Music GCSE

Elemants of film music- remember by ReMITTeD

Rhythm, if fast and syncopated exciting

Melody, the bit you remember, creates mood so wide leaps and falling notes are dramatic and scalic patterns are magical.

Instruments also create mood so an oboe is mournful and brass is triumphant.

Tonality creates mood so minor is sad or spooky, major is happy and modal is old or folky.

Texture, monophonic one melody, homophonic melody with chords and polyphonic more than one melody.

Dynamics can give mood so sudden changes are dramatic and gradual cresendo create tension.

Devices that might be used- music to show setting e.g. indian music in India, motifs to show character is coming e.g.Jaws, repeated ideas give feeling of urgency and repetition of chase.

In westerns- traditional instruments are used represent setting, often action so tempo quick. melody is mostly simple but catchy.

In Horror, sci-fi and fantasy; theme comes back in altered form to show gone wrong, dynamics, pitch, and tempo increases to build tension, snippets of sound gives feeling of unease. unusual instruments are used e.g. synthesizers in sci-fi to give techo feel.

In thrillers and spy movies, music shows what not on screen, many layers to music to show mystery and confusion, often uses particualr themes.

These were for rich people so were played at courts, royal occasions, and churches.

Minuet is in triple metre and medium tempo, often third movement and was still played in classical period. Sarabande is slow and in triple metre, the second beat is stressed and there are lots of ornaments. Gavotte is quick and in duple metre there is often anacrusis and sequencing. Gigue is the quickest in compund duple metre and mostly came at the end.

The baroque suite was mostly in binary form. There were regular phrases and obvious cadences. They were made more interesting by hemiolas, sequences, imitation and ornaments. these were played on small baroque orchestras and harpsichords.

The Waltz started in Vienna and was written by lots of Strausses. It is in triple metre and the rhythm is oom cha cha so it feels more like 1 beat in a bar, this is emphasized by the supporting chords. The chords patterns change slowly and so it has slow harmonic rhythm. The appoggiaturas and chromatic notes were used to make it more exciting. The structure started as binary AABB and then were paired with other waltzes to create over ternary structure AABBCCDDAABB. The sections often contrasted by modulation. They were played by large romantic orchestras. Waltzes spread to home pianos, operas and orchestral works.

The Polka is originaly a folk song from Bohemia. It is in duple metre and has jeky energy, the rhythm is quick-quick-slow. It was made more exciting by appogiaturas and also spread beyond the ballroom.

Disco- this was in the 1970s its roots were in soul, funk and jazz. It used loudspeakers, amplifiers, turntables and DJs. it is usually in 4/4 and around 120 bpm. The tunes have hooks.

Rap grew out of jamaican reggae it is talking over instrumentals and drum machines. This influenced Hip Hop which was like rap but more tuneful it has a more formal verse -chorus structure.

Techno is fast and mostly mechanical or electronic. Jungle is really fast it has short notes between main beats to give a disjointed feel. Drum'n'bass this is club music mixed with jazz and funk, funnily enough its mainly drums and bass. UK Garage a mixture of Jungle, Drum'n'bass and modern rhythm and blues, uses vocal sounds like percussion. Trance very repetitive, echoey and electronic, slow chord changes over fast beat. Ambient slow jazzy and chilled.

Mixing- DJs putting records with similar bpm and key together to create continuous music.

Scratching - records turned forwards and backwards by hand gives scratchy noise.

Sampling- using snippets of other peoples songs in your music.

Looping- repeating a short pattern of notes over and over again.

Digital effects- creating sound effects like reverb or echo. A vocoder make human voices soung synthesized.

Quantising- adjusting the music so it is in perfect time, sounds robotic.

Sequencing-layering tracks on top of each other.

Remixing- making an alternative version of a piece of music.

Son a basic repeated pattern (clave) made by hitting claves together. Percussion instruments like bongos or maracas. Syncopation, cross-rhythms and call and response between the lead singer (the sonero) and the chorus (the choro). It is made up of primary chords and harmonies in thirds and sixths.

Son and Big- band jazz was combined to make Salsa which is son with, syncopation, jazz chords, riffs, imitation, walkjing bass lines and comping (playing rhythmic chords on the piano or guitar to back up the main tune.) A Salsa tune goes verse montuno (chorus with improvisation and call and response.) and mambo which has new musical ideas.

Samba is in 2/4 or 4/4 and is major and cheery. It has percussion, portugese guitar and keyboards. the samba beat is like springy footsteps, steady surdo drums unmuted and muted alternately. There are syncopated rhythms over the top. The whistle player sets the tempo and signals call and reponse sections.

The Tango is in 2/4 or 4/4 and uses basic rhythmic patterns. There could be many instruments but often violin, piano, double bass or bandoneon ( a kind of accordion).