Rhythm is the interaction between sound and silence. We start organizing rhythm by creating a beat, which are a series of sounds spaced at even intervals. Once we have the beat established, we combine various durations of sounds with various durations of silence. Sound and silence durations can be anything from fractions of a beat to multiple beats at a time. When people describe music as "exciting," they are referring to the fact that the music contains a lot of sounds and short silences. Consequently, music that is more "peaceful" has longer durations of sound and silence.
Melody is a series of individual sounds arranged over time. Melody is the lifeblood of music and the one element that people are able to recall once they have finished listening to a piece of music. Melodies can either contain tones that are close together, far apart or a combination of the two. Calm and peaceful melodies contain tones that are close together while exciting music usually contains larger gaps between tones.
The function of harmony in music is twofold. Harmony provides a support system for the melody, enhancing the overall quality of the music, and creates a sense of forward motion toward a definite end. When musicians create harmony by playing several tones simultaneously, they create a chord. If a musician plays the harmony tones one at a time, he is creating a counter-melody. Harmony tones can sometimes include the same tones as the melody.
Melody and harmony combine to create an anchor in the music called tonality. Tonality is the listener's ear telling the brain that a certain tone is the focal point of a piece of music. The focal point changes depending on the tones in the melody and harmony. One piece of music can have a focal point that's one tone while another song can have a different focal point. Some pieces of music will change focal points during the music, which is a process called modulation.
Texture refers to the way the music reaches the listener. The amount of rhythmic activity within the melody and harmony determines the overall complexity of the music and creates the texture. Monophonic music has a single melody without harmony support. If the harmony supporting the melody is a series of chords, the texture is homophonic. When the music's harmony contains countermelodies, the music has a polyphonic texture.
Form in music refers to the organizational structures involved. Musicians determine the form of the music based upon how many melodies the composer wrote and how often he repeats those melodies. The most common form, binary form, has two melodies in their own sections. Another form of music, ternary form, still has two melodies in sections, but the first melody reappears at the end of the music. To better understand form, musicians assign the letter "A" to the first melody and "B" to the second melody. Therefore, musicians frequently refer to binary form as "AB" and ternary form as "ABA."