1/24/19

Music is created for many purposes, including:

● To dance
● To march
● Provide sonic background
● Encourage a sense of unity in a community
● Religious feelings
● Psychological satisfaction

Ordinary vs Extraordinary
● Ordinary: fleeting
● Extraordinary: always prevalent; has significant or long lasting effect

“I know what I like”

“I like what I know”
● People like music they are familiar and comfortable with
● Learning about music you don’t know will make you more open minded to the music
world and genres

Listening
● Pieces of music have features
○ Themes
○ Style
○ Meter
○ Rhythm
○ Direction
○ Dynamics
● Develop different expectations about concert or art music
○ It does not try to grab your attention
○ It is not as loud as pop culture music
○ Performed without lots of action
○ It is longer and more complex
● Remember what you hear
○ You hear/focus on only moments, not entirety
○ Become sensitive to sounds

HW: Read chapters 1 & 2 of the Ebook

1/31
Syncopation happens when
The rhythmic emphasis occurs where it is not expected or removed where it is expected
“+” for eighth notes and “e” and “a” for sixteenths
Polyrhythm
Occurs when two or more rhythmic patterns are performed at the same time
Heard in 20th century and African music
*Milamba Kagalia

Musical sound
Pitch - highness or lowness of a sound
Determined by frequency (speed of vibrations)
Definite or indefinite pitch
Pitch is measured in hertz
440-880 hz is identifiable as the frequency of an octave

Intensity - volume, amplitude, dynamics

Timbre - quality of the pitch produced (different instruments)
Duration - how long a note lasts
Scales - pattern of stepwise pitches
Melodies and chords are constructed from scales
Major or minor

2/7 notes are in notebook

2/12
Form of Music
● Music is organized in 3 basic ways
○ Repetition - the same material replayed
○ Variation - the material is similar, but differs
○ Contrast - the material is very different
● Form is the overall plan or design of a composition
○ Ex aabb,aba,aaba
● Organization of the musical elements over time
○ How a piece of music is structured
○ All music has form, although two pieces can sound different, even if they have
the same form
● Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez, second movement
○ A Concerto is a large work for soloists and orchestras
○ Most concertos involve individual pieces of music, called movements. Each
movement can have its own themes
○ Most common number of movements is 3

2/14
Form of Over the Rainbow
● AABA’ (b)
Form of What a Wonderful World
 ● AABA

Instrument families
1. Brass
2. Strings
3. Percussive
4. Woodwinds
Voice - oldest instrument
1. Soprano
2. Alto
3. Tenor
4. Bass

“Open Thou Mine Eyes” - Rutter

english/anglican church tradition
Refined quality, accurate pitch
Soprano and alto parts sung by boys

2/26

The Baroque Period, Ch 10-14

Styles in Music
● Style in music: the treatment of musical elements in a similar way in may works over an
extended period of time
● Names of styles are usually designated years after a style has ended

The Baroque Era

● From about 1600 to 1750
● Means “irregular”
● Major scientific advances in this time period to know
○ Theory of gravity (Newton)
○ Movement of the planets (Galileo)
○ Analytical geometry (Descartes)

Baroque Music
● A scientific mindset influenced music
○ Formal organization
○ Metric rhythm introduced (measures)
○ Moods and emotions categorized
● Major musical changes:
○ Modern tuning system developed
○ Instruments significantly improved, first orchestras
 ○ Development of Opera

Characteristics of Baroque Style

Gilded, art like, love of drama, religious intensity, light/dark contrast

Three Important Baroque Composers

● J. S. Bach
● Antonio Vivaldi
● G. F. Handel
● Johann Pachelbel

Baroque Instruments
● Pipe organ
● Harpsichord
● Recorder
● Bass
● Viols
● Lute
● Timpani

Pachelbel: Canon in D
● Forgotten for hundreds of years, now well known
● Continuo plays eight-note ground base
● Three violin parts play 27 variations in imitation (canon)

3/5
Concerto
● Work for an orchestra with a soloist
● Two types - solo concerto or concerto grosso (group)
○ Ex. Vivaldi, The Four Seasons

“Lagrima” by Francisco Tarrega

● Lagrima translates to “tears” or “teardrops”
● Late 19th century Spanish Romanticism
● Meter: ¾
● Form: A-A-B-A
● Each section consists of four short phrases
● The A section is in major, B section is in minor

“Prelude” (BWV 998) from Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro by J.S. Bach
● In the key of D major, but shifts into many different key areas before eventually returning
to D
● Built on the 3 note melodic motif
 ● The rhythm is a 12 beat cycle
● This piece has a central melodic idea present (homophonic), but feels as if the melody is
created from several different “voices” (polyphonic).

“Spring” from The Four Seasons

● Written for all strings, plus harpsichord
● Genre: solo concerto (violin)
● Follows a common pattern known as ritornello form (repeating main idea)
○ Ritornello form: A B A C A D A
○ “Spring” “Birds” “Brooks” “Storm”

Johann Sebastian Bach

● Musical giant
● Best known in his time as an organist
● Composed works for all instruments and voices
● Both sacred and secular music
● Was called the great culminator, as his style synthesized the best of what Baroque music
was
● His death marked the end of the Baroque era
Toccata and Fugue in D minor
● Toccata
○ Virtuoso keyboard work
○ Has improvised quality
● Fugue
○ Highly imitative polyphonic
○ Main idea called subject
○ Contrasting idea called countersubject
● A second toccata
○ Alternates between rapid notes and long chords
○ Concludes with long, powerful minor chord
Questions
1. Out of the first 3 phrases, which one is different
a. B, second phrase
2. In what way are these two passages different?
a. C, Timbre
3. What do you hear in this excerpt?
a. B, sequence
4. What do you hear in the lower notes?
a. B, the subject of the fugue
5. In what way are these two passages different?
a. B, dynamic levels
6. Answer, Nine
7. What do you hear at this point in the music?
 a. A, a long sustained note
8. What do you hear at this point?
a. B, subject in the low pedal notes

Oratorio
● Large-scale work for voices or orchestra
● Consists of:
○ Recitatives
○ Choruses
○ Arias
○ Instrumentals
Handel’s Messiah
● Contains 53 sections
● “Hallelujah Chorus”
○ Well known work, but only one of the hundreds of compositions by this composer
○ Important words occur on important beats
○ Listening for: chorus and orchestra similarities
○ A lot of repetition and imitation
○ Choir of voices, SATB
○ Often repeats words
○ Strict metrical rhythm (duple) 2/4
○ Orchestral accompaniment is important
○ Often polyphonic with imitation
○ Listen for imitating vocal lines
Questions
1. What is the texture of this music?
a. A, monophonic
2. Tempo
a. C,somewhat fast
3. What do you hear at this point in the music?
a. B, one line of melody followed by imitation in another voice
4. Which voice parts sing this music?
a. C, the basses begin followed by the tenors
5. How does the pitch change with each appearance of the words “kings of kings, lords of
lords”?
a. A, the pitch moves up one step with each appearance
6. The music at this point is in
a. A, major
7. The meter of the music is
a. A, two or four beats
8. The instruments heard most prominently are
a. B, violins
9. What is the texture of the music at this point?
 a. B, homophonic

3/26
Mozart & Beethoven (do listening questions)
● Beethoven took the forms of the Classical Era and expanded them into vehicles of much
greater emotional expression (Romantic)
● Broke free of the Patron system and paved the way for future Romantic artists to support
themselves

4/4
Romantic Era
● 1820-1900 19th century
● Disenchantment with Enlightenment ideals
● Rejected notion that progress is related to science and logic
● Promoted individual thought and progress above all else
Characteristics of Romanticism
● Fascinated by the unknown, far away, and long ago
● TRUSTED IN EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS!!!!!!!, RATHER
The Art Song
● Also called “lied” (li-air)
● Solo singer and piano
● Franz Schubert wrote over 500
○ He only lived to age 32
Franz Schubert: Der Erlkonig
● Poem by Goethe (famous German poet)
○ Erl King is a mythical creature who haunts the forest and whose touch means
death
● Singer sings four roles
○ Narrator
○ Father
○ Son
○ Erl King
● Through-composed (no repeats) unlike a rondo
● Piano sets mood
○ Piano plays the part of the horse

4/9
Concert on Thursday 4/11