A composer setting out to write a piece has a basic form in mind, much as a chef builds upon a basic recipe in creating a fine dish. Both composer and chef begin with good ingredients. They use a basic form or recipe to put their materials into good order and effective combinations. Finally, they add the personal touch that makes their creations works of art. Each of the forms to be described in this article has served as a guideline to composition and to perceptive listening. …
Rhythm is the driving power of form, its instant-to-instant thrust; melody and texture articulate form, establishing landmarks and other topography; and harmony is the great chain, the unbroken line that goes from here to there and back again.…
One of the greatest appeals of music is its ability to evoke moods and images. Composers in every age and of every rank — amateurs as well as the masters — have taken advantage of the evocative power of music to suggest associations with words, pictures, and gestures.…
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. …
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. …
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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