Music Appreciation Test 1

Early Music

associated with function

rituals (seasons changing), religion

not merely entertainment (newer music is just to be listened to)

Music Today vs Past

today more access

before had to play it yourself or listen to someone else = more effort, more special

Four Properties of Sound

pitch - high and low

dynamics - relative loudness to sound, soft → loud

tone color/timbre - quality of sound

duration - length

How Sound Works

on piano - keys vibrate strings

vibrations travel through air to ears

long string = lower note

short string = higher note

Notation

indicates pitch and rythym

Rythym

ordered durations of sounds and silences

Beat

regular recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal time

Melody

series of single tones that add up to recognizable whole

Meter

organization of beats into groups

duple, triple, quadruple

Tempo

speed of the beat, the pace

String Instruments

vibrates with bow across string

violin, viola, cello, bass (high to low)

Woodwinds

air creates sound (blowing)

flute family: piccolo and flute - flute: alto and bass

clarinet family: clarient, bass clarinet, alto clarinet, contra bass

oboe/bassoon family (double reed): oboe, bassoon, english horn, contra bassoon

saxophone (single reed)

Brass

buzzing your lips

trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba (in order of range)

concert band: cornet, baritone horn, euphonium

trombone - lengthen and shorten tube changes pitch

Percussion

striking or shaking

definite pitch (produce tone): marimba, xylophone, timpani, chimes

indefinite pitch (produce noiselike sound): snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, triangle, symbols, gong

Vocal Ranges

female: soprano, mezzo soprano, alto

male: tenor, baritone, bass

Electronic Instruments

tape music - 1940s-50s ish - from tape studios

• physically cut tape and splice, change speeds, looping tapes together

synthesizers - 1960s

MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) - connection of devices - 1983

Key

12 keys

different key signatures

major and minor scales

• major: 3-4 and 7-1 are half steps

• minor: 2-3 and 7-1 are half steps

step 6 in major scale is relational to minor scale

every major has relative minor

Musical Texture

monophonic

• 1 voice/1 line of music

• everyone’s singing the same thing

• ex) gregorian chant

polyphonic

• 2 or more relatively independent voices

homophonic

• a simple melody with accompaniment

heterophonic

• same melody being played but off set

The Triad

simplest, most basic chord - 3 notes

tonic: triad built on first scale notes

• most stable, restful chord

• pieces begin and end on this chord

dominant: triad built on fifth scale note

• most unstable, tense chord

Materials for Instruments, Wood vs Silver

quality of sound/timbre is different

how the sound bounces

wood absorbs sound more

wood - darker, warmer

Musical Form

Binary A B — contrast the other part (with instruments, melody, harmony)

Ternary A B A — starts out with A, contrasts with B, then back to A

sometimes there’s forms within sections

Performance

Improvisation - spontaneous composition

music created at the same time it’s performed

went away because they wanted more control

jazz

What are the 6 musical styles and dates?

Middle Ages 450-1450

Renaissance 1450-1600

Baroque 1600-1750

Classical 1750-1820

Romantic 1820-1900

Early 20th C - 1945

Middle Ages

450-1450 (1000 years)

Early Middle Ages - migrations, upheavals, war

• Crusades: 1096-1291, fighting for Holy Land/Jerusalem

• Class Distinctions: nobility, peasants, clergy

  • 90% illiteracy

  • clergy guarded knowledge

• Hundred Years War 1337-1453

• Bubonic plague

• Great Schism 1378-1417 — faith was questioned

Late Middle Ages Growth

• Renaissance Churches

• monasteries

• gothic Cathedrals

• universities founded

Middle Ages Music

Cathedral was center of music

music education for boys - liturgical singing was important occupation

• gregorian chant - hours of practice, oral tradition

women couldn’t sing but could compose

• only could sing in convent

mostly vocal singing and sacred music

• organs were seen as a show by some

Secular Music in the Middle Ages

Instruments were more prevalent - pipe, fiddle, harp, etc

Composed by French nobles - poet-musicians called troubadours and trouvéres

Jongleurs (traveling minstrels) (lowest social level) performed music, acrobatics, told stories, and dance

Song topics - love, crusades, dancing, spinning songs

Instrumental dances included estampie

The Development of Polyphony: Organum

Between 700 and 900, a 2nd melody line was added to chant

• paralleled at different pitch, initially improvised

From 900 to 1200, the added line grew more independent

• no longer parallel

Two voices moving in parallel = parallel motion

Profound change in sacred music

500 years to institute change

“Cantus Firmus” - fixed melody - gregorian chant line

measured rhythm

14th Century (1300s) “New Art” Italy, France

music was fundamentally so different than before

paralleled harmonic activity

polyphony making way into secular music

Agnus Dei - 1st polyphony introduced to the Mass

• 4 voices

new scientific discoveries

human seeing new view of world

more complex world = more complex music