Rhythm & Melody
| This lesson is part of the Rhythm, Meter & Form category. |
Objectives
- Students will be familiar with how melody and rhythm interact and influence one another.
- Students will be familiar with the concepts of melodic and agogic accents.
Resources
- Review from Poetic Meter: M. Saunders. "Setting Text in English to Music."
Class Activities
- Discussion and definition of dynamic, melodic and agogic accents
- Analysis of melodies which feature melodic accents and agogic accents, especially vocal lines where these accents can be analyzed alongside poetic meter and grammar
- Discussion of meaning deriving from accent and metrical deviations from a melody’s inherent poetic meter.
- Improvisation of melodies with different types of melodic and agogic accents
Assignments
- Analysis of melodic lines for various implied and written accents
- Writing a melody which features a particular type of accent
- Writing a melody in a musical meter that contrasts with its inherent poetic meter.