In Western music and music theory, augmentation (from Late Latin augmentare, to increase) is the lengthening of a note or the widening of an interval.
Augmentation is a compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in longer note-values than were previously used. Augmentation is also the term for the proportional lengthening of the value of individual note-shapes in older notation by coloration, by use of a sign of proportion, or by a notational symbol such as the modern dot. A major or perfect interval that is widened by a chromatic semitone is an augmented interval, and the process may be called augmentation.
A melody or series of notes is augmented if the lengths of the notes are prolonged; augmentation is thus the opposite of diminution, where note values are shortened. A melody originally consisting of four quavers (eighth notes) for example, is augmented if it later appears with four crotchets (quarter notes) instead. This technique is often used in contrapuntal music, as in the "canon by augmentation" ("per augmentationem"), in which the notes in the following voice or voices are longer than those in the leading voice, usually twice the original length. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach provides examples of this application:
Other ratios of augmentation, such as 1:3 (tripled note values) and 1:4 (quadrupled note values), are also possible. A motif is also augmented through expanding its duration.
Augmentation may also be found in later, non-contrapuntal pieces, such as the Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 6) of Beethoven, where the melodic figure first heard in the second violins at the start of the "Storm" movement ("Die Sturm"):
is heard again in an augmented and transposed version in the same movement’s closing ten bars:
Examples of augmentation may be found in the development sections of sonata form movements, particularly in the symphonies of Brahms and Bruckner and in the protean leitmotifs in Wagner’s operas, which undergo all kinds of transformation as the characters change and develop through the unfolding drama.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Retracer l'histoire de la pratique de l'improvisation dans la musique savante de la Renaissance à nos jours. Analyser les différents contextes, styles, genres musicaux dans lesquels l'improvisation pr
This course will introduce students to the central topics in digital musicology and core theoretical approaches and methods. In the practical part, students will carry out a number of exercises.
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900. These terms may mean different things in different contexts. Very often, diatonic refers to musical elements derived from the modes and transpositions of the "white note scale" C–D–E–F–G–A–B.
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal (counterpoint-based) compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g., quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader (or dux), while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower (or comes). The follower must imitate the leader, either as an exact replication of its rhythms and intervals or some transformation thereof.
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unpleasantness, or unacceptability, although there is broad acknowledgement that this depends also on familiarity and musical expertise. The terms form a structural dichotomy in which they define each other by mutual exclusion: a consonance is what is not dissonant, and a dissonance is what is not consonant.
Explores the evolution of music from medieval to modern times, covering different periods, styles, and composers.
, , ,
Musical schemata constitute important structural building blocks used across historical styles and periods. They consist of two or more melodic lines that are combined to form specific successions of intervals. This paper tackles the problem of recognizing ...