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MUSICC
MEANTNG OF MUSIC
NATURE OF MUSIC
From the earliest times, people have always
enjoyed making music. Music can be made with the
voice or by playing an instrument: The first instruments
were played more than 35,000 years ago when people
blew into shells and hollow mammoth bones. Today's
instruments are more complicated; the sounds they
make can be high or tow: This is known as the pitch of
the note. The way these sounds are arranged is called
the tune. Rhythm is the pattern of long and short notes. A
skilful musician can make the same tune sound slow and
sleepy or loud and jazzy.
In ancient Greece, music originally referred to all arts presided over by the
nine Muses. For the Greek Philosophers, music was a concrete expression of the
order or the disorder that is present in life and reality. Plato contends that
musical harmonies and rhythms imitate basic patterns in the universe and the
and
soul. Certain musical forms engender love, grace, courage, temperance,
other virtues. On the other hand, there are musical modes that may induce
cOwardice, intemperance., and other vices. What athletics does for the body,
the music does to the mind.
In his ideal society, Plato assigned moral
education as the key function of music.
For him, "'musical training is a more potent
instrument than any other because
rhythm and harmony find their way into
the inward places of the soul on which
they mightily fasten, impairing grace. and
making the soul of himn who is rightBly
educated graceful, or of him who is ill
educated ungraceful....he who has
received this true education of the inner
A being will most shrewdly perceive
omissions or faults in art and nature, and
with a true taste."
PURPOSE/TUNGTIONS OF MUSIC
PROPERTIES OF MUSIC
another.
p l a p s r on a n e q A a t p i g u s
Elements of Music
1. Melody -
is the series of
consecutive tones, varying in pitch and duration, but
forminga line of individual significance and expressive value.
2. Rhythm -
if refers 1o the fime element produced by accent and duraticn
o
musical sounds. An accent is a stress or emphasis on a note.
6. Style this refers to the composer or singer's way of doing his part.
Princlples of Music
which combine
1. heme- consists of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic elements,
to give musical idea a distinct character or individuality.
form consisting
5. Structure- it is either ternary. Binary is a basic musical
binary or
And ternary from which a
of fwo main sections which are usually repeated.
common musical form consisting
of three main sections.
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Sections of an Orchestra
Four Musical
1. The Strings
a.) Violin
b.) Viola .
'
2. The Brass
Piceto
a.) French Horn
b.) Trumpet
c.) Trombone
d.) tuba
rur
a.) Piccolo
b.) Flute
c. Oboe
d. English horn
. aro:**
e.) Clarinet
.) Bassoon
g) Saxophone
4. The Percussions
a.) Cymbals
b Tambourine
C.) Xylophone 415DON
d.) Drums
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3. The ensemble medium- produced when two or more performers equally singg
or play a piece of music.
a.) The orchestra- composed of any group of instrumental performers andis
USUally under the direction of a conductor.
b.) The symphony orchestra- this is a large ensemble wherein all the types of
principal instruments are included
c.) Concerto- in this ensemble, one sole instrument is given a dominant role i
music.
d.) Band- an instrumental ensemble. Iarge like an orchestra but is exclusively
composed of wind and percussion instrument.
e.) Randall- the most popular instrumental group in the Philippines.
f.) Chamber orchestra applies to small instrumental ensembles. There are only a
few performers.for a certain musical part.
KINDS OF MUSIC
may create or
improvise he goes along,
as that is, he can change the
rhythm, the timing
the loudness as he pleases. and
sings with clear tones:; an Islamic preacheror muezin calls people to prayer ina
mosque or from an Austrian who makes of the yodel to project his musicC.
use
Pop and rock singers use microphones to make their voices louder, so they
the
can sing softly and stil be heard by a large crowd. Everyone has a comfortable
siniging range. The highest singing voice is the soprano. In a chiid this is caliled a
treble-Then the ato, called a counter tenor in a man. Men USually sing in one or
two ranges -either tencr or bass.
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Why Music Affects Us
either would
MUSIC and language uniqyely human. A world without
are
De hard to
imagine. "Both language and music are characteristics of the human
species that seem to be universal" says the book The Musical Mind. They are
aspects of our need to communicate. So it could be said that, as is frue o
anguage, when music "'speaks" our emotions "listen.
Why and how does music speak to our emotions? To answer that we
need to consider: (1) the musical elements themselves and the way that our
brains process them: {2) our emotional makeup and cultural backgrounds which
influence our reaction to music; and (3) language, which can also affect our
reactions.
Musele and the Brain
Some suggests that language and logic are predominantly functions of the
left side of the brain, while music is processed in the right side of the brain, which
deals largely with feelings and emotions, Whether this is so or not, it is obvious
that music evokes spontaneous reáctions from listeners. The journal Perceptual
and Motor Skills expresses it this way: "Music has the power to create feelings
and emotions in a quick and effective manner. What a book would require
many sentences for description... in music can often be conveyed by just one
measure or one chord."
As to the interaction between seeing and and the responses to
hearing
each of these, the book, Music and the Mind makes this
interesting observation:
"there isa closer relation between hearing and emotional arousal than there is
between seeing and emotional arousal. Seeing a wounded animal or
.
Suffering person who is silent may prodUce little emotional response in the
observer. But once they start to scream, the onlooker is
usually powerfully
moved."
The Power of Music
"Music alone with sudden charms can bind the wandering sense, and calm
the troubled mind."
So wrote Williaim Congreve about 300 years ago in his Hymn to Harmony.
Centuries earlier, ancient Greek writings claimed that "musical training is a more
potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way
into the inward places of the soul."
The truthfulness of that had been seen by some parents who have
observed their teenagers being sullen and'
uncooperative after feeding on a
steady diet of heavy metal music. It was also seen during the 1930s and 1940s in
Germany when the Nazis used stirring march music to help prepare
large
crowds to listen to Adolf Hitler's mesmerizing
speeches.
Unquestionably music can affect minds and hearts and can be used to
manipuiate them either for good or for bad. For example, exposure of young
children to certain types of music is believed to enhance their intellectual and
emotional development. Even those who stammer can sometimes
sing
sing
sentences they cannot speak.
String. The leader of an orchestra is always a violin player who sits near the
conductor. The string instruments consist of the violin, the viola, the cello and the
double bass. The violin is probably the best known of al orchestral instruments.
The violin bow makes use of strands of horsehair coated with a soft, sticky gum
called resin to make the string vibrate properly. The ltalian musician Antonio
Stradivari was d great violin maker. The instruments he made are now 300 years
old but they still make wonderful sounds- His secret was probably a combination
of the design. the thickness of the wood and the varnish. The British violinist
Yehudi Menuhin started learning the violin when he was four and was already a
A RUssian composer, Sergei Prokofiev wrote the story and music of Peter
and the Wolf. He used the three main reed instruments in the orchestra the
clarinet, the oboe and the bassoon. The clarinet can jump easily from high to
low notes. play very loudly or very quietly and move fast or slow. The low sounds
are rich and velvety: the ones are piercing and bright. It is likened to the
high
sound of a cat. The oboe can also move very quickly from sound to sound. its
low sound are raucous and reedy, its high ones thin and penetrating. This is
possible because the oboe has two reeds which vibrate against each other,
exactly like the shawm. The bassoon's tubing is four times as long as that of the
oboe. If makes a lower sOund than the other reed instruments, which was shy i
was chosen to play the voice of Peter's grandfather.