MUSIC. How to analyze music. Level 2

How to Analyze Music.

To make a commentary about anything we hear, we should concentrate on seven very important elements.

a)      Genre.  We have to know if the music is:

a.       For instruments, voice, or both.

b.      Orchestral (more than ten instruments) or chamber (less than 10 instruments).

b)      Melody.  We have to ask ourselves if there is a melody, and if there is, how many.

c)      Rhythm.  One must say if the rhythm is monotone (always the same) or varied and the meter that the song has (binary, ternary, quaternary).

d)     Timber/Tone.  What instruments you hear.

e)      Are there changes in the dynamics (loud to soft or vice versa)? And of tempo (speed of the song)?

f)       Form.  Try to see if the melodies are distinct or if they repeat themselves.  Indicate with letters.

g)      Texture.  Music isn’t measured horizontally but rather vertically.  How many melodies do you hear at the same time?  If you only hear one, the texture is monophonic.  If you hear various, polyphonic.  In this second option it is possible that all the melodies are equally important (and so we say that there is Counterpoint) or that one is more important than the other (this is called Accompanied Melody).

h)      Lyrics.  In what is language is the song? What does the song tell us?