Music Midterm
homophony
Homophony means "same sounding." In this texture the voices, or lines, all move together to new pitches at roughly the same time. The most common type of homophonic texture is tune plus chordal accompaniment. Notice in Example 3.1 how the melody, which by itself would be monophonic, now joins with vertical blocks of chords to create homophonic texture. Holiday carols, hymns, folk songs, and almost all pop songs have this sort of tune-plus-chordal-accompaniment texture when sung with harmony. Can you hear in your mind's ear a band playing "The Star-Spangled Banner"? That's homophonic texture.
clarinet
The clarinet produces sound when the player blows air under a single reed fitted to the mouthpiece. The tone of the clarinet is an open, hollow sound. It can be mellow in its low notes but shrill in its high ones. It also has the capacity to slide or glide smoothly between pitches, which allows for a highly expressive style of playing.
minor scale
The minor scale goes 1-½-1-1- ½-1-1. Once the eighth pitch (octave) is reached, the pattern can start over again.
tone poem
a one-movement work for orchestra called a tone poem
harmony
the simultaneous sounding of one or more pitches that support and enhance a melody. The pitches of the melody are almost always higher than those of the accompanying harmony. At the piano, for example, our "higher" right hand usually plays the melody and our left the harmony (see Ex. 2.21). Although a melody can stand by itself, an accompanying harmony adds a richness to it, just as the dimension of depth adds a rich backdrop to a painting (Fig. 2.5). By definition, every harmony must be harmonious. From this truism we can see that harmony has two meanings. First, harmony means "a general sense that things work or sound well together"; second, harmony specifically denotes an exact musical accompaniment, as when we say "the harmony changes here to another chord."
melody
A melody, simply put, is the tune. It's the part we sing along with, the part we like, the part we're willing to listen to again and again.
sound waves
A singer or an instrumentalist generates music by creating sound waves, vibrations that reflect slight differences in air pressure. Sound waves radiate out in a circle from the source, carrying with them two types of essential information: pitch and volume. The speed of vibration within the sound wave determines what we perceive as high and low pitches; and the width (or amplitude) of the wave reflects its volume. When music reaches the brain, that organ tells us how we should feel and respond to the sound. We tend to hear low, soft tones as relaxing and high, loud ones as tension filled.
movement
Beethoven's symphony—an instrumental genre for orchestra— is actually a composite of four separate instrumental pieces, each called a movement.
symphony
Beethoven's symphony—an instrumental genre for orchestra— is actually a composite of four separate instrumental pieces, each called a movement.
orchestra
A symphony is played by an orchestra, and because the orchestra plays symphonies more than any other musical genre, it is called a symphony orchestra. The orchestra for which Beethoven composed his fifth symphony was made up of about sixty players, including those playing string, wind, and percussion instruments.
symphony orchestra
A symphony is played by an orchestra, and because the orchestra plays symphonies more than any other musical genre, it is called a symphony orchestra. The orchestra for which Beethoven composed his fifth symphony was made up of about sixty players, including those playing string, wind, and percussion instruments.
trombone
Although distantly related to the trumpet, the trombone (Italian for "large trumpet") plays in the middle range of the brass family. Its sound is large and full. Most important, the trombone is the only brass instrument to generate sounds by moving a slide in and out to produce higher or lower pitches. Needless to say, the trombone can easily slide from pitch to pitch, sometimes for comical effect.
harp, glissando, arpeggio
Although originally a folk instrument, the harp (Fig. 3.5) is sometimes added to the modern symphony orchestra. Its role is to lend its distinctive color to the orchestral sound and sometimes to create special effects, the most striking of which is a rapid run up or down the strings, called a glissando. When the notes of a triad are played in quick succession, up or down, an arpeggio results, a term derived from the Italian word for harp (arpa).
crescendo, decrescendo/diminuendo 32
Changes in dynamics need not be sudden and abrupt. They can be gradual and extend over a long period of time. A progressive increase in the volume of sound is called a crescendo, whereas a gradual decrease is called either a decrescendo or a diminuendo.
chromatic scale
Finally, a third, special scale sometimes sounds in music: a chromatic scale, which makes use of all twelve pitches, equally divided, within the octave. Chromatic (from the Greek chroma, "color") is a good name for this pattern because the additional five pitches do indeed add color to the music (Ex. 2.19). Unlike the major and minor scales, the chromatic scale is not employed for a complete melody, but only for a moment of twisting intensity. Irving Berlin incorporates the chromatic scale at the beginning of his holiday favorite "White Christmas" (Ex. 2.20).
troubadours, trouveres, chanson
France was the center of this new courtly art, though French customs quickly spread to Spain, Italy, and Germany as well. The poet-musicians who flourished in the courts of southern France were called troubadours and those in the north trouvères. These names are distant ancestors of the modern French word trouver ("to find"). Indeed, the troubadours and trouvères were "finders," or inventors, of a new genre of vocal expression called the chanson (French for "song"). In all, the troubadours and trouvères created several thousand chansons. Most are monophonic love songs that extol the courtly ideals of faith and devotion, whether to the ideal lady, the just seigneur (lord), or the knight crusading in the Holy Land. The origins of the troubadours and trouvères were varied. Some were sons of bakers and drapers, others were members of the nobility, many were clerics who had left the rigors of the Church, and not a few were women.
clef
In notated music the staff is always provided with a clef sign to indicate the range of pitch in which the melody is to be played or sung. One clef, called the treble clef, designates the upper range and is appropriate for high instruments such as the trumpet and the violin, or a woman's voice. A second clef, called the bass clef, indicates the lower range and is used for lower instruments such as the tuba and the cello, or a man's voice.
organum
Leoninus wrote a great book of religious music (called, in Latin, the Magnus liber organi). Perotinus revised Leoninus's book and also composed many additional pieces of his own. In so doing, they helped create a new style of music called organum, the name given generally to early church polyphony. The novelty here rested in the fact that the composers added one, two, or three voices on top of the existing chant. In this musical development, we see an early instance of a creative spirit breaking free of the ancient authority (the chant) of the Church.
monophony
Monophony is the easiest texture to hear. As its name—literally, "one sounding"— indicates, monophony is a single line of music, with no harmony. When you sing by yourself, or play the flute or trumpet, for example, you are creating monophonic music.
mass
Most medieval society was overwhelmingly agricultural; thus religion was centered in rural monasteries (for monks) and convents (for nuns). The clergy worked in the fields and prayed in the church. Religious services usually began well before dawn and continued at various other times throughout the day in an almost unvarying cycle. Set forth by the influential Italian monk Benedict of Nursia (c. 485-547), founder of the Benedictine Order of monks and nuns, these times of prayer had names such as Matins, coming early in the morning, and Vespers, at twilight. The most important service of the day was Mass, a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper, celebrated at about nine o'clock in the morning.
popular music
Most people prefer popular music, designed to please a large portion of the general public. Pop CDs and downloads outsell classical recordings by about twenty to one. But why are so many people, and young people in particular, attracted to popular music? Likely it has to do with beat and rhythm (both discussed in Ch. 2). A regular beat elicits a synchronized motor response in the central nervous system; people almost can't help but move in time to music with a good beat.
dynamics
Musical dynamics (louds and softs) also influence our reaction to music. Heroic themes are usually played loudly and mournful ones quietly, for example, to create the desired mood and effect. Because Italian musicians once dominated the Western musical world, most of our musical terminology is drawn from that language, as can be seen in Table 3.1.
symphony orchestra
Musical instruments come in groups, or families—instruments of one general type having the same basic shape and made of the same materials. The Western symphony orchestra is a large performing ensemble that includes four such groups: strings, woodwinds, brasses, and percussion. In addition, a fifth group of instruments exists, the keyboard instruments (piano, organ, and harpsichord), which are not normally part of the symphony orchestra.
pizzicato
Pizzicato. Instead of bowing the strings, the performer plucks them. With this technique, the resulting sound has a sharp attack, but it dies away quickly.
English horn 37
Related to the oboe is the English horn. Unfortunately, it is wrongly named, for the English horn is neither English nor a horn. It is simply a larger (hence lower-sounding) version of the oboe that originated on the continent of Europe.
color
Simply stated, color in music is the tone quality of any sound produced by a voice or an instrument.
scale
That grid is a scale, a fixed pattern of tones within the octave that ascends and descends. Think of the scale as a ladder with eight rungs, or steps, between the two fixed points, low and high, formed by the octave. You can go up or down the ladder. But oddly, not all the steps are an equal distance apart. Five are a full step apart, but two are only a half step. For example, the distance between A and B is a full step, but between B and C it's only a half step—that's just the way the ancient Greeks built their musical ladder, an asymmetrical construction that Western musical culture retains to the present day.
downbeat, accent, meter, measure, bar, duple meter, triple meter
The first beat in each unit is called the downbeat, and it gets the greatest accent, or stress. Organizing beats into groups produces meter in music, just as arranging words in a consistent pattern of emphasis produces meter in poetry. In music each group of beats is called a measure (or bar). Although music has several different kinds of meter, about 90 percent of the music we hear falls into either a duple or a triple pattern—duple meter or triple meter. We mentally count "ONE-two" or "ONE-two-three." A quadruple pattern exists as well, but in most ways our ear perceives this as simply a double duple
piccolo
The smaller cousin of the flute is the piccolo. (Piccolo comes from the Italian flauto piccolo, meaning "little flute.") It can produce higher notes than any other orchestral instrument. And though the piccolo is very small, its sound is so piercing that it can always be heard, even when the full orchestra is playing loudly.
double bass
The double bass (Fig. 3.4) gives weight and power to the bass line in the orchestra. Because at first it merely doubled the notes of the cello an octave below, it was called the double bass. As you can see, the double bass is the largest, and hence lowest sounding, of the string instruments. Its job in the orchestra, and even in jazz bands, is to help set a solid base/bass for the musical harmony.
major scale
The major scale follows a sevenpitch pattern moving upward 1-1-½-1-1-1-½.
bar lines
The small vertical lines in the preceding examples are called bar lines; they help performers keep the music of one measure, or bar, separate from the next, and thus they help to keep the beat.
doo-wop
To begin to hear the harmony beneath a melody, let's explore two alluring pieces, one from the world of popular music, the other a well-known classical favorite. First, a bit of soul music called doo-wop. Doo-wop emerged in the 1950s as an outgrowth of the gospel hymns sung in African-American churches in urban Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. Often doo-wop was improvised a cappella on the street because it was direct and repetitive—the accompanying singers could easily hear and form a harmony against the melody. And because the lyrics sung by the accompanying singers were often little more than "doo wop, doo wah," the name "doo-wop" stuck to describe these songs. Finally, doo-wop harmony used a short chord progression, most commonly a sequence of triads moving I-VI-IV-V-(I) that repeated over and over again (for these four repeating chords, see the Listening Guide below).
trill
Trill. The performer rapidly alternates between two distinctly separate but neighboring pitches. Most instruments, not just the strings, can play trills.
timbre
Timbre (pronounced TAM-ber) is another term for the tone quality of musical sound. We can all hear that a clarinet produces a much different tone quality than does a trombone.
meter signature/time signature
meter signature tells the performer how the beats of the music are grouped to form a meter. The bottom number of the signature (usually a 4 representing the quarter note) indicates what note value receives the beat, and the top number tells how many beats are in each measure
variation
Variation stands midway between repetition and contrast. The original melody returns but is altered in some way. For example, the tune may now be more complex, or new instruments may be added against it to create counterpoint. The listener has the satisfaction of hearing the familiar melody, yet is challenged to recognize how it has been changed.
cello
You can easily spot the cello (Fig. 3.3, right) in the orchestra because the player sits with the instrument placed between his or her legs. The pitch of the cello is well below that of the viola. It can provide a low bass sound as well as a lyrical melody. When played in its middle range by a skilled performer, the cello can produce an indescribably rich, expressive tone
syllabic singing, melismatic singing
syllabic singing has only one or two notes for each syllable of text; in contrast, one of melismatic singing has many syllables
music
the rational organization of sounds and silences passing through time. Tones must be arranged in some consistent, logical, and (usually) pleasing way before we can call these sounds "music" instead of just noise
musical style by periods
pg 53
pickup
An upbeat at the very beginning of a piece is called a pickup. The pickup is usually only a note or two, but it gives a little momentum or extra push into the first downbeat, as can be seen at the beginning of two other patriotic songs.
polyphony
As we might suppose from its name, "many sounding," polyphony requires two or more lines in the musical fabric. In addition, the term polyphonic implies that each of the lines will be free and independent, often entering at different times. Thus polyphonic texture has a strong linear (horizontal) thrust, whereas in homophonic texture the fabric is structured more vertically as blocks of accompanying chords (compare the arrows in Ex. 3.1 and Ex. 3.2).
chord progression, cadence, dominant triad 27
As chords change in a purposeful fashion beneath a melody, they create what is called a chord progression. The individual chords in a chord progression seem to "pull" each other along, one giving way to the next, with all ultimately gravitating toward the powerful tonic triad. The end of a chord progression is called a cadence. Usually at a cadence, a triad built on degree V of the scale, called the dominant triad, will yield to the tonic triad. This is a powerful harmonic move, one conveying a strong feeling of conclusion, as if to say, "The End."
binary form
As the name indicates, binary form consists of two contrasting units, A and B (see Fig. 3.16, left). In length and general shape, A and B are constructed to balance and complement each other. Variety is usually introduced in B by means of a dissimilar mood, key, or melody. Sometimes in binary form, both A and B are immediately repeated, note for note. Musicians indicate exact repeats by means of the following sign: 𝄆 𝄇 Thus, when binary form appears as 𝄆 A 𝄇 𝄆 B 𝄇 it is performed AABB. Joseph Haydn created a perfect example of binary form in music for the second movement of his Symphony No. 94, and then wrote a set of variations upon this theme (discussed in full in Ch. 15, "Theme and Variations").
tenor
Compared to the new upper voices, the old borrowed chant moved very slowly, drawing out or holding each pitch. Because of this, the sustaining line with the chant came to be called the tenor voice (from the Latin teneo, French tenir, "to hold"). As you listen to the work of Perotinus, you will clearly hear the sustaining chant that provides a harmonic support for the upper voices, just as a massive pillar in a Gothic church might support the delicate movement of the arches above (see Fig. 5.5). Equally audible are the sprightly rhythms in triple meter, a novel sound.
contrast
Contrast, on the other hand, takes us away from the familiar and into the unknown. Contrasting melodies, rhythms, textures, and moods can be used to provide variety and even to create conflict. In music, as in life, we need novelty and excitement; contrast invigorates us, making the eventual return to familiar ideas all the more satisfying.
mensural notation
Earlier in the Middle Ages, when almost all written music was monophonic chant, there was little need to specify rhythm—all pitches were roughly the same length, and the singers could easily stick together as they moved from one note to the next. When as many as three or four separate parts sang together in organum, however, more direction was needed. How else would the singers know when to change pitches to make good harmony? Thus, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries musicians devised a system called mensural notation (measured notation) to specify musical rhythm as well as pitch precisely. To the note heads indicating pitch, musicians added various sorts of stems and flags to specify duration. These stems and flags are still with us today in our half, quarter, and eighth notes.
pitch
Every melody is composed of a succession of pitches, usually energized by a rhythm. Pitch is the relative position, high or low, of a musical sound. We traditionally assign letter names (A, B, C, and so on) to identify specific pitches. When an instrument produces a musical tone, it sets into motion vibrating sound waves that travel through the air to reach the listener's ears. A faster vibration will produce a higher pitch, and a slower one a lower pitch.
trumpet
Everyone has heard the high, bright, cutting sound of the trumpet. Whether in a football stadium or an orchestral hall, the trumpet is an excellent solo instrument because of its agility and penetrating tone. Sometimes the trumpeter is required to play with a mute (a plug placed in the bell of the instrument) to lessen its piercing sound.
form
Form in music is the arrangement of musical events. In architecture, sculpture, and painting, objects are situated in physical space to create a pleasing design. Similarly, in music a composer places important sonic events in an order that produces a compelling pattern as sounds pass by in time.
ternary form
If the most prevalent form in pop songs is strophic form, in classical music it is ternary form (Fig. 3.16, right); the musical journey home-away-home (ABA) has satisfied composers and listeners for centuries. In the "Dance of the Reed Pipes" from Peter Tchaikovsky's famous ballet The Nutcracker, the A section is bright and cheery because it makes use of the major mode as well as silvery flutes. However, B is dark and low, even ominous, owing to the minor mode and the insistent ostinato (repeated pattern) in the bass.
ostinato
In music any element (rhythm, melody, or harmony) that continually repeats is called an ostinato (from the Italian word meaning "obstinate thing"). In the doo-wop song "Duke of Earl," we hear the bass voice lead, not with "doo, doo, doo," but with "Duke, Duke, Duke," setting the foundation for the chords that sound as the other voices enter. The tempo is moderately fast, and each of the four chords lasts for four beats. Every time the vocal harmony sings the word "Earl," the chords change. The I-VI-IV-V-(I) chord progression lasts for about nine seconds and then repeats over and over again
counterpoint, canon
In polyphonic texture the voices are of equal importance, moving against one another to create what is called counterpoint, the harmonious opposition of two or more independent musical lines. (Musicians use the terms polyphony and counterpoint interchangeably.) Finally, there are two types of counterpoint: free and imitative. In free counterpoint the voices are highly independent and go their separate ways; much jazz improvisation is done in free counterpoint. In imitative counterpoint, on the other hand, a leading voice begins, followed by one or more other voices that duplicate what the first voice presented. If the followers copy exactly, note for note, what the leader plays or sings, then a canon results.
conductor
Indeed, the conductor functions something like a musical traffic cop: He or she makes sure that the cellos don't overshadow the violins and that the oboe yields to the clarinet at the proper moment so the melody can be heard.
Proper of the Mass, Ordinary of the Mass
Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady) is deservedly the best-known work in the entire repertoire of medieval music. Its length of twenty-five minutes is impressive, as is the novel way it applies music to the text of the Mass (Table 5.1). Before Machaut's time, composers writing polyphony for the Mass had set only one or two sections of the Proper of the Mass (chants whose texts changed to suit the feast day in question). Machaut was the first composer to set what is called the Ordinary of the Mass—five sung portions of the Mass, specifically, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei—with texts that did not change from day to day. From Machaut's work onward, composing a Mass meant setting the five texts of the Ordinary and finding some way to shape them into an integrated whole. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky were just a few of the later composers to follow Machaut's lead in this regard.
voice
Musical voices are classified by range into four principal parts. The two women's vocal parts are the soprano and the alto, and the two men's parts the tenor and the bass. (Men's vocal cords are longer and thicker than women's, and for that reason the sound of the mature male voice is lower.) Midway between the soprano and the alto voice is the mezzo soprano, and between the tenor and the bass is the baritone. When many voices join together, they form a chorus
acoustic instruments
Popular music often uses electric enhancements (via electric guitars, synthesizers, and so on) to amplify and transform vocal and instrumental sounds. Much of classical music uses acoustic instruments that produce sounds naturally.
rondo form 49
Rondo form involves a simple principle: A refrain (A) alternates with contrasting music. Usually in a rondo, there are at least two contrasting sections (B and C). Perhaps because of its simple but pleasing design, rondo form has been favored by musicians of every age—medieval monks, classical symphonists such as Mozart and Haydn, and even contemporary pop artists like Sting (see "A Rondo by Sting" in Ch. 15). Although the principle of a recurring refrain is a constant, composers have written rondos in several different formal patterns, as seen below. The hallmark of each, however, is a refrain (A). ABACA ABACABA ABACADA
ritard
Sometimes the tempo speeds up, producing an accelerando, and sometimes it slows down, creating a ritard
saxophone
Strictly speaking, the single-reed saxophone is not a member of the symphony orchestra, though it can be added on occasion. Its sound can be mellow and expressive but also, if the player wishes, husky, even raucous. The expressiveness of the saxophone makes it a welcome member of most jazz ensembles.
strophic form, chorus, refrain
Strophic form is the most familiar of all musical forms because our hymns, carols, folk songs, and pop tunes invariably make use of it. In strophic form the composer sets the words of the first poetic stanza (strophe) and then uses the same entire melody for all subsequent stanzas. In his famous Wiegenlied (Lullaby), for instance, Johannes Brahms repeats a single musical idea for each strophe of the poem, as demonstrated in the Listening Guide below. Many pop songs throughout history have employed a slight twist on this procedure—each strophe beginning with a verse of new text and ending with a chorus (a textual refrain that repeats). A chart topper from the Civil War era, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," may serve as a representative example of this common form. In this rallying cry for the Union forces, with text by Julia Ward Howe, each strophe (verse + chorus) is set to the same music:
style 52
Style in music, then, is the distinctive sound created by a composer, an artist, or a performing group, as expressed through the elements of music. Every composer has a personal style, one that makes his or her work different from that of all other creators. Take a work by Mozart (1756-1791), for example. A trained listener will recognize it as a piece from the Classical period (1750-1820) because of its generally symmetrical melodies, light texture, and dynamic ebb and flow. A truly experienced ear will identify Mozart as the composer, perhaps by recognizing the sudden shifts to minor keys, the intensely chromatic melodies, or the colorful writing for the woodwinds, all fingerprints of Mozart's personal musical style.
mode
Switching from major to minor, or from minor to major, is called a change of mode. Changing the mode affects the mood of the music. 23
Syncopation
Syncopation, however, places the accent either on a weak beat or between beats—literally, it's "off beat." This unexpected, offbeat moment in the music creates the catchy "hook" of the tune, the part that pops up when you least expect it and sticks in your head.
tempo
Tempo is the speed at which the beat sounds. Some tempos are fast (allegro) or very fast (presto) and some are slow (lento) or very slow (grave). A moderate tempo (moderato) falls somewhere in the range of 60 to 90 beats per minute.
french horn
The French horn (sometimes just called "horn") was the first brass instrument to join the orchestra, back in the late seventeenth century. Because the French horn, like the trombone, sounds in the middle range of the brasses, these two instruments are often almost impossible to distinguish. The French horn, however, has a slightly mellower, more "veiled" sound than does the clearer, "in your face" trombone.
beat
The basic pulse of music is the beat, a regularly recurring sound that divides the passing of time into equal units. 14
bassoon
The bassoon functions among the woodwinds much as the cello does among the strings: It adds weight to the lowest sound or acts as a soloist. When playing moderately fast or rapid passages as a solo instrument, it has a dry, almost comic tone.
orchestral score 41
The conductor reads from an orchestral score (a composite of all the parts) and must be able to immediately pick out any incorrectly played pitches and rhythms (Fig. 3.14). To do this, he or she must have an excellent musical ear.
dissonance, cossonance
The former chords are characterized by dissonance (pitches sounding momentarily disagreeable and unstable) and the latter by consonance (pitches sounding agreeable and stable). Generally speaking, chords that contain pitches very close to one another, just a half or a whole step apart, sound dissonant. On the other hand, chords built with the somewhat larger interval of a third (C joined to E, for example) are consonant, as is the case for each triad in Example 2.23.
harpsichord
The harpsichord (Fig. 3.11) appeared in northern Italy as early as 1400 but reached its heyday during the Baroque era (1600-1750). When a key is depressed, it drives a lever upward that in turn forces a pick to pluck a string, thereby creating a bright, jangling sound. The harpsichord has one important shortcoming, however: The lever mechanism does not allow the performer to control the force with which the string is plucked. Each string always sounds at the same volume, no matter how hard the player strikes the key.
flute
The lovely, silvery tone of the flute is probably familiar to you. The instrument can be rich in the lower register and light and airy at the top. It is especially agile, capable of playing tones rapidly and moving quickly from one range to another.
Gregorian chant/plainsong 61
The music for these services was what we today call Gregorian chant (or plainsong)— a unique collection of thousands of religious songs, sung in Latin, that carry the theological message of the Church. Although this music bears the name of Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), this pontiff actually wrote very little of it. Instead, Gregorian chant was created by many people, male and female, before, during, and long after Gregory's reign.
pipe organ, stop
The pipe organ (Fig. 3.10), the most complex of all musical instruments, traces its origins back to ancient Greece. When the player depresses a key, air rushes into a pipe, thereby generating sound. The pipes are arranged in separate groups, each producing a full range of musical pitches with one particular timbre (the sound of the trumpet, for example). When the organist wants to add distinctive musical color to a piece, he or she simply pulls a knob, called a stop. The most colorful, forceful sound occurs when all the stops have been activated (thus the expression "pulling out all the stops"). The several keyboards of the organ make it possible to play several colorful lines at once, each with its own timbre. There is even a keyboard for the feet to play.
oboe
The oboe is equipped with a double reed—two reeds tied together with an air space in between. When the player blows air between them and into the instrument through the double reed, the vibrations create a nasal, slightly exotic sound. Invariably, the oboe gives the pitch at the beginning of a symphony concert. Not only was the oboe the first nonstring instrument to be added to the orchestra, but also it is a difficult instrument to tune (regulate the pitch). Thus, it's better to have the other instruments tune to it than to try to have it adjust to them.
tonality, key, modulation
The organization of music around a central pitch, the tonic, is called tonality. We say that such and such a piece is written in the tonality, and similarly the key, of C or of A (musicians use the terms tonality and key almost interchangeably). Composers—classical composers in particular—like to move temporarily from the home scale and home tonality to another, just for the sake of variety. Such a change is called a modulation. In any musical journey, we enjoy traveling away from our tonic "home," but we experience even greater satisfaction arriving back there. Again, almost all music, pop or classical, ends on the tonic pitch (Fig. 2.3).
piano
The piano (Fig. 3.12) was invented in Italy around 1700, in part to overcome the sound-producing limitations of the harpsichord. The strings of a piano are not plucked; they are hit by soft hammers. A lever mechanism makes it possible for the player to regulate how hard each string is struck. Touch lightly and a soft sound results; bang hard and you hear a loud one. Thus the original piano was called the pianoforte, the "soft-loud." During the lifetime of Mozart (1756-1791), the piano replaced the harpsichord as the favorite domestic musical instrument. By the nineteenth century every aspiring household had to have a piano, whether as an instrument for real musical enjoyment or as a symbol of affluence.
snare drum, bass drum, cymbals
The rat-a-tat-tat of the snare drum, the dull thud of the bass drum, and the crashing ring of the cymbals are sounds well known from marching bands and jazz ensembles, as well as the classical orchestra. None of them produces a specific musical tone.
timpani
The timpani (Fig. 3.9) is the percussion instrument most often heard in classical music. Whether struck in single, detached strokes or hit rapidly to produce a thunderlike roll, the function of the timpani is to add depth, tension, and drama to the music. Timpani usually come in pairs, one instrument tuned to the tonic and the other to the dominant. Playing only these pitches, the timpani feature prominently at the beginning of Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra
tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest sounding of the brass instruments. It produces a full, though sometimes muffled, tone in its lowest notes. Like the double bass of the violin group, the tuba is most often used to set a base, or foundation, for the melody.
viola
The viola (Fig. 3.3, left) is about six inches longer than the violin, and it produces a somewhat lower sound. If the violin is the string counterpart of the soprano voice, then the viola has its parallel in the alto voice. Its tone is darker, richer, and more somber than that of the brilliant violin.
violin
The violin (Fig. 3.3) is chief among the string instruments. It is also the smallest—it has the shortest strings and therefore produces the highest pitch. The tune usually sounds in the highest part of the musical texture, so in an orchestra the violin generally plays the melody. Violins are often divided into groups known as firsts and seconds. The seconds play a part slightly lower in pitch and are subordinate in function to the firsts.
theme and variations 47
The working of theme and variations form is obvious: One musical idea continually returns but is varied in some fashion by a change in the melody, harmony, texture, or timbre. In classical music, the more variations the composer writes, the more obscure the theme becomes; the listener is increasingly challenged to hear the new as an outgrowth of the old. Theme and variations form can be visualized in Figure 3.15 and the following scheme: Statement of theme Variation 1 Variation 2 Variation 3 Variation 4 A A1 A2 A3 A4 When Mozart was a young man, he lived briefly in Paris, where he heard the French folksong "Ah, vous dirai-je Maman." We know it today as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Upon this charming tune (A) he later composed a set of variations for piano (discussed in full in Ch. 15, "Theme and Variations").
contrabassoon
There is also a double bassoon, called the contrabassoon, which can play notes lower than any other orchestral instrument.
statement, repetition
To create form in music, a composer employs one of four processes: statement, repetition, contrast, and variation. A statement, of course, is the presentation of an important musical idea. Repetition validates the statement by reiterating it. Nothing would be more bewildering for a listener than a steady stream of ever-new music. How would we make sense of it? Recurring musical ideas function as formal markers or signposts; each restatement is an important musical event—and a reassuring return to stability.
musical notation 65
To record chant and to pass it from one community to the next, medieval monks and nuns created a wholly new medium of communication: musical notation. At first the system used only a few dashes and dots, called notae (Latin for "notes"), which suggested the upward and downward motion of the melody. But exactly how far up or down did the pitch go? To represent the melodic distance, church musicians around the year 1000 began to put the notes on a grid of lines and spaces that were identified by letter names: space A, line B, space C, and so forth. Initially created to preserve the repertoire of Gregorian chant, this combination of symbols (notes) on a grid (the staff) formed the basis of the musical pitch notation that we still use today.
electric keyboard
Today, the piano reigns supreme in the home and concert hall. But it has one natural predator that someday may make it extinct: the electric keyboard. This computer-driven synthesizer can, with the push of a button, change the overtones (see Fig. 3.2) in play and thereby alter the sound we hear from piano to harpsichord, or to organ, or to any instrument.
tremolo
Tremolo. The performer creates a musical "tremor" by rapidly repeating the same pitch with quick up-and-down strokes of the bow. Tremolo creates a feeling of heightened tension and excitement when played loudly, and a velvety, shimmering backdrop when performed quietly.
vibrato
Vibrato. By shaking the left hand as it stops the string, the performer can produce a sort of controlled "wobble" in the pitch. This adds richness to the tone of the string because, in fact, it creates a blend of two or more pitches.
unison
When a group of men (or women) sings the same pitches together, they are singing in unison. Unison singing is monophonic singing. Even when men and women sing together, doubling pitches at the octave, the texture is still monophonic. When we sing "Happy Birthday" with our friends at a party, for example, we are singing in monophony. Monophonic texture is the sparsest of all musical textures. Beethoven uses it for the famous duh-duh-duh-DUHHH opening of his Symphony No. 5 (downloads, streaming music for Ch. 1, and /1 at 0:00) to create a lean, sinewy effect.
texture 43
When a painter or weaver arranges material on a canvas or loom, he or she creates a texture: Texture is the density and arrangement of artistic elements. Look at Vincent van Gogh's Branch of an Almond Tree in Blossom (1890; chapter-opening photo). Here the painter has used lines and spaces to create a texture heavy at the bottom but light at the top, projecting an image that is well grounded but airy. So, too, a composer creates effects with musical lines—also called parts or voices, even though they might not be sung. There are three primary textures in music, depending on the number of voices involved: monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic.
overtone
When a string vibrates or air rushes through a column in a wind instrument— even in a Coke bottle—more than one sound is produced. We hear a basic sound, called the fundamental. However, a string, for example, vibrates not only in its full (fundamental) length but simultaneously in parts of the string (halves, thirds, quarters, and so on), and these fractional vibrations produce many very, very faint sounds, called overtones
interval
When a tune moves from one pitch to another it moves across a melodic interval. Some of these distances are small, others large. Melodies with large leaps are usually difficult to sing, whereas those with repeated or neighboring pitches are easier. 19
mouthpiece
a cup- shaped mouthpiece (Fig. 3.8). By adjusting valves or moving a slide, the performer can make the length of pipe on the instrument longer or shorter, and hence the pitch lower or higher.
motive
a short, distinctive musical unit that can stand by itself. 9
canon
canon (a "round" in which one voice starts out and the others duplicate it exactly, as in "Three Blind Mice")
classical music
classical music is the traditional music of any culture, usually requiring long years of training; it is "high art" or "learned," timeless music that is enjoyed generation after generation.
rhythym
the division of time into compelling patterns of long and short sounds. Rhythm emerges from, and rests upon, the durational grid set by the beat and the meter.
octave
the largest distance between notes that we encounter in a melody