Texture, Counterpoint, Instrumentation, and More Timbre
Besides melody, rhythm, and harmony, a number of factors greatly affect how a performance sounds. Texture in music has a specific meaning. It describes the number of things that are going on at once in a piece of music. The four types of texture in Western music are monophony, homophony, polyphony, and heterophony. Monophonic music consists of a single, unaccompanied melodic line, such as the saxophone introduction from “In the Mood” (Listening Example 9) or the initial trumpet melody of Fanfare for the Common Man (Listening Example 11). Multiple instruments or voices may be playing that melody, but they are all performing the same pitch at the same time—that is, they are playing the one melody in unison.
Besides melody, rhythm, and harmony, a number of factors greatly affect how a performance sounds. Texture in music has a specific meaning. It describes the number of things that are going on at once in a piece of music. The four types of texture in Western music are monophony, homophony, polyphony, and heterophony. Monophonic music consists of a single, unaccompanied melodic line, such as the saxophone introduction from “In the Mood” (Listening Example 9) or the initial trumpet melody of Fanfare for the Common Man (Listening Example 11). Multiple instruments or voices may be playing that melody, but they are all performing the same pitch at the same time—that is, they are playing the one melody in unison.
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Homophonic texture has two different things going on at once: a melody and a harmonic accompaniment. The accompaniment differs from the melody, but plays a clearly subordinate role, as seen in Figure 8. Similarly, Robert Johnson accompanies himself on guitar as he sings “Cross Road Blues” (Listening Example 3). Nearly all popular songs today employ homophonic texture; as listeners, we focus on the voice, but the voice is supported by background instruments. Sometimes the accompaniment lines move in the same rhythm as the melody itself, as the lower voices in a church hymn or chorale, but the notes of the accompanying voices fill out the chord pitches; they are not independent melodies.
In a polyphonic texture, however, two or more separate melodies unfold simultaneously. Each could stand alone, but the composer created them to relate to each other on a note-by-note basis while retaining their independence. There are two main types of polyphony: counterpoint and imitative polyphony. In counterpoint, the simultaneous melodies are usually in different registers. They are different melodies—each has its own pitches, contour, shape, and rhythm, but they follow the same beat. Most importantly, their pitches fit into the same harmonic progression. The two (or more) melodies are carefully coordinated by the composer on a note-by-note basis. Any dissonances or non-harmonic tones must occur within a complicated and detailed set of parameters. If the “rules” are broken, the music will not sound right to experienced Western ears, and most performers will find the music especially difficult to play or sing. The rules are a bit like grammar rules; they were created to describe a complex process, but can also be used in a prescriptive way to create successful sentences.
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Composing counterpoint is a bit like completing a difficult number puzzle, like Sudoku, or a diagramless crossword puzzle. Every choice affects many other choices. When complete, everything fits together in a complex but fulfilling system in which vertical and horizontal components mesh at every point of intersection.
Imitative polyphony, on the other hand, features only one melody, but it is played by multiple people at staggered intervals, such as the way that children are taught to sing “Row Row Row Your Boat”: each group sings the same tune, but starts slightly later in time than the previous group, so that polyphony (“many sounds”) results. There is a bit of imitative polyphony midway through Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (Listening Example 11).
Imitative polyphony, on the other hand, features only one melody, but it is played by multiple people at staggered intervals, such as the way that children are taught to sing “Row Row Row Your Boat”: each group sings the same tune, but starts slightly later in time than the previous group, so that polyphony (“many sounds”) results. There is a bit of imitative polyphony midway through Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (Listening Example 11).
If two performers are producing versions of the same melody at the same time, but are not playing in precise unison—that is, each has its own slight differences—the texture is called heterophony. Heterophonic texture is fairly rare in Western music, but was employed quite often in the earliest styles of jazz.
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Instrumentation, the instrument or combination of instruments used, is among the most noticeable features of a given piece of music. If the pitches of a melody fall within the range of an instrument, that instrument can play the melody. An electric guitar playing “Happy Birthday” sounds quite different from a piano playing it—yet even a small child will recognize it as the same tune. If the same pitches were divided up and given to members of a symphony orchestra, a marching band, or a four-part choir, the effect would be drastically different each time. Arranging is the art of taking an existing piece of music (melody, harmony, rhythm) and giving instructions as to what each individual performer should play. Two different arrangements of “Happy Birthday” for the same combination of instruments may sound very different, depending upon which instruments are given prominent, as opposed to secondary or background, roles.
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For much twentieth-century music, both popular and classical, the choice of instruments and the way they are combined play a central role in making each piece a unique work of art. In The Banshee (Listening Example 4), Cowell takes an old instrument—the piano—and requires the performer to employ new playing techniques, producing unexpected tone colors. In the absence of common-practice harmony, many twentieth-century compositions use changes in timbre to mark changes in form. In popular music, many listeners can distinguish styles—rockabilly, Motown, bluegrass, disco, punk, or house—after hearing just a few seconds of music, due to the differences in characteristic combinations of instruments and timbres.
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Dynamics, Articulation, Ornamentation
Dynamics, the loudness and softness of a sound, are useful to performers and composers for expressive purposes. Table 3 shows the common Italian terms for different dynamic levels and their abbreviations. The full name of the modern piano is “pianoforte” because, unlike its keyboard predecessors, it could play both quietly (piano) and loudly (forte) in response to changes in the pianist’s touch.
A gradual increase in dynamics is called a crescendo, and a gradual decrease is called a decrescendo or diminuendo. In a score, either the abbreviations “cresc.” or “dim.” or a symbol shaped like an elongated V rotated ninety degrees clockwise (for crescendo) or counterclockwise (for diminuendo) indicate a gradual change in volume.
The dynamic level for even a single pitch can change multiple times if its duration is long enough. Imagine a consonant chord, such as the first syllable of the “A-men” at the end of a sacred piece of music, swelling from a soft to a loud dynamic level then decrescendo-ing back to a whisper: a very dramatic effect.
A gradual increase in dynamics is called a crescendo, and a gradual decrease is called a decrescendo or diminuendo. In a score, either the abbreviations “cresc.” or “dim.” or a symbol shaped like an elongated V rotated ninety degrees clockwise (for crescendo) or counterclockwise (for diminuendo) indicate a gradual change in volume.
The dynamic level for even a single pitch can change multiple times if its duration is long enough. Imagine a consonant chord, such as the first syllable of the “A-men” at the end of a sacred piece of music, swelling from a soft to a loud dynamic level then decrescendo-ing back to a whisper: a very dramatic effect.
Another expressive factor affecting the sound of a piece is articulation. Articulation has to do with the mechanics of starting and ending a sound. Staccato indicates that the performer should shorten the duration of a note rather than letting it sound for its full value; this produces extra silence before the next note, often making the musical phrase sound crisper or choppier. Legato means multiple pitches are played in a smooth, connected but not overlapping manner. On a keyboard, one can produce staccato by poising the finger above a key and pecking down quickly, then quickly returning the finger to its original position. On wind instruments, players use their tongue to produce a distinct beginning for a given pitch. On a violin, the bow may be bounced from the string, or the finger used to pluck it (called pizzicato); Messiaen requires the performer to pluck piano strings during The Banshee. Legato involves leaving the finger (with the weight of the arm balanced on it) on the key until it is time for the next pitch, at which time the weight is transferred to another finger on the next key. An accent involves more sudden sound than a staccato, and, unlike staccato, silent space before the next pitch is not required. Various degrees of pressure, tonguing, and bow pressure all contribute to articulation. (Several articulations are depicted in Table 4.)
Ornamentation refers to localized embellishments, which are often not written down. A pop singer can swoop into a pitch, and a trumpet player can add a trill (a rapid oscillation between two adjacent notes) to the last pitch of a melody as a grand finale. The singer Ethel Merman adds occasional ornaments during “I Got Rhythm” (Listening Example 1). The high woodwinds sustain a trill near the start of American Salute (Listening Example 12).
Which is the Real Music? Scores, Recordings, and Performance
Music theory traditionally describes pieces of music as if they were fixed objects. However, it is important to remember that (most) music is performed by living people. Music notation is able to convey some things precisely— pitch relationships, rhythms, instrumentation, and to some degree phrasing, dynamics, and articulation. Yet it also has obvious limitations. We cannot know how smoothly people in the 1870s performed a “legato” phrase. Recording technology has allowed us to preserve far more information than notation allows, but this too is limited in different ways. An entire subfield called “performance practice” exists to address the question, how did the music really sound?
Section II Summary
• Music is sound organized in time.
• Developed over centuries in the Western world, common-practice tonality is the widely accepted system for describing the relationships among pitches and harmonies.
• Pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound. It is the basic building block for melody and harmony. Harmony occurs when two or more pitches sound simultaneously.
• The octave occurs naturally in the overtone series. Western tradition divides it into twelve equal intervals called half steps.
• Melody is a coherent succession of pitches perceived as a whole, with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Major and minor scales are sets of seven different pitches arranged in a specific pattern of whole and half steps within a single octave.
• The beat is the steady, regular pulse underlying most music. Tempo is the speed of the beat.
• Rhythm is the series of durations of varying lengths that overlie the beat.
• A key is a hierarchical set of harmonic and melodic pitch relationships using one of the thirty major and minor scales.
• Texture, counterpoint, dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation are important features that can distinguish otherwise similar musical sounds.
• Music can be represented by diagrams, with notation, or on sound recordings, each of which has limitations.
• Because music is an art form that structures time rather than space, some people consider it an activity rather than a fixed object.
• Music is sound organized in time.
• Developed over centuries in the Western world, common-practice tonality is the widely accepted system for describing the relationships among pitches and harmonies.
• Pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound. It is the basic building block for melody and harmony. Harmony occurs when two or more pitches sound simultaneously.
• The octave occurs naturally in the overtone series. Western tradition divides it into twelve equal intervals called half steps.
• Melody is a coherent succession of pitches perceived as a whole, with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Major and minor scales are sets of seven different pitches arranged in a specific pattern of whole and half steps within a single octave.
• The beat is the steady, regular pulse underlying most music. Tempo is the speed of the beat.
• Rhythm is the series of durations of varying lengths that overlie the beat.
• A key is a hierarchical set of harmonic and melodic pitch relationships using one of the thirty major and minor scales.
• Texture, counterpoint, dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation are important features that can distinguish otherwise similar musical sounds.
• Music can be represented by diagrams, with notation, or on sound recordings, each of which has limitations.
• Because music is an art form that structures time rather than space, some people consider it an activity rather than a fixed object.