At its simplest, music consists of a short, unaccompanied melody, known as monophony. But even the simplest melody consists of many important components. Some of the most obvious of these are the varying heights or pitches of the tones, their durations, their loudnesses, their tone colors or timbres, and their articulations.
A. Pitch
Although most musical cultures share the concept of highness and lowness of pitch, awareness of this concept is not inborn. Psychological studies have demonstrated that few five-year-olds understand the concept of high and low pitch, whereas most nine-year-olds do. Pitch depends on the rate of vibration, or frequency, of sound waves that produce a particular tone. Higher pitches have a higher frequency (greater rapidity of vibrations) than lower pitches. Most musical cultures recognize the octave, a unique relationship of two pitches. Two pitches are an octave apart when their rates of vibration form an exact 1:2 ratio. Tones an octave apart blend together so smoothly that listeners often confuse the two tones or think they are hearing a single tone. Pitch-naming systems reflect this similarity by giving notes an octave apart the same name (A, B, C, for example, in Western music). Most musical cultures recognize the concepts of pitch and octave, but not all. For example, there is no Japanese word for octave although what Westerners call octave is found in traditional Japanese music.
Each musical culture has one or more sets of tunings that define the gaps or intervals between pitches in that group’s music. By the 18th century, most Western music was based on 12 equivalent intervals per octave. This system is represented by the chromatic scale. Its 12 equally spaced tones per octave, called half-steps or semitones, can be heard by playing the tones that correspond to 12 adjacent frets on a guitar fretboard, or to 12 adjacent keys on any modern Western keyboard instrument. The semitone is the smallest gap in traditional Western music, but smaller intervals (collectively referred to as microtones) are used in some modern Western music, as well as in some other musical cultures.
Again, learning plays an important role in what pitch relations are considered pleasing. In a psychological study early in the 20th century, participants spent several months becoming familiar with the sound of a scale based on such small intervals that all 12 scale members fit within a standard half-step. By the end of the learning period, many participants stated that this microtonal scale sounded very natural, and they could recognize melodies composed with this scale. Some participants even stated that the top note of the scale seemed twice as high as the lowest note—the description Western musicians typically give to the octave.
For the past several centuries, the preferred underlying pitch structure in Western art music has been the diatonic scale. This scale consists of seven tones related by a total of five whole-steps and two half-steps, arranged in the sequence from C to C of the white keys of a modern piano or organ. Depending on the pitch relationships among whole-steps and half-steps, scale systems are referred to as either major or minor, or as a specific kind of ecclesiastical or church mode.
B. Scale
A great deal of Western folk music, along with much folk music and art music around the world, conforms to a five-tone, or pentatonic, scale. The best-known form of the pentatonic scale contains no half steps. Instead, it is made up of three whole-steps and two step-and-a-half intervals. The black keys on a modern piano or organ keyboard produce a pentatonic scale.
There are many scale systems in the world, and not all are based on dividing the octave into 12 equal parts. For example, the Javanese Sléndro scale contains five tones, but tunings of these five tones do not correspond to twelve steps in an octave scale as with other pentatonic scales. Scholars have measured several different tuning versions of the Sléndro scale, including some that approximate dividing the octave into five equal intervals. When comparing the sounds of Javanese and Balinese gamelan performances, listen carefully to the tunings of the gongs
C. Time
Musical rhythm is defined broadly as everything having to do with the way music uses time. More specifically, this includes characteristics such as durations of tones and silences, and patterns of durations, both of which can focus attention on certain tones making them more prominent than others. These more-prominent or accented tones often mark regular patterns that enable listeners to perceive tones as members of larger groups. We can illustrate this sort of perceptual grouping with a simple visual example. Look at the string of numbers in the first line and the string of letters in the second line for a minute, and see if you can see any patterns:
The numbers form a simple sequence that repeats itself every three numbers. Rather than saying this is a string of 12 integers, we can recognize that this is a group of three elements each repeated four times. Since the numeral 1 is the first member of each new group, we may pay a little more attention to it. The recurring pattern that enables us to think of these numbers in groups is similar to musical meter (the grouping of beats). In this case, the three-element repetitions are analogous to a common pattern in Western music, triple meter, represented by the metric signature µ.
The string of letters is also fairly simple, because the pattern repeats every four letters. This repeating pattern of four is analogous to quadruple meter, represented by the metric signature ¹. As with the repetition of sets of numbers, the first element in each new pattern claims attention and is more accented and emphatic. But in this sequence a second pattern of emphasis is added by the capital letters. This pattern draws attention away from the expected pattern of accents by shifting the stress to a normally weak beat. This device, known as syncopation, is found in music of many cultures.
D. Harmony
In most music, and especially in Western music, important and style-defining patterns are formed by pitches that overlap with one another in time, producing a chord, or harmony. Two or more tones that occur at the same time form a harmonic relationship called a block chord. These tones are called broken chords or arpeggios when heard separately but in sufficiently rapid succession that the listener perceives them as part of the same harmony.
Composer Scott Joplin used block and arpeggiated chords in his ragtime style. The higher-pitched notes in the ragtime piece “The Cascades,” for example, are played by the pianist’s right hand. These pitches form the same harmonies as do the lower-pitched notes played by the left hand. But the higher chords played by the right hand sound more melodic because they are broken or arpeggiated, while the block chords played by the left hand form the accompaniment.
Two or more tones heard simultaneously may belong to separate melodies that fit well together, but which occupy different octave registers, have distinct rhythmic patterns, or otherwise have different shapes or contours. Music composed of multiple independent but related parts is referred to as polyphony or, when the parts are distinct melodies, counterpoint. Two very different forms of polyphonic music with contrapuntal melodies may be heard in the early 20th-century jazz piece “Dippermouth Blues” and in the 16th-century Missa De Beata Virgine by Palestrina.
A. Pitch
Although most musical cultures share the concept of highness and lowness of pitch, awareness of this concept is not inborn. Psychological studies have demonstrated that few five-year-olds understand the concept of high and low pitch, whereas most nine-year-olds do. Pitch depends on the rate of vibration, or frequency, of sound waves that produce a particular tone. Higher pitches have a higher frequency (greater rapidity of vibrations) than lower pitches. Most musical cultures recognize the octave, a unique relationship of two pitches. Two pitches are an octave apart when their rates of vibration form an exact 1:2 ratio. Tones an octave apart blend together so smoothly that listeners often confuse the two tones or think they are hearing a single tone. Pitch-naming systems reflect this similarity by giving notes an octave apart the same name (A, B, C, for example, in Western music). Most musical cultures recognize the concepts of pitch and octave, but not all. For example, there is no Japanese word for octave although what Westerners call octave is found in traditional Japanese music.
Each musical culture has one or more sets of tunings that define the gaps or intervals between pitches in that group’s music. By the 18th century, most Western music was based on 12 equivalent intervals per octave. This system is represented by the chromatic scale. Its 12 equally spaced tones per octave, called half-steps or semitones, can be heard by playing the tones that correspond to 12 adjacent frets on a guitar fretboard, or to 12 adjacent keys on any modern Western keyboard instrument. The semitone is the smallest gap in traditional Western music, but smaller intervals (collectively referred to as microtones) are used in some modern Western music, as well as in some other musical cultures.
Again, learning plays an important role in what pitch relations are considered pleasing. In a psychological study early in the 20th century, participants spent several months becoming familiar with the sound of a scale based on such small intervals that all 12 scale members fit within a standard half-step. By the end of the learning period, many participants stated that this microtonal scale sounded very natural, and they could recognize melodies composed with this scale. Some participants even stated that the top note of the scale seemed twice as high as the lowest note—the description Western musicians typically give to the octave.
For the past several centuries, the preferred underlying pitch structure in Western art music has been the diatonic scale. This scale consists of seven tones related by a total of five whole-steps and two half-steps, arranged in the sequence from C to C of the white keys of a modern piano or organ. Depending on the pitch relationships among whole-steps and half-steps, scale systems are referred to as either major or minor, or as a specific kind of ecclesiastical or church mode.
B. Scale
A great deal of Western folk music, along with much folk music and art music around the world, conforms to a five-tone, or pentatonic, scale. The best-known form of the pentatonic scale contains no half steps. Instead, it is made up of three whole-steps and two step-and-a-half intervals. The black keys on a modern piano or organ keyboard produce a pentatonic scale.
There are many scale systems in the world, and not all are based on dividing the octave into 12 equal parts. For example, the Javanese Sléndro scale contains five tones, but tunings of these five tones do not correspond to twelve steps in an octave scale as with other pentatonic scales. Scholars have measured several different tuning versions of the Sléndro scale, including some that approximate dividing the octave into five equal intervals. When comparing the sounds of Javanese and Balinese gamelan performances, listen carefully to the tunings of the gongs
C. Time
Musical rhythm is defined broadly as everything having to do with the way music uses time. More specifically, this includes characteristics such as durations of tones and silences, and patterns of durations, both of which can focus attention on certain tones making them more prominent than others. These more-prominent or accented tones often mark regular patterns that enable listeners to perceive tones as members of larger groups. We can illustrate this sort of perceptual grouping with a simple visual example. Look at the string of numbers in the first line and the string of letters in the second line for a minute, and see if you can see any patterns:
The numbers form a simple sequence that repeats itself every three numbers. Rather than saying this is a string of 12 integers, we can recognize that this is a group of three elements each repeated four times. Since the numeral 1 is the first member of each new group, we may pay a little more attention to it. The recurring pattern that enables us to think of these numbers in groups is similar to musical meter (the grouping of beats). In this case, the three-element repetitions are analogous to a common pattern in Western music, triple meter, represented by the metric signature µ.
The string of letters is also fairly simple, because the pattern repeats every four letters. This repeating pattern of four is analogous to quadruple meter, represented by the metric signature ¹. As with the repetition of sets of numbers, the first element in each new pattern claims attention and is more accented and emphatic. But in this sequence a second pattern of emphasis is added by the capital letters. This pattern draws attention away from the expected pattern of accents by shifting the stress to a normally weak beat. This device, known as syncopation, is found in music of many cultures.
D. Harmony
In most music, and especially in Western music, important and style-defining patterns are formed by pitches that overlap with one another in time, producing a chord, or harmony. Two or more tones that occur at the same time form a harmonic relationship called a block chord. These tones are called broken chords or arpeggios when heard separately but in sufficiently rapid succession that the listener perceives them as part of the same harmony.
Composer Scott Joplin used block and arpeggiated chords in his ragtime style. The higher-pitched notes in the ragtime piece “The Cascades,” for example, are played by the pianist’s right hand. These pitches form the same harmonies as do the lower-pitched notes played by the left hand. But the higher chords played by the right hand sound more melodic because they are broken or arpeggiated, while the block chords played by the left hand form the accompaniment.
Two or more tones heard simultaneously may belong to separate melodies that fit well together, but which occupy different octave registers, have distinct rhythmic patterns, or otherwise have different shapes or contours. Music composed of multiple independent but related parts is referred to as polyphony or, when the parts are distinct melodies, counterpoint. Two very different forms of polyphonic music with contrapuntal melodies may be heard in the early 20th-century jazz piece “Dippermouth Blues” and in the 16th-century Missa De Beata Virgine by Palestrina.
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