Introduction

The purpose of this book is to discuss different types of music from various places all over the world. Music from different places can sound very different from what we are used to. To understand these different musical sounds, we need a specific set of tools: the musical elements. These musical elements are the building blocks of music, and understanding the vocabulary used to describe the elements will help us understand all the unfamiliar songs from all over the world. We explore the musical elements in this chapter. In the following chapters we will use these terms to identify the building blocks of all of the music so that we understand what we hear.

Let us start by listening to two songs on YouTube: “Wade in the Water” performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock, and “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” by Gloria Estefan.   We will be referring to them throughout the chapter.

“Wade in the Water” performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock

“Rhythm is Gonna Get You” by Gloria Estefan

At first listen, these two songs seem to be very different from each other. “Wade in the Water” is sung with only voices, while “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” includes instruments. “Wade” is slow and soft, but “Rhythm” sounds like a party song. On the other hand, they have similarities as well. Both songs include several moving parts which sound pretty together. Both have different sections that alternate and repeat. The melodies of both songs are memorable enough to stick in your head.

The Musical Elements

The specific sounds that we identify as being similar or different are the musical elements. The musical elements are the building blocks of musical sound. The word element means “a separate, identifiable part of something.” In music the elements are the separate, identifiable parts of the sounds. The musical elements include time, melody, texture, form, harmony, and timbre. Each element has different features. For example, time includes rhythm, pulse, meter, tempo, swing, syncopation, and motive. Musicians manipulate these elements individually and collectively for expressive and creative purposes. Listeners can hear these elements as separate parts, for example “this song is slow,” which is tempo. Listeners also hear the elements together and interpret them as the expression. For example “this song is sad” might suggest not only a slow tempo but also a downward moving melody and soft dynamics. Learning the vocabulary for these elements helps a listener hear music in more detail and better understand what they’re hearing. The more concepts the listener recognizes, then the deeper the listener understands the musical sounds. This section gives you a broad outline of the musical elements. You will also find links to tutorials that go into greater depth than provided here.

Time

Music moves through time, and thus interacts with time, and can be organized by time. We use different words to describe different attributes of time.

Example 1.1 has one basic pattern that repeats. The tempo is fairly quick. The rhythm begins with a long note followed by a short note, then two long notes. The pulse, which is the even and consistent beat that you’d tap your foot or nod your head to, is grouped together in twos, or duple meter.

To describe aspects of time, we mention short and long notes, fast or slow tempos, even or uneven rhythms, just to get us started. Further detail would sound more like the above description of “one note followed by a short note followed by a long note” but for longer sections of music. For instance, we can describe time in the song “Wade in the Water”:

DESCRIPTION: “Wade in the Water” has a moderately slow tempo. The first note on the word “Wade” is long, and is followed by two shorter notes on the words “in the.” The word “water” is set with two notes not quite as long as “Wade.” The phrase ‘Wade in the Water’ is set to this same rhythm of long short short long long throughout the whole song. The song is in a duple meter with a consistent pulse. The rhythm of the verses (such as the one beginning “See those children all dressed up in white”) have quicker rhythms than the chorus (which has the lyrics “Wade in the Water”).

Since different layers frequently have different rhythms, a full description would include details about every layer (see TEXTURE below). For example, a description of time in “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” must include the timing of each layer:

DESCRIPTION: “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” opens with one voice singing three notes in a long short long pattern. The drums immediately follow playing three very quick notes. Then a group repeats what the solo voice sung. The solo voice returns with five notes – again starting with a long note followed by shorter notes. Then the drum hits a short/long figure before the group repeats the solo singers same five notes. After this intro, the drums begin to play short, quick patterns throughout the rest of the song, with quicker rhythms than the voice has.

A detailed tutorial on Rhythm and Meter is available in Appendix II.

Melody

The tune, or melody, is a succession of pitches that forms a recognizable unit and has meaning to its creator(s); it is the linear structure of music in which single notes follow one another.

In example 1.2 below you will first hear the set of pitches (notes) – the scale- ascending from the bottom to the top, then descending. Then you will hear the notes arranged in a tune (“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”). The tune starts with a repeated note, then a large interval (distance) moving up, a repetition of that note, a short interval up (then repetition) , the same small interval down, then more small intervals moving down to the first note played. The overall shape (contour) of the melody, then is an arch shape that goes up with a large interval and returns down with small intervals.

To describe melody, talk about how the melody moves. Does it go from low to high or does it stay in the same general area? Does it move mostly upwards or does it move mostly downward? Is it smooth, moving with small intervals, or is it fairly jerky, moving with big intervals back and forth? Does it have a small range or a large range? For instance, we can describe melody in the song “Wade in the Water”:

DESCRIPTION: In the first line of text, the melody alternates the first note on the word “Wade”, and one a little higher, on the word “In”, down on “the”, up on “wa-” and down on ‘-ter”. This up-down pattern begins on a higher set of notes when that same text repeats right away, but the final word ‘water’ starts on a higher note, descends through ‘-ter’ and continues to descend on the additional word ‘children’. The original pattern returns for the repetition of the first line. The last line “God’s gonna trouble the water” starts on a repeating note for ‘God’s gonna trouble’ goes down for ‘the’ goes up a bit for ‘wa-’ and returns to the original note for ‘-ter.’

See Appendix I for a A detailed tutorial on melody

Texture

Texture is the vertical structure of the music: what is going on simultaneously. How many melodies are there? How many different layers sound at the same time? What are the different melodies and layers doing all at the same time? Each layer is like a track – one horizontal unit. It could be melody; it could be a beat. Most rock and pop music has several layers. We often hear a melodic layer, a layer with a beat, and a layer with accompaniment.

In example 1.3, we hear the  tune  of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (also known as the alphabet song)  all by itself – just one line, one pitch at a time. This is the song in monophony.   In example 1.4, “Twinkle” is accompanied by a beat, so it has two layers, one melody, and one percussion.  Example 1.5 of “Twinkle” has three layers. Two layers have different pitches, and one layer has a beat. This is polyphony because we can hear more than one pitch at the same time.

We hear heterophony when two different instruments play the same melody but in slightly different ways. In example 1.6  (a song called “Rabin” by Yair Dalal) The ‘Ud (a plucked stringed instrument) starts alone, playing in a monophonic texture. Then at :24 the voice comes in singing the same melody that the ‘ud plays, but not always exactly the same.

When two or more layers alternate closely they create a call and response texture. The sound of this is exactly what the name indicates: one layer ‘calls’ and the other layer ‘responds.’ Imagine a cheerleader yelling to a crowd ‘Give me an A!’- and then the crowd cries out “A!” This is call and response. Listen to the opening of “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” and you hear a single voice call ‘Oo ee oo’ and then a group of voices respond with the same phrase. This is call and response. In this case the response is identical to the call, but sometimes they are different. In “Wade in the Water” the verses include call and response. The soloist will sing a phrase such as ‘See those children all dressed in white’ and then everyone together will sing ‘God’s gonna trouble the water.” This is also call and response. Not just voices create this texture, for Instruments can participate in call and response either as a call or as a response or both.

To begin discussing texture, talk about how many layers there are and what is going on in each layer. For instance, use this link to listen to Shania Twain’s “Honey I’m Home“.

DESCRIPTION: “Honey I’m Home” starts with a percussion layer to give the beat to the song. The violins come in with a little tune that accompanies the main melody. Then Twain comes in with the main melody. When Twain first starts singing, there are only two layers: her voice and the percussion. When the violins join her again a bit later, there are three layers. Finally, the guitars and the keyboards come in. After this point, the number of layers varies as instruments drop in and out. Sometimes the audience participation adds a layer.

A detailed tutorial on Texture is available online.

Form

Form is the horizontal structure of a piece. Form is the structure of what happens when; it is the order of musical events through time. Form can be either linear or cyclical. A linear form has an obvious beginning and an obvious end. It has clear, distinct sections throughout the work such as a verse or a chorus.

Form is a helpful tool for understanding all musical elements because we can use a song’s form to describe all of the other elements because the form can give us a position to describe when sounds change. For this reason, we include a detailed discussion of how to identify and diagram a song’s form. We will use this tool many times in the coming chapter.

We often use letters to represent the different sections of a linear form for clarity. For example, a song might have two verses, then a chorus and a final verse. We would diagram this like this:

 A A B A 

The A music (the verse in our example) returns twice, while we hear the chorus (B) only once.

A cyclical structure consists of repeated patterns. The beginning and end in a cyclical structure use the same patterns and sound the same. Today’s popular styles often combine elements of both cyclical and linear form. A main melody or rapped text is in a linear form, and has a clear beginning and end. The music underneath the melody is usually cyclical, based on repeating beats played by the rhythm section or a drum machine.

To describe a song in a linear form, talk about the number of sections and the order of events. Discuss which sections repeat and how many times, and what contrasts between sections. If possible use a diagram to clarify the description. To describe cyclical forms, listen to what changes while the main elements repeat. Tone and texture often change as melodic and rhythmic patterns repeat.

The song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” has two different smaller tunes in it. We hear the first small tune twice, then the second, shorter one, twice, then the first one again. This is a linear form, because it has an obvious beginning, and an obvious ending, even with the repetition. The diagram of this song looks like this:

A A B B A

Example 1.8 is a song called “Kpatsa Toke” from Ghana (a country in Africa), and is made up of many different small patterns in a steady stream of cyclical repetition. It has many layers playing simultaneously that continue throughout over and over again.

This link leads to the lyrics to the song from the beginning of the chapter, “Rhythm is gonna get you.” The melody that carries these lyrics is in a linear form. We can use the lyrics to identify and diagram the different sections.

LINEAR DESCRIPTION: “Rhythm is gonna get you” has four unique tunes, each of which repeats and returns throughout. The song has nine sections. It starts with an introduction of syllables rather than words (A).  Towards the end of the song, the “A” returns with the same lyrics and tune. After this introduction (A), we hear a verse (B) that repeats immediately. The first verse begins “At night when you turn off all the lights.” The second verse begins “No way, you can fight it every day”. The chorus (C) contains the repeated phrase “rhythm is gonna get you.” We hear two more verses after the chorus, and then we hear music from the introduction again. After another chorus, a new melody enters with the words “na na na na na na na” (D). This tune combines with previous melodies in different layers interspersed with the chorus. A diagram of the form of this song would look like this:

A B B C B B A C D 

CYCLICAL DESCRIPTION: While the melody and text of “Rhythm is gonna get you” is in linear form, the accompaniment is cyclical. It consists of repeated patterns in the various instruments of the rhythm section. After several percussion interjections beneath the vocals in the introduction, soft high-pitched drums begin to play a repeated sequence of two short notes followed by a long note. When the vocals finish this section, an electronic keyboard comes in with a new pattern of equal quick notes. This is soon joined by a short-short-long pattern in the bass drum. As layers are added, the layers come in with patterns that are repeated throughout the song, some associated with the verse and some with the chorus. By the end of the song when the “na na na” text comes in, almost all of the patterns are playing simultaneously under the vocals

A detailed tutorial on Form is available online.

Harmony

Harmony is the quality of the sounds of the notes played together. If only one pitch can be heard at any one time, there is no harmony at that moment, for harmony depends upon multiple pitches simultaneously. To describe harmony, we discuss and describe the relative amount of tension that results from sounds being played together.  Some notes played together sound like they conflict with each other, while some notes sound relaxed together.

Example 1.9 begins with the repetition of a single pitch, so Example 1.9 has no harmony. Then there is a sound with much tension, so it is dissonant. This is followed by a sound with little tension, so this is consonant. The dissonance then returns, followed by the consonance.

Many songs are a combination of consonance and dissonance to produce variety and expression. To describe harmony, we talk about how much and where the dissonance is if a piece is mostly consonant, and we can describe how much and where consonance is if the piece is mostly dissonant. This link will take you to a live performance of The London Symphony Orchestra playing “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky.

DESCRIPTION: This work opens with a bassoon playing a beautiful melody all by itself, so it opens with no harmony. After a few notes, a french horn comes in, then some clarinets and an oboe, and then gradually other instruments. As the notes in each of the instruments change, the resulting harmonies move in and out of consonance and dissonance: some of the harmonies produced by the groups of notes playing together have tension, and some do not. By the time the violins come in, there is more dissonance than consonance.

A detailed tutorial on Harmony is available online.

Timbre

The words timbre means tone quality: that which makes the particular type of sound identifiable. This is what makes a violin sound different from a trumpet, and my voice sounds different from your voice. To describe timbre, we can use adjectives from our non-musical vocabulary that help to talk about what we hear. Words like bright and dark, light and round can help communicate what a trumpet and tuba, or a violin and cello, might sound like. Describing timbre with everyday words is subjective.

DESCRIPTION: Let’s return to the opening of “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky. This is how I hear the timbres: the bassoon that begins (at :42) has a soft, light, thin tone, and then the french horns that enter (at :54) are deeper and richer. The clarinets that come in next (1:07) are rounder in tone, especially the really low-pitched ones. Then the English Horn comes in (at 1:29) with a timbre thinner than the bassoon.

A detailed tutorial on Timbre is available online.

Musical Style

MUSICAL STYLE describes how the musical elements all work together: it is the overall mix of all of the musical elements in a specific song.   Different styles of contemporary American music, such as rock, rap, blues, and country sound distinctive because musical traits all work similarly in songs of the same style and differently in songs of different styles. Different artists can record the same song using different elements and even though it is the same song, it will sound different because it is in a different style.   For example,  Dolly Parton, a country singer wrote and recorded the song “I Will Always Love You.”  Whitney Houston also recorded it, as did Melissa Etheridge.   While the melody and the lyrics are the same in each of these recordings, the style of each is different because each singer and accompanying band performs the song – and treats the musical elements in their performance – differently:  The vocal timbres and instruments used are different, the layers accompanying the main melody are different, and the rhythms used in these layers are different.

While this chapter presents an introduction to each of the musical elements, the Appendices contain more detailed descriptions and examples of them.  Use these links to  navigate to each discussion:

The musical elements are tools that we will use throughout the textbook, using them to describe the sounds that we hear as we have seen in the descriptions above. To that end, here are these tools and easy-to-use list format for future reference.

This is a link to a downloadable checklist in pdf format:   Musical Element Checklist [pdf file]

Musical Element Checklist

TIME

• RHYTHM: the duration of the notes. Some notes are short, and some are long. All music has rhythm since without duration we would not hear it.
• PULSE: the regular, recurring underlying even, consistent beat of a piece. Because it is predictable, we can clap to it and dance to it.
• METER: the grouping of the pulse. Our music tends to be grouped in twos (duple) or threes (triple), but pulses can be grouped in any arrangement.
• TEMPO: the speed of the pulse.
• SWING: uneven subdivision of the pulse – a rhythm that is long-short-long-short-long-short.
• SYNCOPATION: different accents on different beats.
• MOTIVE: a small pattern used as a building block.

MELODY

• PITCH: A note or tone. The high-ness and low-ness of a single note.
• INTERVAL: the distance in pitch between two notes.
• SCALE: a collection of notes that form the basis of the melody.
• CONTOUR: shape of the melody (ups and downs).
• CHARACTER: size of the intervals in the melody- large or small.
• RANGE: distance between highest and lowest notes.
• PHRASING: are phrases short, long, equal, unequal.
• MOTIVES: melodic patterns and building blocks

TEXTURE

• MONOPHONY: One melody only, no other pitches.
• MONOPHONY WITH
• PERCUSSION: One melody only, with percussion but no other tunes or notes.
• LAYER: a horizontal set of sounds that has single function within the music, be it
• accompaniment, rhythmic, harmonic, or melodic.
• POLYPHONY: more than one pitch or melody heard simultaneously. This is the most common kind of texture we hear in the United States.
• HETEROPHONY: one melody played in different layers by different people simultaneously, all a bit different and individual.
• CALL AND RESPONSE: two or more layers in alternation with one
• beginning (calling) answered by another (the response).

FORM:

• LINEAR: Music that changes through time. Linear form has a discrete beginning and ending.
• CYCLICAL: Music built from continual repetition of patterns. Cyclical form does not have an obvious beginning nor ending.

HARMONY

• CONSONANCE: a sound with little or no tension between multiple notes played simultaneously. (Adjective “consonant”)
• DISSONANCE: a sound with much tension between simultaneous notes. (Adjective “dissonant”)
• HARMONIC CHARACTER: How much of the harmony is consonant and how much is dissonant. Where is the harmony consonant, and where is it dissonant.

TIMBRE:

• Tone quality: use normal words to describe