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Making Musical Decisions: Form, Melody, Timbre, and Rhythm

In this chapter, composers explore the different musical decisions they make, including form, melody, timbre, and rhythm. They shape their compositions through the use of various techniques and styles. The chapter delves into the process of composing and performing with others, highlighting the role of conductors and the concept of rubato.

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Making Musical Decisions: Form, Melody, Timbre, and Rhythm

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  1. Chapter 7 Making Musical Decisions

  2. The composer must decide what he or she wants to say and the best musical means to express it. Among the most fundamental decisions are those concerning musical elements like form, melody, timbre, and rhythm. • Composers often begin writing by choosing a work’s form. Form gives shape and direction but it does not control the feeling or message the musical work expresses. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM

  3. Melodies may vary in length and style. Some music is based on a minor scale. • Minor scale is a sequence of eight pitches built on the pattern of one whole step, one half step, two whole steps, one half step, and two whole steps. • Composers achieve variety by changing familiar melodies from major to minor. Composer Gustav Mahler used this technique in his Symphony No. 1 in D Minor. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N7TlTJcqCo

  4. A symphony is an extended work for orchestra with several contrasting movements. • Mahler became known for his expressive melodies. Duke Ellington was celebrated for the same innovations in the field of jazz. *Listen for octave displacement in “I Got It Bad…”

  5. Decisions about timbre • Tibetan Dance – by Bright Sheng, blends Chinese traditional sounds with American music • Pipa – traditional Chinese lute • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRPeKRtjgRA

  6. Decisions about rhythm • Felt time – an aspect of music that controls the listener’s sense of how much time has passed

  7. Arranger – a musician who reworks existing musical material Arranging for instrumental groups include changing a melodic/lyrical line to a particular instrument. Transcriptions are arrangements of music transferred from one medium to another (ex: from vocal with lyrics to piano or another instrument)

  8. Theme and Variations • Composers, arrangers, and performers have always delighted in extending a musical idea through subtle or obvious changes. When they do this within a single composition. • Theme and variations is a musical form in which a melodic idea is stated then varied in a succession of statements. • Melodies can be ornamented, tempos altered, harmonies changed, texture transformed, rhythms revamped. Some composers will play their themes backwards or upside-down. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSe7WM9JP8Q

  9. Harmony is vertical blocks of different tones that simultaneously. Chords are built by adding a third or fifth above any tone. • John Lewis – “One Diamond” – starts with Bach then transforms to jazz • Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” was influenced by Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

  10. Decisions in Performing with Others • Conductor – the director of an orchestra, choir, or other performing group • 1. select the music • 2. rehearse the musicians • 3. maintain the beat • 4. make decisions re: tempo, dynamics, and phrasing • 5. give visual cues

  11. Rubato – the free treatment of tempo within a musical phrase • Marin Alsop – “Barrier Breaker Award” for women in conducting

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