Musical Elements

Music plays a vital role in human society- Provides entertainment. Concerts Informal music making Singing to the radio Provides emotional release Stress reducer Accompanies activities Dances Sporting events Church

What is Music? An art based on the organization of sounds in time.

Recorded performance is a sensational innovation of the twentieth century. Modern technology Computers Ipod’s Stereo 200 years ago, you had to go to a concert hall to listen to music. You can listen to music as often as you want, wherever you want.

Live performances provide a special excitement. Artists put themselves on the line. Training and magnetism must overcome technical difficulties to involve the listener’s emotions. Only exists for a moment- can never be repeated. Allows for more exchange of feelings and emotions between artist and audience.

Our response to a musical performance or an artist is subjective and rooted in deep feeling. Even pr0fessional critics can differ strongly in their evaluations of a performance. No one “truth” about what we hear and feel. Up to listeners to evaluate performances of music.

Sound: Pitch, Dynamics, and Tone Color

Sounds bombard our ears every day Squeaks and honks of traffic Laughter Dog’s barking Rain/Wind We need sounds to communicate Silence can communicate just as well as sound.

Sounds may be perceived as pleasant or unpleasant We can direct our attention to different sounds Party Focus on people we are talking too. Ignore conversations further away. Actually, we shut out most sounds, paying attention only to those of interest. 4’33’’- John Cage

What is sound? The sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium. Begins with the vibration of an object, such as a table that is pounded or a string that is plucked. Vibrations are transmitted to our ears by a medium, which is usually air. Eardrums start vibrating too, and impulses, or signals, are transmitted to the brain. Impulses are selected, organized, and interpreted.

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

Without differences of pitch, speech would be boring, and- worse- there would be no music as we know it. Pitch of sound is determined by the frequency of its vibrations. Faster=Higher Slower=Lower

In music, a sound that has a definite pitch is called a tone. Specific frequency A=440 cycles per second

Two tones will sound different when they have different pitches. The “distance” in pitch between any two tones is called an interval. An octave is a specific distance between pitches of the same name. Ex. A1 to A2 Number of cycles doubles for every octave up. When sounded at the same time, two tones an octave apart blend so well that they almost seem to merge into one tone.

Octave Filled with seven different pitches before arriving at the top note, which “duplicates” the starting note. These seven tones dominated western civilization for centuries. Seven tones are produced by the white keys of the piano. Five pitches were added. Black keys of the keyboard.

Range The distance between the lowest and highest tones that a voice or instrument can produce is called its pitch range, or simply its range. Untrained voice- between 1 and 2 octaves Piano- over 7 octaves

Dynamics Degrees of loudness or softness in music are called dynamics. Can be sudden Can be gradual Accent When a performer emphasizes a tone by playing/singing it more loudly than the tones around it.

TermAbbreviationMeaning PianissimoppVery soft PianopSoft Mezzo pianompModerately soft Mezzo fortemfModerately loud FortefLoud FortissimoffVery loud

For extremes of softness and loudness, composers use ppp or pppp and fff and ffff Crescendo Decrescendo

Tone Color We can tell a trumpet from a flute even when each of them is playing the same tone at the same dynamic level. The characteristic quality of each instrument’s sound is called its tone color, or timre. Changes in tone color create variety and contrast. Tone colors build a sense of continuity. A practically unlimited variety of tone colors is available to composers.