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.…
Read More
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. …
Read More
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. …
Read More
Sound touches us. Physically, as vibration in the air, it stirs the sense of hearing. Metaphorically, as a signal, it awakens our feelings. Sound commands our attention and holds it.…
Read More
Suppose you and a few friends, after listening to Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, compare your responses to the music. If you reflect on what you enjoyed most in the piece, you might say that it has colorful sounds, that it moves lightly, that it suggests an image of a midnight elfin scamper, or that it is beautifully put together. …
Read More