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The term "music" covers both individual pieces which can
be studied in their own right and an aspect of a culture which
provides an important window on that culture. . We will be
considering music in both senses. This sheet provides some
distinctions and perspectives useful to our work.
MUSIC AS OBJECT: SOME USEFUL DISTINCTIONS AND CONCEPTS
Here are distinctions and perspectives useful in making an
objective description of any music. Some are crude, some more
detailed; learning to hear and describe distinctions between
different musics is a basic part of your work this semester.
BASIC INFORMATION
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TITLE
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COMPOSER (if known)_
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YEAR OF COMPOSITION (if known)
DATE OF PERFORMANCE (if known)
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As closely as you can. . For live performance, the
actual date of the performance is what is needed here.
For performances recorded in a studio, both when the
album was recorded and when it was released can be important,
especially for compilations of previous recordings.
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PERFORMING RESOURCES
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Number of performers/Vocalist(s)/Instrumentalists/
Are there drums?
If the number of performers is large, just say "chorus",
"orchestra", etc.; but the difference between solo,
duet, trio, quartet is important. I
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INSTRUMENTS
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List all the instruments used if the ensemble is small;
otherwise, just the types.
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PERFORMERS
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List the performers if possible; often, the identity
of the performer is more important than that of the
composer.
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professional ___amateur ___ folk ___
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Most commercially available recorded music is made by professionals;
but we will also be using many documentary recordings. If you
attend campus concerts by students, those are amateurs, as are
most church performances, by friends, etc. "Folk" in this connection
does not refer to style but to relationship of the singer to
his/her audience: a "folk" performer in this sense is a person
recorded on a documentary or field recording singing what he/she
sings in their folk culture. Thus Pete Seeger is not a folk
singer in this sense (He is a professional folk singer.) but
the singers you hear on some of the New World Records, Smithsonian
records and others are very often folk singers in this sense.
SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS: WHAT DO YOU HEAR?
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TEXT
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(source, type, rhyme scheme, form (see below ), subject,
other prominent characteristics) (You may want to quote
some portion of the text to illustrate its important
characteristics.
How does the music support the text?
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TEXTURE
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what instruments/voices are happening at any given
moment and the role different parts play in making up
the whole. Here are some sample textures: melody/accompaniment;
melody/chords/rhythm; solo/rhythm section; imitative
(like a round). Texture is an element that stays the
same in some styles, and changes drastically within
a piece in others; how the texture changes you should
also indicate here, though that is really a part of
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FORM
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What sort of shape the piece has in time. Text and
music typically differ in their forms. The music of
a folk song that repeats the same music for every verse
has AAAAAA form for the music (This is called strophic
form); but if the text for each verse changes, like
in a ballad, the text form would be ABCDE... for as
many verses as the song has. The music of a blues also
is also strophic "in the large"; each full blues chorus
has the same basic shape. But the standard blues chorus
has an internal text form of AAB--a line, that line
repeated, then a second line. Tin Pan Alley Songs typically
have a verse then a chorus; this form looks live AXBXCXDX…
where X is the chorus, which doesn't change, and the
verses are A, B, C, D. Form can operate on many levels.
We use letters to indicate the basic form; show variations
' marks; thus AA'BA' means a piece with three sections
basically the same, but the second two (which are exactly
alike) differ a little from the first. Think about Oh,
Susanna this way. The text form is verse chorus; musically,
the verse is AA' (sing it for yourself to see this),
the chorus ("Oh Susanna....") is BA'. Hearing the form
is, in many styles of pieces, one of the best ways to
focus on the piece. Take a song you know well and figure
out how you would describe the form of its text and
the form of the music; how do they relate to each other.
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MELODY
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the tune. Here you describe whether the melody has
a lot of internal repeating (Oh, Susanna ) or whether
it is more through-composed (without repeating, like
the first section of the Beatles' Yesterday); is it
smooth or has big leaps between notes; is it easy to
remember; how much does melody contribute toward making
the music move forward. Include here whatever stands
out to you about the main tune of the piece. For many--perhaps
most--listeners, and in many types of music, it is melody
that is the most memorable aspect of a piece. Tune is
the only musical part of a piece that can be copyrighted
easily; the melodic material of a piece is regarded
legally as its essence.
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HARMONY
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the chords. Is their progression familiar, easy to
follow? Are there many different chords, or only a few--even
just one? Are the chords used simple or complex in sound?
Can you describe the style of the harmony--blues, pop,
church, etc.? How much does harmony contribute toward
making the music move forward?
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RHYTHM
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the most inclusive term on this list; everything in
music reduces down to 'when"--and that's what rhythm
is about. For this sheet, though, rhythm refers to two
aspects of the music. First is the beat. Is there one?
Is it steady or varying? Easy or difficult to follow?
Is the beat grouped into regular units that repeat throughout
the piece? (The beat for Oh Susanna is grouped into
2's; On Top of Old Smoky is grouped in 3's--sing these
to see this. Try other songs you know to see how they
group their beats.) The second is the overall character
of the rhythm. Is their a rhythmic pattern that repeats
all the way through? (Most rock and Latin American music
works this way.) Are there many different rhythmic layers
or just a few--even one? (Many church hymns just have
one rhythm layer, even though there may be several different
vocal parts singing.)
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Two groupings used to organize and categorize music
GENRE
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a grouping based on some shared relatively surface
characteristic of the music. Genre groupings we will
be using are based on the performing forces (voices
and instruments), function in society or time of composition.
Examples of performing forces-based genre distinctions
are choral piece, piano-bass-drums trio, string quartet,
piano solo, songs for voice and piano. Function-based
genres are bar music, church music, dance music, concert
music, home music. Examples of time of composition-based
genres are Civil War music, 1940's music, 20th century
music. Genre names are often combinations: Civil war
songs, 19th century home piano music. 1930's orchestral
concert music.
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STYLE
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a grouping based on shared aspects of the music that
deal with textural, formal melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic
characteristics (as well as the more surface characteristics
used to define genres). Style is a more specific characterization
of what you hear. Bluegrass, honky tonk, avant garde,
or heavy metal are style distinctions.
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MUSIC AS CULTURAL ARTIFACT: USEFUL FACTS AND DISTINCTIONS
A "snapshot" of the social and cultural context appropriate
for any piece. Some of this material is fact, some will involve
your opinions. What is important here is connecting music
to an extra-musical framework; becoming sensitive to the relationship
between music and its function in society at different times,
in different places and for different groups of people is
an important aspect of our work this semester.
geographical setting
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rural ____ urban ____ any ______
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intended for
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children____ teenagers___adults _____ seniors_____all
ages ___
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rich _____ middle class ____ ghetto _____ any _____
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white collar ____ blue collar ______
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audience primarily
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white ___ black ___ Spanish__ other ethnic _______________
all ___
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gender focus
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male___ female __ both __N/A____
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audience attitudes
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fans ____ curious ___
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know what they like _____looking for something different
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like it loud ___ mellow only____
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movers ____sitters___
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demanding ___ accepting ___ discriminating ____
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regular listeners ___occasional listeners___
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original ritual setting
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concert __religious service __driving __exercise__
participating ___performing for yourself ___other
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performance was
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live concert__ informal live ___ live concert recording
__ studio recording___ field recording ___
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indoors___outside___
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live at ________________at home ____ in car ____at
dance ___ in Media Center ___other ______________
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function of music
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listen__ perform for pleasure__ dance__background___entertain__provide
moral instruction__provide aesthetic experience__other___
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PUTTING MUSIC AS OBJECT AND MUSIC AS ARTIFACT TOGETHER
How do the characteristics of the music relate to, derive
from or depend upon, reflect or otherwise relate to these
functional, social, societal and cultural characteristics
FINAL THOUGHTS: A PERSPECTIVE ON LISTENING TO MUSIC
As an ongoing part of your work in the class, you are expected
to listen to pieces carefully; the questions and concepts
on this sheet are desigend to help you draw from your listening
observations to include in your written work for the class.
. You are not expected to answer all or even most of the questions
here, or to use all of the concepts in refrring to every piece.
And you will not be tested on this material. But I do encourage
you to use the attributes of music as object and the context
of music as artifact as points of departure for your own descrptions
of the individual pieces you discuss in your listening.
How will this work affect your response to music outside
a class environmen?t After the class is over, you will probably
ignore completely the conscious part of this sort of listening
(trying to classify according to the terms, the forms, the
styles described in this document). So far as I am concerned
that is probably desirable; after all, rarely do composers
assume prior study of the music they write or perform, and
they certainly do not expect you to be classifying as you
hear! It is the effect of this work on "unconscious" listening
that is most important--the growing ability to focus on the
music itself rather than on whatever comes to mind as the
music is happening. Compare the results of analytic study
of music on listening to music with the effect of studying
literary devices like alliteration and metaphor on reading.
Most of us simply don't think of such devices as we read;
but the experience we had in focusing on these devices in
context has sensitized us to their effects, and heightened
their expressive potential.
If, as a result of your listening to music in this class,
you hear more in music without thinking about it, and find
pleasures in listening you did not have before you took the
class, then the class will have accomplished an important
purpose.
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