1. How Music Works
Chapters 3-6

2. The Four Basic Properties of Tones
Property of Tone
Musical Correlate
Duration
Frequency
Amplitude
Timbre
Rhythm
Pitch
Dynamics
Tone color, sound quality

3. Rhythm: “The Alphabet Song” and More (Chapter 3)
Eighth notes (“a b c d”)
Sixteenth notes (“l-m-n-o”)
Quarter notes (“p” “v”)
Beat
Subdivsion
Duple, triple, quadruple
Meter (measure)
Duple, triple, complex (e.g., 5, 7 – CD 1-21 – Roma), metric cycles
Syncopation (Bhangra ex. CD 1-22)
Tempo (“Zorba” CD 1-23)
Free rhythm (South India--CD 1-24)

4. Pitch – Chapter 4 Pitch: highness/lowness of tones
Flute = high pitches, tuba = low pitches (different pitch ranges)
Melody: particular sequence of pitches that unfolds as a song progresses.
Distinctive features of a melody (e.g., “Mary Had a Little Lamb”):
Melodic range
Melodic direction
Melodic contour
“Eagle Dance” (CD 1-25)
Read discussion and see figure/photo, pp
What are the distinctive features of this melody?

5. The Western Music Pitch System
Determinate pitches (piano, guitar, flute, trumpet, voice)
Indeterminate pitches (cymbal, shaker, most drums)
When we talk about different notes, scales, and chords in music, we are dealing with determinate pitch.
Note names—”white keys”: C D E F G A B (C)
“C to C” = an octave (or D to D, etc.)
“black keys”—C# D# F# G# A# or Db Eb Gb Ab Bb
(See piano keyboard diagram, Fig 4.4, p. 48 [or next slide])

6. Labeled Piano Keyboard

7. Scales Western types: Major Pentatonic (i.e., major pentatonic) Minor
C-major – “white key” scale
“Happy” sounding (cultural meaning?)
Tonic note, key
Pentatonic (i.e., major pentatonic)
“Black key” pentatonic (starting on F#/Gb)
Minor
Lowered third degree = minor third interval
Melodic minor scale (different ascending/descending)
Harmonic minor scale (distinctive augmented 2nd interval near top)
Blues scale
Combines elements of major, minor, and pentatonic scales as well as traditional African scales
C Eb* F (F#)* G Bb* C -- * = blue notes (CD 1-19 Charles Atkins)

8. Pitch and Scales in Non-Western Musics
Arab classical music:
24 pitches per octave (quarter-tones) – OMI 11
CD 1-26
Egyptian quarter-tone accordion
Also note ornamentation and articulation (staccato, legato)
Indonesian gamelan
Slendro (5 per octave)
Pelog (7 per octave)
OMI 10
Indian classical music
22 pitches per octave (microtones)
Scale vs. mode?

9. Scales “Upside Down”: ’Are’are Music, Micronesia
Concept of ascending and descending pitches reversed
Instrument classification: ‘au = “bamboo” (but does it?)
Hugo Zemp (ethnomusicologist)
CD 1-32 (traditional)
ch?v=FMspIsLEOvY (contemporary)

10. Chords and Harmony Chord = two or more pitches sounded simultaneously*
*In an arpeggio, notes of chord are sounded in sequence rather than at the same time (CD 1-28 – flamenco)
Harmony = a chord that “makes sense” in the context of its musical style
Chord progression = a sequence of chords (CD 1-27 – bossa nova)
Harmonization (in this text): each note of a melody becomes basis of a chord (CD 1-11 – Fijian church hymn)
Consonance vs. dissonance
CD 1-4 (Japanese gagaku) – consonant or dissonant?
Modulation = changing from one key to another (e.g., same chord progression, different key)
Beyonce – “Baby, It’s You”

11. Dynamics, Timbre, and Instruments – Chapter 5
Dynamics – loudness, softness
Absolute (amplitude/decibels)
Relative (heavy metal band vs. string quartet)
Dynamic levels
Dynamic range
Crescendo vs. decrescendo
Terraced dynamics

12. Timbre
The character or quality of a musical sound – what it “sounds like”
Trumpet vs. flute, Bob Dylan vs. Louis Armstrong, orchestra (CD 1-2) vs. steel band (CD 1-30) – Describe the timbres
Scientifically, product of relationship between fundamental pitch and its overtones (harmonics)
CD 1-31 (“Axis” – didgeridoo duet)
CD 1-6 (Mongolian khoomii)
Metaphorical language
“tone color”

13. Music Instruments Why not “musical instruments”?
Music instrument = any sound-generating medium used to produce tones in the making of music.
OMI 16 (sound illustrations of 10 world music instruments)
Hornbostel-Sachs Classification System (1914)
Chordophones (sound activation – vibration of string[s])
Aerophones (air passing through tube/resonator vibrates)
Mebranophones (stretched “membrane” vibrates)
Idiophones (“self-sounders”—body of instrument vibrates)

14. Electronophones and More
Extension of the Hornbostel-Sachs system (fifth category)
”Pure” vs. “hybrid” electronophones
Digital sampling vs. digital synthesis
Sound generator vs. sound modifier
GAMES Model – Bakan et al. 1990
Recording (Edison phonograph, 1877)
Multitrack recording, overdubbing

15. Combination Instruments
Piano?
Tambourine?
Electric guitar (vs. acoustic guitar)?
Mbira?

16. Texture and Form – Chapter 6
Texture = Relationships between the notes, rhythms, melodies, patterns, and vocal and instrumental parts that emerge and evolve in a musical work.
Form = the large-scale dimensions of musical organization; how musical works and performances develop and take shape from start to finish, phrase by phrase and section by section.

17. Types of Textures Single-line texture, aka monophonic texture
Unison
Polyphonic textures
Melody-plus-drone (CD 1-16)
Harmonized (CD 1-11)
Multiple-melody (CD 2-3)
Polyrhythmic (CD 2-5) – Ethnocentric term?
Interlocking (CD 2-6 Siku Andean panpipes)
Balinese kotekan
Call-and Response
Beatles “Money” (That’s What I Want)

18. Types of Forms Through-composed forms
Forms based on repetition and patterns
Ostinato-based forms
CD 2-8 (“Xai” [Elephants])
Qwii people, Kalahari Desert
Nkokwane (hunting/musical bow)
Note varied ostinatos
Layered ostinatos (CD 2-9 “Oye Como Va”)
Cyclic forms
12-bar blues (CD 1-19)
Forms with contrasting sections
Verse-chorus
(Ramadu, “Ingculaza (AIDS)” – CD 2-10 follow form chart, p. 82)