listening exam - elements of music

MELODY - melodic movement

1. Scalic/conjuct - moves mainly in steps

2. triadic - moves in triads

3. disjunct - moves in leaps

4. ascending/descending - up/down

MELODY - melodic devices

1. arpeggio - notes of chord played in rapid succession either descending or ascending

2. broken chord - notes are played one after another

3. ostinato - short musical ideas that repeat

4. melisma - a group of notes sung to one syllable of text

5. pitch bend - the musical effect of smoothly siding the pitch of a note up or down

MELODY - melodic decoration

1. trill

2. appoggiatura

3. acciaccature

4. mordent

5. upper mordent

6. turn

listen to ornaments:

ornaments - melody, harmony and tonality: video playlist - BBC bitesize

MELODY - melodic nature

1. diatonic - notes, scales, or chords that belong strictly to a single musical key without using any outside sharps or flats

2. chromatic - notes, scales, or chords that move by steps and use outside sharps or flats to add extra colour and tension

MELODY - panic button

conjunct, disjunct or triadic, trills, diatonic or chromatic

harmony

combination of notes

different types of harmony

1. diatonic - major/minor

2. consonant - harmonious “in tune”

3. modal - e.g dorian, aeolian, etc

4. chromatic - breaks the rules of the key

5. dissonant - “out of tune”

HARMONY - harmonic devices

1. pedal - repetitive bass notes

2. drone - continuous bass notes

3. ground bass - repetitive bass motif

HARMONY - chords

1. chord symbols - C, Am, Gm7. Amaj7 — signifies the key

2. chord numerals - I, ii, iii, IV, V, Vi, vii* — upper and lower case for major and minor

3. primary chords - tonic, subdominant, dominant

HARMONY - cadences

1. perfect V-I — “full stop”, “hot cross buns”

2. imperfect I-V — “comma”

3. plagal IV-I — “amen”

4. interrupted V-vi

5. tiérce de picardy — a minor key ends with a major I chord

HARMONY - panic button

• harmonic device = drone/pwdal

• know your primary chords I (tonic), IV (subdominant), V (dominant)

• differences between perfect and imperfect cadences

Tonality

relating to the key of the music and the relationship between the notes and the key

different tonalities

1. major - happy, peaceful, graceful, triumphant

2. minor - sad, angry, dramatic, melancholic

3. nodal - using modes in jazz and folk music

4. atonal - no key centre, very dissonant

TONALITY - intervals (distance between two notes)

1. major 2nd - “happy birthday”

2. major 3rd - “doe, a deer, a female dear”

3. perfect 4th - “amazing grace”

4. perfect 5th - star wars

5. major 6th - “my bonnie lies over the ocean”

6. major 7th - “somewhere OVer the rainbow”

7. perfect 8th - “SOMEWHERE over the rainbow”

TONALITY - modulation (key change)

music can change key — the tonic (I) can move to another note, and that becomes a new tonic (I)

exam extracts are short. for us, the modulation we need to be aware of are tonic to dominant (in badinerie), tonic to subdominant and tonic to relative minor

TONALITY - pentatonic

scales of 5 notes, often in folk music

features in toto Africa

TONALITY - panic button

major, minor, modulation to dominant, subdominant or relative minor

rhythm

the organisation of sound

RHYTHM - metre/rhythmic nature

1. regular - has a pulse

2. irregular - has no pulse

3. rubato - tempo stretches and snaps for expression

4. simple - pulse base is divisible into 2 or 4 2/3 ¾ 4/4

5. compound - pulse base is divisible into 3 6/8 12/8 6/4

6. swing/shuffle - the beat has a dotted crotchet or quaver. jazz/blues

7. straight - the beat is equally measured

RHYTHM - rhythmic devices

1. syncopation - offbeat rhythm

2. anacrusis - a leading note into the first beat of the music

3. hemiola - two beat feel in ¾

4. polyrhythm - two rhythms playing together creating cross rhythm effect

5. backbeat - accent on beats 2 and 4

RHYTHM - tempo

1. adagio - slow

2. andante - walking pace, moderate

3. allegro - fast and lively

RHYTHM - panic button

• rhythmic device: syncopation

• 3 metre: ¾ , 4/4 , 6/8

• 3 tempos: adagio, andante, allegro