Listening Terminology Application Assignment: Melody & Texture

Jul 12, 2021 | students

Listening Terminology Application Assignment: Melody & Texture

Assignment Learning Outcomes:

  • Identify and describe the various fundamentals concepts of music and music notation symbols by applying traditional terminology.
  • Discuss and compare the various functions, uses, and contexts of music.

Assignment Purpose & Instructions

  • LTAAs are designed to prepare you for writing the Concert Report.
  • In this assignment, I want you to pay close attention to the type of sentences I have you create, and the order in which they come. This is the form I’d like for you to follow in the Concert Report.
  • This assignment closely mirrors the prompts of the Concert Report in that you’ll be tasked with discussing two materials of music for the same composition.
  • Provided examples are to give you general guidance on how to construct sentences only. You are NOT to copy them directly, as that constitutes a Code of Conduct violation for plagiarism. Change the words, structure, phrasing enough so that you write your original thoughts, not mine. I am not considering the copying of major term definitions word-for-word plagiarism for these assignments/the Concert Report.

Paragraph Creation

  1. ITEM ONE: Subjective Opinion and Term Identification
    1. Say whether or not you enjoyed the work due to its melody and texture. Indicate the general type of main melodies and textures present and include the title/artist!
      1. Ex.) The tonal melody and simple textures in “The Sound of Music” performed by Julie Andrews really made the song exciting and pleasant to hear.
  2. ITEM TWO: Term Definitions
    1. Define melody and texture using the definitions from the book/PowerPoint.
      1. Ex.) Melody can be defined as a collection of pitches perceived as single unit. Texture describes the number of pitches and melodies sounding at the same time, often referencing the instruments making them.   
  3. ITEM THREE: Melody Identification
    1. Identify the most important melody and the instrument(s) that play it.
      1. Ex.) Ms. Andrews’ vocal melody was the most important, clearly prominent for the entire song.  
  4. ITEM FOUR: Melody Attributes (this will take more than one sentence)
    1. Identify the melodic aspects you wish to discuss (For instructional sake, I will provide examples of all of the major attributes. You need only to use two to three depending on what you notice in the music.)
      1. Ex.) I specifically noticed interesting elements in the melodic range, contour, motion, phrasing and climax.
    1. In the order you listed them, discuss the attributes of the important melody, citing the instrument playing them:
      1. Range:  say whether a specific melodies’ range overall seems wide or narrow, then go on to include why (i.e., the pitches either seemed close together or wide apart).
        1. Ex.) Overall Ms. Andrews’ vocal melody seemed to have a fairly narrow range, as the pitches she sang sounded closer together.
      1. Contour: make an analogy as to what you think the overall shape the melody takes.
        1. Ex.) The contour of her vocal melody seemed to flow up and down, just like the hills she describes in the lyrics.
      1. Melodic Motion: first generally describe if the melody is mostly conjunct/disjunct, or some combination of the two. Then, more specifically describe the contour, justifying your observation with evidence. Avoid note-by-note, play-by-play description!
        1. Ex.)I would describe the vocal melodic motion as mostly conjunct, as the pitches remained close together, with certain moments that were more disjunct. When she sings, “every song” the melody descends quickly, doing so again at the very end at “and I’ll sing once more.”
      1. Phrasing: first generally describe the types of phrases you noticed (short/medium/long, regular/irregular) and whether they stayed consistent or changed as the piece progressed.  
        1. Ex.) The phrasing of the main vocal melody was consistently medium throughout the song. She took breaths at regular intervals, but sang mostly complete lyrics like “The hills are alive with the sound of music” and “my heart wants to sing every song it hears.”
      1. Climax: identify generally if there are many, only a few, or just one over the course of the song. Describe further where those occur with lyrical, pitch, and intensity specificity.
        1. There were two noticeable climaxes in the song. The first one occurred at the very beginning with her first vocal entrance. The orchestra swelled with rising lines to meet her opening phrase “the hills are alive…”. The second climax occurred about halfway through the piece, where again the orchestra got louder as she sang her highest pitches at “I go to the hills…”.
  5. ITEM FIVE: Texture Identification
    1. Identify whether the texture of the composition was overall more consistent or variable, and whether the textures were simple or complex.
      1. Ex.) Overall the textures in “The Sound of Music” were relatively simple and consistent.
  6. ITEM SIX: Texture Attributes (this will take more than one sentence)
    1. Discuss the overall thick/thinness of the texture, referencing instrumentation, and an important moment where (if) it changes.
      1. Ex.) For the most part the song had a thick texture: Ms. Andrews’ voice was continuously supported by an orchestra, which included brass, woodwinds, and strings. The texture was thickest at the climax of the piece, when she sings “I go to the hills” with all of the instruments playing together.
    1. Discuss the specific type of textures (mono-, homo-, and/or polyphonic) you noticed, referencing specific moments and roles the instruments play.
      1. The piece is essentially homophonic: Ms. Andrews sings the main melody and the orchestra supports her. I can identify, however, brief moments of polyphony. This mainly occurs when high woodwinds play small melodic fragments over her initial lyrics like “…with the sound of music” and “…song it hears.”
  7. SEVEN: Summary
    1. Wrap it all up, referencing the attributes you addressed, and linking back to your initial opinion.
      1. Ex.) In summary, the engaging melodic features and pleasing textures made Ms. Andrews’ performance of “The Sound of Music” an all-time favorite of mine.   

Paragraph on Melody & Timbre

  • An “ideal” response would thus look something like below. In this paragraph I have chosen just two melodic and textural attributes each (four total) to discuss:

The engaging melodic and textural in “The Sound of Music” performed by Julie Andrews really made the song exciting to hear. Melody can be defined as a collection of pitches perceived as single unit, whereas texture describes the number of pitches and melodies sounding together, usually referencing instrumentation. Ms. Andrews’ vocal melody was the most important one, clearly prominent for the entire song.  I specifically noticed interesting elements in melodic motion and climax. I would describe the vocal melodic motion as mostly conjunct, as the pitches remained close together, with certain moments that were more disjunct. Specifically, when she sings, “every song” the melody descends quickly, doing so again at the very end at “and I’ll sing once more.” There were two noticeable climaxes in the song. The first one occurred at the very beginning with her first vocal entrance. The orchestra swelled with rising lines to meet her opening phrase “the hills are alive…”. The second climax occurred about halfway through the piece, where again the orchestra got louder as she sang her highest pitches at “I go to the hills…”. The overall texture in “The Sound of Music” was relatively simple and consistent. For the most part the song had a thick texture: Ms. Andrews’ voice was supported by a full orchestra of brass, strings, and woodwinds. The texture was thickest at the climaxes of the piece, when she sings “the hills are alive…” and “I go to the hills…” with all of the instruments playing together. The piece is essentially homophonic: Ms. Andrews sings the main melody and the orchestra supports her. I can identify, however, brief moments of polyphony. This mainly occurs when high woodwinds play small melodic fragments over her initial lyrics like “…with the sound of music” and “…song it hears.” In summary, the stirring melodic features and pleasing textures made Ms. Andrews’ performance of “The Sound of Music” an all-time favorite of mine.  

Specified Listening

  • For the LTAA, you will be working with two pieces from the PowerPoint linked below. Excerpts are automatically included for appropriate questions, but if you would like to hear the pieces in their entirety, please use these links: