Borrowing Terms from Landscapers

 

Borrowing Terms from Landscapers

In my writings I have borrowed terms that landscapers use and understand universally and have applied them to sacred and secular music and musicing.  These terms include:

        Unity- the unity of the music part of music with its purpose.

Balance- a good marriage of words with the use of the building blocks of music as well as a balance of the use of the elements of music.

Contrast- contrast between secular and sacred music and musicing.

Harmony- chords and chord progressions.

        Color- tone color (timbre).

Transition- key modulation and changes from section to    section.

Line-melodic line

Proportion-the appropriate use of the elements of music

Repetition-of text, rhythm, melody, and harmony

I also refer to musical  landscape  as the general atmosphere which  surrounds musicing that either enhances or distracts from the effectiveness of corporate Christian worship.  I define Parlance as a particular way of speaking or using words in scholarly writing that is common and understood by those who have an interest in music and musicing.  Now I have combined parlance and landscape to indicate a common use of terms to explain more clearly how music forms an atmosphere i.e., landscape that surrounds and either supports or distracts from corporate Christian worship.