One of the key concepts in music is intonation. This article will help to understand the essence of this phenomenon.
What are the intonations in music?
This term can be considered both in a broad and in a narrow sense. At the moment, there are three main formulations that answer the question “what is intonation in music?”. In the broad sense of the word, this is the name for the unity of the texture of the work and the shades of meaning with which it is endowed.
In this sense, this term was first considered in the teachings of the Soviet musicologist Boris Asafiev. In order to most clearly explain the essence of this word meaning, one should turn to the phenomenon of the same name in the field of linguistics. In a conversation, it is precisely by intonation that a person can determine the meaning and general mood of the speaker’s speech, even without understanding specific words or without understanding an unfamiliar or unfamiliar foreign language. A similar phenomenon exists in music. For example, the quart interval is most often associated in people with intense, invocative sounds. A motive based on such harmonies is most suitable for works in the genre of march or for hymns.
The connection of speech and music
Even Galileo Galilei's father, who was a lute player, urged his colleagues to pay attention to the connection of melodies with speech intonations. Many similar works by Russian classical composers are based on this similarity. They often turned to the use of this technique, especially in their opera. Among the masters who most clearly managed to use speech intonations in arias, one can name such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Modest Mussorgsky.
While the composers of Italian opera most often neglected these techniques, paying more attention to the melody of music and virtuosity.
Galileo's father was also a member of the Mug similar to our "Mighty Handful". The members of this association specialized in writing operas, in which arias were based on the peculiarities of colloquial speech.
Spiritual music
Another meaning of the word "intonation" is associated with the Gregorian tradition of singing. In the Middle Ages in the Catholic Church, when performing psalms and other chants, the melody was first performed by one person, the so-called singing, after which the whole choir picked it up. The fragment, which was performed solo, had the name "Intonation". In the Orthodox tradition, there was a similar system, which was called the famous singing.
Fine intonations in music
With the help of intonation, it is possible to convey not only the characteristics of speech and its emotional message. It is also a universal tool for musical visualization. We can say that with the help of intonation, music communicates with listeners. A striking example of the use of its various types for creating images can be found in the tale of Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf." In this work, it is with the help of intonation that the composer creates the image of a cat with insinuating movements and a bird whose flight is easy and swift. This tool is used differently in each particular style. Thus, the intonations characteristic of the Baroque era differ from those that were often used in romantic music and in classical symphonies. The concept considered in this article is complex. It is based on the interconnectedness of phenomena such as fret, rhythm and tonality.
What is the difference?
A few words should be said about speech intonation, which is so close in its musical characteristics. If a person has to hear the conversation of foreigners, then, despite not knowing their language, he can still catch some details of their conversation. For example, you can immediately understand the relationship of these people to each other: supportive or unfavorable, and sometimes it is also possible to make out whether individual phrases are statements or questions. However, this will not always succeed, since the features of speech in different languages may differ from each other. For example, in the conversation of Russian people, the question is accompanied by gradually increasing intonation towards the end of the phrase. In English, this design can sound pretty even. The Germans, on the contrary, most often lower their intonation in interrogative sentences.
Here you can draw a parallel with the music. In the same way as speech, songs of different nations and instrumental works differ in their intonational composition. The compositions created in different eras differ from each other. The music of our day, of course, differs from the Baroque works created by Johann Sebastian Bach. There are even separate manuals aimed at studying the modern approach to this problem. The electronic music with its intonational composition is subjected to a particularly thorough analysis.
Intonation in the narrow sense of the word
In previous chapters it was mentioned that there are different types of intonations in music. But so far, this term has been discussed in the broad sense of the word. In a narrower sense, intonation in music is a fragment of a melody, sometimes consisting of two or three notes.
It can be said that this unit is similar to a phoneme or token in linguistics. So you can answer if asked to give a brief definition of what intonation in music is. However, its graphic fixation has not yet been carried out, since this cannot be done using traditional musical notation.
Theory of Boris Asafiev
Therefore, talking about compiling a dictionary of musical intonations or chants, as Boris Asafiev called them, is currently not possible. Moreover, their borders are much more blurred than the boundaries of a lexeme or morpheme. The semantic meaning of each such unit also does not lend itself to a clear definition. Nevertheless, Boris Asafiev advised paying great attention to the connection of speech and musical intonations in the study of solfeggio. He said that it is much easier to assimilate the sound of individual intervals and chords, if you find analogues in speech.
Also, this scientist claimed that the melody is the dominant force of musical intonation in its broad sense. In this, his teaching coincides with the point of view of the composers of the era of classicism, who called the melody the queen of music. Boris Asafiev is the author of a number of books on the topic "Intonation", which are still considered the main works in this area. In the future, this topic was developed by many theorists who touched in their works both the intonational language as a whole and affected the work of individual composers. Scientists of the second half of the 20th century usually ranked the main components of this phenomenon, in addition to melody, and timbre.
Different intonation
There is also a third answer to the question “what is intonation in music?”. The definition will be presented below.
Also, this term is used in the meaning of accuracy of the sound-pitch organization of musical fabric in the performance of a work. It is this intonation in music that is implied when talking about the purity of singing or playing instruments, as well as about the accuracy of tuning. Here, in contrast to a similar phenomenon in the field of language, we are talking about special sounds - their musical forms. That is, about those that have a certain height. The reproduction of musical sounds by a singer is called intonation. This implies the process itself.
When the bear stepped on the ear
The intonation in music (pure, false or "floating") is the ability to transmit a melody with a certain clarity. Pupils of art schools and students of higher and secondary vocational educational institutions of the corresponding profile in solfeggio classes are often used with this term. Most often, it is the intonation that is checked when children enter a music school. Sometimes a person who has not developed this skill is mistakenly accused of hearing loss.
If a child is unable to sing a certain melody set by the teacher when he enters a music school, then perhaps his intonation skills are not formed, and his hearing is not absent. Therefore, such a test of musicality in children is not entirely logical. It is best to test the child for the ability to this type of occupation as follows. You need to play some simple musical phrase on the piano, and then ask him to pick it up on the instrument. In this case, it will be the hearing of the future student that will be tested, and not the intonation.