What element of music do you appreciate/enjoy the most?

[karlhenning]

The music of the spheres?

He meant to say sickness.

[drogulus]

     I joined the club so's I could wear the cool jacket. But after miles and miles of serious thought melody and harmony can't be separated since the harmonic context determines what the melody "means", as it were. Eventually it comes down to all of the elements working together so it's no preference for me!

[MN Dave]

I like the noise it makes.

I bet there are people who only like music because it fills the silences.

[karlhenning]

I appreciate juxtaposition over architectonics.

[Sergeant Rock]

As some have pointed out, melody, rhythm and harmony are so intimately intertwined in western music of the last half millenium that it's hard to separate them. But, melody comes first. When I think of Beethoven, I think first of melodies like the slow movements of the "Pathétique" and the "Emperor" (a tune so ravishing Lenny borrowed it when he composed "Somewhere" for West Side Story) or the Ode to Joy or the Arietta or the Cavatina or the Seventh's Allegretto...you get my point.

Sarge

[Florestan]

As some have pointed out, melody, rhythm and harmony are so intimately intertwined in western music of the last half millenium that it's hard to separate them. But, melody comes first.

Ditto for me.

[hornteacher]

Yes, indeed.  Especially if it looks like Hilary Hahn.

Amen, Dan.

[Grazioso]

If forced to choose, I'd probably say melody since it can have such a powerful emotional impact and can lodge itself so deeply in the brain that I can remember countless melodies perfectly that I haven't heard in years. They call up all kinds of memories and emotional associations for me that no rhythm or single chord ever has (though I won't deny the physiological effect of a driving rhythm or fortissimo dischord!). Plus, it seems almost like magic or providence when a composer is blessed/gifted enough to come up a real winner of a melody instead of just some run-of-the-mill theme to elaborate on. But be that as it may, the best music, to my mind, presents great melodies in the context of interesting harmony, rhythm, form, and color.

[DavidW]

Well I feel validated that that the poll results do NOT support the assertion by two or three posters in the other thread that melody is the most important, or key feature by most people.  We have a wide variety of posters from different countries with different backgrounds and while we don't have alot of votes I think that the results can be trusted.  Now I will say that I did only think that oh around 1/3 of people would prefer melody first, so the truth is somewhere in the middle.  I think that with more votes it would still settle around 50% favor melody prominently.

Edit: I fixed my italics code mistake.

[mc ukrneal]

Well I feel validated that that the poll results do NOT support the assertion by two or three posters in the other thread that melody is the most important, or key feature by most]/i] people.  We have a wide variety of posters from different countries with different backgrounds and while we don't have alot of votes I think that the results can be trusted.  Now I will say that I did only think that oh around 1/3 of people would prefer melody first, so the truth is somewhere in the middle.  I think that with more votes it would still settle around 50% favor melody prominently.

Statistics are an interesting thing. At the moment, that is one valid interpretation. That said, and not to mention that one vote puts it at 50%, one can exclude the people who were unsure and say of that those who did vote for one of the four choices, clearly a majority believe that melody is more important. Alternatively, one can say that, as the leading vote getter, melody is the most important. Anyway, there are many different ways to present this in favor of many sides.

In any case, I don't think you will have changed anyone's mind with this survey. And, since these are really interdependent factors (not independent factors), I'm not really sure that it really matters. A good song/tune/peice/etc... will likely have all the elements listed in some proportion or another.

But it was interesting anyway.

[karlhenning]

"No preference" does not mean "unsure."

[Franco]

I voted "no preference" because I don't listen to music as a sum of its parts but as an organic whole.

[jowcol]

I would also say that a melody with NO rhythm is a drone....

[Christo]

beauty

[71 dB]

Vibrational fields

[MN Dave]

Vibrational fields

YES!!!  0:)

[mc ukrneal]

"No preference" does not mean "unsure."

Ah, but you see that is one of the problems in creating these surveys is how people interpret them. This was the only way to say one doesn't take precedence, I don't care, not sure, I diagree with the dichotomy set up in the question, etc. It is a catchall of reasons. And for such a small sample, there are a high percentage of people in the category, which has a profound impact on how to interpret the results.

Anyway, I just don't think we can turn to the results, whatever they may be, and use them as a basis to say either side is right.

[Elgarian]

My gut reaction was straight away to tick 'melody', because I do love tunes; but almost instantly I saw problems with that. For example, a strong melody tends to make me overly conscious of what's going on along the top, and I end up actually missing good stuff - too busy humming along. And then, more importantly, I thought about something we were talking about in the Elgar thread recently: about how, in the last movement of the 1st symphony, Elgar transforms an aggressive march tune into something so exquisitely hopeful and beautiful, in such an I-could-never-have-guessed-he would-do-that kind of way, that it's one of the most memorable moments for me, in all his music. But the inspiration is not supplied by the melody, per se - rather, it's something to do with the melody joyfully transcending itself through the changes in rhythm, harmony, orchestration, etc.

So I simply don't know. I can't even tick the 'no preference' box. I need a 'don't know' box.

Great question, by the way.

[karlhenning]

My gut reaction was straight away to tick 'melody', because I do love tunes; but almost instantly I saw problems with that.

You're more musical than you let on. (I knew that.)

[Elgarian]

You're more musical than you let on.

You wouldn't say that if you'd ever heard me whistle.

"Pheeep"