The time signature, also known as meter signature, of a piece of music defines how the beat is organized by prescribing how many beats occur per measure and what kind of note designates one beat. Each beat is counted sequentially.
Help the listener perceive musical form with repetition and contrast
Repetition and contrast are the two most basic elements of musical form. These concepts evolved as a response to the human need for comfort in the familiar and then, becoming bored with the familiar, a change to something new.
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Music Fundamentals for Dance provides students with a fundamental understanding of music and how it applies to dance performance, composition, and teaching. This valuable reference helps professional choreographers, dance educators, and dancers expand their knowledge of music and understand the relationships between music and dance.
Music Fundamentals for Dance helps dancers understand of the elements of music—form and structure, musical time, melody, texture, and score reading—and how they relate to dance performance and choreography. They will learn music vocabulary for easier communication with other dancers, musicians, and conductors. Overviews of musical forms, styles, and genres are complemented by an examination of their relation to dance and choreography.
Each chapter ends with exercises, activities, and projects that offer students a range of active learning experiences to connect music fundamentals to their dance training. An accompanying web resource contains these features:
Extended learning activities and support materials, including practice opportunities combining music skills with dance or choreography, chapter summaries, a glossary, websites, and handouts to help students practice music skills
Music clips on the website offer ready-made examples, which students can use in applying concepts from the book
Written by an experienced dance educator, dancer, and choreographer, Music Fundamentals for Dance is the only current text that explains essential concepts of music and examines these concepts in relation to dance performance, composition, and teaching. By providing readers with a foundation of music knowledge, Music Fundamentals for Dance assists both future and current professionals in understanding the art form that will enhance their contributions as performers, choreographers, and educators.
Chapter 1. Basic Concepts of Music and Notation
Note and Rests
Terms and Symbols of Expression
Chapter 2. Elements of Musical Time
Defining the Elements of Musical Time
Chapter 3. Elements of Melody
Two Types of Melody
Cadences of Melodic Phrases
Climaxes of Melodic Phrases
Chapter 4. Texture
Three Types of Musical Texture
Counterpoint and Contrapuntal Devices
Chapter 5. Reading Music Scores
Definition of Music Score
Value of Reading Scores
Solo Instrument or Vocal Score
Scores for Two or More Instruments or Voices
Other Types of Scores
Chapter 6. Form and Structure
Understanding Musical Form
Repetition and Contrast
References and Resources
About the Author
Text for undergraduate and high school dance courses. Supplemental text
for dance composition or dance methods courses. Reference for dancers,
choreographers, and dance educators.
Nola Nolen Holland, MFA, is an assistant professor in the
department of dance at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. For 10
years Nolen Holland taught courses in music for dance. Her search for a
music text written specifically for dancers led her to create Music
Fundamentals for Dance.
An experienced dancer, dance educator, and choreographer, Nolen Holland
danced with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and has initiated several composer
collaborations in order to develop original music for her dance works.
She is president of CORPS de Ballet International, Inc., a professional
organization for ballet teachers in higher education.
Recognition for Nolen Holland’s choreography includes presentation of
her work at the 1992 American College Dance Festival National Gala; the
1994 5th Biennial International University Dance Festival at the
Université Lumière in Lyon, France; and the 2007 International Dance
Alliance Festival in Chennai, India.