Characteristics in Music

Music has distinct elements that audience members should learn to identify and recognize in music. This knowledge will help improve the listeners experience and improve communication between patrons. The basic building blocks of music composition will help the listener develop a greater appreciation for and interest in new music. Music is an abstract art that defies complete explanations, but learning to communicate with the appropriate terminology allows you to more accurately express your opinions on music. Learn to appreciate the richness of music and bring more fulfillment to your life by starting with a basic knowledge of the elements of music.

Melody and Countermelody

Melodies and countermelodies consist of three basic characteristics -- phrases, periods, and motives. The melody is the part of the composition that can be sung back. Most melodies, or tunes, follow a stepwise motion and can be sung by the average person. Most melodies avoid large skips or leaps in the music, as skips and leaps are both difficult to sing and create a disjunct feeling in the music. As the music becomes more advanced, melodies commonly become more abstract and skips and leaps become more common. The melodies of Webern, Schoenberg, and Berg consists of wide leaps, while the melodies of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven tends to be more stepwise. When confronted with a new piece, try listening to it at least three times before passing judgment on the composition. This will allow you to gain familiarity with the work before making a decision. The antithesis of a melody is the countermelody. As the name suggests, a countermelody plays against, or counter to the melody. Most countermelodies are played in the higher registers. For instance, the piccolo co...

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...n played at the same time will create a smooth and dark timbre.

Form

Form provides the container for a musical composition. Without form, the work would have no structure and would be difficult to make sense of. In the simplest forms, there is a beginning, middle, and end. Each part is given a letter name to indicate the place in the composition that it occurs and the materials in the music. A piece that has a form of ABA will have three sections. The first section will be called A. The B section will consist of different material and finally a return to the original material from the A section. Complex forms may have several sections, and could include several additional letters. It is not uncommon for a piece to have the form ABCADEA, where each letter represents a new section. Specific forms have names such as sonata, symphony, rondo, binary, or ternary form.