Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way (half cadence)
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh (half cadence) Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way (half cadence)
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh (full cadence, melody descends to the tonic)
In another melodic style, associated more with instrumental than vocal music, melodic material is not organized in regular, balanced units, but spins out in a long, continuous line.
Texture
Like fabric, music has a
texture, which may be dense or transparent, thick or thin, heavy or light. Musical texture also refers to how many different layers of sound are heard at once, to whether these layers have a primarily melodic or an accompaniment function, and to how the layers relate to each other. A texture of a single, unaccompanied melodic line is called
monophony from the Greek “
monos ” (single, alone) and “
phone ” (sound). Monophony becomes
heterophony when spontaneous variations of two or more performers produce different versions of the same melody at the same time. The simultaneous combination of two or more independent melodies is classified as
polyphony and of two or more simultaneous rhythmic lines as
polyrhythm . Another principal textural category is
homophony , one dominant melody with accompaniment. These classifications are often useful in describing individual works and repertory groups, but in practice many works and styles do not fall neatly into one category. For example, a common texture in jazz entails some instruments whose interaction would be described as polyphonic and others whose function it is to accompany them.
Two important concepts in the analysis and description of musical textures are counterpoint and harmony.
Counterpoint refers to the conduct of simultaneously sounding melodic lines, one against the other. Rhythmic counterpoint denotes the unfolding of concurrent rhythmic parts in polyrhythmic textures. While counterpoint focuses on linear events,
harmony is concerned with the vertical combination of tones that produces chords and successions of chords.
The Western system of musical notation, while somewhat limited in the expression of subtleties of rhythm and pitch, can indicate many simultaneous sounds and has enabled Western composers to create music of greater textural complexity than that of any other musical tradition. Principles or rules of composing multipart, or contrapuntal, music were first formulated during the Middle Ages and have evolved and changed to reflect new musical aesthetics, performance practices, and compositional techniques.
Tone color
Tone color, or timbre, is the distinctive quality of a voice or instrument. Tone color is the result of an acoustic phenomenon known as overtones. In addition to the fundamental frequency heard as a sound’s pitch, musical tones contain patterns of higher frequencies. Though these higher frequencies, or overtones, are not usually perceived as pitches in themselves, their relative presence or absence determines the characteristic quality of a particular voice or instrument. The prominence of overtones in musical instruments depends on such factors as the materials from which they are made, their design, and how their sound is produced. Similarly, the individual physiology of each person’s vocal cords produces a unique speaking and singing voice. The term tone color suggests an analogy with the visual arts, and indeed the exploration, manipulation, and combination of instrumental and vocal sound qualities by performers and composers may be compared to the use of color by painters. Terms such as
orchestration, scoring, and
arranging refer to the aspect of composition that involves the purposeful treatment of tone color. A composer may choose to use pure colors (for example, the melody played by violins) or mixed colors (the melody played by violins and flutes), or to exploit a particular quality of an instrument, such as the unique sound of the clarinet in its low range. The art of orchestration encompasses various performance techniques that affect tone color, among them the use of mutes, which are devices for altering the sound of an instrument. In violins and other bowed strings, the mute is a small comb-shaped device that is clamped on the strings, making the sound veiled and somewhat nasal. Brass instruments Brass instruments are muted by inserting various materials into the bell.
