What are the means of musical expression? Means of expressiveness in music (melody, mode, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, timbre, etc.). The value of the means of musical expression in creating a musical image Musical language mode tempo speaker timbre

Means of musical expression reveal the secret of how a set of notes, sounds, instruments turns into music. Like any art, music has its own language. So, for example, an artist can use paint as such means. With the help of paints, the artist creates a masterpiece. Music also has some similar instruments. We will talk about them further.

musical expressiveness

Let's start with the music determines the speed with which the work is performed. As a rule, there are three types of tempo in music - slow, moderate and fast. For each tempo, there is an Italian equivalent that the musicians use. A slow tempo corresponds to an adagio, a moderate tempo to an andante, and a fast tempo to a presto or allegro.

Some, however, have heard expressions like "waltz tempo" or "march tempo". Indeed, such rates also exist. Although they are more likely to be attributed to the size. Since the waltz tempo is, as a rule, a three-quarter time signature, and the march tempo is a two-quarter time signature. But some musicians attribute these characteristics to the features of the tempo, because the waltz and march are very easy to distinguish from other works.

The size

Since we are talking about the size, let's continue. It is needed in order not to confuse the same waltz with a march. The size, as a rule, is written after the key in the form of a simple fraction (two quarters - 2/4, three quarters - 3/4, two thirds - 2/3, as well as 6/8, 3/8 and others). Sometimes the size is written as the letter C, which means "whole size" - 4/4. Measure helps to determine the rhythm of the piece and its tempo.

Rhythm

Our heart has its own rhythm. Even our planet has its own rhythm, which we observe when it can be defined as an alternation of short and long sounds. For example, the size of the waltz is associated with the concept of the rhythm of the well-known waltz. Any dance - tango, foxtrot, waltz - has its own rhythm. It is he who turns a set of sounds into one or another melody. The same set of sounds played with different rhythms will be perceived differently.

There are only two frets in music - this is major (or just major) and minor (minor). Even people without musical education can characterize this or that music as clear, cheerful in terms of a musician) or as sad, sad, dreamy (minor).

Timbre can be defined as the color of sounds. With the help of this means of musical expression, we can determine by ear what exactly we hear - a human voice, a violin, a guitar, a piano, or maybe a flute. Each musical instrument has its own timbre, its own sound coloring.

Melody

The melody is the music itself. The melody combines all the means of musical expression - rhythm, tempo, tonality, size, harmony, timbre. All of them together, combined with each other in a special way, turn into a melody. If you change at least one parameter in the set, the melody will turn out to be completely different. For example, if you change the tempo and play the same rhythm, in the same mode, on the same instrument, you get a different melody with a different character.

You can briefly present all the means of musical expression. The table will help with this:

Enjoy the music!

Music, as the end result of mixing sounds and silence in time, conveys the emotional atmosphere, the subtle feelings of the person who wrote it.

According to the works of some scientists, music has the ability to influence both the psychological and physical state of a person. Naturally, such a piece of music has its own character, laid down by the creator either purposefully or unconsciously.

Determining the nature of music by tempo and sound.

From the works of V. I. Petrushin, a Russian musician and teacher-psychologist, the following foundations of a musical nature in the work can be distinguished:

1. the sound and slow tempo convey the emotion of sadness. Such a piece of music can be characterized as sad, conveying sorrow and despondency, carrying regret about the irrevocable bright past.
2. sound and slow tempo carry a state of peace, contentment. The nature of the musical work in this case includes peace, contemplation and balance.
3. The minor key and fast tempo suggest the emotion of anger. The nature of the music can be described as passionate, agitated, tensely dramatic.
4. The major coloring and fast tempo undoubtedly convey the emotions of joy, indicated by an optimistic and life-affirming, cheerful and jubilant character.

It should be emphasized that such elements of expressiveness in music as dynamics, timbre and means of harmony are very important for reflecting any of the emotions, the brightness of the transfer of musical specificity in a work depends on them. If you conduct an experiment and play the same melody in a major or minor sound, fast or slow tempo, then the melody will convey a completely different emotion and, accordingly, the general character of the piece of music will change.

The relationship between the nature of a piece of music and the temperament of the listener.

If we compare the opuses of classical composers with the works of modern masters, we can trace a certain trend in the development of musical coloring. It becomes more and more complex and multifaceted, but the emotional background, character, does not change significantly. Therefore, the character of a piece of music is a constant that does not change over time. Works written 2-3 centuries ago have the same effect on the listener as they did during the period of popularity among contemporaries.

It was revealed that a person chooses music for listening not only based on his mood, but unconsciously taking into account his temperament.

1. Melancholic - slow minor music, emotion - sadness.
2. Choleric - minor, fast music - emotion - anger.
3. Phlegmatic - slow major music - emotion - calmness.
4. Sanguine - major, fast music - emotion - joy.

Absolutely all musical works have their own character and temperament. They were originally laid down by the author, guided by feelings and emotions at the time of creation. However, it is not always possible for the listener to decipher exactly what the author wanted to convey, since perception is subjective, passes through the prism of the listener's feelings and emotions, based on his personal temperament.

We continue our series of articles on music theory, and today we will talk about what mode, tonality and intervals are in music.

In the last article, we studied musical notation and saw how music in general looks like in written form, and which note is responsible for which sound. To make it easier for you to get involved in this lesson, let's remember with you what the scale looks like:

What you see in the picture above is the C major scale. Why it is called “C major” will be discussed a little later. And now we will talk about gamma.

Gamma- this is a scale, the steps of which are at a distance of one tone or a semitone from each other. Usually scales are played by musicians to warm up and develop finger motor skills.

The steps of the scale from the first to the seventh are numbered in Roman numerals.

Each step of the mode has its own name:

• Stage I - tonic (T)
• Stage II - descending introductory sound
• Stage III - mediant (middle)
• Stage IV - subdominant (S)
• Stage V - dominant (D)
• Stage VI - submediant (lower mediant)
• Stage VII - ascending introductory sound

You probably understand that the notes in music are in a certain relationship with each other. So you can't just hit the strings of a guitar or fall on the keys of a piano to get a melody that caresses the ear. And above all, this very correlation is expressed in the fact that in music there are sounds that seem to stand out from the general mass of notes. Such sounds are called sustainable and often complete the melody.

But even among stable sounds there is a leader - tonic. She is the mainstay of the whole melody. In the example below, you can listen to the melody without the tonic:

Seems like something is missing, right? I want to finish the tune.

And, of course, in contrast to stable sounds, there are unstable. The unstable ones gravitate toward stable sounds, seek to connect with them. And the transition of an unstable sound into a stable one is permission.

So, we have understood that there is a certain pattern according to which music is built. And this rule is called fret. Fret always underlies any musical composition and it is he who organizes all the sounds in music, gives character to the melody.

To continue our story about modes, we need to digress a bit and tell you about intervals.

- this is a simultaneous or sequential combination of sounds. The simultaneous interval is called harmonic, and the successive interval is called melodic. The lower sound of an interval is its base, and the upper sound is its top. In the example, the left interval is harmonic, and the right one is melodic.

Melodic intervals can be either ascending (that is, read from the bottom up) or descending (that is, vice versa). Harmonic intervals are read only from bottom to top.

Intervals that are formed within one octave are called simple. And there are eight of them:

1. Prima
2. Second
3. Third
4. Quart
5. Quint
6. Sixth
7. Seventh
8. Octave

But all prime intervals are also divisible. We remember that the distance between adjacent steps can be equal to a tone or a semitone. It follows that some intervals can be of two types:

1. Pure prima - 0 tones
2. Small second - 1/2 tone
3. Major second - 1 tone
4. Small third - 1 and 1/2 tones
5. Major third - 2 tones
6. Pure quart - 2 and 1/2 tones
7. Increased quart - 3 tones
8. Reduced fifth - 3 tones
9. Pure fifth - 3 and 1/2 tones
10. Small sixth - 4 tones
11. Big sixth - 3 and 1/2 tones
12. Small seventh - 5 tones
13. Major seventh - 5 and 1/2 tones
14. Pure octave - 6 tones

We won't bore you with more details about intervals. We only note that intervals are divided into consonant and dissonant. Consonance is a merging, consonant sound. Dissonance is a sharp, non-merging sound, well, or simply “unpleasant”.

Consonant intervals:

1. Very perfect consonance:

• pure prima
• Pure octave

2. Perfect Consonance:

• Pure quart
• Perfect fifth

3. Imperfect Consonance:

• Minor third
• Major third
• Minor sixth
• Major sixth

All the rest are dissonant intervals.

Now back to the frets. Frets are different, but we will analyze the most basic ones: major and minor.

(in literal translation - a larger mode) is a mode in which stable sounds form a major (large) triad, that is, a consonance that consists of three sounds. The sounds of a major triad are arranged in thirds: between the lower and middle sounds there is a large one, and between the middle and upper sounds there is a small one. Between the upper and lower, a pure fifth is formed. A major triad that is built on the tonic (that is, on the first step of the mode) is a tonic triad.

In this mode, unstable sounds are between stable ones. The major mode consists of seven steps, and the consecutive scale of the mode will be the scale, which we talked about above.

In a major scale, the intervals between steps are arranged in this way: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.

minor scale(smaller mode) is a mode whose steady sounds form a minor triad. A minor triad consists of a minor third between the lower and middle steps, and a major third between the middle and upper.

In the minor scale, the intervals are arranged as follows: tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone.

By ear, the minor and major modes are quite easy to distinguish from each other. If the melody sounds cheerful and energetic, then this is a major mode, but if you hear a sad and smooth melody, then this is a minor mode.

Key- this is the height at which the tonic of the mode is located. The name of the key corresponds to the name of its mode, for example: C major, D minor, etc.

Suppose you decide to sing this or that song, but it turned out to be too low for your voice. Therefore, we need to rewrite the melody in a higher key. To do this, you need to rewrite all the notes to the required number of tones higher. But it is worth considering that there are tonalities, and going beyond them is tantamount to creating dissonance. If you are interested in how to transfer a melody from one key to another - write about it in the comments, and we will analyze this topic in detail in the next article.

The musical image is a complex of expressive means that affect listeners with their specific characteristics. The main thoughts, feelings of the musical image conveys:

1) melody. The image is also enriched with other elements of musical speech - 2) formation, 3) harmony, 4) dynamics, 5) methods of presenting musical material, 6) the construction of the work itself.

Expressive means that create a musical image evoke associations with the phenomena of life, human experiences. What an exciting feeling, for example, is evoked by the hero of Borodin's opera, Prince Igor, who strives for freedom, struggle for the sake of his homeland! Or a fast-moving melody that almost obviously conveys the flight of a bumblebee from the opera The Tale of Tsar Soltan by Rimsky-Korsakov! It is clear that the combination of the expressive means of music with the word (in a song, opera), with the plot (in a program work), with action (in a performance) makes the musical image more understandable, concrete. But even without a connection with the literary text, an instrumental work that does not have a program, a name, makes it possible to feel, to imagine the content of the musical image. Many musicologists talk about the similarity of verbal and musical speech. This identity is observed both in intonation, and in movement, and in the fragmentation of this movement (pauses, phrases, sentences). Musical and verbal language are united by the intonational nature of music, its peculiar “questions” and “answers”, excited or calm “story”, “call”, etc. The concepts of clarity and figurativeness in music are directly related to the musical image.

“There can be no artistic image without an external concretization of its content, acting in colors, shapes, lines, sounds.” The clear content of the works should be "expressed" displayed in certain intonational turns, motifs with their inherent melody, rhythm, harmony. There is a close connection between the clear and pictorial function of art.

The main means of musical expression

Music exists in time, and one of the properties of sound is its length. The sound always takes some time. The temporal nature of music is associated with one of its most noticeable, although its most common means of expression - speed, tempo. Together with other means of music, it largely determines its appearance, mood, conveying those emotions, thoughts, feelings that are embedded in the work. Calm music goes at a slow pace, when a dramatic character will require a fast pace. Music is written at a slow tempo, in which a state of rest is conveyed (the romance "Islet" by Rachmaninov), or sublime emotions (Bach's Chaconne), or sorrowful intonations ("Gluck's Melody, the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata").
The average tempo is quite neutral and is found in music of different moods. A fast tempo is encountered when conveying an inseparable movement (Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, Glinka's Song Along the Way, many etudes). Fast music conveys a bright, festive mood, ebullient energy, etc. Fast tempo is also used in dramatic, internally tense music.

In the sense of tempo, not all sounds are important, but only those that have accents, more “heavy”. In any music, accents periodically appear, and between them there are weak ones, which in the human language, stressed syllables alternate with unstressed ones. And the sense of tempo depends on the time that passes between adjacent accented sounds. Accents organize time in music by dividing it into certain distances.

Such an organization of sounds, built on an emphasis on some sounds, is called a meter. In other words, meter is a certain sequence of accented and not accentuated sounds. Meters are strict and free. The distance between two nearest strong sounds is called a measure (measures are separated by vertical lines).
Small, relatively independent parts of the melody, in which several weaker sounds are combined around one strong sound, make up the motive. A strong sound of a motive can be both at the beginning, and in the middle, and at the end (as in a poetic foot).

Various motifs are identified: choreic (trochee) - with an emphasis on the first note, iambic, starting from the beat and going to a strong beat (the theme of fate from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony). Combining motifs by two or three creates broader constructions - phrases. The phrase contains two or even three accented sounds. The phrase makes it possible to feel not only the tempo of the music, but also the quality of the meter, in particular the size. The value of a bar or its size is made up of a strong beat together with weak beats, for example, in a waltz there are three beats (the first is strong, the second is weak).

Not always each beat of the measure corresponds to a single sound of the melody, usually the melody consists of sounds of different lengths, which can be either equal parts of the measure, or larger or smaller. For the clarity of music, the ratio of long and short notes is also important - the musical rhythm. There are a lot of rhythmic patterns in comparison with the size.

The simple rhythm is common, it is less individual. Individuality is inherent only in developed and diverse rhythmic patterns. An even rhythm gives the music dimension and balance (the children's song "The Gray Goat", the slow part of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony).

A more complex rhythm is the only elongated sound and two short ones (the chorus "Slavsya" from the opera "Ivan Susanin" by Glinka). Often used in music, dotted rhythm is also combined with meter. This rhythm is typical for marching and dance compositions. In marches and compositions of the marching staff, sometimes weak beats (especially out-beats) are fragmented, creating a dotted figure (“Farewell of the Slav” march). Meeting this rhythm, we can conclude that it is related to the march genre. This rhythm is found in Mazurkas, although in these works the first strong beat of the bar is split.
If the reference points of the rhythm and meter do not match, the so-called syncopation is created - a long sound on a weak share. Syncopation is typical for dance music, but is often found in many works of light, pop, jazz music.

The above expressive means are closely related to the temporal side of music, because tempo, meter and rhythm organize music in time. It should be noted that these means are used not only by music. Tempo and rhythm are present in performances, films.

Each art has its own special language, its own means of expression. In painting, it is drawing and paint. Skillfully using them, the artist creates a picture. The poet, writing poetry, speaks to us in the language of words, he uses poetic speech, rhymes. The poetic word is the expressive means of the art of poetry. The basis of dance art is dance, dramatic art is the play of actors.

Music has its own special language - the language of sounds. And she also has her own expressive means: register, melody, rhythm, size, tempo, mode, dynamics, timbre, texture and meter.

Different elements of the musical language (pitch, longitude, loudness, coloring of sounds, etc.) help composers express different moods and create different musical images. These elements of the musical language are also called means of musical expression. Let's consider them in more detail.

Melody

This is the basis of any piece of music, its thought, its soul. Without melody, music is unthinkable. The melody can be different - smooth and abrupt, cheerful and sad.

Register

A register is a part of a range, a certain pitch of a voice or a musical instrument.

Distinguish:

- high register (light, airy, transparent sound),
- middle register (associations with a person's voice),
- low register (serious, gloomy or humorous sound).

Rhythm

In any music, in any song, apart from the melody, rhythm is very important. Everything in the world has a rhythm. Our heart is a heart rate; there are brain rhythms, there is a daily rhythm - morning, afternoon, evening and night. The change of seasons is the rhythm of the planet.

Rhythm in Greek means "measurement" - this is a uniform alternation, repetition of short and long sounds. The rhythm in different dances is well understood. Everyone understands what kind of rhythm they are talking about when they say: in the rhythm of a waltz, march, tango.

Music without rhythm is perceived as a set of sounds, not a melody. It influences this or that character of music. Smooth rhythm gives the piece of music lyricism. The intermittent rhythm creates a feeling of anxiety, excitement.

Thus, rhythm is a sequence of sounds of the same or different duration.

Sounds of different duration are combined into rhythmic groups, which form the rhythmic pattern of the piece.

Types of rhythmic patterns

The repetition of the same durations in works of slow or moderate tempo creates a calm, balanced image.

In fast-tempo works - etudes, toccatas, preludes - the repetition of identical durations (sixteenth durations are often found) gives the music an energetic, active character.

More often there are rhythmic groups united by notes of different duration. They form a variety of rhythmic patterns.

The following rhythmic figures are less common:

• Dotted rhythm (characteristic of a march, dance) - exacerbates, activates the movement.
• Syncopation is the shift of emphasis from a strong beat to a weak beat. Syncopation creates an effect of surprise.
• Triplet - dividing the duration into three equal parts. Triplets give ease of movement.
• Ostinato is the repeated repetition of one rhythmic figure.

The size

To record the rhythm on paper, the so-called time signature is used. With its help, musicians understand with what rhythm and tempo it is necessary to play music. Musical sizes are different and are written in fractions: two quarters, three quarters, etc. In order to accurately observe the rhythm, the musician, when learning a new melody, must count: one and, two and .... And so on, depending on the size.

Pace

This is the speed at which a piece of music is played. The pace is fast, slow and moderate. To indicate the tempo, Italian words are used that are understood by all musicians in the world. For example, fast pace - allegro, presto; moderate pace - andante; slow - adagio.

Some musical genres have their own constant, definite sizes, and therefore they are easily recognizable by ear: the waltz has three quarters, the fast march has two quarters.

Lad

In music, there are two contrasting modes - major and minor. Major music is perceived by listeners as light, clear, joyful, and minor music as sad and dreamy.

Timbre

1. High - soprano, tenor.
2. Middle - mezzo-soprano, baritone.
3. Low - alto, bass.

A choir is a large group of singers (at least 12 people), similar to an orchestra in instrumental music.

Chorus types:

• male (dense, bright timbre),
• female (warm, transparent timbre),
• mixed (full-sounding, rich, bright timbre),
• children's choir (light, light timbre).

Symphony Orchestra Instrument Groups

Instruments in the orchestra are distributed by their families - the musicians call them orchestral groups. There are four of them in the orchestra:
- Stringed instruments
— Woodwinds
— Brass instruments
- Percussion instruments

Dynamics

Dynamics is the degree of loudness of the performance of a piece of music.

Muted dynamics are associated with calm, light, or aching sad moods. Strong dynamics expresses energetic, active or intense images.

Basic designations of dynamic shades:

• Piano pianissimo - ppp - extremely quiet
• pianissimo - pp - very quiet
• Piano - p - quiet
• Mezzo piano - mp - not very quiet
• Mecco forte - mf - not very loud
• Forte - f - loud
• Fortissimo - ff - very loud
• Forte fortissimo - fff - extremely loud

Designations for changing the strength of the sound:

Crescendo - cresc. - reinforcing
Sforzando - sforc., sfc., sf. - suddenly strengthening
Subito forte - sub.f. - suddenly loud
Diminuendo - dim. - reducing, weakening the sound
Decrescendo -decresc. - weakening
Smorzando - smorc. - freezing
Morendo - morendo - freezing

The increase in dynamics is associated with an increase in tension, the preparation of a climax. The dynamic culmination is the pinnacle of the growth of dynamics, the highest point of tension in the work. The weakening of the dynamics gives rise to a feeling of relaxation, calm.

Meter

A meter is a uniform alternation of strong and weak beats of a measure (pulsation).

In musical notation, the meter is expressed in size (the upper number of the time signature indicates how many beats are in a measure, and the bottom number indicates how long the fraction of a meter is expressed in a given measure), and measures (so t is the length of time from one strong beat to the next beat of equal strength), separated from each other by bar lines.

Main types of meter

• Strict meter - strong and weak beats alternate evenly
• Free meter - accents are distributed unevenly; in modern music, the time signature may not be indicated or there may be no division into measures.
• Two beat meter - one strong and one weak beat (/-) eg polka or march.
• Triple meter - one strong and two weak clock beats (/-), for example, waltz.
• Polymetry is a simultaneous combination of two-part and three-part meter.
• Variable meter - changes throughout the work.

Depending on the number of strong parts, meters are:

• Simple - having only one strong beat (two-part, for example 24 or three-part, for example 34 or 38).
• Complex - a combination of simple identical meters (only two-part, for example 44 \u003d 24 + 24 or only three-part, for example 68 \u003d 38 + 38).
• Mixed - a combination of meters of different (two-part and three-part) types (for example, 54 \u003d 24 + 34, or 34 + 24, or 74 \u003d 24 + 24 +34, etc.).

Characteristic metrorhythmic features of some dances:

• Polka - 24, rhythmic groups with sixteenth notes.
• Waltz - 34, accompaniment with an emphasis on the first beat.
• March - 44, dotted rhythm.

Harmony

Translated from the Greek harmonia means consonance.

Harmony- this is the combination of sounds into various consonances (chords) and their sequences.

The main element of harmony is a chord - a simultaneous combination of three or more sounds of different pitch.

Types of chords:

Number of sounds:
- Triads - chords of three sounds. Types of triads: major, minor, diminished, increased.
- Seventh chords - chords of four sounds, etc.

According to the interval structure:
- second chords (clusters)
- tertian chords (triad, seventh chord)
- chords of a quart structure (quarter chords)
- chords of a fifth structure (quint chords).

In classical music, harmony is harmonious (based on consonances), chords of the tertian structure are mainly used.

In modern music, harmony can sound sharp (such sharp consonances are called dissonances), it can be very complex, unusual consonances are widely used - a simultaneous combination of seconds, quarts, fifths and other intervals.

Texture

Faktura is a warehouse, a type of presentation of a musical work (Latin fakturo - processing).
The main elements of texture: melody, accompaniment (accompaniment), bass (lower voice), middle voices.
The texture is transparent (two-, three-part), causing a feeling of lightness, transparency. Dense (polyphonic, chordal) texture creates the impression of strength and power.

A polyphonic warehouse of music in which one voice is the main one (melody), and the rest (accompaniment) accompany it. A kind of homophonic texture is the chordal warehouse of music, in which the melody is rhythmically combined with the accompaniment.
Polyphony (Greek poly-many, phone-sound) is a simultaneous combination of several independent voices (melodies).

The main types of polyphony

• Imitation p. - (lat. Imitatio - imitation) repetition in another voice or another instrument of a melody (theme) that has just sounded. e.g. canon, fugue or invention
• Contrast p. - simultaneous sounding of different types of melodies. For example, in the Middle Ages, three different melodies with different texts were combined. Main types of invoice:
  Forms of imitation polyphony:
• Kanon is a musical form in which all voices perform the same melody, entering in turn.
• Invention is a two- or three-voice instrumental work of small volume, written in imitation technique.
• A fugue is a polyphonic polyphonic work based on the imitative repetition of a theme in all voices. The highest, most complex form of imitation polyphony. The greatest master of the fugue was J.S. Bach.
• Fughetta (it. fughetta - small fugue) is a simple, smaller fugue for organ or piano.

strokes

Strokes are a very important means of musical expression. They indicate the manner of sound science and depend on the nature of the work.

• Legato - (legato) suggests a coherent, smooth sound production.
• Staccato - (staccato) - jerky extraction of sounds. Staccato is indicated by a dot above or below the notes. Staccato sounds are short, with small jerks, light accents and caesuras between sounds.
• Non legato - (non legato) - incoherent, unsmooth performance. Sound science with a slight emphasis on each sound of the melody. At the same time, the sounds should be filled as in the performance of legato, the caesuras between the sounds are reduced. Sounds are emphasized, but not as sharp as on staccato. Every sound is distinct.