THE BASICS OF MUSIC: MELODY AND RHYTHM
Melody
Whatever the type of music you are listening to, observing the mechanisms of a specific piece of music, then a second and a third, you could be surprized to learn that a lot of tunes which apparently sound very different from each other are actually using the same elementary musical principles and techniques.
Melody is one of them. It is a succession of musical tones. Music composers use it to generate powerful emotional responses amongst listeners. You can identify a melody easily in the very simple genre of lullabies and in a log of simple songs, like Led Zeppelin's 'Whole lotta love', where the melody conveys a story and a feeling that mixes the elements of love, patriotism, loss, longing, redemption, ...
What, in a good melody, makes it effective? We see that, everywhere in the world, melodies are generally built on five notes which form what we call the pentatonic scale (represented on the black keys of the piano). Then other notes can possibly be added. It is not the number of notes which is important here, but what one does with them: which notes, which pitch (how high or low), for which pattern (created with notes found in which scale)?
In a melody, notes must be distinct enough from each other. The smallest distance between two notes in Western music is the semi-tone (that one finds for example between F and F#). After that, there is the tone (from C to D, D to E, etc). The medieval Plain Chant is based on intervals of one tone each. It is very melodic and creates an impression of solemnity.
Once a combination of notes is defined, a mode must be chosen. A mode is a type of scale coupled with specific melodic behaviours. In Western music, modes are inspired by ancient Greek music (where seven modes are distinguished: phrygian, dorian, lydian, etc. and may be used to express moods (for example, the eolian mode is associated with sadness). Modes made some 'come back' during the 20th century.
Rhythm
Rhythm is a fundamental element of music. It is made of regular patterns which are repeated through a piece of music, each instrument having its own rhythm when necessary. In classical music, the music composer explores the spaces between the beats. In popular music, the tendency is to link rhythms to movements, for example the steps of dancers.
Rhythm is composed of four elements: accent, pulse, tempo and subdivision of the beat. Accent helps to distinguish which units are important and which ones are not. Pulse is at the contrary completely mechanical (the sound of a clock gives the right idea of what pulse is) and creates virtual accents. Tempo is about choosing the speed of a pulse. Subdivision determines the smallest units in a musical piece. All these four elements are linked.
Syncopation for its part is the sum of the unexpected rhythms in a piece of music. It plays an essential part in ragtime, jazz and swing, where there are extended syncopations. Basically, its function is to make music unconventional, going from one beat to another, 'extending' the sound. The process already exists in Bach's work (e. g.: Invention n° 6).
More sophisticated syncopations take a whole rhythmic pattern and superimpose it on another one: this is cross-rhythm and it generally involves two or more performers. One can find examples in Brahms’ music. The technique is essential in rap music, this time involving the voice as one element of the superimposition, making a rhythmic pattern out of it. And often the rhythmic pattern of the voice in rap is more complicated than those of the instruments.
Finally, we can notice that popular Western music was influenced by African and South American music rhythms. We see that for example in the work of Stevie Wonder.