These four elements are the material of composer's creation. It is almost impossible for a listener to get a complete concept of music content if he can't know the complicated rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre to a certain extent.

Rhythm and Beat

Rhythm includes two concepts: metre and tempo. The former refers to the movement of alternating strength of music regularity, that is, the combination of beat points, and the latter refers to the rate of this rhythm.

Beat is a pattern in which stress appears repeatedly at a certain time interval according to the time signature, or it is a fixed sequence of repeated strong and weak sounds. Every beat consists of a unit with a fixed time value, and this beat unit is called time. The duration of a beat can be a quarter note, a half note or an eighth note. Beats are usually marked by fractions, numerator indicates the number of unit beats in each bar, denominator indicates the duration of the notes in unit beats, for example, 2/4, which means "there are two beats in each bar, and each beat is a quarter note", or simply "there are two quarter notes in each bar". The following are some common beats: even-numbered beats, including 2/2 (with two semitones in each bar), 2/4, 4/4, 4/8 (with four octaves in each bar), etc. These even-numbered beats are symmetrical and have the characteristics of marching; Odd-numbered categories, including 3/2 (each bar has three binary notes), 3/4, 3/8, 6/4, 6/8, 9/8, etc. They sound rotary, so they are often related to dance music. In addition to the above 2/4 and 3/4, there are bar lines, which are short vertical lines that divide the notes into regular units with alternating strengths and weaknesses, which looks intuitive. Usually, the first beat behind the bar line is a strong beat, such as 2/4, which is a common rhythm of marching music. It is a strong and weak alternation, while 3/4, such as waltz, is a strong and weak alternation. If there are more than three beats, there will be two different strong beats, such as 4/4, which is strong-weak and second strong-weak; 6/8 is strong-weak-weak; Second strong-weak-weak. In fact, this is just a concept of rhythm, and music may not be like this. Apart from the free form in folk music, many composers, in order to give people a sense of freshness, just want to break the regularity of rhythm, flash past where the beat is strong, but suddenly come to the listener in the weak beat position, which makes the listener unexpected. Please listen to the ballet music "Sacrifice to Spring" written by Stravinsky in 1913.

This dance drama depicts the primitive sacrifice of prehistoric people. Its crazy and barbaric music style once made people angry, and even caused unprecedented theater riots in the history of music.

speed refers to the rate of beat. It can be roughly divided into three categories: slow, fast and moderate. The speed term is usually written at the beginning of the score, which is mostly Italian (sometimes in the native language). The commonly used speed marks are as follows: slow class:

Large Broad Board

Grave is very slow and solemn and slow Lento Adagio Adagio Adagio Adagio Adagio Medium class:

Andante Andantino andantino Moder. Ato board fast category:

Allegretto Allegro allegro

allegro molto fast allegro Vivace vivace Presto allegro Prestissimo

speed is an important content of music rhythm. It is also a triple beat. With fast speed, it will give people a lively and lively feeling, while with slow speed, you will get an elegant and leisurely effect. Usually, the fast pace is more exciting, which corresponds to our heartbeat and breathing during intense exercise, while the slow pace makes people calm and emotionally stable. To put it bluntly, expressing excitement, excitement, joy and liveliness is in line with fast speed; The performance of sunny and spring scenery in the garden is often matched with moderate speed, while grand carols, sad elegies and deep memories are mostly matched with slow speed.

The characteristics of poetry and music performance are stipulated to be integrated in rhythm, an artistic function. The rhythm of poetry can only pay attention to rhythm in the five or seven words of China's poetry; They have an inevitable pause on the third word and the fifth word, that is, "bending over", which is an irreplaceable factor in rhythm. The stress of English poetry is obvious, so their poems can move forward by rhythm even if they don't stress the rhyme; French poetry, on the other hand, depends on the ending rhyme, because the stress of its language is not obvious-the same characteristic of Chinese, that is, the flatness is not obvious, which makes the rhyme of poetry necessary. Second, melody

Melody is the soul and foundation of music, which embodies the main idea of music. When a writer writes a novel, he narrates the plot of the novel in words, which is easy to remember. On the one hand, it narrates the real life, and on the other hand, people can go back and recall the plot. The content described by music is always abstract in essence (except for some title music), and the "plot" of music can only be expressed by melody, so melody seems to be equivalent to the position of plot in the novel. Melody is the guide of the audience. Therefore, when the audience touches a melody, they must be able to recognize it and follow its whereabouts from beginning to end. This is the minimum requirement for an understanding audience.

Melody is closely related to our daily language. The twists and turns of the earliest music are dependent on the language itself. It can be said that it is an exaggeration of the pitch in the language. For example, reciting a poem is to read it out in a more musical tone, and so is the ancient chant in the west. Later, gradually there were musical melodies independent of language, but if you think about it carefully, these melodies with different forms still have a deep relationship with language, such as tortuous melodies, like cordial conversations; A short and powerful melody, much like a command or an exclamation; Descending melody is like a familiar sigh in our daily life, which is often used to express sad crying or heavy sigh. The narrative of music is a specious narrative. This is very important. Generally speaking, narration is a means to reach the destination of narration, not an end. But the narrative of music is quite different. Because no audience or listener will listen to music just to understand the purpose and significance of the music text.

what is the melody? Simply put, the continuous progress of single tones with different pitches and different durations constitutes a melody. Strictly speaking, the melody is made up of modal relations and rhythm and beat relations, and it is carried out in a single voice of many tones with independence. Melody organically combines all the basic elements of music (here refers to mode, pitch, rhythm, strength, etc.) into a complete and inseparable unity. It is inconceivable that melody leaves other musical elements, because the performance of melody and the sense of human power are realized through the function and interaction of various musical elements. Melody can be divided into two kinds: vocal instrumental melody. Vocal melody is for vocals to sing. Generally speaking, it has a narrow range and is full of singing. Instrumental melody is for musical instruments to play. Compared with vocal melody, it has a wider range, greater changes in speed and strength, and is full of rhythm and skill. But singing is also of great significance to the performance of instrumental melody.

Melody can be divided into the following four ways: 1. Progressive. That is, the melody proceeds according to the scale formula, which can be ascending (12345) or descending (54321). 2. Jump in. Jumping more than three degrees during the melody is called jumping (135 or 531). 3. Homophonic repetition. The same sound appears continuously (1155665, 4433221). 4. Punching, that is, repetition at different heights (123, 456, 654, 321). In addition, the melody can be changed and developed by some means, thus expanding the scope and enriching the content of the melody.

Melody is a clue that continuously guides the listener to finish listening to a piece of music from beginning to end. When listening to music, we must firmly grasp this clue. Most melodies are more or less accompanied by some carefully designed secondary materials. Don't let the melody be overwhelmed by other materials that accompany it. To separate the melody from all the surrounding materials in your mind, you must be able to hear the melody.