as another will reinforce the longer string's strongest overtone. The diatonic scale is the scale originally used in western music is a set of seven pitches within the octave. The chromatic scale is 5 notes added to the 7 notes of the diatonic scale. Since the original notes took up the spaces so that they couldn't add more notes, they created flats and sharps to represent those chromatic notes that were added (black keys on a keyboard). Half steps is the distance between any two successive notes of the chromatic scale. The half step is the smallest step in regular use and the smallest that most people can hear. The whole step is equivalent to two half steps. The chromatic scale is all half steps and the diatonic scale is a mixture between half steps and whole steps. A melody is an organized series of pitches, and can be built from any scale. Melodies come in an unlimited array of shapes and they convey a hug variety of emotional characters, a melody involving a jump from low to high notes can seem to soar. Melody is the musical structure that moves people the most. A simple, easily singable, catchy melody is a tune. Longer pieces (symphonies), may have tunes embedded in them. A motive is a distinctive fragment of melody. Tunes fall naturally into smaller sections, called phrases. Duplication of two or more different pitch levels is called sequence. Many tunes have a distinctive high point (climax).  Interim stopping or pausing places is cadence. Theme is the most general term for the basic subject matter for longer pieces of music.

Step 2

Listen Site Reading & Listening Quizzes:

Harmony, Texture, Tonality and Mode-Chapter 4

Step 1

Notes: When someone sings and plays the guitar at the same time, she is accompanying herself. In church the congregation sings hymns while the organist supplies the accompaniment. Two concepts of basic importance in thinking about the way pitches sound together with each other are harmony and texture. The sounding at the same time of different pitches is harmony. Chords are a number of standard groupings of simultaneous pitches that work well in combination. Consonance and dissonance (discord) are chords that rest and those that sound tense. Octaves are the most constant of intervals, and half steps are the most dissonant. Discord implies something unpleasant; discordant human relationships are to be avoided. After a discord in music and the music comes to a stability, it is called resolution. Dissonance is like the spices added to music (food). Texture is the term used to refer to the way the various sounds and melodic lines occurring together in music interact or blend with one another. Monophony is the term for the simplest texture, a single unaccompanied melody before the 2nd person comes in. Some musicians have created monophonic music. Homophonic is when there is only one melody of real interest and it is combined with other, less prominent sounds. Homophony can be thought of as a tight, smooth texture. When two or more melodies are played or sung simultaneously, the texture is called polyphonic. Polyphony contains melodies that feel independent and of equal interest. Contrapuntal or counterpoint is the technique of writing two or more melodies that fit together. Imitative polyphony results when various lines sounding together use the same or fairly similar melodies, with one coming in shortly after another. Non-imitative polyphony occurs when the melodies are different from one another. The feeling of home we get from melodies is called tonality, the music in question is described as tonal, and the home pitch is referred to as the tonic pitch or the tonic. Modality is the different home pitches, which determine the different modes of music. Major mode involves the C center and minor mode involves the A center. Different positions for the modes are called keys. Major sounds cheerful and minor sounds sad.

Step 2
Listen Site Reading & Listening Quizzes:

Musical Form and Musical Style-Chapter 5
Step 1

Notes: Form refers to shape, arrangement, relationship, or organization of various elements. Form is the relationship that connects those beginnings, middles, and ends. Genres are general categories or kinds of music, and is defined by its text, function, or by the performing forces. Style is the combination of qualities that make it distinctive. Popular music through the years gives a reflection of the cultural struggles of the world at that time.

Step 2
Listen Site Reading Quiz & Listening Quizzes: