Graphic Scores

MUSICAL ELEMENTS

|pitch |timbre |

|texture |texture |

|duration |structure |

|tempo |silence |

TIMBRE

Timbre is usually defined as the quality of sound.

Any instrument or voice can have a variety of timbres depending on how it is played or used.

• A drum can be beaten to produce a hard sound or rubbed to produce a soft sound.

• Voices can resonate in the throat to give a harsh sound or at the front of the face to give a more mellow sound.

The following words are used to describe timbre:

rattling, smooth, tinkling, scratchy, chiming, clicking, bright, hollow, light, heavy, dull, cold, warm.

TEXTURE

Texture refers to layers or combinations of sounds and the effects they create.

Solo, A piece of music played on a single instrument/voice.

Ensemble Played by two or more instruments/voices.

Sparse

Dense

Thick

Thin

Different layers.

DYNAMICS

This refers to the volume of a sound – how loud or quiet it is, and how the volume changes.

loud

quiet

Getting louder crescendo

Getting quieter diminuendo

Accents

An accent is the use of stress

R L L R L L R L

> > >

R L L R L L R L R L R L

> > > > >

DURATION

Duration is about long and short sounds and how they can be combined to make patterns.

Long sounds, sustained

Short sounds, staccato

Pulse, Beat

A pulse or beat is a series of regular soundsRhythm

Rhythm

A “rhythm” is generally a short pattern of unevenly spaced sounds.

Rhythm: Click - e - ty Clack Click - e - ty Clack

Beat: Click Clack Click Clack

.

TEMPO

Tempo is about the speed of a piece of music, how fast or slow it is.

Italian terms are used to describe the tempo of a piece of music

e.g, Largo/Adagio – slow

Andante –...