Chapter 2 Reading Notes and Response

Chapter 2: Rhythm, Loudness, and Harmony

Reading Notes:

  • Rhythm: lengths of notes
  • tempo: pace of a piece of music
  • meter: the way in which the pulses or beats are grouped together
  • "perfect fifth": notes that are either seven semitones higher or lower in pitch are considered a perfect fifth notes from the starting note
  • a whole note: standard duration, lasts 4 beats
  • beat: the basic unit of measurement of in a musical piece, tactus
  • Pitch and loudness do not actually exist in the world, they only exist in the mind
  • Key: the tonal context for a piece of music
  • consonance: pleasing sound chords and intervals
  • dissonance: unpleasing ones
  • melodic transposition: playing a song of music in a different key or with different pitches
  • The Gestault School: a group of psychologists who studied people's cognition towards grouped elements as a whole
  • "Grouping"

Response:

This chapter introduced music terminologies such as rhythm, tempo, meter, etc... and demonstrated them with piece analysis. Then the author discussed the history of the study of "how people group sound elements together" and different theories of it. It is a fruitful and informative reading, but the topic that inspired me the most is the discussion about anticipation.
In most music, pitches and rhythms is the space where music composers play with audiences' anticipation, including how to meet their anticipation to generate a pleasant experience and where to break the anticipation to give them a surprise. For example, people clap or snap on downbeats in most cases, but backbeat also work in a different way. Anticipation determines audiences' behavior pattern in response to listening to the piece, further influences how much are they engaged. 
I also found the quote "In music, some people can’t stand the sound of distorted electric guitars; others won’t listen to anything else." very hilarious but helpful in understanding the fact that there is no universal line between consonance and dissonance. 

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