The most important element of music. Its like a story because it has a beginning, it has a plot, and it has an ending. [spirited violin plays] melody, i define it as a group of notes that are in love with each other. [low hum and sticks clacking] [cultural music montage] narrator all over the world with instruments and voice, people create an uncountable number of melodies in an enormous variety of styles. The methods in which a musical culture generates its melodic forms depend on the musical rules and practices of that culture. These rules are employed by composers and performers, and are implicitly understood by listeners as well. That baby boy i never saw before. narrator but at the basis of all melodic form is the concept of vibrational frequency or pitch. [low, airy pipe plays] man pitch is the highness or lowness of the sound. Its a matter of how many vibrations per second form the fundamental frequency of the sound. For the musician, of course, the pitch at least in the western vocabulary, are the 12 pitches of the octave divided up, and heres a chromatic scale, and thats all we have each of those pitches or pitch classes from c to c is reproduced in every octave so that theres something fundamentally the same about that c and that c and that c. Theyre an octave apart; theyre doubles in frequency. Every music around the world takes that raw material, and sometimes the octaves are not divided up into 12 equal parts. [spirited violin plays] you can divide octaves into 20, 30, 40 parts, or you can divide octaves into only three or four or five parts. But every music has a certain idea of what is the pitch material inside the octave. Were familiar with a major minor scale system that we use in our music. Heres a major scale. [keyboard plays scale] its a kind of bag of notes from which you can choose the notes of your melody. But every melody doesnt go [keyboard plays tune using adjacent notes] they jump around. [keyboard plays sample tune] and so there are bigger and smaller intervals between the notes you play, and you need to know something about that because those intervals are very important. [gregorian chanting] simpler music, gregorian chant for instance, the intervals are small. Between two notes adjacent, the interval is a second, of course, between the same note and itself, the interval is in unison. A second, a third, a fourth, et cetera. [doleful violin music] melodies are very meaningful. To people, melody is often the most meaningful aspect of a piece of music. Its what we remember, its what we relate to, and those melodies come from the intervals between the notes as we play them. [piano plays classical music] woman melody is the tune the singable part of a piece of music. Its the part that our ear naturally gravitate towards. Technically, melody is a succession of pitches coming one after another, that together form a complete thought or a phrase; thats what we call it in music. Just like sentences have words, and we dont hear the individual words in the sentence we hear how those words join together to form a sentence, the same goes with music. There are many notes, but those notes we dont hear really individually. We hear them as a long line, and it gives the concept of a complete thought. Melodies have a beginning, [piano plays twinkle, twinkle, little star] a middle, and then an end. Okay, and that gives us the sense of a sentence or a phrase. One of the most important components of melody is its rhythm. In other words, if we just took rhythm out of melody, and just played the notes, its rather boring, but the rhythm that the composer writes with those notes just breathes life into those notes, and makes the melody much more compelling. [classical piano music] now, composers have some tools that they use when theyre constructing their melodies. One of the tools that they use is repetition. They can repeat an idea. Another tool that they can use is variation. They can take an idea and change it slightly or they can contrast it with something completely new and different. In this beautiful composition by mozart, we have an idea, and then he takes that idea and moves it down a notevariation, and then the answer is a contrastcompletely new. [light piano tune] and now were in the middle of it. We havent quite come home yet, so he repeats it. Variation, and then a new contrast which brings us to a close. When we talk about melody, were just talking about the beginning of a composition. Melodies can generate an entire work. In this particular piece, thats only half of the theme. The theme then is developed a little further, and then he writes a set of six variations on this theme. [dramatic piano finish] narrator many nonwestern musics employ complex melodic arrangements that form the basis for composition and improvisation. The word mode is sometimes used to refer to these structures. One example of this is the arabic maqam system. The maqam system is based on scalelike groupings of notes that each have certain distinctive characteristics. Since there are dozens of maqams, the melodic possibilities are endless. Melody in arabic music develops along a single line, and is distinguished by the intricate use of ornaments, subtle adjustments of pitch called microtones, and a sophisticated use of rhythm. shaheen the basics of the structured and improvised music is the maqam system. The maqam system, you have a set of scales that has certain characteristics. A certain feel, a certain mood. For example, there is a certain maqam that could relate very much to an evening time for example, or certain maqam can relate to a sad state of being. For example [guitar plays tune using chromatic scale] in arabic music, the intervals is very much identified by what we call quatertones or microtonal intervals. And these are intervals that, from my experience with the western ear, its very difficult to hear this quality because its an interval or distance between two pitches that the ear is not used to. For example, if we listen to the third note, and im going to count, this is the first, the second, and the third. Again. Okay, so these are the first three notes in a scale that ifamiliar to many people thats called minor scale. Okay, we can call it also we call it in arabic music nahawand it has a name. Now lets listen to the third note in a different scale. First, second, third. And we call it here, major scale. Or in arabic music ajan, ajan, ajan. Now, between those three two notes, and im referring to the third note i played, or i can fit another interval in between that we call quartertone. [guitar strumming] and many people think its kind of weird or it sounds out of tune, but it is not. Its a quality that, if you are born in certain region that practice this type of music or if you get used to it, like Many American students who study with me for years and years they got used to it and they perform it perfectly. [spirited violin plays] i went to school in the early 80s, at Manhattan School of music, and i specialized on violin, and one of the top violinists then used to come and give us master classes was heinrick szering, the polish violinist. In one of the master classes, i was supposed to perform i think it was a beethoven sonata on the violin and piano, and after i finished, he said, you know, he commented on my playing, and before i leave the stage, i asked to play another piece of music. So i took the violin again and then i played an improvisation, using all these ornaments and quartertones. When i finished, of course, everybody was astonished, and he asked me one question. He said, young man, this is fascinating. How could you play all these intricate notes . But one thing i dont understand why did you play so many notes out of tune . [violin music continues] narrator melodic expression also plays a fundamental role in other musical systems found around the world. In irish dance music, for example, it is the tune that is of particular importance a fixed melody that is repeated over and over again in performance, but varied and ornamented differently each time it is played. man with irish music, the most important thing is the melody. And when people are playing together in ensemble, they basically play the same melody. What makes a difference are the variations. You cant change the melody too much, not to the same degree as you would in jazz. You can only change it slightly. But in any type of celtic art, if you look at the book of kells, for example, all of the real artistry is in the details little, little details. The basic picture stays the same, but you change these little, little details. Its the same idea with the music. [violin plays irish tune] thats just the straight notes. Thats the underlying melody. [elaborate variation of the same tune] thats it with ornamentation. Now, theres also room to alter that melody, but the challenge is to alter it such a way as to enable you to sit in and play with somebody youve never met before who also plays that tune, and then do it such a way that doesnt sound discordant; that doesnt sound chaotic. Thats the beautiful thing i can sit down with somebody ive never even met from another part of this country or ireland and sit down and be able to play tunes with them. [ensemble playing irish tune] [singing in gaelic] Jerry Osullivan irish traditional music any of the instrumental music it really comes from the older singing style called sean nos singing and sean nos is two Irish Language words meaning old way. Theyre very, very moving, very, very intimate songs. Its usually a group of people sitting in a circle around a table. The custom is for the singer to reach out and grab the hand of whoever is next to him or her, and they start this rowing motion as theyre singing the song. Its not in time to the piece; theres no rhythmic thing, but its an emotional custom where youre really the singer and the audience are really joined together. [playing celtic music] i think the fact that i play the uillean pipes its a good instrument for imitating the seannos singers. You can slide notes in somewhat the same way, you try to ornament in somewhat the same way, so its a very good instrument for playing slow airs. Slow airs, what you attempt to do as closely as possible is to follow the style of the singer. With these songs is telling a story, literally some themes can be 10, 12 verses long. As an instrumentalist, you try and communicate the sadness, the loneliness frequently. You try and do what the singer does to draw in your audience to make them feel the emotion. If youve done that, youre a good slow air player. [celtic music continues] narrator a melodic concept known as raga lies at the heart of north indian classical music. There are hundreds of ragas each of which functions as a sort of recipe for the creation of composed and improvised melodies. [ensemble playing a raga] each raga possesses its own set of rules and is associated with a prevailing mood and time of day or season of performance. As in arabic classical music, melodies develop along a single line. A typical performance format includes a soloist either a singer or instrumentalist accompanied by drums called tabla and by a tambura, a longnecked, stringed instrument that is used to create a drone or continuous web of sound emphasizing the tonic or primary note of the raga. Indian music is totally melodic, but we cannot just go on producing any melody that comes to our mind. It is guided by certain rules and framework. When we play classical music, it has got to conform to one raga or the other. Our music has the same 12 notes that occur in your piano keyboard in one octave. In any piece of music, the first the do, or let us call it the tonic, must always be there, and this cannot be changed. Tambura provides that do, that baseline against which the whole music is being generated. Having selected your do, you have to select at least four other notes. So long as you play that particular raga, you cannot use any other note. Secondly, our music has definite and prefixed mode of going up and coming down. The rules of the raga may preclude you from just climbing up straight for one in sequence. It may have kinks in it. Third point is that out of these notes, one note is generally more prominent in that its used more frequently, and sometimes you stop on that particular note very often. [ensemble playing a raga] so out of these several dos and donts, there finally emerge a state of basic phrases, which are just like the, you know, ears, nose, eyes, lips of a human countenance. These basic phrases, actually, when you go through them, they paint the face of the raga. So i have been able to explain to some extent what a raga means. Chosen notes in an octave, definite and prefixed mode of going up and coming down, some particular note getting prominence, and many other smaller rules which youd rather not go into right now for want of time. Silent night, holy night, narrator melody in the form of song may be one of the most common types of musical expression found around the world. The lady knew the gentlemans heart. narrator it is the human voice, solo or accompanied, that has the primary role of conveying the meaning of a song, and songs often express our most heartfelt sentiment. [singing in spanish] man a song has two parts, the melody and the words. The melody has to do something for those words. Melody is extremely important in making words work. It makes the words sing, literally, and thats why you do a song. Otherwise, we could just keep on talking to each other. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. I dont know if you kn the name yip harburg. He was a great lyricist of pop song. He wrote the words for, its only a paper moon, and brother, can you spare a dime, and over the rainbow, and his way of saying words make you think, music makes you feel, and a song makes it possible to feel a thought. Interesting way of putting it. crowd singing we shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh, deep in my heart, i do believe, we shall overcome someday. We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Funding for this program was provided by the Annenberg Cpb project. This is pbs. Funding for this program is provided by. Narrator we all take risks. But some risks are not taken by choice. By simply breathing r or drinking water, we can exposourselves to Serious Health hazards. This is especially true in a small midwest community