THE MAGIC OF MUSIC -- Part 3

 GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LISTENING TO MUSIC

      Music is entertainment. That’s its main purpose. And listening to music that touches us and wakes up our senses is undeniably pleasurable.

     There are many who are specialist listeners of music. They only listen to one type of music. So, these three essays are really an attempt to get everyone to open their ears and minds to explore the infinite universe of music that is waiting to be discovered. With a bit of luck, they perhaps will find some music that will entertain them even more than their favoured music.

      An open mind. To get the most out of any music that compels and captivates us, no matter what the music is, one must really want to listen. And for that we need an open mind. 

     Master musicians are open minded. An interesting but not very appreciated fact about truly great musicians is that they have preferences for certain types of music, but they don’t have a favourite type of music.  The difference between preferences and favourite is important to understand because acclaimed musicians are open minded and don’t close their minds to any type of music; they know that there is great music and great musicians in all genres of music. For example, the celebrated Hindustani classical sitar player and singer, Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan, even though steeped in Hindustani classical music, loves to listen to old Hindi film music, he likes the Beatles, and particularly admires the jazz pianist, Hiromi Uehara. Furthermore, most top flight jazz and classical maestros listen to all music, these virtuosos listen to folk, country and pop music, and, many of them are deeply fascinated and influenced by the elegant melodies and intricate rhythmic patterns of both, Hindustani and Carnatic classical music. 

      Taking pleasure in affecting and involving music. To appreciate and savour immersing music like jazz, or Indian and western classical music, takes time and effort, but it’s something we can all do.

      To really understand how to listen to all Western music, especially jazz and classical, we must also understand the concept of Harmony! It’s something that I had neglected to write about in the last two essays in this series.

      Harmony is the foundation of western music. Considering Indian music does not have harmony in it, harmony may not be easy to understand. So, this bit of explanation is to make things clear to most people who have not listened to western music, orchestral, or, vocal harmony, as in choirs and vocal ensembles. 

     Eight notes within twelve notes -- In both Indian and Western music an eight-note scale called the octatonic scale is part of a twelve-note framework called a chromatic scale. The octatonic scale is: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa, or, Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. 

     Harmony unites compatible notes together and creates a euphonious whole -- When two, three, or more different notes in the octatonic scale – eight note scale, are played or sung at the same time, they create a richer, fuller sound that is pleasant to the ear. So, when the first note, the third note and the fifth notes of the octatonic scale are played together they sound harmonious. 

     Harmony mixes sounds to form a texture -- Simply put, in the scale of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa, or Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do, the notes that sound good when played together are the 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th notes, from low to high, thus, ‘Sa – Ga – Pa’, or ‘Do – Me -- So’, sound harmonious. In western music this formation of three compatible notes is called a standard major triad. 

     Striking a chord -- When these three compatible notes are stacked together and played at the same time they are called a chord. The notes have been nicely and fittingly combined to create a rich, full sound, as one clearly sees when keyboard players strike a chord by placing their fingers on the 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th notes of a scale on the piano keys, or when guitar players strum a chord by placing their fingers on the 1^st, 3^rd, and fifth note of the scale on their guitar strings.    

 SATB -- Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. SATB is the most popular way music is scored for choirs, string quartets and other small instrumental ensembles.      In choral arrangements and in classical and contemporary vocal music, SATB represent the four main voice types in a choir, with Soprano being the high female voice, Alto, the low female voice, Tenor, the high male voice, and Bass, the low male voice. A soprano thus sings the highest-pitched sounds, down through alto and tenor to the bass who sings the lowest pitches.        Starting from the top that is, sa, ni, da, pa, ma, ga, re, sa. Or, do, ti, la, so, fa, mi re do. Sopranos, the high female voices sing the Sa, or Do (1st) note, at the top. The lower female voices, Altos, sing the Pa or La below, and the tenors, the high male voices, sing Ga or Me. And to bottom it out the lower male voice called the bass, sing the root the lower Sa or Do. 

     String quartets adapt the standard four-part choral texture by assigning the soprano line to the first violin, the alto to the second violin, the tenor to the viola, and the bass to the cello. 

     Harmony in orchestration -- Sweet sounding music is shaped when chords are connected to join sounds in a succession of harmonies. So, orchestration is the art of assigning melodies, tone colours, and rhythms to sections such as strings, woodwinds, or brass. For instance, in a musical ensemble, the flutes may play one note, the violins play a different note and trumpets play yet another note, but when their parts are heard together, we hear the harmonious melodies and textures. 

     Tone Colours -- Another term used to describe the sound and harmonic texture of harmony in western classical, and jazz ensemble music, is tone colours. Tone colour is the special individual quality of a sound or tone of each instrument, and each section of instruments, in an orchestra. For example, a violin has its own tone and sound, a trumpet has its own tone and timbre and a saxophone has its own tone and character, cello has its own tone and resonance, a flute has its own tone and sound quality. 

     The magic of colours and shapes of music -- Tone colours translate visual elements like colour, rhythm, and texture into auditory structures. So, just as an artist, a painter, uses a palette of colours to create a work of art, a composer uses various instruments in an orchestra, or, in a jazz or dance band, to create a musical canvas in an arrangement or composition. 

    Just as a painter uses and mixes pigments on a canvas from a palette of colours to create mood, depth, light and saturation in the painting, so does a composer use elements such as rhythm, pitch, dynamics and tone colours of different sets of musical instruments in creating a harmonious picture of sound. 

     Just as a painter sometimes mixes colours to get unusual or nonstandard hues in their composition on canvas, a composer mixes the tones of different instruments to get nonstandard tone colours in orchestrating a musical composition. 

    Just as a painter uses space and colour on a canvas for us to understand the underlying idea and symbolism of the piece. So too, a composer arranges tone colours to combine all the various instrument sections to clear auditory points that contrast, build towards a climax, convey scene, a state of mind, or an emotion. 

     This perhaps explains the value of tone colours and its influence in harmony in a musical composition.     

     Grabbing and holding on to the sound of music: However, for anyone to enter the vast worlds of music, we should want to listen to music with all your heart and soul. 

     So, sit down and pay attention to the music you’re listening to. Take the time to truly savour the music. Enjoy it with your body and mind. You will hear how the composer and arranger uses tone colours, and different rhythms, tones, dynamics in the composition. 

     Listen to an album in its entirety, instead of songs or tunes. Take time to engage and appreciate the work of the musician. 

     With time, you will hear in a long piece of music, how the theme is exposed, how it is developed, and how it is restated (exposition -- development -- recapitulation). This is called the sonata form. And then, your mind will move sympathetically with the music and identify recurring sequences of melodies and recognise and anticipate cues that signal changes in the thematic development of the piece. 

     Attentive listening is an incredible experience that allows us to wake up our senses and expand and evolve to be receptive towards all music, and be entertained and be lost in a world of sound regardless of genre.