"Musical analysis is the study of musical structure in either compositions or performances."
Understanding how to analyze a piece of music in terms of form, harmony, melody, and rhythm.
Pitch: The fundamental building block of music. Pitch refers to the perceived highness or lowness of a sound and is measured in hertz.
Rhythm: The pattern of sounds and silences that make up a piece of music. Rhythm is notated using a specific set of symbols and can be used to create a sense of tension, release, excitement, or calmness.
Scales: Sets of pitches that are used to create melodies and harmonies. Common scales include the major and minor scales, and various modes.
Chords: Intervals of pitches played simultaneously that create harmonic structure. Chords can be classified as major, minor, diminished, augmented, or seventh chords.
Harmony: The study of how chords function together to create meaningful musical passages.
Melody: The study of how individual pitches and rhythms create memorable and catchy musical phrases.
Form: The structure of a piece of music. Form can be expressed in simple terms, such as ABA (or ternary form), or in more complex structures such as sonata form.
Orchestration: The study of how instruments are used to create texture and colour in a piece of music.
Counterpoint: The study of how two or more melodic lines interact with each other to create harmonic and rhythmic complexity.
Analysis: The process of breaking down a piece of music and examining its parts in detail, often with the objective of understanding its compositional structure and contextual significance.
Timbre: The quality of sound that distinguishes one instrument or voice from another.
Texture: The way that individual musical lines are combined to create a sense of depth and complexity in a piece.
Modulation: The process of changing from one key to another or moving between tonal centres.
Meter: The rhythmic organization of a piece of music, often expressed in the time signatures.
Voice-leading: The study of how individual voices (or parts) within a musical composition relate to one another.
Fugue: A complex contrapuntal composition based on one or more themes, typically featuring a systematic approach to voice-leading and development.
Serialism: A compositional technique that uses pre-defined sets of pitches, rhythms, and other musical elements to create a highly structured and organized piece of music.
Analysis of Popular Music: The application of music theory and analysis to non-classical musical styles, often focusing on the structure, harmony, and rhythmic elements of popular music.
Analysis of Film and Video Game Music: The study of how music is used to enhance visual storytelling in various media, including film and video games.
Analysis of Jazz and Improvised Music: The study of how musicians create harmonic structures and melodic lines in real-time improvisations, often using advanced techniques such as chromaticism, substitution, and reharmonization.
Harmonic Analysis: Examining the chords and their relationship to each other in a piece of music.
Melodic Analysis: Focusing on the melodic structure and development of a composition.
Formal Analysis: Analyzing the overall structure of a piece of music, including key changes and cadences.
Rhythmic Analysis: Looking at the rhythms and patterns of a composition.
Schenkerian Analysis: An approach to analyzing music that focuses on the underlying structure and voice-leading principles.
Motivic Analysis: Analyzing the use and development of musical motifs throughout a piece.
Textual Analysis: Examining the relationship between the music and the lyrics or text of a composition.
Timbral Analysis: Focusing on the use of different instruments or timbres in a piece of music.
Performance Analysis: Analyzing a specific performance of a piece of music, including interpretation and execution.
Historical Analysis: Contextualizing a piece of music within its historical and cultural milieu.
Semiotic Analysis: Exploring the meaning and symbolism within a musical work.
Cognitive Analysis: Investigating the cognitive processes involved in listening to and comprehending music.
"Music analysis 'is the means of answering directly the question 'How does it work?'"
"The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst."
"Its emergence as an approach and method can be traced back to the 1750s."
"It existed as a scholarly tool, albeit an auxiliary one, from the Middle Ages onwards."
"The principle of analysis has been variously criticized, especially by composers."
"To explain by means of [analysis] is to decompose, to mutilate the spirit of a work."
"Musical analysis is the study of musical structure in either compositions or performances."
"Music theorist Ian Bent defined music analysis as answering the question 'How does it work?'"
"The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst."
"Its emergence as an approach and method can be traced back to the 1750s."
"It existed as a scholarly tool, albeit an auxiliary one, from the Middle Ages onwards."
"The principle of analysis has been variously criticized, especially by composers."
"To explain by means of [analysis] is to decompose, to mutilate the spirit of a work."
"The purpose of the analysis differs according to the purpose of the analysis."
"Music analysis 'is the means of answering directly the question 'How does it work?'"
"The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst."
"Its emergence as an approach and method can be traced back to the 1750s."
"It existed as a scholarly tool, albeit an auxiliary one, from the Middle Ages onwards."
"The principle of analysis has been variously criticized, especially by composers."