CHAPTER 1: The Elements of Music
3
DYNAMICS
All musical aspects relating to the relative loudness (or quietness) of music fall under
the general element of DYNAMICS.
The terms used to describe dynamic levels are often in Italian:
pianissimo
[
pp
] = (very quiet)
piano
[
p
]
= (quiet)
mezzo
-
piano
[
mp
] = (moderately quiet)
mezzo-forte
[
mf
] = (moderately loud)
forte
[
f
] = (loud)
fortissimo
[
ff
]
= (very loud)
<———————————— Quiet
LOUD————————————>
(
ppp
)
pp
p
mp
mf
f
ff
(
fff
)
Other basic terms relating to
Dynamics
are:
Crescendo
:
gradually getting LOUDER
Diminuendo (or decrescendo)
:
gradually getting QUIETER
Accent
: "punching" or "leaning into" a note harder to temporarily emphasize it.
__________________________________________________________
MELODY
Melody
is the LINEAR/HORIZONTAL presentation of
pitch
(the word used to
describe the highness or lowness of a musical sound). Many famous musical
compositions have a memorable
melody
or
theme
.
THEME
: a
melody
that is the basis for an extended musical work
Melodies can be derived from various
scales
(families of pitches) such as the
traditional
major
and
minor
scales of
tonal
music, to more unusual ones such as
the old church
modes
(of the Medieval and Renaissance periods: c. 500–1600), the
chromatic scale
and the
whole tone scale
(both used in popular and art-music
styles of the late 19th and 20th-century periods), or unique scale systems devised in
other cultures around the world.
Melodies can be described as:
•
CONJUNCT
(smooth; easy to sing or play)
•
DISJUNCT
(disjointedly ragged or jumpy; difficult to sing or play).
__________________________________________________________
accent
crescendo
decrescendo (diminuendo)