SHOSYS ACADEMY 11 LESSON: Conventions Of Melody, Texture And Form
Kelvin Sholar
1 Introduction To The Blog Series
This series of lessons and tests incorporates an easy music appreciation curriculum for adult beginners who are remote learning, or are self-taught. Lessons are posted on Mondays while Tests are posted on Saturdays. For more in depth and private guidance, I offer personal instruction by Zoom (Personal Meeting ID 8522954569) – for 1 dollar a minute. Time schedules range from a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 60 minutes. Email me at [email protected] to set up personal instruction. I accept payments and cash gifts by Cash App ($KelvinSholar), Zelle ([email protected]) or Paypal (paypal.me/kelvinsholar).
2 Revisiting The Tree Of Knowledge
In Lesson 10, we learned about conventions of rhythm. In this Lesson, we will learn about conventions of melody, texture and form. This knowledge resides in the Ways branch (1.20) of the Tree of Knowledge (1.00), at the third leaf from the left (1.21) – Conventions.
2.1 Conventions Of Melody, Texture And Form
Roger Kamien defines melody as: “a series of single tones that add up to a recognizable whole” (Kamien 36). But, we could make this definition more precise by defining melody as a series of single tones IN TIME that add up to a recognizable whole. This makes it clear that melodies are composed by taking a set of tones and placing them in time either simultaneously (all on one beat), or sequentially (one after another, different tones on different beats); and, it makes clear that tones need time-values.
Kamien defines musical texture as: “how many different layers of sound are heard at once, …what kind of layers they are (melody or harmony), and to how they are related to each other” (Kamien 46). Basic textures in music are monophonic (a single melodic line), polyphonic (two or more melodic lines at the same time) and homophonic (a single melodic line with chordal accompaniment).
The distances between melody tones are called repetitions, steps and leaps; according to whether their is no distance between tones (i.e. a repetition), the distance is small (i.e. a half or whole step), or the distance is large (i.e. a leap greater than a whole step). The harmonic range of a melody, or the distance between the lowest and highest tones, depend on the instrument that it was written for. For example, instrumental melodies often have a greater range than melodies written for human voices. As melodies are performed by either voices or instruments, when melodies are performed by voices then words may be used in the form of sung poetry, prose or wordless “sound painting“.
Long melodies can be decomposed into phrases, just as a long sentence can. Phrases can be determined by breaths and motions; they are normally sang in one breath, or performed in one motion on an instrument. When phrases end, one finds a cadence. A sequence is when a rhythmic pattern is repeated using different tones.
Conventions of lettering parts of a composition by rehearsal letters has a similar practice when melodic phrases are analyzed; lowercase letters (e.g. a, b) describe smaller phrases while uppercase letters (e.g. A, B) describes larger sections of a melody. In both cases, a prime mark is used to denote a varied repetition of phrase or longer section (e.g. a’, b’). In the following staff notation of “Mary Had A Little Lamb“, four small phrases are described with lowercase letters a-c, and a prime mark is used to describe a varied repetition. The end of phrase b contains a leap and it is an incomplete cadence, while the end of phrase c contains a series os steps, and it is a complete cadence.
When “Mary Had A Little Lamb” is divided into two parts, (i.e. ab, a’c), then we can describe the first part as setting up a tension (which is due to the leap at the end), while the second part sets up the release of said tension (which is due to ending on the basic tone of the key and scale). The phrases of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” can be said analyzed into a “call and response” pattern: phrase a is the call which is answered by phrase b as the response. likewise, phrase a’ is the call which is answered by phrase c as the response.
Symmetry means to be made of up of exactly similar parts; therefore, symmetry in musical form is when a melody can be divided into two parts which are identical. This requires exact repetition. When the melody of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” is divided into two parts, (i.e. ab, a’c), then we can describe the second part of the melody (a’c) as a variation, because it has some of the same elements in the same places as the first part (ab); but there are also changes in the second part which cannot be found in the first part.
Contrast is when parts of the melody are in some form of opposition: it could mean a quiet part of the melody following a loud part, a fast part following a slow part or a minor part following a major part. In this way, we find a continuum of techniques that are used to create musical form; from symmetry (by exact repetition), through variation (by partial repetition) to contrast by opposition.
There are two basic types of form in Western music: binary and ternary (Kamien 50). A binary form occurs when a melody has two different sections; like A B. This form is often labeled as theme A and variation B. A ternary form occurs when a melody has two different sections but in their order is A (theme) B (contrast) A (theme); the form A (theme) B (contrast) A’ (variation) is also ternary.
3 Bibliography
Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives: The Classification Of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company, 1956
Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2018
Miller, Michael. The Complete Idiots Gude To Music Theory. New York: Alpha Books, 2005