Overview:
Most music is created with a key or pitch center; a group of pitches based on a scale in which each pitch has a corresponding chord that in turn, have a unique relationship within the grouping. A key signature contains accidentals (sharps and flats) as a short-hand method of indicating which pitches require the accidentals so that they don’t need to be written throughout the entire composition. The pitch center or scale gives a music composition a sense of stability and cohesiveness through melodic and harmonic progressions of tension and release.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Identify the basic major scale patterns.
- Identify how the scales relate to the key of a music composition.
- Define the meaning of transposition, key, and scale.
- Identify the purpose of meter in musical composition.
- Define how changes in note beams and ties alter duration within the phrase.
- Define the musical term anacrusis.
Meter
Meter is the result of grouping accented and unaccented sounds into recognizable patterns.
Sounds that carry rhythmic stress are traditionally called strong beats. These are the beats that you tap your foot to when listening to music. Unaccented sounds—those without rhythmic stress—are called weak beats.
In summary, although often equated with rhythm, meter involves our psychological perception, organization, and anticipation of sounds into fixed, recognizable, and useful beat patterns. Musicians use the term meter to denote the pattern of strong and weak beats in a given piece of music.
Unstressed Pulses
Some pieces of music lack a clearly defined pattern of strong and weak beats. Quem quaeritis - Resurrexi, an example of Gregorian chant, doesn't have a strongly defined meter.
In the Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) creates a dream-like atmosphere by purposefully avoiding a well-defined pattern of strong and weak pulses.
Duple Meter
Perception of Duple Meter
Composer: Johann Strauss II
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"Viribus unitis, Op. 96: Viribus unitis, Marsch, Op. 96"
Duple meter, is exemplified by the well-known Rondo alla Turca from the Sonata in A Major K. 331 by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) or by the Viribus Unitis March by Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899).
Triple Meter
Perception of Triple Meter
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
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"Mazurkas, Op. 33: Mazurka No. 25 in B Minor, Op. 33, No. 4"
A pattern in which a strong beat is followed by two weak beats creates triple meter. This can be represented by a line of quarter notes in which each strong pulse—marked with an accent (>)—is followed by two weak pulses.
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The Mazurca, Op. 33 No. 3 by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) illustrates triple meter. Try counting ONE - two - three, ONE - two - three as you listen to this piece. It starts out in a slow triple meter, then moves into a quicker triple meter (moving at a faster tempo). |
Quadruple Meter
Perception of Quadruple Meter
Quadruple meter is a special case of duple meter in which a strong beat is followed by three weak beats, the second of which is moderately strong. This can be represented by a line of quarter notes in which each strong pulse—marked with an accent (>)—is followed by three weak pulses. Remember, however, that within the group of three weak pulses, the second one is stronger than the other two but less strong than the first beat in the measure.
Composer: Alfred Newman
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"Captain from Castile: Conquest, Triumphal March"
The Triumphal March from the film Captain from Castille by Alfred Newman (1901-1970) illustrates quadruple meter. Try counting ONE - two - three - four as you listen to this march. (You can also count it in duple: ONE - two, ONE - two).
The following movie provides a brief explanation of meter.
Meter