MUSIC 101 - Midterm

Tempo Definition

the speed at which a piece of music is played

Pulse Definition

the steady, underlying beat that’s regular in a piece of music

Meter Definition

the organization of beats into regular groupings

• duple

• triple

• compound

Major Definition

a scale or key that typically sounds bright and happy

Minor Definition

a scale or key that often sounds darker, melancholic, or sad

Melody Definition

• a sequence of notes that make up the tune of the song

• the main lyrical line you might follow if you sing along

Harmony Definition

• accompanies the melody

• the combination of different musical notes played or sung simultaneously

Monophony Definition

• a single melodic line with no accompaniment

• think: “one voice”

Polyphony Definition

• multiple independent melodies occurring simultaneously

• think: “two or more voices”

Homophony Definition

a primary melody with accompaniment (usually instruments)

Heterophony Definition

• multiple performers play variations of the same melody simultaneously

• unison is not achieved

Timbre Definition

• aka "tone color"

• the unique quality or character of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds

What is Epitaph of Seiklos?

• an ancient Greek song

• the oldest surviving complete musical composition

• probably from the 1st or 2nd century

Who was Pierre Bourdieu?

• French

• theorized about cultural capital and social structures

• “Taste is first and foremost distaste, disgust and visceral intolerance of the taste of others… Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier”

What was the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

• a multi-ethnic empire in Central and Eastern Europe

• formed in 1867

• broke apart in 1918

• predominately Hungarians and Germans

Magyarization Definition

• the process of Hungarianizing people who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

• it was a way to assimilate and acculturate people into Hungarian culture and language

Who was Bela Bartok?

• from a small town and noble family

• virtuoso pianist

• wanted something “national” and “serious”

• wanted to take authentic Hungarian music and combine it with serious (classical) music

• worked closely with Zoltan Kodaly

  • went into the countryside and documented folk music to preserve cultural identity

  • transcribed and analyzed folk songs to study the music

    • wanted to incorporate it into their own music

  • used the wax cylinder

• “Fourteen Bagatelles, No. 4” (1908)

Who was Zoltan Kodaly?

• a Hungarian composer and music educator

• role in preserving and popularizing Hungarian folk music

• traveled throughout Hungary, collecting and transcribing folk songs from rural areas

• worked with Bela Bartok

What is the wax cylinder?

• invented by Thomas Eddison

• an early sound recording medium used in phonographs

• made of a hollow cylinder of wax-coated metal or cardboard

Ethnographic Work

a qualitative research method that involves observing and interacting with people in their natural environment

What are Bartok’s “Three Tiers”?

his framework for classifying folk music based on authenticity

1. peasant melody unchanged or only slightly varied

   a. accompaniment merely ornament for melody

   b. accompaniment derived from melody

2. composer invents his own imitation

3. the “atmosphere of peasant music” so that they composer has “absorbed the idiom of peasant music"“

Who was Scott Joplin?

• a leading composer of ragtime music

  • “King of Ragtime”

• “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899)

• wrote the opera “Tremonisha”

What is ragtime and rags?

• rags: short popular songs for piano geared toward amateur players

• ragtime: a musical style characterized by its syncopated rhythms, which created a "ragged" effect in the melody

• came from juba and cakewalks

• steady left hand

• syncopated right hand

Juba Definition

an African American dance characterised by percussive footwork and other forms of self-accompaniment with syncopated rhythms

Syncopation Definition

rhythmic displacement emphasizing weak beats or off-beats

What is a player piano?

• allowed for the mechanical playback of compositions

• acoustic piano with mechanical workings (humans don’t need to play it)

• punched holes in paper that corresponded to pitches and durations

What is a piano roll?

• a roll of paper used to store and play music on a player piano or reproducing piano

• triggered the piano’s keys via perforations (holes) in the paper

What is “popular music”?

• often abbreviated as pop music

• refers to music that is widely liked, particularly in mainstream or commercial contexts

What is minstrelsy?

• a form of theatrical performance that featured white performers who performed blackface

• played a significant (and controversial) role in the development of American popular music

What are the 3 parts of the ear?

• outer - collects sounds

  • tympanic membrane (ear drum)

• middle - transmits vibrations

  • malleus (hammer)

  • incus (Anvil)

  • stapes (Stirrup)

• inner - converts vibrations into nerve signals

Sensory Epistemologies Definition

the study of how sensory experiences contribute to knowledge

Who was Hermann von Helmholtz?

• tried to understand how we hear music

• studied sound waves and resonance

• was one of the first to connect science and music

• invented the ophthalmoscope

• “On the Sensation of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music”

What is the Helmholtz resonator?

• air resonance in a specific cavity

• identify frequencies (musical pitches) in music

Frequency Definition

• the rate of vibration

• determines the pitch of a sound

• high-”___” produces high-pitch

• low-”___” produces low-pitch

Who was Alexander Graham Bell?

• explored how sound could be visually represented

• drawn sound → “visible speech”

• taught deaf/hard-of-hearing students

• to him, deafness was a deficiency that needed to be cured

• pioneer of the telephone

Drawn Sound (Visible Speech) Definition

the concept of visually representing sound waves or the act of visually depicting the characteristics of sound

What is the phonograph?

• invented by Thomas Edison in 1877

• used to record and reproduce sound

• first machine that allowed for the recording and playback of audio

• laid the foundation for the recording industry

Who was Thomas Edison?

invented the phonograph in 1877, which was the first device capable of recording and reproducing sound

Who was Emile Berliner?

developed the gramophone and the flat disc record in the 1880s

What is the gramophone?

• invented by Emile Berliner in 1887

• early device for recording and playing back sound

• used flat discs (records) instead of cylinders → made mass production of recorded music possible

  • records made of shellac until WW2

• better sound quality

• first recording: “Auld Lang Syne”

What is “His Master’s Voice”?

• a trademark and a record label associated with the early music industry

• from a famous painting by Francis Barraud, which depicts a dog named Nipper listening to a gramophone, supposedly recognizing his late owner's voice

  • this was an advertisement

Who was Enrico Caruso?

• an Italian operatic tenor

• one of the first international recording stars

• regarded as one of the greatest opera singers of all time

• known for his rich, expressive voice and powerful performances in Italian and French operas

• recorded with Victor Talking Machine Company

What was the Victor Talking Machine Company?

• American record company and manufacturer of phonographs

• founded in 1901 by Eldridge R. Johnson

• popularized flat disc records

  • improved Emile Berliner’s technology

• key role in proving the commercial potential of recorded music

• the company behind the iconic 'His Master's Voice' gramophone

What is the magnetophone?

• early magnetic tape recorder

• developed in Germany in the 1930s

• stores sound in paper tapes that can be replayed again (like tapes)

• allowed for higher-quality sound recording compared to phonographs and discs

• was originally designed for office spaces to replace secretaries (this didn’t work out)

What are the different ways to edit tape?

• cutting: physically cutting a piece of tape with a blade

• splicing: the process of cutting a tape and adhering them back together (joining 2 pieces of tape back together)

• pasting: recording a new sound over an existing tape segment

Who was Lev Termen?

• Russian inventor, physicist, and musician

• inventor of the theremin

What is the theremin?

• an early electronic musical instrument

• invented by Léon Theremin (Lev Termen) in 1920

• it’s played without physical contact → uses hand movements in an electromagnetic field

What is “Musique Concrete”?

• sounds from “concrete” sensory reality (“real” sounds)

• concentrated in France

• coined by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948

• involves the use of recorded natural sounds as raw material for composition (rather than instruments) that are then edited to create new compositions

• Radiodiffusion francaise: French Broadcasting Network

  • a site for many avant-garde composers to experiment

Who was Pierre Schaeffer?

• French composer, musicologist, and engineer

• pioneer of musique concrète

• worked at Radio France

• took sounds from piano

• “Etude Violette” (1948)

What is “Elektronische Musik”?

• music that’s created completely out of electronically synthesized sounds (“pure” sounds)

  • these pitches can’t be generated in the acoustic world

  • made by devices/technology

• concentrated in Germany at the Radio Cologne

  • set up in 1951

• Karlheinz Stockhausen

Who was Karlheinz Stockhausen?

• German composer

• influential figure in electronic music and avant-garde composition

• his belief: if we’re going to create new music, we need new sounds to do so

• “Studie II” (1954)

Sine Wave Definition

• a smooth, continuous waveform

• represents the simplest form of sound in acoustic and electronic music

• characterized by a pure tone with only one frequency

  • it has no harmonics or overtones

Square Wave Definition

• a type of waveform that creates a sound with sharp transitions

• it abruptly switches between its maximum and minimum values creating a “___” pattern

Triangle Wave Definition

• a type of waveform characterized by its smooth, triangular shape

• more complex than a sine wave

• simpler than a square wave

• offers a balance of harmonic content that gives it a softer, more mellow sound

Sawtooth Wave Definition

• looks like the teeth of a saw

• known for its rich harmonic content and versatility in creating both melodic and percussive sounds

What is the acoustic era?

• refers to a time before the advent of electrical amplification and electronic sound recording technologies

• during this period, musical instruments and sound production were purely mechanical and acoustic, with no electronic enhancements

Who was Guglielmo Marconi?

• inventor and entrepreneur

• radio waves and electromagnetism

• pioneering work in the development of radio communication

• one of the founding fathers of radio

• wireless telegraph

  • wasn’t that efficient because it used a lot of middle men

• Titanic: was one of the first times in history where a ship was able to reach out for help

What is the wireless telegraph?

• a system that transmitted Morse code using radio waves instead of electrical wires

• laid the foundation for the development of modern wireless communication systems

What is morse code?

• a system of encoding text characters into sequences of dots (short signals) and dashes (long signals)

• used to transmit messages in a variety of ways

Who was Reginald Fassenden?

• Canadian inventor and electrical engineer

• a pioneer in development of radio technology

  • spark-gap: dampened waves

  • continuous wave

• worked with Edison

• best known for his role in making the first voice broadcast

  • 1900

What is a spark gap?

• a type of radio transmitter that was widely used in the early days of wireless communication

• generated dampened waves

What is a bandwidth?

• the range of frequencies that a communication system or signal can use or transmit

• it determines how much data can be transferred or how many different signals can be transmitted over a given medium

Who was Lee De Forest?

• inventor and entrepreneur

• a pioneer in the development of early radio technology

• revamped Fessenden’s tech

• best known for the invention of the Audion

  • the first vacuum tube amplifier

  • revolutionized radio broadcasting and communication

Who was Billie Holiday?

• American jazz and blues singer

• widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential vocalists in the history of popular music

• based in Harlem

• had a tumultuous later life

• “The Man I Love”

Who were George and Ira Gershwin?

• American songwriting duo

• wrote numerous songs for Broadway, Hollywood films, and classical music

• many of their songs were sung by Billie Holiday

• “The Man I Love” (1924)

Who was Benedict Anderson?

• renowned scholar and political theorist

• best known for his work on nationalism and his book:

  • "Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism"

What is “Imagined Communities”?

• seminal work in the study of nationalism

• revolutionary perspective on how nations and national identities are constructed

• central argument = nations are "imagined" communities

  • people collectively perceive themselves as members of a nation who share a sense of belonging and common identity, despite often never meeting each other

  • nationalism: recent phenomenon rooted in the rise of print capitalism and vernacular languages

Single Track vs. Multitrack Recording

• single track:

  • sound is recorded as a single audio track

  • used in the early days of recording before the advent of multitrack technology

• multitrack:

  • multiple separate recordings are combined into a singular recording

  • sound quality is better

    • able to adjust each instrument separately

  • most common today

Mono vs. Stereo Sound

• mono:

  • uses 1 audio channel

  • all the sound is mixed and played through 1 speaker

• stereo:

  • uses 2 audio channels (left and right)

  • different sounds can be placed in the left or right speaker

  • more realistic and immersive

Who was Glenn Gould?

• Canadian pianist and child prodigy

• early proponent of sound recording

  • re-recorded tracks and spliced and edited mistakes

• argued recordings could surpass live performance in artistic quality

• stopped giving concerts in 1964

  • “had a love affair w/ the microphone”

• best known for his interpretations of Bach

  • “The Goldberg Variations”

Who was Duke Ellington?

• an American composer, bandleader, and pianist

• one of the most important figures in the history of jazz and American music

• incorporated elements of classical music, blues, gospel, and more

What is “Big Band Music”?

• dominated the genre of jazz in the 1940s

  • popularity was spread by radio and recordings

• usually consisted of 10+ musicians

• typically consisting of brass, woodwind, and rhythm sections

• energetic rhythms (important to dance)

• sophisticated arrangements

What is “swing”?

• style of jazz music

• dominant form of pop music during the 1930s and 1940s

• characterized by its distinctive rhythm and the way the music swings in terms of its feel and groove

• ideal for dancing

Who was Miles Davis?

• American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader

  • Miles Davis Quintet

• one of the most innovative and important figures in the history of jazz

• Bebop and Hard Bop

• album: “Kind of Blue” (1959)

• song: “You’re My Everything” (1956)

What is “bebop”?

• a complex, fast-paced style of jazz

• emerged in the 1940s

• transformed the sound and direction of jazz music

• focusing on virtuosity, complex harmonies, and improvisation

What was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom?

• a landmark civil rights demonstration

• where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech

• deeply rooted in gospel, folk, and protest music, reflecting the struggles and hopes of the Civil Rights Movement

Who was Joan Baez?

• used her music as a platform for activism

• performed songs that addressed civil rights, anti-war movements, and social justice

• a leading figure in the American folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s

• “We Shall Overcome”

Who was Nina Simone?

• American jazz, blues, R&B performer and singer

• trained as a classical pianist, but denied admission to conservatory because of her race

• active in the Civil Rights movement

• Left America for Liberia

• “Mississippi Goddam” (1964)

What was the 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing?

• a white supremacist terrorist attack in Birmingham, Alabama

• the Ku Klux Klan planted a bomb that killed four Black girls

• inspired Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam”

What is Woodstock?

• a legendary music festival in Bethel, New York, symbolizing peace, love, and counterculture

• featured artists like Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, and The Who

• many songs performed carried anti-war and civil rights messages

• Joan Baez, a key figure in protest music, performed “We Shall Overcome”

Who is Jimi Hendrix?

• Seattle

• guitarist and singer

  • played left-handed

• inspired by rock and roll and blues

• psychedelic rock movement

• innovation on the electric guitar with effects like distortion and wah-wah pedals

• "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Woodstock, 1969)

What is “psychedelic rock”?

• a style of rock music that emerged in the mid-1960s

• influenced by the psychedelic culture and the use of mind-altering substances like LSD

• aimed to replicate or enhance the experience of altered consciousness through innovative sounds, experimental recording techniques, and surreal lyrics

What is the RCA Mark II Synthesizer?

• an early electronic music instrument

• developed in the 1950s at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York

• first synthesizer with a stored program system

  • used punched paper tape to control sounds

• one of the first programmable synthesizers

• laid the groundwork for modern electronic music

What is the Modular Synthesizer?

• output (signal) of one module serves as input to another

  • connecting the output to the input

• each module has an oscillator (applies another signal) to modify sound

• analog synthesizers used to use patch cables

• offers customizable signal paths

  • allows for sound exploration and unique textures

What are the parts of an oscillator?

• controllers:

  • generate electronic signals

• audio generators:

  • produce pitched sound

• audio processors:

  • modify already produced sound

Patch Definition

• a configuration of modules connected together to create a custom sound

• allows for endless sound design possibilities by routing signals in creative ways

What is the Buchla Synthesizer?

• a type of modular synthesizer designed by Don “___” in the early 1960s

• focused on unique sound creation and experimental interfaces

  • patch cables

• associated with:

  • west coast

  • Morton Subotnick

Who is Morton Subotnick?

• a key figure in the development of electronic music

• known for his innovative work with the Buchla synthesizer and his experimental use of electronic sounds

• helped found the San Francisco Tape Music Center

• worked with Don Buchla to commission a “Buchla Box” synthesizer

• first commercially released electronic music

• “Silver Apples of the Moon” - 2 sides

What is the Moog Synthesizer?

• one of the most influential electronic musical instruments in the history of music

• known for its innovative design and ability to shape sound in unique ways

• helped bring synthesizers into mainstream music

• familiar interface: the keyboard

• associated with:

  • east coast

  • Wendy Carlos

Who is Wendy Carlos?

• degrees in music, physics, and music composition

• based at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

• worked with Robert Moog in mid-1960s

• released an album of Bach works performed on synthesizer

  • “Switched on Bach” (1968)

• innovative use of Moog synthesizers

• platinum album

What is the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center?

• pioneering institution in the development of electronic music in the US during the 1950s and 1960s

• critical role in the creation of new forms of music

• combined scientific research with artistic expression through electronic technology

• Moog Synthesizer

What is the Minimoog Synthesizer?

• most iconic and influential analog synthesizers in the history of music

• introduced in 1970 by Robert Moog and his company Moog Music

• became a staple in genres such as rock, funk, electronic, and experimental music

• was designed to be portable and affordable for musicians

Who is Kraftwerk?

• a German electronic music band

• name translates to “power station”

• founded in 1969 by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider

• live electronic performance

• “Krautrock” - genre

• custom vocoder technology

• celebrated the modern world; saw music as inseparable from daily life

• extremely influential

• “Autobahn” (1974)

What is “krautrock”?

• genre of experimental rock music that emerged from Germany and was popular in the 1970s

• a response to the cultural and political changes of the time

• a rejection of traditional Western pop music structures

• blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music

What is vocoder?

• an electronic device or effect used to manipulate the human voice, or any audio signal, by analyzing and modifying its characteristics, especially in terms of its pitch and timbre

• often used to create robotic-sounding voices or add texture and depth to vocal performances

Who are the Yellow Magic Orchestra?

• 1978 in Tokyo, Japan

• the members were composers before this

• key precursor to British synthpop

• very popular (especially in Japan)

• used synths, drum machines, and sequencers

• role in shaping the early development of synthesizer-based music, synthpop, and EDM

What is “Minimalism”

• a style that uses limited musical materials to create simple, repetitive patterns

• it’s characterized by:

  • repetition

  • gradual change

  • steady pulse

  • constant harmony

  • phase shifting

Who was Steve Reich?

• minimalism

• studied classical piano before moving to percussion

• accessed recordings from all over the world

  • ethical quandary: he removed traditions form those who have been accessing/practicing those traditions (in music)

• earliest pieces were tape-loop compositions

• “phasing”: moving in and out of sync

• “Pendulum Music” (1968)

• “Piano Phase” (1967)

• “Come Out” (1966)

What is “synthpop”?

• a genre of electronic music that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s

• it's pop music that features strong, catchy hooks, and heavy use of the Synthesizer

Who is Depeche Mode?

• influential British electronic band

• formed in 1980 in Basildon, England

• pioneers of synthpop, new wave, and electronic rock

• evolving from upbeat synth-driven pop to darker, more industrial and experimental sounds