Musical Structure

Sound As the pressure of air changes rapidly, the ear- brain detects the changes as sound (sound waves/vibrations). Some sounds are musical and some are noise. Musical tones consist of a series of regular, evenly timed vibrations recurring in a pattern. Noise consist of random and irregular vibrations. From early days, parents have said, “Stop that noise!” Irregular vibrations cause unrest while ordered vibrations soothe; crooning to a crying baby causes tears to disappear.

Tone The basic element in a musical tone is PITCH. Without this elements a tone would forever remain on the same level. The pitch id determined by the number of vibrations that occur during a second; the greater number of vibrations causes a higher pitch and conversely the fewer vibrations, the lower the pitch.

Pitch The highness or lowness of a tone. These are indicated by placement of the note on a music staff that is made up of five horizontal lines and four spaces.

Duration The length or count a tone is held. This is indicated by the time signature (2/4, 4/4) noted at the beginning of a bar.

Intensity The loudness or softness of a tone. This is governed by special markings over the note or a series of notes.

Timbre Tone quality. Particular sound of a tone for voice or instrument.

Melody When tones (or notes indicating tones) are arranged on a staff in a meaningful manner, this is called a MELODY. Melodies are often called a “tune.” After seeing a program that includes music, many of the audience remember and can sing a special “tune” rather than remember the story. There are two categories that melodies usually fall under:

Disjunct Where there are great intervals between low and high parts of the melody. The melodies have a tendency to be dramatic. Many people have trouble singing THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER because of the discrepancies in intervals.

Conjunct Where intervals between low and high parts of the melody are attainable by most voices and are lyrical and pleasing to hear.

Rhythm Not only do notes go up and down on the musical staff, but some notes are held longer than others, usually in a pattern of some sort. This is called the rhythm of a piece.

When a particular rhythmic piece of music is played, notice how many people unconsciously tap their toes to the “beat.” Or, notice the students around the room who tap the rhythm with a pencil or their fingers. The drum is the favorite rhythm instrument most young men want to play. Drum rolls as the flag is raised or retired create a special feeling among spectators.

Meter Rhythm is usually written in patterns, with certain patterns being repeated several times within the body of the work. The pitch may move up and down but the rhythm remains the same. The various phrases or patterns that make up the piece have accents within the beat. This is called METER. Meter keeps a piece from being presented in a monotonic manner.

Measure Counts or beats are grouped together to form measures. Measures may contain two, three or four or more counts. Measures are separated by bar lines. A piece of music, no matter how simple, contains many measures.

Time Signature The grouping of counts into measures is indicated by the time signature, which appears at the beginning of each song. 4/4 The marks that indicate the time signature are called clefs. The mark on the top staff is called a base clef.

The top number of the time signature tells how many beats there are in each measure; the bottom number tells what kind of note is to receive one count. (4/4 time means there are four beats to that measure with the quarter note getting one count.) As much music is written in 4/4 time, a sign has been given this time signature, one that looks like a capital C.

Notes In most music, the fundamental beat is assigned to the quarter note. If the quarter note gets one beat (count), then a whole note gets 4 beats (there are four quarters in a whole). If the fundamental beat is an eighth note, it would get one count. If an eighth note is assigned one beat, then a 6/8 time signature would indicate that the eighth note gets one count and that there are six counts to a measure.

A dot after a note adds ½ count to a note. The following may be helpful in assessing the count when a quarter note is assigned one beat: – Quarter note: 1 count(a black note) half note: 2 counts (an open note with a “stem”) – Whole note: 4 counts ( a single open note) – Eighth note: ½ count ( indicated by a little “flag” at the top of the stem of a black note)

– Two eighth notes: make 1 count (two black notes joined together with a bar at the top of the stem)

Rests A sign indicating that, for a specified time, the music ceases, at least in one of the parts. For each of the notes there is a corresponding rest, indicated by a special sign.

Tempo As in the rendition of poetry or drama, where the voice accelerates to add to the feeling of speed or slows down to emphasize a passage—so, too, does written music have indicators to guide the performer. The words are usually in Italian, such as accelerando for moving ahead and ritardando for slower movements.

Harmony Harmony involves the blending together of two or more notes which, adds richness and depth to the melody. The “Barbershop Quartet” blends four voices in rich harmony.

In written music, harmony is referred to as a chord with three or more tones sounded simultaneously. If the chord sounds pleasing to the ear, it is said to be harmonious (consonant); if the chord sounds harsh to the ear, it is said to be dissonant. Great music includes both.

Texture When there is an interweaving of layers of sound, it is called texture. The melody is the horizontal strand of the music “weaving” and the chordal harmonies woven around the melody are horizontal strands. This gives great latitude to a composer.

When the melody is sung (or played) alone, it is called monophonic texture; several voices or instruments combined in a number of different ways, is called polyphonic texture. There are several textures of music but the most common in our listening or performing is homophonic texture—a melody accompanied by chords.