These four elements are the material of composer's creation. If the audience can't understand the complicated rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre to a certain extent, it is almost impossible to have a complete concept of music content.
Rhythm and beat
Rhythm includes two concepts: beat and speed. The former refers to the movement of alternating strength of music regularity, that is, the combination of beat points, while the latter refers to the rate of this rhythm.
Beat is a pattern of repeating stress at certain time intervals according to the time signature, or a fixed repetitive sequence of strong and weak sounds. Each beat consists of a unit with a fixed time value, and this beat unit is called time. The duration of a beat can be quarter note, half note or eighth note. Beats are usually expressed in fractions, numerator indicates the number of unit beats in each bar, denominator indicates the duration of notes in the unit beat, for example, 2/4, which means "each bar has two beats, and each beat is a quarter note", or simply "each bar has two quarter notes". The following are some common beats: even beats, including 2/2 (two semitones per bar), 2/4, 4/4, 4/8 (four octaves per bar) and so on. These even beats are symmetrical and have the characteristics of marching; Odd categories, including 3/2 (each bar has three binary notes), 3/4, 3/8, 6/4, 6/8, 9/8, etc. They sound rotating, so they are often related to dance music. In addition to the above 2/4 and 3/4, there are bar lines, which are short vertical lines that divide notes into regular units with alternating strengths and weaknesses. It looks intuitive. Usually, the first beat behind the bar line is a strong beat, such as 2/4, which is a common rhythm of marching music. It is alternating between strength and weakness, while 3/4 waltzes are alternating between strength and weakness. If there are more than three beats, there will be two different strong beats, such as 4/4, which is strong-weak and the second strong-weak; 6/8 is strong-weak-weak; The second strongest-weak-weak. In fact, this is just a concept of rhythm, and music is not necessarily like this. In addition to the free form in folk music, many composers just want to break the regularity of rhythm in order to give people a sense of freshness, and flash in the place with strong beat, but suddenly come to the listener in the position of weak beat, which makes the listener unexpected. Please listen to 19 13 Stravinsky's ballet music "Sacrifice of Spring".
This dance drama depicts the primitive sacrificial scenes of prehistoric humans. Its crazy and barbaric music style once made people angry, and even caused unprecedented theater riots in the history of music.
Speed refers to the rate of jumping. It can be roughly divided into three categories: slow, fast and medium. The speed item is usually written at the beginning of the score, mostly in Italian (sometimes in the mother tongue). Commonly used speed markers are as follows: slow class:
Large wide plate
Solemnness is very slow, solemn and slow. Adagio adagio adagio adagio medium speed category:
Allegro in Andante andantino;
Allegro Allegro
Allegro very lively
Speed is an important content of music rhythm. It's also triple time. If the speed is fast, it will give people a lively and lively feeling. If the speed is slow, it will get an elegant and leisurely effect. Usually, the fast pace is more exciting, which corresponds to our heartbeat and breathing during intense exercise, while the slow pace makes people calm and emotionally stable. To put it bluntly, express excitement, excitement, joy and liveliness, in line with fast speed; Sunny and spring scenery in the garden are often accompanied by medium speed, while grand carols, sad elegies and deep memories are mostly accompanied by slow speed.
The characteristics of poetry and music performance are defined as being unified in the artistic function of rhythm. The rhythm of poetry can only be emphasized in the five or seven words of China's poetry; They have an inevitable pause on the third word and the fifth word, that is, "bending over", which is an irreplaceable factor in the rhythm. The stress in English poetry is obvious, so their poems can progress by rhythm even if they don't stress rhyme; French poetry, on the other hand, depends on the rhyme, because the stress of its language is not obvious-the same feature of Chinese, that is, the flatness is not obvious, which makes the rhyme of poetry necessary. Second, melody
Melody is the soul and foundation of music, which embodies the theme of music. When a writer writes a novel, it is easy to remember by describing the plot in words. On the one hand, it tells the real life, on the other hand, people can go back and recall the plot. The content described by music is always abstract in essence (except some title music), and the "plot" of music can only be expressed by melody, so melody seems to be equivalent to the position of plot in the novel. Melody is the guide of the audience. Therefore, when listeners touch a melody, they must be able to recognize it and track its whereabouts from beginning to end. This is the minimum requirement for an understanding audience.
Melody is closely related to our daily language. The twists and turns of the earliest music depend on the language itself. It can be said that it is an exaggeration of pitch in language. For example, reciting a poem is to read it in a more musical tone, and so is the ancient chant in the West. Later, musical melodies independent of language gradually emerged, but when you think about it carefully, these melodies with different forms still have a deep relationship with language, such as tortuous melodies, such as cordial conversations; A short and powerful melody, much like an order or an exclamation; Falling melody, like a familiar sigh in our daily life, is often used to express a sad cry or a heavy sigh. The narrative of music is a specious narrative. This is very important. Generally speaking, narrative is a means to achieve narrative purpose, not an end. But the narrative of music is quite different. Because no listener or listener will listen to music just to understand the purpose and meaning of the music text.
What is the melody? Simply put, a single tone with different pitches and different durations is continuous, which constitutes a melody. Strictly speaking, melody is composed of mode relationship and rhythm relationship, and it is carried out independently in a single voice with multiple tones. Melody organically combines all the basic elements of music (here refers to mode, pitch, rhythm, strength and so on. ) into a complete and inseparable unity. It is inconceivable that melody can be separated from other musical elements, because the expression of melody and people's sense of strength are realized through the function and interaction of various musical elements. Melody can be divided into two types: vocal instrumental melody. Vocal melody is for human voice. Generally speaking, the range is narrow and full of singing. The melody of instrumental music is for musical instruments to play. Compared with vocal music melody, it has a wider range, greater changes in speed and intensity, and is full of rhythm and skill. But singing is also of great significance to the expression of instrumental melody.
Melody can be divided into the following four ways: 1 and progressive. That is to say, the melody follows the scale formula, which can be rising (12345) or falling (5432 1). 2. Jump in. Jumping more than three degrees in the melody process is called jumping (135 or 53 1). 3. Homophonic repetition. The same sound appears continuously (1155665,4433221). 4. Punching, that is, repeating at different heights (123,456,654,321). In addition, the melody can be changed and developed by some means, thus expanding the scope and enriching the content of the melody.
Melody is a clue that constantly guides the listener to listen to a piece of music from beginning to end. When listening to music, we must firmly grasp this clue. Most melodies are more or less accompanied by some carefully designed secondary materials. Don't let the melody be drowned by other materials that accompany it. To separate the melody from all the surrounding materials in your mind, you must be able to hear the melody.