🎵 Year 9 Music

Advanced Harmony

Extended Chords

• Triads (3 notes) can be extended by stacking more thirds above them
• 7th chords: triad + 7th. The dominant 7th (V7) is the most important: adds a minor 7th above the root of the dominant chord (e.g. G7 in C major: G-B-D-F). Creates strong pull towards the tonic (I).
• Major 7th: triad + major 7th (e.g. Cmaj7: C-E-G-B). Dreamy, lush sound. Common in jazz and pop ballads.
• Minor 7th: minor triad + minor 7th (e.g. Am7: A-C-E-G). Smooth, melancholic. Ubiquitous in jazz, R&B, and neo-soul.
• 9th, 11th, 13th chords: continue stacking thirds. Common in jazz (lush "jazz chords"). Beyond the 7th, notes can be "coloured" (altered, e.g. ♭9, ♯11).
• Suspended chords (sus2, sus4): replace the third with a 2nd or 4th. Create an unresolved, floating feeling. Resolve by moving the suspended note back to the 3rd. Widespread in rock and pop.
• Added chords (add9, add11): add an extension without including the 7th. Cadd9 = C-E-G-D. A popular open sound in acoustic guitar-based music.

Chromatic Harmony

• Chromatic notes: notes outside the current key signature
• Borrowed chords: using chords from a parallel key (e.g. the bVII chord borrowed from the minor key into a major key — e.g. Bb major chord in C major). Common in rock (the "flat VII" gives a driving, anthemic feel).
• Secondary dominants: the V7 of any chord. Creates a temporary feeling of a new key. e.g. in C major: A7 → D minor (the V7 of ii)
• Augmented chord: a triad where both the third and fifth are raised by a semitone (or the fifth alone). Unstable, creates tension and suspense.
• Diminished 7th chord: built entirely from minor thirds. Very tense; resolves strongly. Used in Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and jazz.

Modulation

What Is Modulation?

• Modulation: changing from one key to another within a piece of music
• Creates contrast, emotional journey, development of material, and keeps the music from sounding static
• Must be distinguished from tonicisation (a brief visit to another key that does not establish it firmly)

Common Types of Modulation

• To the dominant (V): the most common modulation in the Classical period. C major → G major. Creates a sense of momentum and tension that resolves when the original key returns.
• To the relative major/minor: C major → A minor (or vice versa). Very close relationship — shares all the same notes. Smooth, natural shift in mood.
• To the subdominant (IV): C major → F major. Gives a sense of broadening, becoming more "open". Common in hymns and gospel.
• Chromatic modulation: a sudden, unexpected shift to a more distant key, often by moving by a semitone. Can create a dramatic, disorienting effect.
• Pivot chord modulation: use a chord that belongs to both the old and new key as the "pivot" — switch allegiance to the new key at this point. The smoothest type of modulation.

Identifying Modulation in Listening

• Listen for: a new note that does not belong to the original key (especially a new leading note), a perfect cadence in a new key, a change in overall "brightness" or "darkness"
• The home key always returns (usually) — recognise the return by the familiar harmonic "feel" and the resolution of the tonic chord

20th Century Music

Impressionism

• Claude Debussy (1862–1918): rejected the formal structures of Germanic music in favour of atmosphere, colour, and ambiguity. Whole-tone scales, parallel chords, modal harmony.
• "La Mer", "Clair de Lune", Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. Titles suggest visual or sensory scenes rather than formal structures.

Serialism and Atonality

• Arnold Schoenberg: gradually abandoned tonality → free atonality → twelve-tone technique (serialism)
• Twelve-tone: a row of all 12 pitches with no note repeated. The row and its transformations (retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion) form the basis of the composition. No tonal centre.
• Alban Berg and Anton Webern were Schoenberg's most important students (the Second Viennese School)
• Reception: largely rejected by audiences who found it ugly and inaccessible. Remains controversial.

Minimalism

• A reaction against the complexity of serialism. Characterised by: simple harmonic language, repetitive patterns, gradual change over long time periods.
• Steve Reich: "Music for 18 Musicians", "Clapping Music". Phase music: two identical patterns played slightly out of time create evolving complexity from simple material.
• Philip Glass: "Glassworks", opera "Einstein on the Beach". Repetitive arpeggiated patterns; hypnotic, meditative quality; huge commercial crossover.
• Arvo Pärt: Estonian composer. Tintinnabuli technique: one voice moves step-by-step (the melodic voice); another outlines the tonic triad (the tintinnabuli voice). Sacred, spiritual quality.

Jazz

• Originated in New Orleans in the early 20th century: African American musical tradition combining blues, ragtime, and European harmony
• Key features: swing rhythm (notes played slightly off the beat), improvisation, blue notes (flattened 3rd, 5th, 7th), call-and-response
• Styles: Dixieland → swing (big band era, 1930s–40s, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington) → bebop (1940s, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie — faster, more complex, for listening not dancing) → cool jazz (Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue", 1959) → free jazz → fusion
• Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue" (1959): modal jazz — based on modes rather than chord changes. The bestselling jazz album of all time.

World Music Traditions

What Is "World Music"?

• "World music" is a contested term (essentially meaning "non-Western" music) — itself reflecting a Western-centric perspective
• Better to approach each tradition on its own terms: understanding its cultural function, historical roots, and musical conventions

Indian Classical Music

• Two main traditions: Hindustani (North India) and Carnatic (South India)
• Raga: a melodic framework — a specific set of notes with characteristic ornaments, movements, and emotional associations (different ragas for different times of day, seasons, emotions)
• Tala: the rhythmic cycle. Tintal (16 beats), Rupak (7 beats), Ektal (12 beats). Counted by hand gestures (clapping and waving).
• Structure: alap (slow, unmetered introduction exploring the raga) → jor (pulse begins) → jhala (fast, virtuosic) → gat (main composition with accompaniment)
• Instruments: sitar and sarod (plucked strings), tabla (paired drums), tanpura (drone)

West African Music

• Polyrhythm: multiple rhythmic patterns played simultaneously, often in 12/8 or with cross-rhythms. This is the foundation of African-derived music including jazz, blues, and all popular music.
• Call and response: a leader sings or plays a phrase; the group responds. A principle found across African music, blues, gospel, and soul.
• Djembe: a rope-tuned goatskin-covered goblet drum. The "master drummer" leads; other players interlock rhythms.
• Griot: a hereditary musician-storyteller in West African society. Keeper of oral history, genealogy, and culture. The equivalent of a bard.

Analysing Set Works

MANDATORY Elements to Address

• Use MIDTSR as a framework for analysis: Melody, Instrumentation/timbre, Dynamics, Texture, Structure, Rhythm/tempo
• Harmony/tonality: key, chord types, cadences, any modulations. Is it tonal, modal, atonal, or somewhere in between?
• Context: when was this written? For what occasion/audience? How does historical/cultural context inform the music?

Comparison Questions

• Always compare like with like: if comparing rhythm, analyse both pieces' rhythm; if comparing texture, discuss both pieces' texture
• Use comparative language: "whereas", "in contrast", "similarly", "both", "unlike"
• Reference the score/notation if provided: bar numbers, dynamics markings, key signature

Listening Skills

• Develop active listening: listen with a purpose — identify instruments, count bars, notice dynamic changes, track melodic development
• Practice transcribing short excerpts: even a rhythm pattern or a bass line. The process of notating what you hear trains the ear.
• Listen widely: expose yourself to music outside your usual taste. Your ear is the most important tool in music.