Understanding Basic Music Theory, 2013a
Understanding Basic Music Theory, 2013a
Understanding Basic Music Theory, 2013a
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79<br />
• The "March of the Toreadors" from Bizet's Carmen<br />
• No. 1 ("Granada") of Albeniz' Suite Espanola for guitar<br />
• Most popular music genres strongly favor homophonic textures, whether featuring a solo singer, rapper,<br />
guitar solo, or several vocalists singing in harmony.<br />
• The opening section of the "Overture" Of Handel's "Messiah" (The second section of the overture is<br />
polyphonic)<br />
Polyphony<br />
• Pachelbel's Canon<br />
• Anything titled "fugue" or "invention"<br />
• The nal "Amen" chorus of Handel's "Messiah"<br />
• The trio strain of Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever", with the famous piccolo countermelody<br />
• The "One Day More" chorus from the musical "Les Miserables"<br />
• The rst movement of Holst's 1st Suite for Military Band<br />
• Polyphony is rare in contemporary popular styles, but examples of counterpoint can be found, including<br />
the refrain of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," the second through fourth verses of Simon and<br />
Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," the nal refrain of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours," and the horn<br />
counterpoint in Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger's "Lavender Road."<br />
Heterophony<br />
• There is some heterophony (with some instruments playing more ornaments than others) in "Donulmez<br />
Aksamin" and in "Urfaliyim Ezelden" on the Turkish <strong>Music</strong> 28 page. Youcan also try simply searching<br />
for "heterophony" at YouTube or other sites with large collections of recordings.<br />
• Here is an example featuring children simultaneously singing three dierent children's songs 29 that<br />
are set to the same tune: "Baa, Baa black sheep," "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," and "The Alphabet<br />
Song." The result is heterophonic.<br />
• The performance of "Lonesome Valley" by the Faireld Four on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou"<br />
soundtrack is quite heterophonic.<br />
2.5 Harmony 30<br />
When you have more than one pitch (Section 1.1.3) sounding at the same time in music, the result is<br />
harmony. Harmony is one of the basic elements of music, but it is not as basic as some other elements, such<br />
as rhythm (Section 2.1) and melody (Section 2.3). Youcan have music that is just rhythms, with no pitches<br />
at all. You can also have music that is just a single melody, or just a melody with rhythm accompaniment<br />
(Accompaniment, p. 81).<br />
But as soon as there is more than one pitch sounding at a time, you have harmony. Even if nobody is<br />
actually playing chords (Chords, p. 80), or even if the notes are part of independent contrapuntal (Section 2.6)<br />
lines, youcan hear the relationship of any notes that happen at the same time, and it is this relationship<br />
that makes the harmony.<br />
note: Harmony does not have to be particularly "harmonious"; it may be quite dissonant (Section<br />
5.3), in fact. For the purpose of denitions, the important fact is the notes sounding at the<br />
same time.<br />
Harmony is the most emphasized and most highly developed element in Western music (Section 2.8), and<br />
can be the subject of an entire course on music theory. Many of the concepts underlying Western harmony are<br />
28 http://www.focusmm.com/turkey/tr_musmn.htm<br />
29 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLqEvEgKOcc&feature=share&list=PL4IEbDc0POyPTT6NeRiuG2Ktw_5TGelj5<br />
30 This content is available online at .<br />
Available for free at Connexions
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