How much do you enjoy the following masterpiece? Quite a lot, we'll bet. But, we reckon, you'll get many more layers of pleasure from it, with the help of our four essential building blocks of music.
Read on as we unveil the four key (and easily understandable) concepts that will help you to get so much more out of your music listening. Of course, the joy of music is deeply personal and often profoundly moving: but understanding these four key ideas will enhance your appreciation and deepen your connection to this most wonderful artform.
1. Form
What is form in music?
Form is the overall structure or architecture of a piece of music, dictating how different sections of a composition are organised and repeated.
Why is it important?
Without form, music would be perceived, to put it bluntly, as a mess: a jumble of disjointed sounds, devoid of progression or development. Form allows composers to create a coherent and meaningful composition by defining distinct sections that relate to each other, making it easier for listeners to follow and appreciate the music. In this way, we can liken musical form to narrative in a piece of fiction. It provides a piece of music with the same sense of anticipation and resolution as a novel or a short story.
What kinds of forms are there?
Amongst the most common forms in Classical music is sonata form, which consists of three main sections: the Exposition (introducing the main themes); Development (exploring and transforming the themes); and Recapitulation (returning to the main themes). One of the most famous examples of this is the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
Ternary Form, consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the opening, is also pretty common, an example of this being Frédéric Chopin’s Polonaise in A major.
There’s also Rondo form, in which a recurring theme is interspersed with contrasting sections, as in Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca, as performed below by the legendary Glenn Gould.
Then there’s Theme and Variations form (found in the fourth movement of Franz Schubert’s Trout Quintet, for example), which works exactly the way you would expect: setting out an initial theme before elaborating on that theme in a selection of variations.
2. Harmony
What is harmony?
Harmony is a combination of different musical notes played or sung simultaneously, often forming chords. Certain combinations of chords are known as chord progressions.
Why is it important?
Harmony adds richness and context to melody, making the music sound fuller and more varied. Different chord combinations also evoke various emotions, like happiness, sadness, tension, suspense, climax or resolution, allowing music to tell a story.
What kinds of harmonies are there?
Harmonies come in all colours and flavours, but, on a macro level, they can be divided into a few basic groups:
Diatonic harmony, often used in pop, rock and dance music, uses notes and chords all from the same musical key. The vanilla of harmonic flavours, diatonic harmony is comforting and relatively predictable.
Non-diatonic harmony uses notes from other scales in addition to the key signature. Often found in 20th century and contemporary classical music, non-diatonic harmony adds tension, colour and an element of unpredictability to music. One of the apostles of non-diatonic harmony was Arnold Schoenberg, whose flamboyant style is epitomised in works like his dreamlike, expressionist string sextet Verklärte Nacht.
Consonant harmony sounds smooth and blends naturally to the ear, generally consisting of notes a third, sixth, fourth, fifth or an octave apart.
Dissonant harmony, meanwhile, sounds jarring - some would even say it sounds ‘wrong’ - and uses intervals like the major and minor second, and the major and minor seventh. Another striking example of dissonant harmony is the tritone, also known as the 'diabolus in musica', or 'devil in music'.
As for atonal harmony: you could call it a free for all, in which the key or tonal centre evaporates altogether. Characterised by its ostensibly random sound (even if it is in fact tightly structured), atonal harmony started to take hold from the early 20th century.
That’s when Schoenberg and his colleagues Anton Weber and Alban Berg ushered in the 12-tone-style, in which all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are used equally throughout a piece. Amongst the most famous pieces in this style are Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto of 1935 and Igor Stravinsky’s 1950s ballet Agon.
3. Rhythm
What is rhythm?
Rhythm is the pattern of sound, silence and emphasis in a piece of music. It concerns how long notes are played, and with what intensity. When certain durations of notes are repeated, this is referred to as a rhythmic pattern.
Why is it important?
This essential component of classical music's secret code helps to establish mood, pace and character, creating a sense of flow and triggering an urge to dance. It also keeps musicians in sync with each other.
What kinds of rhythm are there?
Well, firstly there’s regular rhythm, in which elements are repeated precisely in an evenly spaced arrangement. Some of these include the Waltz (a triple-time rhythm characterized by a 3/4 time signature) and the March (a strong rhythm, generally in 2/4 or 4/4 time, designed to accompany marching).
Then there's the French-derived Gavotte (characterized by a pattern that usually starts on the third beat of a measure, often in 4/4 time, giving it a unique "upbeat" feel) and the Gigue (a lively, distinctive “dotted” rhythm, often characterized by a compound time signature, like 6/8 or 9/8, and found in dance music.)
In syncopated rhythms, offbeats are emphasised more than the main beat. These are particularly characteristic of jazz music, but classical music has its fair share too, with examples ranging from 'the Hornpipe' in Handel’s Water Music to Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G.
Another commonly-used technique is ostinato - a continually repeated musical rhythm. Of all the major classical composers of the 20th century, Stravinsky is possibly the one most associated with the practice, not least in his neoclassical choral and orchestral work Symphony of Psalms.
A progressive rhythm is one that changes slightly each time it repeats, eventually creating a new rhythm. The contemporary American composer John Adams is a master of this, using it to dazzling effect in his short piano piece China Gates, amongst other works.
Polyrhythms, meanwhile, is the simultaneous sounding of two or more rhythms, creating a complex texture.
4 Dynamics
What are dynamics in music?
Dynamics are the changes in volume in a piece of music.
Why are they important?
Imagine someone reciting a speech with no variation in emphasis or volume. You’d fall asleep and, even if you didn’t, you’d probably struggle to grasp what was being communicated. The same goes for a piece of music. Dynamics help to convey emotion, and also to lend variety, interest and, often, drama.
They also support a sense of narrative, helping to emphasise the build-up to climaxes, and even, on a smaller scale, reinforcing the flow of individual phrases: a crescendo leading up to a phrase’s central tone can play a vital role in communicating musical intent.
What kinds of dynamics are there?
So many! But the key terms - usually written in Italian - are forte or f, (loud), piano or p (soft), crescendo (getting louder) and diminuendo (getting quieter.) Some composers liked to take these to extremes. In Gustav Holst's The Planets, for example, ffff (very, very, very loud) occurs twice in Mars and once in Uranus, punctuated by organ.
In the third movement of his Symphony No. 7, another Gustav, Mahler, takes it one step further, giving the cellos and double basses a dynamic marking of fffff (very, very, very, very loud indeed), and instructing them to “pluck the string so hard that it hits the wood”.
Conclusion
So there you have it: four key concepts that are sure to make you a more attentive, present listener, and to enhance the enjoyment you get from music. Of course, the joy of music is a very subjective and often a very powerful feeling: however, a grasp of these four key musical ideas will deepen your understanding, and hence your love, of this most basic yet most beautiful form of human expression. Happy listening!
