Describing melody, harmony, tonality and texture

Hello, welcome to today's lesson, entitled Describing melody, harmony, tonality, and texture. My name is Mr. Norris, and I'm gonna be taking you through today as we have a look at some of the ways that we can describe with a little bit more sophistication and nuance those key musical elements when we're listening to unfamiliar music. So, let's get stuck into it. Our outcome for today's lesson is, I can accurately describe the melody, harmony, tonality, and texture of a piece of unfamiliar music." Some key words we're gonna be using. Firstly, scalic. And this is a melody that uses segments of scales. Arpeggiated, a pattern that uses the notes of an arpeggio, which is an ascending or descending broken chord. Melodic device. And these are specific techniques used in melodies, including ornamentation and sequences. Tonality, which means the set of notes that a piece or a section of music is based on. For example, a major key, C major. And finally, harmonic device. And this is a composition technique that affects the harmony, including pedals and modulation. So there's a few words that you might have come across and maybe a few new ones as well, but we'll get through them all as we go through the lesson. The first part of today's lesson is focused on describing melody. When writing more extended descriptions of pieces of unfamiliar music, the musical elements can be a useful starting point. Considering each element in turn helps us to structure an extended answer and also to make it clear and concise, which is really important when we are writing more extended answers. Melody is often a useful first element to consider, and often the melody is the most memorable or noticeable thing about a piece of music, so it's often a good starting point. When we're describing a melody, what are some of the things that you could mention? I'd like to pause my video. Just have a think or a discussion. What are some of the things about a melody that you could mention when describing it? Let's go through a few things you might have said, then. To fully and accurately describe a melody, you could mention the shape of the melody. Is it ascending? Is it descending? Is it both, does it mix between the two? The movement, is it by step? Or a conjunct movement, we call that. Or is it by leap? Is it disjunct movement? And what are some of the intervals? Are there any really distinct intervals? Are there any patterns? For example, are there any scalic patterns or arpeggiated patterns? What's the range of the melody? Is it large or small? And is it low- or high-pitched as well? Are there any repeated phrases, any repeated ideas or motifs that come back? And are there any melodic devices used? So things like sequences, ornamentation, or imitation. So well done if you picked up on a few of those different aspects of melody that we can be listening out for. Let's have a listen to this melody here. How would you describe it? And try and think in terms of some of those things that we just mentioned there. So things like the shape, the range, any patterns, et cetera. I'm gonna play it for you now, and you've got the notation on screen there as well. (gentle music) Play it for you one more time, thinking about what are some of the main things you could describe about this melody. (gentle music) Okay, so there are quite a few things we could say about this melody, but some of the ones that we might mention would be the overall descending shape of each two-bar phrase. So if we look at the first two bars, starts on an F sharp and descends to a C sharp, and the second two bars starts on an F sharp and descends to a B. So each two-bar phrase starts higher and gets lower. There's a mixture of conjunct and disjunct motion, so a mixture of step and leap. It's a very-high pitched melody, with a fairly small range. The range is a sixth, and the way we find that out is by looking at the difference between the lowest and the highest note, so quite a small range. There's a repeated melodic idea at the start of both phrases, and we can see that highlighted there. So that comes back twice as a bit of a recurring motif. And the idea in bar one and two is repeated down a step, like the start of a sequence. So we can see that three-quaver pattern there is repeated down a step. To be a sequence, we'd really need it to be played three times. So it's not really a full sequence, but it has that feeling. And then finally, there's a scalic idea at the end as well, so there's five notes in sequence of a scale. So you might have picked up on any of those points. Those are some of the main things that are distinct about it. When we're describing a melody, we're gonna consider both the simple features, such as the melodic shape, so some of those things we are looking at there, and melodic devices. You wanna prioritise the most distinct aspects of a melody and consider what the most interesting or noticeable features of the melody are. So when we're analysing the melody, we can obviously talk about any aspect of it, but really we wanna focus on the most distinct or most interesting and noticeable things. Have a look at this one here. Before we play it, just have a look and have a think about what you think would be the most distinct features of this melody. So have a look at the notation now. And now let's listen to it and see what you think the most distinct features are. (bright music) And play it for you one more time, and see what you think the most distinct features are. (bright music) Okay, so again, there are quite a few things we could've mentioned, but we're going for those most distinct features. And I would say that the large leap is a distinct feature. So at the very start there. ♪ Bum, bum, bum ♪ That's quite a distinct feature of melody, big intervals, quite a distinct pattern. And it creates a leap-based motif that's also heard at the start of bar two and bar four. So we can see the same rhythm in those three bars there with the crotchet and then two quavers. And it's based on that initial rhythm in bar one. So we've got a bit of a motif there and that distinct large leap. We've also got some fast conjunct notes, which we can see in bar one and bar three. So we've got semiquavers moving by step, that seems to be a bit of a distinct feature of this melody. So an effective description of this melody might look like this: The melody uses some repeated disjunct motifs in bar one, two, and four that use the same rhythm. That's that large leap in that repeated motif that we mentioned. In bar one this spans an ascending octave, and in bar four it's a descending arpeggio, which we can see in bar four there it's got that descending shape of the F major chord. This helps the melody to feel finished. It also features some conjunct motion, with some short fast semiquaver runs. It has an octave range, and it's a fairly-low pitched melody. If we're looking there, we see in bass clef, so that gives us a hint it's gonna be a fairly low-pitched melody. So that's a really effective description of that melody. Let's check your understanding. I'd like to list three aspects of a melody that you could describe. Pause my video while you come up with your answer. And some of the things you might have mentioned, then, would be the melodic shape. Is it ascending or descending? Is it conjunct or disjunct? What are the intervals? What's the range? Is it high-pitched or low-pitched? Does it use any scalic or arpeggiated patterns? Is there any repetition, any repeated phrases, or use of a motif? And are there any melodic devices used? So well done if you got three of those. True or false? When writing about melody, it's important to focus only on melodic devices. I'd like you to justify your answer as well. And the correct answer here then is false. And the reason why is because you should prioritise the most distinct aspects of a melody, which could be more simplistic elements, and write about what makes these elements noticeable and/or interesting. So it's not necessarily focusing on melodic devices. There might be much more noticeable distinct things about the melody to mention. Well done if you got that one there. For Task A, you're gonna write a description of this melody. I'd like to focus on the most obvious points first, and there's some things there you might consider. So, that same list, melodic shape, is it ascending, descending, conjunct, disjunct? What are the intervals? What's the range of the melody? Is it high- or low-pitched? Are they scalic or arpeggiated patterns? Is there any repetition, phrases, or use of a motif? And are there any melodic devices? So I'm gonna play this melody for you now. I'm gonna play you it twice. And you've also got the notation there at the bottom. So let's hear it for the first time and try to write a description of the melody. (curious music) I am gonna play it one more time now. And then once I've played it this time, you can pause the video and start putting together your answer. (curious music) So pause my video while you're getting your answer written, and then when you're ready, you can un-pause it, and we'll move onto the next question. Let's move onto question two. And for this, I'd like you to write a description of this contrasting melody. Again, focus on the most obvious points first. And you'll notice here that we don't have the notation, so we're doing it just by ear. There's that list of features to focus on. And here we go. (bright music) And I'll play it again. (bright music) And while you're finishing your answer, then, you can pause my video. Let's move onto reviewing this task, then. So the first melody, here's some things we could've said. This melody is almost entirely conjunct, it moves by step. If we look there, there are very few or leaps in it, and it's mostly comprised of steps. It uses short ascending and descending semiquaver scalic motifs. So if we look at the very start, for example, we've got a short part of a scale ascending and then a short part of a scale descending, so got these scalic motifs. And they repeat throughout the melody. We see them in bar one, bar three, and bar four. They form an ascending sequence in bar three and four. So we've got a sequence based on two-beat patterns. And it has an octave range. So those are some of the most distinct things we might have mentioned about that melody. For the second question, you could've written, this melody uses almost entirely conjunct motion. There's actually only one interval in it that is not moving by step. It has many sustained notes and a fairly small range, of a sixth, so well done if you picked out it has a small range. It has two phrases, each of which begin with the same melodic idea, which is the. ♪ Da-da-da ♪ That idea. Its shape is based around the starting note, so it keeps coming back to that starting note. And it has some ascending and some descending phrases, all of which stay close to the starting note. You might have also mentioned that it's a fairly high pitch. It's played on violins, sort of in the middle of their range, so you wouldn't say it's really high or really low pitch but sort of relatively high pitch as well. So well done if you picked up on those points And that one, in particular, when you don't have the notation in front of you, it is a bit more difficult, and that's why you really have to try and focus on distinct features so that you don't get sucked down the path of trying to describe every single aspect of it and missing out on some really important points. So well done if you picked up on some of those. We're gonna move on now to the second part of our lesson. And for this, we're looking at describing harmony and tonality. Two other key elements to explore in unfamiliar music are tonality and harmony. The tonality of a piece of music is the set of notes that it is based on. What different types of tonality can you think of? Pause my video while you have a think. So you might have thought of some of these. Diatonic tonality. And that's major and minor, are the two different types of diatonic. Atonal tonality. Modal. And microtonal. So those are four different types of tonality that are really important to be able to identify. Now, remember, the tonality refers to the whole piece of music or a section of it, not just individual chords or notes. You couldn't say, "That note is diatonic, that note is atonal." It refers to the set of notes that the music is based on, so it refers to the whole piece or a big part of it. Like to pause my video and have a listen to this clip now and think about how would you describe the tonality of this clip, bearing in mind those words we were just using. So pause my video now and do that. So, we'd probably say, then, the tonality of this clip is major, and it's diatonic. Diatonic means that it uses notes from within the key. And in this case it's a major key. So well done if you picked up on both of those words. That's really well done. Pause my video now, have a listen to the second clip, and see what the tonality is here. And well done, then, if you identified that that one is atonal, so that means there's no clear tonal centre, there's no tonic. It doesn't feel like there's a home note or a home chord. So well done if you got it, that's atonal. Let's check your understanding. Name three terms that could describe tonality. You can pause my video while you do that. And here's some of the ones you might have mentioned. Diatonic, and that's either major or minor, atonal, modal, or microtonal. Well done if you got three of those. While the tonality can be described quite simply using, like we did there, just one word, this is atonal, this is diatonic, et cetera, describing the harmony is often a little bit more complex. What different aspects of harmony could you think of to describe? And pause my video while you have a think or a discussion. So here's some of the things you might have mentioned. We could describe the types of chords that are used. For example, are they triad chords, are they extended chords, are they primary or secondary chords? We can describe is there consonance or dissonance, is it consonant or dissonant? What's the harmonic rhythm? Remember, that's a key aspect of harmony as well, how often the chords change. Is there a chord sequence, or is there any repetition of chords? What are the cadences? Are they perfect, imperfect? Can we not tell? And are there any harmonic devices used? So that's things like pedal, suspension, modulation, drone, and ground bass. So now you're gonna listen to this clip, and I'd like this time to focus on describing the harmony. So we're not looking for tonality, we're looking for that slightly more sophisticated, complex description of the harmony using some of those features that we just looked at. So you can pause my video now and have a listen to this one. So here's what an effective response to this could look like. We might say, "This uses triad chords, most of which are primary chords but with some secondary chords as well. The harmonic rhythm is mostly two beats, so the chords change every two beats for most of the clip. And it finishes with a perfect cadence. So that's picked up on a few points there, the types of chords, triad, primary, secondary, what the harmonic rhythm is, and also that cadence at the end. There are other things we could have mentioned, but those are probably some of the key ones. Let's check your understanding. Which of these is not a feature of harmony? Is it dissonance, harmonic rhythm, major key, or pedal? I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer here, then, is major key. That is a feature of tonality, remember, not harmony. For Task B, I'd like to listen to each of these two clips and complete the table to analyse both the harmony and the tonality. I'd like to make as many points as you can for practise, really try and go into detail and think of as many things as you can. Remember, tonality is describing the set of notes that the piece is based on, and then harmony, it's that slightly more detailed description of the kind of chords that are used and those other features that we've looked at, including harmonic devices. So now you can pause my video, you got two clips to listen to, and give this task your best shot. Let's review that one then. So the first example was diatonic, and it was in a major key. It used some extended chords. For example, seventh and sixth chords. The harmonic rhythm switches between two beats and four beats. There's some primary chords, but it also uses other chords. And it finishes with a perfect cadence. The second example was atonal, that was the tonality. That means there's no tonal centre. There were lots of dissonant chords, well done if you got the word dissonant, with clashes and with chromatic notes as well. And there's no regular harmonic rhythm, so the harmonic rhythm seems to change, it's quite inconsistent. So well done if you got some of those points there. There are some other things you could have said as well, but those are some of the key points we've got. For the final part of today's lesson, we're looking at describing texture. Texture is the third element that we can describe when we're exploring unfamiliar music. What are some of the features of texture that you can describe? Pause my video and have a quick think. Here are some things you might have mentioned. When we're describing texture, we could mention how thick or how thin the texture is. Whether it's monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, unison, or melody and accompaniment, so putting a name on the exact type of texture, And then the role of the different parts as well. So remember, it's not just naming the texture, it's also talking about how the parts interact and what their roles are. The terms thick and thin can be useful, but more sophisticated descriptions will identify the specific texture, such as a polyphonic texture, and what's happening within that texture, that interaction, the roles. How would you describe the texture of this clip? I'll play it for you now. (mysterious music) I'll play it one more time, thinking about how you describe that texture. (mysterious music) So take a few seconds just to come up with what your description might be. Let's look into that then. So we could've said there's a thin texture. Well, that's accurate. It is true it has a thin texture. It's quite simplistic. So a better response might say, the texture's thin with two parts playing unison octaves. So it mentions how many parts there are, and it mentions the specific texture, which is unison. And we've also gone as far as explaining that they're playing in octaves apart. That demonstrates a better understanding of how the texture is composed. So you see the difference there between those two responses, that second one is a much higher-level response. Much more nuanced, sophisticated, and detailed, and that's what we're aiming for. Remember as well to consider how the texture changes. I'd like to listen to this one and describe how the texture changes through this clip. Here we go, it's quite a long clip, so focus in on how the texture changes. (calm music) (relaxing music) So there's quite a few things we could've picked up on there. At the start, the texture is homophonic. We've got just chords, playing in block chords, a chordal homophonic texture. Later, it turns into a melody and accompaniment texture, when the melody joins in. And you might mention that it gets thicker as well because more parts join in at that point. Let's check your understanding. Which of these is the most sophisticated description of texture? Texture is thin, the texture is monophonic, or the texture uses one instrument. I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer here, then, is texture is monophonic. That's using high-level vocabulary, proper terminology, and it's explaining what type of texture is used. Let's listen to this one now. And what happens to the texture in this clip? Does it start polyphonic, then become homophonic, start homophonic, then become monophonic, or start monophonic, then become polyphonic? Here we go. (curious music) Gonna play it one more time, just coming up with your answer. (curious music) Okay, so well done, then, if you got the correct answer, which is, it starts monophonic, there's one instrument, one line playing, and then it becomes polyphonic, with multiple equally important melodies playing at the same time. So well done. For Task C, you're gonna describe the texture of each clip, including any changes. Remember to mention specific terminology related to what type of texture it is. Try and describe the roles and interaction of the instruments. And then make sure, as it says there, to include any changes that occur to the texture. So you can pause my video now. Again, get as much detail down as you can for each example, and give it your best shot. Let's go through this one, then. For example one, the texture begins monophonic. Additional parts then join in and it becomes a thin melody and accompaniment texture. So it never becomes a thick texture, but we do have more parts joining in and that melody and accompaniment later on. In example two, the texture is a melody and accompaniment texture, with string and vocal countermelodies playing alongside the main melody. So there's quite a bit going on there. We've got the melody, we've got the accompaniment, and we've got these two countermelodies as well. So well done if you picked up on a few of those points. It's time to review today's lesson. We can use the musical elements to help structure simple, clear descriptions of unfamiliar music. Here are some of the elements of what we might include for each one. For melody, we can mention shape. Movement, is it conjunct, disjunct, what are the intervals? Are there any patterns? Is it scalic or arpeggiated? What's the range? Are there any repeated phrases or ideas or motifs? And are any melodic devices used? For tonality, we're gonna focus on describing is it diatonic, that's major or minor, modal, atonal, or microtonal? The harmony, we can think about chords that are used, the harmonic rhythm, cadences, and harmonic devices. And then for texture, we're thinking about monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, unison, or melody and accompaniment. And always, with all of these elements, thinking about any changes that occur as well during the example. Okay, so thanks for taking part in today's lesson. I hope that's given you some food for thought as to how you can give some slightly more advanced and sophisticated descriptions of melody, harmony, tonality, and texture. I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson. Thank you.