Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Christine Carroll Concepts analysis should attempt to describe the musical events of a piece or excerpt. By limiting our observations to a particular concept we can explore specific musical events, deconstructing the music within a specific conceptual context. Good analysis will describe the musical events in detail, starting at the beginning of the work and working through it slowly making observations that are backed up by musical references. Further, it will look for explanations as to why a piece of music has been put together in a specific way in light of the expressive, or stylistic context in which it has been written. You may use point form, but remember to explain your observations.
Melody :
1) Register- Where it is placed? 2) Range-The distance between the lowest and highest notes used. 3) Shape- The use of intervals, steps/leaps, and pitch direction. 4) Scale Type The use of major, minor, modal, chromatic, pentatonic, whole tone, blues, and non-western scale forms. 5) Phrase Length- The sections of a melody, and how they relate. 6) Theme or Motif- Important melodic ideas. 7) Ostinato- Constantly repeating melodic ideas. 8) Melodic Devices Such as sequence, inversion and retrograde. 9) Traditional and graphic methods of notating pitch
Harmony:
chromatic, modal, atonal, bi-tonal, poly-tonal, whole-tone, or non-western tonalities/keys. May or may not include the use of a tonal center. 2) Modulation- Changes in key. 3) Types of chords - Use of major and minor chords, 7 t h chords, added note chords, jazz harmonies, diminished and augmented chords, suspensions, poly-chords etc. 4) Dissonance and Consonance - Resolving or unresolving. 5) Cadences - Use of perfect, imperfect, plagal, and interrupted cadence forms. 6) Patterns Harmonic patterns and progressions. 7) Drone or Pedal point - Stationary bass notes
4) Rhythmic Activity Note values, patterns used both notated and described.
1) Volume and Volume changes- Dynamics used and changes in dynamics 2) How dynamics are achieved- Variations in number of instruments, tone colour variations, volume changes and terraced effects etc. 3) Phrasing and Interpretation- Subtle peaks and troughs. 4) Expression and Tempo markings- Meanings of expression and tempo marks. 5) Articulation- staccato, legato, slur/tongue, pizzicato and arco, tremolo, accents etc 6) Ornamentation Use of trills, grace notes, portamento, baroque ornaments etc 7) Style- The effects of style on dynamics and expression.