Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site tellab1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!tellab1!etan From: etan@tellab1.UUCP (Nate Stelton) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: How do you hear polyphony Message-ID: <360@tellab1.UUCP> Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 15:04:53 EDT Article-I.D.: tellab1.360 Posted: Thu Aug 2 15:04:53 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 02:26:32 EDT Organization: Tellabs, Inc., Lisle, Ill. Lines: 41 I'm not a musicologist, just an amateur musician, so take the following for what it's worth. I feel that there are many different ways to hear polyphonic music, and when one is able to experience more of these different ways, music becomes even more of a euphoric enjoyment than ever before. Here are some of the ways that I have encountered. 1. Melody analysis. At the first few listenings of a certain piece, you learn the main voice (or a main voice), and everything around it simply gives that voice meaning. Upon subsequent listenings, you hear other simultaneous melodies and compare them to the originally identified melody. Such things are noted as parallel movement, contrary motion, and melody on top of ostinato (short repeating pattern). 2. Harmonic analysis. If you sometimes tend to listen to harmonic content, you will always find that all the notes in one or more voices in a given measure give that measure some sort of harmonic 'identity'. Recognizing harmonic developement from measure to measure (good chord changes) through polyphony is a total rush! 3. Rhythmic analysis. Taking the first two ways (above) into account, where certain key notes (no pun intended) fall in relationship to time give certain passages a particular beat feel or syncopation. If voice 1 tends to give tonics, dominants, or chodal components on a certain beat, and voice 2, t's, d's, etc. on another, those two beats together provide the accent scheme of that passage. The fascinating thing about this is that this scheme was formed by two seemingly unrelated melodies. I don't mean for people to think that all this is sort of an intellectual masturbation while listening to your faves. On the contrary, while one simply listens mindlessly for pleasure, I perceive this to be going on in the subconscience. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love music!!! -etan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------