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The
World of Music
E i g h t h E d i t i o n

David Willoughby
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
Professor Emeritus, Eastern New Mexico University
THE WORLD OF MUSIC, EIGHTH EDITION

Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2017 by McGraw-Hill
Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Previous editions © 2012, 2010, and
2007. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in
a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education, including, but not
limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the
United States.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DOW 21 20 19 18 17 16

ISBN 978-0-07-772057-5
MHID 0-07-772057-1

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Cover Image: Man playing saxophone: Comstock Images/Superstock; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Library of
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All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Willoughby, David.
The world of music / David Willoughby.
Eighth edition. | New York : McGraw-Hill Education, 2016.
LCCN 2016010884 | ISBN 9780077720575 (alk. paper)
LCSH: Music appreciation.
LCC MT6.W533 W7 2016 | DDC 78.1/7–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016010884

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website does
not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill Education, and McGraw-Hill Education does not
guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.

mheducation.com/highered
Brief Contents

P A R T one C H A P T E R 5 C H A P T E R 10
Jazz Styles 72 Music of the
Preparation for
Baroque Period
Listening 2 C H A P T E R 6 (1600–1750) 212
C H A P T E R 1 Popular Music 100
C H A P T E R 11
Introducing theWorld
of Music 4
P A R T
three Music of the
Classic Period
C H A P T E R 2 Listening to World (1750–1820) 234
Music 130
The Nature of C H A P T E R 12
Music: Vocabulary C H A P T E R 7 Music of the Romantic
for Listening and Period (Nineteenth
Understanding 18 Music of the
Americas 132 Century) 252

P A R T
two C H A P T E R 8 C H A P T E R 13
Music Beyond the Music of the Twentieth
Listening to
Americas 152 Century 272
American Music:
Folk, Religious, Chapter 14
Jazz, and Pop 40 P A R T
four Twenty-First-Century
C H A P T E R 3 Listening to
Perspectives
Folk Music Western Classical
Traditions 42 Music 182
C H A P T E R 4 C H A P T E R 9
Religious Music
Traditions 56 Music to 1600 184
iii
Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi C H A P T E R 2 Texture 31
Genres and Forms 32
About the Author xii Melodic Growth and
The Nature of Character 32

P A R T one Music: Vocabulary


for Listening and
Goals for Listening
Summary 39
33

Understanding 18
Preparation
for Listening 2 Definitions of Music 20
P A R T two
Music as a Science 20
Listening to
C H A P T E R 1 Expressive and Functional Qualities
of Music 21 American Music:
Music Is Sound and Silence 21
Introducing the Music Moves through Time 21
Folk, Religious,
World of Music 4 Music Is an Art 21 Jazz, and Pop 40
Music Is Universal 22
The Infinite Variety of Music: A
Global Perspective 6
Music Is a Means of
Expression 22 C H A P T E R 3
The American Mainstream and Music Can Be Functional 22
Ethnic Diversity 7 Music Is a Changing Art 23 Folk Music
Music in Culture 8 The Creative, Performing, and Traditions 42
Listening Experiences 23
Music Labels: Help or
Participating in Active Goals for Listening 44
Hindrance? 10
Listening 25 The Roots of Traditional Folk
Artists and Artistry 11
The Elements of Music 26 Music 44
The Business of Music 12
Melody 27 Types of Folk Music 46
Manufacturing and
Harmony 28 The Blues 48
Merchandising 13
Rhythm 28
Performance of Music 13 Folk Music: An Expanded
Loudness 30
Music Publishing and Copyright View 50
Tone Quality 30
Laws 14 The Urban Folk Revival 52
Interaction of the Elements 30
Music in Advertising 15 Urban Blues 53
Music in the Community 15 To Create a Style: Musical
Summary 55
Concepts 30
Summary 16

iv
Contents v

C H A P T E R 4 Musicals 107
Film 108 C H A P T E R 8
Radio and Recordings 109
Religious Music Country Music 111 Music Beyond
Traditions 56 Hillbilly 111
Cowboy Songs,
the Americas 152
Goals for Listening 58 Western Swing, and Goals for Listening 154
The Roots of American Protestant Honky-Tonk 112 Music in India 154
Music 58 Bluegrass 114 Classical Music 154
Psalm Singing and Psalters 58 The Nashville Sound 115 Popular Music 157
Lining Out, Singing Schools, and Contemporary Country 118
Early African American Music in Japan 157
the Shape-Note System 58 The Performance Context 157
Influences 120
White Gospel Music: Revival and Motown 120 Musical Genres 158
Evangelical Hymns 62 Gospel 120 Gagaku 158
Traditional Black Gospel Music 63 Rhythm and Blues 121 Kabuki 159
Soul 122 Koto, Shakuhachi, and
Popular Contemporary Styles 67
Contemporary Styles 123 Shamisen 159
Summary 70
Rock 123 Music in Sub-Saharan Africa 162

C H A P T E R 5 Rap/Hip-Hop 126
Other Genres 128
Music in Context 163
Instruments 163
Summary 129 Rhythm 164
Jazz Styles 72 Popular Music 166
Goals for Listening 74 Music in Eastern Europe 169
Indonesian Gamelan and Popular
three
What Is Jazz? 75
P A R T Music 172
The Jazz Style 76
The Feel of Swing 76 Jewish Music 174
Instruments 77 Cultural Context 174
Improvisation 77
Listening to World Liturgical Music 175
The Roots of Jazz 78 Music 130 Klezmer Music 175
Celtic Music 176
Jazz Styles 79
New Orleans and Chicago
Jazz 79
C H A P T E R 7 Instruments 177
Artists 177
Altan 177
Stride and Boogie Woogie 83
Swing and Big Band Jazz 83 Music of the Clannad 177
Solas 178
Bebop 88 Americas 132 The Chieftains 178
Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Soul Jazz,
and Free Jazz 92 Goals for Listening 134 Summary 181
Modern Jazz, Fusion, and Native American Music 134

four
Smooth Jazz 97 Style and Context 135
Summary 99 Assimilation and P A R T
Preservation 136
C H A P T E R 6 Ethnic Music in the United
Listening to
States 138
Popular Music 100 Reggae 140 Western Classical
Goals for Listening 102
Latino Music 140
Cajun and Zydeco Music 146
Music 182
The Definition and Scope of Popular
Music 102
Music of South America, Mexico,
and the Caribbean 148
C H A P T E R 9
Pre-Twentieth Century 103 Indigenous Folk Culture 148 Music to 1600 184
Twentieth Century and Musical Instruments 148
Beyond 106 Folk Songs and Dances 148 Goals for Listening 186
Tin Pan Alley 106 Religious Influences 151 The Beginnings of Western Music
Vaudeville 107 Summary 151 (until 1450) 186
vi Contents

Gregorian Chant 187 Genres 237 Experimental Music: Igor


Notation 192 Instrumental 238 Stravinsky 279
Polyphonic Music 192 Vocal, Choral, and Opera 238 Atonal Music and Serialism:
The Renaissance (1450–1600) 193 Forms 240 Arnold Schoenberg 280
Choral and Vocal Music 194 Sonata Form 240 Electronic Music: Edgard
Mass 194 Theme and Variations 244 Varèse 284
Motet 198 Minuet and Trio 244 Chance Music: John Cage 285
Madrigal 200 Rondo 246 Nationalism: Béla Bartók 286
Instrumental Music 203 Nationalism: Charles Ives and
Featured Composers 246
The Reformation 203 Aaron Copland 287
Franz Joseph Haydn 246
Additional American
Featured Composers 204 Wolfgang Amadeus
Composers 292
Josquin des Prez 206 Mozart 247
Amy Cheney Beach 292
Giovanni Pierluigi da Ludwig van Beethoven 249
Ruth Crawford Seeger 292
Palestrina 207 Summary 251 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich 293
Giovanni Gabrieli 208
Summary 210 C H A P T E R 12 Ulysses Kay 294
Henry Cowell 294
C H A P T E R 10 Music of the Romantic
George Gershwin 294
William Grant Still 296

Music of the Period (Nineteenth Neoclassical Music 296


Minimalism 297
Baroque Period Century) 252 Traditional Sounds 297

(1600–1750) 212 Goals for Listening 254 Summary 299


Musical Characteristics 254
Goals for Listening 214
Forms and Genres 255
Musical Characteristics 214 Instrumental Forms and Chapter 14
Texture 214 Genres 255
Major-Minor Tonal System 214 Opera and Ballet 256 Twenty-First-Century
Continuo 215
Word Painting 215
Keyboard Forms and Perspectives
Genres 256
Other Musical Songs 257 Featured Composers
Characteristics 215 Mickey Hart
Featured Composers 257
Instruments 217 Johannes Brahms 259 Foday Musa Suso and the
Musical Forms and Genres 217 Frédéric François Chopin 262 Kronos Quartet
Opera 218 Felix Mendelssohn 263 Béla Fleck
Orchestral Works 218 Franz Peter Schubert 264 Wu Man
Chamber Music 221 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 266 Tan Dun
Keyboard Works 222 Giuseppe Verdi 268 Terry Riley
Choral Music 224 Richard Wagner 269 John Adams
Jennifer Higdon
Featured Composers 225 Other Notable Composers 269
Johann Sebastian Bach 225 Summary
Summary 271
George Frideric Handel 230
13
Selected Internet Resources
Other Notable Composers 233 C H A P T E R
Summary 233
Music of the Twentieth
C H A P T E R 11 Century 272
Music of the Classic Goals for Listening 274
Period (1750–1820) 234 General Characteristics 274 Appendix: Classification of
Instruments according to Methods
Stylistic Developments and Featured of Tone Production 301
Goals for Listening 236
Composers 275
Musical Characteristics 236 Impressionism: Claude Glossary 311
Instruments 237 Debussy 276 Index 323
the World of MusiC:
An All-inClusive
eMphAsis on listening
David Willoughby’s approach has helped a genera-
tion of students appreciate music as it exists in the
real world. The eighth edition brings The World
of Music’s inclusive approach into the twenty-first
century. Listening experiences and classroom dis-
cussions are more personal to your students than
ever before.
Students who learn from The World of Music
will be able to recognize different styles of music
and appreciate their different functions, and will
acquire a solid foundation for continued learning in
areas that inspire them personally.

New Integrated Reading and Listening Experience


With Connect®, students have access to the entire text and all musical
recordings for The World of Music on their computers or tablets. Con-
nect for the eighth edition features a new mobile interface that has been
designed for optimal use of tablet functionality. More than just a new way to access Connect, users can
complete assignments, check progress, and study and read material on the go.

SmartBook® is a new digital format


of The World of Music. Unlike a typi-
cal eBook:
• All of the music for the course
is embedded for easy access
anytime.
• SmartBook actively tailors The
World of Music to individual
students’ needs.
• SmartBook can be accessed on-
line on a laptop or tablet.

vii
viii The World of Music: An All-Inclusive Emphasis on Listening

Listening Guides
No repertoire is too small to be studied, and all repertoires are important, differing
only in style and function. The World of Music captures and conveys the essence of
each repertoire—whether popular, traditional, or classical music—in order to en-
hance students’ musical understanding.
In chapters 2 through 13, Listening Guides allow students to examine in detail a
recorded musical example. Musical examples reinforce the concepts discussed in the
text, and each Listening Guide includes strategies to help students listen and understand
each piece. For every recorded example in Connect, there is a Listening Guide in the
textbook that presents:
• Background information on the composer or piece.
• Goals for developing listening and descriptive skills.
• An outline of and commentary on the music and its structure and style.
• Reflections on the listening experiences that can spark discussion in and out
of class.

NEW! Redesigned Connect Listening Guides provide a guided listening experience


that trains the student listener’s ear by pointing out meaningful elements, themes, and
instrumentation in each work. Now optimized for tablets, students can experience
listening whenever and wherever they go. Through the Listening Guides, instructors
can monitor whether or not individual students have completed the listening. There is
a Connect Listening Guide for every piece with a Listening Guide in the text.
The World of Music: An All-Inclusive Emphasis on Listening ix

New Personalized Reporting


The first and only analytics tool of its kind,
Connect Insight™ is a series of visual data
displays available to instructors and students.
For the instructor, Connect Insight provides at-a-glance information regarding how your
class is doing on their Connect assignments, including progress on their listening
assignments. For the student, Connect Insight surfaces data they can actually use to boost
their performance, delivered to you in an easy-to-read snapshot. Designed for mobile
devices, Connect Insight is available on demand wherever or whenever it’s needed.

Digital Music Collection


All of the audio selections discussed in the eighth edition of The World of Music are
available in two ways, making it easier than ever to access the music on a computer
or portable device:
1. Connect Music, where selections stream via computer or tablet in two ways: in
a simple audio player, or in interactive Listening Guides. In the latter, students
not only listen to the piece but also have instant access to a visual representation
of the structure of the piece. Instructors can assign the Listening Guides for a
grade, but students can listen to any piece anytime in SmartBook.
2. MP3 download card, which instructors can opt to package with the text.
Simply use the unique code printed on the card to download all of the music
on your personal computer, and sync it to a device of your choice.
x The World of Music: An All-Inclusive Emphasis on Listening

More for Instructors


The eighth edition of The World of Music also includes a variety of new and updated
assessments exclusively available to instructors in Connect, including an instructor’s
manual, test bank, and lecture PowerPoints.
The wealth of assessments and additional listening activities available include lis-
tening identification quizzes for all selections, and critical listening and comparison
activities to help students improve their active listening skills.

LMS Integration
With one click, Connect seamlessly integrates with every learning management
system on the market today. Quickly access registration, attendance, assignments,
grades, and course resources in real time in one go-to location.

Service, Support, & Training


Connect customers receive comprehensive service, support, and training through-
out every phase of partnership with us. Online, customers can access our Customer
Experience Group at any time of day for immediate assistance, or access the Digital
Success Academy for on-demand training materials, the Connect Blog, and tips to get
up and running quickly. Our Digital Faculty Consultants are a network of passionate
educators, dedicated to advancing student learning through educational technologies,
resources, and collaboration opportunities. This team of experienced Connect users
is ready to help fellow peers achieve the greatest success using the platform, either
one on one or in a group setting. In addition, help content is accessible directly within
the Connect platform to make it easier to get the help you need in the context of
what you need at that precise moment.

Through McGraw-Hill Education Create, a newly revised


Twenty-First-Century Perspectives chapter is available for
instructors who want to incorporate more textual material on contemporary music.
McGraw-Hill Create allows you to create a customized print book or eBook tailored
to your course and syllabus. You can search through thousands of McGraw-Hill
Education texts, rearrange chapters, combine material from other content sources,
and include your own content or teaching notes. Create even allows you to personalize
your book’s appearance by selecting the cover and adding your name, school, and
course information. To register and to get more information, go to http://create
.mheducation.com.
ACknoWledgMents

I would like to give special thanks to Christine Poythress of Middle Tennessee State
University, whose invaluable feedback and expertise have made the eighth edition
what it is.
I would also like to thank the reviewers who read and commented on previous
editions. I incorporated many of their suggestions for improvement. I am grateful to
Felix Cox,
East Carolina University
Lon Denhart,
University of Central Oklahoma
Constance Edwards,
Fairmont State University
Billie Gateley,
Jackson State Community College
George Halsell,
College of Southern Idaho
Ronald Horner,
Frostburg State University
Vicki Pierce Stroeher,
Marshall University
Todd Queen,
Colorado State University
Brenda Romero,
University of Colorado, Boulder
I especially want to thank my wife, Barbara English Maris, whose professional back-
ground in music and writing enabled her to offer numerous helpful suggestions, of
which I continue to be most appreciative.
David Willoughby
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

xi
ABout the Author

David Willoughby is a graduate of Lebanon Valley College (Pennsylvania), Miami


University (Ohio), and the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester
(New York). He is Professor Emeritus of Music at Eastern New Mexico University
(ENMU), where he taught for 20 years while serving as dean of the School of Music
and then the College of Fine Arts. Following his retirement in 1993, he moved to
Pennsylvania and became head of the Music Department at Susquehanna University
(Selinsgrove).
Willoughby has long been active in the College Music Society (CMS), a national
organization of music teachers in higher education. His leadership roles with CMS
have included board member for Music in General Studies (MGS; 1980–1985),
director of several MGS conferences and teacher institutes (1980–1985), president
(1987 and 1988), and editor of the CMS Newsletter (1997–2006).
Throughout his musical career, Willoughby has played bass in symphony orches-
tras in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, as well as jazz bass with a wide variety of
groups.
During his years at ENMU, he hosted a weekly music and talk program that
explored music and musicians from diverse periods, styles, and cultures. Those one-
hour programs, presented on public radio, created a foundation that expanded
Willoughby’s world of music and established the philosophy for The World of
Music, first published in 1990.
David Willoughby and his wife, Barbara English Maris, live in Elizabethtown,
Pennsylvania, with Taffy, their very special maltese/poodle.

xii
The
World of Music
P A R T
one
Preparation
for Listening
T
his book is about music as it exists in the United States—our world of music. It encourages
the study of music from a global perspective. This perspective can help us develop a greater
respect for the music of other cultures and for any of our own cultural or ethnic groups. A global
approach can also deepen our understanding of the predominant or mainstream musical styles of the
United States, especially jazz, classical music, and popular music.
The primary purpose of The World of Music is to help you become a more perceptive listener by
giving you more knowledge about music in general. In order to enhance your experience of listening to
music, the text seeks to
• Help you improve your ability to listen to music intelligently. Listening is the core of the book and
also the link that ties the chapters together.
• Cultivate an awareness and knowledge of musical traditions from around the world.
• Deepen your understanding of musical context—that is, the historical, social, political, and
economic contexts within which music is created and used.
Although many people have become sophisticated in their use of music by learning to play instru-
ments and perhaps even read music notation, significant musical experiences can happen with or
without formal training. Not everyone creates or performs music, but we all listen to it.
Music is a part of our experience from birth to death. We experience it through games at recess,
rituals in our places of worship, and curricula in our schools, as well as singing in the shower with
no one listening. Our musical experiences may involve a stereo system and DVD player in our home
entertainment center, a multidisc CD player at home or in the car, downloads to a computer, MP3
player, iPod, cell phone, or some new, technologically advanced piece of equipment that we can’t even
imagine now.
Part One of this text, “Preparation for Listening,” consists of two chapters:
• Chapter 1 draws attention to the enormous variety of music that we discover when we examine
music from a global perspective. This chapter also discusses the various ramifications of the music
business and the ways in which music functions in our communities.
• Chapter 2 explores the musical vocabulary used by English-speaking westerners and how we use
this vocabulary to describe ways that sounds become music, how music is both an art and a
science, and how it is sometimes lofty—perhaps challenging—yet other times part of our daily
experiences. You will discuss ways we all use music as listeners, sometimes performers, and even
creators of music. Chapter 2 also presents a beginning vocabulary based on the elements of music.
It stresses how creators of music organize these elements to create a style, and it is intended to
assist you in describing and understanding the structure and style of music—that is, what it is that
makes something a piece of music. Additional vocabulary is presented in later parts of the book.
The goals of this book are to help you
• Develop listening skills by using basic musical concepts and applying them to any music
you hear.
• Gain an understanding of the structure of music by examining various ways in which music
is organized.
• Learn how musicians at any level manipulate sounds in a personal way to create a style.
• Recognize stylistic differences—the characteristics that distinguish one piece from another.
To reach these goals, you will need to understand certain musical concepts and learn the relevant
vocabulary. All boldfaced terms are defined in the glossary. The glossary can help you understand new
concepts, so consult it often.

3
Introducing the

1 World of Music

© Craig Aurness/Corbis

Chapter Outline

The Infinite Variety of Music: The Business of Music


A Global Perspective Manufacturing and Merchandising
The American Mainstream and Performance of Music
Ethnic Diversity Music Publishing and Copyright Laws
Music in Culture Music in Advertising
Music in the Community
Music Labels: Help or Hindrance?
Artists and Artistry Summary
In This Chapter
How is music a global phenomenon?
How is ethnic diversity important in our culture?
What are some cultural characteristics of the United States?
How helpful is the use of labels in music?
What does it mean, in music, to be an “artist”?
How is music both a business and an art?
How can we participate in the arts in our communities?

T hroughout The World of Music, we discuss the roots and development of the
musical styles that have had the greatest impact on American society. The
music that we discuss comes from the American cultural mainstream (the histori-
cally predominant culture), as well as from a few of the diverse subcultures within
the United States. The roots of many of these diverse musics lie in the musics
of other cultures—notably those of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia—which
were brought to the United States by immigrants from those regions.
In this text, we acknowledge and respect the similarities and differences among
these various musical styles and traditions that make up the composite we call
“American” music. Thus, a key goal of this chapter—and this book—is to convey
the diversity of the world’s music, particularly the music important to large or small
groups of people in American society.
The course begins by encouraging the development of listening skills through a
sampling of the seemingly endless styles of music from around the globe. One goal
is to acquire a sense of what exists beyond our own experience.

5
5
6 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

© Kelly-Mooney Photography/Corbis
© Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

The sitar, a plucked stringed instrument from northern India, is The koto, a plucked string instrument (13 strings), is part of
a widely accepted instrument in India’s classical music tradition. Japan’s classical music tradition. Accomplished koto players,
Pictured is Ravi Shankar, who, in the twentieth century, was in addition to plucking, use slides, scrapes, and striking to
India’s foremost sitar player. He was internationally known and produce ornaments and other effects typical of traditional
did much to introduce the music of India to the West. Here he is Japanese music.
shown performing in Athens, Greece.

The Infinite Variety of Music: A Global Perspective


Due to the tremendous advances in communication, transportation, and tech-
nology, we live in a world that seems to grow smaller and smaller. So it seems
not merely appropriate but necessary to approach music from a global perspec-
tive. This worldwide point of view requires awareness of and respect for the
lifestyles, traditions, values, and music of different nations and cultures. Such an
approach also acknowledges the great diversity of musical traditions within our
nation—a diversity that has contributed significantly to the richness of our national
culture.
The musical traditions in the United States include western European classical
music, folk music, and popular music, much of which is based on European tradi-
tions. Other styles, however, including jazz, blues, and various ethnic musics, have
evolved from a blending of cultures and traditions. All these styles constitute an
important part of music in American society.
Chapter 1 Introducing the World of Music 7

© Jeff Geissler/AP Photo


The guitarrón (left) and vihuela (right) are plucked stringed
instruments. These folk instruments, primarily from Mexico,
are used in mariachi bands worldwide.

The American Mainstream and Ethnic Diversity


The primary factor in the development of America’s cultural mainstream was the predom-
inance of English-speaking settlers in North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. When our society and our government were taking shape, English culture
defined America’s politics, religion, and language. All succeeding immigrant groups had
to choose assimilation with the English-speaking mainstream or isolation from it.
Groups that retained a substantial part of the language, customs, or social views of
their original cultures became what we call ethnic minorities. Part of the cultural rich-
ness of our nation is derived from its ethnic diversity and the large number of ethnic
groups living here. Some immigrant groups have partially assimilated into mainstream
American society while retaining the songs, dances, instruments, languages (or at least
accents and inflections), fashions, cuisines, and lifestyles of their traditional cultures.
In many cases, new styles and modes of behavior have been formed by the merg-
ing of cultural traditions. For example, jazz developed in the early twentieth century,
in part from a merging of songs and dances of Anglo-Americans with songs and
dances of Creoles (people of mixed French or Spanish and perhaps African heritage
who were born in the West Indies and the southern United States), and in part from a
further merging of this Anglo-American and Creole music with the songs and dances
of African Americans (many the descendants of black slaves).
European influences in early American music were dominant in part because (1) most
early religious, folk, and popular songs were derived from traditions and styles from the
8 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

Arab-Israeli rappers
Mahmood Jrere, Tamer
Nafa, and Suhell Nafar
are shown performing.
Rap, born of inner-city
poverty and the struggles
of black Americans, has
been adopted by youths
around the world.

© Brian Ach/WireImage/Getty Images


British Isles and mainland Europe; (2) Americans, particularly throughout the nineteenth
century, were exposed to European classical music by traveling to Europe or listening
to music performed by visiting or immigrant European musicians; and (3) European
Americans rejected the music of Native Americans as primitive and unworthy. Thus,
most of America’s popular and classical music was based on the melodic, harmonic,
rhythmic, and performance practices of western Europe. The instruments we Americans
have used were for the most part, the same as or derived from those used in mainland
Europe and the British Isles. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, the
American mainstream is becoming less European and more global.

Music in Culture
Music is part of a culture. We learn much about a culture or a subculture from its
arts: its songs, dances, and other forms of expression that depict or suggest feelings,
attitudes, and important events.
The study of the music of other cultures, as well as our own, means describing
music in musical terms. The problem with this approach is that the language we use
to talk about music is not universal. It is based on western European musical con-
cepts and often cannot describe other music equally well. Furthermore, studying the
music of a culture implies much more than simply describing music. It also involves
considering the context of music in a society, music as it relates to human behavior,
and the general attitude of a people toward their music.
Scholars of music in cultures—or “world music”—are known as ethnomusi-
cologists. They do the research on the music of a culture, write about it, and teach
others about it. They may live, for a time, in the country or region where that music
is produced. They record the music, talk to the people who make the music, and find
out why and how it is created, performed, and heard. In other words, they try to
Chapter 1 Introducing the World of Music 9

understand the music the way members of the culture understand it. And this is true
not only when they study the music of faraway places but also when they study the
music within their own national boundaries.
Ethnomusicologists, through their research, seek to learn about the social aspects
of music in a culture, asking such questions as “Who creates?” “Who performs?”
and “Who listens?” These scholars try to determine what the life of a musician is like
and what this person’s status is—that is, whether a musician is highly respected or
more like a servant, is professional or amateur, is formally schooled or unschooled,
and so on. They also discover how the musician acquires and develops skills.
This research produces information about a culture’s ideas about music, how
music ties into a belief system, and whether music is intended for immediate use or
preserved in some way for future generations. Ethnomusicologists explore how a
group perceives music in relation to nature and to society. They observe a culture’s
musical preferences. Do the people consider music beautiful, or is beauty of no con-
cern at all? What sounds do people consider to be pleasing and satisfying? Is there
“good” and “bad” music? Does the culture have popular music and classical music?
In addition, ethnomusicologists ask where music is performed, how musicians
dress when they perform, and on what occasions music is performed—for rituals,
entertainment, concerts, ceremonies, sports, dance, drama, or religion. They examine
the relationship between performer and audience: what the audience does during
a presentation and whether the spectators are active or inactive, quiet or noisy,
attentive or inattentive.
In addition to examining the social aspects of music in a culture, ethnomusicolo-
gists study the music itself, to determine musical styles, genres, forms, and the history
and theory of a culture’s music. They also try to discover what can be learned about
the culture from the texts of its songs, what the music sounds like, and what linguis-
tic problems arise in describing the music. They find ways to describe the creative
process, the use of melody, the rhythmic organization, the choice of instruments, and
the preferred qualities of vocal and instrumental sounds. These scholars determine
how music is taught, learned, and passed on from one generation to the next, and
whether it is notated or transmitted mainly by oral tradition (that is, by example,
imitation, or memory).
Ethnomusicologists discover what tangible things a community uses to produce
music: instruments, equipment, printed music, or recordings. They also study the
extent to which technological and urban—perhaps Western—influences are evident:
mass media, sound reinforcement, concert and touring performances, professional
musicians, and the music industry.
Ethnomusicologists examine the extent of acculturation—the process by which
a culture assimilates, blends with, or adapts to the characteristics and practices of
other cultures. They study the extent to which people accept or accommodate out-
side influences, making such influences a part of their culture—and to what extent
people reject outside influences to preserve the purity of their culture.
Cultures change—sometimes rapidly, sometimes imperceptibly. In this modern
technological age, few cultures are unaffected by outside influences. Most have
accepted some of these influences and changed their behaviors and practices as a
result. Ethnomusicologists have taught us much about the music of non-Western
cultures, subcultures of American society, and Western-influenced cultures in other
parts of the world. They have taught us to take a global rather than an ethnocentric
perspective—that is, they have taught us to be interested in more than our own cul-
ture and our own music.
10 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

Acoustic guitars, such


as the one pictured,
are used primarily
for playing folk and
classical music.

© Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
Music Labels: Help or Hindrance?
When we develop a global perspective and examine diverse musical styles, the
problem of labels arises. How do we identify different types of music? Categories
or labels are sometimes useful for organizing knowledge, and this book does use
them for that purpose. But ambiguity and overlap frequently occur, and stylistic
distinctions are often blurred. Consider, among many influences, the current popu-
larity of crossover and fusion styles, overlapping and frequently changing sales
charts, classical composers who incorporate jazz or ethnic music, and jazz musi-
cians who incorporate classical or religious music. Here are a few examples of the
ambiguity of labels:
• George Gershwin was a composer of classical music and popular music—in the
same pieces! Rhapsody in Blue (symphonic music) and Porgy and Bess (an opera)
contain elements of both classical and popular styles. Gershwin also wrote songs
for Broadway that were later arranged for string quartet. Are those songs then a
part of the classical music repertoire?
• A folk song typically grows out of a cultural group, and usually its composer
or creator is unknown. Yet the writers or composers of many well-known
contemporary folk songs are known. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Bob
Dylan wrote songs that seemed very personal, were learned by memory, and
became commercially successful. These composed songs started out as popular
music, then became part of the folk music tradition.
• A popular song falls into the category of commercial music—that is, music
intended to become commercially successful, even a hit. But if such a song
doesn’t become popular, it still remains in the category of popular music.
• Classical music is not popular or commercial music, yet contemporary
composers want their music to sell and be performed. And even very old
classical pieces remain popular—for example, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s
Fifth Symphony, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
Chapter 1 Introducing the World of Music 11

• Music composed for symphony orchestra, such as a Beethoven symphony,


falls in the genre of classical music. But, for example, music for the Star Wars
movies was composed by John Williams and scored for large orchestra, and it
has been performed by countless symphony orchestras and bands, including
the Boston Pops Orchestra, which Williams conducted for a time. Thus, is it
classical music? Or is film music a distinct musical genre?
• Operas, operettas, and musicals are usually thought of as separate genres, but
considerable overlap exists. The following musical and stage productions use
sets, costumes, orchestras, solo and ensemble singing, and dramatic action, yet
they represent different genres: Puccini’s Tosca and Bizet’s Carmen are operas;
Victor Herbert’s Naughty Marietta and Sigmund Romberg’s The Student
Prince are operettas; and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music and
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera are Broadway musicals.
What is the difference between a popular song and a pop song? Between pop mu-
sic and soul or rock? Between blues, rhythm and blues, and soul? Does soul include
blues or rap? What is the difference between rap and hip-hop? Which became popu-
lar first? What are the differences between hip-hop and contemporary R&B? What is
the currently popular label (or labels)? What artists today best represent rap/hip-hop
and contemporary R&B? What labels will we use five years from now?
How do we classify New Age music? Is it jazz, classical, or pop? Is it all or nei-
ther? What is alternative music? Is it a separate and distinct category? What is it an
alternative to? As alternative artists or albums become more popular and move into
the mainstream, does their music continue to be alternative music?
When is a popular song traditional and when is it contemporary? When is it pop
and when is it rock? When is a song gospel and when is it Christian? When is it soul
and when is it rhythm and blues (R&B)? Afropop and worldbeat are different from
Anglo-American folk music, yet there can be similarities.
When stylistic differences are obvious, the choice of a label is clear. But frequently,
labeling is not so easy. Within the category of popular music, but also between classi-
cal and popular or jazz styles, there is considerable overlap, given today’s propensity
for crossover and fusion. Many artists reflect characteristics of more than one style
from album to album, from song to song, and even within a song. Some music defies
any label.
What matters and what doesn’t? Labels can be helpful for organizing information
and classifying music. Use labels and benefit from them, but do not adhere to them
rigidly.

Artists and Artistry


When we think of an “artist,” we often picture someone who paints or sculpts, but
this person is simply a visual artist. More broadly, an artist is someone who performs
in any medium with creativity and sensitivity and with the ability to communicate
with an audience. A person plays music artistically when it is played in a manner
that is expressive, consistent in style, and based on musical, cultural, and historical
knowledge. Often we associate musical artistry only with the creation and perfor-
mance of Western art music—that is, classical music. But musical artistry is found in
all styles and traditions of music. We should not think of it only in association with
Western art music.
12 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

This piano quartet, a


Western chamber music
ensemble, takes on an
international character,
judging, if for no other
reason, by their names:
(left to right) Japanese
violinist Eiji Arai; South
Korean pianist Chung
Myung-whun; Japanese
violist Crown Prince
Naruhito; and Latvian
cellist Mischa Maisky.

© Kimimasa Mayama/AP Photo


In the context of the popular music industry, anyone who performs music, regard-
less of style, is usually said to be an artist. How many times have you heard a singer
with some successful CDs referred to as a “talented artist”?
Many of the artists included in this book are well known; others are little known or
unknown. Many of those who are well known have gained national and international
reputations from sales of recordings, tours, prestigious performances, rave reviews,
and awards and honors. Yet many outstanding artists live in your community and
region, perhaps never attempting national or international careers. They play at street
festivals and county fairs and in churches, symphony orchestra halls, and nightclubs.
Active local artists often have excellent CDs to sell. Read the performing arts calendars
in your local or regional newspapers. Get to know and support your local artists.

The Business of Music


Understanding the basics of a complex industry—the music business—provides
a context for understanding how Americans support music’s creators, perform-
ers, and listeners. To a large extent, the musical life of communities—amateur or
professional—could not exist without the vast number of people who participate in
this support. The roles that people play in support of musicians and the musical life
of their communities, regions, or nation may be categorized as follows:
• Manufacturing and merchandising—making and selling music and merchandise
for profit.
• Performance of music—producing and selling live or recorded music for profit
or as a service; this involves recording technicians, agents, managers, and
copyright attorneys, among others.
• Music publishing—for performance and instruction of music and the
administration of copyright laws, where applicable.
Chapter 1 Introducing the World of Music 13

© Paul Kane/Getty Images


An electric guitar, amplified electronically, is used primarily for playing
pop, rock, blues, rap/hip-hop, and other forms of vernacular music
worldwide. Pictured is Eric Clapton, noted British pop/rock guitarist.

• Advertising—includes radio, television, the Internet, and print media.


• Music in local communities—encompasses professional, semiprofessional,
and amateur musical organizations and activities, and the promotion and
development of music and the other arts.

Manufacturing and Merchandising


Manufacturing and merchandising is the actual making of goods and includes re-
search, design, and development; promotion, sales, and distribution; and customer
service. The variety of manufactured goods essential to the music industry provides a
good illustration of its scope, diversity, and impact on our lives. These goods include
the following:
• Band and orchestra instruments and the repair people who keep those
instruments functioning.
• Electronic instruments, some with links to computers, that serve the vast
professional, semiprofessional, and amateur entertainment industry.
• Pianos and pipe or electronic organs that serve homes, schools, churches, and
concert halls.

Performance of Music
Music performance permeates every aspect of the music industry and, indeed, of
society itself. Music is performed live on street corners and in concert halls, gym-
nasiums, parks, fairgrounds, hotel lounges, nightclubs, and churches, temples, and
synagogues. It is performed, recorded, distributed, and sold to consumers; broadcast
over radio, television, and online used on the soundtracks of films, commercials, and
video games; and played in elevators, offices, and department stores.
14 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

© Dat’s Jazz
This early version of electric multiple-keyboards was used primarily in
popular music and rock groups. Today, electronic keyboards take up less
space and are more versatile in creating combinations of musical sounds.

Among the biggest patrons of those musicians who tour are colleges and uni-
versities. Most institutions of higher education offer an “artist series.” Larger cities
that can afford them often maintain symphony orchestras, ballet companies, and
opera companies. Symphony orchestras offer concert series that are usually sold as a
package—a subscription series or season tickets—always with considerable savings
over the cost of individual concerts.
Most communities offer their own local music performances in many different
styles and traditions, depending on the size and population mix of the area. Cities
with ethnically diverse populations usually offer live musical performances of such
great diversity that they appeal to almost every taste. Many communities sponsor
festive occasions such as folk festivals, bluegrass concerts, or fiddle contests.
Communities often maintain semiprofessional orchestras. Most community or-
chestras hire musicians who play for pay, but at a level that requires them to earn
most of their income elsewhere, often from teaching. Other performers choose
careers outside of music and play for their own enrichment, enjoyment, and per-
haps supplemental income. Many semiprofessional or amateur musicians are pri-
marily public school or college music teachers. Community symphony musicians
frequently supplement their income by playing jazz, rock, or country music in
local nightclubs, lounges, and private social clubs and for school or community
dances—or they may be hired or volunteer to perform church music regularly or
on special occasions.

Music Publishing and Copyright Laws


Some publishers specialize in printed music for churches, schools, and colleges—
that is, the Christian, educational, and concert music markets. Another market for
printed music is the large group of amateur music makers who purchase pianos,
organs, electronic keyboards, and guitars for home use and who need to buy sheet
music, collections, and instructional how-to books.
One area of music publishing that is quite large but typically not considered part
of the music industry is the music book industry, including textbooks and magazines
Chapter 1 Introducing the World of Music 15

about music. These materials usually are published by houses that specialize in writ-
ing, producing, and distributing books or other materials on a variety of subjects.
With the establishment of the copyright law in 1909, composers, lyricists, and pub-
lishers became the copyright owners of popular songs and were able to make a profit
from the royalties earned when these songs were performed live and in recordings.
Copyright holders were granted exclusive rights to authorize the use of their music
for a limited time and to collect fees for such use. Today, anyone performing copy-
righted material for profit has to obtain performance rights by paying for a license or
by paying a royalty. Anyone recording copyrighted material for profit has to obtain
mechanical rights and pay the established fees. Anyone using copyrighted music in a
film for profit has to obtain synchronization rights and pay the appropriate fees.
Unauthorized downloading of copyrighted music or movies presents unique
problems. The individual who downloads illegally is then in violation of copyright
law and is subject to the consequences of the enforcement of that law. It is clear, to-
day, that downloading copyrighted music or movies (intellectual property)—without
paying—is no less a crime than stealing physical property. People who create artistic
works, whether on land or in cyberspace, that contribute to their livelihood are en-
titled to fair compensation. Without having legal permission or paying a legal fee to
use or copy intellectual property, the perpetrator is guilty of piracy, which is illegal.

Music in Advertising
Nearly all commercials on radio and television use music to help sell a product or
service. This music has to be created and performed, providing jobs for jingle writers
(composers) and performers, as well as for everyone associated with its production.
Given the prominence today, however, of electronically produced sound, especially
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technology, many commercials use only
one performer. The same person who composes the music also creates and records
the sounds.
Both anecdotal evidence and documented scientific research suggest that music
powerfully affects the conscious and subconscious emotions of listeners. Music in
advertising can be in the foreground, might accompany dancing, or may serve as
background for spoken material. It can create an image or a mood, establish an asso-
ciation, and enhance the positive or minimize the negative attributes of a product or
service. It can attract attention, create unity, and provide a style that is memorable.
It can be catchy, simple, and repetitive, and it can serve as a catalyst for an entire ad
campaign. Music for an ad may be derived from a popular song or converted into a
popular song. Either way, the intent of those who reuse the music is to capitalize on
the exposure and popularity of the original.
Examine the qualities of familiar commercials or almost any current ones on ra-
dio or television. What are their attractive qualities? What makes them potentially
effective? How do you respond to them?

Music in the Community


Both music making and music listening are favorite pastimes for large numbers of
Americans. Much of this musical involvement takes place outside of the formal
music education programs in schools and colleges. It occurs in the community in
locations such as streets, malls, playgrounds, civic auditoriums, community music
schools, senior citizen centers, churches, prisons, and mental health clinics, and at
home with family and friends.
16 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

The extent and nature of the musical activities taking place in communities reflect
the vast amount of amateur music making in our society. These examples also sug-
gest that Americans value and enjoy a wide range of musical styles, from children’s
songs to chamber music, from square dance music to ballet, from mariachi to blues.
Also, when we consider the extent to which Americans attend live concerts, listen to
streaming music on smartphones, buy CDs and DVDs, and download music to other
devices, we see that both listening to music and making music are valued activities
in our society.
In the entertainment industry, people who hold jobs as agents, managers, book-
ers, and promoters fulfill nonmusical functions in order to make the industry work.
Similarly, in both small and large communities, many paid professionals and many
more unpaid volunteers—from box office personnel and ushers to publicists and
lawyers—fulfill nonmusical functions in support of the community’s artistic life. In
many communities, arts programs are supported through grants from federal, state,
and local agencies and the resources of local industry.
Local community support from the private sector comes from the volunteer work
of boards of directors of professional arts organizations, committees of chambers of
commerce and local government, local arts councils, and volunteer support groups
(such as Friends of Music, the Symphony Auxiliary, and the Opera Guild).
Large and active volunteer organizations cause a ripple effect by increasing con-
tributions and developing larger and perhaps better-informed audiences who attend
live concerts. Arts organizations would not exist without the dedication and hard
work of community volunteers.
Typically, business and industry, as a means of providing their employees better
places to live, support arts programs in the communities in which they operate. Such
support acknowledges and communicates to others that the arts are important in the
workplace and contribute to an improved quality of life in local communities.
For many communities, the maintenance of a vital and active musical life is a
source of civic pride; a symbol of a progressive attitude that stresses human, cultural,
and artistic values; and a strategy for economic development, including the promo-
tion of tourism and the recruitment of new business and industry.

Summary
Music serves different purposes: to entertain, to uplift, to stimulate feelings and re-
sponses, and to enhance certain rituals—from music at a football game to music
for a High Mass. Music that is unfamiliar to some can be profoundly important to
others.
Music exists throughout the world. It is part of all cultures, and we can learn
about other cultures from their music. Ethnomusicologists help us learn about mu-
sical acculturation and assimilation. They also help us realize that many cultures,
traditions, and ethnic groups produce an infinite variety of music, of which any one
person can come to know only a small part.
People make judgments about music and develop their own attitudes, tastes, and
preferences. Most of us have a relatively narrow range, preferring styles we know
well, perhaps grew up with, and feel comfortable with.
This book will help you build and expand on what you already know, so that
you can gain an understanding of what is less familiar and can discover relation-
ships, similarities, and differences among a variety of musical styles. In addition,
Chapter 1 Introducing the World of Music 17

The World of Music may stimulate you to find new music that you like and value,
and it may help you acquire a sense of what exists beyond the limits of your own
experience.
When we recognize the diversity of music and acquire a global perspective,
categorizing music, defining terms, organizing musical styles and genres, and giving
them labels can be useful. But labels can be problematic when applied too rigidly.
Musical styles frequently overlap, and lines of distinction frequently are ambiguous.
An example of fuzziness in the use of terms is artist and artistry. A visual artist
paints and sculpts. In classical music, a concert pianist may be a great artist and play
artistically. But in the vernacular—in jazz and popular music—anyone who performs
is said to be an artist. Some performers are well known; others are not. Some out-
standing artists are well known in a local community or region, without aspiring to
achieve national or international fame.
Music is a business, and we should be aware of the people who support the
artists: the agents, manufacturers, and retailers of music-related goods and services,
publishers, recording technicians, and community volunteers.
The Nature of Music:

2 Vocabulary for Listening


and Understanding

© Tibor Bognár/Corbis

Chapter Outline

Definitions of Music The Creative, Performing, To Create a Style: Musical


Music as a Science and Listening Experiences Concepts
Participating in Active Texture
Expressive and Functional
Qualities of Music Listening Genres and Forms

The Elements of Music Melodic Growth and Character


Music Is Sound and Silence
Music Moves through Time Melody Goals for Listening
Music Is an Art Harmony Summary
Music Is Universal Rhythm
Music Is a Means of Expression Loudness
Music Can Be Functional Tone Quality
Music Is a Changing Art Interaction of the Elements
In This Chapter
When do sounds become music?
In what ways is music both an art and a science?
What are expressive qualities in music?
What factors create the various tone qualities we hear in music?
How is music organized horizontally and vertically?
What are the elements of a musical style?

A s you explore the world of music, your sense of what music is and what
music means to you will become clearer and more inclusive. We begin this
exploration by considering three possible definitions of music. We then look at the
physical, or acoustical, characteristics of music and at its aesthetic, expressive,
and functional qualities.

19
19
20 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

Definitions of Music
What is music? All music includes the elements of sound and time, but the nature of
music involves much more. Consider the following three ways we can think about
the nature of music.
“Music is sound that is pleasing to the ear.” Most of us respond well to sounds
that we like. But if pleasing means only “pretty or beautiful,” then this definition
excludes a great deal of music. Music can be noisy, loud, raucous—anything but
pleasing (unless your concept of what is beautiful or pleasing is very broad!). And
what about music that may sound pleasing to you, but not to others? Or what about
music that may have a larger purpose than to sound pleasing? Defining music solely
on the basis of how pleasing it seems to us may exclude much western European art
music composed in the past hundred years, as well as much music from non-Western
cultures—music that may not be intended to be pleasing to Western ears.
“Music is sound and silence organized in time.” This definition is relatively
objective, because it includes all music from any place at any time, but it avoids
the subjective. A person listening to music that may seem noisy, weird, displeasing,
and ugly may think, “To my ear, this isn’t music!” We cannot really define music
without subjective factors—taste, judgment, and personal reactions—as exempli-
fied in the common expression “I don’t know anything about music, but I know
what I like.”
“Music is sound that you want to hear as music.” Sound that is not organized in
some fashion typically cannot be called music. Yet the roar of a waterfall, the sound
of rain falling on a tent, or the chirping of birds can be “music to my ears.” Though
not music in the objective sense, these sounds are pleasing and thus, perhaps, musical
sounds. In fact, the sounds of birds, water, and whales have been taped and used as
an integral part of some compositions. Conversely, all sorts of drums, cymbals, and
gongs; harsh, dissonant harmonies; and abstract, totally unsingable melodies have
been organized into music. However, are such creations really music? As at least one
student has asked, “What would prompt a person to write something like that?”
Still, sounds that some listeners might perceive as noise can be incorporated into
music if the composer or performer wants them to be. If you do not like a certain
style of music, you can still respect it, value the creative process that produced it, and
learn from it. Perhaps you will create your own definition of music.

Music as a Science
The physical characteristics of music involve principles of acoustics, physics,
mathematics, and engineering. Acoustics is the science of sound and the physical
basis of music. People who are aware of the scientific aspects of music include those
interested in the specifications (specs) of stereo components, sound reinforcement
at recording studios and concerts, the creation and performance of electronic or
computer music, and the acoustical design of rooms and concert halls. Acoustical
principles are applied to the construction of musical instruments, audio equipment,
auditoriums, recording studios, homes, offices, and to medical technology through
sonar (sound-related) diagnostics and treatment.
Audio enthusiasts refer to principles of acoustics when they use such terms as
frequency range, echo, graphic equalizers, and signal-to-noise ratios. For example,
the quality of audio speakers is measured in part by their frequency response as
Chapter 2 The Nature of Music: Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding 21

specified by the range of frequencies they can produce. To reproduce music, an audio
enthusiast will want a speaker system with the widest frequency response.
Acoustical engineers design recording studios and auditoriums according to certain
principles, such as resonance and reverberation (echo). Saying that a room has good
acoustics means that the degree of resonance and reverberation is suited to the room’s
purposes. A facility constructed of porous material will absorb sound waves, creating
“dead” acoustics. A facility constructed of hard, dense material will bounce the sound
waves around the room, resulting in “live,” or highly resonant, acoustics. Computer
technology has taken most of the guesswork out of sound design and the acoustical
treatment of auditoriums, concert halls, sanctuaries, and similar facilities.

Expressive and Functional Qualities of Music


Music is a science, but it is also an art possessing the power to elicit feelings and
images to which individuals respond in a variety of ways. Through music, perform-
ers and creators are able to communicate a wide range of feeling, whether in simple
children’s songs or in highly structured art music. And, much music is functional,
serving nonmusical purposes—ceremonial, therapeutic, or religious.

Music Is Sound and Silence


Music is an aural phenomenon; we listen and respond to it as sound. Yet silence—
from short rests to long, dramatic pauses—is also very much a part of music. Rather
than being merely a rest from sound, silence is an important compositional technique
with its own aesthetic and dramatic effects.

Music Moves through Time


Music, like motion pictures, moves from one moment to the next. To appreciate
music (or movies), it is important to remember what happened before and to antici-
pate what is about to happen. By contrast, arts such as photography, painting, and
pottery are static: What the viewer sees at one moment will still be there the next.
Much music moves forward with energy and momentum, in a predictable
progression, to a clear conclusion such as the end of a phrase (phrases in prose and
poetry function in much the same way). Other music may move through time with
less noticeable forward energy; such music may seem static, suspended in time, and
lacking a clear phrase structure.

Music Is an Art
Music exists on a continuum ranging from folk music (music for the masses) to
classical music (music for the connoisseur). Much music has attributes of both
extremes. Classical music is “art music.” In the western European concert tradition,
symphonies and string quartets, operas and oratorios, and music for bands and
choruses are considered to be classical music. Other cultures, too, may have their
own classical music.
The best music of any tradition, regardless of its style, lasts, in part, because it
may have universal appeal. It may be remembered through decades and genera-
tions. Some forms, such as notated concert music, may be remembered even longer.
The best notated concert music is substantial enough to challenge listeners and
performers.
22 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

Regardless of the culture from which it springs, a great piece of music encourages
repeated listening, performance, and study. We can explore the best music again
and again without tiring of it, yet still discover subtleties of expression and depths
of meaning. In the West, the characteristics of art music can also be found in some
vernacular music such as jazz.
The way music is passed from generation to generation makes the creation of great
music that will last very important in many cultures. Although, worldwide, much
music is created for immediate use, not for preservation. In either case, music from
every culture, like all the arts, is a reflection of the society in which it was created.

Music Is Universal
Music exists in all cultures and among all people, and it has existed as far back in time
as we know. Musical languages, styles, and functions, however, differ considerably.
People in different cultures value music for different reasons. For example, music
varies from culture to culture because social groups or societies develop their own
tastes and their own ideas about what sounds beautiful. Each culture has developed
its own musical traditions and reasons for using music in its communities, whether
for purposes of religion, recreation, or entertainment. Cultures use different instru-
ments and have different ways of creating music; thus, they develop stylistic differ-
ences. They also have different attitudes about performance practices and about the
relationship between listeners and performers.
Still, all cultures have music because of its power to stimulate emotional responses
and to convey powerful feelings, moods, images, and associations. Music also pro-
vides a means of communication for people who share a common identity and have
common values and aspirations.

Music Is a Means of Expression


Music is an expressive language by which people can communicate feelings and
images and generate aesthetic responses. These responses may transcend cultural
boundaries or be unique to a specific culture. Music can communicate such feelings
as joy, sorrow, pain, love, merriment, and spiritual exaltation. It also can stimulate
physical reactions such as foot tapping, weeping, or shouting and physiological reac-
tions such as goose bumps.
Music can be romantic and sentimental; it can be simple and beautiful; and it
can bring to mind special memories and pleasant associations. Yet it can also evoke
unpleasant associations and be harsh and complex—even noisy—reflecting certain
aspects of our modern technological society.

Music Can Be Functional


Music serves many functions in human societies. It is a part of ceremony and ritual
and something to march and dance to. It affects our moods by its capacity to entertain,
enrich, or relax us. It can help people escape momentarily from the real world.
Music therapists use music to alter people’s feelings and attitudes. They use music
therapeutically to help people who are physically or mentally challenged. Many
colleges and universities offer degrees in music therapy. Graduates of such programs
work in mental health clinics and hospitals, public schools, and private practice.
Among other purposes, music therapists use music to help people of all ages improve
their self-esteem, find joy in self-expression, achieve success through music, and learn
better ways of interacting socially.
Chapter 2 The Nature of Music: Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding 23

These street musicians,


a “rockabilly” group,
are seen making music
on a street corner in
Moscow.

© Peter Turnley/Corbis
Some music is intended to improve our feelings when we are alone—such as when
we are riding in an elevator or are put on hold during a telephone call. This back-
ground or elevator music is not meant to be listened to attentively or with discrimi-
nation. Although it serves a purpose in our society, such music promotes passive
listening or nonlistening.

Music Is a Changing Art


Because people’s needs and tastes change, music changes as a society changes. Music
evolves in response to new or refined instruments, other sources of sound, new ways
of creating music, or even because of new musical languages. Music also changes
because of artists’ innate need to grow, to advance in knowledge and understand-
ing, or to stretch their performance skills. The rate and extent of change has differed
throughout history and among various cultures and subcultures.

The Creative, Performing, and Listening Experiences


People of all ages experience music as creators, performers, and listeners. Without
these three overlapping groups, music would not exist.
When music is notated, a score (a printed version of a piece of music) contains
the composer’s symbols, which performers can transform into musical sounds.
Notation in music is the use of written or printed symbols to represent musical
sounds. The notated tradition provides for the preservation and dissemination of
music by means of handwritten or printed music. The performer reads and interprets
the creator’s symbols, transforming them into music that has the power to com-
municate feelings and images and to generate in listeners a variety of responses.
In contrast, music that is improvised is simultaneously created, performed, and
listened to by the performer.
24 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

© Stuart Pearce/Pixtal/AGE Fotostock


These school children are making music in their classroom.
They are playing a “xylophone” and other percussion
instruments.

For public performers, an important motivating force is the listeners. Profes-


sional performers rely on a paying audience, but all performers—amateurs as well
as professionals—value interaction with an audience: a full house of enthusiastic,
supportive listeners. For most performers, the audience is likely to be a small group
of friends or family or perhaps only the performer him- or herself. As one dedicated
performer observed, “I would still perform music for myself even if no one else listened.”
The creative process may be simple or sophisticated; it may result in a lullaby or a
grand opera. We may recognize a composer’s name, or the composer may be completely
unknown (anonymous)—like the composers of much folk music. In either case, the
creative process is fundamentally the same. The composer chooses elements of sound
and organizes them to achieve a desired result: the creator’s own piece of music. Keep in
mind, however, that although music is created by individuals, these individuals are part
of a culture and share with their intended audience a particular view. Thus, a creator
usually chooses elements and organizes them in ways that are culture-specific.
The process of creating music may be spontaneous or painstakingly deliberate.
The music may or may not be notated. The process may be loosely controlled,
allowing the performer considerable freedom to make creative choices, such as in
jazz improvisation. Or the process may be tightly controlled, with detailed notation
and meticulous instructions that the performer is expected to follow, such as in much
orchestra and band music.
The performance process is interpretive. Its goal is adherence, as closely as possible,
to the intentions of the creator. Within certain styles, however, the performer may
deliberately deviate from the creative work. Performing thus has its own creative
element, whether spontaneous or planned.
Performers sometimes interpret a piece of music on the basis of deliberate choices,
but at other times, they follow their musical instincts. Any pop or jazz singer will some-
times perform a notated melody by adding personal interpretations within stylistic
limitations. For example, singers may interpret romantic ballads and upbeat tunes in
a different manner. A performer’s interpretation brings life to a composer’s symbolism
(notation) and increases the communicative power of the music.
In a band, chorus, or orchestra, the conductor is the primary interpreter. Members
of the ensemble must, to some degree, relinquish their own, perhaps different, inter-
pretations and submit to the authority of the conductor.
Chapter 2 The Nature of Music: Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding 25

Professional musicians
represent another
way of making music.
Pictured is the Lincoln
Center Jazz Orchestra.

© Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
The listening process can be passive, such as when we hear background or
“homework” music, or active, such as when we go to a concert or listen attentively
to a favorite piece of music. Active listening requires commitment, energy, and a
desire to become personally and intensely involved. Although passive listening is
valued by many people, active listening is the most important part of developing an
appreciation for any type of music.

Participating in Active Listening


Many people participate in music as performers and creators, but everyone partici-
pates as a listener.
Begin now to develop perceptive listening skills as you listen to music anywhere,
anytime. Be an active listener. Concentrate when listening, and make a commitment
to hear all that there is to hear in the music. Listen attentively in an attempt to
understand the musical processes and structure that give the music its characteristic
qualities. Develop curiosity and a desire to know why the music came to be, what its
purpose is, how it serves the people who listen to or otherwise use it, and what you
need to know to understand it better. Think about what you are hearing, and use
words to describe what you hear. Write about your reactions to the music that you
listen to in this course, and describe how any of the pieces are similar to or different
from music that you already knew and enjoyed.
As performers, most people sing the music they are familiar with. Many sing in
school and church choirs, others play in high school bands and orchestras, and a few
even organize small groups of people to play jazz, rock, or other forms of popular
music. Sometimes people play well enough to perform in public for pay. Sometimes
performing is very private, intended only for the performers themselves. Only a rela-
tively small percentage of people learn to read music notation.
26 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

As creators, people of any age may make up tunes for their own private enjoy-
ment. A few may have learned to create while performing—that is, to improvise—or
they may have learned enough about a system of notating music and about various
instruments and voices to compose a written piece of music that someone else can
read and perform.
Recorded musical examples can be streamed in Connect, or you can obtain
an access card with which you can download an MP3 of all recordings. For each
example, a Listening Guide in the text and Connect presents information to help
you listen actively. Collectively, the musical selections provide an overview of the
vastness, richness, and diversity of music.
Musical skills are not necessary to understand that music exists throughout the
world and has existed for many centuries, that people make music a part of their
lives for many different reasons, and that the world’s musical styles are as varied as
the world’s people.

The Elements of Music


As you familiarize yourself with the music presented in this text and listen to music
outside of class, you may find that your awareness of, and your ability to describe,
what is happening in the music gradually increases. In general, listeners are seldom
aware of the intricacies and subtleties of composition techniques; these factors,
however, determine how effectively a piece of music communicates.
All sounds have pitch, duration, loudness, and tone quality. Combining these
elements can result in the musical characteristics of melody, harmony, and rhythm.
To create music, one organizes melody, harmony, and rhythm and adds varying
degrees of loudness and tone qualities. Music then can be characterized by its
texture and form.

Pictured is an image of
a sound wave.

Ingram Publishing
Chapter 2 The Nature of Music: Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding 27

When people perceive a single tone, we call it a pitch. Most melodies are made
up of individually recognizable pitches. However, music includes sounds that are less
precise. We cannot hum the pitch of a triangle, a cymbal, or a bass drum, but we can
perceive these sounds according to their register (an area of the sound spectrum—
high, middle, or low). Although we identify the frequency of the vibrations as fast or
slow, we identify both pitches and pitch areas (registers) as high or low: the faster the
frequency, the higher we say pitch is; the slower the frequency, the lower we say the
pitch is. This is a Western conception that grew from the method of notation (some
cultures call this big and small instead of high and low). The entire range of frequen-
cies sounding at once is called white sound or white noise. Examples of sounds very
similar to white noise are static on a radio and the roar of a waterfall. The absence
of frequencies is, of course, silence. Silence and even noise are sometimes used in
musical compositions.
We can also relate pitches visually in a variety of ways, although some of these
ways may seem contradictory, for they differ according to the construction of
the instruments producing the pitches. On the piano keyboard, for example, low
pitches are to the left, and higher pitches to the right. On any member of the violin
family, you move down on the fingerboard to go higher in pitch and move up to go
lower; the high strings are thinner, and the low strings thicker. Small drums produce
higher-frequency clusters; bigger drums produce lower-frequency clusters. Likewise,
small, thin instruments are higher in pitch range, and big and wide instruments
lower. A piccolo is higher in pitch than a flute, a clarinet higher than a bass clarinet,
and a trumpet higher than a tuba.

Melody
Because music moves through time, all music has sounds that occur horizontally—
that is, as a sequence of pitches occurring one after the other. Making the pitches
differing lengths of time (varying durations) can produce a melody. Melodies are
based on scales. A scale is a sequence of consecutive tones used as the foundation to
create melodies and harmonies. Scales vary from culture to culture. There are many
types of scales worldwide; the most common is the pentatonic scale, which contains
only five notes per octave.
In most familiar Western music, the scales chosen are mostly major and minor
scales. Along with creating a sense of cohesion and form to a piece of music, scales
also establish the concept of tonality—the “home tone” or tonal center of a key (e.g.,
the key of C or the key of F). This system of scales or keys produces the musical
sounds with which we are most familiar. The tones commonly chosen for a piece of
music are derived from a specific scale. The pitches and rhythms are usually arranged
to convey a musical thought—a melody or theme—that has musical meaning and
causes the listener to respond.

We often think of melody as a tune, something easily recognized and remembered.


It can be described according to the smoothness and wideness of its range. A melody
may be conjunct, or smooth (moving mostly stepwise), having a somewhat flat
contour or melodic shape. Conjunct melodies often sound “tuneful” or singable,
28 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

especially if the range of the melody does not span so many tones that it extends
beyond the normal singing range. However, a melody also may have many large
skips and a range spanning more tones than are comfortable for one voice. Such
a melody is described as disjunct, having a jagged contour—that is, many wide
intervals that typically can be sung only by highly trained singers. An example of a
disjunct melody is “Three Blind Mice.”

Much of our traditional folk and pop music features smooth, tuneful melodies.
Melodies for instruments may be patterned after vocal lines, but they need not be
limited by the range of the normal singing voice. Thus, they often have wider ranges,
wider skips, and greater complexity.

Harmony
When music is organized vertically and then performed, pitches are heard simultane-
ously. Most music incorporates simultaneous sounds, but some does not. The system
of using chords in western European art music and in most of America’s folk and
popular music is known as harmony. Much music that we know is based on rather
simple harmonies and chord progressions (movements from one chord to the next).
In harmonic music, the space between two pitches is called an interval; intervals
can be stepwise or a leap. When we hear two or more notes played simultaneously
we hear a chord. Chords may sound simple or complex, familiar or unfamiliar, repet-
itive or changing. They may or may not change frequently. To many people, certain
chords and chord progressions sound very familiar because they are used widely in
nearly all styles of American folk and popular music. A simple chord progression
contains a chord built upon the first degree (note) of a scale, the fourth degree and
the fifth degree. Thousands of songs can be played with just these three chords.

Rhythm
Music moves through time. It continues from one moment to the next. We see a
painting all at once, but we cannot hear a piece of music all at once. As we listen to
music, we remember what went before and anticipate what is to come. Musicians
can visualize a short piece of music in its totality in printed form, as in sheet music.
But notation is not music; it is only symbols. The symbols do not become music until
a performer transforms them into sound.
Music can be perceived in various levels of duration: the length of an entire piece
of music, a section of a piece, a phrase or musical thought, and each individual
tone. A piece of music may last one minute or several hours. A sound event, such
as a single tone, a melodic fragment, or a phrase, can be short or long. An eight-bar
Chapter 2 The Nature of Music: Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding 29

phrase typically but not always lasts longer than a four-bar phrase. Duration depends
on the rate of speed—the tempo—so a slow four-bar phrase could last longer than
a fast eight-bar phrase.
The variety of changes in the duration of pitches creates rhythm. Rhythm can be
regular or irregular, simple or complex, floating or driving. However, rhythmic activ-
ity is not merely a mechanical arrangement of pitches and note values. Combinations
or patterns of durations can generate a rhythmic feel, an energy, or a vitality that
contributes to one of the most powerful aesthetic forces in the arts: the rhythmic
impulse. Music having a strong rhythmic impulse stimulates us to tap our feet,
dance, or march.
The tempo may be described as fast, slow, speeding up, or slowing down. Most
of the music we listen to has a pulse or a steady beat—the “heartbeat” of a large
portion of traditional Western music. Many listeners respond with greater enthusi-
asm to the strong beat of a piece of music than to its melody or harmony.
The pulse of music is usually organized into groups of two or three beats, creating
meter. By stressing (accenting) every other beat, we get a two-beat or duple meter
(STRONG, weak; STRONG, weak). By grouping the beats into patterns of three, we
get triple meter (STRONG, weak, weak; STRONG, weak, weak). The “strong”
beat may be depicted by a boldfaced number. Thus, duple meter is 1 2/1 2/1 2,
or 1 2 3 4/1 2 3 4 (four beats are a multiple of two; thus, a grouping of four beats
is duple meter, although quadruple meter would also be correct). Triple meter is
1 2 3/1 2 3.
Nonmetric music has no pulse, a weak pulse, or an irregular pulse. Mixed meter
has a clear pulse, but the strong beats occur in different patterns. One example
of mixed meter is STRONG, weak; STRONG, weak, weak; STRONG, weak, or
1 2/1 2 3/1 2. These shifts of accents may occur irregularly, or they may create regu-
lar patterns of shifting accents, as in this sequence (“.” above a number represents
an accented tone):
> > > > > > > > >
1 2 1 2 1 2 3/1 2 1 2 1 2 3/1 2 1 2 1 2 3
Placing accents on weak beats or on weak parts of beats produces syncopation—
for example, weak, STRONG, weak, weak; weak, STRONG, weak, weak; or
1 2 3 4/1 2 3 4. Here syncopation takes place on the second beat of each group (bar
or measure in notated music). In a four-beat measure, beats 2 and 4 are considered
weak. The following is another example:
> > > > > >
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + /1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
In this example, syncopation occurs only on the second half of the second beat and
on the first half of the fourth beat of each bar.
As previously indicated, each group constitutes a measure or bar. In much music,
a group of measures can constitute a phrase—a longer unit of duration. For example,
in the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb”: “Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little
lamb” is the first phrase; “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow” is
the second phrase. Common groupings include an 8-bar phrase, a 12-bar blues tune,
and a 32-bar chorus. Bars are perceived as part of our awareness of strong beats;
the number of downbeats (the first beat of each bar) equals the number of bars in a
phrase. In 12-bar blues, for example, we can typically count 12 downbeats to each
12-bar phrase.
30 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

Loudness
The loudness or softness of music—sometimes referred to as dynamics—varies
with the intensity or energy expended in producing the sound. The greater the
intensity, the louder the sound; less intensity generates a softer sound. In audio
technology, volume controls can be used to adjust loudness.
The symbols used in music are “p” or piano for soft and “f” or forte for loud. An
“m” in front means mezzo or medium. So the progression would be:
Soft p mp mf f Loud
An accent is achieved by increasing the intensity (increased stress or emphasis)
on a single note or chord. You might think that if more musicians were perform-
ing, loudness would increase, but this is not necessarily so. For example, it is quite
possible for a group of 20 musicians to perform as softly as a group of four.

Tone Quality
All sound-producing devices possess their own distinctive tone qualities, or timbres
(pronounced TAM-burs). A flute sounds different from a clarinet; a man usually
sounds different from a woman; a guitar sounds different from a banjo; and a snare
drum sounds different from a bongo. Learn to recognize the sounds of various
instruments and voices, because they are relatively consistent in tone quality. The
reason for this consistency lies in the acoustical construction of the devices, whether
natural (the human voice) or manufactured (musical instruments), the style of play-
ing, and the environment in which the music occurs.
In Western classical music, instruments are generally classified according to the
way their tones are produced—that is, according to their characteristic timbre. There
are brass instruments, string instruments (usually thought of as the violin family),
woodwinds, and percussion. These classifications are useful when we are referring to
band and orchestra instruments, but they may not be sufficient when we are describ-
ing the large number of instruments used in many other cultures.

Interaction of the Elements


The elements of music (pitch, duration, loudness, and timbre) always work together in a
piece of music. As you listen to music, practice recognizing the following aspects of musi-
cal organization, and use your growing musical vocabulary to describe what you hear:
• Highs and lows of pitches and how they change and are combined (melody
and harmony).
• Relative durations of pitches and how they are organized (rhythm).
• Dynamic levels in relation to the relative loudness of the music and how they
change.
• Tone qualities of different sources of sounds (voices or instruments).
• Pulse, measures (bars), meter (duple, triple), and phrases.
• Tempo (rate of speed).

To Create a Style: Musical Concepts


Let us now consider how creators of music organize sounds to develop a piece
and create a style that communicates their intentions to, and evokes a particular
response from, the listener. The purpose is to increase our understanding of how
Chapter 2 The Nature of Music: Vocabulary for Listening and Understanding 31

the creative process works in music and how composers or creators organize sound
into music.
If music had no variety, would it be intolerable? If music did not have unifying
characteristics, would it ramble? Western music incorporates some aspects of variety
(departure) and unity (return). A departure is a musical idea (theme) that is different
from what has already been presented; this is a point of contrast. A return is either
an exact or a modified repetition of the original theme. It can be rhythmic, melodic,
harmonic, or any combination of the three. Sometimes a melodic or rhythmic
pattern is repeated, or a melody is based on a constantly repeated pattern. Repetition
of musical patterns gives unity and cohesion to a piece of music and provides
familiarity, which helps listeners feel comfortable.
Much music around the world and in American culture creates in us a sense of
forward motion, of being drawn from one point to the next, from the beginning of
a phrase to the end, and from one tone or chord to another. This forward energy
can be derived from tension followed by a release of tension; it arises from an un-
stable feeling that drives the music forward to points of relative stability, such as at
the end of a phrase. If a composer chooses to avoid forward energy, the music may
be described as static, floating, or lacking a tendency to move forward.
Forward energy in traditional Western music is often generated by melodies
and harmonic progressions. The musical tension that drives the forward energy
is created by an increase in harmonic or rhythmic complexity, an increase in the
dynamic level (loudness), a rise in the pitch of the melody, a change of key or
tonal center, or an increase in the thickness or density of sound. Musical tension
typically needs resolution (release of tension) to make the listener relate com-
fortably to the music. Just as continuous variety would seem uncomfortable, so
would continuous tension. A release of tension is accomplished by a return from
complex to simple, from high to low, from loud to soft, or from less comfortable
to more comfortable sounds.
One kind of tension is dissonance. Dissonance, like other forms of tension, tra-
ditionally requires resolution: a release, or a move, from the unstable dissonance or
tension to a more stable or consonant sound. Consonance is caused by intervals or
chords that create repose, resolution, and comfort rather than tension. Often, ten-
sion and dissonance, in particular, are stronger in the middle of phrases, and repose
or the release of tension occurs at the end of phrases.
Instability is a desired attribute in music because it contributes to tension, dis-
sonance, and other characteristics that provide variety and interest. Instability is
generated by departures—that is, elements of musical contrast that set up returns
to passages that have stability, that are more familiar, comfortable, and satisfying. A
modulation, or change of key, can create a feeling of instability that is satisfied when
the music returns to the original key.
Texture
In Western music, texture is sometimes described as thick and full, such as
when many lines of music are heard simultaneously, and sometimes as thin and
transparent, such as when only a few lines of music are sounding together. Music
played by a large ensemble such as a symphony orchestra certainly can pro-
vide a full texture, but it also can include passages of thin texture (only a few
lines sounding at one time). Likewise, in piano music, six or eight tones sounding
simultaneously have a thicker, more complex texture than just two or three tones
sounding at a time.
32 Part 1 Preparation for Listening

Texture also relates to the various ways musical lines are combined, some of
which are listed here:
• A single-line melody without harmonic accompaniment or other melodic lines:
a chant, a lullaby, or an unaccompanied song (monophonic).
• Melody with accompaniment: most familiar hymns, art songs, and popular
songs (homophonic).
• One melody combined with the same melody in two or more parts; each line
has equal emphasis but starts at different times, such as a two- or three-part
round (polyphonic).

Genres and Forms


A genre is a type or category of music, such as a symphony, hymn, song, march, or
opera. Form is the shape or structure of a piece. For example, some forms of orga-
nization are described as aba or aaba. The “a” represents the main theme or its
repetition; the “b” represents a theme that contrasts with the main theme. A “c”
would indicate a second contrasting theme. Patterns of departures and returns—
contrasts and repetitions—are important in establishing the form of a piece of
music.
Forms can be perceived at various levels, from the form of a complete four-
movement symphony to that of a familiar hymn or a popular song. Small forms can
be perceived within large forms. For example, we can describe the structure of the
first section of the first movement of a symphony and the overall scheme of the
symphony’s various movements. The 32-bar song form (a a b a) is found in nearly
all old and current jazz and in popular tunes that are a part of the Tin Pan Alley
tradition.
In many American popular songs and religious music, a verse-chorus or verse-
refrain form can easily be found. Typically, the text varies in each repetition of the
verse (a musical narrative), but the text of the chorus or refrain is repeated with each
return. In popular music, the chorus or refrain usually is more tuneful and memo-
rable than the verse.
Twelve-bar blues progression became standardized in the early twentieth century;
it became the foundation for much of early rock and roll. The 12 bars are divided
into three 4-bar segments using a specific set of chords.
Nearly all musical genres and forms change and evolve. They reflect existing prac-
tices and serve as flexible models for the work of future creators of music.

Melodic Growth and Character


We conclude our development of a working vocabulary for listening by looking
again at the components and characteristics of melody. Melody is the part of music
that most listeners can understand, remember, and “tune in to.” However, much rock
emphasizes a strong beat over melody or harmony, and much twentieth-century clas-
sical music de-emphasized melody in preference to rhythm and timbre (creative uses
of existing and new instruments).
In most music of Western culture, the melody does not exist in isolation from other
musical factors, such as harmony, timbre, and texture. If you heard only the melody
of a piece of music without the support of these other musical elements, you would
find it a very different piece of music and probably not nearly as satisfying. Again, all
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23rd September 1745. Petrie went into hiding after the ’45. As
he was not specially excluded from the Act of Indemnity of
1747, he was able to resume practice at the Aberdeen bar by
taking the oath of allegiance, which he did in April 1748.
(Littlejohn, Rec. Sheriff-Court of Aberdeen, iii. 116.)
[335] Alexander, 4th Lord Forbes of Pitsligo; b. 1678; suc.
1691; attainted 1746; hid in his own country of Buchan, and
was never captured; d. 1762.
[336] Boyne, a district in the north of Banffshire. The Enzie,
north-western Banffshire, with part of Morayshire between the
Spey and the Buckie Burn.
[337] William Moir of Lonmay, Lady Erroll’s factor, was
Stonywood’s brother. He acted as deputy-governor of
Aberdeen during the Jacobite occupation.
[338] Mary (Hay), Countess of Erroll in her own right, the
last of the Hays of Erroll. She married Alexander Falconer, but
left no issue. On her death in 1758, she was succeeded in the
Errol title by James (Boyd), Lord Boyd (son of the Earl of
Kilmarnock, executed in 1746), whose mother was the
daughter and sole heiress of Lady Erroll’s sister Margaret, wife
of the attainted Earl of Linlithgow and Callander. He assumed
the name of Hay.
[339] George (Gordon), 3rd earl; b. 1722; suc. his father
30th March 1745; d. 1801. His mother was Lady Anna Murray
(d. 1725), a sister of Lord George Murray; his stepmother,
Lady Anne Gordon, sister of Lord Lewis Gordon. The Duchess
of Gordon was his sister.
[340] James (Ogilvy), 5th earl; b. 1689; suc. 1730; d. 1764.
He had been imprisoned in 1715, on the outbreak of Mar’s
rising.
[341] John (Keith), 3rd earl; b. 1699; suc. 1718; d. 1772.
His wife was a d. of Erskine of Grange, Lord Mar’s brother. His
father, 2nd earl, was out in ’15.
[342] James (Forbes), 16th lord; b. 1689; suc. 1734; d.
1761. His first wife was sister of Lord Pitsligo; his second wife,
a sister of Sir Wm. Gordon of Park, both ardent Jacobite
leaders.
[343] Alexander (Fraser), 12th lord; b. c. 1684; suc. 1715;
d. 1748. ‘He was a supporter of the Hanoverian Government,
but took no active part in public affairs.’ (Scots Peerage, vii.
446.)
[344] See ante, p. 113, n. 3.
[345] Buchan, northern Aberdeenshire and part of eastern
Banffshire; Formartine, the district south of Buchan, between
the sea and the Don.
[346] The laird of Leys was then Sir Alexander Burnett, 4th
bart.; d. 1758.
[347] Rev. George Law, of Aberdeen; acted as chaplain to
Stonywood’s regiment; made prisoner at Culloden; tried at
Southwark in December, and acquitted. I am not aware of any
active part taken by Seaton. It is mentioned that the French
officers were made burghers of Aberdeen in December, and
that Seaton received a similar honour; also that in February his
lodging was ransacked and ‘some papers, mistically written for
five or six years back, found.’ (Spald. Club. Misc., i. 360 and
385.)
[348] Fourth son of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon; b. c.
1724; lieutenant in the Navy, but joined Prince Charles at
Edinburgh. Was appointed by him Lord-Lieut. of Banff and
Aberdeen shires. Escaped after Culloden, and died at
Montreuil, 1754.
[349] At Fountainhall, East Lothian, twelve miles from
Edinburgh. The Duchess was Henrietta Mordaunt, daughter of
the celebrated Earl of Peterborough. On her husband’s death
in 1728, she brought up her numerous children as Protestants,
though her husband’s family was hereditarily Catholic. For this
she received, in 1735, a pension of £1000 a year, which it is
said she forfeited for entertaining Prince Charles to breakfast
on the roadside as he passed her gates. Her son, the 3rd
duke, took no active part in the ’45, but his influence was
against his brother and the Jacobites. He seems to have
remained in Gordon Castle down to March, but he left it on the
8th, ‘in the most secret manner he could,’ probably to avoid
meeting Prince Charles, who visited the castle a few days
later. The Duke then joined Cumberland in Aberdeen. (S.M.,
viii. 138.)
[350] William Baird (b. 1701; d. 1777) of Auchmeddan, in
the Aberdeenshire parish of Aberdour, on the borders of Banff,
the last of an ancient family, of which the baroneted families of
New Byth and Saughton are cadets. His wife was a sister of
the 1st Earl Fife, then Lord Braco. He was author of a
genealogical history of the Bairds (reprinted, London, 1870)
and another of the Duffs, which was privately printed in 1869.
[351] Charles Gordon of Blelack, near Aboyne, Deeside.
[352] A district of Aberdeenshire, south of Strathbogie and
south-west of Formartine, comprising the valleys of the Urie
and the Gadie.
[353] Lord John Drummond landed a force of about 800
men, composed of his own French regiments of Royal Scots
and a piquet of fifty men from each of the six Irish regiments in
the French service. They landed on 22nd November at
Montrose, Stonehaven, and Peterhead. Two of Drummond’s
transports were captured by English men-of-war; among the
prisoners so taken was Alexander Macdonell, ‘Young
Glengarry,’ Mr. Lang’s Pickle the Spy.
[354] These were Lord John Drummond, brother of the
titular Duke of Perth, and Lord Lewis Drummond. The latter
(1709-92), the lieut.-colonel of Lord John Drummond’s French
Royal Scots, was the second son of John (Drummond), 2nd
(but attainted) Earl of Melfort, whose father had been created
Duke of Melfort by James vii. while in exile in 1692, and Duke
of Melfort in the French peerage by Louis xiv. in 1701. Lord
Lewis lost a leg at Culloden. He died in Paris, 1792.
[355] These manifestoes are printed post, pp. 292, 293.
John Haliburton was an officer in the French service; he
arrived at Inverness with despatches two days before the
battle of Culloden. (Murray’s Mem., p. 433.) After Culloden he
assisted in the distribution of the money (of which Cluny’s
treasure was a part) landed by the French ships at
Lochnanuagh in May 1746. (Albemarle Papers, p. 338.)
[356] This highland dress for lowland men is detailed by
Lord Lewis Gordon to Stonywood as ‘plaid, short cloaths,
hose, and shoes.’ (Spald. Club Misc., 408.)
[357] John (Campbell), 4th Earl of Loudoun; b. 1705; suc.
1731; d. 1782. Raised a regiment of Highlanders in 1745
(disbanded 1748). Adjutant-general to Sir John Cope at
Prestonpans; sent to Inverness to command the troops in the
North, October 1745; commander-in-chief in America 1756,
but recalled the same year; general, and colonel 3rd (Scots)
Guards 1770.
[358] ‘Order of the Rt. Hon. the Ld. Lewis Gordon, lord-
lieutenant of the counties, and governor of the towns of
Aberdeen and Bamff.—Whereas I desired and ordered J. Moir
of Stonywood, to intimate to all the gentlemen and their doers,
within the said counties of Aberdeen and Bamff, to send into
the town of Aberdeen, a well-bodied man for each 100l. Scots,
their valued rent, sufficiently cloathed, and in consequence of
my order he wrote circular letters to all the heritors in the
above counties, desiring them to send in a man sufficiently
cloathed, &c. for each 100l. Scots of their valued rent; which
desire they have not complied with: Therefore I order and
command you, to take a sufficient party of my men, and go to
all the lands within the above counties, and require from the
heritors, factors, or tenants, as you shall think most proper, an
able-bodied man for his m—— K—— J——’s service, with
sufficient Highland cloaths, plaid and arms, for each 100l. of
their valued rent, or the sum of 5l. sterl. money for each of the
above men, to be paid to J. M. of Stonywood, or his order of
Aberdeen: and in case of refusal of the men or money, you are
forthwith to burn all the houses, corn and planting upon the
foresaid estates; and to begin with the heritor or factor residing
on the lands; and not to leave the said lands until the above
execution be done, unless they produce Stonywood’s lines,
shewing they have delivered him the men or the money. Given
at Aberdeen this 12th day of December, 1745.
Subscrib’d Lewis Gordon.’
[359] See ante, p. 103.
[360] Of Monymusk, 2nd bart.; b. 1696; d. 1778; M.P. for
Aberdeen.
[361] A brother of the laird of Castlehill, Inverness, in
whose house Prince Charles stayed in February 1746. He was
a captain in Lord John Drummond’s French regiment of Royal
Scots. After Culloden he was treated as a prisoner of war. By
1749 he had become lieut.-col. of the regiment. (L. in M., ii.
286.) The laird of Castlehill was Sheriff-depute of Inverness-
shire, and was not a Jacobite.
[362] Highland squatters. ‘Humly’ is the ordinary north-
country term for hornless cattle. Robert Jamieson in a note to
Letter xxii. in the 5th edition of Burt’s Letters from the North of
Scotland, published in 1818, says: ‘In the days of our
grandfathers the lower class of highlanders were, by their
lowland neighbours (in the north-east lowlands at least),
denominated humblies, from their wearing no covering on their
head but their hair, which at a more early period they probably
matted and felted.’
[363] Donald Ban MacCrimmon, of the celebrated race of
hereditary pipers to the chiefs of Macleod. This is the only
mention I can recall of this pleasant story of his relations with
his brother musicians. There is an exceedingly picturesque
account (perhaps more picturesque than authentic) of
MacCrimmon’s descent from a musician of Cremona, given in
the Celtic Review, ii. 76, 1906. Though MacCrimmon escaped
death at Inverurie, he was killed in the fiasco at Moy on 16th
February. (See ante, p. 108.)
When leaving Dunvegan for the anti-Jacobite campaign of
’45-’46, he had a presentiment that he would never return, and
composed the words and music of a celebrated lament, which
was translated or paraphrased by Sir Walter Scott:—

Farewell to each cliff on which breakers are foaming,


Farewell each dark glen in which red-deer are roaming,
Farewell, lonely Skye, to lake, mountain, and river,
Macleod may return, but MacCrimmon shall never.

The Banshee’s wild voice sings the death dirge before


me,
And the pall of the dead for a mantle hangs o’er me;
But my heart shall not fly, and my nerve shall not quiver,
Though devoted I go—to return again, never!

[364] Sir Alexander Bannerman, 3rd bart., of Elsick,


Kincardineshire (the Mearns). His mother was a Macdonald of
Sleat. He escaped to France; died in Paris 1747.
[365] This seems to be a mistake. Lord Ogilvie’s regiment
marched to the north through Ogilvie’s country from Perth, by
Cupar Angus, Cortachy, Clova, Glenmuick, Logie Colston, and
Tarland, to Keith. (Spalding Club Misc., i. 332.)
[366] ‘Kelly’s’ probably means John Roy Stewart’s
regiment, which was originally intended for the Earl of Kellie.
[367] Now spelt Clatt. Rev. Patrick Reid; ord. 1723; d.
1759.
[368] John Baggot, a Franco-Irishman, commanded the
Prince’s Hussars (raised at Edinburgh), of which John Murray
of Broughton was titular colonel. By the French Ambassador
he is returned after Culloden as ‘blessé assez
considérablement mais sans danger de la vie.’ (Cottin, Un
Protégé de Bachaumont, p. 62.)
[369] Rev. William Taylor; ord. 1737; d. 1797, aged eighty-
nine.
[370] On 22nd Feb., three troops (about 130 men) of
Fitzjames’s regiment of horse landed at Aberdeen from France
but without horses. There was great difficulty in mounting the
men. Kilmarnock’s horse (sometimes called Strathallan’s, or
the Perthshire Squadron) were dismounted and the horses
given to the French cavalry, while the men were formed into
foot-guards. By this time, says Maxwell of Kirkconnell,
Pitsligo’s horse was dwindled away to nothing, and many of its
members had joined infantry corps. Two of Fitzjames’s
transports, the Bourbon and the Charité, with 359 of all ranks,
including the Comte de Fitzjames, were captured by English
cruisers.
[371] On 21st Feb. a picquet of 42 men of Berwick’s
(French) regiment landed at Peterhead.
[372] I can trace no record of this landing. It may refer to
Berwick’s picquets (see p. 151), or it may be a mistake.
[373] William Henry (Ker) (1710-75), afterwards 4th
Marquess of Lothian; captain 1st Guards (Grenadiers) 1741;
aide-de-camp to Cumberland at Fontenoy; lieut.-colonel in
Lord Mark Ker’s Dragoons (11th Hussars) 1745; commanded
the cavalry of the left wing at Culloden. His brother, Lord
Robert Ker, a captain in Barrel’s regiment, was killed in the
battle.
[374] Humphrey Bland (1686-1763), author of A Treatise
on Discipline. At this time he was a major-general and colonel
of the dragoon regiment now the 3rd Hussars. He was
governor of Edinburgh Castle from 1752 till his death. He
became Commander-in-Chief in Scotland in 1753.
[375] Probably a mistake for lieut.-colonel (the command is
too great for a subaltern’s), and evidently means Robert Rich
(1714-85), son of Field-Marshal Sir Robert Rich, whom he
succeeded as 5th bart. in 1768. Rich was at this time lieut.-
colonel of Barrel’s regiment the 4th (now the K. O. Royal
Lancaster regiment). At Culloden Rich was badly wounded
and lost his hand.
[376] See post, p. 307.
[377] Probably means ‘light-footed laddies.’ Cf. Oxford
Dict., s.v. ‘leger.’
[378] Robert Hunter of Burnside, Monifieth, was captain in
the Prince’s Life-Guards, and was very active throughout the
campaign. He escaped to Bergen in Norway after Culloden,
and for a time was held prisoner there, but apparently soon
released, for in October he is on French King’s pension list for
1800 livres as a ‘gentilhomme eccossois arrivé depuis peu en
France.’
[379] This took place on 17th March. The officer
commanding the Jacobite party was Major Nicolas Glascoe, a
lieutenant in Dillon’s Irish-French regiment. He acted as major
and military instructor to the 2nd battalion of Lord Ogilvie’s
regiment. He was made prisoner after Culloden, and tried at
London in November, but pleading that he was born in France
and held a French commission, he was released as a rebel,
the irons were knocked off his legs, and he was treated as a
prisoner of war.
[380] The husbands of these ladies were all in the Jacobite
army.
[381] Cullen House was the home of Lord Findlater.
[382] William Thornton, of Thornville, near Knaresborough,
raised and equipped a company, known as the ‘Yorkshire
Blues,’ at his own expense in October 1745. He joined Wade’s
army at Newcastle, and his company was attached to
Pulteney’s regiment (13th, now Prince Albert’s Own
Somersetshire Light Infantry), which was below strength. His
henchman and servant was John Metcalf, better known as
‘Blind Jack of Knaresborough,’ afterwards celebrated as a civil
engineer and maker of roads, but at this time a horse-coper
and itinerant musician. At Falkirk the company served as
escort to the artillery which covered itself with disgrace. Blind
Jack fought at the battle in which his master and Lieutenant
Crofts were taken prisoners. After the battle Blind Jack
retreated to Edinburgh along with the remains of the company,
now reduced to forty-eight from an original strength of sixty-
four. In a quaint little book, The Life of John Metcalf (3rd
edition, Leeds, 1802), there is a long and graphic account of
how this blind man succeeded in rescuing his master. Donning
a ‘plaid waist-coat,’ the Jacobite uniform, he made his way
from Edinburgh to the battle field, where among the marauders
hunting for plunder he found the wife of Lord George Murray’s
cook, who gave him ‘a token’ for her husband. Giving out that
he wished to be employed as a musician to Prince Charles, he
made his way to Lord George Murray’s quarters at Falkirk,
where that General gave him a glass of wine, and he had a
conversation with several of the Jacobite leaders. Confined on
suspicion for some days, he was acquitted by a court-martial.
Finding his captain, he had him disguised as a Highlander and
managed to escape with him. How Crofts and Simson
escaped I do not know. The rev. ensign was Patrick Simson,
minister of Fala, near Dalkeith (b. 1713; ord. 1743; transferred
to Clunie, Dunkeld, 1759; d. 1771). How he joined Thornton’s
‘Blues’ I do not know; one would rather have expected to find
him in the Glasgow regiment (see post, p. 198). The original
ensign of the company had died at Newcastle, and Thornton
may have appointed Simson when in Edinburgh. Simson had
the reputation of being a sportsman, particularly an angler.
(Scott, Fasti.) The Dict. of Nat. Biog. says that Blind Jack
fought at Culloden, but it is not so stated in the life quoted
above, and if this passage is correct it precludes the
possibility. There is no mention in the Life of this incident at
Ellon, nor any account of the company leaving the army.
[383] Cumberland left Aberdeen on April 8th.
[384] Meaning ‘a verminous swarm of red-coats.’
[385] A very considerable list of houses burnt in Aberdeen
and Banff shires is given in the Lyon in Mourning, ii. 334, 335.
[386] ‘By the Earl of Ancrum, Aid de Camp to His Majesty,
and commanding the forces on the Eastern coast of North-
Britain. Whereas arms have been found in several houses,
contrary to his Royal Highness the Duke’s proclamation, this is
therefore to give notice, That where-ever arms of any kind are
found, that the house, and all houses belonging to the
proprietor or his tenants, shall be immediately burnt to ashes;
and that as some arms have been found under ground, that if
any shall be discovered for the future, the adjacent houses
and fields shall be immediately laid waste and destroyed.’
[Lord Loudoun’s orders]:—‘Whereas great part of the
King’s arms belonging to the regiment commanded by the Rt.
Hon. the Earl of Loudon, were taken away by the rebels in
Sutherland, and by them distributed to people of different parts
of the country; who, notwithstanding the many orders
published by his Royal Highness the Duke, still detain them in
their possession: These are to advertise such as do not deliver
them in to the storehouse at Inverness, or to the commanding
officer of any part of his Majesty’s forces who happens to be in
their neighbourhood, by the first day of August, that the
possessors where-ever they are found, whether civil or
military, and of what rank soever, shall be prosecuted with the
utmost rigour, as the law in that case directs.’
[387] This was an incident that occasioned fierce
indignation in Aberdeen. August 1st was the date of the
accession of the Hanoverian dynasty. Lord Ancram ordered
the bells to be rung and the houses to be illuminated. It had
not been the custom to illuminate, and the magistrates only
ordered the bells to be rung. The soldiers of Fleming’s
regiment (36th, now the Worcestershire), egged on by their
officers, broke the windows, stoned the inhabitants, and did
damage to the extent of £130, a large sum in those days to a
town of the size of Aberdeen. In spite of the pretensions of the
military authorities, who maintained that they were not liable to
the civil government, the magistrates arrested a Captain
Morgan and other officers, who were ringleaders in the riot.
Morgan had been very active in hunting fugitive Jacobites, and
his commanding officer, who calls Aberdeen ‘this infamous
town,’ attributes his arrest to this cause. Representations were
made to the Lord Justice-Clerk and to Lord Albemarle, the
Commander-in-chief in Scotland, who both took a serious view
of the case, the former writing to the latter that ‘the officers in
the army were trampling on those very laws that they so lately
defended at the expence of their blood.’ Ancram was rebuked
by Albemarle, and removed from Aberdeen; though the trouble
still smouldered it was temporarily patched up. (Alb. Pap., p.
27 seq.; Scots Mag., viii. 393.) Six months later the regiment
left Aberdeen, marching out (it is said) to the tune ‘We’ll gang
nae mair to yon toun.’ Cf. post, p. 189.
[388] Hugh (Abercromby-Sempill), fifth son of Anne,
Baroness Sempill, and Francis Abercromby of Fetterneir.
Succeeded his brother as 11th Lord Sempill 1727; served at
Malplaquet, 1709, as an ensign; succeeded Lord Crawford as
colonel of the Highland Regiment (Black Watch), 1741; colonel
of the 25th (K. O. Scottish Borderers) 1745; brigadier-general
1745; commanded the left wing at Culloden; superseded Lord
Ancram at Aberdeen 12th August, 1746; and died there 25th
November following.
[389] Should be 25th; Sunday 24th was spent at Kendal,
and Lancaster was reached the following day. (L. in M., ii. 120,
193.)
[390] I have little doubt that this name is a mistake for
Geohagan, an Irishman, captain in Lally’s regiment, to whom,
Lord Elcho states, the Prince gave a commission to raise an
English regiment. The officers of the army remonstrated, and
the commission was withdrawn. (Elcho, Affairs of Scotland, p.
327.) Geohagan was one of the French officers taken prisoner
at Carlisle.
[391] Not identified.
[392] David Morgan was a Welshman from Monmouthshire,
a barrister-at-law. He joined the Prince at Preston on 27th
November, along with William Vaughan and Francis Towneley,
all being from Wales. When at Derby it was determined to
return to Scotland Morgan refused to go, saying, ‘it were better
to be hanged in England than starved in Scotland’ (Tales of a
Grandfather). He left the army at Ashbourne, on 6th
December, to go to London to procure intelligence, with the
knowledge and consent of the Prince and of Sheridan
(Murray’s Memorials, 434). At his trial he pled that he had
escaped as soon as it was in his power, but this plea was
repelled. He was executed at Kennington Common on 30th
July, along with Towneley, and seven other English officers.
Morgan is thus described in the Compleat History of the Trials
of the Rebels (p. 170): ‘David Morgan was about 51 Years of
Age, born in Wales, and bred to the Law, and had frequently
(as a Barrister) attended the Courts at Westminster-Hall, and
elsewhere. He was a Person of a very mean Look, and seldom
kept Company with any Gentlemen of his Neighbourhood; and
if it had not been for his Estate, he might have starv’d, for he
was so very lofty, and of so bad a Temper, that no body but
such as were beholden to him cared to employ him. This
Morgan was possessed of a very good Estate in St. Leonard’s,
Shoreditch, but he let it all run to Ruin, because he would not
pay the Ground-Rent. The Rebels call’d Morgan the
Pretender’s Counsellor, and his Advice was consulted on
every Occasion. Even after he was condemn’d, he was
haughty and insolent beyond expression; and the very
Afternoon before his Execution, he grumbled to pay the Cook
who dress’d his Dinner, and said she was very extravagant in
her Demands. The Morning (about Six o’Clock) before he went
to Execution, he order’d Coffee to be made, and bid them take
Care to make it very good and strong, for he had never drank
any since he had been in that Prison fit to come near a
Gentleman; and because it was ready before he was unlock’d,
he seem’d angry, and in a great Passion.’
Morgan was the author of a rather dull satirical political
poem of 630 verses, entitled The Country Bard or the Modern
Courtiers, inscribed to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, a quarto
originally printed in 1741, and republished in 1746 after his
execution. It is prefaced by a dedicatory letter to Sir Watkin
Williams Wynn, the Welsh Jacobite baronet. In his dying
declaration, handed to the sheriff on the scaffold, Morgan
writes that he is a member of the Church of England, and that
he has fully set forth his faith in a poem of two books entitled
The Christian Test or the Coalition of Faith and Reason, the
first of which he had already published, and the latter he
bequeathed to his daughter to be published by her. Morgan
seems to have had a certain notoriety as member of a
Jacobite club at Westminster, judging by a very coarse jeu
d’esprit bearing the title A Faithful Narrative of the wonderful
and surprising Appearance of Counsellor Morgan’s ghost at
the meeting ... giving a full and true Account of the Behaviour
of the Club on that occasion.... This folio, for it has that dignity,
is followed by another entitled An Appeal from the late David
Morgan, Esq., Barrister-at-Law ... against a late Scurrilous
Paper.... My copy of the second pamphlet bears the note in
contemporary handwriting ‘By one Fielding a concealer of the
Law,’ and it is possible it may be by Henry Fielding, who at this
time gave himself to ironical writing of this kind in the True
Patriot and the Jacobite’s Journal. Both pamphlets are full of
topical allusions and scarcely concealed names. Morgan was
also the subject of a brutally coarse print entitled ‘An Exact
Description of the Solemn Procession of Councellor Morgan’s
ghost to the Rump of the Westminster Independents.’
[393] The only elucidation of this I can suggest is from a
passage in the Appeal above mentioned in which Morgan’s
ghost is made to visit his friends, but ‘with neither a greyhound
upon his breast nor a writ in his hand,’ perhaps suggesting that
in life he was in the habit of carrying writs and being
accompanied by a greyhound.
[394] The colonel appointed was Francis Towneley, an
English Roman Catholic; b. 1709; fifth son of Charles
Towneley of Towneley Hall, Lancashire; went to France 1728,
and entered the French army; served at the siege of
Philipsbourg under the Duke of Berwick, but after the peace
following the War of the Polish Succession, returned to
England, and lived privately in Wales until 1745. The French
king sent him a colonel’s commission about the time of the
intended invasion of 1744. (See Towneley MSS., privately
printed.) He was given command of the Manchester regiment,
as told here; was left governor of the town of Carlisle when the
army retreated to Scotland in December; entirely opposed to
surrendering to Cumberland, flying into a passion with
Hamilton, the governor of the castle (see pp. 118, 193), and
declaring ‘that it was better to die by the sword than to fall into
the hands of those damned Hanovarians.’ (Evidence at Trial.)
At Hamilton’s trial evidence was given that he too desired to
hold out to the last, but was overruled by his officers. Towneley
was tried at Southwark in July 1746; pled that his French
commission entitled him to be treated as a prisoner of war, not
a rebel; but this was repelled as, being an Englishman born, it
was illegal to serve a sovereign at war with the British king;
executed on Kennington Common, July 30th, and Hamilton on
Nov. 15th.
[395] The Prince’s Life Guards: there were two troops, one
commanded by Lord Elcho, the other by Colonel Elphinstone,
afterwards Lord Balmerino.
[396] The army left Manchester on 1st December. The
quarrel which caused Lord George Murray’s resignation of his
commission as lieut.-gen. took place at Carlisle on 15th
November, when the command was given to the Duke of
Perth. Daniel cannot be correct in stating that Lord George
was not reinstated until the army was at Manchester; the
quarrel was made up before leaving Carlisle on November
20th, when Lord George led the van. Daniel, who did not join
the army until the 24th or 25th, is probably writing from hazy
recollection of what he had been told.
[397] Weir or Vere was the principal witness at the trials of
the officers taken prisoner at Carlisle.
[398] Jean Louis Ligonnier, generally termed Sir John
Ligonier, K.B., a naturalised French Protestant; b. at Castres,
France, 1680; emigrated to Dublin; fought under Marlborough
through most of his campaigns; major-general 1739; lieut.-
general 1743; commanded the infantry at Fontenoy;
commanded the army sent to Staffordshire to oppose the
Jacobites, until relieved by the Duke of Cumberland, 27th
November; commander-in-chief 1757; created Viscount
Ligonier 1757; Earl Ligonier 1766; field-marshal 1760; d. 1770.
He had a brother Francis, who succeeded Colonel Gardiner in
command of the Dragoon regiment, now 13th Hussars.
Francis Ligonier, though suffering from pleurisy, fought at
Falkirk, caught more cold, and died a few days later.
[399] 6th December 1745 (Black Friday).
[400] The journals of the day and most authorities estimate
the number at about 800. They consisted of Lord John
Drummond’s own French regiment, ‘the Royal Scots,’ and the
Irish picquets, or 50 men picked from each of the six Irish
regiments in the French service. Two of the transports were
taken on the voyage and 260 of all ranks made prisoner. On
the eve of Culloden, the French envoy reported to his
government that the numbers of French troops then were: Irish
Picquets reduced to a half but recruited by 148 prisoners and
deserters up to 260 men; Royal Scots about 350; detachment
of Berwick’s regiment (p. 151) 42; Fitzjames’s horse 131;
making a total of about 780. (Cottin, op. cit. p. 36.)
[401] See ante, p. 143.
[402] ‘Tuesday, 10th December.—They have ordered a
contribution of £5000 for the insolence of the mob, but with
much ado they have got it to one-half, to raise it by one
o’clock.’ (Journal of Elizabeth Byrom, Manchester, in 1745.)
[403] Hon. Arthur Elphinstone; b. 1688; held captain’s
commission in Shannon’s foot (25th, now King’s Own Scottish
Borderers), which he resigned in 1716 to join Mar’s Jacobite
army; served in the French army; on a pardon being offered to
him he declined to accept it until he had received the
Chevalier’s consent, which was given; joined Prince Charles at
Edinburgh; received the command of the second troop of Life
Guards; on the death of his brother, 5th January 1746, he
succeeded as 6th Lord Balmerino and 5th Lord Coupar; the
army was then at Stirling. The day after Culloden he
surrendered to the Grants. Tried by the House of Lords and
condemned to death; beheaded, 18th August 1746.
[404] Col. James Alex. Grant or Grante, a member of the
staff of the French Royal Observatory. He landed at Montrose
in October along with the French envoy. He served as master
of ordnance to Prince Charles. He planned the siege of
Carlisle, which succeeded. He communicated a plan for the
siege of Stirling Castle, which was abandoned, as it exposed
the town to destruction, and the charge was given to another
French engineer, Mirabel de Gordon, who utterly failed. Grant
planned the siege of Fort Augustus, which succeeded. He then
planned the siege of Fort William, but was disabled at the
outset by a contusion from a spent cannon ball: Mirabel was
given charge of the siege, and again signally failed. Grant
prepared an elaborate map of the expedition, published in
French, English, and Italian editions, which are all described in
the Itinerary, pp. 104-107.
[405] The Yorkshire Hunters, a corps of volunteer cavalry,
which did not distinguish itself greatly. Its war-song, set to
music, will be found in the Gentleman’s Magazine, December
1745.
[406] Daniel probably means the Dutch troops, some of
which landed at Berwick and the Tyne in Sept. ’45. The
Hessians did not come over until Feb. ’46.
[407] See ante, p. 150.
[408] Should be Cluny Macpherson.
[409] This is the celebrated ‘Skirmish of Clifton,’ fought
18th December; described by Sir Walter Scott in Waverley,
chap. lix. and note. Both sides claimed the victory. The late
Chancellor Ferguson wrote an exhaustive monograph on the
subject (Kendal, 1889) showing that both were technically
right. The Jacobite rear-guard fought to protect the army’s
retreat to Carlisle, and entirely succeeded in their object;
Cumberland’s troops retained possession of the field, but were
too crippled to pursue. Daniel, I think, shows a certain animus
in entirely ignoring Lord George Murray, who directed this
action and fought it with great bravery and skill.
[410] At the surrender of Carlisle to Cumberland on 30th
December the following officers were captured:—
English, 20 officers and 1 chaplain—of these 9 officers and
the chaplain were executed;
Scots, 17 officers and 1 surgeon—of these 5 officers were
executed;
French, 3 officers, who were treated as prisoners of war.
In addition 93 English, 256 Scots, 5 French non-
commissioned officers and men were taken prisoner.
[411] This date is wrong; it should be 20th December, the
Prince’s birthday and the day he left Carlisle. The date is often
given as 31st December, which is the New Style equivalent.
Old Style was used in Great Britain until 1752.
[412] The Rev. John Bisset, one of the ministers of St.
Nicholas Church, Aberdeen, from 1728 to 1756. He was a
man of strong personality who spoke his mind, and was not
very popular with his brethren. Bisset kept a Diary during the
Rising of ’45, most of which is printed in the Spalding Club
Misc., vol. i. In that volume there is no reference to this
sermon, nor do I know when it was preached. It is referred to
in general terms by the late Mr. Watt in his County History of
Aberdeen and Banff, p. 303. The sermon was probably printed
or Daniel could not have quoted it, but Mr. P. J. Anderson, who
has kindly searched the Aberdeen University Library, cannot
find a copy. Bisset, though uncompromisingly inimical to the
Jacobites, declined an official meeting with the Duke of
Cumberland as a member of the Aberdeen Synod, but he
obtained a private interview as ‘he had reasons for being
alone.’ Bisset so deeply offended the duke that he refused
ever after to enter a Presbyterian church. (Henderson, Hist. of
the Rebellion, 5th ed., p. 307.)
[413] This refers to the Prince’s army. The Prince himself
was never in Aberdeen.
[414] A party of Dumfries townsfolk had cut off a
detachment of the Jacobite army’s baggage during the
advance to England in November. As a reprisal Prince Charles
fined the town £2000. Only £1100 could be raised in the time
given, so he carried off the provost and another citizen as
security till the balance was paid. (Scots Mag., vii. 533, 581.)
[415] The army began to arrive on Christmas Day. Charles
himself entered on foot at the head of the clans on 26th
December. He remained in Glasgow until 3rd January.
[416] A very different story is told by Provost Cochrane of
Glasgow, who wrote: ‘Our very ladys had not the curiosity to
go near him, and declined going to a ball held by his chiefs.
Very few were at the windows when he made his appearance,
and such as were declared him not handsome. This no doubt
fretted.’ (Cochrane Correspondence, Maitland Club, p. 63.)
Probably both versions have a certain amount of truth, and the
situation must have been similar to that of an earlier royalist
leader when riding through Edinburgh:—

‘As he rode down the sanctified bends of the Bow,


Ilk carline was flyting and shaking her pow;
But the young plants of grace they looked couthie and
slee,
Thinking, luck to thy bonnet, thou Bonny Dundee!’

[417] The Prince’s Master of the Household says: ‘The


Prince dressed more elegantly when in Glasgow than he did in
any other place whatsomever.’ Lord Elcho says he was
‘dress’d in the French dress.’
[418] Mirabel de Gordon, a French engineer, who
completely failed at the siege of Stirling, as he afterwards did
at the siege of Fort William. Lord George Murray says of him
that he understood his business, but was so volatile he could
not be depended upon: Lord Macleod states that he was
always drunk.
[419] Brown was a French-Irishman, a captain in Lally’s
regiment, who came over with the French envoy in October.
He was left in Carlisle, but escaped at the surrender. After
Falkirk he was sent to France to carry the news of the victory
to Louis xv., who made him a colonel in the French army. He
returned to Scotland in March in the Hazard sloop, which was
driven ashore by four men-of-war at Tongue in Sutherland,
when the passengers and crew were captured by Lord Reay
and his militia.
[420] Probably William Maxwell of Carruchan,
Kirkcudbrightshire, who acted as chief engineer in the defence
of Carlisle against the Duke of Cumberland.
[421] See ante, pp. 173, 187. Whatever may have been
expected or mentioned verbally, Cumberland’s written
conditions were: ‘All the terms H.R.H. will or can grant to the
rebel garrison at Carlisle are that they shall not be put to the
sword, but be reserved for the king’s pleasure.’
[422] Lord George Murray was criticised at the time, even
by his friends, for being on foot fighting with his men instead of
being on horseback as a general watching the action and
controlling events. (Elcho, Affairs of Scotland, p. 376.)
Criticism was also extended to other generals and staff-
officers, particularly to O’Sullivan, who was never seen during
the action and was accused of cowardice.
[423] Sir Robert Munro of Foulis, 24th baron and 5th bart.;
b. 1684; suc. 1729; M.P. for Wick Burghs 1710-41. His mother
was an aunt of Duncan Forbes of Culloden. Entered the army
early, and was captain in the Royal Scots by 1705; served
under Marlborough in Flanders, where he made a lifelong
friendship with Colonel Gardiner (killed at Prestonpans); a
commissioner of the Forfeited Estates Commission 1716-40;
appointed lieut.-colonel and commandant of the new Highland
Regiment (Black Watch) when embodied 1740; fought at
Fontenoy; promoted in June 1745 to be colonel in the 37th
(now the Hampshire Regiment), which he commanded at
Falkirk.
Dr. Duncan Munro (b. 1687), Sir Robert’s brother, had been
a doctor in India but retired home in 1726. He accompanied
his brother from fraternal affection in the hope of being of use
to him, for the colonel was very corpulent.
For George of Culcairn, a third brother, who fell a victim in
’46, see ante, p. 103.
[424] I am not aware of any ministers killed, though there
may have been some in the Glasgow and Paisley volunteer or
militia regiments, which suffered severely. In the Glasgow
regiment, commanded by the Earl of Home, was John Home,
afterwards celebrated as author of Douglas and of a History of
the Rebellion. He was lieutenant, and during the battle in
command of a company of Edinburgh volunteers. Home with
several other volunteers was taken prisoner and lodged in
Doune Castle. One of the prisoners was the Rev. John
Witherspoon (1723-94), then minister of Beith, near Paisley;
afterwards in 1768 president of Princeton College, New
Jersey, a leader in the American Revolution, and a very active
member of the first congress of the United States. Home gives
a graphic account of their escape in his history. Later in the
year Home became minister of Athelstaneford in East Lothian.
[425] Lockhart was a major in Cholmondeley’s regiment,
the 34th (now the Border Regiment). He was taken prisoner at
Falkirk and released on parole. After Culloden he especially
distinguished himself by extraordinary barbarity and the
perpetration of terrible cruelties on the hunted fugitives. For
instances refer to the Lyon in Mourning.
[426] Every man of common sense who has the least Idea
of Military Matters must well know that, where there is only a
small Body of Cavalry attached to an army of light Infantry, as
in this case, such Cavalry must be inevitably harrassed
because there are not many bodies of horse to relieve each
other. [Note in the Drummond Castle MS.]
[427] A village between Stirling and Bannockburn; spelt St.
Ninians, but locally pronounced St. Ringans.
[428] John Baggot, see ante, p. 150.
[429] See ante, p. 101.
[430] Gordon Castle.
[431] See ante, p. 151.
[432] This is a vague and incorrect report, probably the
camp rumour, of Lord George Murray’s doings at this time. By
a remarkable secret march from Inverness, he simultaneously
surprised, on 17th March, a large number of military posts
garrisoned by the Government militia in Perthshire, taking 300
prisoners. He then laid siege to Blair Castle, defended by Sir
Andrew Agnew, but his guns were too small to hurt the old
castle. He probably would have starved out the garrison, but
the advance of Cumberland’s army caused his recall to
Inverness.
[433] This being from an enemy is perhaps the most
flattering tribute to President Forbes’s achievement for his
Government.
[434] Cf. post, p. 364.
[435] See ante, p. 155.
[436] See ante, p. 157.
[437] Cumberland left Aberdeen on 8th April.
[438] Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the 2nd Earl of
Aberdeen.
[439] See post, p. 230.
[440] 15th April.
[441] This is a calumny founded on ignorance of what was
passing at a distance from the local situation of the writer—
Lord George was leading the van to the attack of the Enemy’s
Camp, which would have been surprised if the rear division
had not hung back, and retarded the advance of the van ’till it
was too late to storm. [Note in the Drummond Castle MS.]
[442] The fact was directly the Reverse—Lord George had
used every endeavour to induce the Prince to cross the River,
and occupy strong ground which Brigadier Stapleton[656] and
Colonel Kerr[657] had examined two days before at his
Lordships desire. [Note in the Drummond Castle MS.][658]
[443] Ruthven in Badenoch, on the east side of the Spey,
near Kingussie.
[444] Daniel is a little out in his recollection of time.
Culloden was fought on 16th April, while he left Scotland on
4th May (see p. 223), only eighteen days after the battle.
[445] This gold was 40,000 louis d’ors. Part of it, ‘Cluny’s
Treasure,’ was concealed in Loch Arkaig, and left there for
nine years under the care of Cluny Macpherson.
[446] The British ships were the Greyhound, the Baltimore,
and the Terror. (S. M., viii. 238.)
[447] William Harrison, a native of Strathbogie, who, when
most of his brethren had been taken prisoner or driven from
their charges, went to the sheriff of Argyllshire, ‘told him frankly
that he was a Catholic priest, but had neither done nor meant
harm to anybody, and begged protection. The sheriff was well
pleased with his confidence, and gave him a paper signed by
himself requiring of everybody to allow him to go about his
lawful business unmolested. In consequence of this, Mr.
Harrison, in the summers of 1746 and 1747, visited almost all
the Catholics in the Highlands, administering the sacraments,
and exhorting the people to patience and perseverance in the
faith.’ (Bishop Geddes’s MS.)
[448] The ships left Lochnanuagh on May 4th. (L. in M., iii.
383; Scots Mag., viii. 239.)
[449] Son of Thomas Sheridan, a fellow of Trinity College,
Dublin, D.C.L. (Oxon.) and F.R.S., an Irish Protestant who
followed James ii. into exile and became his private secretary.
His wife (it is said) was a natural daughter of the king. The
son, Sir Thomas, who was a Catholic, was engaged in the ’15;
appointed tutor to Prince Charles 1724 or ’25, and created a
baronet ’26. Attended the Prince at the siege of Gaeta ’34. In
April ’44 after the abandonment of the French invasion the
Prince asked for him, and his father reluctantly sent Sheridan
to France, warning his son to be careful in his dealings with
him. Sheridan accompanied the Prince to Scotland and acted
as his private secretary throughout the campaign. On arrival in
France in ’46 he was summoned to Rome by the Chevalier;
accused of deserting the Prince but exhibited his written
orders to leave. He died at Rome a few months later, his death
being variously attributed to mortification at the Chevalier’s
reproaches, or to grief at the Prince’s disasters.
[450] He had accompanied the Marquis d’Eguilles to
Scotland as interpreter.
[451] John Hay of Restalrig, near Edinburgh, brother of
Thomas Hay, Lord Huntington, who married the sister of John
Murray of Broughton (see p. 49). He was an Edinburgh Writer
to the Signet, admitted 1726; Substitute-Keeper of the Signet
1725-41 and 1742-46; fiscal 1732-34; treasurer 1736-46. He
acted as treasurer to the Prince, and when Murray of
Broughton fell ill at Inverness in March he succeeded him as
Secretary. Lord George Murray attributed much of the disaster

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