Today, music events have an unprecedented number of audiences. Whether it is vocal music or instrumental music, it is transmitted to hundreds of millions of listeners through various means of communication such as records, tapes, movies, radio, and television. Many of these people have never directly heard a large orchestra play in their lives. Some of these new, extremely large audiences may be very surprised. It turns out that this new art appreciation experience, especially instrumental music, is an extremely wonderful spiritual food; it is so profound and real. It reflects the great life, thoughts and emotions of mankind. When this kind of music appreciation activity develops, people will have a curiosity and a desire for knowledge. Here it is: How can one appreciate this musical art? What are its principles and methods?

For this reason, and for this reason alone, this booklet has been written. This book is not a book for music experts, it is just for readers who have a deep interest in music and a passion to know more. The purpose of this booklet is to provide the essentials of knowledge in this area and to illustrate the practical meaning of some commonly used words. As for the scope of these technical terms, of course it is within certain limits.

A large part of the Western European music works we hear and perform today were created between 1650 and 1900. From the perspective of harmony and music theory, this is a large unit or stage in the history of music. At this stage, although there are many types of musical styles, methods of musical structure, and textures of music, the actual musical language and harmonic words are the same. They are just constantly expanding and enriching, but basically there is no fundamental change, and there is no change in their fundamental principles. It will here be shown how the principles of this period differed from those that preceded and followed them. The first part focuses on the period from 1600 to 1900, while earlier and later ones are briefly explained in the second and third parts.

The following begins with a concise explanation of commonly used technical terms, the purpose of which is to enable readers to understand the issues discussed subsequently. As for further understanding them, you need to further read other related books. These explanations are sufficient for the scope of application of this book. The instructions are classified according to melody, harmony, and rhythm. However, readers should note that these terms have different meanings and usages in different categories, such as transposition, stillness, etc., so their explanations are also separate.

(1) Melodic terminology

Scale

A series of continuously progressive tones, unified by a tonic or tuning (Tonic or Keynote) The relationship between them is called a scale.

A diatonic scale contains five whole steps and two semitones. According to the different positions of these two semitones in the scale, the major scale and the minor scale are formed.

The third note of the scale is the note that determines the size and nature of the scale, so it is also called the determinant.

Whether it is a major scale or a minor scale, each note of the scale has its own name. Now write them below in ascending order:——

The first note Tonic

Supertonic on the second tone

Mediant on the third tone

Subdominant on the fourth tone< /p>

The fifth tone is Dominant

The sixth tone is Submediant

The seventh tone is Leadingnote

< p> Among the above sounds, the tonic, dominant, subordinate and leading sounds are the most commonly used nouns in music, and they should be remembered clearly.

The chromatic scale is a scale composed entirely of semitones.

The sharp sign (#) is a symbol that raises the height of a sound by a semitone; the flat sign (b) is a sign that lowers the height of a sound to its original height. These marks are collectively called accidental marks.

Interval

The distance or height difference between two consecutive or simultaneous sounds is called an interval.

The naming of musical intervals is mainly calculated according to the series they have on the musical scale. When calculating, the two notes themselves are also included in the calculation.

The names of these intervals remain unchanged regardless of whether there are semitone changes or not. In other words, whether the two tones of an interval contain sharp or flat marks or not, the name of the interval will remain the same. Still the same.

The intervals that appear in the diatonic scale are diatonic intervals.

The intervals that appear in the changing scale (i.e. the chromatic scale) are changing intervals.

The interval distance is less than a semitone - such as #G-bA - is called a homophone interval (En-harmonic

interval), which is generally called "the transformation of homophones and synonyms". On the piano these two notes are exactly the same, but on other instruments - especially string instruments - #G and bA are different.

Tone

Generally speaking, the melody can be expressed through a certain key. The key is formed by the individual notes that make up the melody, and these notes are derived from the scale. Generally, the melody does not necessarily start or end with the tonic.

There are as many keys as there are major and minor scales. The way to find the order of sharp keys on the music score is to count the perfect fifths of each note upward from C: C, G, D, A, E, B, #F, #C, the way to find the flat key sequence is to count the perfect fifths of each note consecutively starting from C downward: C, F, bB, bE, bA, bD, bG, bC.

The sharps and flats are recorded at the beginning of the score. Each sharp or flat is in the above order, with more sharps and flats added each time (such as C to G, G is a sharp; G to D, D is two sharps; C to F, F is a flat; F to bB, bB is two flats). These are called key signatures. A minor key is the same as its relative major key - that is, the minor third above the tonic of the minor key is the tonic of the relative major key.

(2) Rhythm terms

Music is calculated in units of bars (Bar). A section can be divided into several beats. The most common beats in a section are 2, 3, and 4, which we call Duple, Triple, and Quadruple.

These beats can still be divided into groups of short tones, of which two tones are the main group and three tones are the group. If a group of two notes is used, the beat is called a single beat; if a group of three notes is used, the beat is called a compound beat.

Time signatures are indicated by time signatures. The time signature is located at the beginning of the score, immediately to the right of the key signature. Its form consists of two numbers, one above and one below. The upper number indicates how many certain notes there are in a measure, and the lower number indicates what kind of note that note is. In other words, the note is a fraction of a whole note.

For this specific situation, it is much clearer to illustrate with an example than to explain the definition. Let's take two common time signatures, 2/4 and 9/8. The number 〈4〉 below the first symbol indicates a quarter of a whole note, that is, a quarter note. The number 〈 above 2〉 means there are two quarter notes in each measure. Another symbol, the number <8> below indicates one-eighth of a whole note, that is, an eighth note, and the number <9> above indicates that there are nine eighth notes in each measure.

The above numbers also indicate whether the beat is single beat or compound beat. If it is (2) or (3), or a multiple of (2), it is a single beat. If it is a multiple of (3), it is a single beat. Repeat the beat.

When a dot is recorded after a note, it extends the time length of the note by half. In compound beats, dotted notes are the main notes, and in single beats, single notes are the main ones.

Just as in music beats are grouped into measures, measures themselves can be grouped into larger units. For example, short sentences, musical phrases, musical sections, etc. Starting from this principle and under similar circumstances, this kind of collection can be applied to all musical forms with fixed structures, especially the writing form of dance music in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The shortest unit of rhythm combination is a short sentence, which often contains two measures. The short sentence itself cannot give people a complete feeling, so it is often followed by one or more similar short sentences. , these short sentences are gathered together to form a musical phrase.

Similarly, a section always consists of two or more similar phrases to form a melodic balance; however, the three terms section, phrase, and section have different meanings when used. Very widespread, often used interchangeably, each of them represents a musical unit of music. This joy is complete in itself. The only difference between them and short sentences is that the thoughts of short sentences are incomplete.

All these units of happy thought are bound by stillness. Simply put, stillness in music is like punctuation in an article, which is equal to the period in the article. In early European music, songs often ended in this form - stopping on the tonic note. But in modern music, the meaning of stillness is quite broad and not fixed. Its significance in harmony is much greater than its significance in rhythm, because rhythm is often very simple when it is still.

(3) Terms in harmony

Intervals

Two tones sound at the same time. If it is less than an octave, the interval is a single interval; if it is greater than an octave, it is a single interval. The octave is the polyphonic interval.

Intervals are classified according to their consonant relationship - according to the degree of consonance between two tones when combined. The general classification method is as follows:

Complete consonance. Unison, octave, perfect fourth, perfect fifth.

Incomplete concord. Major third, minor third, major sixth, minor sixth.

Discordant. Major second, minor second, major seventh, minor seventh, and other increasing and decreasing intervals. Augmented intervals are formed by raising the notes above or lowering the notes below a major or perfect interval. A diminished interval is formed by lowering the top note or raising the bottom note of a minor or perfect interval.

The transposition of an interval is to move the lower note to an octave higher position, or to move the upper note to an octave lower position.

The fourth interval becomes a fifth when transposed. Fifths are inverted to become fourths.

Thirds are inverted to become sixths. Sixths are inverted to become thirds.

The second interval is inverted and becomes the seventh. The seventh interval is inverted and becomes the second.

One degree becomes an octave when transposed. An octave becomes a degree when inverted.

In addition:

Perfect intervals are still perfect intervals after inversion.

Major intervals become minor intervals after inversion.

Augmented intervals become diminished intervals when transposed.

Diminished intervals become augmented intervals when transposed.

Chord

Two or more intervals sounding at the same time are called chords.

If the intervals in a chord are all consonant intervals, whether completely consonant or incomplete, the chord is called a consonant chord. If one or more intervals between them are dissonant, the chord is called a dissonant chord.

A triad, or regular chord, consists of a bass or root note with a bass major third and a bass perfect fifth above it.

If the fifth is an augmented or diminished interval, the triad is called an augmented or diminished triad. Augmented and diminished triads are not considered ordinary chords because they contain augmented or diminished intervals.

A seventh chord is formed by adding a root seventh to the triad.

This kind of chord can be formed on any level of the major scale or the minor scale. Among the seventh chords, the dominant seventh chord with the dominant note as the root tone is the most important.

Chords are the same as intervals. When the root note is moved an octave higher, it is called inversion.

Stillness

Stillness, as mentioned before, is just like the punctuation marks in an article. Cadence can be divided into two categories:

1. Final cadence is often used to indicate the end of a paragraph or a section.

2. Intermediate Cadence. Often used to define the boundaries of idioms (phrase) or short sentences.

There are two types of ending stillness:

1. Complete stillness (Perfectcadence, fullclose). A dominant chord with or without a seventh, following the tonic chord in the root position.

2. Plagalcadence. The form is the same as a perfect still, except that the dominant chord is replaced by a subordinate chord into the final tonic.

It must be noted that although the root notes are all in the low part, the position and arrangement of the upper parts change differently in each pair of resting chords. Although the high-pitched sounds are the same, their positions are different. No matter how these notes are changed, they will not change the original nature of the chord. This point will be further explained later.

The pause in the middle is often composed of the main chord or other chords, not necessarily the root position.

The progression of the melody

1. Connect the progression. The tones are arranged in steps, that is, the distance between the two tones is no more than a second degree.

2. Jump. The tones are played in jumps, that is, the connection between the second tones is a jump of third or more degrees.

Repeatedly

Repeatedly. It is a small piece of melody or harmony that appears repeatedly at different heights.

Some repetitions are repeated on the natural scale. In addition, there are also modulated or semitone repetitions, where repeated sentences appear in new keys.

Pattern progression

Pattern is similar to repetition, but not exactly the same. It is the imitation of rhythmic form, melodic or harmonic, or both.

Transposition

1. Transposition of melody. The progression of the melody of a short sentence and the degree of successive notes are generally the same as those of the previous short sentence, but in the opposite direction. This is called the transposition of the melody.

2. Counterposition transposition. The positions of the two voices are exchanged, that is, the lower voice is replaced by the upper voice, and the upper voice is replaced by the lower voice (counterpoint will be explained later).

The progress of harmony

1. Progress in the same direction. Both voices proceed in the same direction.

Second, proceed in reverse. The two voices proceed in opposite directions.

3. Perform diagonally. One of the two voices remains as it is, while the other goes up or down.

Essential Note and Main Note

Essential Note. The most important note in a chord is called the principal note. Such as the E sound in the triad C, E, G.

Passive sound, also known as non-main sound (Unessential). A tone is only a tone that connects the main tones in two consecutive chords (or intervals), and does not itself belong to any chord (or interval) before and after. It is called a passing tone.

The passing tones (D and B) are located between beats and are called non-forte passing tones. It can also appear on the beat and is called a fortissimo passing sound.

Some passing sounds can be skipped. These are called ornamental sounds, appropriative sounds or pre-occurring sounds, because they appear before the main sound first.

Appropriate notes are often used to loosen the character of strong non-main dissonances.

Transposition and Transposition

Transposition is to change the key from one key to another.

Transposition is to transfer an entire piece of music score or phrase to another key.

The solution of dissonant chords

The solution of dissonant chords is to turn the dissonant chords into consonant chords. The formal solution is to progress the dissonance.