The full sound of a composition, as you hear it, is built from individual lines. We designate these lines as voices or parts regardless whether they are played by instruments or sung. Each voice or part is assigned its particular kind of action, as though it were one dancer or actor among an ensemble. Their composite action, the total effect of their sound and motion, constitutes musical texture. …
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Harmony is concerned with effects that are produced when two or more notes are sounded together. It also deals with the ways in which such effects can be used to promote musical movement and arrival. …
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Melody is the most tangible element of music, the most easily recognized and remembered. Think of the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Symphony no. 9, the Beatles's "Yesterday" Franz Gruber's "Silent Night," "The Waltz of the Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. We cherish these tunes and so many others; they are among the most precious moments in the art of music. …
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Now we enter the composer's workshop to get a look at some of the musical processes by which composers create these effects. They include the basic elements and processes of music — rhythm, melody, harmony, and texture.…
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Music moves toward goals. To be intelligible, musical movement must arrive, and any action that throws musical movement into relief provides you with a sense of arrival. For example, the tone of an electric motor has a certain musical quality — a steady pitch and perhaps even a pleasant timbre. As it hums along monotonously, though, you quickly tune it out as meaningless background noise. …
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While sound touches us, musical movement invites us to take part. We tap our feet to music, we nod our heads, we may even sway and dance to it. In a sense, musical movement mirrors life itself. Breathing, growing, the change of day to night — these are motions by which we live. Musical movement also reflects the ebb and flow of our feelings and moods. Our physical and emotional responses to the movement of music are touched off by its pace, its regularity, its force, and its flow. …
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