OLET1811 Tute 3 – Expressive techniques, Instrumenta;on and
Orchestra;on, Timbre, Texture and Dynamics — Key Terms and
Concepts to Remember
Dynamics
• Loudness or softness (volume) of sound
• It’s how we manipulate tension and release through volume
Ar,cula,on
• Articulation relates to how the music is played or sung. In other words, from one
note to the next, how do we progress? The clarity?
o The touch of the sound! The attack of the notes. The character of a note.
• Key terms:
o Accents
o Smooth (Legato)
o Short & detached (Staccato)
o Plucked
o Bowed

Instrumenta,on and orchestra,on
• What is instrumentation?
o A list of the performing media
• What is orchestration?
o Who does what, where?
o Who has the more important roles? What’s the hierarchy of instrumentalists?
§ Why do we have more important roles?
• Because they provide the typology of the piece – using the
motif etc., they distinguish the song
o You can cover things by understanding this!
• Recap: What’s the key difference between instrumentation and orchestration?
o Orchestration is the roles of the players in the instrumentation
• Key terms
o Samples – audio soundbites that have been recontextualised
§ Mostly/frequently ostinatos are sampled for new songs!
o Percussion
o Band
o Orchestral
o Strings
o Guitar
o Vocals
o Melody
o Accompaniment
o Harmony
§ (remember: how is the melody supported? Melodic harmonisation,
accompaniment harmonisation, etc.)
o Countermelody
o Foreground
o Background

Timbre/tone colour
• The colour or quality of the sound
o Use adjectives to describe it
• Key Terms:
o Bright
o Mellow
o Clear
o Strained
o Nasal
o Piercing
o Rough
o Light
o Heavy
o Distorted
o Muddy
o Warm
o Rich
o round
o harsh
o synthetic
o ethereal
o acoustic
o electroacoustic/electronic

Texture
• Layers of sound in music
• We talk about it in 3 ways:
o Density (how thick/thin it is)
o Number of layers (how many layers there are)
o Relationships (what the relationship between the layers is)
§ Monophony
§ Homophony
§ Polyphony
• It’s different to orchestration:
o Orch is relationship of players
o Textural relationship is between layers
§ You can have multiple layers in one instrument! Piano can do
polyphony.
§ You can have multiple instruments in one layer too (e.g., string section)
§ Textural relationship is like a further micro analysis. It goes:
instrumentation orchestration textural relationships
• Key terms
o Thick (density)
o Thin (density)
o Monophonic (one line/layer)
o Polyphonic (two or more lines of independent melody layers i.e.,
counterpoint or countermelody)
o Homophonic (melody and accompaniment – could be one melodic layer and
multiple layers of accomp but the relationship is still melody and accomp.)