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6. The Perceptual Level: Musical Units

As we saw in the previous chapter, elements on the constituent level come together and form not just individual notes and rhythm but groups of notes in melody and harmony. We will now see what units of rhythms, melody and harmony we perceive rather than solitary pitches. This is done by a completely different language than what we used on the constituent level to find clear definitions of the dimensions. There the terminology was technical, abstract and exact; here it is practical and concrete. It is in the nature of musical units that they are not always clearly delineated, so the terminology is sufficiently open and wide in order to be inclusive rather than mathematically exact.

Let’s begin with the basic elements that are actual sounding Notes and Rhythms. Rhythm here means a rhythm in an actual tempo, not just along the rhythmic dimension as vector. The smallest possible unit is just one note. However, the normal case is when several notes together make up one unit, rather than each note being its own. It’s the same principle in our speech, we recognize which words belong together and where each new clause begins and ends. However, there are many different ways to construct clauses so it’s hard to pin down definitive rules (although grammar provides an ample framework). For example, in a popular music song, a melodic phrase unit often ends with a longer note and then a new unit begins with new notes coming after that. Or in a Mahler symphony, melodic units are often interrupted by new ones from another group of instruments. But let’s back up and go through the initial forming of units more carefully, to cover all fundamental building blocks.

Melodic Units

After only one note, if we add another note, we have three options: stay at the same pitch, go down or go up. Staying at the same pitch is not as interesting as moving to another pitch and thus emphasizes the rhythm more instead. Moving to another pitch creates a consecutive Interval of two notes. In our chromatic scale we call small intervals of one or two chromatic notes Steps, of three or four Skips, and anything larger Leaps. If we add a third note as a step to two notes in the same direction, we get the beginning of a scale, and the third note make the second note a Passing note. If the third note goes back to the same pitch as the first note, that makes the second note a Neighbor note. If we instead of steps take three or more consecutive skips or leaps in the same direction, that gives us an Arpeggio of notes (or Broken chord). There are similar distinctions for different ways of adding a third note after two notes for all possibilities of steps, skips and leaps depending on the relative position to both previous notes, but they are so many there isn’t specific names for them.

When we continue to add notes, we get a Melody or Voice or Line consisting of notes going up and down. Depending on its constitution, it can be further classified to more conventional types of units:

• A Theme or Subject is often a substantial group of notes (but the definition can be quite flexible)

• A Motif or Motto is a smaller group of notes in a specific contour

• A Statement is a group of notes with a firmness to its configuration

• A group of notes that does not have a firmness to their configuration and perhaps ends in an upward motion or as harmonically unresolved can be a Question or Antecedent.

• Many fast notes continuing without rest for a long time is called a Moto perpetuo or Perpetuum mobile. This is an interesting case because it violates our need for perception unitization due to working memory (chapter 4) and is very effective because of that.

Harmonic and Rhythmic Units

If we add several melodic units together at the same time, we get a vertical dimension that explores the harmonic dimension without yet forming accompaniment units. Here we talk about independent Parts and Voices: Polyphony, Counterpoint and Voice-leading. This forms the very foundation for Renaissance, Medieval and Baroque music rather than chord harmony, but it is very important in the Classical period and onwards as well. After all, putting melodic units together was how harmony was conceived and developed in Western music history, by introducing a secondary harmonizing line to embellish the melodic chant line.

As for purely Rhythmic units, they exist in instruments without pitch such as pitch-less drums and percussion. But rhythm is generally integrated in both melody and accompaniment. One common type of unit is rhythmic patterns imposed on other material such as March- or different Dance rhythms. Units with pitch but not primarily melodic are Accompaniment units. They have often a stronger rhythmic element than melodic units, and can be for example:

• Chords

• Motions of chord notes, such as Arpeggios or Alberti bass

• Ostinato or Loop or Vamp: a repeated group of notes

• Bass line: technically a melodic unit but with longer note values in a deep register

• Descant: an “accompaniment” line above a melodic line

Music then takes all of these different kinds of units and organizes them in a structure. This is done both horizontally in time, with phrases connected to each other horizontally, as well as vertically in harmony, with their distances creating tonal relations to each other. We will look at the basic principles of this structural level in chapter 10, but first we need to examine the musical experience on the perceptual level closer. Because already with a short musical unit we can perceive its character or expression and talk about a forceful statement, an anxious gesture or a tender melody. How this is possible is our subject of the next chapter.