4 ms·

For those like me who don't know much about the technical aspects of music discussed in this comment (motif, texture, modulation, etc.), I recommend checking ou

For those like me who don't know much about the technical aspects of music discussed in this comment (motif, texture, modulation, etc.), I recommend checking out Craig Wright's lecture series on "Listening to Music" offered by Yale Open Courses: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhYB41gNRjT1L2CyJRwtSvD2ZWvJpAO0o https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhYB41gNRjT1L2CyJRwtS...

jancsika 6y ago
motive: a short series of notes from which a larger theme is created. E.g., first four notes of the 1st movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. To hear how a motive gets turned into a theme, listen to the next ten seconds of the 1st movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. texture: whether the music sounds relatively busy or bare at a given moment, using more granular terms for "busy" and "bare" as you learn more about music modulation: ever wonder why Whitney Houston sounds more energetic at the last chorus of "I Will Always Love You?" It's because she's singing higher than before. But if she's singing the same melody as in the other choruses slightly higher, how could this possibly sound good? It's because the rest of the band also shifted everything up by the same frequency ratio as she did, at the same moment. When everyone does this together, it's called changing keys, or modulation. However, "pushing a button" to suddenly pitch everything up on a dime is a relatively recent discovery that has flourished thanks to the ubiquity of cheap and powerful computers. Prior to that, composers used ad hoc methods like transitional themes to prepare the listener for the new key, sometimes going so far as to read the music of peers for new approaches. It was quite an inefficient and unproductive time by comparison to the speed and precision with which we produce music today. Edit: clarification
- inimino 6y ago
  Is your last paragraph intended as sarcasm? It might be helpful to make that more clear...
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  I loved your GP comment, but I don't understand your final paragraph here at all. Sure, writing modulation from one key to another is more work than using a pitch-shifting operation in a DAW. But compared to the work of actually writing a piece of music, it seems like a relatively minor amount of work. Your GP comment was so insightful, however, that I suspect that your meaning is being missed here. Could you clarify?
  - jancsika 6y ago
    Yeah, I was just riffing in that paragraph. To riff further-- writing a modulation is a subset of writing a piece. If we were to quantize modulation "styles" to match, say, a set of DAW operations in a dropdown list, we've made the work of writing a piece easier. We extend that ease for each aspect of music-writing that gets a similar dropdown menu in the UI. That ease accelerates the production of music. I find it fitting on HN to insist the common practice period was comparatively unproductive and inefficient. :)
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
      OK, I still don't understand. Are you suggesting that modulating between keys was sufficiently difficult for (say) Brahms, Beethoven or Wagner that they would try to avoid it? That seems quite contrary to my understanding.
      - jfengel 6y ago
        It's not difficult, exactly, but there are only so many ways to do it well. You can, of course, just start writing different notes, which sounds jarring. There is a whole theory of "voice leading"[1] which provides a toolbox of nice-sounding ways to get from key to key, with various emotional and textural elements attached to each. (Some if it, I note, is called "Neo-Riemannian theory"[1], which does in fact relate to geometry but is wholly unrelated to Bernhard Riemann.) You don't actually need any of that theory. You can just compose by ear. And some of that theory has been known since the Middle Ages. But the "classical" era composers worked very hard on pushing the state of that art -- some of which can now be autosuggested by composing software. Which is especially nice when you're doing it for an entire 100+ piece orchestra. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_leading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_leading [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory

jancsika 6y ago

motive: a short series of notes from which a larger theme is created. E.g., first four notes of the 1st movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. To hear how a motive gets turned into a theme, listen to the next ten seconds of the 1st movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. texture: whether the music sounds relatively busy or bare at a given moment, using more granular terms for "busy" and "bare" as you learn more about music modulation: ever wonder why Whitney Houston sounds more energetic at the last chorus of "I Will Always Love You?" It's because she's singing higher than before. But if she's singing the same melody as in the other choruses slightly higher, how could this possibly sound good? It's because the rest of the band also shifted everything up by the same frequency ratio as she did, at the same moment. When everyone does this together, it's called changing keys, or modulation. However, "pushing a button" to suddenly pitch everything up on a dime is a relatively recent discovery that has flourished thanks to the ubiquity of cheap and powerful computers. Prior to that, composers used ad hoc methods like transitional themes to prepare the listener for the new key, sometimes going so far as to read the music of peers for new approaches. It was quite an inefficient and unproductive time by comparison to the speed and precision with which we produce music today. Edit: clarification

inimino 6y ago
Is your last paragraph intended as sarcasm? It might be helpful to make that more clear...
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
I loved your GP comment, but I don't understand your final paragraph here at all. Sure, writing modulation from one key to another is more work than using a pitch-shifting operation in a DAW. But compared to the work of actually writing a piece of music, it seems like a relatively minor amount of work. Your GP comment was so insightful, however, that I suspect that your meaning is being missed here. Could you clarify?
- jancsika 6y ago
  Yeah, I was just riffing in that paragraph. To riff further-- writing a modulation is a subset of writing a piece. If we were to quantize modulation "styles" to match, say, a set of DAW operations in a dropdown list, we've made the work of writing a piece easier. We extend that ease for each aspect of music-writing that gets a similar dropdown menu in the UI. That ease accelerates the production of music. I find it fitting on HN to insist the common practice period was comparatively unproductive and inefficient. :)
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    OK, I still don't understand. Are you suggesting that modulating between keys was sufficiently difficult for (say) Brahms, Beethoven or Wagner that they would try to avoid it? That seems quite contrary to my understanding.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      It's not difficult, exactly, but there are only so many ways to do it well. You can, of course, just start writing different notes, which sounds jarring. There is a whole theory of "voice leading"[1] which provides a toolbox of nice-sounding ways to get from key to key, with various emotional and textural elements attached to each. (Some if it, I note, is called "Neo-Riemannian theory"[1], which does in fact relate to geometry but is wholly unrelated to Bernhard Riemann.) You don't actually need any of that theory. You can just compose by ear. And some of that theory has been known since the Middle Ages. But the "classical" era composers worked very hard on pushing the state of that art -- some of which can now be autosuggested by composing software. Which is especially nice when you're doing it for an entire 100+ piece orchestra. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_leading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_leading [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory