Music Appreciation Comprehensive Notes

Sound: Pitch, Dynamics, and Tone Color

• Sounds are a constant presence, crucial for communication and understanding our environment.
• Silence also communicates, prompting inferences and drawing attention to ambient noises.
• We can selectively focus on specific sounds, filtering out distractions.
• John Cage's "4'33"" composition highlights this by presenting silence, directing the audience's attention to their sounds.
• Sound originates from an object's vibration, transmitted through a medium (usually air) to our ears.
• These vibrations cause our eardrums to vibrate, sending signals to the brain for interpretation.
• Music is the art of organizing sounds in time, distinguished by pitch, dynamics, tone color, and duration.

Pitch: Highness or Lowness of Sound

• Pitch is the perceived highness or lowness of a sound.
• Determined by the frequency of vibrations, measured in cycles per second.
• Faster vibrations result in higher pitches; slower vibrations result in lower pitches.
• Smaller objects vibrate faster, producing higher pitches.
• A tone is a sound with a definite pitch and specific frequency (e.g., 440 cycles per second).
• Noiselike sounds have indefinite pitches due to irregular vibrations.
• Interval is the distance in pitch between two tones.
• Octave is an interval where tones sound similar, with the higher tone's frequency being double the lower tone's frequency.
• The octave is the interval between the first and last tones of a scale.
• Western music traditionally uses a seven-tone scale (white keys on a piano).
• Five additional pitches (black keys) were added, resulting in twelve tones, each duplicated in higher and lower octaves.
• Nonwestern music may divide the octave into a different number of tones.
• Pitch range is the distance between the lowest and highest tones a voice or instrument can produce.
• Composers use pitch to create different moods (e.g., low pitches for sadness, high pitches for lightness).
• Indefinite pitches (e.g., bass drum, cymbals) are also important in music, particularly in twentieth and twenty-first-century compositions.

Dynamics

• Dynamics are the degrees of loudness or softness in music.
• Loudness corresponds to the amplitude of vibration.
• Dynamic changes occur when instruments are played louder or softer or when the number of instruments playing changes.
• Dynamic changes can be sudden or gradual, impacting the emotional effect of the music.
• An accent is an emphasis on a tone by playing it more loudly.
• Dynamic changes are often indicated in music using Italian terms:
  • pianissima (pp): very soft
  • piano (p): soft
  • mezzo piano (mp): moderately soft
  • mezzo forte (mf): moderately loud
  • forte (f): loud
  • fortissimo (ff): very loud
• Extremes of softness and loudness can be indicated by $ppp$ or $pppp$ and $fff$ or $ffff$.
• Gradual changes in dynamics are indicated as follows:
  • crescendo (cresc.): gradually louder
  • decrescendo (decresc.) or diminuendo (dim.): gradually softer
• Dynamic levels are relative and context-dependent.

Tone Color

• Tone color (timbre) is the quality that distinguishes different instruments playing the same tone at the same dynamic level.
• Tone color is described using terms like bright, dark, brilliant, mellow, and rich.
• Changes in tone color create variety and contrast; specific instruments reinforce a melody's emotional impact.
• Composers can combine instruments and use electronic techniques to create new tone colors.

Listening Outlines, Vocal Music Guides, and the Properties of Sound

• Listening to music is essential to understand and recognize the properties of sound.
• Listening outlines (for instrumental music) and vocal music guides (for music with vocal texts) help focus attention on musical events.
• These outlines and guides should be read while listening to the music.
• Listening outlines describe musical sounds, pointing out dynamics, instruments, pitch level, or mood.
• Vocal music guides include the vocal text with marginal notes indicating the relationship between words and music.
• The outlines and guides are preceded by descriptions of the music's main features.
• Timings and compact disk track numbers are included within the guide or outline.
• Instrumentation, notes about recordings, and the duration of selections are included in the outlines.
• It is helpful to glance over the entire listening outline or vocal music guide before listening to a piece of music.
• The listening outline for Lohengrin, Prelude to Act III, includes descriptions such as "Full orchestra, very loud (f), main melody in violins, cymbal crashes" and "Brass melody, pulsating accompaniment in strings."
• Sometimes, only the prominent instruments are listed in the listening outlines.

Lohengrin, Prelude to Act III (1848), by Richard Wagner

• Richard Wagner (1813-1883) used dynamic contrasts to set the scene for the wedding in his opera Lohengrin.
• The prelude opens with exultation, conveyed by the full orchestra's massive sound, and later becomes calm and gentle with fewer instruments playing softly.
• The prelude ends with another sudden contrast when Wagner uses the full orchestra again.

C-Jam Blues (1942), by Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra

• A succession of different tone colors contributes to the variety within C-Jam Blues (1942), as performed by Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra.
• The piano and saxophones play a repeated-note melody.
• The violin, cornet, tenor saxophone, trombone, and clarinet each have solos.
• The players improvise the solos.
• Mutes are used for the cornet and trombones to alter their sound.
• The full band is heard for the first time at the end.

Performing Media: Voices and Instruments

Voices

• Singing is a widespread and familiar way of making music.
• Singers have a unique ability to fuse words and musical tones.
• Singing requires wider ranges of pitch and volume than speaking, longer vowel sounds, and greater breath control.
• Air from the lungs is controlled by the lower abdominal muscles and the diaphragm.
• The air makes the vocal cords vibrate, and the lungs, throat, mouth, and nose produce the desired sound.
• The pitch of the tone varies with the tension of the vocal cords; the tighter they are, the higher the pitch.
• A singer's voice range depends on physical makeup and training.
• Professional singers can command 2 octaves or more, whereas an untrained voice is usually limited to about 1{\frac{1}{2}}$ octaves.
• Men's vocal cords are longer and thicker than women's, resulting in a lower range.
• Voice ranges for women:
  • soprano
  • mezzo-soprano
  • alto (or contralto)
• Voice ranges for men:
  • tenor
  • baritone
  • bass
• Singing methods and styles vary from culture to culture.
• Instrumental music has rivaled vocal music in importance since the late 1600s.
• Composers continue to write vocal works, both solo and choral, with and without instrumental accompaniment.

Musical Instruments

• An instrument is any mechanical means, other than the voice, that produces musical sounds.
• Western instruments are classified into six broad categories:
  • string (guitar, violin)
  • woodwind (flute, clarinet)
  • brass (trumpet, trombone)
  • percussion (bass drum, cymbals)
  • keyboard (organ, piano)
  • electronic (synthesizer)
• Compositions are written for solo instruments and combinations of instruments.
• Groups may include instruments of only one category or several categories.
• Modern symphony orchestras have string, woodwind, brass, percussion, and sometimes keyboard instruments.
• Bands consist mainly of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.
• Instruments are often made in different sizes that produce different ranges, such as soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophones.
• The tone color of an instrument may vary according to the register in which it is played.
• Most instruments have a wider range than the voice (3 or 4 octaves, some 6 or 7).
• Instruments also produce tones more rapidly than the voice.
• When writing for a specific instrument, a composer must consider its range, dynamics, and how quickly it produces tones.
• Musical instruments serve various functions, including entertainment, accompanying song, dance, ritual, and drama, and communication.
• Instruments' popularity changes with musical tastes.
• Modern musicians use a wide range of instruments, including nonwestern instruments and classical instruments in jazz.

String Instruments

• The string section of a symphony orchestra includes the violin, viola, cello (violoncello), and double bass.
• They vary in tone color, size, and range: the violin is the smallest and has the highest range; the double bass is the largest and has the lowest range.
• Symphonic strings are usually played with a bow but may also be plucked with the finger.
• The strings have the greatest versatility and expressive range, producing many tone colors, wide ranges of pitch and dynamics, and subtle tone control.
• Orchestral works tend to rely more on the strings than on any other group.
• The string instruments blend beautifully when used together.
• The hollow wooden body of the violin supports four strings made of gut or wire.
• The strings stretch from a tailpiece over a bridge to wooden pegs.
• The bridge holds the strings away from the fingerboard and transmits vibrations to the body, which amplifies and colors the tone.
• Each string is tuned to a different pitch by tightening or loosening the pegs.
• The musician makes a string vibrate by drawing the bow across it.
• The speed and pressure of the bow stroke control the dynamics and tone color of the sound produced.
• Pitch is controlled by pressing a string against the fingerboard (stopping a string).
• The viola, cello, and double bass are made and produce sound similarly to the violin.
• String performance techniques include:
  • pizzicato (plucked string)
  • double stop (two notes at once)
  • vibrato (throbbing, expressive tone)
  • mute (veiled or muffled tone)
  • tremolo (rapidly repeated tones)
  • harmonics (high-pitched tones)
• Some string instruments are not played with a bow but are plucked instead, such as the harp and the guitar.
• The harp is the only plucked string instrument widely accepted in the symphony orchestra.

Woodwind Instruments

• Woodwind instruments were traditionally made of wood but now include metal instruments like piccolos and flutes.
• Sounds are generated by a vibrating air column in a tube.
• Woodwinds have holes along their length opened and closed by fingers or pads.
• Opening and closing holes changes the length of the vibrating air column, varying the pitch.
• The main woodwind instruments are:
  • Flute Family: piccolo, flute
  • Clarinet Family: clarinet, bass clarinet
  • Oboe Family: oboe, English horn
  • Bassoon Family: bassoon, contrabassoon
• A woodwind instrument can produce only one note at a time.
• Woodwinds are frequently given melodic solos in symphonic music.
• Woodwind instruments differ more in tone color than the strings do.
• Vibrations are produced by blowing across the edge of the mouth hole (flute and piccolo) or by using a reed.
• Single-reed woodwinds (clarinet and bass clarinet) have a reed fastened over a hole in the mouthpiece.
• Saxophones are single-reed woodwinds used mainly in jazz and band music.
• Double-reed woodwinds (oboe, English horn, bassoon, and contrabassoon) have two pieces of cane held between the player's lips.
• Tone colors differ greatly between single-reed and double-reed woodwinds.
• Low registers of the woodwinds tend to be breathy and thick, and their top registers are more penetrating.

Brass Instruments

• The main brass instruments of the orchestra's brass section are the trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba.
• Other brasses, such as the cornet, baritone horn, and euphonium, are used mainly in concert and marching bands.
• The brasses are played by blowing into a cup- or funnel-shaped mouthpiece.
• Vibrations come from the musician's lips and are amplified and colored in a coiled tube flared at the end to form a bell.
• Pitch is regulated by varying lip tension and using slides and valves to change the length of the tube.
• The trombone uses a slide, and the trumpet, French horn, and tuba have three or four valves.
• Valves improved flexibility, allowing the production of more tones.
• Brass players can alter the tone color of their instruments by inserting a mute into the bell.
• Mutes for brass instruments come in different shapes and materials.
• Brasses are powerful instruments, often used at climaxes and for bold statements.
• Brass instruments have become very popular, owing to ensembles and soloists.

Percussion Instruments

• Most percussion instruments are struck by hand, with sticks, or with hammers, though some are shaken or rubbed.
• Percussion instruments of definite pitch produce tones; those of indefinite pitch produce noiselike sounds.
• Definite Pitch:
  • timpani (kettledrums)
  • glockenspiel
  • xylophone
  • celesta
  • chimes
• Indefinite Pitch:
  • snare drum (side drum)
  • bass drum
  • tambourine
  • triangle
  • cymbals
  • gong (tam-tam)
• Vibrations are set up in stretched membranes or in plates or bars.
• Extremely loud sounds can be made by some percussion instruments.

Keyboard Instruments

• The piano, harpsichord, organ, and accordion are the best-known keyboard instruments.
• Each has a keyboard that allows several tones to be played at once quickly and easily.
• The piano was invented around 1700 and mechanically perfected by the 1850s.
• It produces sound through vibrating strings held under tension by an iron frame.
• Striking a key causes a felt-covered hammer to hit a string; releasing the key causes a felt damper to come down on the string and end the tone.
• Pianos have two or three pedals: the damper pedal, the una corda pedal (soft pedal), and the sostenuto pedal.
• Pianos are exceptionally versatile, with eighty-eight keys spanning more than 7 octaves, a broad dynamic range, and the ability to play many notes at once.
• The harpsichord was important from about 1500 to 1775 and was revived in the twentieth century.
• It has strings plucked by small wedges called plectra, controlled by one or two keyboards.
• The pipe organ was most prominent from 1600 to 1750 but is still in wide use today.
• It has a very wide range of pitch, dynamics, and tone color.
• There are several keyboards (including a pedal keyboard) that control valves from which air is blown across or through openings in the pipes.
• Different sets of pipes are brought into play by pulling knobs called stops.
• Dynamics are changed by adding or reducing the number of pipes, moving from one keyboard to another, or opening and closing shutters around some of the pipes.
• The accordion has free steel reeds controlled by a treble keyboard with piano keys and a bass keyboard with buttons.
• Air from a bellows makes the reeds vibrate.

Electronic Instruments

• Electronic instruments produce or amplify sound through electronic means.
• Electronic instruments for performing and composing music include amplified instruments, tape studios, synthesizers, computers, and various "hybrid" technologies.
• The tape studio was the main tool of composers of electronic music during the 1950s.
• The raw material in tape studios consisted of recorded sounds of definite and indefinite pitch.
• The composer manipulated these sounds by speeding them up or slowing them down, altering their pitch and duration, giving them echoes, filtering them, mixing them, and editing the tape.
• Synthesizers are systems of electronic components that generate, modify, and control sound.
• They can generate a huge variety of musical sounds and noises, and the composer has complete control over pitch, tone color, loudness, and duration.
• Most synthesizers can be "played" by means of a keyboard.
• Analog synthesis, the earliest of the synthesizer technologies, uses a mixture of complex sounds shaped by filtering.
• Digital frequency modulation (FM) synthesis was invented by John Chowning and patented by Yamaha.
• Effects devices, which include reverberators, echo devices, and stereo splitters, are often integrated into synthesizers.
• Sampling is considered a synthesizer technology and involves placing brief digital recordings of live sounds under the control of a synthesizer keyboard.
• Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) is a standard adopted by manufacturers for interfacing synthesizer equipment.
• Computers are used both as control devices to drive MIDI equipment and for direct digital synthesis.
• Computers are used for music synthesis, to help composers write scores, to store samples of audio signals, and to control synthesizing mechanisms.
• Modern electronic music studios contain and integrate a wide variety of equipment, including tape recorders, synthesizers, computers, and devices for mixing and filtering sound.

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, OP. 34 (1946), by Benjamin Britten

• Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) wrote The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra in 1946 as an introduction to the instruments of the orchestra.
• He used a theme by Henry Purcell, a great English composer of the seventeenth century.
• The theme is first presented by the full orchestra and then by the woodwinds, brasses, strings, and percussion.
• Thirteen variations of the theme are then heard, each highlighting a different instrument.
• The variations vary in dynamics, speed, tone color, and mood.
• The variations follow each other without pause and last from about 30 seconds to 1 minute (Variation 13 lasts almost 2 minutes).
• Woodwind, string, and brass instruments are generally presented from highest to lowest in range.
• Variation 13 is followed by a concluding section beginning with a lively new tune played by an unaccompanied piccolo.
• Then other instruments enter, each playing the same tune.
• The brasses bring back the main theme and provide an exciting ending.

Rhythm

• Rhythm is a recurring pattern of tension and release.
• In music, rhythm is the flow of music through time.
• Aspects of rhythm include:
  • beat
  • meter
  • accent and syncopation
  • tempo

Beat

• Beat is a regular, recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time.
• Beats can be represented by marks on a time line.
• The beat can be powerful and easy to feel or barely noticeable.
• The pulse of music can be explicitly pounded out or sensed rather than actually heard.
• Beats form the background against which the composer places notes of varying length.
• Notes last a fraction of a beat, an entire beat, or more than a beat.
• Combinations of different note lengths create rhythm.
• Rhythm can be defined as the particular arrangement of note lengths in a piece of music.
• Rhythm is an essential feature of a melody's "personality."

Meter

• Meter is the organization of beats into regular groups.
• A measure is a group containing a fixed number of beats.
• The downbeat is the first, or stressed, beat of the measure.
• Types of meter include:
  • duple meter (2 beats to the measure)
  • triple meter (3 beats to the measure)
  • quadruple meter (4 beats to the measure)
  • sextuple meter (6 beats to the measure)
  • quintuple meter (5 beats to the measure)
  • septuple meter (7 beats to the measure)

Accent and Syncopation

• Dynamic accent is one way to emphasize a note, by playing it more loudly than the notes around it.
• A note can also be emphasized by being held longer or being higher in pitch than nearby notes.
• Syncopation occurs when an accented note comes where we would normally not expect it.
• Syncopation occurs when an "off-beat" note is accented or when a weak beat is accented.
• Syncopation creates rhythmic excitement and is one of the most characteristic features of jazz.

Tempo

• Tempo denotes the speed of the beat.
• Terms that show tempo are usually in Italian:
  • largo: very slow, broad
  • grave: very slow, solemn
  • adagio: slow
  • andante: moderately slow, a walking pace
  • moderato: moderate
  • allegretto: moderately fast
  • allegro: fast
  • vivace: lively
  • presto: very fast
  • prestissimo: as fast as possible
• Tempo indications are often made more specific by qualifiers, such as molto (much) and non troppo (not too much).
• The same tempo is not always used throughout a piece.
• Gradual speeding up may be indicated by accelerando (becoming faster), and slowing down by ritardando (becoming slower).
• Since about 1816, composers have been able to indicate tempo by a metronome setting.
• A metronome is a device that ticks or flashes a light at any desired musical speed, and a metronome setting indicates the exact number of beats per minute.

Music Notation

• Notation is a system of writing music so that specific pitches and rhythms can be communicated.

Notating Pitch

• Pitch is indicated by the upward or downward placement of notes on a staff.
• A staff is a set of five horizontal lines.
• Notes are positioned either on the lines of the staff or between them, in the spaces.
• The higher a note is placed on the staff, the higher its pitch.
• Ledger lines are used for pitches above or below the range indicated by the staff.
• Seven of the twelve pitches are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
• The other five tones are indicated by one of the same seven letters plus a sharp ({\sharp}) sign or a flat ({\flat}) sign.
• A natural sign ({\natural}$$) is used to cancel a previous sharp or flat sign.
• A clef is placed at the beginning of the staff to show the pitch of each line and space.
• The two most common clefs are the treble clef and the bass clef.
• Keyboard music uses the grand staff, a combination of the treble and bass staves.
• The C nearest to the middle of the keyboard is called middle C.

Notating Rhythm

• Music notation shows how long one tone lasts in relation to the others in the same piece.
• The duration of a note is indicated by whether it is white or black and has a stem or flags.
• Duration symbols:
  • whole note
  • half notes
  • quarter notes
  • eighth notes
  • sixteenth notes
• The flags of several eighth notes or sixteenth notes in succession are usually joined by a horizontal beam.
• A dotted note has its duration increased by half.
• Dotted rhythm emphasizes the beat.
• A tie connects two notes in a row that are the same pitch, lengthening the first note by the duration of the second.
• The triplet is three notes of equal duration notated as a group within a curved line and the number 3.

Notating Silence (Rests)

• Duration of silence is notated by using a symbol called a rest.
• Rests are pauses; their durations correspond to those of notes.
• Types of rests:
  • whole rest
  • half rest
  • quarter rest
  • eighth rest
  • sixteenth rest

Notating Meter

• A time signature (or meter signature) shows the meter of a piece.
• It appears at the beginning of the staff and consists of two numbers, one on top of the other.
• The upper number tells how many beats fall in a measure; the lower number tells what kind of note gets the beat.

The Score

• An orchestral score shows the music for each instrumental or vocal category in a performing group; often, a score will show more than twenty different staves of notation.

Melody

• Melody is a series of single notes that add up to a recognizable whole.
• A melody begins, moves, and ends; it has direction, shape, and continuity.
• The up-and-down movement of its pitches conveys tension and release, expectation and arrival.
• This is the melodic curve, or line.
• A melody moves by small intervals called steps or larger ones called leaps.
• A step is the interval between two adjacent tones in the do-re-mi scale.
• Any interval larger than a step is a leap.
• A melody may simply repeat the same note.
• A melody's range, the distance between its lowest and highest tones, may be wide or narrow.
• Often the highest tone of a melody will be the climax, or emotional focal point.
• Note durations contribute to the distinctive character of a melody.
• Tones may be sung or played in a smooth, connected style called legato or in a short, detached style called staccato.
• Many melodies are made up of shorter parts called phrases.
• Phrases may have similar pitch and rhythm patterns that help unify the melody, or they may contrast, furnishing variety.
• They often appear in balanced pairs.
• Letters are used to represent sections of a piece: lowercase letters (a, b, etc.) for phrases and capital letters (A, B, etc.) for longer sections.
• A repetition of a melodic pattern at a higher or lower pitch is called a sequence.
• A resting place at the end of a phrase is called a cadence; it may be partial (incomplete cadence) or final (complete cadence).
• A melody will serve as a starting point for a more extended piece of music and, in stretching out, will go through all kinds of changes. This kind of melody is called a theme.

Harmony

• Harmony refers to the way chords are constructed and how they follow each other.
• A chord is a combination of three or more tones sounded at once.
• As a melody unfolds, it gives clues for harmonizing, but it does not always dictate a specific series, or progression, of chords.
• Chord progressions enrich a melody by adding emphasis, surprise, suspense, or finality.

Consonance and Dissonance

• Some chords are considered stable and restful (consonance), others unstable and tense (dissonance).
• A stable tone combination is a consonance; consonances are points of arrival, rest, and resolution.
• An unstable tone combination is a dissonance; its tension demands an onward motion to a stable chord.
• A dissonance has its resolution when it moves to a consonance.
• When a resolution is delayed or is accomplished in surprising ways, a feeling of drama or suspense is created.

The Triad

• The simplest, most basic chord is the triad, which has three tones (root, third, and fifth).
• A triad is made up of alternate tones of the scale.
• The bottom tone is called the root; the others are a third and a fifth above the root.
• A triad built on the first, or tonic, note of the scale (do) is called the tonic chord.
• It is the main chord of a piece, the most stable and conclusive, and traditionally would begin and end a composition.
• Next in importance is the triad built on the fifth note of the scale (sol), the dominant chord.
• The dominant chord is pulled strongly toward the tonic chord.
• The progression from the dominant to the tonic chord is called a cadence.

Broken Chords (Arpeggios)

• When the individual tones of a chord are sounded one after another, it is called a broken chord, or arpeggio.

Key

• Almost all familiar melodies are built around a central tone toward which the other tones gravitate and on which the melody usually ends.
• This central tone is the keynote, or tonic.
• When a piece is in the key of C, the tonic or keynote is C.
• Key involves not only the central tone but also a central chord and scale.
• Another term for key is tonality.

The Major Scale

• The major scale has two kinds of intervals in a specific pattern: the half step and the whole step.

The Minor Scale

• Along with the major scale, the minor scale is fundamental to western music.
• The minor scale differs from the major scale in its pattern of intervals, or whole and half steps.
• Music based on minor scales tends to sound serious or melancholy.
• Also, the tonic triad built from a minor scale is a minor chord, which sounds darker than a major chord.

The Key Signature

• When a piece of music is based on a major scale, we say that it is in a major key; when it is based on a minor scale, it is said to be in a minor key.
• Each major and minor scale has a specific number of sharps or flats; and to indicate the key of a piece, a key signature is used.

The Chromatic Scale

• The twelve tones of the octave form the chromatic scale.
• The tones of the chromatic scale are all the same distance apart, one half step.
• The chromatic scale does not define a key, but it gives a sense of motion and tension.

Modulation: Change of Key

• A shift from one key to another within the same piece is called a modulation.

Tonic Key

• No matter how often a piece changes key, there is usually one main key, called the tonic or home key.
• The tonic key is the central key around which the whole piece is organized.

Musical Texture

• Musical texture describes how many different layers of sound are heard at once, whether they are melody or harmony, and how they are related to each other.
• Texture is described as transparent, dense, thin, thick, heavy, or light; and variations in texture create contrast and drama.

Monophonic Texture

• The texture of a single unaccompanied melodic line is monophonic.
• Performance of a single melodic line by more than one instrument or voice is playing or singing in unison and results in a fuller, richer-sounding monophonic texture.

Polyphonic Texture

• Simultaneous performance of two or more melodic lines of relatively equal interest produces polyphonic texture.
• The technique of combining several melodic lines into a meaningful whole is called counterpoint.
• Polyphonic music often contains imitation, which occurs when a melodic idea is presented by one voice or instrument and then restated immediately by another.
• A round, a song in which several people sing the same melody but each starts at a different time uses imitation.

Homophonic Texture

• When we hear one main melody accompanied by chords, the texture is homophonic.

Changes of Texture

• Changing textures within a composition creates variety and contrast.
• Farandole from L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2 by Georges Bizet is a good example of textural variety.

Farandole from L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2 (1879), by Georges Bizet

• The Farandole comes from music by Georges Bizet (1838-1875) for the play L'Arlésienne (The Woman from Arles).
• Two contrasting themes are heard in this orchestral piece.
• The first, in minor, is a march theme adapted from a southern French folksong.
• The lively second theme, in major, has the character of the farandole, a southern French dance.
• Many changes of texture contribute to the Farandole's exciting mood.
• The piece contains two kinds of homophonic texture:
  • the accompaniment and melody have the same rhythm
  • the rhythm of the accompaniment differs from that of the melody
• The Farandole also includes two kinds of polyphony, with and without imitation.
• The Farandole also contains monophonic texture, which sets off the homophony and polyphony.