Module 4 - Abstracting

Abstracting is when you take a subject and boil it down to simplicity; representations are abstractions. For this module, I chose to examine a piece I am teaching to my students, “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful” (yes, I know, it's way early, but we learn a lot of Christmas music and this works). There are actually several abstractions that take place with what I did. First of all, written sheet music is an abstraction of the actual music, as it is only a representation. Without the understanding that the different marks mean something, the sheet music itself is meaningless.

I chose to further abstract this piece (as sheet music is not as much of an abstraction for me anymore, as every mark on music has meaning for me) by analyzing the chord structure. Most pieces in Western music are built around chords, which generally have three or four notes, in a 1-3-5 arrangement. For example, for a G chord, it will have G (the first note of the scale), B (the third note of the scale), and D (the fifth note). Within these chords, only the first and the third are vitally necessary. The first determines what chord it is, and the third determines whether the chord is major or minor (sounds happy or sad).

Pieces often make frequent use of I, IV, and V or V7 chords. A I chord in the key of G Major is a G Major chord (G, B, and D), a IV chord is a C Major chord of C, E, and G, as C is the fourth note of the G Major scale, and a V chord is a D Major chord of D, F#, and A, with a C (the 7 in a V7) optional. However, there are other chords. There are minor chords, like the ii, iii, vi, and vii°. In the key of G, these are the a, b, e, and f#°, respectively. Major chords and keys are always written with an upper case letter or roman numeral, while minor chords and keys are always written lower case.

In order to analyze “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful,” I wrote out both the letter and roman numeral for each chord under the music. I also circled the root (the “1”) of each chord, and put a box around each third, as these are the two most important notes in each chord. This was my physical representation of my abstraction. For an audio representation, I played the piece as it was written, played only the root, and then mixed the two together to over-emphasize the root of each chord.

Closely analyzing the chord structure of a piece helps me understand what is going on within the piece. With music, you can use your gut feelings to make decisions about how things should be played, but you can also mentally analyze a piece to help you make those decisions. Often, you will come up with slightly different interpretations, but that is the beauty of music. Analyzing the chord structure gives me another way to look at it. I could emphasize either the root or the third, or only play the melody with the root and the third, I could emphasize the melody, emphasize the lower cello part, or any other individual part, emphasize the second violin part (the harmony), or do any other of a number of things. But analyzing the chord structure helps me to make this decision in an informed manner.