Dynamic Contrast

Requisite Knowledge Level for Understanding (* being beginner, ***** being expert): *

One of the biggest differences between Classical and Popular music, in my opinion, is in the dynamic contrast.

Let's start off with a musical definition.  Dynamics are, simply put, the loudness or softness of a note.  This does NOT mean the volume setting on your stereo system.  This means the volume of one portion of the music relative to the volume of another portion of the music.  It is an intrinsic quality.  Certainly, you can put on a CD and play with the volume dial and make it sound super quiet or super loud regardless of what the musicians who recorded it were doing.  But that just changes your perception of it, it does change the dynamics of the music on the recording.  You are hearing dynamics when the music starts off quietly and slowly builds to a loud section without your having to touch the volume knob on the stereo.  Think about the THX logo at the opening of some movies how it starts off quietly and then grows to an incredibly loud volume.

Why should this matter?  Variety, as they say, is the spice of life, and this is why I think it matters.  It provides a different take on the same thing.  This is what makes a lot of popular music boring in my opinion.  Songs on the radio are all at about the same volume.  What is more, they pretty much tend to stay at that volume from the beginning of the song straight through the end of it.  You can find exceptions, true.  Like a few of the songs on the "Sgt. Pepper" album by the Beatles, or the song "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin both make notable use of dynamics.  But really, that's the point.  These songs are notable for their use of dynamics.  Songs by Christina Aguilera or Justin Bieber will start off at what I call a medium loud volume and continue there throughout.  Each verse and each refrain is at the same volume.  What's more, usually the relationship between the instruments holds steady, too.  The drums and lyrics are very easily heard while the guitar is usually a little more background except when the vocal rests so it can be clearly heard while usually providing a musical fill.

Classical music gives us a variety.  Certainly there are forms in use that, like popular music, bring back the same melodic line over and over.  But classical composers will switch things up on the audience.  There are markings in each performer's part instructing them when to play loudly or softly.  A musician might commonly see any of the following in his/her part:  p, f, mf, mp, ff, pp, fff or ppp.  p stands for piano (not the instrument), meaning quiet. f stands for forte meaning loud.  m stands for mezzo meaning medium, thus mp and mf would be the medium soft and loud dynamics between p and f.  More p's or f's simply means to go further in that direction (thus pppp would be softer than pp, fff louder than ff), but more than three is fairly rare.  These are all of course relative terms, so forte to one musician might mean something completely different to another.

What this means is that these musicians will use their own judgement, coupled with the artistic direction of the conductor, to determine how loudly to play any of their given passages.  So a melody in the violins might begin softly backing up the winds and then grow until it takes over, becoming prominent.  Conversely, the strings might start off loudly and on their own only to be overtaken later by the brass instruments.  There are essentially endless permutations as each instrument can perform simultaneously a distinct volume from the performer sitting to their left or right in addition to the parts where the ensemble as a whole will player quieter or louder.  This engages the audience member and brings him/her more into the music in a way that is not achieved with a static volume level.  This also means that no two performances that you hear will ever be exactly the same.  One night a musician might play a little louder than he/she did the previous evening.  While one musician in an orchestra might not make a large impact, there are tiny variations to each individual musician's output, sometimes affecting a great change in the whole ensemble, thus guaranteeing that each performance is a completely unique and engaging experience.

Now, to be fair, I have seen a number of popular musicians using noticeable dynamic shifts in performance.  But this does not even reach the halfway mark of people that I have seen, and I feel like I have seen some of the more musical performers.  In addition, this then still very rarely translates into noticeable dynamics on any studio recorded albums.

This might not sound very convincing written down like this, so I urge you to listen to a few examples.  Just listen, do not put it on as background music, but really focus on what you are hearing.  For comparison, I would suggest listening first to something like U2's "Vertigo" to hear a more static volume (for the record, I am a big fan of U2, so I mean this in the politest way possible), and follow that up with "Stairway to Heaven" noticing the dynamic shifts.  There are any infinite number of examples from the classical world, though the 1st or 5th movement(s) to Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra would be a good beginning place for an illustration of dynamic contrast if you are not sure where to start.