UNIT 1: MUSICAL PARAMETERS AND STRUCTURES

THOMAS M. POOLEY

OVERVIEW
Part 1 of this study unit introduces learners to the parameters of music (pitch, intensity,
duration, texture and timbre) and develops skills in applying these concepts. In part 2
learners are introduced to the structures of music, including core concepts of melody,
harmony, and form.

OUTCOMES
You will have the knowledge and expertise to apply the musical parameters of pitch,
duration, timbre, intensity, and texture to your listening. You will be familiar with key
terminology for rhythm, meter, tempo, loudness, monophony, homophony, polyphony
and tone colour, melody, harmony, and form.

PART 1: MUSICAL PARAMETERS

“Sound is produced by vibrations that occur when objects are struck, plucked, or
agitated in some or other way. These vibrations are transmitted through the air, or
another medium, and picked up by our ears” (Kerman and Tomlinson 2008, p. 7).
When we listen to sound waves we have the capacity to differentiate and to categorize
the information that we hear into five main parameters: pitch, dynamics (intensity),
duration, texture, and timbre. All music can be described using these terms, whatever
culture it emanates from, and no matter how simple or complex it may be. Some of the
concepts outlined in the previous study unit interlink with the terminology explained
here. For instance, melody and harmony are components of pitch, and these are part
of structures we analyze in musical forms.

1.1 PITCH
Pitch is the perceptual property that allows ordering of sounds on a frequency-related
scale. It refers to the relative height of a note (high vs. low). Frequency refers to the
rate of sound vibrations and is measured in cycles per second. Humans can hear
between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second. This is our ‘range’ of hearing. Interestingly,
it is a much smaller range than many other animals, including, for instances, dogs,
cats, birds and elephants. Sound vibrations are so tiny that they must ordinarily be
amplified using some sort of resonator in order for us to hear them. The guitar, for
example, has a wooden box attached to its strings. The organ has pipes, the tuba a
large brass bell. Take note of the following:

Low pitches have a low frequency (i.e. relatively fewer cycles per second)
 High pitches have a high frequency (i.e. relatively more cycles per second)

Low pitches result from long vibrating elements

High pitches result from short vibrating elements.

Noises are unfocused vibrations and do not have pitch. But they may still be used in
music. The symphony orchestra contains several unpitched instruments, including the
gong, bass drum, and cymbals. Pitched instruments are relatively limited in the
selection of pitches they avail musicians and are usually selected from the sound
continuum for use in music.

RANGE
The range of a musical instrument or voice refers to the upper and lower limits of the
pitches it can produce. In music notation we use different clefs to write for particular
pitch ranges. For instance, the treble and bass clefs are most often used in piano
music to show the range that the right and left hands play. Singers are generally
categorized into four categories: soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone, although there are
many more variations on these, too.

TUNING
All pitched instruments use tuning systems. Tuning refers how the pitch heights
assigned to particular notes of an instrument are organized. This is a more complex
task than it may seem. Generally, tuners do not tune single notes individually without
checking their relationships to other notes. The absolute pitch height of a note is
important when tuning, but sometimes it may be sharpened (made higher), or flattened
(made lower) depending on its relationship to the other notes tuned. A = 440 Hertz is
the standard concert pitch used to tune pianos and Western orchestras and
ensembles since 1939. But before that there was no single pitch height taken to be
absolute and accurate. Without recourse electronic tuners and tuning forks, musicians
had to rely on their inner ear to tune their instruments. There is evidence to show that
the tuning of orchestras in the nineteenth century was quite different from what it is
today.

Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1675, d. 1750) was one of the first composers to adopt a
system of equal temperament. Equal temperament refers to a tuning of the scale
based on a cycle of 12 identical 5ths and with the octave divided into 12 equal
semitones, and consequently with 3rds and 6ths tempered, uniformly, much more than
5ths and 4ths. Equal temperament is now widely regarded as the normal tuning of the
Western, 12-note chromatic scale (Lindley 2017[O).

Task Listen J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Listen to the preludes and
fugues in C major and C sharp major one after the other. Bach wrote two
sets of twenty-four preludes and fugues written in all major and minor
 keys. These were designed to demonstrate the utility of this tuning
system. For more on Bach see Study Unit 6, The Baroque.

J.S. Bach’s music standardizes a system of tuning into which most Western music is
composed today. For this reason, it is known as the era of ‘common practice’ in music
history. Tuning has fundamental consequences for how music is structured. For
instance, scales, keys, modes, harmonies, and forms are all based on properties of
tuning systems. In non-Western musics tuning systems are very different, and are
often less standardized.

Pause for reflection What purpose do tuning systems serve?

Why standardise pitch?

Pitches are individuated notes. But they are generally put together in melodies and
harmonies. There are a number of key terms used to describe the various
assemblages of pitch, and the relationships between pitches:

SCALE
Scale is a limited number of fixed pitches that are assembled together in a hierarchy.
They are hierarchies because each pitch functions in relation to others depending on
its relative position. There are twelve basic pitches in Western music.

INTERVAL
Intervals are the distance or difference between any two pitches. Intervals directly
adjacent to one another are second, then thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, and sevenths.
Intervals of more than an octave include 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths.

OCTAVE
Octave refers to a pitch that ‘duplicates’ another at a higher or lower register.

DIATONIC AND CHROMATIC SCALES

There are two main types of scales in Western music:

Diatonic scale: consists of the seven notes ‘do re mi fa sol la ti’ followed by ‘do’ an
octave higher. On a piano the diatonic scale includes, for instance, the white keys
played one after another (C major scale).

Chromatic scale: includes all twelve notes each a semitone apart from the next. On
a piano the chromatic scale includes all the white and black notes together. The
distance between two adjacent notes on the scale is a half step or semitone. In other
words, this is the distance between any two successive notes of the chromatic scale.
A whole step, or tone is equivalent to two half steps.
 1.2. DYNAMICS (INTENSITY)
Intensity refers how loud or soft a sound is, and has its own vocabulary. In Western
music there are terms like forte (loud) and piano (soft) that we use to describe the
various gradations of intensity. (A list of the main terms used is included below this
entry.) Another feature of intensity is the gradual increase or decrease in intensity.
When you begin softly and gradually get louder it is called a crescendo. The opposite
effect is called decrescendo. Amplitude is the level of strength of sound vibrations, or
the amount of energy they contain and convey. Volume is measured in decibels.
Musicians use very subtle dynamic gradations from very soft to very loud, but do not
have a calibrated scale of dynamics.

pp pianissimo (very soft) p piano (soft) mp mezzo piano

(medium soft)

mf mezzo forte (medium loud) f forte (loud) ff fortissimo (very

loud)

piu forte – louder (lit. more loud)

meno forte – softer (lit. less loud)
subito – suddenly
crescendo – gradually getting louder
decrescendo/diminuendo – gradually getting softer

1.3. DURATION
Duration refers to the time element in music and contains within it the subcategories
of meter, rhythm and tempo.

RHYTHM
The patterning of music in time is referred to as rhythm. Whereas meter refers to the
patterning of relative stresses or beats, rhythm refers to the specific pattern of
emphases in a piece of music and not the underlying structure. A rhythm refers to the
actual arrangement of durations – long and short notes in a particular melody or some
other musical passage.

BEATS
Beats are the basic units of measurement for time in music. When you listen to a piece
of music and you tap your feet, ordinarily you entrain yourself to the beat. That is, you
find the regular underlying pulse and the stamp to the accentuated pulses in the stream
of sound.

Composers often use accents to make some beats more emphatic than others. This
is not always indicated in musical notation – only when composers use marks like >
above or below a note. Other dynamic indications include sforzandi (abbreviated to
sfz or sf). Sforzando means ‘forcing’ in Italian.
 METER
Meter refers to a recurring pattern of strong and weak beats. The meter can be
determined by calculating the strong/weak pattern of accented beats repeated in a
work of music. Each occurrence of this repeated pattern, consisting of a principal
strong beat and one or more weaker beats, is called a measure, or bar. In musical
notation, measures are indicated by vertical lines called bar lines. In Western music
there are only two kinds of meter: simple and compound.

Simple meter refers to a meter in which the beats are divisible by two. Duple meter
and triple meter are both instances of simple meter because the individual beats (say
1, 2, 3, in a ¾ meter) are divisible by two, not three.

Compound meter refers to the subdivision of one of the simple meters into three parts.
That is, each beat of the meter is in three rather than two, four, eight, or another
multiple of two.

Duple meter applies when beats are grouped in twos. E.g., marches.

Triple meter: beats are grouped in threes. E.g. waltzes.

Irregular meter refers to a meter in which there are 5, 7, or any other odd number of
beats (excluding 3, of course).

A basic distinction between rhythm and meter is that the former is foreground, the
latter background. Rhythm is the pattern of durations that you hear, meter is the pattern
of accented beats that is the structural basis for how the rhythm you hear is articulated
in time.

Syncopation is a technique used extensively in popular music and jazz to generate

rhythmic interest and energy. It refers to the displacement of accents in a foreground
rhythm away from their normal position on the beats of the background meter.

TEMPO
Tempo refers to absolute duration, or the speed at which a piece of music is
performed. In metrical music, tempo is the rate at which the basic, regular beats of the
meter follow one another. Tempo refers to the relative speed at which a piece of music
is performed. Again, there is a terminology used for contrasting fast with slow. The
followings terms are the most common:

Largo very slow Lento slow

Moderato moderately Andante walking speed
Allegro fast Presto very fast
Tempo can be expressed exactly using metronome marks. However, composers
generally prefer approximate terms giving latitude for different performers. When
composers write that they want you to speed up or slow down they use the following
terms:

Accelerando = gradually getting faster

Ritardando = gradually slowing down
Ritenuto = immediately slowing down

There are many more musical terms that you will come across and so it will be useful
to obtain a dictionary of musical terms to assist you in your studies.

1.4 TEXTURE
Music consists of a blend of sounds happening simultaneously, and it is the nature of
this blend that determines its texture. One of the major distinctions that is made is
between homophonic and polyphonic textures. Homophony is “a term used to describe
music in which one voice or part is clearly melodic, the others accompanimental and
chiefly chordal. The converse is polyphony, where the parts tend toward independence
and equality” (Latham 2011). The different categories of texture are as follows:

MONOPHONY The simplest texture is monophony. This refers to a single

unaccompanied melody played on an instrument or sung. It does
not refer to an instrument played on its own. A solo performance
on a flute is monophonic because one note follows another,
whereas a solo performance on a piano involves notes struck
simultaneously. One of the best examples of monophony is for
you to sing or whistle a tune alone.

HETEROPHONY Heterophony refers to a special kind of monophonic texture.

Subtly different versions of a single melody are presented
simultaneously. These versions of the melody may overlap
slightly, but they are based on the same essential material and
occur at almost the same time.

HOMOPHONY Homophony occurs when there is only one melody of real interest
and it is combined with other sounds. One instance of this is
‘melody-and-accompaniment.’ A good example of homophony
occurs when a pianist plays a tune in the right hand and
accompanies that tune with chords in the left hand.

POLYPHONY Poly (many) phony (sounds). When two or more melodies are
played or sung simultaneously and the melodies are independent
 and of equal interest. Polyphonic music automatically has
harmony. Polyphonic texture is often described as contrapuntal
which comes from the word counterpoint. Polyphony refers to the
texture and counterpoint to the technique of producing that
texture.

IMITATION In short, imitation refers to the repetition of a melody.

However, it is more correctly understood in terms of imitative
polyphony.

Imitative polyphony results when the various lines sounding together use the same
or fairly similar melodies, with one coming in shortly after another. Imitation is a very
important technique used by composers of sacred music in the Medieval and
Renaissance periods. Non-imitative polyphony occurs when the melodies are
essentially different from one another.

1. 5. TIMBRE
Timbre refers to tone quality. This is the quality of a sound that distinguishes one
instrument or voice from another even when they play the same music. Consider the
following definition that expresses the complexity of timbre:

A term describing the tonal quality of a sound; a clarinet and an oboe sounding the same note
at the same loudness are said to produce different timbres. Timbre is a more complex attribute
than pitch or loudness, which can each be represented by a one-dimensional scale (high-low
for pitch, loud-soft for loudness); the perception of timbre is a synthesis of several factors […].
The frequency spectrum of a sound, and in particular the ways in which different partials grow
in amplitude during the starting transient, are of great importance in determining the timbre
(Campbell 2017[O]).

Timbre is the product of the harmonics or partials produced when an instrument or

voice is sounded.

1.6 EXPRESSION MARKINGS AND MUSICAL TERMS IN

WESTERN MUSIC
In Western music, composers use expression markings and musical terms to indicate
their musical intent. This became more common in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries when composers gained more control over the music through publishing.
Although expression marks are not considered to be parameters, they are
nevertheless important to the style and feel of the music. When you play a waltz, you
do not want it to sound heavy or plodding. Its qualities should be light and lively. Most
of the expression markings are written in German, Italian and French because
composers from these nations have had the greatest impact on the development of
Western music over the past six centuries.
PART 2: INTRODUCTION TO THE STRUCTURES OF MUSIC
Music consists of structures. These structures are properties, or building blocks of
organised sound that enable us to make sense of music in time. Without structure
music would not exist because it would be incomprehensible. We need structure to
differentiate things in perception and cognition. It is for this reason that music is
sometimes defined as ‘organised sound.’

1.7 MELODY
Melody is defined as an organised series of musical pitches patterned in time. One
way to think about melody is as a line of sound, or a tune that you can sing or whistle
along to. Melodies generally have a structure and can be broken down into smaller
pieces, or what we call phrases. A phrase is a single ‘breath group.’ If you sing a song
you will need to breathe between phrases, thus segmenting the melody. Most phrases
have a distinctive contour or shape. They may glide up or down. A series of phrases
also has a distinctive shape. For instance, it is very common to have an antecedent-
consequent phrase structure (AC). This structure is phrased like a question. The first
part (A) climbs up to a climax, the second part (C) resolves back down to a cadence,
or point of closure suggesting an answer to the initial question. In melodies like this
there is usually a High Point somewhere near the middle, or into the second half,
around which the phrases are constructed. Most melodies have a clear beginning,
middle, and end. A melody tells a story or narrative that is filled with its own tension
and drama. The climax to this narrative may be in the middle, or sometimes toward
the end point. Even within a single melody you will notice points of rest, or closure. In
Western music there are formulas used to conclude phrases and melodies. These
formulas are called cadences.

Figure 1.2: Opening melody from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
showing a four-bar antecedent-consequent (2 bars + 2 bars) structure.

Melodies are often made up of a quite predictable set of phrases, and there are specific
terms that we use for these melodies. For instance, the duplication of a phrase at two
or more different pitch levels is called a sequence. In other words, if the same tune is
played at a gradually higher pitch height it is being sequentially manipulated. The
following example is from God Save the Queen and shows a melody descending by a
single step. The first phrase begins on the note D, then the second on C.
Figure 1.3: God Save the Queen showing a sequence by descent over two phrases.

A further distinction within a phrase is known as a motive. This is a distinctive fragment

of melody that is easily recognizable in diverse contexts. It may consist of one or more
intervals. A theme is the basic subject matter for a piece of music and is often varied
or manipulated to generate further melodic and/or harmonic interest. The term refers
to the function, not the nature, of musical material.

Figure 1.4: Motives from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

1.8 HARMONY

The combining of notes simultaneously, to produce chords, and successively, to produce chord
progressions. The term is used descriptively to denote notes and chords so combined, and also
prescriptively to denote a system of structural principles governing their combination. In the
latter sense, harmony has its own body of theoretical literature. (Cohn et al. 2001).

Harmony is often described as the vertical dimension in music with melody the
horizontal dimension. But this is misleading because harmony, as Dahlhaus points
out, is also, in a sense, linear. Successive combinations of pitches constitute a
harmony. The important difference is that harmony refers to how we think about pitch
elements combined. Here is an example of harmony:

Figure 1.5: IV – V – I progression showing Western harmonies notated on a staff.

In music we make a distinction between consonance and dissonance. A consonant

sound is defined as “a harmonious sounding together of two or more notes, that is with
an ‘absence of roughness,’ ‘relief of tonal tension’ or the like. Dissonance is then the
antonym to consonance with corresponding criteria of ‘roughness’ or ‘tonal tension’”
(Palisca & Moore 2001). Sometimes the word ‘discord’ is used to describe a jarring
dissonance. Dissonant chords are not necessarily avoided in music. It depends in
large part on how you define dissonance, and on the period in music history we are
referring to. In the Medieval and Renaissance periods a great deal of care was taken
to avoid dissonance, especially in sacred music for the Church. But later, in the
Baroque period and after, dissonance began to play an increasingly important role in
creating tension and expectation in music. Most tonal music, or music of the Common
Practice Era (roughly 1700 to the present) is structured around the resolution of
dissonance. In these contexts, dissonance must be resolved satisfactorily using
standard procedures.

1.9 FORM IN WESTERN MUSIC

In this section we introduce you to the concept of form in Western music (although
many of these concepts are also used to describe African and other world musics too).
Form may be defined as, “The constructive or organising element in music” (Whittall
2001). When you listen to a piece of music it generally has an identifiable structure, a
beginning, middle and end. It may also have an introduction or a coda (an extended
ending). Most music that we listen to can be divided into two types of forms: binary
and ternary. In binary form there are two main elements the A section + B section.
Ternary form also has two main elements A + B; the difference is that the A section
returns after the B section.

BINARY Binary form displays a distinct contrast between two sections.

Usually the first section is in one key and the second in another
related key with a modulation between.
AB

Listen J.S. Bach, ‘Air’ from Suite in D Major

TERNARY Ternary form consists of three sections. The first and last (A) are
related and based on similar musical material. This material is
usually related by theme, key, melody, or structure. If the return
of the first A section includes new or varied material it is
represented (A’) The second section (B) contains contrasting
material in a new or related key.
ABA

Listen W.A. Mozart, Piano Sonata in A Major, K331, 2nd movement

Menuetto and Trio

RONDO In a rondo form the A section returns again and again:

A B A1 C A2 B1 A3 OR A B A1 C A2 D A3 E A4 etc.

Listen W.A. Mozart Piano Sonata in A Major, K331, 3rd movement

‘Rondo alla turca’
SONATA Another common form is the Sonata form. This is a more complex
version of ternary form (A B A) in which the A is divided into two
or three parts, and these return in altered form in the reprise of
the A section. The B section develops the material presented in
A.
A (Exposition: Theme 1, tonic; Theme 2, cadence theme)
B (Development: themes from A section varied)
A’ (Recapitulation of A with theme 2 and cadence theme now in
the tonic)

VARIATION FORM A theme with variations

Listen W.A. Mozart Piano Sonata in A Major, K331, 1st movement
REFERENCES

Kerman, J. & G. Tomlinson. 2008. Listen. 6th Edition. Bedford: St Martin’s.

Campbell, Murray. "Timbre (i)." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford
University Press, accessed March 3, 2017, http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/subscriber/article/grove/music/27973.

Cohn, R., Hyer, B., Dahlhaus, C., Anderson, J., & Wilson, C. (2001, January 01).
Harmony. Grove Music Online. Ed. Retrieved 18 Feb. 2019, from http://0-
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61592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000050818.

Latham, Alison. 2011. (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Music. : Oxford University
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www.oxfordreference.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.0
01.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3312.

Lindley, Mark. "Equal temperament." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music

Online. Oxford University Press, accessed February 23, 2017, http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/subscriber/article/grove/music/089
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Whittall, Arnold. 2001. ‘Form,’ Grove Music Online. Retrieved 18 Feb. 2019, from
http://0-
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