Chapter 7
The composer must decide what he or she wants to say and the best musical means to express it. The Elements: the basic building blocks of music ◦ Form ◦ Melody ◦ Timbre ◦ Rhythm
Form is the structure and design of a composition. (review) ◦ Use of repetition, contrast, unity and variety. Listening Activity “Rock Around the Clock”
Melodies may be flowing or angular, narrow or wide-ranging, short or long. Melodies are almost always built on one musical scale or another. Major Scale-
Minor Scale- sequence of eight pitches built on the pattern of: ◦ whwwhww ◦ Playing any major scale from LA to LA instead of DO to DO give you the relative natural minor. LA TI DO RE MI FA SOL LA
Listening Activity: Change Major to Minor ◦ Symphony No. 1 in D Minor by Gustav Mahler ◦ Symphony: an extended work for orchestra with several contrasting movements
Timbre- tone color, tone quality. (review) Listening Activity The Sound of the Pipa ◦ Tibetan Dance
Rhythm deals with fast or slow, and patterns of beats. Felt Time- an aspect of music that controls the listener’s sense of how much time has passed. Listening Activity: ◦ Adaigo for Strings ◦ Badinerie Listening Activity ◦ America the Beautiful by Ray Charles.
Arranger: a musician who reworks existing musical material ◦ The arranger adapts a composition written for one performance medium to another or recomposes a work to suite different circumstances. ◦ Composers and arrangers both deal with music composition but their roles are completely different. Listening Activity “What’s New?” ◦ Three different arrangements
Transcription: arrangements of music transferred from one medium to another ◦ Example: Original keyboard piece then score for string- wind-percussion instruments...the music stays the SAME, it’s just written for another group to play it. Listening Activity; Compare an original with a transcription ◦ Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C Major for Organ and then transcribed for Band by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Explain the difference among composing, arranging, and transcribing. Read through the interview and answer the question above on the back of your handout. Make sure to cite details from the interview.
Theme and Variations: a musical form in which a melodic idea is stated then varied in a succession of statements ◦ The theme can be Ornamented Tempo altered Harmony changed Texture transformed Rhythm revamped Change the form
Listening Activity: Mozart Theme and Variations ◦ How is the Melody or the THEME changed in each variation? Listening Activity: “American Salute” by Morton Gould
Using Harmony to Create Variations: Harmony: the vertical blocks of different tones that sound simultaneously. ◦ Chords! Three or four notes that form a harmonic unite Major/Minor Chords Primary Chords: harmonies built on the first (DO), the fourth (FA), and the fifth (SOL) degrees of the scale. Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do
Describe the expressive qualities: Compare Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Carmen’s “All By Myself” performed in Spanish by Celine Dion. ◦ What orchestral instrument plays the main theme that Carmen borrowed? ◦ Why would the style of “romantic” music be appropriate for both pieces? ◦ In reference to these two pieces, how would you describe the way music is able to express and touch our feelings? Can it do so even if you do no understand the lyrics in Spanish? ◦ Would you say the musical link between these pieces is close or remote? Why?
Conductor: the director of an orchestra, choir, band or other performing group. Responsibilities: ◦ The conductor must know the music well enough to hear any error by a single musician. Select the music Rehearse the musicians for the performances ◦ The conductor is also responsible for making expressive musical decisions on how the music will be performed. Tempo, dynamics, spirit, and phrasing.
Of the many decisions a conductor makes, tempo is on of most important: Rubato: the free treatment of tempo within a musical phrase. Listening Activity: Blue Danube Waltz.