Overview:
Timbre, harmony, and expression give music depth and provide a rich vocabulary for the expression of musical ideas. Timbre helps students distinguish between sound sources, harmony gives music more varied tonal complexities, and the emotive aspects of music (expression) quickly elicit responses from young students. Teaching strategies using visualizations through color associations or free form shapes (dots, lines, waves, or shapes) help to teach these concepts because students need to detect more subtle nuances.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Identify the characteristics in the elements of timbre, harmony, and expression,
- Describe the distinctive components of timbre, harmony, and expression,
- Select music experiences that are age-appropriate,
- Create lessons focused on timbre, harmony, and expression, and
- Analyze lesson plans for effective sequence and delivery.
What are Timbre, Harmony, and Expression in Music?
A primary purpose of elementary music is to enhance the natural inherent musicality of each student. Part of the focus of all music instruction should be to guide students to make musical decisions based upon what they know and feel. Timbre, harmony and expression in music are elements that enrich meaning and experience. They can stimulate musical thinking by asking students to consider choices and make comparisons in what is heard or performed. Timbre, harmony, and expression also have a direct impact on making students aware of how music affects the listening and participation experience.
Timbre (”TAM-ber”) refers to the quality, type, sound, or tone color of music. In this sense, quality does not refer to the “good” or “bad” features of the pitch, but its characteristics. A man and a woman might both sing a concert C; however the qualities of the voice are different. This is also true for two different women’s voices. In this example, note how the woman’s voice in the excerpt from Carmen has a different tone color than the woman's voice in the "Aria of the Queen of the Night," from Magic Flute. This aspect can also be less obvious. An opera singer, a country western singer, or a jazz singer can sing the same concert C. All would be singing the same pitch, but the characteristics or tone colors of their individual voices are different due to the natural qualities of the individual voices as well as their training and vocal style.
Aria of the Queen of the Night
Harmony is created by combining independent melody lines referred to as polyphonic texture or by layering pitches on top of each other referred to as homophonic texture. Harmony is a complex concept effectively introduced through singing, listening, creating, moving, and playing instruments. Early experiences introduce students to the simplest harmonic elements that develop their percept abilities and move to implement the more complex elements through performance.
The expressive qualities of music—tempo, dynamics, and articulation—combine with the elements of melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre, and form to give a work its unique musical identity. The emotion, intensity, and mood created by changes in tempo, dynamics and articulation engage the listener by giving the musician the opportunity to perform each work in a personal and original style.