Part 1: Elements of Music

What is Music?

Music is defined differently across cultures and countries. For our course, we will stick to the western concept of music, specfically Western Contemporary Music.

Very basically:

• Music is comprised of sound.

• Music is made up of both sounds and silences.

• Music is intentionally made art.

• Music is humanly organized sound.

A little more in depth, music is an intentionally organized art form whose medium is sound and silence, with core elements of pitch (melody and harmony), rhythm (meter, tempo, and articulation), dynamics, and the qualities of timbre and texture.

Music, above all, works in sound and time. It is a sonic event—a communication just like speech, which requires us to listen, process, and respond.

Basic Elements of Music

1. Sound (overtone, timbre, pitch, amplitude, duration)

• Overtone: A fundamental pitch with resultant pitches sounding above it according to the overtone series. Overtones are what give each note its unique sound.

  • WATCH THIS THROAT-SINGING

• Timbre: The tone color of a sound resulting from the overtones. Each voice has a unique tone color that is described using adjectives or metaphors such as “nasally,” “resonant,” “vibrant,” “strident,” “high,” “low,” “breathy,” “piercing,” “ringing,” “rounded,” “warm,” “mellow,” “dark,” “bright,” “heavy,” “light,” “vibrato.”

• Pitch: The frequency of the note’s vibration (note names C, D, E, etc.).

• Amplitude: How loud or soft a sound is.

• Duration: How long or short the sound is.

2. Melody

• A succession of musical notes; a series of pitches often organized into phrases.

3. Harmony

• The simultaneous, vertical combination of notes, usually forming chords.

4. Rhythm

• The organization of music in time. Also closely related to meter.

5. Texture

• The density (thickness or thinness) of layers of sounds, melodies, and rhythms in a piece: e.g., a complex orchestral composition will have more possibilities for dense textures than a song accompanied only by guitar or piano.

• Most common types of texture:

Monophony: A single layer of sound; e.g.. a solo voice

Homophony: A melody with an accompaniment; e.g., a lead singer and a band; a singer and a guitar or piano accompaniment; etc.

Polyphony: Two or more independent voices; e.g., a round or fugue.

• Watch This Musical Texture

6. Structure/Form

• The sections or movements of a piece; i.e. verse and refrain, sonata form, ABA, Rondo (ABACADA), theme, and variations.

7. Expression (dynamics, tempo, articulation)

• Dynamics: Volume (amplitude)—how loud, soft, medium, gradually getting louder or softer (crescendo, decrescendo).

• Tempo: Beats per minute; how fast, medium, or slow a piece of music is played or sung.

• Articulation: The manner in which notes are played or words pronounced: e.g., long or short, stressed or unstressed such as short (staccato), smooth (legato), stressed (marcato), sudden emphasis (sforzando), slurred, etc.

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