Introduction mode of music appreciation

We often hear musical terms such as "mode" and "tonality", such as piano concerto in A major and symphony in G minor, but this concept of "mode" is the most difficult to understand. Compared with rhythm and melody, it seems to be the farthest from our auditory experience. But in music, this element is ubiquitous, so we still need to understand and perceive it as much as possible with the help of theory.

A, mode (mode)

Mode is a group of notes used as pitch material in music creation. Theoretically, this group of notes is arranged in the form of scales, and different arrangements and different relationships of notes constitute different modes.

Spectrum example 1: major scale

Spectrum Example 2: Minor Scale

No matter in major or minor, the first sound is the most authoritative and stable, and it is called tonic or alto. Less important than it is the "subordinate tone" counting five degrees up from the tonic and the "subordinate tone" counting four degrees up from the tonic (called the subordinate tone because it is located five degrees down from the tonic). The tonic and subordinate tones are like the two ministers of the tonic, supporting the tonic, and the rest of the tones are in a more secondary position. If we say it carefully, in this small kingdom composed of seven tones, each tone has its unique value and function, or has its own characteristics, but they must all obey the overall interests, which is the order in the world of major.

Besides the difference of tonic, it should also be noted that the specific structures of major and minor are different. This is mainly reflected in the layout of semitone and whole tone.

Semitones and whole tones are different "intervals"-the so-called interval refers to the distance between the two tones. The interval between Do and Re is a whole tone, including two semitones, while the distance between Me and Fa is only one semitone. It is the smallest unit on keyboard instruments (it can be subdivided into smaller units on stringed instruments), and it is also the smallest unit in our usual musical concept. As can be seen from the above two spectral examples, in different scales, the positions of semitone and whole tone are different, that is to say, the internal structures of major and minor are different. Please refer to the knowledge of music theory about these, so I won't elaborate here.

How can I feel whether listening is major or minor? The easiest way is to listen to the end of a piece of music or a song. From the melody point of view, it is often the tonic that ends the whole song, because it is the most stable, and this sense of stability can cause obvious convergence, just like the period we use when writing articles (occasionally there are exceptions, composers deliberately stop the music on other sounds that are not tonic, resulting in lingering effects). In addition, generally speaking, major is relatively clear, because the main chord in the major tonic is a major triad (do, mi, sol), while the main chord in minor is a minor chord (la, do, mi) with a slightly darker color.

For music appreciators, the most important thing is to understand how composers use mode as a musical element to express their thoughts or feelings. Let's take the song "Bodhi Tree" by Austrian composer Schubert as an example, which is selected from the vocal suite "Winter Journey". In this song, it shows a man who was abandoned by his lover and wandered lonely in a foreign land, recalling the dense bodhi tree in front of his hometown and having a complicated mood when he was happy. The first sentence of the lyrics is: "there is a bodhi tree in front of the door, which grows by the ancient well." In its shade, I had countless beautiful dreams. I have also carved sweet poems on the trunk. Whether I am happy or painful, I often linger under the tree. " This is the wandering memory of the warm past. This passage was written by Schubert in E major, and the overall voice was warm and bright:

Spectrum example 3: Schubert's art song "Bodhi Tree" (1)

Example 1: Schubert's art song "Bodhi Tree" (1)

If the melody is sung by roll call or translated into notation, it is like this:

This is the theme melody in e major. Next, the lyrics changed from warm memories to sad reality. The tramp sang, "Today, as in the past, I wandered late into the night. I walked in the dark and closed my eyes. " The artistic conception of these words is bleak, so the composer changed the music accordingly. The melody outline just now is basically preserved, but the mode has changed from e major to e minor.

Spectrum Example 4: Schubert's Art Song "Bodhi Tree" (2)

Example 2: Schubert's art song "Bodhi Tree" (2)

Sing the first song like this:

The use of mode here is very wonderful, and its bright, dark, warm and desolate sound contrast is very suitable for the change of artistic conception of lyrics. In the second half of this paragraph, the artistic conception of the lyrics becomes warm again: "I seem to hear the leaves calling softly to me: companion, come back to me and find peace!" " So the composer asked the two phrases here to return from E minor to E major:

Spectrum Example 5: Schubert's Art Song "Bodhi Tree" (3)

Example 3: Schubert's art song "Bodhi Tree" (3)

Major and minor have different meanings in artistic expression. Composers often choose a major to write clear and magnificent music, showing relaxed and happy, heroic spirit and military demeanor. Write tragic or melancholy music in minor to express pain and sadness, feelings for children, lingering love, etc. Let's give another example. This is Beethoven's third symphony Hero. Please listen to the beginning of the first movement:

Example 4: The first movement of Beethoven's "Hero" symphony;

This is the beginning of the first movement in be major, very firm and masculine. The second movement is the funeral March, which depicts the heroic sacrifice of heroes fighting for freedom and the tragic scene of people holding funerals for them. The theme is C minor, heavy and dim:

Music Example 5: The second movement of Beethoven's "Hero" symphony;

Through the above two examples, we can understand the role of mode in music performance. However, all elements in music are not isolated, they must be combined with other factors. It is conceivable that if the minor mode is combined with strong strength, angular melody and bold and powerful rhythm, the sound will be brilliant, and the effect it gets may not be dim. Similarly, the major mode may become soft or even dim due to other factors.

Above, we introduced the two most common modes in creation: major and minor. In fact, there are many kinds of music in the world, and the modes are very rich. For example, there are five modes in China, which are composed of five tones: Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu. Modal scales start with "1", and are 1, 2, 3, 5, 6; quotient scales start with "2", 2, 3, 5, 6, 1, and so on. Japan, India and Arab countries all have their own unique scales, which are huge practical and theoretical systems and quite complicated.

Second, tonality (key)

Tonality refers to the precise pitch position of a mode.

We often see signs of rising and falling in front of the beat at the beginning of the staff table, such as:

Spectrum example 6: clef

These marks indicate the exact pitch of music, that is, the "tonality" of music. Specifically, it represents the position of the tonic in each mode.

For example, a major, in which "major" refers to its scale structure, "a" refers to the pitch position of the tonic in A, the second sound behind it is on B, the third sound is on #C, and so on.

Suppose they are all in major, A major, bB major, and the scales are all the same. If you switch from A major to bB major and sing the same song, the melody will not change. This is a common phenomenon in daily life: everyone is singing, and the people at the beginning stand too low, and everyone will say, stand higher. So he changed a slightly higher key and led everyone to start singing. In this way, will the music effect be very different? If only these two adjacent tonality, there won't be much change. BB major only improves the interval by two degrees compared with A major, and there is no obvious change in listening. But if we look at the change of tonality in combination with other elements, we will find it very meaningful.

In the previous interview, we talked about the elements of sound areas, and each sound area also has its own unique expression significance. The treble is bright, the bass is deep, and the midrange is moderate and soft. If a melody is played in D major first and then promoted to A major for the second time, the span will be relatively large (five degrees higher), and you will definitely feel that the change of range gives this melody new meaning.

The combination of musical instrument performance and tonality will also produce different effects. Because of its special structure and overtone series, brass instruments are composed of vibrating bodies and air columns. Keys with flat semitone are easier to play and have good timbre, such as B-flat and E-flat, while strings prefer keys with flat semitone, such as D, A and E, so when composers write instrumental music, they will definitely consider the performance of the instrument when choosing tonality.

Interestingly, composers often have a pure sense of personal tonality. When someone writes sad songs, they will use many flat tones, and writing clear and simple songs, such as C major, F major and G major, is often the first choice. Some people even think that each key has a different color, including red, blue, green and white.

In order to cause the change and contrast of music color, composers often use the tonality of multiple modes in a work, which is called "mode". In the orchestral suite "Pearl * Gold" by Norwegian composer Grieg, "Chaojing" is a wonderful ditty with tone sandhi, which successfully depicts the sunrise scene in the desert for the audience. The composer used only one melody and formed a colorful picture by tone sandhi. From the moment when the sky just turned white to the moment when the sun gradually rose and finally lit up the earth, the vivid color changes made the listener feel as if he were there. At first, the theme melody appeared in E major, and then a series of tone sandhi appeared: #G major, B major, F major, C minor, D major and so on. And finally returned to the original e major. This final "tonal return" is to make the whole song echo from beginning to end, and achieve a stable effect.

Spectrum Example 7: The theme of "Chao Jing" in Grieg's orchestral suite "Pearl Gold"

Music Example 6: The theme of "Chao Jing" in Grieg's orchestral suite "Pearl Gold"

Third, polytonality and atonality.

The words "polytonality" and "atonality" were rarely seen in the past, but they were often seen in music in the 20th century, because many composers in the 20th century broke the traditional concept of modal tonality and adopted brand-new musical vocabulary.

For those who are used to classical music, such as European music in the 18th and 19th centuries, the tonality and atonality are simply unbearable. Tonality is tonality. For example, in a big band, the string part plays a melody in C major and the woodwind part plays another melody in E major, which gives people a strange feeling and makes people feel at a loss. When introducing the element of rhythm, we talked about "compound rhythm", that is, in the process of music, two or even three different rhythms and rhythms appear at the same time, such as two beats in one part and three beats in the other, thus causing diversified feelings. The same is true of polytonality. For example, a short violin duet by Hungarian composer Bartok sounds very fresh and interesting because of its multi-tonality.

Case 7: Bartok violin duet, No.27.

This "polytonality" technique of using different tonality in different parts is very common among composers in the 20th century. They just want to break the original monotonous thinking and create a greater sense of space and diversity. /kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, some composers were not satisfied with the sense of stability in a certain tonality. They not only use tone sandhi to cause changes, but also encrypt the frequency of tone sandhi. Sometimes the tone sandhi is changed every two bars. As a result, the tone sandhi becomes very vague and almost illegible. The polytonality of the 20th century is different. It is not frequent tone sandhi in time sequence, but different tones appear at the same time, which is bolder than frequent tone sandhi.

Regarding atonality, there is no traditional concept of tonality in music. As mentioned above, each mode has its specific structure, such as tonic, tonic, subordinate, etc. Each tone in the scale has its own function and cannot be offside. In atonal music, this structure has been completely destroyed, and there is no tonic or dominant tone. They became a group without a monarch and ministers, and they were free to go in any direction without any scruples, and let the music start and end at any tone. This atonal music often confuses people who are used to listening to classical music, because people can hardly hum and memorize this melody. The following is the Austrian composer Schoenberg (Sch? Enberg's ditty is atonal, which is selected from his five orchestral ditties.

Example 8: The fifth of Schoenberg's five orchestral tunes.

Atopic music gives people a sense of liberation and rich imagination. Just like the abstract painting in the 20th century, or Picasso's deformation painting, the original concrete and rigorous object or character form collapsed on this painting and became free and novel. Someone once asked those composers with strange techniques why they wrote such bad atonal music with disgust and curiosity, and their answer was: I think it's very nice.

There is no great truth here, just a different aesthetic view. We all have the right to like it or not. You know, the concept of "beauty" is not fixed, it has no absolute standard.