music 1 (the facts)

music is

sound organized in time

what are 3 things needed to make music?

time frame, sound waves, cognizant mind

composer, performers, mechanical mean to record

improvisation

composition and performance happen simultaneously

in some cultures, music becomes so interconnected what happens

the language doens’t have a separate word for “music”

sound

wave of energy with frequency and amplitude

amplitude affects

decibel level (volume)

frequency affects

pitch (highness/lowness of sound)

what frequency is heard as a single, sustained tone for humans

20-20k cycles per sec

a pure sine wave at 440 Hz sounds like

an A above middle C

orchestral musicians int he is usually tune their instruments to

A-440 (440 Hz)

two kinds of musical sounds

pitched and non-pitched

what instruments provide most of the non-pitched sounds in msuic

percussion instruments

in the (part century), 2 (job) (name) and (name) categorized instruments into # groups

late 19th century; ethnomusicologists; curt Sachs and Erich von hornbostel; 4

ethnomusicologists

scholars who study the music of other cultures or study multiple cultures comparatively

the four groups made by Sachs and hornbostel

chordophones: string vibrates

aerophones: brass/woodwind and column of air vibrates

idiophones: body of instrument vibrates

membranophones: membrane (skin) stretched across frame and membrane vibrates

examples of each group

chordophone: violins, guitars, harps, viola, cello, double bass, lute

aero phones: horns, flutes, piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, cornet, trumpet, trombone, tube, flugelhorn, baritone, bugle

membranophones: drums, timpani, tambourine

idiophones: bells, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, gongs, triangle, wood block, cymbals

what group was added later by Sachs and hornbostel

electrophones: use mechanical device known as an oscillator and are dependent upon electricity

before Sachs and hornbostel how were instruments categorized

families

strings: bowed/plucked

brass: aerophones made of metal and sounded by performer’s buzzing lips making column of air vibrate

woodwinds: aerophones where the column of air is moved by breath alone or wood reed (saxophone)

percussion: membranophones, idiophones, some chordophones that are struck (piano)

(sometimes) keyboard instruments: piano, keyboard, organ

who invented theremin

russian physicist Leon theremin (1896-1993)

first electronic instruments appear in

first decades of the 20th century

one of the best known early electronic instruments

theremin

how to play theremin

performer regulates frequency with one hand and amplitude with the other by disturbing the electrical fields that surround the protruding bars

next step in electronic instruments came at

the end of wwii

what happened to technology after wwii

there were huge advances that were made for wartime purposes but now that the war was over many state-of-the-art studios were used by scientists and composers to make art

combining electronically generated sounds and sounds produced by live instruments are called

musique concrete

first practitioners of musique conrete are from

paris —> its french name

basic tech of tape music is called

looping and splicing

famous postwar centers for electronic music (4)

rome, Paris, cologne, nyc

single, isolated musical sound has 4 properties

pitch, duration, volume, timbre

what are the Hz of A2, A3, A4

A2 - 110

A3 - 220

A4 - 440

middle C is C#

C4

the A string on a guitar is what frequency

110 Hz (A-110)

when you halve the length of a string what happens

it vibrates twice as fast and produces a pitch twice as high

musical term for distance

interval

intervals

half-step/semitone/minor second: distance between two adjacent keys

major second/whole step: distance between every other key

minor third: 3 half steps

major third: 4

perfect fourth: 5

Aug 4/d5/Tritone: 6

P5: 7

m6: 8

M6: 9

m7: 10

M7: 11

P8: 12

treble clef

G-clef; C on very bottom

bass clef

F-clef; C very top

alto clef

C-clef; C on middle line

tneor clef

C-clef; C on fourth line (second from top)

A appears between the

upper 2 of the 3 black keys

white keys are usually called

natural keys

how many white keys spanning what letters

7 keys: A-G

clef comes from the (blank) word…

french word key

why don’t the F and G clef move anymore

the practice died out

in piano music, two bracketed staves are used known as

the grand staff

how to write flats and sharps in prose vs on the staff

prose: symbol comes after letter (Ab or F#)

staff: symbol comes before note

very few pitches consist of

a single, pure frequency. rather one frequency dominates

the lowest A is called the

fundamental (its by far the loudest and strongest)

when you pluck the A string of a guitar, the strongest sound wave produce is #Hz but many other waves can exist on the string. one is (blank) the length of the string, one is (blank), one is (blank), and so on

110 Hz; half; 1/3; 1/4

the faint presence of higher pitches are called

partials or overtones

in the western tradition, after about (yr), a system of tuning called (blank) became dominant

1750; equal temperament

how many pitches are there

12

enharmonic pitches

two different labels for the same piano key

in older tuning systems, an Eb and a D# are identical and don’t differ slightly in the number of cycles per sec. T/F

false

double sharp symbol and double flat symbol

x and bb

when arranged in ascending order, the seven pitches are known as

the diatonic scale

pitches can fall into one of four diff patterns

major (most common), natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor

names of each scale degree

1 - tonic

2 - supertonic

3 - mediant

4 - subdominant

5 - dominant

6 - sub-mediant

7 - leading tone

C is called the

resting tone or Do

what pitch may appear in a melody more often

dominant more often than tonic though tonic remains the final resting point

harmonic

two pitches occur simultaneously

melodic

two pitches occur in succession

intervals can either ascend (lower pitch occurs first) or descend

a few intervals that exceed an octave

M and m9; M and m10

m9, M9, m10, M10 can also be seen as

an octave plus m2 (13 half steps), M2 (14), m3 (15), M3 (16)

major scale sequence of intervals

W W H W W W H

diminished

making a minor interval smaller by lowering the top note using an accidental or raising the bottom note using an accidnetal

major scale vs minor scale intervals

major scale: M3 then m3

minor scale: m3 then M3

in a natural minor scale half steps are located between which pitches

2 and 3; 5 and 6

harmonic minors raise what note

the seventh note

melodic minors raise what notes

6 and 7 (only when ascending), when descending they play the natural minor

why does the melodic minor switch to nartural minor when descending

to add a sense of upward motion to the higher tonic and a pull downward to the dominant

a major and a minor key that have the same pitches are called

relative major and minor

how to find relative major/minor

to find relative major count 3 half steps UP

to find relative minor count 3 half steps DOWN

whole steps and half steps for the 3 diff minor scales

natural: WHWWHWW

harmonic: WHWWHAH

melodic: WHWWWWH

parallel major and minor

major and minor scales that begin and end on the same tonic pitch

blues inflections combine elements of

major and minor scales

blues scale

degrees 3 and 7 lowered as in a minor scale or normal as in a major scale or played somewhere between

in blues inflections the pitch is often part of a

small slide

less commonly, the 5th scale degree is lowered in this manner

melodic minor intervals (ascending and descending)

W H W W W W H

W W H W W H W (natural minor in reverse)

melody

series of successive pitches perceived by the ear to form a coherent whole (only one pitch at a time)

harmony (and other name)

counterpoint; two pitches occur together

all melodies have a (blank), or (blank)

contour/profile

conjunct melody

moves smoothly in stepwise motion (half steps and whole steps)

disjunct melody

contains proportionally more leaps (intervals larger than a major second)

ways to describe a melody’s contour (3)

conjunct, disjunct, direction

how does direction work in row row your boat

first “merrily” assends and then descends at the end

very common contour for melodies is

an arch ( ascend at beginning and descend toward end)

contour is normally described in

general terms

viola’s range

C3 to E6

cello range

C2 to A5

viola range vs cello range

viola range is higher and slightly narrower

high, middle, low parts of instruments rang called

high, middle, low register

high tessitura means

more pitches in the performer’s high register

tessitura is originates from what language

italian

name the 4 vocal tessituras

soprano: high tessitura female

alto: low tessitura female

tenor: high tessitura male

bass: low tessitura male

rhythm

music organized in time

beat

steady pulse that undelries most music

italian term, BPM, meaning

presto: 200 bpm, very fast

allegro: 120 bpm, fast/cheerful

moderato: 108 bpm, moderate

andante: 84 bpm, “at a walking tempo”

adagio: 72 bpm, slow

lento/grave: 40 bpm, very slow

tempo

speed of a beat

slow down, speed up, gradually, suddenly in italian

ritardando, accelerando, Poco a Poco, subito