Music Appreciation

Music appreciation means understanding the values and the good aspects of different styles of music.  Classical music is a Western art music which was known for its melody and form.  There are various forms of classical music namely sonata form, themes and variations form, and concerto form.  Historical documents suggest that the audiences of the Classical Period listened to music for its forms.  This essay is a debate over the fact that when you listen to music composed in the last fifty years whether it is listened for musical form.  Here we also deal with another aspect that is how is the experience of listening to music different when we listen to music for its form and when you don’t.  Here the writer is of the opinion that listening to music for form distracts from the music itself.  In this essay two compositions of music one from the Classical period and another from the last fifty years are analyzed based on its form and the different elements of music.

Keywords:  music appreciation, classical music, sonata form, melody

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          Music appreciation means understanding the values and the good aspects of different styles of music.  Classical music is a Western art music which was known for its melody and form.  In those days people listened to music for its form.  In my opinion I find listening for the form distracts from the music itself.

         Classical form of music has different sections, and they were identified by melody and harmony that were in contrast to each other.  Now let us consider a composition of the Sonata form namely Mozart Symphony No.40 in G minor.

Mozart:  Symphony No.40 in G minor.

          Sonata which is a form of Classical Music represents certain set of procedures for forming a piece of music. Sonatas consists of three parts, these include exposition, development and recapitulation.

          In exposition the first theme or subject is presented in the tonic key (here in this case it’s G Minor).  The second theme in this case is B b Major which is the relative major of G minor.

          Development, in this symphony the music moves through various keys but starts in F# minor.

         Recapitulation means putting together again and repeating the themes of the exposition both in the tonic (G minor).

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Elements of music

Melody and Pitch:  Moves mostly in step movement with some leaps. Many phrases are made up of scales.

Harmony:  Oboes and bassoons provide harmonic filling or play sustained chords.

Texture and Timbre:  Mainly melody dominated homophony is used throughout.

Tempo and Rhythm:  A 4/4 throughout, Molto Allegro tempo (very fast).  Clear pulse which is easy to follow.

Now let us consider the case when we listen to music not for the form, here the music is relaxing, filled with fun and pleasure.  Let us explain this with a piece of music from the late 50s.

Music for 18 Musicians

This was composed by Steve Reich from 1974 to 1976.  This piece of music is unique. It is special. It is a joyous piece of music.  This piece has a consistent pulse going all the way through it. Another important thing is the use of human breath used in the clarinet.  This piece consists of a cycle of eleven chords. A small piece of music is based on each chord.  The sections are called

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pulses.  The resulting 11 sections use these chords as their base.  The augmentation of the harmonies and melodies is an important factor in this work.

Conclusion

Thus in the above two compositions we find that the experience of listening to music is more exciting when we listen to music of recent times than listening to music for the forms.

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References

Anthropophobia, (2016), GCSE Music Analysis-Mozart-Symphony No.40 in G Minor,

Retrieved from https://spinditty.com/genres/Music-GCSE-Mozart-Symphony-No40.

Wikipedia, Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_18_Musicians