1. Introduction
2. The Musical Environment
3. Loudness and Dynamics
4. Crescendo and Diminuendo
5. Sound Envelopes
6. Foreground - Background
7. Listening Structures
8. Notating Sounds
9. The Listening Space
10. Radio Composition
11. The Design Team

2. The Musical Environment

• clouds of sound
• a torrent of notes
• a thunderous ending
• a vacuum of silence

An environment is defined by an aggregate of things, conditions and influences. We use the word in a variety of ways be it a weather environment, work place environment or biological environment. An environment is a system in which forces and factors are set against each other. The varying types of forces and counterforces result in an infinite number of environments. A look at a weather chart will reveal a complex array of signs, symbols and lines. All of these signs can inform the experienced weather expert, about the nature of the climate and changes in the atmospheric environment. The positions of the signs will inform the weather expert about turbulence, stability, air pressure, temperature, etc.

Similarly, a musical environment is one which consists of forces and counterforces set against each other. These forces are the sounds and their specific parameters. Sometimes a change in the role of one sound, for example, something much louder, can radically change the overall musical environment, while at other times, another type of change such as an instrument change may not have any effect on the overall structure. In music, the different types of environments created are referred to by the term texture. Any combination of forces and counterforces constitute a texture and just as in weather, when the elements can quickly change, so too can musical textures.


1. Texture

Texture in music refers to the way strands of sound intertwine and interweave with one another. It is similar in connotation to the word 'fabric' which is the merging of different fibres to form a whole. Some fabrics, like patchwork quilts, combine many types of fibres while others, like silk, consist of only one type of fibre. Texture is also used to describe rock surfaces. Granite consists of a three or four minerals combined to produce a dense tough texture while slate consists of fine layers or sheaves of mudstone compacted together. In music, the word texture refers to the way sounds relate to one another when sounding at the same time (i.e. vertically) and one after another (horizontally). Texture evokes a sense of physicality, depth, or a sense of touch. This tactile connotation enables qualitative words such as dense, thick, sparse, volatile, etc, to be used to describe musical texture.

There are many types of textures. A piece of music can be based completely on one type or explore combinations of different types. Textures can quickly change from one type or structure to another. Walking into a busy street from a quiet room is an example of a change in texture. A texture can consist of foreground, middleground and background strands, which can quickly shift or remain stable. A texture can consist wholly of high register sustained sounds, slowly decaying in volume. A texture can be made completely from soft random staccato middle register sounds in the foreground with a low register hum in the backgound (eg, the sound of typing on a computer and its hum).


2. Texture and Listening Focus

In any sound environment, sounds will have some type of relationship with each other or will be random. The ways these sound relate to each other will influence the overall structure of the texture. For example, someone singing a Christmas carol with a piano accompaniment is more likely to be hierarchical in structure because the piano would be supporting the singer. If we hear at the same time in another room, the sound of music on a radio while we are in the room with the same person singing a christmas carol with the piano, we become aware of two separate musical activities or listening foci. We may wish to shut out the radio music from our listening focus resulting with our focus on the hierachical structure of the carol. However, should we find pleasure in the collision of the two separate musical spaces, then a simultaneous structure is perceived. These two examples demonstrate how subjective listening can be and how important it is to be aware of the limits of the musical space in which we are listening.

The above example enables us to categorise texture according to the following activities:
i. some type of hierarchical organisation where sounds have a specific and supportive role in relation to other sounds. These are relatively table textures often using layering techniques, relying on a reasonably static or predictable foreground, middleground and background;

ii. the presentation of the parts or strands can be in conflict, have an independence or quickly shift in focus. These are mobile textures where the foreground,middleground and background are constantly in flux.


3. Density

The density of a texture refers to the number of parts sounding. Qualitatve expressions such as heavy or light are often used to describe the density of a texture. A 'thin' texture has less parts/elements sounding than a thick texture. Other qualitative words used to describe the density of a texture are opaque, transparent, sinewy ,dark. When using these qualitative words, try to understand the musical reason as to why these words seem appropriate. For example, a transparent texture probably involves sparseness, middle to high register, a soft dynamic, evolving attack envelopes.


4. Part or Strand

When listening to textures it is useful to identify its constituent components. These will be called parts or strands. A part or strand is something identifiable and can be heard as a unit. For example, it may be:

i. the background guitar accompaniment or rhythm track in a song ;
ii. the melody of a song;
iii. a freely moving strand or sound shape which recedes into background or merges into the foreground;
iv. a distinct layer of sound such as the hum of air-conditioning units.

Textures can consist of single strands, intertwining strands or multiples of strands. The relationship between the various strands defines the type of texture created. From your experience while doing the Notating the Envirnoment assignment, a part or strand could be a bird call, car engine, someone speaking or coughing.

The traditional musical structures from the eighteenth and nineteenth century associated parts and strands with melodic and accompanying lines. This is because music from this era was heard primarily as being melodic or contrapuntal. Eras change and so do the defining aspects considered crucial to that era.


5. Summary

The texture of a particular sound shape is a musical environment in which the combination of all the parts and strands are weaved together. These elements can be set against each other or can be complementary. Textures are often described via sensory metaphors. They can be thin, busy, dense, transparent, delicate, etc. These sensory metaphors inform us about the type of musical organsation: a cloud of sounds will have a different quality to a ripple of notes. However, the metaphors do not tell us much about the musical activity. Consequently it is necessary to be more specific in our discussion of texture.