Elements of Music Flashcards
(30 cards)
Rythm
the organization of musical elements in time
Polyrythms
multiple rhythms performed simultaneously
Beat
a regularly recurring pulse
Meter
a repeated pattern of beats, usually characteristic of a specific style of music
Duple Meter
march
Triple Meter
waltz
Quadruple Meter
traditionally emphasis is placed on beats 1 & 3
however, pop music often emphasizes the backbeat (beats 2 & 4)
Melody
individual pitches performed in sequence
can be speech-like or song-like
Expansive Melody
the process of making a melodic sequence longer than the audience anticipates
Timbre
tone color; the specific mixture of harmonic tones on top of the sound of fundamental tone; the quality which gives a particular instrument or voice its individual character
Texture
what each musical line is doing in relation to others
Monophony
a kind of musical texture in which there is a single melodic line
Heterophony
a kind of musical texture in which simultaneous versions of the same melody with slight embellishments
Homophony
a kind of musical texture in which multiple music lines occur in the same rhythm to create chords
Polyphony
a kind of musical texture in which multiple independent melodic and rhythmic lines are performed simultaneously, each of equal importance
Mode
a collection of pitches used in a piece and how they relate to one another; can indicate a particular mood, time of day, etc.
Scales
the arrangement of notes in a mode according to pitch order
Tonality
the idea that one particular pitch (and the scale and chords associated with that pitch) is central in a piece
Harmony
several pitches sounding at once to create a sound that is “pleasing” to the ear; not a universal quality in all music cultures
Dissonance
unstable sound; discordant or lacking harmony
Consonance
stable sound; pleasant harmonies without tension
Musicology
the science of music
Ethnomusicology
the interdisciplinary study of why and how human beings are musical
Emic
the analysis of a culture from the perspective of an individual who participates in the culture being studied