Fundamentals Flashcards
Tempo
The speed of music. The rate at which the basic, regular beats of the meter follow one another.
adagio - slow
andante - slower, but not too slow
moderato - moderate
allegretto - on the fast side, but not too fast
allegro - fast
presto - very fast
Meter
Any recurring pattern of strong and weak beats.
Duple meter: ONE two ONE two
Triple meter: ONE two three ONE two three
Simple meter: beats divided into twos
Compound meter: beats divided into threes (two or three main beats with 6 or 9 quicker ones)
Rhythm
Main driving force in music.
“a rhythm” - the actual arrangement of durations - long and short notes - in a particular melody or other musical passage.
Beat
The basic unit of measurement for time in music.
Accent
Giving some beats more strength than the rest. (ONE two ONE two or ONE two three ONE two three)
Syncopation
Moving accents in a foreground rhythm away from their normal position on the beats of the background meter (one TWO one TWO) - indicated with little arc.
Pitch
The rate of sound vibration. (scientific term would be frequency).
Low pitch - long vibrating elements (e.g. trombone)
High pitch - short vibrating elements (e.g. flute)
Sopranos
Altos
Tenors
Basses
Dynamics
The level of strength of sound vibration. (scientific term: amplitude).
pp - pianissimo p - piano mp - mezzo piano mf - mezzo forte f - forte ff - fortissimo
Changes in dynamics can be sudden (subito) or gradual (crescendo / decrescendo or diminuendo)
Tone color ( timbre )
The general quality of musical sounds. E.g. different instruments make different sounds. Voices all have different qualities.
Overtones - fractional vibrations (eg. half length, quarter length).
The amount and exact mixture of overtones are what give sound its characteristic tone color. (e.g. flutes have few overtones, trumpets have many).
Interval
The certain distance between two pitches.
Octave
An interval, the 8th, the “duplicate” sounds, e.g. C –> C.
Diatonic scale
Skale originally used in Western music. A set of seven pitches within the octave. (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do).
The chromatic scale
Scale with 12 half steps. Added an additional 5 pitches to the diatonic scale, so that each distance would be a semitone (the black keys on a keyboard). flat and sharp.
Half step
or semitone. Distance between any two successive notes on the chromatic scale. (e.g. A –> A# or E –> F)
Whole step
or whole tone. There are 5 whole steps and 2 half steps on the diatonic scale. Mixing half steps and whole steps is a defining feature of the diatonic scale.
Melody
An organized series of pitches.
Tune
Is a special kind og melody. Relatively short. Symphonies include tunes, but National anthems or popular songs are tunes.
Musical idea
Fragment: smallest recognizable musical idea.
Motive: Shorter, self-contained musical idea, usually at the phrase level (Classical music) - Beethoven’s Da Da Da DAAA, Da Da Da DAAA.
Theme: Long, complex music idea, usually romantic era.
Harmony
The sounding at the same time of different pitches.
Chords - groupings of simultaneous pitches that work well together.
Consonance & Dissonance
Consonance - sounds at rest - 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th
Dissonance - sounds tense - 2nd and 7th - half steps sound the most dissonant.
Resolution - dissonance is said to be resolved into consonance.
Texture
the way the various sounds and melodic lines occurring together in music blend and interact with one another.
Monophony / monophonic
Simplest texture - unaccompanied melody.
Homophonic / homophony
Only one melody of real interest combined with other, less prominent sounds. E.g. “Yesterday” sung and played on chords on an acoustic guitar.
Polyphony / polyphonic
Two or more melodies that are played or sung together. Melodies felt to be independent and of equal interest.
Contrapuntal (contrapoint) - the technique of writing two or more melodies that fit together.
Imitative vs non-imitative polyphony - same melodies repeated on top of each other shortly after each other, vs melodies different from each other (eg. a New Orleans jazz band).
