Chapter 9: Voices/Instrument Families+

The Voice as an Instrument (the ranges)

Register: Specific area in the range of an instrument or voice

  • the human voice can be categorized into various ranges including:

    • soprano - highest

    • mezzo soprano (female voice middle range)

    • alto (short for contralto)

    • tenor (structural in early polyphony)

    • baritone

    • bass - lowest

These ranges in earlier eras

  • in early times men did the higher parts (soprano) as women were restricted in participating in such things

  • in the 16 cent. women singers emerged in secular (non religious music)

  • tenors were featured as soloists in early opera (baritones and bass featured now, the soloists) — 18th cent.

Vibrato = (throbbing effect) small fluctuation of pitch used as an expressive device to intensify a sound

Instrument identification

The world instrument classification system divides into:

Instrument categorization

Another way is according to how they make sound.

  • Chordophones

  • Aerophones

  • Membranophones

  • Idiophones

  • Electrophone

Aerophones

  • the sound is produced by vibrating air (usually inside the instrument).

  • The instrument, or parts of the instrument, are shaped (often into a tube or set of tubes) so that the vibrations will be a particular length, and so a particular pitch.

  • Aerophones are grouped according to what causes the air to begin vibrating

  • all wind instruments (flutes, whistles, horns)

Aerophones Examples: Flutes and Whistles

  • whistles, the air is blown at a sharp edge in the instrument

  • blowhole instruments, the air is blown across the sharp edge at the blowhole

  • reed instruments, the vibration of a reed or reeds begins the air vibration

    • single reed (saxophone, clarinet, for example)

    • double reed (oboe) instruments, the one or two reeds are part of the mouthpiece

    • cup mouthpiece instruments, the player buzzes the lips against the mouthpiece

    • organ (long pipe, bunch of whistles)

Chordophones

  • Stringed instruments

  • sound is made by vibrating strings stretched between two points

  • classified according to the relationship between the strings and the resonator

Chordophones Examples: Stringed instruments

  • zithers, the strings are stretched across, over, or inside a resonator, or between two resonators

  • lutes, the strings stretch across the resonator and up a neck. They may be plucked (guitar, banjo) or bowed (violin, fiddle

  • Lyres, strings leave the resonator at right angles to an edge and run to a cross

  • harps (like the orchestral harp and the Irish harp), the strings leave the resonator at a slant (smaller than a right angle) up to a neck connected to the resonator

  • musical bow, the string or strings are stretched from one end of a wooden bow to the other

Idiophones

  • the vibration of the instrument itself that is the main source of the musical sound

  • Idiophones are classified according to what you do to them to make them vibrate

  • produce sound from the substance itself

Idiophones Examples

  • Percussion idiophones are hit with sticks, beaters, or clappers (bells, steel drums)

  • Shaken idiophones are shaken (maracas, eggs, jingle bells)

  • Concussion idiophones are played by clashing two of them together (castanets, claves, spoons)

  • Friction idiophones are made to vibrate by rubbing them (as when you make a wine glass ring by rubbing its rim)

  • Scraped idiophones are played by scraping a stick across a set of notches or corrugations on the instrument (guiro, washboard)

  • Stamping idiophones are stamped on the ground, floor, or hard surface. (Tap shoes are in this category.)

  • If the main sound is coming from the surface that is being stamped on, it is a stamped idiophone

  • Plucked idiophones have a thin tongue of metal or bamboo that vibrates when plucked (jew's harp, mbira or thumb piano)

Membranophones

  • the sound begins with the vibration of a stretched membrane, or skin

  • the skin is usually stretched across a resonator

  • Membranophones are usually classified according to the shape of the resonating body of the instrument

  • anything with a membrane

  • sounded from tightly stretched membranes

Membranophones Examples: Drums

  • Tubular drums are divided into cylindrical, conical, barrel, long, waisted (hourglass- shaped), goblet (with a stem at the base), and footed (with feet around the edge of the bottom)

  • Kettledrums or vessel drums have rounded bottoms. • In frame drums, the membrane is stretched over a frame, usually making a wide, shallow instrument. (Tamborines are in this category.)

  • Friction drums come in a variety of shapes. Instead of beating on the membrane, the player runs a stick through a hole in the membrane

  • In mirlitons, the membrane is made to vibrate by blowing air across it. These are the only membranophones that are not drums. (Kazoos are in this category

Electrophones

  • instruments (such as the electric-acoustic guitar, vibraphone, and electric saxophone) that keep their acoustic resonators but are also amplified and altered electronically

  • instruments that are plugged in