Summary
The podcast aimed to discuss the course requirements, the essential components of music, and music history in the renaissance and baroque periods. The course materials incorporate a concert report to discuss on a live and public performance. It could be free or paid and must be something that one does not usually listen to.
The next part analyzed the essential components of music such as melody, rhythm, and harmony. A melody was defined as a series of memorable pitches that can be recognized by the human ear. Pitches in a melody were referred to as notes played one after another. Notes can be played in a range that consists of a low note to a high note. Melodies also have a shape in the form of a contour that starts low and goes high. Other terms that describe a melody are intervals, conjunct, disjunct, climax, phrase and cadence, and countermelody.
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The analysis of rhythm and meter showed that music exists in time but in a smaller time unit. Rhythm establishes the relationships of time in music. Beats establish a rhythm with accents and downbeat. Other ways to organize music based on rhythm is through measures and notations. Nonmetric music is music without a rhythm or a beat, while syncopation involves playing a song off the beat. The categories of music based on meter include duple, triple, quadruple, simple or compound, and irregular music.
Harmony was defined as the organization of music with more than one pitch at a time. Tonality is the organization of notes based on a key. Music is also organized in scales that is an ordered group of notes. Major and minor scales identify the difference between one key and another. Intervals are the distance in pitch between two notes. An interval with eight notes is an octave (“Podcast No. 2. Developments in Music”, 2013). Chords come about when three notes are played together. Playing different chords together forms a harmony. Other scales and keys were diatonic, chromatic, pentatonic, and whole-tone scales.
The lecture also covered music performed in the renaissance period. Most of the music in the period was vocal polyphony. The period was thus referred to as the golden age of vocal polyphony. A cappella, music that is not accompanied by an instrument, was mostly sung during the renaissance period. Music in the period was also made of Sacred music such as The Motet and The Mass. The Baroque Style is a type of music that had exaggerated emotion and detail to produce drama, such as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
Reflection
The podcast was insightful as it provided a basic introduction to some of the elements of music. I have always understood melody as a series of notes. However, the lesson provided a clear definition of melody as a memorable series of pitches. It was interesting to note that rap songs do not have any melody. The podcast was easy to follow as one concept to another. Melody was first identified as a series of pitches; pitches were then defined as a note with a context. Explaining some of the concepts through a live keyboard made it easy to grasp and differentiate most of the concepts. For instance, the duple, triple, and quadruple types of music were understood using live beats.
The tonality concept was explained well when it was defined as organizing notes in a “center of gravity,” known as the key. I was able to relate some of the concepts with my previous knowledge of music. For instance, nursery rhymes such as “row, row, row your boat” were repetitive and followed a style of imitative polyphony music. Another example of imitative polyphony music is the Ave Maria, Virgo Serena song. The section on the history of music made me appreciate how music has evolved throughout the years. It was interesting to note that music had a significant history in the church, referred to as sacred music.
References
Podcast no. 2. developments in music. (2013). MUS 100 Fundamentals Music National University. https://cfvod.kaltura.com/pd/p/1700302/sp/170030200/serveFlavor/entryId/0_rd1gajdt/v/2/flavorId/0_ynmic3ey/fileName/MUS_100_Podcast_2_October_2013.mp4/name/a.mp4
