Page 65 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo, letnik 20, zvezek 40 ◆ The Journal of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, volume 20, issue 40

According to Bachman et al. (2006), information is most likely the gre-
atest benefit that the Internet offers its users. However, the vast quantity of
information results in information overload (Roetzel, 2019). With an infini-
te number of sources, it is easy to become confused. The online sources can
be both helpful and harmful, as there is no process for accurately verifying in-
formation and the majority of online content is not reviewed. Furthermore,
on the Internet, anyone can publish content independently of a publisher. The
web pages may be created by a professional, an inexperienced person, or even by
children. It is therefore not surprising that a search for sources defining musi-
cal elements returns a large number of confusing results: ‘musical components’,
‘musical dimensions’, and even ‘musical parameters’.
The question that arises is, whether or not there is a distinction between
these terms, and what they precisely denote, having in mind also that musical
terminology in different time periods contains words/phrases that are not only Lorena Mihelač ◆ FROM THE CONCEPTUALIZATION TO THE FORMALIZATION OF MUSICAL ELEMENTS
generally accepted and familiar but also other, more temporary, expressions
which belong to the jargon of a narrower circle of people (Borthwick, 1967).
However, if ‘musical’ is removed and only the terms parameter, dimension,
component, and element are used, it is possible to discern subtle distinctions ba-
sed on their etymologies or general descriptions.
A parameter (from Ancient Greek παρά (pará), ‘beside, subsidiary’, and
μέτρον (métron) ‘measure’), is any quality that contributes to the definition or
categorization of a certain system. In other words, a parameter is a component
of a system that is helpful or essential in the process of identifying the system or
assessing its performance, status, condition, or any other attributes. The term
is used within many different fields of study, mostly in mathematics, statisti-
cs, computer programming, engineering, physics, logic, and linguistics, less in
the field of music.
The Oxford Companion to Music (Latham, 2011) defines parameter as ‘any
compositional variable, e.g. pitch, note duration, instrumentation, loudness’,
adding that the term was derived from physics and later employed in music
when Boulez, Stockhausen, and other composers submitted parameters to se-
rial control. The term parameter, introduced in music by Stockhausen and
other serialist composers and interpreted more as a mathematical variable, wi-
dened the scope for understanding and analysing musical structure from a new
angle (Nørgaard, 1962, cited by Bergstrøm-Nielsen, 2006 ): ‘ … by the aid of the
parameters, [one] can circumnavigate the rocks that always emerge when the
perspective grows’.
The term dimension is roughly defined as a ‘measure’, ‘measurable extent of
a particular kind’, ‘form or shape (something) to specific measurements’, and
as ‘an aspect or feature of a situation/something’, i.e. ‘the size and extent of a si-
tuation’ (Cambridge University Press & Assessment, n.d.a). In mathematical

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