Page 70 - 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

compositional decisions determined by the norms of a specific style (Bauer,
glasbenopedagoški zbornik ◆ letnik/volume 20 ◆ številka/number 40
2001). This accords also with Hopkin’s opinion about the primary and secon-
dary parameters, while highlighting the significance of secondary parameters
as ‘organizing forces’ in tonal music when primary parameters remain unchan-
ged (Hopkins, 1990).
According to Snyder (2000), there is no clear distinction between primary
and secondary musical parameters, nor are primary musical parameters more
important than secondary parameters; they serve distinct purposes. What ma-
kes musical elements ‘primary’ is their ‘fixed proportion’, which allows for their
categorization, recognition, and identification when repeated, even in various
forms. In contrast, secondary parameters cannot be distinctly recognized and
identified across a variety of auditory experiences. Tempo is an example; even
when a repeating melodic or rhythmic pattern is recognizable, it is difficult
to identify the ‘same amount’ (of tempo) if the patterns are separated in time.
Snyder states that pitch is the clearest example of a primary parameter, as
it can be classified according to tuning systems and scales and identified when
used in different forms. Pitch interval and pitch motion (contour) are prima-
ry parameters as well, as they are considered as the ‘variable aspects of pitch pa-
tterns’. Harmony, based on pitch, and involving various combinations of si-
multaneous pitches (chords) is an example of a higher-level primary parameter,
as the combinations of pitches (within a chord) can be recognized and identifi-
ed. Rhythm is another primary parameter, as it is constructed from identifia-
ble and recognizable patterns. In contrast, loudness and tempo, for example,
are regarded as secondary parameters because it is impossible to assign a distin-
ct category to these musical elements when they are repeated.

A PROPOSAL FOR THE HIERARCHICAL APPROACH
TO PRIMARY MUSICAL ELEMENTS

In the beginning there was sound (Goldsmith, 2015), just as ‘electricity was
there from the beginning … before we discovered it’ (Busoni, 1957, p. 197). Giv-
en there is always a (human) desire to develop a term to comprehend an idea,
it is not surprising that sound has been employed in several and similar defi-
8
nitions of music, such as, ‘Music is the art of sound in time’ (Alperson, 1990).
If we use sound as the ‘begin’ of ‘all the beginnings’, then we have to ask our-
selves, what is sound?
A very brief, generic, and simplified definition of sound is that it is an
energy wave that travels through a medium (e.g. air, water) and causes molecu-
lar oscillation. The consequence is a sound wave, a ‘physical phenomenon that
is capable of exciting the auditory mechanism so that a living organism percei-

8 According to Sauvage (1953), all arts might be considered to be arts of time. Musical time re-
fers in this paper to the perception of temporal features in music. See Alperson (1990).

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