Look at the example below, and listen to the recording. Let’s compare two compositions to their range and interval structure. Music that contains an equal number of leaps and steps is labeled as balanced.

The more a melody leaps, the harder it will be to sing, especially if those leaps are large and extend the range of the music. Music that uses disjunct motion uses more leaps than steps.

Music that is mostly stepwise uses conjunct motion, and is a good choice for music written to be easily sung by the masses. Interval structure refers to the use of steps versus leaps in the music. Music written for trained musicians that is not intended for mass use often uses a much wider range. Music written to be easily sung by the masses, like folk music, popular music, chorales, and traditional songs normally spans an octave or less in order to make the music easy to sing and remember. The range of a composition is often chosen for its intended performers. RangeĪ composition’s melodic range can be defined as the distance between its lowest and highest melody note.

In this chapter, we will focus primarily on range, interval structure, and gesture. Understanding melodic characteristics opens another avenue of exploration into how music works. It is time to turn our attention to melody. Recognizing, building, and labeling chords has been our primary focus in the last several chapters. 7.1 Melodic Material: Range, Interval Structure, Gesture: Sight Singing exercises: Aural Training exercises: Tutorial Melodic Characteristics: Range, Interval Structure, Gesture

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