Analysing musical purpose

Hello and welcome to today's lesson entitled "Analysing musical purpose". My name is Mr. Norris, and, today, we're gonna be taking a look at how we can build on our understanding of the different elements, describing them with nuance and sophistication, and also looking at how that ties into the broader question of musical purpose when we're listening to unfamiliar music. So let's get into it. The outcome for today's lesson is I can analyse how different elements have been used to achieve their musical purpose. Three keywords. First is musical element, and these are the building blocks of music, which include rhythm, melody, harmony, structure, and others. Musical purpose: this is what the piece of music is trying to achieve. It could be to represent something, encourage an action, or create a mood or emotion. Finally, programme music. And this is the type of music that represents a certain idea, a character, a place or story. So we'll be delving into those concepts in more detail as we go through the lesson. First part of today's lesson is focused on exploring musical purpose. Composers write music with a particular purpose in mind. Purpose is the reason why something is done, or why it's created or exists. And a musical purpose is what the music is trying to achieve. It could be to represent something. So it could be music that represents a place or a story or a character or a time. It could be to encourage an action and that might be like encouraging people to dance, for example. It could be to create a mood or to create an emotion. I'd like you to think of a piece of music, maybe a piece of music that you really like or that you know well. What's the purpose of it? Just pause my video while you have a quick think. Let's look into this a bit more then. So most music does have a musical purpose. Some examples are programme music that tells a story or represents a certain idea or character, dance music that makes people dance, or film music that establishes mood and supports the action on screen. Lots of music across different genres has the purpose of creating a certain feeling or emotion. So it might not be something as specific as a story or a character that is to create a mood or to create a certain emotional response from the people who listen to it. Can you think of any examples of each of those? Pause my video while you have a think. Let's check your understanding then. I'd like you to provide one example of a musical purpose. I'll give you a few seconds to think of that. And here's some of the things you might have said: to represent something, to encourage an action, and you might have mentioned dance, to create a mood, to create an emotion. And you might have also mentioned film music there as well. And that's to support the action on screen. The purpose of programme music is to establish mood and support the action on screen, make people dance, or tell a story or represent a certain character or idea. I'll give you a few seconds to work that one out. And the correct answer then is programme music is to tell a story or represent a certain idea or character. That's its musical purpose. Well done if you got that. Composers achieve their musical purpose by using different musical elements. This is an example of some electronic dance music. I'd like you to listen to it. I'd like you to try and answer this question: What features has the composer used to make the music suit its purpose of encouraging people to dance? So think about the way the musical elements are used in this example, and how does it suit that purpose of getting people to move with it? You can pause my video while you have a listen. So you might have picked up on some of the following points: They've used a strong pulse, suitable tempo, syncopated rhythms, repetition, and catchy hooks. So all these different musical features that are really key aspects of electronic dance music tie in to that broader purpose of getting people to dance. When describing unfamiliar music, analysing the musical purpose is a key part of understanding the composer's choices. It helps us to identify and understand why musical elements are used in certain ways, as we've just seen in that electronic dance music clip. This piece of film music represents a chaotic fight scene between lots of characters. How has the composer used the musical elements to achieve that purpose here? So again, think about the musical features that are being used, how the elements are being used, and try and pick apart how they help to create that sense of a chaotic fight scene. So you can pause my video and have a go at this. So let's see if you picked up on any of these points. The purpose is achieved by using dynamics. They are loud and sudden changes that match this idea of a chaotic fight. Accented notes that sound violent and dramatic, like a fight. The texture, polyphonic with competing melodies. And it seems like lots of action is happening at once, like it would be in a chaotic fight. The melody, there are short sections that are interrupted by other melodies, which creates unpredictability as different characters interrupt each other mid-fight. And then finally, the fast tempo and the fast rhythms. These create a sense of lots of movement and action. So we've got five different aspects of the musical elements there that all contribute to achieving this musical purpose of representing this chaotic fight scene. We can add this into the table method. So we've got our elements on the left hand side. Then, we describe the element, explain the effect of that element, and then we can link it to purpose. So we start by describing the elements. And in this case, we have a very fast tempo and loud dynamics and sudden changes in dynamics. Let me describe the effect. So the effect of the very fast tempo is it creates a feeling of energy and fast movement. And the effect of the loud dynamics and sudden changes is that the loudness creates a feeling of action and excitement, and the sudden changes feel tense and unpredictable. And then we link them to the purpose, so when you think about how that effect suits the musical purpose. For example, why does tense and unpredictable feeling suit the purpose of creating music for a fight scene? What's the link there? And we might say that with the fast tempo, the scene is energetic and people are moving fast. So the very fast tempo of dealing with energy suits what is going on in the scene, and with the dynamics, the scene is tense and unpredictable. We don't know what the outcome will be, and there are lots of surprises in a fight scene. So those dynamic changes link to that broader purpose as well. So that's our table method with its four final columns there. We describe the element, we describe the effect of it, and then we link that effect to the purpose of the music. What is it trying to achieve and how does that element helped it to achieve that? Which is the most useful order for planning a descriptive answer? Is it element, description, effect, and link to purpose? Is it link to purpose, element, description and effect? Or is it element, effect, link to purpose, and description? I'll give you a few seconds to work that one out. The correct answer here then is element, description, effect, link to purpose. That's the order, the structure that you want to use in your table. And that's a really effective way of helping you to really pick apart the element, pick apart the effect, and then link it to that musical purpose. For task A, you're gonna have to listen to this piece of programme music, which depicts a calm, peaceful scene featuring two characters who are in love, which are Romeo and Juliet. So, obviously, a very famous story you might have heard. I like you to complete the table to describe the articulation, tonality, and dynamics, the effect that they have, and how each element suits the purpose of the music. And the first element, which is tempo, is being completed for you. So there's our table. And for tempo, we've described as a slow tempo. We might try and use that technical word, adagio. We've described the effect, which is its tempo feels calm and peaceful, and then we've linked it to purpose, and it suits the purpose because the two main characters are peaceful and content. So that effect matches that purpose. So what you're gonna do now is you're gonna pause my video, have a listen to the clip, and you can complete the final three rows of this table, analysing articulation, tonality, and dynamics, and the effect and link to purpose for each one as well. So you can pause my video now and give this task your best shot. Let's review the task then. So we've described the articulation as a legato, and the effect of that is it feels calm, gentle, and peaceful. That's the effect of those smooth, not detached notes. And we could link that to the purpose by saying the scene is calm and peaceful, with no sudden changes. So we've got this legato playing that really suits that scene in that way. The tonality is major, and the effect of that is it gives a feeling of warmth and positive emotions. That's generally what we associate with major tonality. And we can link that to purpose by saying it's about two characters in love who feel warm and positive emotions. So the effect of the tonality links to that purpose in that way. And then finally, dynamics. The dynamics are piano, with slight swells that return to piano. So there's some slight crescendos, diminuendos, but it always comes back to piano. The effect of that is it feels calm and settled. And even though there are those slight swells in dynamics, they always come back to the peaceful piano dynamic. And we can link that to the purpose by saying the scene is calm and peaceful, and this reflects the mood of the characters. So you can see there we've got that really detailed description of each one, the effect, and then linking it to the purpose as well. And it's quite clear looking at this, that the composer has used these elements really effectively to achieve that musical purpose. Now we'll move on to the second part of today's lesson, which is looking at creating a descriptive paragraph. We can use the table to help structure an effective descriptive paragraph. Each point should use this structure: A description of the musical element, for example, a slow tempo. Then we describe the effect of it, for example, the effect is a feeling of calm. And then we explain how that suits the musical purpose, for example, might say suits musical purpose because people are sleeping, which is calm. It depends obviously what the music is. So that structure there, description, effect, and purpose. In the fight scene example, the information about tempo can be used to create the following sentences. There's the information that we put into the table by identifying the very fast tempo that creates a feeling of energy and fast movement. And that links to purpose because the scene is energetic and people are moving fast. And then we put that in sentences. The tempo is very fast, presto, which creates a feeling of energy and fast movement. This suits the scene because fight scenes are energetic and people are moving fast in them. So there we've taken that information from the table, given a nice detailed explanation of how that tempo suits the musical purpose. So we've started with the description of the musical element that described what it's like. Then we described the effect, that's our second column that we've filled in. And then we've explained how that suits the musical purpose. So we've followed that really clear structure from our table, describing the element, describing the effect, then explaining how that suits the musical purpose. Let's check your understanding. When writing a descriptive paragraph, which step comes first? Is it describing the effect of the element, explaining how the use of the element suits the purpose, or describing the element? I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer then is describing the element. That's our first step. Which step comes last? I'll give you a few seconds again. And in this case, the answer is explaining how the use of the element suits the purpose. So describe the element, then the effect of it, and then explain how the element suits the purpose. For task B, we're gonna listen to a piece of programme music. Remember that's a piece of music that represents a story or a character or an idea. This particular piece tells the story of Death, the character who appears on the night of Halloween and calls the dead to dance to his music. The skeletons rise and they dance in a wild frenzy to his violin melodies. Firstly, what I'd like you to do is complete the table for the element's tempo and harmony. I'd like you to describe each element, identify the effect it has, and explain how that suits the musical purpose. And I've already completed rhythm for you so as an example there of the kind of level of detail you want to be going into. For rhythm, I've described it as having strong beat 1, with a "oom cha cha" rhythm, fast rhythms, and lots of repeated patterns. The effect of that is the "oom cha cha" feels like a waltz or dance. Fast rhythms and repeated patterns create a feeling of energy. And the link to purpose is that it's supposed to depict an energetic dance. So those features help suit that really effectively. So what I'd like you to do now is you're gonna pause my video, have a listen to the music, and you're gonna fill in the rows tempo and harmony. Go for as much detail as you can. And really trying to think about how those elements I use to suit the purpose, which is this scene, the Death, with skeleton dancing in a wild frenzy. So you can pause my video now and give this task your best shot. For the second part of this task, you're gonna answer the question, how does the composer depict the scene through their use of tempo and harmony? For this, you're gonna use your answer to question one to create a descriptive paragraph, and then use the structure description-effect-purpose for each point. And I'll show you what I mean here with my rhythm example. So this is the paragraph I've written based on the information in the table. The rhythms have a strong beat 1 with an "oom cha cha" feeling, which creates the feeling of a waltz or a dance. This suits the scene because it features the dance. The fast rhythms and repeated patterns create an energetic feeling that suits the energetic or lively scene. And if we break that down, I've got my description of the musical element. I've said the strong beat one with an "oom cha cha" feeling. And I've said there's the fast rhythms and repeated patterns, that described the effect of both of those. I've said the first one, it creates a feeling of a waltz or dance, and then the fast rhythms and repeated patterns create an energetic feeling. And then finally, I've explained how each of those suits the musical purpose in the first case, because it features a dance. And in the second case, because it suits the energetic, lively scene. So I've used that really clear structure of element, description, then the effect, then the musical purpose. So using the information that you've filled in for your table, I'd like you to do the same for the tempo and harmony. Give this your best shot and pause my video now. Let's review this task then. So off the table. A description of tempo should mention it's very fast, and you might use the word presto in this case. The effect of that is that it creates an energetic and lively feeling. And the link to the purpose is that the scene is energetic with lots of action. You might have worded that slightly differently, but something along those lines is what you're going for. For harmony, we might have described the use of some chromatic notes and dissonant chords at the end of the clip. The effect of that is a feeling of something strange or unsettling. And then the link to purpose is the scene depicts something that is unusual and creepy. You know, we've got skeletons dancing, so the use of those chords, use of dissonant, use of chromatic notes helps to create that. For the second part of this question, let's have a look now at the paragraphs. So we might have said something like, the tempo is very fast, presto, which creates a very energetic mood. This suits the scene because it is energetic with lots of movement. So there we converted that information from the table into our paragraph. And then the same for harmony. The harmony uses some chromatic notes and dissonant chords. This creates a feeling of weirdness and something unusual or strange. This suits the scene, which is depicting something unusual and creepy. So again, really clear description and then effect, and then purpose. Now, let's summarise today's lesson. Most composers write with a purpose, for example, to tell a story, like in programme music, or to create a mood or encourage dancing. Composers use musical elements in specific ways to suit the purpose of their music. Just as when you're composing, you'll think carefully about how you use the elements to suit the purpose of your music. When analysing musical purpose, a sophisticated response uses the following structure: a description of the musical element, then we describe the effect, and then we explain how that suits the musical purpose. So that brings us to the end of today's lesson. Hopefully, now you've got a really good sense of how we can structure and answer when we're listening to unfamiliar music really effectively using that element, effect, and then purpose structure. And hopefully you'll be able to use that when you're analysing music to give really concise and detailed and effective answers. Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.