Download 1. Musical Perception - your first impression of what you hear. React

MUSICAL PERCEPTION
& Musical Elements
1. Musical Perception - your first impression of what you hear.
React - don't analyze:
1. Motion - ranges from still to driving
2. Energy - ranges from weak to strong
3. Flow - ranges from confined to free
4. Fabric - ranges from thin to thick (texture - complexity)
5. Color - ranges from dark to bright
2. Musical Elements - now you analyze how the elements below are used by the
composer/pianist to shape the perceptions of the piece that you observed in Step 1. Each piece
will use the elements in its own way. You should focus on the elements that are most important in
the composition you're listening to.
1. Rhythm - Tempo
Rhythm: how much movement do you feel in the music? (perceptions 1, & 3)
Tempo: ranges from slow movement to fast movement,
Adagio - Andante - Allegro
Meter: duple, triple, or mixed (accented beats - in groups of two or three)
*Changes in rhythm & tempo interrupt or change the motion and flow.
2. Melody (theme)
-sectional: clear cadences, easier to sing & remember the theme, homophonic
-imitative: complex, polyphonic, difficult to sing & remember
-major/minor tonality - effects the color of the piece.
3. Timbre
-instrument types / voice types
-type and size of performing group (ensemble).
4. Harmony - has a strong impact on our perception of color.
-tonality: major/minor
-consonant (pleasant), dissonant (harsh)
5. Texture - effects our perception of the music's complexity (fabric).
-homophonic: most common type, one melody with accompaniment.
-monophonic: simplest, one unaccompanied melody, (example: Chant)
-polyphonic: most complex, two or more melodies at one time. (ex.: fugue)
-silence: creates the greatest possible contrast to the above textures.
6. Dynamics - effects our perception of the music's energy.
-volume level: pp p mp mf f ff - most pieces have a "range" of dynamics
-gradual changes in volume: crescendo, decrescendo
-terraced: immediate change in volume, p to f, f to p.
7. Form - the structure of the music. Strongly connected to Melody (above)
-sectional: homophonic melodies - cadences end the "sections",
sonata-allegro form, rondo, song form, theme & variations
-imitative: Baroque music (fugue)
-dramatic: follows a story (literature, movie, play)
-free: random, improvised