Expressive

 Techniques  
 
Expressive   Techniques   refers   to   the   way   a   performer   uses   effects  
and   particular   techniques   to   create   an   individual   interpretation   of   a  
piece  of  music.  Expressive  techniques  are  dependant  on  the  sound  
source,   certain   instruments   favour   specific   ways   of   creating  
expression   e.g.   Fretless   string   players   are   able   to   slide   between  
notes   sounding   all   the   incremental   changes   but   cannot   use   the  
wind   technique   of   breath   vibrato.   Conversely   there   are   many  
expressive  techniques  that  are  used  by  the  majority  of  instruments,  
producing   a   variety   of   effects.   For   the   purposes   of   the   Music   1  
course  it  is  beneficial  to  know  the  most  common  techniques  used.  

• Accent is a dynamic emphasis on a note to make it stronger thereby

stressing its importance.

• Glissando is the technique of rapidly sliding through a scale pattern.

The effect varies markedly between different instruments due to
the restraints of exact pitch divisions and the variety of
production methods.

• Legato is the method of playing smoothly, in a well connected

graceful style. It produces a feeling of fluidity in the music and
incorporates the use of slurs, where notes are merged together
relying on the first note’s punctuation.

• Staccato is the universal technique of playing the notes shorter than

their written value, with the effect that they are detached from
each other.

• Tremolo is a technique of rapid amplitude variation. The same note

is repetitively sounded over and over thereby increasing and
decreasing the volume.

• Vibrato is the technique of repetitively altering the pitch with small

vibrational shifts up and down around a note. This is achieved by
string bending or altering the flow of breath. Vibrato suits strings,
brass and woodwinds but is impossible to play on percussive
instruments including the piano.

   
Expressive  techniques  can  help,  with  the  aid  of  the  other  concepts,  
articulate  stylistic  features  of  the  composition.          

When you are asked a question concerning the concept of

expressive techniques use the following points to focus your
discussion.

• Listen for how the expressive techniques match musical styles.

Look for the following amongst groups of instruments:

• Brass – Use of mutes, vibrato, squells, changes in tempo

• Electronic – Use of distortion, sharpness of articulation, length of

decay, chorus and flange effects

• Percussion – rolls, accents, different sounds created on a particular

drum e.g. rim shots

• Strings – Played with bow or plucked, double stopping, strumming or

fingerstyle, slaps on the soundboard, slides and glisses, hammers
and pull offs, vibrato and tremolo

• Voice – Vocal effects e.g. inbreath singing, vibrato, glottal stops,

yelping, falsetto, speaking.

• Woodwind – Legato, slurring, tongued, flutter tonguing, overblowing,

vibrato, squells and clicks.
The  Concept  of  Texture  
Texture refers to the layers of sounds or the way tone colours are
combined in music. Texture varies from thin to thick. Thin texture is
evident when there are few sounds that are predominantly high in
pitch, or when the musical ideas are fairly linear. This happens when
many instruments play a melody together. The texture thickens as the
overall sound spectrum and sound activity increase. Therefore music
that uses many instruments and includes a layering of melodic and
harmonic lines is at the thicker end of the textural continuum.

Some common textural practices involve unison playing, doubling

separated by octaves, imitation of melodic ideas by different
instruments, the use of question and answer phrases.

There are some basic terms of reference associated with the

relationship of the layers within the texture.

• Monophonic texture refers to a piece of music that has a single

melody played alone, or in unison, or music that has a single
layer of activity.

• Homophonic texture possesses a melody that is supported by a

harmonic accompaniment. This is the basic texture of most
popular music.

• Polyphonic texture occurs when more than one melody is

predominant. The independence of the musical lines is a feature
of this texture.

• Heterophonic texture is the presence of many instruments playing

embellishments or ornamentations of the same tune. Irish music
is a good example of this type of texture.

• Musical lines can move in a similar or contrary motion which is a

feature of pitch but also affects the texture of the music.
When you are asked a question concerning the concept of
texture use the following points to focus your discussion.

• What is the overall density of the texture throughout the piece. Does
it change and when? Are there definable stages of thin and thick
texture?

• Describe the layers of sound and their roles – A description of where

each tone colour and its resulting pitches falls within the pitch
spectrum e.g. high, middle or low, and its function e.g. bass line,
harmony, melody.

• What is the musical density and describe any changes to this density
over the course of the musical piece.

• What are the roles of each instrument, including the voice, in the
overall composition?

• Discuss the movement of each line of music by describing its

relationship with other lines e.g. similar, contrary, canon,
question and answer, imitation.

You can choose to use the structure of the piece to provide a concise
way of describing changes of texture over the course of the piece. In
each discuss the number of bars in each section, how many instruments
are playing each layer, how many layers are present, what is the type
of texture for this part of the piece.