Elements of Music
Beethoven has a thought-provoking famous saying: "Music should spark the human spirit." By what means does music achieve such a strong effect? To sum up, it is mainly the language, structure and harmony of music. The language of music mainly refers to melody, the structure of music includes factors of rhythm and form, and the harmony of music mainly refers to harmony. Therefore, people often regard "melody", "rhythm" and "harmony" as the most important elements of music. Musical aestheticians believe: "The melody that has never been exhausted and will never be exhausted is the primary image of musical beauty;" Harmony has brought about various changes, and it constantly provides a novel foundation; The rhythm makes the combination of the two lively, which is the lifeblood of music and adds color charm to the diverse timbre. "
As the most important melody in the "three elements", it has the following functions: the melody can simulate nature, such as running water, birdsong and so on. Melody can also reflect life, for example, it can show the wall clock, alarm clock, Jason Chung and pocket watch in the watch shop, and it can also describe the scene where craftsmen in the watch shop whistle and develop strips. Melody can also express feelings, which is the best function of melody. Melody can also shape images, which is a synthesis of the first three functions.
rhythm is the skeleton of melody. It is the relationship between the length of organized sounds. The rhythm of rhythm comes from life, such as walking, swimming, tamping, hoeing, pulse, breathing, heartbeat, running machines, etc. All aspects of life contain rhythm factors. Although there are many kinds of rhythms, they can be summarized into three categories: long, short and combination of long and short.
Harmony refers to a multi-voice part composed of different high and low tones that sound simultaneously and are in harmony with each other. The application of harmony can make the main theme three-dimensional, as mentioned above, it can continuously provide a novel foundation for the development of music.
Music is called "a wonderful combination of sounds". Music is mainly composed of six elements, namely, Rhythm, Melody, Texture, Form, Tone Color and Tonality.
1. Rhythm
Rhythm is an aspect of music, which includes all factors (such as stress, beat and speed) related to the progress of music.
When people are listening to music, they can't help but beat the rhythm, which shows the priority of the tune. One element of rhythm is meter, which is defined as "the rhythm measured and arranged systematically". Another element of rhythm is tempo. The beat explains what stress is, but it doesn't explain how fast or how slow it is to play these stresses. Common expressions of rhythm are: Large, Grave, slow, slow, slow, Adagio, Andante, Andantino, Moderato, Allegro and allegro.
the use of rhythm has a great influence on music.
2. Melody
Melody is caused by some notes played continuously. Melody is what music wants to express and what people want to hear. Technically, people can create a melody with two notes, and we can hear two single notes from the calls of two different kinds of birds. People can hum, sing and blow out these two sounds without any other sound or accompaniment. Melody has always been centered on a specific sound, which is the starting point, the core point and the ending point, and all other sounds in a piece of music are related to it
It is easier to master the melody in some music works. Compared with the classical melody of Haydn's symphony, the romantic melody of Schumann's symphony is more passionate and expressive of personal feelings. A successful work doesn't have to adopt a strong melody, but a beautiful and easy-to-hum melody will always give more joy to the ordinary amateur audience. Many people who have not studied or analyzed music are easily attracted by composers who are good at melody.
3. Structure
The melody is horizontal, and the notes are one after another, while the structure is something attached to this note line. One way to get the structure is to use harmony. A person can't match his voice with "harmony". He needs a friend to sing with him, or a guitar to pluck. With harmony, the music has depth. Melody is a series of music sounds, but harmony is the music sounds at the same time.
chord in a structure means that three or more sounds are emitted at the same time, which plays an important role in harmony. Chord involves not only the relationship between each chord and the melody it matches, but also the rhythm of the chord and its relationship with each other.
in music works composed of melody and chords, chords are often composed of "concord" sounds, that is, pleasant, peaceful, non-irritating and stable music sounds. However, chords can also be composed of really harsh tones with changing levels, that is, "dissonant", "active" and "unstable" tones. This dissonant chord is used by composers to create tension, while the harmonious chord is used to relieve this tension, and the rhythm from one chord to another is the whole connotation of harmony.
4. Musical form
Musical form is called the' architectural' form chosen by the composer. Music needs a certain structure, and each period of music embodies a specific musical form, reflecting the characteristics of the times, the understanding of music knowledge, the composer's skills and the purpose to be achieved, and the audience's appreciation taste.
The structure or mode of music can be rigorous or free. The rigorous musical form does not mean that composers lack imagination or originality, such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. The question is not what form to adopt, but what content to give to the form. For amateur music lovers, music with irregular patterns, structures or musical forms is not only difficult to keep up with ideas, but also difficult to understand, just like when we appreciate abstract sculptures and blank poems.
Some major musical forms, such as symphony, are generally known because they are still popular, but some older musical forms are unfamiliar to people. People in the music industry like to say that no matter what musical form is adopted, the basic principle of the structure of music works is repetition and contrast.
the word "musical form" will also include vocal art forms such as opera, oratorio, mass and cantata.
5. timbre
Every instrument used in music performance has its own timbre. For example, the timbre of a flute is different from that of a tuba, even though the two instruments play exactly the same notes. For example, there are dozens of different musical instruments in an orchestra, which are as many as the colors on the artist's palette. These timbres play an important role in the orchestration method, which is the method of composing music for the orchestra.
rimsky Kosakov, a Russian romantic composer, said: "The orchestration is a part of the soul of a work. A work for an orchestra is inseparable from certain timbre. " Musicians sometimes like to equate various sound qualities with specific colors. For example, clarinet can emit a sound similar to soft blue tone, while trumpet sounds like fiery red tone.
All kinds of musical instruments have different timbres, but their personality is more prominent:
Violin-expressing all emotions
Viola-expressing deep sadness
Cello-expressing all emotions, But it's stronger than the violin.
Piccolo-carnival
oboe-simple joy and sorrow
Trumpet-bold, brave and cavalry approaching voice
tuba-strength and rough expansion
English pipe-hazy sadness
clarinet-
6. Tonality
Tonality is difficult for amateur music lovers to understand. When we pluck a string and it is plucked, it will emit a sound with a fixed collar rate, and the number of vibrations per second of the string is equal when it is sounded. The lowest note of the piano vibrates 3 times per second and the highest note vibrates 4 times per second. No matter the length of the string, the sound it makes after plucking is almost the same as that of the string with half or twice the length. These two short or long strings respectively make higher or lower sounds than the first string, but the sounds of the three strings are the same. A note on the piano, such as C, can find the same high note in the high note part of the keyboard and the same low C in the low note. Hundreds of years ago, western composers divided the length of a string into 12 segments. Although you can't see it on the violin, you can find seven white keys and five black keys on the piano, which represent the twelve sounds used in traditional western music. Each key, whether white or black, is a semitone away from the adjacent key.
as we all know, seven white keys are named by the names of the first seven letters of the alphabet, from A to G. Each protruding black keys has two key names. When it is higher than the white key, it is called a semitone, and vice versa. Therefore, in the keyboard diagram, rising C and falling D are the same black keys. The keyboard diagram also shows that the five white keys on the piano, namely A, C, D, F and G, all have a rising black keys on their right side, while the other two, B and E, do not. The sound difference between two adjacent keys is still half a pitch, whether they are white, white and black, or black and white. Therefore, there is a whole tone difference between the A key (white key) and the B key (white key) because there is a black keys in the middle. While the E key and the F key are both white keys, but the difference is only a semitone, because there is no black keys in the middle. A pianist starts with a white C-key and uses only seven white keys. We will hear the familiar "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do" diatonic scale. Because he chose C as the starting point, and only played a tune with these keys, plus chords, then this piece is "C major" music. Unlike other keys, C major only includes white keys. If he only plays white keys, he is "completely loyal to tonality", and he has not "given up" or "lost" tonality. His work will be centered on the first sound of his chosen scale, in this case, C. This c sound is the tonic. "Tonality" reflects the relationship between chords and harmony belonging to a key.
basic elements of music: the basic elements of music refer to various elements that make up music, including the sound level, sound length, sound strength and timbre. These basic elements are combined with each other to form the common "formal elements" of music, such as rhythm, melody, harmony, strength, speed, mode, form and texture. The formal elements that constitute music are the means of expression of music.
The order from low to high can be divided into:
1. Rhythm: The rhythm of music refers to the length and strength of sounds in music movement. The rhythm of music is often compared to the skeleton of music. Beat is the repetition of repeated beats and weak beats in music periodically and regularly. Chinese traditional music calls the beat "board eye", and "board" is equivalent to strong beat; "Eye" is equivalent to a second strong beat (middle eye) or a weak beat.
2. Strength: the strength of the middle notes in music.
3. Speed: the speed at which the music goes.
4. Melody: an organized, rhythmic and harmonious movement of sound through artistic conception. Melody is the basis of music, and the thoughts and feelings of music are expressed through it.
5. Harmony: Harmony includes "chord" and "harmonic progression". Chords are usually a sound combination formed by three or more musical notes overlapping vertically (at the same time) according to certain rules. The transverse organization of chords is harmonic progression. Harmony has obvious strong, light, thick and thin color functions; It also has the function of forming clauses, dividing paragraphs and ending music. Progressive upward in a 3-degree relationship.
6. Tonality: harmony produced on a scale. There are 24 major (major = tonality)
7. Form: the horizontal organization structure of music.
note: the above materials are not original by me, but all come from online search. The author is unknown. I apologize. .