Identifiable Features of Music Flashcards
(26 cards)
- Tonal: major or minor
- Simple melodies
- Melodies based on American folk music
- Tells a story
- Large orchestra
- Big brass and percussion
- Solo passages
- Dissonance
- Homophonic or melody and accompaniment
- Expressive dynamics (cresc, dim)
- Rapid time signature changes
- Syncopation, polyrhythm, cross-rhythm
SIMILAR TO CLASSICAL MUSIC BUT WITH ADDED DISSONANCE AND MORE EXTREME
COPLAND
AOS 4
- Contains excerpts of folk songs (nationalism)
- Usually does have a tonal centre, but is normally unclear
- Rich harmonies
- Expressive
- Expressionism à extension of Romanticism
- Angular, spiky melodies
- Dissonance and atonality
- Serialism used (Maxwell-Davies)
- Unusual timbres used
THINK ABOUT HOW THIS IS LIKE CLASSICAL, BUT MORE EXTREME…
BRITISH MUSIC
AOS 4
- Chromatic harmony
- Dissonance
- Hungarian minor scale: raise the 4thto create a tritone
- Rapid changes of time signature and metre
- Unusual time signatures
- Melodies based on Hungarian folk tunes
- Melodies based around the pentatonic scale
- Extreme dynamics
- Syncopated and dotted rhythms
- Tonal ambiguity
- Uneven phrases
- Unusual instrumental techniques (Bartok pizz!)
HUNGARIAN MUSIC
AOS 4
- REPETITION
- Music based on the development of a musical idea (a cell)
- Irregular phrase lengths
- Unusual time signatures
- Tempo changes
- Build-up of layers
- Polyphonic texture
- Cross-rhythms
- Diatonic
- Multitrack recording used
- Additive melodies (adding notes)
- Changing the notes of a pattern
- Adding / removing rests
- Layering different length patterns
THIS IS A REACTION AGAINST COMPLICATED MODERN-CLASSICAL MUSIC
MINIMALISM
AOS 4
- Simple chord progressions based around primary chords
(I, IV, V) - 12 bar blues structure
- I I I I / IV IV I I / V IV I I
- Improvisation
- Call and response structure
- AAB lyrics structure (extended binary form)
- Portamento (sliding between notes)
- Slow tempo
- Sad lyrics
- Blues notes added (flat 3rd, 5th and 7th)
- Walking bassline
- Syncopation in melodies
- Scats
- Swung rhythms
THE BLUES
AOS 3
- A capella
- Close harmony singing (3rds)
- Polyrhythms and cross rhythms
- Syncopation
- Skank rhythm: off-beat crotchets
- Bubble rhythm: off-beat quavers
- Simple melodies
- Walking basslines
- Political lyrics
- Verse / chorus rhythm
- 4/4
- Emphasis on percussion
- Djembe, talking drum, bongos, congas, maracas, rhumba box
KEY WORDS (AFRICAN): A capella,
zydeco, isicathamiya, mbaqanga
KEY WORDS (CARIBBEAN): mento, ska,
rocksteady, reggae
FUSION MUSIC
AOS 3
- Brass and wind (trumpets, sax)
- Ostinato / riff
- Syncopated rhythms
- Dotted rhythms
- Cross rhythms
- Percussion prominent (guiro, maracas, clave, congas)
- Repitition and sequences
- Call and response
- Simple and repetitive melodies
- Backing vocals in chorus
- Simple chord progressions
- Son clave rhythm
- Minor key
- 4/4
LATIN MUSIC
AOS 3
- Melodies based around the pentatonic scale
- Major, minor or modal
- Simple chord sequences (alternating major and minor chords)
- Primary chords
- Structure: verse/chorus
- Simple, lyrical melodies
- Conjunct movement
- Call and response
- Backing vocals are in 3rds
- Portamento
- Word painting
- Melisma
- Lyrics tell a story (narrative)
- Acoustic instruments
- Fiddle, harp, banjo, acoustic guitar, accordion, tin whistle
FOLK MUSIC
AOS 3
- Melodies easy to sing
- Diatonic harmony (major or minor)
- Verse / chorus structure
- Chorus of a song is in 32-bar song form (AABA)
- Catchy hook
- Choir is SATB
- Usually 4/4
- Melody and accompaniment texture
- Word painting used
- Males use falsetto
- SATB - Soprano (high female), alto (low female), tenor (high male), baritone (low male)
Solo: one singer
Duet: two singers
Action song: narrates the plot
Chorus number: big ensemble singalong
BROADWAY
AOS 2
- Power chords used (1st and 5th note)
- Electric guitar solos (virtuosic)
- Primary chords (3 chord progressions)
- Melody and accompaniment
- Mainly 4/4
- Chromatics added to decorate melodies
- Riffs
- Verse/chorus structure
- Drum fills
- Large vocal range, males use falsetto
- Standard rock band instruments
- Music concrete (every day sounds recorded and added)
Reverb: echo
Distortion: distorts the sound
ROCK MUSIC (70s and 80s)
AOS 2
- Pedal notes
- Timbre matches storyline (muted = scary, trumpets = victory)
- Chromatic harmonies
- Rapid changes in dynamics, tempo, melody and harmony
- Atonal music used
- Through-composed as music follows what is on the screen
- Leitmotifs (recurring melody which represents a character)
- Short
- Distinctive
- Consistent
FILM AND GAMING MUSIC
AOS 2
- Chord sequences (I, V, vi, IV)
- Backing vocals usually in 3rds
- Verse/chorus structure
- Riffs
- Power chords used (tonic / dom)
- Reverb on the vocals
- 4/4
- Hook – the catchy part of the song in the chorus)
- Usually modulates to the dominant to add drama at the end of the song
- Diatonic harmonies
Vocal techniques used: a capella,
beatboxing, falsetto, portamento,
rapping, riffing, scat, vibrato
POP MUSIC
AOS 2
- Diatonic harmonies
- Terraced dynamics
- Ornaments
- Contrapuntal
- String instruments
- Basso continuo
- Harpsichord
Coronation Anthems
* Choral pieces for coronation
* Major key (written for celebration)
* Text from bible
* Trumpet fanfares
Oratorios
* Vocal music based on bible story
* Recitative (narrative)
* Aria (solo)
* Chorus (whole choir)
BAROQUE
AOS 1
- Clearer, lighter texture
- Homophonic or melody and accompaniment textures
- Usually two or more contrasting themes
- Balanced phrases / 8 bar phrases
- Variety and contrast with dynamics (cresc, sfz)
- Clearly marked cadence points
- Harpsichord replaced by piano
- Alberti bass (1, 5, 3, 5 pattern)
- Graceful melodies
- Ornaments
- Musical devices: canon, imitation, sequences
CLASSICAL
AOS 1
- Lyrical melodies
- Expressive
- Wide range of dynamics
- Less emphasis on organised structure
- Richer harmonies (chromatic, dissonance, suspended chords)
- Modulations to unconventional keys
- Dramatic contrast in textures
- Wide pitch range
- Virtuosic writing (more difficult)
- Recurring themes and motifs
- Longer pieces of music
- Nationalistic
- Dense texture
ROMANTIC MUSIC
AOS1
Polonaise: Polish dance in ¾ syncopated, slow
Mazurka: Polish dance, ¾, livelier than a polonaise
Leider: a song for a singer and piano
REQUIEM
* Tuba, piccolo, cor anglais, bass clarinet and double bassoon added
* Wider percussion section
* Unconventional instrumental groups
* Biblical text
* Minor key (Mass of the Dead)
ROMANTIC PIANO MUSIC
AOS 1
Important composers:
Bach, Handel, Purcell and Vivaldi
Baroque - AOS 1
Important composers:
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven
Classical - AOS 1
Important composers:
Chopin and Schumann
Romantic Piano Music - AOS 1
Important composers:
Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Elgar
Romantic Requiem - AOS 1
Important composers:
Led Zeppelin, The Who, Iron Maiden and The Clash
Rock Music - AOS 2
Important composers:
Oasis, Taylor Swift, One Direction and Rhianna
Pop Music from 1990 - AOS 2
Important composers:
John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and Erich Korngold
Film and Game Music - AOS 2
Important composers:
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Roger & Hammerstein and Cole Porter
Music of Broadway 1950s – 1990s - AOS 2
