Music 120

The Development of the Piano • These keyboards are relatives of the dulcimer • Clavichord (Late Middle Ages to c. 1800) • Not very loud • Often used as a practice instrument • Harpsichord (End of the 15th century to 1790s) • Strings are plucked • Not expressive • Cannot modulate the volume • Gained renewed popularity in the 20th century The Development of the Piano • Piano (invented in 1709) • Harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Christofori in Padua, Italy • 58 keys • Originally called “Gravicembalo col piano e forte” (Trans. “Harpsichord with soft and loud”) • Became known as the pianoforte, and then the piano • Modern piano has 88 keys • Cast iron frame patented by Boston piano maker in 1825 • Modern Steinway grand piano frame supports 40,000 lbs. of pressure Steps Whole Steps Accidentals Half Steps • Since the beginning of the 18th century, Western music has generally divided the octave into twelve equally spaced increments • An example: Half Steps Octave Octave 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 • The smallest interval in our Western music system is the half step • When referring to the piano keyboard, a half step is the distance between any two adjacent keys, whether white or black • So . . . A half step is the smallest possible interval (or distance) on the piano keyboard Half Steps Half Steps Half Steps Half Steps Whole Steps Whole Steps on the Keyboard • When two notes on the piano keyboard are 2 half steps apart, we say that the interval between them is a whole step • In other words, a whole step = 2 half steps Whole Steps on the Keyboard Whole Steps on the Keyboard Whole Steps on the Keyboard • On the piano keyboard, 5 whole steps and 2 half steps occur naturally in one octave using white keys only. • Can you find them on the piano keyboard? Whole Steps and Half Steps • This combination of whole steps and half steps in this order gives us a major scale. • We’ll look at major scales in Chapter 5. Whole Steps and Half Steps Accidentals • The staff can only represent seven of the twelve pitches contained in the octave (i.e., the white keys on the piano) Accidentals • In order to represent the remaining five pitches in the octave (i.e., the black keys), a new set of symbols is required to modify the existing notes These are called accidentals Accidentals • An accidental is a symbol placed in front of a note on the staff that raises or lowers the pitch normally represented by the note • When you say (pronounce) the name of the note, “flat” or “sharp” follows the pronunciation of the note • There are two main types of accidentals: Sharp ( ) – Raises the pitch by a half step Flat ( ) – Lowers the pitch by a half step Accidentals Accidentals on a keyboard Accidentals Accidentals Double Sharp Double Flat Natural Other accidentals include: Double Sharp ( ) – Raises the pitch by a whole step Double Flat ( ) – Lowers the pitch by a whole stepNatural ( ) – Cancels the effect of a previous accidental, indicating that the notes should be played in its “natural” state. Accidentals Scope of Accidentals Th Scope of Accidentals • The effect of an accidental carries over to all the remaining notes in a measure that have the same letter name and same register. • Once a new measure begins, the effect of the accidental used in the previous measure is disabled. Th Th Th Th Scope of Accidentals • An accidental only affects a single note in a single register. Nope! Yep! Nope! Nope! Naturals Purpose • Sometimes, there is a need to cancel the effect of an accidental before a given measure ends. • For example, in the excerpt below, you may want the G on beat 4 of the first measure not to be a sharp Enharmonic Notes • Wait . . . It looks like C# is the same note as Db They are the same (sort of) The notes (C# and Db) sound alike but are spelled differently. These are called . . . . . . Enharmonic Notes • So. . . Two notes that are spelled differently on the staff, but represent the same note are said to be enharmonic Enharmonic No