Page 67 - 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 which elements are components of a structured whole (Druart, 1968,
p. 424). As musical dimension, musical element is found in different music
curriculums worldwide, denoting in a similar way pitch, duration, timbre, lo-
udness, (sonic) texture, etc., as the most important constituent components of
a musical structure.
Evidently, elements, parameters, and dimensions are used interchangeably
in music, either due to their general popularity/acceptance among narrower
groups or because individuals choose words based on their personal experien-
ces and ‘keep’ those with which they are familiar. Different media/literature
usage or usage within a specific language/culture can also influence interchan-
geable usage. Last but not least, one could mention the interchangeability of
acoustic and psychological terms, the ambiguity of contemporary musical ter-
minology, and the lack of a universally accepted musical vocabulary.
The meanings of these terms (direct/indirect) are comparable in some re- Lorena Mihelač ◆ FROM THE CONCEPTUALIZATION TO THE FORMALIZATION OF MUSICAL ELEMENTS
spects. When ‘musical’ is removed and the etymological origins of element, pa-
rameter, and dimension are examined, subtle distinctions become apparent. A
musical element can be understood as the most fundamental component of a
musical composition. As it is measurable, it is considered a musical parameter,
and as it has a specific virtual/non-virtual shape within the musical compositi-
5
on, it is considered a musical dimension. From this point of view, musical ele-
ments, musical parameter, and musical dimension, used to describe the consti-
tutive musical components, are interrelated but not interchangeable.
6

Defining Primary and Secondary Elements of Music

Which are the musical elements of music? Burton writes in his paper: ‘If a stu-
dent were to ask what the elements of music are, the most accurate respon-
se would be [that] no one seems to know for sure’ (Burton, 2015, p. 22). This
is maybe because of the fact that ‘music is not simply a generic sonic mass, but
rather a complex chemistry of controllable elements’, and that what serves as
a primary component in one taxonomy is considered as a subcomponent in
another (Bruner, 1990, p. 94).
Most musicians denote pitch and duration as the basic musical compo-
nents, in the same sense as physicists define sound as two-dimensional, with
the physical parameters amplitude and time as the most important dimensions
of a sound signal (Yust, 2018). Recently, (sonic) texture has been added to pitch
5 In this paper ‘virtual shape’ refers to the (virtual) cognitive representation of a musical ele-
ment in a musical space (musical piece), whereas ‘non-virtual shape’ refers to the visual pre-
sentation of a musical element in a musical score.
6 Due to their interchangeable use in various musical studies, ‘musical element’, ‘parameter’,
and ‘dimension’ will be used with the same meaning in the remainder of this paper.

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