FA150 Ch6: Music

key

A particular scale that dominates a musical composition, identified by the first note of that scale and whether the scale is major or minor: e.g. C major, B-flat minor.

tone

A single sound produced by a musical voice or instrument; also called a note.

The musical genre known as the blues has its origins in

African and African-American cultures.

rhythm

Alternation of stress and unstress in music, usually created by a percussion instrument.

Bach revolutionized music, composing in a complex style that required not only long, highly fluid melodies and countermelodies, but also improvisation. This style of music is known as

Baroque.

Which influential eighteenth-century composer caused fundamental changes in how music was perceived, establishing it as a subjective expression of individuality and personality?

Beethoven

Which genius of the art song composed "The Trout," "Death and the Maiden," and "Ave Maria"?

Franz Schubert

How do we differentiate among varieties of musical experience, including the fugue, the symphony, and the art song?

Fugue: Lengthy musical composition or section within a larger composition in which two or more melodic lines are played against each other. Symphony: This new tradition combined secular, religious, and nationalistic trends into one, making the music of northern Europe the equal of Italian music, which had been for centuries the dominant musical tradition of the West. Art Songs: They mark a fusion of words and music, using the voice and—typically—piano to give added meaning to a poem.

rock

Generic name covering a variety of styles that have a loud and insistent beat.

fugue

Lengthy musical composition or section within a larger composition in which two or more melodic lines are played against each other.

toccata

Musical form perfected by Bach making liberal use of improvisation and allowing for an overpowering display of musical virtuosity by the performer.

ragtime

Musical genre, forerunner of jazz, invented in the late 1890s by African-American composers, notably Scott Joplin; strongly influenced by slow and stately European dances.

A lengthy musical composition or section within a larger composition in which two or more melodic lines are played against each other is called

a fugue.

Music that lacks a key is said to be

atonal.

octave

The space between two notes that sound the same.

The music of most non-Western cultures is based on a scale of

five tones.

Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez are all performers who are associated with

folk music.

An instrumental group or the soloist plays the main theme of a piece once through, then one instrument after another performs a variation of the theme. This pattern characterizes what form of popular music?

jazz

Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis were all influential

jazz musicians.

Any arrangement of tones in a definite sequence that constitutes a unity is a

melody.

Commemorative folk songs

memorialize the lives of real people—both heroes and otherwise forgotten "ordinary" citizens.

What style of music is considered a subgenre of hip-hop culture?

rap

What acquires its different forms according to the pattern of its alternation between stressed and unstressed beats?

rhythm

An orderly arrangement of musical frequencies from low to high is a

scale.

What musical form was originally a 20-minute concert diversion consisting of four different movements that were not expected to make a unified statement?

symphony

atonality

A characteristic of much avant-garde music composed without regard for key.

symphony

A major orchestral form from the late eighteenth century to the present, usually consisting of four separate sections, or movements, with contrasting tempos, sometimes constituting a unity, often not.

spiritual

A religious song associated with black Christians of the southern United States, and thought to derive from the combination of European hymns and African musical elements by black slaves.

syncopation

A rhythmic device in which the melodic line of a piece is played against, not with, the accented beats of the rhythmic accompaniment, as in Gershwin's "Fascinatin' Rhythm" and the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby."

scale

An arranged pattern of tones within an octave.

melody

Any arrangement of tones in a definite sequence that constitutes a unity.

avant-garde

Art forms that defy traditional guidelines; avant-garde music sometimes employs much dissonance and atonality.

Which of the following singers developed an inimitable blues style that was influenced by jazz instrumentalists?

Billie Holiday

chamber music

Composition for small ensembles, such as two violins, a viola, and a cello.

chromatic scale

Consists of 12 tones; if played on a piano, a consecutive run using both black and white keys.

diatonic scale

Consists of seven tones arranged in a W(hole)-W-H(alf)-W-W-W-H interval pattern; the fundamental but not the only scale in Western music.

hip-hop

Contemporary style of music that includes rap; a lifestyle marked by DJing, sampling, baggy clothes, idiomatic speech, and graffiti.

What groundbreaking rock-and-roll musician fused elements of rhythm and blues, gospel, and country and western to create a unique and powerful style?

Elvis Presley

pentatonic scale

Five-tone musical scale that preceded the familiar seven-tone scale dominant in the West; remains the basic scale of much non-Western music.

How do we explain the emergence and impact of various forms of popular music, including folk, jazz, blues, gospel, rock and roll, and hip-hop?

Folk: Emerged perhaps as a way of spreading news in isolated areas, perhaps as musical improvisations by people who had little else to entertain them. Likely to be handed down from generation to generation and changed every time they were sung. That's why there are many versions of the same song. Songs sung spontaneously at rallies or sporting events are not exactly folk music, but they fulfill a similar purpose in promoting group solidarity. Often memorialize individuals, ranging from heroes to otherwise forgotten ordinary people. Jazz: The musical roots of jazz are African. The music brought to this country by slaves was marked by what is known as a "call and response" pattern. The typical scale used in African music contains five tones instead of the European scale of seven. At first, the New Orleans musicians tried to combine the two without sacrificing the African scale. The result was that they added slightly lowered notes called blue notes to the diatonic scale. From ragtime they borrowed syncopation. The synthesis of all these strains made possible the evolution of jazz. Blues: Origins in the songs sung by slaves after a grueling day in the fields. Almost always about the empty aftermath of a once-burning passion. The term blues derives from the melancholy mood produced by music that made liberal use of expressively lowered tones, the so-called blue notes. The genre has permeated our vocabulary to such an extent that "blue" seems always to have meant "down in the dumps." Gospel: The spiritual had its beginnings in the need of African slaves to articulate and preserve their roots, to give meaning to their suffering, and to demand a rightful place in society. Over the years this genre, while remaining as an indigenous part of church services, has also moved into the arena of popular music. It is characterized by giving the singer free reign to add enough notes to allow a fuller emotional expression. Rock & Roll: Style of music introduced in the 1950s and popularized by Elvis Presley; grew out of a fusion of rhythm and blues, gospel, and country and western styles. Hip-Hop: Contemporary style of music that includes rap; a lifestyle marked by DJing, sampling, baggy clothes, idiomatic speech, and graffiti. Rap (a major subgenre of hip-hop culture) had its origins in the urban setting of the Bronx in the late 1970s with toasts, dub talk, and improvisational poetry delivered over music at weddings, proms, and other celebrations.

dissonance

In music, two or more uncongenial notes sounded or sung at the same time, producing an unfamiliar and, for some, unpleasant effect.

Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison were strongly influenced by the culture and religion of

India.

rap

Major subgenre of hip-hop in which rhyming lyrics are half-sung, half-spoken rapidly.

improvisation

Spontaneous set of variations on a stated musical theme; once performed, it may be written down and repeated by other performers.

rock 'n' roll

Style of music introduced in the 1950s and popularized by Elvis Presley; grew out of a fusion of rhythm and blues, gospel, and country and western styles.

Baroque

Term applied to the artistic style of the mid-seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries; marked by elaborate ornamentation and complexity; original meaning: irregular pearl.

half-tone

The interval between each note of a chromatic scale; the smallest interval in most Western music.

timbre

The quality of a musical sound, as opposed to its pitch or intensity.

What are the basic elements of music?

Tone, Scale, Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, Symphony, Silence.

counterpoint

Two or more melodic lines played against each other; characteristic of Bach's work.

harmony

Two or more tones, congenial or otherwise, sounded or sung at the same time.

A sound produced by the human voice or by a musical instrument that maintains the same frequency of vibration regardless of duration is

a tone.

The grand first movement of Beethoven's Eroica symphony

came to be identified with the common man movement hailing the heroism of ordinary citizens.

The space between two tones that sound as if they are the same is

octave.

Musicians of the avant-garde

often employ dissonance and atonality in their compositions of concert music.

The basis for most traditional Asian music is the

pentatonic scale.