MUS110 - Week 2 Notes

• The identifiable tune we hear when listening to music

“The succession of pitched sounds arranged in musical time in accordance with given cultural conventions and constraints”

What is the melody of a song, broadly?

• The relative position of musical sound - determined by vibrational frequency

  • High frequency/fast vibrations (short wavelengths) = high pitch

  • Low frequency/slow vibrations (long wavelengths) = low pitch

What is the pitch of a melody?

• Treble, bass

What are the two most common clefs?

• Grand Staff

What is the staff that combines both treble and bass clef?

• Where pitches are notated

• A set of five lines and four spaces

What is the musical staff?

• 7 (excluding the second note of the same pitch as the first)

How many UNIQUE notes in an octave?

Double

Ex. The C at the end of an octave is exactly double as the C of the star

e.g. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

What is the frequency difference of an octave?

• A distance between two given notes

• Determined by the number of notes advanced, +1 (or the number of notes between the two, inclusive)

  • e.g. Do → Mi (C→E is a third)

What is an Interval? How is the name of an interval designated?

• Conjunct: Moves in small intervals in a joined, connected manner (i.e. close to stepwise motion)

• Disjunct: Moves in large intervals, leaping between notes - larger gaps between notes

What is a conjunct melody? Disjunct melody?

No, it can switch (and often does!)

Is a song always conjunct/disjunct?

• The distance between the absolute highest and lowest note of a melody

  • Some melodies have a narrow range, and some are much wider

• Terms: Narrow/Wide

What is the melodic range?

• Ascending: Move up

  • e.g. “The Lark Ascending”

• Descending: Move down

  • e.g. “Joy to the World”

• Arch Shape: Move up, and then fall down

• Static: Remains unchanging

*Note: Contour isn’t always conjunct - can have a disjunct ascending melody, for example!

What is melodic contour? What are the five types?

• A sequence of notes in ascending/descending order of pitch

What is a scale?

• Semi-tone: Half-step - (e.g. from a white key to the black key immediately to the right or left of it)

• Tone: A full step, the distance between two notes (e.g. an interval of a second)

  • Two semitones = 1 tone

• 12 possible semitones in an octave

What is a tone? Semi-Tone?

• Sharp (#): Raises the note by a half step

• Flat (b): Lowers the note by a half-step

What is a sharp and flat?

Major: T-T-ST-T-T-ST

Minor: T-ST-T-T-ST-1.5T-ST

What is the major scale order? Minor scale?

• The “central” note of a scale, and one that all notes gravitate around

• Western music

What is the tonic of a scale?

• The fourth note in a scale, preceding the dominant

What is the subdominant note of a scale?

• The fifth note of the scale

What is the Dominant note of a scale?

• The 7th note of a scale, which gravitates or “wants to resolve to” the tonic

What is the Leading Note of a scale?

• Music using microtones - smaller than the smallest interval known in traditional western music (i.e. semitone)

• Featured more often in non-western music cultures (e.g. indonesian, persian, indian)

• Also seen in western music, e.g. Jazz, electronic

  • King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

What is Microtonality? What is this typically featured in? What is an example of this?

• Organized according to Ragas, groupings of pitches/intervals that move in characteristic patterns (similar to a western scale)

• Pitches are represented using Sargam, providing names for the seven most important tones in the Indian scale

How are pitches organized in northern india musical conventions?

• A system featured in non-western traditions (i.e. east asia, west africa, etc.)

  • Also found in western music, but is often criticized for its use/association of ‘exoticism’ of the east, leading to negative connotations

• Has 5 notes, rather than the seven we find in western scales

  • E.g. C-D-E-G-A

What is the pentatonic scale?

• A short melodic or rhythmic fragment or idea recurring throughout a piece

• Often memorable and recognizable

• When repeated, can be altered or transformed slightly from its first appearance

• E.G. Beethoven’s 5th symphony

What is a musical Motif?

A marking indicating that a note should be held indefinitely

What is a Fermata?

• The repetition, alteration, and transformation of a motive throughout a work

What is Motivic Transformation?

• Typically longer than a motive

• The main melody/melodic idea of a piece

• Can also be developed within a musical piece while still maintaining its thematic idea - may appear later, but be modified in rhythm, instrumentation, or even melody

  • e.g. Hedwig’s theme, which appears throughout the entirety of the movie series

What is a theme? How does this differ from a motive?