MS

Lecture Notes: Genre, Style, Instrumentation, and Notation (Vocabulary)

Mindset and Course Structure

  • The instructor emphasizes thinking broadly about music and asks a very broad question: What is music?
  • Goal: identify unifying factors that let us analyze music on a deeper, more detailed level.
  • Eight key elements are introduced as the main focus throughout the course (not exhaustively listed in the transcript).
  • First topic: genre and style, with a plan to cover more foundational vocabulary and perspectives early on.
  • Acknowledgment that the first two weeks will be heavy on instructor input and vocabulary, followed by more interactive activities (listening, discussion).
  • Reassurance that students should not panic if everything doesn’t stick immediately; material will be revisited and elaborated over the semester, which lasts about three months or the length of the term.
  • Expectation that genre and style are two broad, classificatory tools for grouping music; these categories aid understanding of function, purpose, and historical context.
  • Note on class structure: heavy front-loaded lecturing, then more listening and interaction; not a constant droning lecture.

Big Picture: The Three Large Categories of Music

  • Before zooming in, three overarching artistic domains emerge that span most music traditions: art music, folk music, and popular music.
  • These are larger than genre and are foundational for understanding historical developments and practices.
  • Sacred vs. secular is introduced as another broad, practical distinction important especially for early music history.
  • Sacred music = religious; secular music = not religious; both can exist across art, folk, and popular traditions.

Art Music: Notation, Training, and Long Tradition

  • Characteristics:
    • Has stood the test of time; many historically significant figures and works persist for centuries (e.g., Beethoven, Mozart, Bach).
    • Historically linked to extensive, formal training; apprenticeship and long periods of study were common, akin to a trade or craft.
    • Heavily associated with notation; writing down music enabled preservation and transmission across generations and regions.
  • Music theory and notation:
    • Western music theory has its roots in art music and is descriptive rather than prescriptive: theory describes patterns observed over centuries, not rules that must be followed to create music.
    • Many celebrated musicians were rule-breakers; later theory often codified their innovations.
    • Theoretical ideas from art music have broadly influenced other genres, though other styles may not follow them strictly.
  • Historical influence: art music was the most influential tradition for most of history; it informed the core of Western musical practice.
  • Notation and recording:
    • Notation and the ability to communicate music in writing significantly shaped what survives; before widespread recording (~1900s), notated music is the primary surviving source.
    • Notation helps explain why “surface-level” theory reflects art music practices; much of Western theory is built on art music foundations.
  • Contemporary relationship with the visual arts:
    • Art music often evolves in tandem with visual arts, reflecting similar stylistic trends and conceptual approaches to “fine art.”
  • Current shift:
    • While art music remains influential, from around the mid-20th century onward, many new ideas in popular forms began to lead the way in practice and innovation.
  • Why study art music in history courses:
    • It provided the main source of new ideas for much of music history.
    • It also is historically well-documented through notation, making it easier to study historically.
  • Important context:
    • The idea of art music being tied to “classical” prestige contrasts with later shifts in what counts as “art music” and how it is perceived today.

Folk Music: Oral Tradition, Variability, and Later Notation

  • Core idea:
    • Traditional folk music is typically passed down orally rather than written down, sometimes for hundreds or thousands of years.
    • It is a living, evolving tradition with substantial regional and local variation.
  • Notation as a later development:
    • Notation for folk music began in the late 18th/early 19th centuries as scholars and collectors sought to document traditions more broadly.
    • Notation has benefits and drawbacks: it helps spread styles (e.g., Irish folk music via sheet music) but can freeze a single version of a living tradition and diminish the sense of ongoing change.
  • “Game of telephone” metaphor:
    • Folk tunes often change as they are transmitted verbally; multiple variants exist across towns and regions.
  • Notation challenges for folk music:
    • Many folk styles include elements hard to capture in written notation (e.g., continuous pitch slides, microtonal inflections).
  • Notation as dissemination tool:
    • Writing down folk music allowed wider distribution and access to music beyond geographically isolated communities, especially before widespread recordings.
  • Summary takeaway:
    • Folk music represents tradition and continuity over time, but its strength lies in living variation rather than a fixed, “definitive” version.

Popular Music: Mass Dissemination, Industry, and Rapid Change

  • Core idea:
    • Popular music encompasses virtually all genres not classified as art music, jazz, or traditional folk music, especially in the modern era.
  • Temporal scope:
    • Pop music as a dominant force in Western music practice has risen notably in the last ext{approximately }75 years, particularly from the mid-20th century onward.
  • Mechanisms of diffusion:
    • The rise of recording technology, radio, and mass distribution accelerated the spread and evolution of popular styles.
  • Relationship to industry:
    • The modern music business and industry architecture (labels, marketing, distribution) play a central role in shaping what becomes popular.
  • Historical transition:
    • By around ext{the 1950s}, popular music began to lead with new ideas, and the emphasis shifted away from art music as the primary source of innovation.
  • Summary:
    • Popular music is characterized by rapid stylistic change, broad accessibility, and strong connection to media and commerce.

Genre vs Style: Marketing, Crossover, and Evolution

  • Genre:
    • A label used to group music by shared stylistic elements; became a major marketing and organizational tool with the rise of modern record distribution.
    • Historically, genres were less rigid and there was more cross-over between different kinds of singing and repertoire (e.g., a concert where an artist would perform opera tunes and parlor songs).
  • Style:
    • Style reflects how a genre sounds at a given time; it changes over time within the same genre (e.g., a country song today vs. a country song 10 years ago).
  • Key nuance:
    • In the past, listeners and performers moved more freely between different types within a performance; today, genre often acts as a stronger organizing principle.
  • Example of crossovers:
    • Parlor songs as an early form of pop that coexisted with operatic repertoire in the same program.
  • Takeaway:
    • Genre is a broad label; style is the evolving sound within that label across time.

Notation and Theory: Descriptive Tools and Historical Evolution

  • Notation basics:
    • In modern notation, a staff consists of 5 lines that indicate pitch position; notes’ shapes, stems, flags, and dots convey rhythm and duration.
    • Rests indicate silence; accents indicate emphasis; time signatures convey meter and rhythmic feel.
  • Early notation history:
    • Pneumatic notation (early medieval era, roughly 600-800 ext{ AD}) used for vocal sacred music and was less precise about rhythm and exact pitches.
    • By late medieval and Renaissance periods (roughly 11 ext{th}-14 ext{th centuries}), notation began to resemble the modern staff and note placement, though rhythmic notation lagged behind at first.
  • Notation across the world and for different instruments:
    • Different instruments have developed their own notational systems (e.g., guitar tablature with six lines for six strings). Tablature shows finger positions rather than exact pitches; rhythm is sometimes indicated with stems/dots rather than standard note shapes.
  • Practical takeaway for students:
    • Reading music is not a prerequisite for success in this course, but understanding basic notation can help when later topics address melody, harmony, and texture.

Instrumentation: Voices, Timbre, and the Build-Out of Sound

  • Core idea:

    • Instrumentation is about what we use to create sound: voices, traditional instruments, and electronic/digital sounds.

  • Timbre and register:

    • Timbre: what makes sounds from different sources (even at the same pitch) sound different; describes color or tone quality.
    • Register: the pitch range for singing or playing; higher vs. lower ranges define voice types and instrument capabilities.

  • Voice as an instrument:

    • Voice types are typically categorized by comfortable range, with common categories including soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass.
    • Overlaps exist among ranges; the practical ranges are illustrated rather than memorized exactly.

  • Voice types and rough idea of ranges (conceptual, not exact pitches):

    • Soprano: highest range; strong upper end; typically the most agile in upper registers; overlaps with mezzo-soprano.
    • Mezzo-soprano: middle-high range; overlaps with soprano.
    • Alto: lower female range; overlaps with mezzo-soprano.
    • Tenor: higher male range; overlaps with baritone.
    • Baritone: middle-lower male range; overlaps with tenor.
    • Bass: lowest male range; overall, the extreme ends meet roughly in the middle between bass high and soprano low.

  • Instrumental families (sound-production basis): four main categories

    • Aerophones: sound produced by vibrating air (e.g., flute, trumpet).
    • Chordophones: sound produced by vibrating strings (e.g., violin, guitar).
    • Idiophones: sound produced by the instrument vibrating itself (e.g., xylophone, cymbals).
    • Membranophones: sound produced by a stretched membrane (e.g., drums).

  • Instrument family timbres and grouping by sound color:

    • Strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion each have characteristic timbres; within each family, instruments are differentiated by range and playing technique.

Strings: Bowed vs Plucked

  • String family overview:
    • All are chordophones (sound via vibrating strings).
  • Bowed strings:
    • Use a bow to excite the string (e.g., violin family).
    • Pros: can sustain notes and shape their dynamics and tone with bow pressure and speed.
    • Cons: sustain is controlled by bowing; notes decay after the bow contact ends.
  • Plucked strings:
    • Sound produced by plucking with fingers or a pick (e.g., guitar, harp).
    • Pros: quick decay; often bright attack; easier to play multiple notes simultaneously on a single instrument.
    • Cons: less sustain control than bowed instruments; dynamic shaping relies on attack rather than continuous bowing.
  • Practical notes from demonstrations:
    • Bowed strings offer greater expressive control over individual notes (loudness and shaping) than plucked strings.
    • On electric/plucked instruments, sustain and timbre can be further manipulated with electronics and effects.
  • Examples introduced:
    • Bowed strings: cello, violin, etc. (illustrative demonstrations mentioned).
    • Plucked strings: guitar (and mention of lute as historical plucked string instrument).

Woodwinds and Brass: Reeds, Lip Vibration, and Air Speed

  • Woodwinds:
    • Produce sound by moving air through the instrument; many rely on reeds (single reeds or double reeds).
    • Single reeds (e.g., clarinet) use a single reed to vibrate and shape the tone.
    • Double reeds (e.g., oboe, bassoon) use two reeds vibrated against each other.
    • Players influence pitch by opening/closing holes along the instrument and by fingering keys; air speed and embouchure impact pitch and timbre.
    • Common woodwinds: contrabassoon, bassoon, clarinet, oboe, flute; note the distinctive nasally timbres (e.g., oboe) are highlighted as a Renaissance characteristic.
  • Brass:
    • Produce sound by buzzing the lips into a mouthpiece; no reeds.
    • Keyed/braced instrument design helps alter pitch, but control primarily comes from shaping the airflow and position of lips.
    • Common brass instruments: trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba.
    • Valve or slide mechanisms alter pitch; brass timbres tend to be bright and metallic.
  • Historical context for brass:
    • Brass instruments historically served war and hunting roles before becoming central to concert music around the 1600s.
  • Fun historical note:
    • Civil War era bands were still actively performing in battle; brass instruments played a public role in directing troops.

Percussion and Keyboard: Hitting, Timpani, and Tactile Keyboard Wonders

  • Percussion classifications:
    • Idiophones: instrument itself vibrates when struck (e.g., cymbals, xylophone).
    • Membranophones: membranes (skins) vibrate when struck (e.g., drums).
  • Pitched vs. unpitched percussion:
    • Pitched percussion can play distinct notes (e.g., timpani, xylophone).
    • Unpitched percussion provides rhythmic texture without definite pitch (e.g., most drum kits).
  • Keyboard instruments:
    • Keyboard instruments often straddle multiple families; not fitting neatly into a single category.
    • Piano: sound produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers; functionally a percussion mechanism on a keyboard but technically a string instrument.
    • Harpsichord: plucks strings rather than striking them; tone is more guitar-like and less dynamic than piano; very prominent in Baroque era (approx. 1600–1750).
    • Organ: air is forced through pipes; multiple keyboards (and feet pedals) control different sets of pipes; organ sound is produced by air rather than vibrating strings.
  • Historical notes on keyboard evolution:
    • Harpsichord was popular in the Baroque era; replaced by the piano by the late 18th century.
    • The visual design of harpsichords and organs reflected the baroque aesthetic: ornate, elaborate decoration mirroring the era's artistic style.
  • Unique feature of keyboard instruments:
    • They enable polyphony and multiple musical lines simultaneously on a single instrument; other families typically play one line at a time (unlike pianos and some polyphonic keyboard arrangements).

Modern Instrumentation and Technology in Music

  • Technological impact on sound:
    • The 20th century brought profound changes through electronic and digitally synthesized sounds; technology shapes both composition and performance.
  • Iconic modern tools and sounds:
    • Drum machines such as the Roland TR-808 became iconic in hip-hop and rap, shaping the genre’s sonic signature despite limited physical units remaining.
    • Sampled sounds from classic machines persist in contemporary production.
    • Auto-Tune and related pitch-correction technologies have become deliberate artistic tools (not merely corrections); some artists use them stylistically as part of their identity (e.g., T-Pain).
  • Debates and perspectives:
    • Some argue that extensive auto-tuning is “cheating” because it masks raw pitch capabilities; others celebrate its creative potential as a distinctive timbral effect.
  • Broader takeaway:
    • Technology is deeply integrated into modern music across genres, often defining the texture and texture of sound in contemporary styles.

Notation: A Quick Tour through Writing Down Music

  • Modern notation basics:
    • The staff consists of 5 lines where pitch information is laid out; the vertical position indicates pitch.
    • Note shapes, stems, flags, and dots communicate rhythm and duration.
    • Rests indicate silence; accent marks emphasize notes; time signatures convey rhythmic feel and meter.
  • Historic notational forms:
    • Pneumatic notation (early medieval) lacked precise rhythm and pitch information; it was used primarily for sacred vocal music.
    • By late medieval and early Renaissance, notation became more standardized and began resembling today’s five-line staff, though rhythmic notation continued to evolve.
  • Global and instrument-specific notation:
    • Different instruments developed their own notational systems (e.g., guitar tablature uses six lines to indicate strings and fret positions; numbers/letters indicate fingerings).
    • Gaps between theory and practical notation persisted across cultures and eras, fueling ongoing development in music notation.
  • Practical note for students:
    • Reading music is not required for success in this course; however, familiarity with basic notation can support understanding of melody, harmony, and texture later in the curriculum.

Quick Reminders: Course Logistics and Assessments

  • Administrative notes:
    • Upcoming Labor Day holiday: no Midlands Tech classes on the observed Monday.
  • Assignments and assessments:
    • First discussion post and the first quiz are due by Sunday night (midnight or 11:59 PM).
    • Open-book/open-notes policy; two attempts are allowed for each assessment.
    • If you take a second attempt, the system will show only the answers you missed previously, to avoid redundant reviewing.
  • Resources:
    • Supports and accommodations mentioned; instructor has sent accommodation emails and is confirming receipt with students.
  • Personal note:
    • The instructor emphasizes a long-term view: the material builds over time and through ongoing class discussion and listening exercises.

Notable Connections, Implications, and Takeaways

  • Descriptive vs prescriptive music theory:
    • Theory describes patterns observed in music historically; it is not a set of hard rules that all music must follow.
    • Understanding theory helps explain why certain works sound a particular way, but great composers often broke traditional rules, which then informed new theory.
  • Historical perspective on notation and dissemination:
    • Notation enabled the preservation and transfer of art music across time; the lack of comprehensive notation for folk or other traditional forms made historical reconstruction difficult.
    • The shift to mass media (records, radio, streaming) transformed popular music into a global, rapidly changing landscape.
  • Cross-genre dynamics and cultural relevance:
    • Early concerts often mixed repertoire from different traditions (opera, parlor songs), revealing a more fluid boundary between genres historically than is common today.
  • Practical implications for performance and study:
    • Students should be prepared for a heavy upfront theoretical introduction, followed by application through listening, analysis, and performance-focused activities later in the course.
  • Ethical/philosophical reflection:
    • The evolution of genre labels raises questions about authenticity, commercial influence, and the role of musicians as innovators within or beyond established categories.

Quick Reference: Key Terms and Concepts (summary)

  • Art music: long tradition, formal training, notation-centered, theory rooted in descriptive patterns, highly influential historically.
  • Folk music: oral tradition, living and evolving, variation across regions, later notated with both positive and negative consequences for evolution.
  • Popular music: modern, mass-distributed music driven by media and industry, rapid stylistic change, often not tied to long-term traditional practices.
  • Sacred vs secular: religious vs non-religious; broad applicability across genres.
  • Genre vs style:
    • Genre = broad category for grouping music; style = time- and context-dependent sound within a genre.
  • Instrumentation: voice + instruments + electronic/synthesized sounds; timbre = color of sound; register = pitch range.
  • Instrumental families: Aerophones, Chordophones, Idiophones, Membranophones.
  • String family subtypes: Bowed vs Plucked; differences in sustain, dynamic control, and timbre.
  • Woodwinds: reeds (single vs double); fingering/keys; varied timbres.
  • Brass: lip buzz; air control; valve/slide mechanisms; historical uses in war/hunting.
  • Percussion: idiophones vs membranophones; pitched vs unpitched.
  • Keyboard instruments: piano, harpsichord, organ; unique ability to play multiple lines; historical evolution tied to technological advances.
  • Notation history: pneumatic notation → five-line staff; rhythm notation development; instrument-specific systems (tablature).
  • Technology in music: drum machines, auto-tune, sampling; ongoing dialogue about artistry vs. technology.