Form/Texture

                Textures in music are not rough or smooth or bumpy, and they definitely don’t describe how a song feels when you touch it (I wonder how that would work, anyway?). Instead, textures are the different ways music is aligned – for example, if there is simply a melody, or maybe a melody with a harmonic accompaniment, or even two melodies at once.

In “Chega de Saudade,” there is a melody, carried either by an improvising instrument, saxophone, or trumpet, which is then supported by harmonies and rhythms coming from the rhythm section. This texture is considered homophonic; the piece essentially has a melody with a chordal accompaniment. However, briefly, “Chega” displays a polyphonic texture when a trumpet plays a countermelody during the first playthrough of the song’s chorus (see seg. 8). Though this may not be considered true polyphony, since the trumpet seems to be harmonizing and playing with the saxophone in parts, it does display polyphonic properties. “Maple Leaf Rag” has a melody carried in the right hand with a stride-bass accompaniment in the left hand. This, too, is an example of homophonic texture.

A more intuitively defined aspect of music, form, represents exactly that: the way a music piece is structured. In music, each section of a song is assigned a letter that corresponds with its order of appearance (for example, the first section is called A, the second B, etc.). Listening to “Chega de Saudade,” one can hear four clearly defined sections, an A section, B section, C section, and D section. The A and B sections are minor, and the C and D sections are major (see seg. 9 and seg. 10 for A section and C section, respectively). After one playthrough of each of these sections, the song launches into an extended improvisation session, before each of the sections is played again and the song ends. “Maple Leaf Rag” is considered the prototypical ragtime piece. It has four sections, an A, B, C, and D (see seg. 11 for D section). Each section is played and repeated once, and in between the B and C sections, the A section is repeated once more. In essence, the form is as follows – AABBACCDD.