What happens if we speak verbally with one volume, without inflection or rhythmic variation? Try it. Start to sound like a machine eh? So, as in verbal conversation, our musical thoughts and expressions contain different intensities, nuance and pitches. In musical terms, these verbal attributes aurally translate and come under the broad heading of musical dynamics. Perhaps like listening to a computer generated voice, music which maintains the same dynamic levels i.e., no variation of volume or articulation, begins to sound flat and eventually uninteresting to our ears. Oftentimes, getting our emotional message through the music depends on a players ability to "correlate" the emotional intensity of their musical lines with appropriate use of varying dynamics. This is what good story tellers are so good at. Hearing technical musical wizardry is cool, fun and exciting. Hearing a good storyteller is potentially life enriching.
Dynamic markings in written music take the form of symbols used to denote the volume of a pitch or phrase. Softer volumes are termed "piano", ( p ) as we increase volume we move into the louder forte ( f ) markings. Mezzo ( m ) implies half, which in the following idea implies "half soft" ( mp ) and "half loud" ( mf ). The following music is dynamically marked to get gradually louder from a soft, beginning volume. Example 1.
Is there any limit to the ability of the musical notation and symbols to convey the composers ideas?
| Where to next? | ||||
|
Other artistic ideas? How about artistic techniques?
Commitment is the stuff character is made of, the power to change the face of things. Unknown
