MUSIC 1000A

Lecture 2

Review and announcements

• Attend more than one concert before the concert report is due.

• Course objective

• Introduction to effect and means, and some musical elements.

• Today more discussion of those musical elements starting with . . .

Rhythm

– The relationship between sounds in time– The experience of time in music

• We experience time in thousands of ways• Different cultures express musical time in

different ways

– “A rhythm” is a particular arrangement of longer and shorter notes in a musical passage

Rhythm

• Time concepts in Western music– Beat

• Regular, recurring background pulse

– Accent• Extra emphasis placed on some beats• Music can have regular, irregular, or no accents

– Meter• Regular, recurring pattern of accented and unaccented

(strong and weak) beats

Meter

– Simple meters• Duple meter (Yankee Doodle)• Triple meter (God save the Queen)

– Compound meter• Quick triple subdivision of the beat(row row)

– Irregular meters• Quintuple meter, etc.

What is the difference between rhythm and meter?– Meter background; rhythm foreground

• Meter the yardstick; rhythm the object being measured

– Rhythms can coincide with underlying meter, play with it, or even contradict it

• Some rhythms are strongly metrical• Syncopated rhythms play with meter; place accents on

weak beats or in between beats• Some rhythms imply the “wrong” meter; some are

entirely nonmetrical

Syncopation

– Syncopated rhythms displace accents away from normal metric accents

• Can put accents on weak beats– one TWO | one TWO | one TWO |

• Can put accents in between beats– one AND two AND | one AND two AND |

– Syncopation plays with meter• Most effective when meter is clearly heard• Examples: Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer or Give my

regards to Broadway

Tempo

– Rate of speed at which beats follow one another– Metronome marks tell us exactly how many beats

per minute• 60 = one beat per second; 120 = two beats per second;

and so on

– Tempo indications are approximate• Often in Italian• Can also express a specific mood

Common Tempo Indications

• Adagio• Andante

• Moderato• Allegretto

• Allegro• Presto

• Slow• On the slow side, • but not too slow• Moderate tempo• On the fast side, • but not too fast• Fast• Very fast

Tempo Changes

– Accelerando; Ritardando• Gradually getting faster; gradually getting slower

– Più lento; più allegro• Slower; faster

– Fermata• Hold a note (or rest) for an indefinite time• Temporary suspension of tempo

– a tempo• Back to the main tempo

rhythmbeataccentsforzandometermeasurebarbarlines

simple meterduple metertriple metercompound meterquintuple meternonmetricalsyncopation

Key Terms

More Key Terms– tempo– metronome marks– tempo indications– adagio– andante– moderato

– allegretto– allegro– presto– accelerando– ritardando– fermata

Let’s Listen

Pitch

• Aspects of pitch– Definite or indefinite– High or low– Most music draws from a pool of definite

pitches, or a scale– The distance between any two notes is

called an interval

Interval is the space between two pitches

• Step– Step is a small interval– Usually the distance between adjacent notes of a

scale– Two sizes: half step and whole step– Scale steps are specific notes of a scale

• e.g., scale step 1 (do) or scale step 5 (sol)

– Suggests a ladder; discrete pitches, not entire pitch continuum

Octave

• The most important interval is the Octave– Special interval relationship– Upper note seems to duplicate lower note, though

its pitch is higher– Very smooth blend derives from overtone series;

octave is the first overtone– Men and women singing a tune together normally

sing in octaves

Intervals

• Half step (semitone)– The smallest interval in most Western

music– The interval between any two consecutive

notes of the chromatic scale– On a keyboard, the distance between any

note and the note nearest to it, black or white

Intervals

• Whole step– The most common interval found in

diatonic scales– Same distance as two consecutive half

steps

Scales

– Collections of pitches used to construct melodies or entire pieces

– Diatonic scales typical of Western music• Contain seven notes in each octave

– Chromatic scale uses all notes on the piano keyboard

• Contains twelve notes in each octave

– Modern music and world music use many other scales

Diatonic Scale

– Contain seven different pitches– Seven letter names (ABCDEFG) originated with

diatonic scales– Octave (eighth note of scale) repeats the starting

letter name– Contains both whole steps (5) and half steps (2);

asymmetrical– Good examples include major scales (do re mi fa

sol la ti do), minor scales, and church modes

Diatonic Scale

Chromatic Scale

– Contains twelve different pitches; uses all black and white keys in each octave

– Consists entirely of half steps; symmetrical– Requires sharps or flats to notate black

keys– Developed later than diatonic scales, filling

in whole steps with half steps

Sharps and Flats

– The flat lowers a note by a half step– The sharp raises a note by a half step

Chromatic Scale

Diatonic vs. Chromatic

Scales and Instruments

– Western instruments are designed to play diatonic and chromatic scales

– Musicians learn to play in tune– Many instrument can bend pitches

• A little: flute, clarinet, saxophone, guitar• A lot: voice, trombone, violin, cello, timpani

– Some cannot• Piano, harpsichord, xylophone

Pitch Key Terms

– Pitch– Scale– Interval– Octave– Diatonic scale– Chromatic scale

– Flat– Sharp– Half step– Whole step– Playing in tune

Let’s Listen to some examples

Let’s look at notation