MUSI 1900 Notes: Christine Blair Silence The absence of sound o It is a relative concept and we rarely experience absolute science since the basic functions of our body and daily life activities produce sound Vibrations give rise to sound waves, which in turn affects the eardrums and set into motion a multi- stage process of auditory perception. Music The purposeful organization of the quality, pitch, duration, and intensity, of the sound. o Can also be defined as organized sound that is meaningful to people at a specific time and place. People of different cultural backgrounds can define it differently. There is no specific universally assigned definition to music. Example: The Venda people in South African music are believed to be founded not on melody, but on a rhythmical stirring of the whole body, of which singing is but one extension. Katajjaq (Inuit Vocal Game) Generally sung by two Inuit women who stand or sit face to face, sometimes holding each others shoulders, competing for who can sing longer until eventually one women runs out of breath and they both end up giggling. o Amongst the Inuit this style of singing is considered a game and not considered as being music, or hold much musical value. Quality The color of a sound, arising from acoustical properties of the harmonic series. Also called timbre. o Tone Color: Sometimes musicians use the expression tone color to describe the distinctive sound of a particular voice or instrument. Timbre: The distinctiveness of a particular voice or instrument, arising from acoustical properties of the harmonic series. Also called quality. All of the above come from Sound Sources: The voices and instruments that produce musical sound and whose vibrations give rise to our perceptions of quality. More on Sound Sources Each sound source generates certain harmonies that render its sound distinctive and enable the listener to distinguish between what is a piano and guitar.
o Details such as the construction of an instrument, including the materials of which is was made of and subtle aspects of craftsmanship, also play are a huge contributor to the quality of the sound. Aspects of Sound Production that Shape Quality are the qualities of music that allow a certain sound or voice to begin, sustain and then finally end. Onset of a sound = attack (Wind Instruments have strong attack, forceful blow of air) Death of sound = decay (Piano has petals that help quicken their decay) Vocal Chords Different than other instruments and special due to the fact they are hidden in the human body. There are also many different ways that the voice can produce a distinctive sound. o Khoomi Singers: Example of My Beautiful Hanagi Land (Mongolian Long Song) Produced a range of vocal articulations that produce qualities encountered in many Sound Scapes that are easily recognized. There are some voice inflections that are unexpected and random. Sound quite unnecessary and annoying. o There is the evident use of Vibrato: A regular fluctuation of sound, produced by varying the pitch of a sound. Example: The Western violin can produce much vibrato. o Straight Tone: A sound that lacks any vibrato. Example: The bow accompanying the annoying singer in that stupid song. o Raspy: (Terminology used to describe vocal quality which is usually subjective) A singling voice that is rough or gruff sounding in quality. Other describing words could be sweet, warm, cold. Example 2: Wreck of the Old 97 (Traditional American Folk Song) You can hear many vocal qualities in his voice in this hick song that can be described as: o Nasal: A buzzing vocal quality produced by using the sinuses and mask of the face as sound resonators. A singer is able to alter the quality of the tone or voice they produce by using the following elements accordingly: o Chest Voice: Sound resonated from within the chest, with a low, powerful, throaty vocal quality. o Head Voice: A light, bright, high tone resonated in the head. o Falsetto: The process of singing by men in a high register above the normal male singing range. The lower line in music is referred to as a Drone.
Organology The study of musical instruments. o Sachs- Hornbostel System: A classification of musical instruments, named after the scholars who developed the system. o Idiophones: Instruments that produce sound by being vibrated. One of the 5 main classes of instruments in that system mentioned above. Idiophones are classified by the way they are caused to vibrate: soncussion, struck, stamped, shaken, plucked or rubbed. Examples of Idiophones include: gongs, bells, and your two hands and feet. o Chordophones: Instruments with strings that can be plucked or bowed; they are subdivided into zithers, lutes, lyres and harps. Lute: Chordophones whose strings are stretched along a neck and body, such as the ukulele, and guitar. Bow: An implement resembling an archer s bow used to sound string instruments; in some places, the bow itself is plucked to produce sound. Harp: Chordophone whose strings run at an angle away from the soundboard, subcategorized by shape, playing position and tunings. Lyre: Chordophone whose strings are stretched over a soundboard and attached to a crossbar that spans the top of a yoke. Zither: A chordophone without a neck or yoke whose strings are stretched parallel to the soundboard. o Aerophones: Instruments that sound by means of vibrating air; one of the five main classes of instruments in that system subdivided into trumpets, pipes, and horns as well as free aerophones. Free Reed: Aerophones that have enclosed reeds through which air is pushed, such as those within the bagpipe. o Membranophones: Instruments whose sound is produced by a membrane stretched over an opening. Distinguished by their material, shape, number of skins, how the skins are fastened, playing position and manner of playing. Example Sabar Drum. o Electrophones: Instruments that produce sound using electricity, subdivided into electromechanical instruments and digital electronic instruments. Human air/ voice conforms best to this area. Intensity The perceived loudness or softness of a sound. Often referred to as volume or dynamics. o Instruments such as the bagpipe were originally constructed for outdoor performance, that why their sound has a high level of intensity and annoyingness.
o The loudness or softness of a sound can be read by using a decibel meter, as the human ear cannot measure precisely. Pitch The highness or lowness of a sound. Frequency: a faster vibration producing a high sound and a slower vibration producing a lower sound. Relative highness/ lowness= pitch. o Range: The distance between the highest and the lowest pitches that can be sung or played by a voice or instrument. o Interval: The distance between two pitches. An octave can be an interval. o Melody: A sequence of pitches, also called a tune heard in the foreground of music. Other musical terms in this chapter/ section you need to know: o Conjunct Motion: Step- wise melodic movement using small intervals, as opposed to disjunct motion. o Disjunct Motion: Melodic motion by leaps of large intervals, as opposed to conjunct motion. o Ornaments: Melodic, rhythmic, and timbral elaborations or decorations such as gracings, rekrek and grace notes. Kind of like an accent placed in certain areas of music, exaggerated and enhanced. o Phrase: A brief section of music, analouges to a phrase of spoken language, that sounds somewhat complete in itself, while not selfsufficient. One phrase may be separated from the next by a brief pause to allow the singer or player a moment to breathe. Duration Generally describes the length of a piece of music or sound. o Pulse: The short, regular element of time that underlies beat and rhythm. o Rhythm: The temporal relationship within music. o Tempo: Music s rate of speed or pace. o Meter: A term describing the regular pulse of much of Western Classical music and its divisions into regular groupings of two, 3, 4, or 6 beats. o Measure: The unit of time in Western Music and musical notation in which one cycle of the meter takes place. o Simple Meter: Groupings of 2, 3, 4, beats per measure. o Accent: Emphasis on a pitch by any of several means such as increased intensity, altered range, or lengthened duration. o Compound Meter: Groups of 6, 9, 12 beats per measure. Syncopation
A rhythm effect that provides an unexpected accent, often by temporarily unsettling the meter through a change in the established pattern of stressed and unstressed beats. o Irregular Meter: Asymmetrical groupings with different numbers and beats per measure. o Free Rhythm: Rhythm that is not organized around a regular pulse. Music in the City 1900: Texture Important for Listening Examples on Exam Monophony: A single melodic line from a single sound source (or) multiple sound sources in perfect unison. The key is no accompaniment. o Pianos are sometimes hard to tell because there can be a melody and a harmony (chordal accompaniment) played at the same time (left hand and right hand). o Very few people sing monophony because it leaves their voice naked and lack of accompaniment makes errors easily heard (a cappella) o Monophony will be pretty clear because it will only be one sound source. o Is it a solo sound source? o Is it a melody and accompaniment or melody alone? Bio phony: Two sounds; but they must be a melody and a drone (one melody played over and over again) o Easiest way to hear Bio phony is through bagpipes, because there is an underlying drone sound within the soundscape of the bagpipe itself. o Can sometimes be considered a sort of buzzing noise. o The two most popular places you will hear a bio phony is pipe music, as mentioned and some organ music. You may also hear it in Carnatic music, music from India, with drones from the sitar and other cultural instruments. Polyphony: Many sounds. Another word for polyphony can be counterpoint (but many times it isn t, most of the time it s a feud, could be considered a sort of call and response). o Multiple melodic lines and multiple rhythms. o No one line is more important than the others. o Unison: Everyone is equal. o New Music, Experimental and Free Jazz o There are 12 keys and many songs will include all of them. Homophony: Basically 95% of music as you know it o Melody line with accompaniment o The accompaniment can be chordal, rhythmic, melodic, and most of the time all three are encompassed. o Rhythmic: can be the bass and drums, even if the bass and drums aren t present there will be something that can provide a rhythm through the way someone is singing, strumming, tapping their foot, etc.
o Unlike polyphony there is a melody line that is clearly dominant and the accompaniment moves together in support of the melody. Heterophony: Simultaneous variation of a single melodic line o Example: A bunch of drunk people getting together and singing Happy Birthday without a band. o Type of Music called Gamelan (not only a genre of music, one of cultural expression) that originates from Indonesia. Form The structure of a musical piece as established by its qualities, pitches and durations, as well as intensities typically consist of distinct sections that are either repeated or are used to provide contrast with other sections. o Strophic Form: A form in which all verses of text are set to the same melody. It can include a refrain that is sung between verses. o Refrain: A fixed stanza of text and music that reoccurs between verses of a strophic song. o Composition: The process of creating music. o Improvisation: The process of composing music as it is performed, drawing on convections or preexisting patterns and styles. Examples include: jazz and riffs.