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Music

• Human feelings of pride, satisfaction, hope, accomplishment, failures, fears, and joy may be expressed beyond
words but can be conveyed through music.

• The power of music goes beyond words. It can penetrate thinking, change moods, stimulate ideas, create space
around man or affect man in a negative way.

• Although words are used in some music pieces, the listeners’ reaction to it differ, depending on the person’s
disposition, mood and many other human characteristics.

MUSIC as a human activity is very complex. It involves creativity in putting together melody to express an experience, a
feeling, idea, words and other things.

SOUND IN MUSIC

SOUND In music, what confronts the audience is tones. This is it’s physical property – the thing which is encountered by
our senses. All sounds is produced by vibrations.

Sound begins with the vibration of an object.

• As a result of the vibrations, our eardrums start vibrating too, and impulses, or signals, are transmitted to the
brain. There the impulses are selected, organized, and interpreted.

Properties of musical sounds:

1. Duration: the length of time a musical sound lasts. It is how long a note or rest is to be played. Notes and rests
have fractional durations.

2. Pitch is the relative highness or lowness that we hear in a sound

• The pitch of a sound is determined by the frequency of its vibrations.

• The faster the vibrations, the higher the pitch; the slower the vibrations, the lower the pitch.
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• In general, the smaller the vibrating object, the faster its vibrations and the higher its pitch. All other things being
equal, plucking a short string produces a higher pitch than plucking a long string. The relatively short strings of a
violin produce higher pitches than do the longer strings of a double bass.

• In music, a sound can be pleasant and has a definite pitch called tone. It has a specific frequency, such as 440
cycles per second. The vibrations of a tone are regular and reach the ear at equal time intervals.

Noise like sounds are unpleasant sounds (squeaking brakes or clashing cymbals) and have an indefinite pitch because
they are produced by irregular vibrations.

• 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.

– The range of the average untrained voice is between 1 and 2 octaves;

– A pianos range is over 7 octaves.

When men and women sing the same melody, they usually sing it an octave apart.
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Dynamics -Degrees of loudness or softness in music.

• Sounds, including music, can be barely audible, or loud enough to hurt your ears, or anywhere in between.
When they want to talk about the loudness of a sound, scientists and engineers talk about amplitude. Musicians
talk about dynamics. The amplitude of a sound is a particular number, usually measured in decibels, but
dynamics are relative; an orchestra playing fortissimo sounds much louder than a single violin playing fortissimo.

Dynamic expression developed slowly during the 18th century as improvements were made to instruments of the
orchestra that increased their freedom of expression. The piano was also becoming a more important instrument at this
time. Its name ‘fortepiano’ was used to advertise its greater expressive advantages over the fixed-register harpsichord.
After 1950 many composers experimented with serialism (twelve-tone music) and attempted to bring dynamics under
serial control

– Crescendo: A gradual increase in loudness. It often creates excitement, particularly when the pitch rises
too.

– Decrescendo: a gradual decrease in loudness. It can be used to convey a sense of calm.

When notating music, composers have traditionally used Italian words, and their abbreviations, to indicate dynamics.
The most common terms are:

The Elements of Music

Certain key elements are what all music is based on - melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics - that are essential in
establishing the essence of music.

As with anything, there is an elemental basis for the composition of music. The material essence of music lies with its
melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics.

Melody gives music soul, while rhythm blends the expression of harmony and dynamics with the tempo of the passage.
All are necessary to create a recognizable pattern known as a "song."
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1. Rhythm is, by its simplest definition, musical time. The origin

of the word is Greek, meaning "flow." Rhythm is indeed the
embodiment of timely flow. As meter regulates and pulsates
a poem, rhythm organizes music in much the same way. The
regular pulsations of the music are called the beat. Stronger
beats are referred to as "accented" beats.

Rhythm is the flow of music through time.

• Beat: is a regular, recurrent pulsation that

divides music into equal units of time.

• Meter: 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.

Measures of music divide a piece into time-counted segments. Strong beats occur in patterns. For instance, in 4/4 time,
the conductor would beat a strong beat on the first beat of every measure and another accented beat - although not as
strong - on the third count of the measure. Because the
conductor's arms move downward on strong beats,
especially those that begin a measure, accented beats
are also referred to as "downbeats.

• A group containing a fixed number of beats is

called a measure.

Time patterns in music are referred to in terms of meter. Two beats to a measure is duple meter, while the three beat
measures of a waltz indicate triple meter. Four beats to a measure is known as common time, or quadruple time. Six
beats to a measure is representative of time that can be divided by three, such as six beats to a measure with accented
beats on the first and fourth beats. When the melody falls on notes that occur between beats, it said to be syncopated
time.
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Accent

An important aspect of rhythm is the way individual notes

are stressed how they get special emphasis. A note is
emphasized most obviously by being played louder than the
notes around it, that is, by receiving a dynamic accent. (Ex.
Nutcracker)

The Horizontal Accent:

• This is what most musicians refer to when they speak about an "Accent Mark". When you see an ACCENT
SIGN over or under a note you should be playing that note LOUDER.

The Vertical Accent:

• also called the "housetop" means that you have to be play a certain note MORE FORCEFULLY and
usually SHORTER than the horizontal accent. You'll see that accent mark less often and usually in an unconsistent
way.

Staccato:

• This music accent tells us we have to add PAUSAS between two notes, yet we're still supposed to hear the pitch
of the tone clearly. In other word the last part of the note should be silenced.

Staccatissimo:

• When we see the Staccatissimo sign, we're usually supposed to articulate a note SHORTER than the staccato. It
will be so short that it will be harder to hear the pitch of the tone on the piano.

Tenuto:

• indicates that a note should be played for its full value. The result is that we even prolong it a little. Sometimes it
is natural to play Tenuto notes a bit louder and to separate that note with a little space from surrounding note to
give it more importance.

SYNCOPATION

A syncopation or syncopated rhythm is any rhythm that puts an emphasis on

a beat, or a subdivision of a beat, that is not usually emphasized. When an
accented note comes where we normally would not expect one.

Along with rhythm comes the idea of rate or pace. Not every song is slow.
Neither is every song fast. Tempo is the musical term that indicates the overall
pace of an arrangement. Tempo markings include grave, meaning solemn and
extremely slow or allegro, meaning fast and cheerful. A gamut of musical terms
for rhythm exists.

• Tempo: is the speed of the beat, the basic pace of the music.
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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.

A tempo indication is usually given at the beginning of a piece. As with dynamics, the terms that show tempo (at the left)
are in Italian.

• Largo – very slow, broad • Allegretto – moderately fast

• Grave – very slow, solemn • Allegro – fast

• Adagio – slow • Vivace – lively

• Andante – moderately slow, a walking pace • Presto – very fast

• Moderato – moderate • Prestissimo – as fast as possible

Metronome, an apparatus which produces ticking sounds or flashes of light at any desired musical speed. The
metronome setting indicates the exact number of beats per minute.

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

• An accelerando, especially when combined with a rise in pitch and volume, increases excitement, and a
ritardando is associated with less tension and a feeling of conclusion.

2. Melody is a musical and successive line of single tones or pitches perceived as a unity. Its characteristics include
range, shape, and movement. Each of these will be discussed separately.

 Range -- The range of a piece is the distance between the lowest and highest tones. Singers refer to an
arrangement being in a low, medium, or high range, meaning that the notes focus on those scale pitches. A piece
that has a narrow range is one in which the melody centers around a few given notes. In contrast, an
arrangement calling for a wide range takes the musician from low to high pitches, often encompassing as many
as fifteen whole steps on the scale.
 Shape -- Melody takes its own direction, or shape. When musicians talk about the shape of a melody line, they
are referring to the literal geometric line that could be made if the notes were joined together as in a dot-to-dot
puzzle. Notes that ascend up the scale take on an upward shape, while phrases that descend are shaped in a
downward motion. If the phrase stays within a narrow range, the shape is wavelike.
 Movement -- Movement can be either conjunct or disjunction. When the melody moves stepwise and is
connected, the movement is termed conjunct. Melody that leaps from pitch to pitch with no natural connection
or flow is said to be disjunction.

Melody is structured by its length and intensity much like sentences in a spoken language. For instance, a phrase in music
is a unit of meaning within the larger structure of the song in its entirety. Other examples include the cadence and the
climax. A cadence is a final ending to a musical section. A climax is a high point of intensity.

How the tones of a melody are performed can vary its effect, too. Sometimes they are sung or played in a smooth,
connected style called legato.

They may also be performed in a short, detached manner called staccato.

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3. Harmony: refers to the way chords are constructed and how they follow each other.

 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.

The question addressed here is, what happens when two sounds are played together? At issue is, when does a musical
chord "sound good", or is consonant, and when does a musical chord "sound bad", or is dissonant. These judgements of
things sounding "good" and "bad" have little to do with physics. They generally are quite subjective, meaning different
people will have different opinions. Despite this, there is a physiological response to two sounds played together that is
common to most people.

Notes that sound good together when played at the same time are called consonant. Chords built only of consonances
sound pleasant and "stable"; you can listen to one for a long time without feeling that the music needs to change to a
different chord.

Notes that are dissonant can sound harsh or unpleasant when played at the same time. Or they may simply feel
"unstable"; if you hear a chord with a dissonance in it, you may feel that the music is pulling you towards the chord that
resolves the dissonance.

Obviously, what seems pleasant or unpleasant is partly a matter of opinion.

Consonance and dissonance refer to intervals and chords. The interval between two notes is the number of half steps
between them, and all intervals have a name that musicians commonly use, like major third (which is 4 half steps),
perfect fifth (7 half steps), or octave.

The simple intervals that are considered to be consonant are the minor third, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth,
minor sixth, major sixth, and the octave

In modern Western Music, all of

these intervals are considered to
be pleasing to the ear. Chords that contain only these intervals are considered to be "stable", restful chords that don't
need to be resolved. When we hear them, we don't feel a need for them to go to other chords.

The intervals that are considered to be dissonant are the minor second, the major second, the minor seventh, the major
seventh, and particularly the tritone, which is the interval in between the perfect fourth and perfect fifth.

These intervals are all considered to be somewhat unpleasant or tension-producing. In tonal music, chords containing
dissonances are considered "unstable"; when we hear them, we expect them to move on to a more stable chord.
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Moving from a dissonance to the consonance that is expected to follow it is called resolution, or resolving the
dissonance. The pattern of tension and release created by resolved dissonances is part of what makes a piece of music
exciting and interesting. Music that contains no dissonances can tend to seem simplistic or boring. On the other hand,
music that contains a lot of dissonances that are never resolved (for example, much of twentieth-century "classical" or
"art" music) can be difficult for some people to listen to, because of the unreleased tension.

Resolving Dissonances

In most music a dissonance will resolve; it will be followed

by a consonant chord that it naturally leads to, for
example a G seventh chord resolves to a C major chord,
and a D suspended fourth resolves to a D major chord. A
series of unresolved dissonances, on the other hand, can
produce a sense of unresolved tension.

Why are some note combinations consonant and some

dissonant? Preferences for certain sounds is partly
cultural; that's one of the reasons why the traditional
music of various cultures can sound so different from each other. Even within the tradition of Western music, opinions
about what is unpleasantly dissonant have changed a great deal over the centuries. But consonance and dissonance do
also have a strong physical basis in nature.

The Triad

• A great variety of chords have been used in music. Some chords consist of three
different tones; others have four, five, or even more. Depending on their makeup,
chords sound simple or complex, calm or tense, bright or dark.

• The simplest, most basic chord is the triad (pronounced try-ad), which consists of
three tones.

The bottom tone is called the root; the others are a third and a fifth above the root.

Broken Chords (Arpeggios): When the individual tones of a chord are

sounded one after another, it is called a broken chord, or arpeggio.
Arpeggios may appear in the melody or in the accompaniment

• Key: involves not only a central tone but also a central scale and chord. A piece in the key of C has a basic
scale, do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do, with C as its do, or tonic. Key, then, refers to the presence of a central note, scale,
and chord within a piece. Another term for key is tonality.
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Modulation: Change of Key

• Shifting from one key to another within the same piece is called modulation. A modulation is like a temporary
shift in the center of gravity. When the music starts out in the key of C major, for instance, C is the central tone,
and the C major scale and chord predominate. With a modulation to G major, G temporarily becomes the central
tone, and the G major scale and chord are now the main ones. Though modulations are sometimes subtle and
difficult to spot, they produce subconscious effects that increase our enjoyment of the music.

Texture: homophonic, Polyphonic, Monophonic

• Polyphonic Texture

• Simultaneous performance of two or more melodic lines of relatively equal interest produces the texture
called polyphonic, meaning having many sounds. In polyphony several melodic lines compete for attention.
(When several jazz musicians improvise different melodies at
once, they produce polyphony.)

The technique of combining several melodic lines into a meaningful

whole is called counterpoint.

• The term contrapuntal texture is sometimes used in place of

polyphonic texture

• Polyphonic music often contains imitation, which occurs when

a melodic idea is presented by one voice or instrument and is
then restated immediately by another voice or instrument.

• Homophonic Texture: When we hear one main melody

accompanied by chords, the texture is homophonic.

• Monophonic Texture: When we hear one main melody without

accompaniment, the texture is monophonic.
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• Form: in music is the organization of musical elements in time. In a musical composition, pitch, tone color,
dynamics, rhythm, melody, and texture interact to produce a sense of shape and structure.

Once a song is organized by melody, harmony, and rhythm, it is technically presentable. Although some indication of
mood is expressed through the tempo at which a piece is meant to be played, without dynamics, music lacks the
emotion behind the musical thought.

Dynamics tell the performer when to play loudly or more softly and when to change from one to the other. From
pianissimo (as soft as you can play) to fortissimo (the loudest you can play), music ranges from a whisper to the fullest of
sound.

Hence, the composer utilizes the tools of composition for the intimacies of musical expression - melody, harmony,
rhythm, and dynamics - all a part of what we know simply as a "song."

Musical Instruments

1. String instruments work on the basis of sound wave vibrations that are created with the help of strings. The pitch
of the sound note produced depends on the length of the air column as well as the type and thickness of the
string involved.
2. Wind instruments require a person to blow into the instrument in order to produce the desired sound. They
work on the principle of sound waves, frequencies, harmonics, resonance and acoustics.

 flute  English horn

 piccolo  oboe
 clarinet  saxophone
 bassoon
3. All those shiny trumpets and trombones that feature so prominently in jazz and blues music are classic examples
of brass instruments. Brass instruments are named so, not because all of them are made from brass, but because
of the nature and texture of the sound that they produce.
4. Percussion instruments require a person to strike or beat the instrument surface in order to generate vibrations,
which then produce the desired sound note. Depending on the type of surface, one can use one's hands, sticks,
or other similar objects for striking the instrument surface.