Chapter 3 The Structures of Music

1. Chapter 3The Structures of Music Texture

2. Texture • Melody looks horizontally at musical lines • Harmony looks vertically at chords • Texture looks at the relationship between a melody and all other lines and figures that co-exist with it • Like melody, texture is universal phenomenon

3. Texture • Listening for texture • Who’s playing the melody? • What’s going on behind the melody? • Beethoven Symphony No. 9 excerpt (Listen CD-ROM) • Copland Appalachian Spring excerpt

4. Texture • Beethoven Symphony No. 9 excerpt • Theme: played by cellos and basses with no accompaniment • Variation 1: violins play theme, low strings and bassoon play two countermelodies • Variation 2: violins play theme even higher, multiple countermelodies • Variation 3: trumpets take melody, block chord accompaniment (orchestral hits)

5. Texture • Copland Appalachian Spring excerpt: • Theme: clarinet melody, offbeat long-tone accompaniment by flute, piccolo, harp • Var. 1: oboe melody, offbeat long-tone accompaniment by muted trumpets and (later) horns, flute, piccolo • Var. 2: “wall of sound” accompaniment (string pizzicato, glockenspiel, staccato woodwinds, harp, etc.); melody played by trombone and violas, imitated later by horns and violin, cellos and basses

6. Identifying Textures • Three questions to determine texture: • How many “lines” can you hear? • Is there a foreground/background relationship, or are all lines equally interesting? • How similar or different are the lines?

7. Identifying Textures • How many “lines” can you hear? • How many “lines,” or different “things,” are going on at a time • Is it melody only? • Is there more than one melody? • Are there various chords, figures, bass lines, and/or countermelodies in addition to the melody?

8. Identifying Textures • Is there a foreground/background relationship, or are all lines equally interesting? • Is there one main melody with clearly accompanimental patterns supporting it? • Is it hard to tell which is the main melody, because it is so busy and confusing?

9. Identifying Textures • How similar or different are the lines? • Are they rhythmically the same or different? • Do they use the same melody or a different one?

10. Monophonic Texture • How many “lines” can you hear? • Only one, nothing else • Foreground/background relationship, or are all lines equally interesting? • N/A • How similar or different are the lines? • N/A

11. Homophonic Texture • How many “lines” can you hear? • Two or more • Foreground/background relationship, or are all lines equally interesting? • Foreground/background; there is one main melody and the other parts support it • How similar or different are the lines? • Different rhythms = melody and accompaniment • Similar rhythms = chordal (homorhythmic)

12. Homophonic Texture • Melody and accompaniment texture • Chordal (homorhythmic) texture

13. Polyphonic Texture • How many “lines” can you hear? • Two or more • Foreground/background relationship, or are all lines equally interesting? • All lines equally interesting, all competing for your attention; can be hard to follow • How similar or different are the lines? • Same tune = imitative polyphony • Different tunes = non-imitative polyphony

14. Polyphonic Texture (1) • Imitative polyphony

15. Polyphonic Texture (2) • Non-imitative polyphony

16. Key Terms • Texture • Monophony • Monophonic texture • Homophony • Homophonic texture • Polyphony • Polyphonic texture • Counterpoint • Contrapuntal writing • Imitation • Imitative polyphony • Non-imitative polyphony

17. Texture Listening • Name that texture! • How many “lines” can you hear? • Foreground/background relationship, or are all lines equally interesting? • How similar or different are the lines? • Texture type? • Monophonic? • Homophonic? Chordal or melody and accompaniment? • Polyphonic? Imitative or non-imitative?