Dr. Amy Dunker - Clarke College - www.amydunker.

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Timbre and Texture: Acoustic Timbre: Tonal Color Texture: Density of Orchestration, Relationship between parts (voices and/or instruments) and relationship of melody to harmony and other melodic lines New Timbral Effects from Traditional Instruments: Requiring an instrumentalist or vocalist to perform in a manner that differs from standard western performance practice and pedagogy on their instrument or voice. Select Wind Instrument Techniques: Key Slaps Glissando Pitch Bending Multiphonics (the production of two or more pitches simultaneously) Enharmonic Trills Breath Sounds Singing/Speaking/Yelling through their instrument Tapping on the Instrument (hands, sticks, fingers, drum brushes, etc.) Hit Mouthpiece in Horn with Open Palm (makes a popping sound) Flutter Tongue (rolling your rs with your tongue while playing) Growl (growling with the back of the throat while playing) Select Stringed Instrument Techniques: Snap Pizzicato, Buzz Pizzicato, Nail Pizzicato, Plectrum (Guitar Pick) Pizzicato Detuning the strings Glissando Bowing over the Bridge Bowing over the fingerboard Strumming Quarter Tone Vibrato Scraping the strings with Quarters, etc. Tapping on the body of the instrument Select Percussion Techniques: Addition of Hand Percussion (World Music) Bowing the Marimba, Vibraphone, Gongs or Suspended Cymbals with a String Bass Bow Introduction of Every Day Materials such as garbage cans, tire rims, etc. (Stomp is a good example of this) Unconventional beaters (knuckles, wire brushes, etc.) Unconventional scrapers (quarters) Select Piano Techniques: Inserting paper clips, screws, nails, paper, combs, etc on the strings (also known as Prepared Piano) Clusters (White Key, Black Key and Chromatic) Strumming or Plucking the strings inside the piano Having another instrument play into the piano while the damper pedal is down creating the strings to vibrate sympathetically Hand Muting the Strings Select Vocal Techniques: Sprechstimme: a vocal method that lies somewhere between speech and singing (pitched speaking) (Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire) Grunts, Growls, Screams Multiphonics (from Tuvan Throat Singing) Use of sounds from the International Phonetic System rather than a traditional text

Famous Composers and Their Works: Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano Edgard Varese: Ionisation George Crumb: Makrokosmos Luciano Berio: Sequenza III Instrumentation and Orchestration: Greatly Expanded Percussion Section Klangfarbenmelodie: (Tone Color Melody) progressions of timbres are the equivalent to a succession of pitches in a melody or the constant reorchestration of a line or sonority as it progresses through time (Schoenberg: Five Orchestral Pieces, III) Spacial Music: spacing an ensemble or orchestra in non-traditional ways (often throughout a room, city or other such space) Elliott Carter: Symphony for Three Orchestras Pointillism: a texture that features rests and wide leaps creating points of sound Stratification: Layering contrasting musical sounds or musical textures on top of each other to create a piece in which contrasts of texture or timbre are primary elements shaping the form of the piece. Sound Mass: a chord or series of chords in which the pitch content is irrelevant compared to the psychological and physical impact of the sound (Stravinsky: Rite of Spring, Dance of the Adolescents Texture as Form Determinant: the works musical content is its use of timbre and texture (Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima)