Music 252

Apo-sobriety; individual

Dio-god of intoxication, wanton lust, excess, suffering; whole

made by Friedrich Nietzsche

The level of pulse that best expresses the heartbeat of the musical flow. It tends to be on the faster side, like a heartbeat (vs. a walking rhythm).

The grouping of beats into larger, clearly perceptible units of time. Since measures group beats, the measure is slower than the beat.

The pulse that marks first beat of each measure. The downbeat is commonly the strongest beat of each measure.

Any beat of the measure that is not a downbeat. (more on this presently.)

The regular organization of rhythm, involving beats, downbeats, and measures. Meter aligns with the rhythmic grid; oversimplifying a bit, we could simply say that meter is the rhythmic grid.

Four-beat time, 4/4 time, 4/4, or simply four; While other music tends more to a two-beat feel, which musicians call two-beat time, 2/4 time (or 2/2), 2/4, or simply two.

2: boom-chuck or oom-pah; marching-band music, country music, ragtime, and much early jazz;

4: jazz, beginning with swing; walking

At beat 3 of the four-beat measure. This means that there are stronger and weaker upbeats. Since it is relatively strong, this middle beat is usually called a backbeat, rather than an upbeat. In jazz, R&B, gospel, and rock, it is often played hard, creating what is called a backbeat rhythm or simply a 'backbeat.' By counterbalancing the downbeat, a strong backbeat gives an extra push to the music and to the dancers, creating potent energy and drive.

divisions within the beat

the first half of the beat lasting longer than the second half. the latter kind of division produces what is called swing rhythm (or feel, or beat; also sometimes referred to as shuffle rhythm), because it gives a lilting or 'swinging' feel to the beat; and it is, as you might expect, essential to the jazz style called 'swing.'

rough division of the beat into three parts

Intense rhythmic emphasis; Even the divided parts of the beat -- whether straight or swing -- are emphasized too. for that reason, boogie rhythm is sometimes referred to as eight-beat rhythm

Syncopation, meaning a musical attack that occurs on a relatively weak beat (or offbeat) at the expense of a neighboring strong beat which receives no attack

specific, unique quality of sound made by any voice, instrument, or combination of the two

pianos are made in such a way that each piano key can only strike one, unvarying, fixed pitch, while the human voice can create all kinds of variable pitch through bending and sliding, all the way up and down its range

melodic grid, which is analogous to the rhythmic grid we discussed last time; octave

• -traditional scales found in Western
• -diatonic scales include seven pitches

Major: strength or happiness, but can be used for all kinds of emotions, including irony, melancholy, and bitterness

Minor: Emotion or sadness, but can also be used to express almost any emotion, including grandeur, violence, or good times

12 pitches; includes sharps/flats; dissonant

chromatic inflections -- added sharps or flats -- are frequently introduced into diatonic scales in order to add color, spice, or some other desirable quality

• On different keys, etc
• -Modal scales are often labeled with names borrowed from ancient Greece, including mixolydian, lydian, dorian, phrygian, etc

• variant or subset of the major scale, except that its seventh degree (7) is lower (flatted) than the seventh degree of a major scale
• -G mode
• -the mixolydian seventh, being lowered, sounds softer, and has more of a tendency to lead downwards from the tonic

• -melodic and expressive 'feel'
• -the lydian has a raised (sharp) fourth degree
• -luminous, otherworldly, or 'outer-space modern' effect

five different pitches within the octave

• Major: degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, letting go of degrees 4 and 7
• -European American music

• Minor: degrees 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7
• -heart of African American singing traditions

a 'blue note' is a pitch space, rather than a pitch point: it is a place in certain scales where you can bend, dig in, wail, or otherwise move around, rather than hitting and staying on one precise pitch

third, fifth, and seventh degrees of the diatonic minor scale