5/09/2017

A Historical Approach to the Elements of Music

There are usually five main basic elements of music that are addressed when learning the
core of music. These five elements are form, rhythm, melody, texture and harmony. It is not
necessary for a song to be compiled of all three elements but it is likely for a song to contain
all of them. While these are the five basic element, a song is not limited to these elements.
There are many more the enhance the sound of any song like tone colour, tempo, pitch,
timbre, etc. Out of all these elements there are two which are most likely to come up or be
noticeable. These are melody and rhythm. These two elements of music are the basics, the
fundamentals as well as the first two components of music that humans probably ever
encountered. These are the two elements of music that a song is usually built on.

The first element of music being looked at is melody. One of the first contacts with music
was around the middle ages. The music that developed in this time was the Gregorian
chants. Gregorian chants are extremely recognizable and in a way special, because Gregorian
chants or more traditionally called plainsongs or plainchants mainly use the element of
music. Sometime, other elements are excluded from the chants to emphasize on the melody.
While these were used for the most part, there was a musical movement in the medieval
period when a new melodic line was inserted into an already existing Gregorian chant. This
application of a new line in an existing melodic chant was known as “organum”. Organum
added texture to the song as it was no more a monophonic song but a polyphonic song. This
could be considered as an important movement in the middle changes.

Another element that brought about a change was rhythm. The records of the medieval
period aren’t very clear but from what historians have gathered, the chants were sung
without any regular beat or rhythm. Another huge change in the Gregorian chants was the
addition of a regular beat or rhythm which was absent before this time. This gave the
gregorian chant, also known as a plainchant a flowing melodious sound that can be basically
described as having little to no rhythm. This is the way that most commonly chants are
performed nowadays. However, when the sound of the organum was initially introduced, it
was absolutely necessary for the singers that were performing the two melodic lines to be
able to perform in time, together. In short, this called for a more regular beat or pulse
absolutely necessarily. This regular best or pulse is now known as rhythm. Additionally,
around the end of the 12​th​ century a certain style of organum was developed. This particular
type of organum was first introduced in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is in Paris. This
particular type of organum involves singing the notes of the basic melody for a long
time(basically stretching/holding it out) and then singing another tune on top of it. This
results in overlapping melodies. To create some amount of activity in the higher part of the
melody, and to hold the two (or more) of the chosen parts together, consistent rhythmic
alternative patterns of shorter and longer notes were used. This movement brought about an
important component of rhythm. It is now known as a “meter”. A meter is the original,
simple beat of a rhythmic pattern. Thus, organum has brought about a humongous change in
the medieval period by changing a certain part of the Gregorian chants.

There are a few common principles of form in music. They are contrast, variation, and
repetition. Form makes a reference to the way in which certain parts of a musical piece are
put in order. Form, also commonly known as structure, becomes much more periodic and
systematized in the later periods that have occurred in music history.

To conclude, music has changed and has been itself, changed through various periods of
history, the medieval times being a very consequential one.