Music

A part of the world of sound, an art based on the organization of sounds in time.

We distinguish music from other sounds by recognizing pitch, dynamics, tone colour, and duration.

The relative highness or lowness that we hear in a sound.

Smaller objects vibrate faster and have higher pitches. Plucking a short string produces a higher pitch than a long string.

In music, a sound that has a definite pitch is called a tone.

Two tones will sound different when they have different pitches. The distance in pitch between any two tones is called an interval.

When tones are separated by the interval called an octave, they sound very much alike.

The distance between the lowest and highest tones that a voice or instrument can produce is called its pitch range, or simply its range.

Degrees of loudness or softness in music are called dynamics. Loudness is related to the amplitude of the vibration that produces the sound.

A performer can emphasize a tone by playing it more loudly than the tones around it. An emphasis of this kind is called an accent.

When notating music, composers have traditionally used Italian words, and their abbreviations, to indicate dynamics.

Decrescendo or diminuendo means gradually softer; crescendo means gradually louder.

We can tell one instrument from another when each of them is playing the same tone at the same dynamic level. The quality that distinguishes them is called tone colour or timbre.

In singing we use wider rangers of pitch and volume than in speaking, and we hold vowel sounds longer. Singing demands a greater supply and control of breath.

The classification of voice ranges for men arranged from highest to lowest is tenor, baritone, and bass.

Pizzicato describes a musician who plucks the string, usually with a finger of the right hand.

Vibrato occurs when the string player produces a throbbing, expressive tone by rocking the left hand while pressing the string down. This causes small pitch fluctuations that make the tone warmer.

The main woodwind instruments of the symphony orchestra are in four families with the highest being the piccolo flute.

In single-reed woodwinds, the reed is fastened over a hole in the mouthpiece and vibrates when the player blows into the instrument. The saxophone, an instrument used mainly in bands, has a single reed.

The vibration of brass instruments comes from the musician's lips as he or she blows into a cup or funnel-shaped mouthpiece.

Brass players can alter the tone colour of their instruments by inserting a mute into the bell, the flared end of the instrument's tube. Mutes for brass instruments come in different shapes and are made of wood, plastic, or metal.

Timpani (kettledrums) have definite pitch.

Beat is a regular, recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time. Beats can be represented by marks on a time line.

Rhythm forms the lifeblood of music. In its widest sense, rhythm is the flow of music through time. It has several interrelated aspects, which we'll consider in turn: beat, meter, accent and syncopation, and tempo.

In music we find a repeated pattern of a strong beat plus one or more weaker beats. The organization of beats into regular groups is called meter.

When an accented note comes where we normally would not expect one, the effect is known as syncopation. A syncopation occurs when an "offbeat" note is accented--that is, when the stress comes between two beats.

Tempo--the speed of the beat--is the basic pace of the music. A fast tempo is associated with a feeling of energy, drive, and excitement. A slow tempo often contributes to a solemn, lyrical, or calm mood.

Andante = moderately slow, a walking pace; allegro = fast; adagio = slow; largo = very slow, broad

A gradual quickening of tempo may be indicated by writing accelerando (becoming faster), and a gradual slowing down of tempo by ritardando (becoming slower).

Since about 1816, composers have been able to indicate their preferred tempos by means of a metronome, an apparatus that produces ticking sounds or flashes of light at any desired musical speed. The metronome setting indicates the exact number of beats per minute.

Seven of the twelve pitches (tones) that fill the octave in western music are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet. This sequence is repeated over and over to represent the "same" tones in higher and lower octaves, and it corresponds to the white keys of the piano.

A staff is a set of five horizontal lines. Notes are positioned either on the lines of the staff or between them, in the spaces; the higher a note is placed on the staff, the higher the pitch.

A clef is placed at the beginning of the staff to show the pitch of each line and space.

Duration of silence is notated by using a symbol called a rest. Rests are pauses; their durations correspond to those of notes.

A time signature (or meter signature) shows the meter of a piece. The upper number tells how many beats fall in a measure; the lower number tells what kind of note gets the beat.

A melody moves by small intervals called steps or by larger ones called leaps. A step is the interval between two adjacent tones in the do-re-mi scale (from do to re, re to mi, etc.).

Frequently a melody will serve as the starting point for a more extended piece of music and, in stretching out, will go through all kinds of changes. This kind of melody is called a theme.

Harmony refers to the way chords are constructed and how they follow each other. Harmonizing adds support, depth, and richness to the melody.

A chord is a combination of three or more tones sounded at once. Essentially, a chord is a group of simultaneous tones, and a melody is a series of individual tones heard one after another.

Some chords consist of three different tones; others have four, five, or even more. The simplest, most basic chord is the triad, which consists of three tones.

Practically all familiar melodies are built around a central tone toward which the other tones gravitate and on which the melody usually ends. This central tone is the keynote, or tonic. A keynote can be any of the twelve tones of the octave. When a piece is in the key of C, for example, C is the keynote, or tonic.

The triad built on the fifth note of the scale (sol) is next in importance to the tonic. It is called the dominant chord, which is strongly pulled toward the tonic chord. This attraction has great importance in music. A dominant chord sets up tension that is resolved by the tonic chord.

A keynote can be of any of the twelve tones of the octave. When a piece is in the key of C, for example, C is the keynote, or tonic. Key involves not only a central tone but also a central scale and chord.

Another term for tonality is key, the presence of a central note, scale, and chord within a piece, with all the other tones heard in relationship to them.

Each major or minor scale has a specific number of sharps or flats ranging from none to seven. To indicate the key of a piece of music, the composer uses a key signature, consisting of sharp or flat signs immediately following the clef sign at the beginning of the staff.

At a particular moment within a piece, we may hear one unaccompanied melody, several simultaneous melodies, or a melody with supporting chords. To describe these various possibilities, we use the term musical texture, which refers to how many different layers of sound are heard at once, to what kind of layers they are (melody or harmony), and to how they are related to each other.

The texture of a single melodic line without accompaniment is monophonic, meaning literally having one sound

Performance of a single melodic line at the same pitch by more than one instrument or voice is playing or singing in unison and results in a fuller, richer-sounding monophonic texture.

When we hear one main melody accompanied by chords, the texture is homophonic. Attention is focused on the melody, which is supported and coloured by sounds of subordinate interest.

The word form is associated with shape, structure, organization, and coherence. Form in music is the organization of musical elements in time. In a musical composition, pitch, tone color, dynamics, melody, and texture interact to produce a sense of shape and structure. All parts of the composition are interrelated.

Forward motion, conflict, and change of mood all come from contrast. Opposition--of loud and soft, strings and woodwinds, fast and slow, major and minor--propels and develops musical ideas. Sometimes such contrast is complete, but at other times the opposites have common elements that give a sense of continuity.

Three-part form can be represented as statement (A), contrast or departure (B), and return (A). When the return of A is varied, the form is outlined ABA'.

In music, style refers to a characteristic way of using melody, rhythm, tone color, dynamics, harmony, texture, and form. The particular way these elements are combined can result in a total sound that's distinctive or unique.