Intro to Music Final Review Sheet Spring 2018 1) What is Music? - no definition of the word music in the New Harvard Dictionary of Music. - The most awful definition of a word ever: "Music is what you make of it." - Golf clubs? sure, why not? - John Cage, 4:33 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oovyr0w7bma) - anechoic chamber: room specially designed to block out all sound - http://bit.ly/2ckf9c1 - Cage hugely influenced by his experiences in anechoic chamber - NO CULTURE DISCOVERED SO FAR LACKS MUSIC. - Musicologist: scholar/expert in the field of music - bird-calls, primates, babies - some musicologists believe that before humans could walk and talk, we were dancing and singing 2) Music in Ancient Greece - music very important in AG; one of 7 required courses of study for those who went to school (males who weren't slaves) - music served 3 functions a) abstract science (a branch of math whose elements were based upon same mathematic principles by which the universe was formed); b) art, which was to be understood and enjoyed by citizens as intelligent amateurs but not as pros (similar to how this class is built) c) power that could influence an individual and entire state - Aristotle/Plato: thought music could trigger certain behaviors, and that music was written for certain purposes - think about how music affects you; do certain pieces make you cry, get you excited, relaxed, etc.? - Ethos: a) morals and character (i.e., ethics) of the people, and b) character of music itself which in turn affects a person s moral character - Important because the welfare of the state was determined by the ethics of the people; music, through its function as a power, helped shape the moral character of the people 3) Sound and the Instruments of the Orchestra - sound is created by vibration! - pitch: the highness or lowness of a sound - size-pitch relationship: correlation between the size of an instrument and its pitch range
- smaller, thinner = faster vibrations = higher pitch - bigger, thicker = slower vibrations = lower pitch - timbre: tone color or quality of a sound; subjective ways to describe timbre (e.g., thin, thick, muddy, fuzzy, syrupy, bright, glassy, cold, warm, mellow, harsh, etc.) - orchestra: a group of people making music together; can come in several different forms - symphony orchestra: orchestra made up of about 100 musicians and broken down into 4 families of instruments - strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion - conductor: directs an orchestra when they perform - remember Jean-Baptiste Lully! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8rjvzoj7pm) - Strings: violin, viola, cello, bass (in order from smallest to largest); made of wood; part of bow that touches strings made of horse hair; arco v. pizzicato (use the bow v. pluck with finger); vibration occurs when string is bowed or plucked which instrument has thinnest strings? which has thickest strings? which is the only one that can be played seated only?; largest section of an orchestra and always seated closest to the front of the stage (less volume than other families of instruments) - Woodwinds: a) single-reed (clarinet, saxophone), b) double-reed (oboe, bassoon), and c) no reed (flute, piccolo, recorder); instruments in each category of woodwinds typically have larger and smaller relatives (e.g., bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, subcontrabass flute); vibration from reed; for no-reed instruments, it's from air moving through instrument - Brass: trumpet, French horn, trombone, baritone horn, tuba (from smallest to largest); typically 3 valves, 7 combinations for playing different pitches; - Percussion: a) drums (snare, bass, timpani, tom-toms, etc.); what vibrates? the head of the drum. b) mallet (xylophone, vibes, bells, marimba); what vibrates? the bars. c) accessories (cymbals, tambourine, shakers, etc.); what vibrates? the instrument itself 4) Pitch and Rhythm - 2 basic elements of Western art music: pitch and rhythm - notation: writing down of music - staff: 5 horizontal lines upon which music is notated - pitch: a) the highness or lowness of a note, and b) specific sound of a note - lesson on pitch can be found here: http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/10 - rhythm: the duration of a note within a given a pulse - note duration lesson (https://www.musictheory.net/lessons/11) - rest duration lesson (https://www.musictheory.net/lessons/13) 5) Meter, Measure, Time Signature - meter: grouping of specific number of beat - measure: grouping of specific number of beats separated on the staff by vertical lines 2
- time signature: fraction at the beginning of a line of music top number: meter/# beats in a measure (can be any number) bottom number: kind of note (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth) that will equal 1 beat (can only be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16) - common time = 4/4 time signature (4 beats/measure, quarter note = 1 beat) - when bottom number changes, the value of each note will change too when adding up measures to see if they're correct, look at time signature (total value of notes and rests should add up to top number; bottom number tells you which note/rest equals 1 beat) 6) Tempo, Dynamics, Articulations - Italian is traditional language of music, so you'll see lots of it here - tempo: how fast is the pulse? - tempo markings usu. located in upper left corner at beginning of music - from slowest to fastest: largo, andante, moderato, allegro, vivace, presto - rubato: no pulse (free time!) - Lady Gaga, National Anthem at Super Bowl 50 - To Anacreon in Heaven: our national anthem (Star-Spangled Banner) comes from the song of a British social club, The Anacreontic Society - accelerando v. ritardando - dynamics: how loud is the music? - pianissimo (pp), piano (p), mezzo piano (mp), mezzo forte (mf), forte (f), fortissimo (ff) - piano (the instrument) is really called the "pianoforte" (soft-loud) because it was one of the first keyboard instruments that let you control dynamics depending on how hard you struck the keys - crescendo v. decrescendo - articulations: how do we execute the notes? - accent, tenuto/legato, staccato 7) Melody and Harmony - Melody: succession of single notes and rests that make up main idea of a piece of music - in popular music: expresses main musical and verbal ideas of a song; almost always found in lead vocals; also typically found in higher pitched instruments/ voices because they re easier to hear - Harmony: notes sounded with a melody and that support it - consonant harmony: notes sounded together do not clash - dissonant harmony: notes sounded together clash (e.g., John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman) - good music contains elements of both consonance and dissonance; - dissonance creates tension and consonance resolves it - what happens when too much of one? Vanilla vs. jalapeno watermelon ice cream (plain 3
vs. chaotic) 8) Gregorian Chant - musical prayer - 6th century, named after Pope Gregory the Great - written and sung by monks (men who live in monastery under common vows and rules) and clerics (priests) as a form of prayer throughout the day and at Mass - originally not intended for public performance or consumption; nowadays when you buy/download it, you consume it - melody is the only idea being expressed in GC (i.e., no harmony!) - monophonic (able to produce one note at a time) vs. polyphonic (can produce multiple notes at once) - narrow melodic range - moves mostly in stepwise motion (vs. leaps or skips) - principal music of Western civilization for 1000+ years - largest and oldest body of Christian music - Western art music comes from Gregorian Chant 9) Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565), performed by Karl Richter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iflltcn7gju) - born in Eisenach (in what is now present-day Germany) into a musical family - studied several instruments, including organ and violin - worked as a musician or composer at various courts and churches - St. Thomas, Leipzig- most significant and longest employment - wrote numerous secular and sacred pieces (e.g., the Bach Boxed Set in the library) - secular vs. sacred music - fugue: kind of piece built on a subject or theme introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently - 20 children! 4 of whom became composers in their own right (Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philip Emmanuel, Johann Christian, and Johann Christoph Friedrich) - his music was virtually forgotten after his death (remembered more as a performer and teacher); his status as a legendary composer didn t happen until well after his death (esp. Pablo Casals in the 1930s) - Was Bach a punk? - frequently clashed with his superiors over issues of pay and quality of musicians at his employ (e.g., jailed by Duke of Weimar for trying to end his contract before its term expired) - recent research suggests that his early education was troubled by gang warfare, bullying, sadism, and his own extensive truancy - abusive to his students as a teacher - What is Punk Music? It s meant to make someone angry (self, listeners, government, religion, etc.). - if we agree to this definition, then Bach is a Punk! - Musikaliches Opfer (The Musical Offering) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- 4
WW4Rm2wO20) - Bach meets Frederick the Great in 1747 and is challenged to compose music based on Frederick s theme. He ultimately goes home and composes what would become The Musical Offering. - See also http://bit.ly/20mtzsq. - What a punk! - Johann Sebastian Bach is considered one of the most important composers of western art music. His life experiences as a somewhat dislikable character would suggest that he connects (if only incidentally) to punk music and some of its mores. - Bonus Listening - Fugue in G Minor (BWV 578): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvadl4ocx0m 5