TALKING ABOUT MUSIC 9(LG 7.1) quiets down around the one-minute mark (1:00), then suddenly gets
loud again at 1:29, the change in dynamic adding excitement to changes in other
musical parameters as well. The second movement of Amy Beach’s Gaelic Sym-
phony (LG 8.1) begins very softly, but starting around 4:43 we hear a crescendo,
a gradual increase in volume, which climaxes at 4:58 in a loud crash, followed by
silence, then a return to the quiet dynamic of the opening. The closing moments
(8:01 to the end) feature another crescendo, this one followed by a decrescendo
or diminuendo, a gradual decrease in volume.MELODY
If a sound wave’s amplitude, or volume, has important musical applications, then
its frequency, or pitch, is even more important. One of the defi ning features of
any piece of music is its melody, or tune, which may be narrowly defi ned as a
series of musical tones of varying pitch. But what makes a melody memorable is
how it combines pitch and rhythm to create musical meaning.
T h i s i s ev ident even i n “ Tw i n k le, Tw i n k le, L itt le St a r.” T he melody beg i n s w it h
two notes of the same pitch, then leaps up to a considerably higher pitch for the
next two notes. The third pair of notes is slightly higher; then the melody drops
back down to the pitch of the second pair for the long note on “star.” (Even this
simple song displays admirable artistry: the fi rst break in the rhythmic pattern
corresponds to the fi rst return to a previously heard pitch.) The second phrase
consists of pairs of notes dropping to successively lower pitches, until the next
long note (on “are”) brings us back to the opening pitch. The third and fourth
phrases retrace the downward arc of the second phrase, and the fi fth and sixth
phrases are a literal repeat of the fi rst two.
Another way to describe this melody would be to say that the fi rst and fi fth
phrases have a rising melodic contour, the other phrases a falling contour.
Each four-bar phrase in “Lost Highway” (LG 17.2) has a similar contour: a rise to
a long note, then a fall to a second long note, lower in pitch than the fi rst. The
fi rst long note in each of phrases 2 and 3 rises to a higher pitch than the corre-
sponding note in the phrase before; phrase 4 returns to the pitch of the opening
phrase. Just as we can describe the contour of each phrase, we can also describe
the larger contour created by a series of phrases—in “Lost Highway,” a three-step
rise, then a fall.
A useful way to think about a melody is to observe the distances, or inter-
vals, between adjacent notes. Small intervals, or steps, are easier to sing than
wide intervals—leaps or skips. Conjunct melodies—consisting mostly of steps—
tend to be easier to sing; an example is the song “America” (“My country, ’tis of
thee”). Disjunct melodies—consisting mostly of leaps—are often harder to sing;
“The Star-Spangled Banner,” a notorious example, begins with six leaps in a row.
All but one of those leaps are thirds, the interval formed by skipping over a pitch
to the next available pitch; the name comes from counting three pitches: the one
you start on, the one you skip, and the one you land on. The remaining leap is a
fourth, formed by skipping over two pitches; the fourth lies between “you” and
“see.”
Another factor that makes the national anthem hard for many people to
sing is its compass or range: the distance between a melody’s highest and low-
est pitches (its apex and nadir). The opening “O say” quickly leaps down to the172028_00b_001-017_INTRO_r3_ko.indd 9 23/01/13 9:47 AM