Music Theory Notes PDF

Nonlexical TEXT and Entire coda nananana Music Singing Without Words Vocalise: wordless melody sung on vowels 1/20/2025 SCAT: a vocal improvisation using wordless vocalisations Invented by Louis Armstrong...

Nonlexical TEXT and Entire coda nananana Music Singing Without Words Vocalise: wordless melody sung on vowels 1/20/2025 SCAT: a vocal improvisation using wordless vocalisations Invented by Louis Armstrong 2 1/20/2025 Text can help ORGANIZE a tune. Words flow in phrases just like melodies do and both are punctuated - Music is punctuated by a Cadence. (Do you remember what a cadence is?) Text may be very lyrical or speechlike, rhymed or unrhymed Stanzas/Strophes Music that repeats in each stanza Maybe has a refrain at the end of the stanza ("the answer my friend is blowin' in the wind" Maybe has a chorus ABAB – Stanza chorus, stanza chorus TEXT SETTING STYLES: SYLLABIC: simplest way words and melodic fit together – each syllable gets one notes -"Happy Birthday" or "Twinkle Twinkle" etc. MELISMATIC: opposite to syllabic, a single syllable is elongated over many notes NEUMATIC: A few notes to each syllable 3 1/20/2025 Melismas for days.... Also range??? Also Timbre??? Also what voice type??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Example of recitative in opera – I could play 10 different versions of this and they would all be phrased wildly differently ALSO: Word-painting (see "Rejoice Greatly" for example) 4 1/20/2025 Timbre Timbre is kind of a nebulous concept It is why a trumpet sounds diffferent from a clarinet or guitar Influenced by factors such as size, shape, material from which the instrument is made, proportions of the instrument (a viola sounds different than a violin) It mostly exists in our mind as a concept – we know how to explain what it does but not what it is...as much Timbre impacts our "listening experience" more than any other. 6 1/20/2025 THE VOICE The human voice has served as a model for instrument builders, composers and players who seek to duplicate its beauty and expressiveness (think "vibrato" Soprano: Mezzo-soprano Alto 7 1/20/2025 Tenor 8 1/20/2025 Baritone Bass Singing in Falsetto: countertenor 9  Each instrument has it's own unique tone color Because of this they can evoke different feelings even if playing the same music passage An orchestra is capable of producing an almost unlimited range of tone colors 1/20/2025 Instrument classification AEROPHONES CHORDOPHONES Wind instruments - - - Produce sound from vibrating strings-- ------ Violin, guitar, sitar, dulcimer Flutes, whistles, horns bagpipes IDIOPHONES Produce sound from the substance MEMBRANOPHONES itself ------ steel drums, rattles, mbira Sounded from tightly stretched membranes (drums) 11