03/11 3. Active Listening and Musical Analysis Free Online FlashCards

How does active listening differ from hearing?

Hearing is the physical reception of sound. Active listening deliberately attends to, interprets, and evaluates musical sounds and their relationships over time.

What attitude is useful when listening to unfamiliar music?

A curious attitude asks how unfamiliar music creates its effects and how its features relate, instead of judging it only against familiar music.

What should a listener do during the first hearing?

On a first hearing, experience the whole work without stopping and record a few immediate impressions before isolating individual features.

What does melody describe in musical analysis?

Melody is the main tune. It may be stepwise, leaping, repeated, ornamented, or fragmented.

What does texture describe?

Texture describes how many musical lines sound together and how they relate, such as a melody above chordal accompaniment or several independent lines.

What is a motive?

A motive is a short, recognizable musical idea that may be repeated, transposed, expanded, fragmented, or placed in a new texture.

What is variation in musical form?

Variation occurs when a familiar musical idea returns in altered form, preserving continuity without exact duplication.

What is binary form?

Binary form has two main sections, A and B, which may contrast in melody, harmony, or character.

What is the usual pattern of ternary form?

Ternary form has three parts, commonly A–B–A, in which the opening section returns after a contrasting middle section.

What characterizes rondo form?

Rondo form alternates a recurring principal section with contrasting episodes, often following a pattern such as A–B–A–C–A.

What are the three common sections of sonata form?

Sonata form commonly includes exposition, development, and recapitulation: themes are introduced, reworked, and then brought back in a more stable tonal context.

What is the purpose of a listening map?

A listening map represents a work’s form using labels or symbols plus audible evidence, such as timestamps, instruments, melody, texture, dynamics, tempo, or harmony.