3 February 2004

6:20 - 6:35 deal with attendance, overdraft issues, etc., getting to know you: major, musical interests

6:35 - 7:15 go over syllabus, announce concerts

7:15 – 7:55 introduction to listening and writing about music.

For each listening example:
• name what kinds of emotions you think the song portrays.
• name what you hear, describe what is happening musically that creates those emotions.
• use your descriptions of the music to support your ideas.
• put your ideas into a coherent paragraph or two (10-20 sentences)
we listened to: "Amazing Grace," "Magonde," and George Crumb

7:55 - 8:00 homework and loose ends.

*****

10 February 2004 — chapter 3

6:20 - 6:35 logistics: hand in homework, deal with new people…

6:35 - 7:05 clarify/simplify:
•melody — covers a wide range or a small range? steps or leaps?
•harmony — familiar or unfamiliar? remind you of what you've heard before? sound "exotic?"
•rhythm — beat - what is it? why is it not rhythm? fast, slow, somewhere in the middle? steady or changing? meter - can you group the beats? does anything sound repeatedly emphasized?
•dynamics — same? changing?
•timbre — what instruments/voices do you hear? does any one instrument or voice vary its sound? range - high? low? middle?
•texture — how many different ideas are happening at any given time?
•form — in what order do ideas happen? how can we keep track? how do you know where one idea ends and a new one begins?

•emotion — how do these elements combine to create an effect? is there a point of climax? how is it created? how is it resolved? what emotions do you feel and what are you hearing that creates those emotions?

7:05 - 7:55 go through each song in chapter 3 for each point. each song will be listened to many, many times...

*****

16 September — chapter 4

6:20 - 6:35 hand back homework, discuss quiz and extra credit

6:35 - 7:00 timbre, how it works
•what things affect timbre? (the point of vibration, the material, the shape, etc.)
•sounds contain many frequencies other than the one you hear most prominently
•when the other frequencies are in simple ratios to the fundamental pitch (i.e. 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, etc.), the sound has a definite pitch; when the other frequencies are not in simple ratios to the fundamental pitch, the sound has an indefinite pitch (think of noise and many percussion instruments).

•the amount of different frequencies you hear, plus the envelope (attack, duration, decay) combine to create the timbre.

7:00 - 7:20 harmony, chords, tonality
•harmonic series works in other ways, too: the concept of tonality is said to have derived from it.
•in tonality, harmonies are set up in a hierarchy ("pecking order"), revolving around a specific harmony that creates a sense of "home."
•chord progressions are originally derived from melodies and common melodic cadences (formula that creates a sense of ending).
•the theory is that people subconsciously responded to common tones between harmonic series: tonic, dominant, subdominant.

7:20 - 7:30 phrases and form
•rhythm/meter, melodies, and chord progressions work together to create phrases, which give music a sense of structure, direction, and motion.

7:30 - 8:00 listening: the blues.

*****

23 September — Chapter 5

6:20 - 6:30 Hand back homework. Hand in homework.

6:30 - 7:00 Take the quiz!! (such fun...)

7:00 listening with emphasis on deepening our understanding of melody and harmony.

•embellishment/ornamentation: what is it? how do you know when it's happening? why do it? what kind of emotional effect does it create?
•cadences: half and full. A half cadence ends a phrase on a V chord. A full cadence ends a phrase on a I chord. What is the effect of these two cadences?
•timbre: orchestration/instrumentation. How are different instruments used to create emotion? Strat trying to pinpoint correspondences between emotional changes and instrumental changes.

*****

30 September — Chapter 6

6:20 - 6:35 logistical stuff, including reexplanation of meter:

how to find meter:
1. listen for a beat.
2. listen for a regular beat emphasis: rhythmic patterns; instrumentation; accents; if there are words, then listen for strong syllables — they usually line up with the strong beats.
3. count how many beats happen between each emphasised beat. if the number is divisible by two, then it's a duple meter; if divisible by three, then it's a triple meter.

6:35 - 7:15 new concepts in rhythm, form, texture, and timbre.

rhythm: swing vs. straight.

•this deals with how the beat is divided.
• in straight playing, the beat is evenly divided.
• in swing, the beat is unevenly divided. the first part is a little longer; the second part, therefore, is shorter, but it's also emphasised.

syncopation is the emphasis of weak beats or parts of beats. in any meter the strongest beat is always the first. this may be achieved through volume, emphasis, or by putting rests on the strong parts. strangely, syncopation usually causes people to say the music has a good beat or is rhythmic.

form: aaba = 32 bar song form. the b section is usually called the bridge.

texture: homophonic songs, polyphonic soloing over the song.

timbre:

•typical jazz instruments include, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, guitar, piano, bass, and drums. the last four comprise the rhythm section.
•experimental timbres with instruments trying to sound like the voice and voices trying to sound like instruments, especially via scat singing.

7:15 - 8:00 listening, with emphasis on differentiating styles.

*****

14 October — Chapter 7

6:20 - 6:35 hand back stuff.

6:35 - 8:00 listening, using rock mix-tape to discuss how the elements work together to help identify styles.

style vs. genre

style is a generally accepted way of playing music. certain customs become common practice.

genre can mean three things:
• it can be a synonym for style
• it can refer to subsets of a general style; for example bebop, cool, and free are all genres within the style of jazz.
• especially in classical music, it refers to music for a particular instrument or ensemble, such as choral music, solo violin music, symphonies, or string quartets.

*****

21 October — Chapter 8

6:20 - 6:35 hand back stuff

6:35 - 7:05 quiz 2 (wheee!)

7:05 - 8:00 work on writing about music in paragraph form.

step 1: make up a chart, like we've done for the past month with melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, timbre, texture, form, emotion and fill it in to the best of your ability.

step 2: using the form as your guide, jot down what you perceive as major changes in the music. if there are no major changes, say so.

step 3: write a paragraph (at least five complete sentences -- you'll probably have more) discussing what happens musically and dramatically in the piece, pulling together all the information you gathered in the previous steps.

each step may take several listenings.

*****

28 October — chapter 9

6:20 - 6:35 hand back stuff

6:35 - 7:20 discuss final project

7:20 - 8:00 new concepts:

melody/harmony
•scales vs. modes — basically the same thing: a set of pitches arranged by steps that are used to create all the melody and harmony in a piece of music.
•review steps and leaps. steps are close. leaps are larger.
•the main difference:
— scales refer to tonal music, where the harmonies have a specific function — what you are used to hearing.
— in modal music, the harmonies do not have a specific function; they are simply the by-product of combining melodies.
•THIS IS VERY SIMPLIFIED, but should work for you. Sometimes this is easy to hear; sometimes not, even for experienced musicians.

•ornaments: we've talked about slides, adding notes, changing rhythms, etc.
•trills: rapid movement between steps. tremolos: rapid movement between leaps.

rhythm:
•ostinato: a repeated rhythm; a rhythmic/melodic pattern.

listening:
•"Sado Okesa" CD3, Track 19. Listen for ostinato, melody/harmony (modal? tonal? why?), ornamentation.
•"Yo Igra Oro" CD3, Track 22. Listen for ostinato, melody/harmony (modal? tonal? why?), ornamentation.

*****

4 November — chapter 10 — Western Music from 1000 -1600

6:20 - 6:35 hand back stuff; emphasize need to look at final project website!

6:35 - 7:15 texture

monophonic - one melody, nothing else. there may be many people singing or one person singing, but if they are all singing the exact same thing at the same time and there is no background, then it's monophonic.

polyphonic - harmony is created by more than one independent melody. what makes a melody sound independent? contrary motion/counterpoint - melodies move in different directions; rhythm - not everyone is moving with the exact same rhythm. each melody has its own rhythm.

two special types of polyphony that involve imitation:

canon - a fancy, schmancy synonym for a round, i.e. "row, row, row your boat," or "frére jacques." everybody sings the same melody but starting at different times, so the rhythms and the melodic shapes do not line up.

fugue - starts off like a canon, but after every part has stated the beginning, each part is free to continue the melody in a different way from each another. very commonly used in polyphony!

homophonic - there is a prominent melody supported by a background. this comes in two forms: chordal, in which everyone moves in the same rhythm as the melody, but the other parts are written in such a way as to make the melody obvious — many traditional Christian hymns are sung this way; and "song texture" in which the background is made up predominantly of ostinatos — most popular/folk/gospel songs fall into this category.

listen and discuss texture!

7:15 - 8:00 harmony

consonance — literally, sounds good together.

dissonance — literally, sounds bad together.

part of what we consider consonant or dissonant is grounded in culture/habit and part of it is science. think way back to when we talked about fundamental pitches and their harmonic series: if two pitches that sound together have several harmonics in common, they are generally considered to be consonant; the less harmonics they have in common, the more dissonant they sound.

when composers started combining melodies to make harmonies, they carefully placed their consonances and dissonances, according to what they thought made musical sense. "musical sense," of course, has changed over the centuries and will continue to change.

mode — the specific group of pitches and typical melodic formulas used in a piece of Western music. (original modes: dorian-hypodorian, phrygian-hypophrygian, lydian-hypolydian, mixolydian-hypomixolydian) there are theories that composers thought more in terms of melodic formulas and less in terms of an alloted group of pitches.

key — the idea that a piece of music is centered around one pitch. movement away from that pitch creates tension; movement to that pitch creates release. this really starts to take hold in the 1600's.

cadence — what creates a sense of cadence in modal music? in tonal music?

listen and discuss consonance/dissonance/mode.

*****

11 November 2003 — chapter 11 — Baroque 1600-1750

6:20 - 7:00 quiz 3!!!

7:00 - 8:00 writing

1) make a list of emotional words you associate with the piece. note whether the emotions change as the piece goes along.

2) make a list of musical aspects that change as the piece goes along. for example, if the texture changes, your list might be: polyphonic, homophonic, polyphonic, monophonic, polyphonic...etc. do this for melody, harmony, timbre, texture, dynamics, and rhythm. if some things stay mostly the same, note that. also notice that many times these parameters combine, for example, the melody might stay the same, but it might be played in a different instrument (timbre).

3) try as best as you can to map out the form, using letters. listen for cadences in order figure out how many musical ideas there are. once you know how many there are, listen for what phrases sound the same and what ones sound different.

4) combine your three lists using the form as your guide. for example, the first thing you hear is part a. what happens in part a musically? what happens in part a emotionally?

5) write a paragraph (at least 10 sentences) or more describing the piece, combining all the information you gathered in the first four steps. the goal is to explain how the composer creates dramatic effects with musical device. discuss where the climax of piece is and how it is achieved. you may also discuss whether you think the piece is effective or not, how this piece is representative of the time period it came from, how this piece functions socially (concert music, dance music, popular, high art, a combination of any of these, or something else entirely).

*****

18 November 2003 — Classical (1750-1820), Romantic (1800-1900), 20th Century (1900-2000)

6:20 - 6:35 logistical stuff

6:35 - 6:50review terms:

melody: stepwise (smooth), leapy (angular, jagged), repeated notes; scales/modes
rhythm: simple, complex; ostinato, meter, beat; polyrhythm
dynamics: loud, soft, crescendo (getting louder), diminuendo/decrescendo (getting softer)
timbre: instruments; sound quality or color (use adjectives! brassy, husky, grating, bright, dark, etc.)
harmony: dissonant/consonant, tonal/modal/[atonal]; chords/sonorities; traditional/non-traditional, familiar/strange
texture: monophony, homophony, polyphony
form: specific forms (songs, symphonies, etc.), using letters

6:50 - 8:00 listening and writing!

6:50 - 7:00 sonata form:

exposition: two themes, usually contrasting (this whole section is often repeated)
development: themes (or at least one of them) are chopped up, mixed up, swirled around into something else
recapitulation: like the exposition, but usually with a twist
coda: optional "tail" to round off the piece

using this information and the writing steps from last week, describe the following sonata form works (compare and contrast!):

7:00 - 7:15 Mozart, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (5:30)
7:15 - 7:30 Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 (7:31)
7:30 - 7:45 Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 (8:34)
7:45 - 8:00 Ravel, String Quartet (8:04)

consider also:
How do each of these represent their time periods? (Classical, Romantic, Modern)
Why do you think composers continued to work with this form?

*****

25 November 2003 modern WCM part I: 1900-1950

two new harmony concepts:

diatonic: uses only one scale.

chromatic: borrows notes from other scales, creating a sense of moving to a different key.

two ideas that "destroy" tonality:

1) chromaticism becomes so complex that the sense of being in a key is destroyed. this starts in Germany/Austria with the composer Arnold Schoenberg. listening example: Pierrot Lunaire "Der Mondfleck" (Schoenberg)

this leads to atonalism: no sense of key; and serialism: all music parameters are put in a specific order.

other composers in this "camp:" Alban Berg, Anton Webern (listened to his String Quartet)

2) world music: people are able to hear music from outside Europe and start to incorporate other non-European aesthetics into their writing. this starts with Claude Debussy after he attends the World's Fair in Paris and hears Balinese gamelan music for the first time. listening example: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy)

this leads to impressionism: music that relies more on tone color than harmony for interest and drama. other composer: Maurice Ravel

other -isms that fall inbetween these camps, but are strongly influenced by both:

nationalism: using native folk music as a basis for composition. example: Bela Bartok, who recorded the folk songs of Hungary. (listened to Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta)

neo-classicism: composers stuck with traditional forms like sonatas and symphonies, avoided atonalism, but weren't tonal in a traditional way. composers: Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Bela Bartok

*****

2 December 2003 modern WCM part II: 1950-present

one other -ism from before 1950 that had a strong influence on music after 1950:

futurism: obsession with technology, especially the sounds that machines make.

listened to:
George Antheil: Ballet Mechanique
Edgard Varése: Equatorial

futurism goes on to become a major influence on electronic music among other things.

after 1950 the two major strands of chromaticism and world music continue to influence composers:

serialism continues with people like Milton Babbitt and Pierre Boulez. listened to All Set by Babbitt.

John Cage starts studying various Asian philosophies and is inspired to use random methods to organize his music, often called chance music. listened to Music of Changes by Cage.

strangely, the result of highly pre-organized music and randomly organized music sounds very music the same.

in reaction to all of this, is minimalism, influenced partly by the art movement of the same name, partly by futurism, and partly by John Cage's advocacy of Asian philosophy, composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass start to use more tonal materials and lots of repetition. listened to It's Gonna Rain by Reich.

electronic music is embraced by the serialists, the chance musicians, and the minimalists, who all use the available technology to further their own aesthetic. many composers today will use serial, chance, and minimal techniques in one composition. listened to Paul Lansky, Idle Chatter Junior.