Rhythm
When at least two musical parts are performed at the same pitch and rhythm at the same time.
This excerpt includes violins, violas, basses, oboes, and horns. They begin playing polyphonically, and 7 seconds into the excerpt they play in unison.
When the articulation “staccato” is applied to a musical note, the note in question is shortened and detached. A staccato is indicated by a small dot placed above or below a note. In the provided recording, staccatos are first heard in the horns and then the flutes. While this form of articulation is not a product of the eighteenth century, it was used by composers of the period as a means of adding character to a piece or advancing a musical line.
A triplet is a rhythmic feature in which a beat is subdivided into three. Triplets were a common feature of the galant style of the eighteenth century.
This excerpt includes 15 examples of triplets played by violins, both ascending and descending.
Syncopation, in music, is the displacement of rhythms so the musical emphasis is on the weak beat. In this excerpt from Count Ferdinand Waldstein’s Sinfonie in D, movement one, the first and second violin parts use a syncopated rhythm to emphasize the off-beat of the music while the bass line keeps a steady eighth note pulse. Eighteenth century galant composers commonly used syncopation in their music, giving their compositions musical interest.
Una grabación de Miriam Levitin tocando su piano electrónico mientras usando auriculares. Solo el ritmo sincopado de la canción es audible al oyente. | A recording of Miriam Levitin playing her keyboard while wearing headphones. Only the syncopated rhythm of the song is audible to the listener.
Extracto de un video de Paul Lopez tocando un ritmo merengue con dos congas. El tempo se acelera y se desacelera. | Excerpt from a video of Paul Lopez playing a merengue rhythm with two drums. The tempo accelerates and decelerates.
Rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. In this case, the rhythmic repetition is happening at the opening theme. It's built upon the first 4 measures and the rhythmic repeption happens between the instrumentation. In the first two measures, winds play a downbeat, while the strings play an emphasized downbeat and add the rest of the quarter notes. The next two measures, both instrumentations play a similar figure of quarter notes and 8th notes. Those same 4 measures are repeated with a slight variation on the last bar, which serves as a transition into the next part of the opening theme. Strings go into a unison line that starts with a quarter note on the downbeat of that first part, then straight 8th notes for 5 measures. At the end of that phrase, there's a measure of quarter notes played by the strings, which sets up the new section and a modulation in the key.
Two mechanical pencils were used as percussion instruments with AC conditioning as background noise. I created a few simple rhythms on an adjacent table. Recorded with Lenovo Thinkpad E550 laptop.
Close-up sound of a woman reciting rhythmic poetry, which enhances the musicality of the voice.