Music theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Music theory is a field of study that investigates the nature or mechanics of music. It often involves identifying patterns that govern composers' techniques. In a more general sense, music theory also often distills and analyzes the elements of music – rhythm, harmony, melody, structure, and texture. People who study these properties are known as music theorists.
Contents |
[edit] Melody
A Melody is a series of pitches sounding in succession. In Western music, the notes of a melody are typically created with respect to scales or modes. The rhythm of a melody is often based on the inflections of language or the physical rhythms of dance. It is typically divided into phrases within a larger overarching structure.
[edit] Pitch
Musical sounds are composed of pitch, duration, and timbre. Pitch is determined by the sound's frequency of vibration, such as the note A which at modern concert pitch is defined to be 440 Hz. Tuning is the process of assigning pitches to notes. The difference in pitch between two notes is called an interval. The most basic interval is the octave; a note and another note with twice its frequency form an octave. For example, if the pitch with frequency 440 Hz is A, then the pitches with frequency 880 Hz, 1760 Hz as well as 220 Hz, 110 Hz, and 55 Hz are also A's. Notes can be arranged into different scales and modes. Diatonic notes of a scale may be considered avoid tones. In western music theory, the octave is divided into 12 notes, each called a half-step or semitone. Patterns of half and whole steps (2 half steps, or a tone) make up a scale in that octave. The scales most commonly encountered are the major, the harmonic minor, the melodic minor, and the natural minor.
In music written using the system of major-minor tonality, the key of a piece determines the scale used. Transposing a piece from C major to D major will make all the notes two semitones higher. Even in modern equal temperament, changing the key can change the feel of a piece of music, because it changes the relationship of the composition's pitches to the pitch range of the instruments on which the piece is being performed. This often affects the music's timbre, as well as having technical implications for the performers. However, changing the key in which a piece is performed may go unrecognized by the listener, since changing the key does not change the relationship of the individual pitches to each other. Therefore, different keys are often considered equivalent and a matter of choice on the part of performers. This is especially true for popular and folk songs.
[edit] Rhythm
Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds in time. Meter animates time in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars. The time signature or meter signature specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted and felt as a single beat. Through increased stress and attack (and subtle variations in duration), particular tones may be accented. There are conventions in most musical traditions for a regular and hierarchical accentuation of beats to reinforce the meter. Syncopated rhythms are rhythms that accent unexpected parts of the beat. Playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature is called polymeter. See also polyrhythm.
In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty, William Rothstein, and Joel Lester.
[edit] Harmony
Harmony occurs when two or more tones are sounded simultaneously, although harmony can be implied when pitches are sounded successively rather than simultaneously (as in arpeggiation). Two simultaneous pitches form a diad. Three or more different tones sounded simultaneously are called chords. The name of the chord depends on what scale degrees are used in the construction of the chords. Three note chords are called "triads", four note chords are "seventh chords" and 5 note chords include (but are not limited to) "ninth" chords. In jazz music, thirteenth chords are found mostly in the lydian and mixolydian modes, but are still built from 5 note chords. Harmonies are sometimes difficult to hear in pieces, but on most sheet music, it is noticeable which part is the harmony and which is the melody.
Guide Tones in music are the tones or scale degrees in a given scale that determine the quality and function of a chord. In western music, the guide tones are the 3rd & 7th of any given mode or scale. For example, in the key of "C" with no sharps or flats (all the white keys on a piano) the notes are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Each chord in this key is taken from the root, or first note, and every other note. A "seventh chord" therefore contains 4 notes: C, E, G, B = C Major7; D, F, A, C = D minor 7; etc. In these two examples, the chord is made up of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, & 7th tone, starting with the root. The distance between the root and the 3rd determines the quality; whether a chord is major or minor. The distance between the root and the 7th determines the function of the chord; whether a chord gravitates towards another chord within the context of a progression. When playing music with 7th chords, one can play only the 3rd and 7th tones to convey the quality and function. Because these two tones are the only ones needed in western or tertial harmony, they are referred to as "guide tones".
[edit] Consonance and Dissonance
Consonance can be roughly defined as harmonies whose tones compliment and increase each others' resonance, and dissonance as those which create more complex acoustical interactions (called 'beats'). A simplistic example is that of "pleasant" sounds versus "unpleasant" ones. Another manner of thinking about the relationship regards stability; dissonant harmonies are sometimes considered to be unstable and to "want to move" or "resolve" toward consonance. However, this is not to say that dissonance is undesirable. A composition made entirely of consonant harmonies may be pleasing to the ear and yet boring because there are no instabilities to be resolved.
Melody is often organized so as to interact with changing harmonies (sometimes called a chord progression) that accompany it, setting up consonance and dissonance. The art of melody writing depends heavily upon the choices of tones for their nonharmonic or harmonic character.
"Harmony" as used by music theorists can refer to any kind of simultaneity without a value judgment, in contrast with a more common usage of "in harmony" or "harmonious", which in technical language might be described as consonance.
[edit] Four-part writing
An exercise often set to develop and test a student's grasp of the workings of harmonic conventions is the writing of four-part harmony. This exercise is often given bass line or a given melody. Four-part writing can be used to write for a vocal quartet, or an instrumental quartet. Vocal four-part harmonies usually consist of a soprano, an alto, a tenor, and a bass. The soprano and alto are usually female parts and the tenor and bass are most often male, although some female vocalists may sing tenor and male singers may carry the alto voice. Other common four-part writings consist of a brass quartet with a trumpet, a french horn, a trombone, and a tuba, or a string quartet consisting of two violin parts, a viola part, and a cello part.
[edit] Texture
Musical texture is the overall sound of a piece of music commonly described according to the number of and relationship between parts or lines of music: monophony, heterophony, polyphony, homophony, or monody. The perceived texture of a piece may also be affected by the timbre of the instruments, the number of instruments used, and the interval between each musical line, among other things.
Monophony is the texture of a melody heard only by itself. If a melody is accompanied by chords, the texture is homophony. In homophony, the melody is usually but not always voiced in the highest notes. A third texture, called polyphony, consists of several simultaneous melodies of equal importance.
[edit] Structure
Musical structure refers to the overarching form of a piece of music. Examples of popular Western structures include the fugue, the invention, sonata-allegro, canon, strophic, theme and variations, and rondo.
The form of a piece of music can be reduced to sections, and those sections can be reduced to musical phrases. Typically, a pause or strong sense of resolution indicates the end of a section, whereas smaller pauses and lesser sense of resolution indicate the ends of phrases within a section.
[edit] Notation
Music notation is the graphical representation of music. In standard Western notation, pitches are represented on the vertical axis and time is represented by notation symbols on the horizontal axis. Thus, notes are properly placed on the musical staff with appropriate time values to show musicians what note to play and when to play it.
Such notation makes up the contents of the musical staff, along with directions indicating the key, tempo, dynamics, accents, and rests, etc...
[edit] Music and mathematics
Music has been susceptible to analysis by mathematics, ever since Pythagoras noticed the relationships between the frequencies of different pitches.
[edit] Analysis
Analysis attempts to answer the question "how does this music work".
Shenkerian Analysis
[edit] Music perception and cognition
- Further information: Music cognition, Fred Lerdahl, and Ray Jackendoff
[edit] 12-tone and set theory
- Further information: serialism, set theory (music), Arnold Schoenberg, Milton Babbitt, David Lewin, and Allen Forte
[edit] Musical semiotics
- Further information: music semiology and Jean-Jacques Nattiez
[edit] Ear training
Aural skills — the ability to identify musical patterns by ear, as opposed to by the reading of notation — form a key part of a musician's craft and are usually taught alongside music theory. Most aural skills courses train the perception of relative pitch (the ability to determine pitch in an established context) and rhythm. Sight-singing — the ability to sing unfamiliar music without assistance — is generally an important component of aural skills courses.
[edit] Source
- Boretz, Benjamin (1995) Meta-Variations: Studies in the Foundations of Musical Thought. Red Hook, New York: Open Space.
[edit] Further reading
- Taylor, Eric. AB Guide to Music. Vol 1. England. Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 1989. ISBN 1-85472-446-0
- Taylor, Eric. AB Guide to Music. Vol 2. England. Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 1991. ISBN 1-85472-447-9
- Apel, Willi & Daniel, Ralph T. "The Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music". New York, NY. Simon & Schuster Inc, 1960. ISBN 0-671-73747-3
- Sorce, Richard. "Music Theory for the Music Professional". Ardsley House, 1995. ISBN 1-880157-20-9
- Lawn, Richard J. & Hellmer, Jeffrey L. "Jazz Theory and Practice". Alfred Publishing Co. 1996. ISBN 0-88284-722-8 (book)
[edit] External links
- Tonal Music Theory Examples by Timothy Cutler 1105 animated scores and sound files
- Music Theory & History Online
- Music Theory Online
- Online Music Theory Courses from Berklee College
- Music theory lesson for the guitar
- Computing in Musicology
- Ricci Adams' Free Online Music Theory Lessons.
- Journal of the Royal Musical Association
- NewMusicBox.org Theory Issue 48 - Vol.4, No.12, featuring an interview with Edward Cone
- Tonalsoft: Encyclopedia of Microtonal Music Theory
- teoría - a music theory web
- Glossary of US and British English musical terms
- Application of virtual pitch theory in music analysis (PDF)
- Contemporary Impressionalistic Music Theory and Composition
- GOSK.com Simple explanation of the seven musical modes for guitarists
