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Musical Analysis of Music Composition

Preprint · July 2018

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19596.74889

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Almighty C. Tabuena
Philippine Normal University
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Musical Analysis of Music

Composition
Posted on July 10, 2018 by Almighty Tabuena

Introduction
This article gives basic guidelines and procedures in analyzing a music composition for the
activity in music. In order for you to analyze music, you should familiarize yourself first with
the elements of music such as the melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, form, timbre, and
texture. These elements of music identify distinct characteristics in music composition, and
for the music to acknowledge its parts, styles, and content.

The Elements of Music

Melody

In general terms, the melody is the tune of the music; it gives flow and direction in certain
music composition. As well, a certain tune of the melody identifies whether the pitch is high
or low – in terms of the frequency and/or the vibration of sound. In analyzing the melody,
two general modes give life to music: first is the (a) major mode, and the second one is the
(b) minor mode.

How could you say that the melody is in major mode or minor mode? Listen carefully to the
melody of music, if the overall sound gives such a happy feeling, or suggests festivity or
cheerfulness, it is in the major mode. While, if the music expresses sadness, loneliness, as well
as it gives a creepy and/or scary sound (or mysterious sound), it is in the minor mode.

How to analyze music in terms of melody?

The sample paragraph below is an example of analysis in terms of melody:

The melody of the music composition entitled Ili-ili Tulog Anay is in the minor mode because
it sounds mysterious, as well the tune of it is a creepy one because of the wide interval of the
pitch from one note to another. While it is not in the major mode because I didn’t hear any
happy feeling, moreover in the fact that it is a lullaby song – a lullaby song is a song for a
baby/child for him/her to sleep.

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Reminder: Not all the time, the music is in either major or minor mode. Sometimes the music
composition varies whether they both characterize the music as major and/or minor mode,
or it shifts from major to minor and/or minor to major.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the time element of music. In general terms, it is the beat of the music. A specific
rhythm is a specific pattern in time which we usually hear in relation to a steady pulse (or
steady beat), and mentally organize this pulse or tempo into a meter (sometimes called
as time signature).

In rhythm, pulse, or the tempo is the speed of the music. In dealing with rhythm, there are
three basic pulses: (a) fast, (b) moderate, and (c) slow. It is easy to identify the rhythm of the
music; you will just feel the beat of it and follow the music in terms of its pulse (tempo).

How to analyze music in terms of rhythm?

The sample paragraph below is an example of analysis in terms of rhythm:

The rhythm of the music composition entitled Ili-ili Tulog Anay is in slow tempo. The rhythm
is slow first because the music is a lullaby song, typically sung slowly (or maybe sung as well
in moderate tempo), and second because each end of the line prolonged the syllable as shown
below:

 Ili-ili __________
 Tulog anay __________
 Wala diri __________
 Imong nanay __________
 Kadto tienda __________
 Bakal papay __________
 Ili-ili __________
 Tulog anay __________

While, it is not considered a fast tempo because if you have sung it in a fast manner, the
nature of being a lullaby or cradle song will vanish, secondly, it is not appropriate to sing it
in a fast tempo.

Reminder: Sometimes, the speed becomes gradually fast as called accelerando (pronounced
as /ak-se-le-ran-do/) and/or gradually slow called ritardando. The speed of music in every
period (music era) has been changed gradually because of culture and tradition.

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Harmony

Harmony is the simultaneous blending of sound, either in vocal music or instrumental music.
Harmony and texture sometimes interchanged because of its nature and concepts when it
comes to the functions as the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to
produce chord/s (in this analysis, we used the concept of texture in terms of harmony) such
we used:

1. Monophony – consists of one melodic line. Examples such one plain voice singing a
song, or one instrument played by the instrumentalist (guitar, piano, flute, etc.).
Sometimes monophony is considered as a solo (solo vocal and/or solo instrument).
2. Homophony – consists of two melodic lines. Examples such voice and piano, voice and
guitar, voice and another voice (soprano and alto, alto and tenor, etc.). Sometimes
homophony is considered as a duet because of the nature of two different sounds.
3. Polyphony – three or more melodic lines. Examples such ensembles (different
instruments playing different melodies) as well as the orchestra, choral group (mixed
choirs, all-boys choir, church-based choir, etc.). Sometimes interpreted as a trio,
quartet, quintet, tutti (meaning “all,” such in the orchestra, all musicians are playing
with their designated instruments altogether).

How to analyze music in terms of harmony?

The sample paragraph below is an example of analysis in terms of harmony:

The harmony involved in the song Ili-ili Tulog Anay is monophony because only the voice was
visible in the music, yet in the performance, it is simultaneously accompanied by a music
background through a ukulele, therefore it is homophony, the combination of vocal and
instrumental music. Sometimes, in some versions, there is a variation that the song was
made an orchestral and ensemble composition that makes it polyphony, through its parts,
but not all the produced music.

Reminders: Not all music is just monophony, or homophony, and/or polyphony, sometimes
it mixed in one composition, you will just identify the parts which are monophony,
homophony, and/or polyphony.

Dynamics

The dynamics suggests sometimes the emotion or feeling in the music by its volume. The
music is said to be emotional whether it is loud because of anger or sometimes suggest
festivity (cheerfulness), or it is soft because of the expression of sadness or calm music
(sometimes a glad feeling as well, depending on the overall music production); yet, you will

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not judge only the music by its dynamics, because at times, the overall music gives meaning
by all of its musical elements. There are three basic dynamics:

1. loud
2. moderate loud and/or soft
3. soft

The markings below are some of the musical technical terms used in the musical piece (music
sheet) to identify the dynamics:

1. p (meaning – piano: English, soft; Filipino, mahina)

2. pp (meaning- pianissimo: English, very soft; Filipino, mahinang-mahina)
3. f (meaning – forte: English, malakas; Filipino, malakas)
4. ff (meaning – fortissimo: English, very loud; Filipino, malakas na malakas)
5. mp (meaning – mezzo piano: English, moderately soft; Filipino, medyo mahina)
mezzo is pronounced as /met-so/
6. mf (meaning – mezzo forte: English, moderately loud; Filipino, medyo malakas)

Sometimes, the music doesn’t stick or stay in one dynamics, at times it gradually becomes
louder and/or softer, the markings below identified could help you recognized the music:

1. crescendo – gradually getting louder (pronounced as /kre-chen-do/)

2. decrescendo – gradually getting softer (pronounced as /de-kre-chen-do/)

How to analyze music in terms of dynamics?

The sample paragraph below is an example of analysis in terms of dynamics:

In the song Ili-ili Tulog Anay, the dynamics literally is soft because it is sung very lightly.
Sometimes, in the last part of the song where the lyrics Ili-ili Tulog Anay is repeated, it
gradually becomes softer because of the nature that it has been ended.

Reminder: Not all music has one dynamics throughout the composition, it varies from
measure to measure and/or line to line. As well, even the music is nearly to end, it doesn’t
mean that it becomes softer and softer, it depends on the entirety of the musical
composition.

Form

Basically, the form is the structure of the music of how the music is arranged into a sequence
or melodic patterns. In a wide perspective, it is to denote a standard type, or genre, and to
denote the procedures in a specific work.

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In the classical period (era), there is a specific form that a musician should follow, it is a basic
pattern in composition in those times as follows:

1. Exposition – the main theme of the composition, or the chorus in today’s generation.
From a wide perspective, it is the initial presentation of the thematic material of a
musical composition (or section in music).
2. Development – at times it is regarded as the verse of the musical composition, the
continuation of the exposition; in today’s generation, verses have the same melodic
lines or same tune, yet in classical music, verses have different melodic lines, and the
development changed every end of the exposition. One example of different melodic
lines in verses is the composition of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fur Elise.
3. Recapitulation – in general, is the repetition of the exposition; somehow it has
different variations depending on the theme of the musical piece followed by an
ending stable musical phrase which identified that the musical composition is near
to end.

In other musical analysis, the form has four basic types as follows:

1. Unitary – one melodic section (represented as A for a verse of same melodic section),
also called as Strophic Form. Example: Leron, Leron, Sinta, and Sitsiritsit.
2. Binary – two melodic sections (represented by AB, AABB, ABB, and so on).
3. Ternary – when the melodic section A was repeated at the end of the
composition (represented by ABA, AABBAA, ABBA, ABAA, and so on).
4. Rondo – when there are three or more melodic sections interchanged which are
represented by ABACA, ABCBA, and so on.

How to analyze music in terms of form?

The sample paragraph below is an example of analysis in terms of form:

Basically, the song Ili-ili Tulog Anay is in unitary form because there is only one melodic
section (or verse). It is not binary because there is no followed (or next) additional different
melodic verse (or melodic section). Sometimes, in some choral arrangements, they could
insert additional verses and another variation which could be in the ternary, as well as in
rondo form. In another context, the use of adaptations and arrangements could be classified
into variational forms – those in which variation is an important formative element.

Timbre and Texture

Timbre (pronounced as /tam-ber/) is the quality of sound, which characterizes the sound
between instruments as well as the nature of the voice. In terms of the voice, basically, we
have:

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 Soprano – high female voice

 Alto – low female voice
 Tenor – high male voice
 Bass – low male voice

The terms below could help in analyzing the quality of the sound in terms of both
instrumental and vocal music:

 bright
 dark
 brassy
 reedy
 harsh
 noisy
 thin
 buzzy
 pure
 raspy
 shrill
 mellow
 strained

Sometimes, the instruments themselves defined the quality of sound, for example, the
trumpet has a brassy sound, the violin has a thin and/or mellow sound, the flute has a reedy
sound (means a high-pitched sound – long and thin), and so on.

In terms of the entirety of the music composition, timbre is very difficult to analyze because
of the texture involved. The texture is the thinness and/or thickness of sound. Therefore, if
the timbre is the quality of sound, sometimes texture portray the quantity of sound because
of its number of sound involved. When analyzing music, sometimes these two elements
(timbre and texture) couldn’t be separated, for example, only the flute plays in the first part
of the music composition, therefore the timbre described as reedy and high pitch as well as
the texture described as thin, because there is only one instrument involved. Unlike when all
the instruments in the orchestra play their parts, it is strained (produced with excessive
effort) in terms of timbre, and thick when it comes to texture; we called it Tutti when all of
the sections (family/parts) in the orchestra play their parts simultaneously (and/or all
sections in the choir sung together).

How to analyze music in terms of timbre and texture?

The sample paragraph below is an example of analysis in terms of timbre and texture:

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Ili-ili Tulog Anay when sung by the high female voice and a high male voice is high-pitched
music composition. In terms of timbre, it is a bright, thin, and mellow song. As well,
sometimes it is sung by a choir (a mixture of voices including male and female high voice as
well as male and female low voice), therefore it is very pure and strained music. In accordance
to texture, basically if it is sung by only one person, it is considered as thin, while if it is sung
by a choir, it is considered as thick, because of the number of sounds, it may affect the
entirety when it comes to dynamics and harmony.

Credits

 Encyclopædia Britannica
 Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Mobile Application)
 Ace Music Dictionary (Mobile Application)

Bibliography

Burrows, D. & Jones, B. (2006). Chambers dictionary of music. Great Britain: Chambers
Harrap Publishers Ltd.

Palazo, E. D. (2002). Prototayp na diksyunaryo sa musikang pang-edukasyon

(Filipino-Ingles; Ingles-Filipino). Quezon City: AMAR Graphic Center.

Rivadelo, R. F. (2010). Music education: materials and methods. Mandaluyong City: National
Book Store, Inc.

Winold, A. (1966). Elements of musical understanding. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:

Prentice-Hall, Inc.

To cite this article (APA Style 7th Edition) - from Music Classroom Guide: Asian
and Contemporary Music:

Tabuena, A. C. (2018, July 10). Musical analysis of music composition. Music

Classroom Guide: Asian and Contemporary Music.
https://actmusicguide.wordpress.com/2018/07/10/musical-analysis-of-music-compos
ition-first-quarter/

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