Elements of Music - K-12 Curriculum

Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum Elements of Music What Is Rhythm in Music? - pattern of sound, silence, and emphasis in a song. - In music theory, rhythm refers to the recurrence of notes and rests (silences) in time. When a series of notes and rests repeats, it forms a rhythmi...

Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum Elements of Music What Is Rhythm in Music? - pattern of sound, silence, and emphasis in a song. - In music theory, rhythm refers to the recurrence of notes and rests (silences) in time. When a series of notes and rests repeats, it forms a rhythmic pattern. - Musical rhythm also stipulates how long they are played and with what intensity. 7 Elements of Rhythm in Music 1. Time signature - the number of beats per measure. - how long these beats last. In a time signature with a 4 on the bottom (such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, etc.), a beat corresponds with a quarter note. - So in a 4/4 time (also known as "common time"), each beat is the length of a quarter note, and every four beats form a full measure. 2. Meter - Standard Western music theory divides time signatures into three types of musical meter: duple meter (where beats appear in groups of two), triple meter (where beats appear in groups of three), and quadruple meter (where beats appear in groups of four). - Meter is not tied to note values; for instance, a triple meter could involve three half notes, three quarter notes, three eighth notes, three sixteenth notes, or three notes of any duration. 3. Tempo - the speed at which a piece of music is played. - Beats per minute (or BPM) indicates the number of beats in one minute. Certain Italian words like largo, andante, allegro, and presto convey tempo change by describing the speed of the music. Finally, some composers indicate tempo with casual English words such as “fast,” “slow,” “lazy,” “relaxed,” and “moderate.”  Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum 4. Strong beats and weak beats - Strong beats include the first beat of each measure (the downbeat), as well as other heavily accented beats. Both popular music and classical music combine strong beats and weak beats to create memorable rhythmic patterns. 5. Syncopation - Syncopated rhythms are those that do not align with the downbeats of individual measures. 6. Accents - refer to special emphasis on certain beats. - To understand accents, think of a piece of poetry. A poetic meter may dictate a specific mixture of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables. 7. Polyrhythms - Layers one type of rhythm on top of another. - Polyrhythms originated in African drumming, and they’ve spread to all sorts of genres worldwide, from Afro-Caribbean to Indian to progressive rock, jazz, and contemporary classical. Melody - A succession of musical notes; a series of pitches often organized into phrases.  Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum PITCH or NOTE or TONE: when referred to in melody, these are the individual sounds that comprise a melody. When you hum or sing or play a melody, you are performing a series of pitches/notes/tones in succession. 8. SCALE: a pattern of notes used to create a melody. Most musical scales are in MAJOR (sound happy) or MINOR (sound sad or maybe angry or scary). MELODIC CONTOUR: refers to the shape of the melody - like drawing an arrow to accompany the direction of the melody. Melodies can go up or down or stay flat and repeat the same note. STEPWISE MOTION: is when melodies go one note up or down a scale. This sounds simpler, easier, and more stable. LEAP MOTION: is when melodies go multiple notes up or down a scale. This sound more unexpected, energized, and dramatic. HARMONY: The relationship of pitches as they sound simultaneously. (Harvard Dictionary of Music) For harmony to exist, there needs to be more than one note sounding at once. INTERVAL: two notes sounded at once and the distance between them. CHORD: three or more notes sounded at once. Chords create a musical mood by the interactions of all the intervals within them.  Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum TRIAD: most classical and popular music uses triadic harmony - harmony developed using three-note chords. Harmony can sound CONSONANT, meaning the pitches sound pleasant together, or DISSONANT, meaning the pitches sound unpleasant together. Composers write music with both in mind to help paint a mood and tell a story through music. TIMBRE (pronounced TAM-ber) The character of a sound distinct from its pitch, length, or intensity; tone color. - Harvard Dictionary of Music If two or more voices or instruments are performing the exact same melody, how do you tell them apart? Their timbre/tone color. Timbre is the result of the following factors: MATERIAL OF INSTRUMENT: wood, metal, animal skin, plastic, vocal cords, other materials. How hollow or solid, thin or thick, how large or small? The materials play the biggest factor in timbre. ATTACK/ARTICULATION: what does the beginning of the note sound like? What is the instrument struck or played with? Is the attack soft or hard? SUSTAINED PITCH: what does the note sound like after the attack? Intensity of sound? Is there the presence of VIBRATO (a rapid variation of pitch adding richness to a sound)? Describe Timbre with adjectives you might use to describe color, temperature, consistency, or the human voice … Abrasive, Booming, Brassy, Breathy, Bright, Brilliant, Brittle, Buzzy, Clear, Coarse, Cool, Cutting, Dark, Delicate, Distorted, Dry, Dull, Edgy, Ethereal, Flat, Focused, Full, Grating, Guttural, Harsh, Heavy, Hoarse, Hollow, Husky, Intense, Light, Lush, Mellow, Metallic, Muddy, Murky, Muted, Nasal, Penetrating, Piercing, Pure, Raspy, Reedy, Resonant, Rich, Ringing, Rough, Round, Scratchy, Shallow, Sharp, Shimmery, Shrill, Silky, Silvery, Smoky, Smooth, Strained, Strident, Strong, Subdued, Thick, Thin, Throaty, Thundering, Tremulous, Unfocused, Velvety, Vibrant, Warbling, Warm, Wheezy, Whispered, Wooden  Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum Dynamics The aspect of music relating to degrees of loudness. - Harvard Music Dictionary Enjoy Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat for Military Band, Movt. II “Intermezzo” while listening for dynamics. Notice it starts piano, crescendos to forte, then jumps back to piano again multiple times, finishing with a very drawn out diminuendo to the end. Dynamics (volumes) are described in music with Italian words: FORTISSIMO (ff) - very loud FORTE (f) - loud MEZZO FORTE (mf) - medium loud MEZZO PIANO (mp) - medium soft PIANO (p) - soft PIANISSIMO (pp) - very soft CRESCENDO (cresc.) - gradually loudening DIMINUENDO (dim.) - gradually softening  Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum TEXTURE The pattern of sound created by the interaction of musical voices. - Harvard Dictionary of Music MONOPHONY: a single line of music occurring at a given time. This may be a SOLO (single performer) or performed in UNISON (multiple performers on the same line of music). Different instruments and voices can perform in monophony even if they are performing the lines in different octaves - think about a group all singing “Happy Birthday” together on the same note at the same time. HETEROPHONY: almost like unison - except one voice will do a little more than the others - think of a solo gospel singer ornamenting/decorating the melody that the rest of the choir is singing. HOMOPHONY: two or more voices - one voice is the melody, and the other voice(s) serve in support roles. This is the texture most Western Classical and popular music falls into - but many world music traditions do not adhere to this format. CHORDAL: all voices move with the same rhythm (like in church hymns) MELODY-ACCOMPANIMENT: melody usually has most interesting rhythm, other voices perform backgrounds with more simple/repetitive rhythm (like in pop songs) POLYPHONY: two or more voices moving independently from one another at the same time; also known as COUNTERPOINT. This can sound dissonant - with the two independent voices clashing - or it can sound consonant, with the musicians performing lines that interlock well with each other even though they’re very different from each other.  Music and Art in K-12 Curriculum FORM The shape of a musical composition as defined by new and repeated segments; the musical roadmap. - Harvard Dictionary of Music Find pattern and repetition between the different sections of the music Each section receives a new letter name: A, B, C, D, etc. When the same music shows up again, it gets the same name as before: A, B, C, D, A … COMMON FORM TYPES Binary: A B Ternary: A B A Song Form: A B A B (most pop music - verse, chorus) Modified Song Form: A A B A Strophic: A A A A A A (most folk music) Rondo: A B A C A D A Theme & Variation: A A’ A’’ A’’’ A’’’’ etc. Accounting for variation: When a section repeats but is slightly modified from its original format, it is referred to as PRIME. So section “A” becomes “A Prime,” “A Double Prime,” and so forth to distinguish each new variation of A that is not the same as the original. It is written out with an apostrophe (see Theme & Variation above) for each new variation of the secti Music and Arts in K-12 Curriculum