MUSIC 101

Texture in music: What is homophonic?

("same sound") music, a single melodic line predominates, while the other voices or instruments provide an accompanying harmony. All voices or instruments playing together at the same time. Generally independent, creating harmony.

The grammar of melody: Register: Female (or boys with unchanged voices):

(1) Soprano: a high, usually female voice. Also, the highest instrument in an instrumentalist family. (2) mezzo soprano: a female voice between the ranges of soprano/alto (3) alto: a low, female voice (also called a contralto), or an instrument that is lower than a soprano instrument and higher than a tenor instrument.

Instruments of sound: Scientific instrument classifications

(1) chordophones: all stringed instruments, including those that are plucked, struck, or bowed. (2) aerophones: wind instruments of all kinds. (3) Idiophones: solid instruments are hit, struck together, shaken, scraped, rubbed, or have a hard extension (such as a piece of metal attached to the instrument) that is plucked to produce their sounds. (4) membranophones: drums that produce their sounds by the vibration of a membrane that is stretched across all or part of the instrument.

Instruments of sound: Human voice:

(1) soprano (2) alto (3) bass/baritone (4) tenor.

The grammar of melody: Register: Males:

(1) tenor: a high, male voice, or an instrument that is lower than alto and higher than a bass instrument. (2) Baritone: a male voice or a musical instrument with a range below the tenor and above the bass. (3) Bass: the lowest male voice, or musical instrument that are low in

Music and the components of sound: Dynamics: Extremes of those dynamic levels are written by adding the suffix _____

-issimo;

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Strings:

1. Strings: can be played by plucking, striking, or bowing the strings. The earliest stringed instruments were plucked or struck, but the sound of a plucked or strung string decays very quickly. The invention of the bow allowed the instruments to sustain their sound and play smooth and connected melodies. Strings can be made out of gut (animal intestines that are dried and twisted), silk, plastic, nylon, metal, or metal wound around nylon centers). Silk, plastic, and nylon are so smooth that they do not catch the hairs of the bow very well and therefore are more commonly found on plucked or struck stringed instruments. Gut and metal-wound strings tend to be used for bowed instruments. Plucked String Instruments: a. Guitar b. Harp Bowed String Instruments: c. Violin d. Viola e. Cello f. Double Bass

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Percussion: What is Indefinite Pitch? What are the instruments?

: anything that can be struck, scraped, or manipulated in some other fashion to produce a sound. i. Bass Drum: a large, deep-sounding drum with 2 heads. ii. Side (snare) drum: a drum that has 2 heads. The top head is hit with sticks; the bottom head is rigged with metal wires that vibrate against it when the top head is struck. iii. Tambourine: a circular, wooden frame, usually with a single head, and metal discs that jingle when the instrument is shaken or struck. iv. Triangle: a triangle made of bent metal rod, struck with a metal beater. v. Cymbals: metal discs that ring when they are hit against each other. vi. Gong: also called a tam-tam, usually a large suspended metal disc that is struck with a padded mallet. vii. Tom-toms: cylindrical drums with 2 heads but no snares. Tom-toms are made in any sizes and are played with sticks, mallets, and brushes for different effects. viii. Bongos: a pair of attached small drums, each with one head, played with the hands. ix. Congas: a tall drum with a single head played with the hands.

Form in music: What is binary form?

: two-part form. Consists of a beginning section followed by a contrasting second section. The two sections can be of equal and unequal length and may or may not be repeated. The simplest example of binary form is diagrammed as AB. This is different from ternary form because the A section, or beginning music, does not come back at the end of the piece. With repetitions, binary forms can include AABB, or AAB, or ABB.

Notation of music: What is bass clef?

A bass clef is a clef placing F below middle C on the second-highest line of the staff. In other words, it is a symbol placed on the 4th line of a staff to indicate that the 4th line of the staff corresponds to the F next below middle C.

Notation of music: Rhythm: Tempo of fast is (from slowest to faster)

Allegretto (a moderately fast tempo). Allegro (a fast tempo, faster than allegretto).

Notation of music: Rhythm: Tempo of moderate is (from slowest to faster)

Andante (a moderately slow tempo, a "walking pace). Moderato: (a moderate tempo).

The grammar of melody: Motion (conjunct vs. disjunct):

Conjunct melodies move in a stepwise position. Disjunct: melodies that move in leaps (small or wide leaps)

Music and the components of sound: Dynamics: __________, or _____________ indicates that the music is getting softer, which can often give the effect of calming tension, and ___________ indicates that it is getting louder, which can express exuberance.

Descrendo, or diminuendo; crescendo

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Electrophones:

Electronic instruments fall into 2 general categories: (1) instruments that produce acoustic sounds that are modified electronically (like guitars, keyboards, and woodwinds) and (2) instruments that generate sounds using electronics. a. Electronics are used to both modify the tone quality of these instruments and make them louder. The tone can be alatered by pushing the sound through an amplifier that adds qualities such as vibrato or fuzztone. The wah wah pedal, used to give music an undulating dynamic, became popular during the 1960's. b. In 1860, Herman Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz invented the Helmholtz Resonator, which used electromagnetically vibrating metal sphere to produce complex sounds. c. Synthesizers: can imitate natural acoustic sounds, or it can design new sounds. Some early synthesizers were played be keyboards and others by touch-sensitive contact pads.

Notes Names: What are accidental and natural notes?

Flatts and Sharps are accidental notes. Meanwhile, the natural signs of a note means that the notes are going to the same pitch as before.

The grammar of melody: What is register?

Has to do with the pitch. Lower register means that is a lower part of the voice or instrument. Higher register means that it is a higher part of the instrument.

Renaissance: What is chanson?

In addition to being a time of great piety, the 16th century was also a period of bawdy earthiness, irreverent humor, and a celebration of sensual love. The same composers who created works for the greater glory of God also wrote compositions of this character. In Italy and England, the principal form of secular music was the madrigal (a polyphonic vocal piece set to a short poem: it originated during the Renaissance). In France, it was the chanson. The common secular form in France was the chanson. Renaissance music was mostly polyphonic.

Notation of music: Rhythm: Tempo of slow is (from slowest to faster)

Lento (a slow tempo) Adagio (a leisurely tempo, literally, "at ease").

Music and the components of sound: What are dynamics?

Levels of loudness or softness. Sometimes musicians use a variety of dynamic levels when playing a single piece of music.

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: What is pitch range?

The distance between the lowest and the highest notes an instrument or voice can produce

Form in music: Historical developments: Middle Ages: What is a secular song?

The medieval period witnesses the growth of a rich tradition of secular, or nonreligious music. [Gregorian chants used Latin, but secular texts came to be written in the vernacular, or everyday language of the country or origin. These texts often concerned the subject of love.

The grammar of melody: What is contour?

The shape of a melody

Notation of music: Rhythm: Tempo of very fast is (from slowest to faster)

Vivace: (a fast and vivacious tempo). Presto (a very fast tempo). Pretissimo (a tempo that is as fast as possible).

Notation of music: Rhythm: Notation of a specific note/duration of silence:

Whole notes: duration of 4 beats in time. Half notes: a note having the time value of 2 quarters or half of the whole note, represented by a ring with a stem. Quarter Notes: a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note. Notated with a filled-in oval head and a straight, flawless stem. 1 Quarter Note = 2 8th notes, which is equal to 4 16th notes. 8th Notes: note played for 1/8 duration of a whole notes. These are twice the value of 16th notes. 16th Notes: a note played for half of the duration of an 8th note. Associated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with two flags. Half rest: a rest lasting the length of a half note. Quarter rest: equal in time value to a quarter note. 16th Rests: same duration as a 16th note.

Form in music: Historical developments: Middle Ages: What is (Gregorian) Chant?

a body of music to which the medieval Roman Catholic liturgy was song, consisting of monophonic (one sound), single-line melodies sung without instrumental accompaniment. Also known as plainsong, or plainchant. Monophonic in texture (single-line melodies). The rhythm of the chants is unmeasured (nonmetric, no regular pattern of beats or accents), and the tempos are flexible.

Form in music: what is sonata?

a long piece of classical music that is usually made up of several parts. It can be played by an orchestra or just one instrument, like a piano. It's a musical structure consisting of 3 main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. Played by instruments, not vocals.

Notation of music: What is treble clef?

a treble clef is a sign on a stave (which is the first 5 lines on which music is written) which shows that the notes are above middle C (middle C is the C near the middle of a piano keyboard). In other words, it is a clef placing G above middle C on the second-lowest line of the staff.

The grammar of melody: What is structure? What is it made out of?

a. Motive: a short musical phrase, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment, or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of composition. Piece of a melody that may be used in many different ways throughout a movement. Short themes or part of a theme/used as a structural device. b. Phrase: a portion of a melody that can sound complete or incomplete. An incomplete sounding phrase makes the listener want to hear another phrase that completes the melody.

Music and the components of sound: Dynamics: If the musician wants to emphasize one note over the others, he or she can _______ by playing it louder.

accent

Form in music: What is additive form?

adding together smaller units of rhythm in order to produce larger units or groups (meters). Songs have no refrain, but stanzas. Every stanza has new music and has a new form.

Notation of music: What are clefs? What are the two kind of clefs?

any of several symbols placed at the left-hand end of a staff, indicating the pitch of the notes written on it. Treble and bass clef.

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Brass:

brass instruments are identified by their cup mouthpiece, against which the player buzzes his or her lips. Early brass instruments were sometimes made from animal horns or carved from wood, though today they are generally made out of metal. Brass instruments in common use before 1750 include the cornett and serpent, both of which were carved out of wood and covered with black leather. Metal instruments of early times included the trumpet, slide trumpet, and the sacbut.

Renaissance: Adding other instruments to these renames the group as a

broken consort. 7. Equality between the voices and/or the instruments when writing a musical work; no one part is more important than the others.

Form in music: What is variation?

changes in dynamics, tempo, key, or instruments.

Form in music: Historical developments: Middle Ages: Gregorian chant: The melodic material is based on a system of scales now referred to

church modes. Church modes are similar to the major and minor scaled used today, but their half steps fall in different places so that they do not express as strong a tonic center (tonal center) as do today's scales.

Form in music: What is Fugue?

composition for instruments or voice. Two or more instruments / voices together.

Renaissance: Music conceived for soprano, alto, tenor and bass instruments of a single family (viol, recorder, e.g.) called a

consort.

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Brass: Players of early brass instruments changed notes by adjusting the tension of their lips against the mouthpiece, although they

could also cover and open finger holes to help adjust pitches. Players of the slide trumpet and the sacbut changed notes by moving a slide that effectively shortened or lengthened the instrument, thereby raising or lowering the pitch of the note being played. i. Trumpet: the modern trumpet uses valves to move from note to note. ii. French Horn: the modern French horn also uses valves to change notes. iii. Trombone: a slide is used to change notes by adjusting the length of the tubing. iv. Tuba: a very large and low-pitched instrument that uses valves to change notes.

Renaissance: more varieties of instrumental music, based on dance: The earliest music played on instruments was sacred or secular vocal music. During the Renaissance, some music was written specifically for instruments. Most of it was

dance music because dancing was an important part of Renaissance social life. A fairly large collection of this music has been preserved, but apparently much of it was improvised on well-known tunes or harmonic bass patterns, as jazz is today.

Form in music: Historical developments: Middle Ages: What is One of the major developments that took place in Western music?

development from monophony to polyphony:

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Percussion:

essentially, percussion instruments fall into 2 categories: those that produce definite pitch or pitches and those that produce a sound without definite pitch (sometimes referred to as indefinite pitch.

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: The precise pitch is determined by the

frequency, as measured in cycles per second, of its vibration.

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: The faster the frequency, the ________ the pitch, and conversely, the slower the frequency, the _______the pitch. The higher the position of the note on the staff, the _____ the pitch of the tone.

higher; lower; higher

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Percussion: What is Definite Pitch? What are the instruments?

i. Timpani: also known as kettledrums. Usually found in sets of 2-5 drums of varying sizes. Modern timpani are tuned by pedals that are easier to adjust than screws. ii. Glockenspiel :two rows of steel bars, each producing a definite pitch. A crisp bell-like sound is produced by striking the bars with mallets (sticks with padded tips) iii. Celesta: a glockenspiel with a keyboard that makes it look something like a small upright piano. iv. Xylophone: made of tuned wooden bars that produce a hollow sound when struck by mallets. v. Marimba: a xylophone with resonators under each bar of the instrument. vi. Chimes: a set of tuned metal tubes suspended vertically in a frame. They are played with one or two mallets, and their sound resembles that of church bells. vii. Vibraphone: a set of metal bars arranged similar to a piano keyboard. It uses an electrical mechanism to produce the instrument's characteristic vibration (fluctuation of pitch effect)

Renaissance: more varieties of instrumental music, based on dance: what were other popular instruments besides the lute?

ii. guitar, viols were some of the popular instruments.

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: The distance between two pitches is called an

interval

Notation of music: Rhythm: Tempo of very slow is (from slowest to faster)

largo (a very slow and broad tempo). Grave (a slow, grave, and solemn tempo).

Texture in music: What is monohponic?

means one sound. It is one voice, or at most everybody singing the same melody all at once. It just has one part to it. In music, it means one melodic line with no accompaniment. If you sing or hum by yourself, you are creating monophonic music. Music is also monophonic if a single melodic line is performed by more than one instrument or voice at the same time. In that case, we say that the instruments or voices are playing or singing together in unison. One voice or everybody singing the melody all at once. It just has one part to it.

Form in music: Historical developments: Middle Ages: Secular Song: Sometimes they would give their songs to lower-class musicians to perform in public. These traveling street performers were called

minstrels, or jonglurs.

Renaissance: more varieties of instrumental music, based on dance: what is the lute?

most popular instrument of the 1400s and 1500s. a plucked string instrument with a bowl-shaped body and fingerboard. The earliest lute music was consisted of transcriptions, which is an arrangement of composition for a medium other than that for which it was originally written, of vocal pieces and dance music. But, in the 16th century composers began to write the original pieces for the lute. These ricercari, or fantasias, were elaborate polyphonic pieces that demonstrated the virtuosity of the performer, who was also often the composer. Beginning in the early 16th century, volumes of solo music or the lute were published in Italy, France, Germany, England and Spain.

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: . Another interval, called an _______, is that between of notes of the same name - for example, one C and the next C above it.

octave They will sound similar to each other because the higher pitch is produced by exactly double the number of vibrations it takes to produce the lower pitch.

Notation of music: Rhythm: what is meter organization?

organize music in meters. In combinations of duple and triple. For example, if you have a meter of 5, it is a combination of duple and triple.

Music and the components of sound: Dynamics: So, ___________ is softer.___________is even louder. ________means medium, so ___________ is medium soft and ______________ is medium loud.

pianissimo (pp); Fortissimo (ff); Mezzo; mezzo piano; mezzo forte (mf)

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Keyboard:

played with the hands and can produce many notes at one time. They function well as both solo and accompaniment instruments because they can play both melodies and chords. a. Those who strings were plucked belonged to the clavier family, including the harpsichord and the virginal. b. Keyboard instruments with pipes fall into the general category of organs. Organs have bellows to push air through the pipes in much the same way that woodwind players blow into their flutes, oboes, or other instruments to produce sound. Organs vary greatly in size. i. Piano ii. Organ: keyboards with pipes.

Instruments of sound: Traditional instrumental families: Woodwinds

produce sound when a player blows air through the tubelike body of the instrument. The plaer opens or closes small holes along the side of the instrument with fingers or pads activated by a key mechanism. In closing or opening these finger holes, the player lengthens or shortens the air column, thereby lowering or raising the pitch of the notes produced. Woodwind instruments in common use before 1750 had few, if any, keys. They included the transverse flue (side blown), the recorder (a whistle-type instrument blown from the mouthpiece at the end), the instruments such as the crumhorn, shawm, and bagpipes, often called the "buzzy's" because they had double reeds that buzzed against each other, creating a slightly nasal tone quality. Bagpipes also have an air bag and a pipe that plays a continuous note while the other pipes play melodies. The continuous note is called a drone. a. Piccolo: a small, high-pitched flute used in modern orchestras. b. Flute: a side blown made out of metal, although early flutes were made from wood. used in modern orchestras. c. Oboe: played with a adouble reed of 2 pieces of thine cane that vibrate against the player's lips. used in modern orchestras. d. Clarinet: end blown with a single reed on the mouthpiece. used in modern orchestras. e. English horn: a lower-pitched version of the oboe. used in modern orchestras. f. Bassoon: also a double-reed instrument, but bigger and lower pitches than the oboe or English horn. used in modern orchestras. g. Bass Clarinet: a larger and lower-pitched clarinet. used in modern orchestras. h. Contrabassoon: a larger and lower-pitched bassoon. used in modern orchestras. i. Saxophone

Music and the components of sound: Dynamics: Piano (P) means ______. Forte (f) means ________.

soft; loud

What are the components of music?

sound, rhythm, harmony, melody

The grammar of melody: What is range?

the farthest notes can go from the lowest note to the highest note.

Notation of music: Rhythm: What is tempo?

the fastness or a slowness of a note. If the beat is short, the tempo is fast. If the beat is long, the tempo is slow

Music and the components of sound: What is pitch?

the highness or lowness of a note

Music and the components of sound: What is duration?

the relative length of time a note is sustained.

Form in music: What is strophic form?

the same melody repeated for every stanza (or strophe) of the poem.

Music and the components of sound: Dynamics: What is Timbre?

the tone/color of an instrument. The distinctive sound quality of an instrument, since different instruments and voices each have their own distinct kind of sound.

Form in music: What is ternary form?

three-part form. The three parts of the ternary form include a beginning section, a contrasting middle section, and then a repeat of the beginning. ABA: The first A represents the section of music at the beginning; the B represents a contrasting section; and the repeat of the letter A indicates that the beginning music returns or is repeated. The second A section does not have to be as long as the first, but it must include the same theme or themes to be considered a return of A. The second A can have some changes in the way the theme(s) are presented. a. Rondo is a theme that keeps returning

Form in music: Historical developments: Middle Ages: Secular Song: iThe most important early secular vocal music was created and performed by poet-musicians, called

trouveres in northern France, troubadours in southern France, and minnesingers in Germany. These poet-musicians were generally members of the nobility, even kings, who would not have performed in public but instead would have sung their songs to their families and friends in their own homes or at royal courts.

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: The ________________has a greater pitch range than the single-octave scale.

two-octave scale

Music and the components of sound: Pitch: The smallest interval that occurs when two identical pitches are played one after the other is called a

unison.

Texture in music: What is polyphonic?

when two or more melodies of equal interest are performed at the same time. The texture is polyphonic, which means many sounds. In discussing texture, we often call a single line of music a voice because it is a melody that one person could sing. Independence and equality of voices are the defining characteristics of a polyphony. Independence refers to a voice's ability to compete with other melodic strands for the attention of the listener. i.e. The same part that leads after the prior part (i.e. "Row Row Row Your Boat")

Renaissance: sacred music (settings of the Mass and motet vs. secular vocal music (madrigal (Italian and English): Before Guillaume de Machaut, different composers wrote

wrote each section of a Mass, creating an inconsistent overall style. Machaut's Mass was beautifully constructed and represented the most advanced compositional techniques of his time, including 4 voices with more ornamentation and contrary motion than had been common in earlier three-voiced works. He wrote this in addition to large quantities of secular music and motets.