Music Study Guide

Elements
Music is an art based on the organization of sounds in time. Also the universal language of man or something who knows
Pitch is the relative highness or lowness that we hear in a sound
Tone is a sound that has a definite pitch
Interval is the distance in a pitch between any two tones
Tones are separated by an interval called the octave
Tones have a specific frequency in music
Pitch range is the distance between the lowest and highest tones that a voice or instrument can produce
Range of an untrained voice is between 1 and 2 octaves
Dynamics are degrees of loudness or softness in music
Loudness is related to the amplitude of the vibration that produces the sound
Accent is an emphasis of a note
Instrument may be defined as any mechanism that produces musical sound
Register is the part of the tonal range of an instrument or voice
Pizzicato- plucked string
Double stop- two notes at once
Vibrato- rocking the left hand while pressing down with the other. Throbbing expressive tone that causes small pitch fluctuations that make the tone warmer
Mute- a clamp that veils or muffles that tone
Tremolo- rapidly repeats tones by quick up-and-down strokes of the bow
Harmonics- Very high pitched tones are produced when the musician lightly touches certain points on a string
Woodwinds have little holes along their length that are opened and closed by the fingers or pads controlled by a key mechanism
Flutes and piccolos are played by blowing across the edge of a mouth hole
Recorders are played by blowing through a whistle mouthpiece
Single-reed woodwinds are played by fastening a reed over a hole in the mouthpiece that vibrates when the player blows over it (ex- clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone)
Double-reed woodwinds use two narrow pieces of cane that are held between the musician’s lips (ex- English horn, contrabassoon, bassoon)
Bass instruments are played by the musician blowing into a cup- or funnel-shaped mouthpiece (vibrations of bass instruments come from their lips)
Pitch of brass instrument is regulated by varying lip tension and by using slides and valves
Mutes alter the tone color of bass instruments
When a pianist’s finger strikes a key, a felt-covered hammer swings up against a string (greater the force on the key, more powerful the hammer’s blow, louder the tone produced)
Damper comes down on the string to stop the vibrations when the pianist lets go of the key
Damper pedal is the most important pedal, allows a pianist to sustain tones
Una corda pedal, on the left, veils the sound
Sostenuto pedal, in the middle, allows the pianist to sustain some tones without sustaining others
Harpsichord has strings that are plucked. Controlled by one or two keyboards.
Pipe organ has many sets of pipes controlled by several keyboards, including a pedal keyboard played the organist’s feet
Tape studio was the main tool of composers of electronic music during the 1950s
Synthesizers are systems of electronic components that generate, modify, and control sound
Analog Synthesis is based on representing data in terms of measurable physical quantities
Digital frequency modulation synthesis is based on representing physical quantities as numbers
Sampling involves placing brief digital recordings of live sounds under the control of a synthesizer keyboard
Instrument Digital interface (MIDI) is a standard adopted by manufacturers for interfacing synthesizer equipment
Consonance is a tone combination that is stable. They are points of arrival, rest, and resolution.
Dissonance is a tone combination that is unstable. Its tension demands an onward motion to a stable chord
Dissonance has its resolution when it moves to a consonance
The Middle Ages
The Middle Ages spanned from 450-1450
Most important musicians were priests
Church officials required monks to sing with proper pronunciation, concentration, and tone quality
Church frowned upon instruments because of their earlier role in pagan rites
Gregorian chant is a melody set to sacred Latin texts and sung w/o accompaniment
Gregorian chant is monophonic in texture, its rhythm is flexible, w/o met.er, and has little sense of beat. The melodies tended to move by step within a narrow range of pitches. Used church modes as a scale.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance spanned from 1450-1600
The Renaissance mass is a polyphonic choral composition made up of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei
Baroque
Baroque era spanned from 1600-1750
Baroque era used violins a lot. Organ and harpsichord where the main keyboard instruments
Baroque suite is a set of dance-inspired movements. It is made up of movements that are all written in the same key but differ in tempo, meter, and character. Usually in A A B B
French overture is a common Baroque suite opening.
Short Answer
Middle Ages (450-1450)
Renaissance (1450-1600)
Baroque (1600-1750)
Classical (1750-1820)
Romantic (1820-1900)
Contemporary (1900-now)
3 Composers per period:
Middle Ages- Hildegard of Bingen, Perotin, Francesco Landini
Renaissance- Josquin Desprez, Thomas Morley, Giovanni Gabrieli
Baroque- Johann Sebastian Bach, George Fredric Handel, Henry Purcell
Italian dynamic markings:
Pianissimo pp very soft
Piano p soft
Mezzo Piano mp moderately soft
Mezzo forte mf moderately loud
Forte f loud
Fortissimo ff very loud
Orchestras contain string, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. Symphonic bands contain brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.
Duple Meter- measure has two beats
Triple Meter- measure has 3 beats
Quadruple Meter- measure has 4 beats
Gregorian chant is monophonic in texture, its rhythm is flexible, w/o met.er, and has little sense of beat. The melodies tended to move by step within a narrow range of pitches. Used church modes as a scale.
Polychoral Motet- motet for two or more choirs, often including groups of instruments
Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Major (1721), by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ritornello form, duple meter. Used a string orchestra and a group of soloists consisting of a flute, violin, and a harpsichord.
Essays
Compare and contrast two periods of music that we’ve learned
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Compare: Musicians worked in churches. The church remained an important patron of music. Vocal music was more important the instrumental music. Both had sacred music(Gregorian chant, Renaissance mass). Both used church modes as their basic scale of music. The cantus firmus (Melody used as the basis of a polyphonic choral) was used in both periods.
Contrast: Musical activity gradually shifted to the courts in the Ren. Musicians had higher statuses in the Ren. Ren music sounds fuller than MA music. Bass register was used for the first time in the Ren, expanding the pitch range to more than 4 octaves. Invention of the printing press widened the circulation of music, and the number of composers and performers increased in the Ren. Ren music was more about men rather than God. Instruments were used more often in the Ren. Composers were no longer content to remain unknown; in the Ren they wanted fame and recognition for their works.
Bach’s contributions to the Baroque period
Bach was the mack daddy of Baroque music. His works show an astounding mastery of harmony and counterpoint, and they are used as models by music students today. With his set of six Brandenburg Concerto’s, Bach brought immortality to a German aristocrat, the margrave of Brandenburg. In Concerto No.5, Bach uses a string orchestra and a group of soloists consisting of a flute, violin, and harpsichord. This was the first time a harpsichord was given a solo in a concerto grosso. The harpsichord’s solo at the end of the first movement is spectacular. His audience marveled at this brilliant harpsichord solo within a concerto grosso, and audiences today are still blown away by it. Bach wrote fugues that were the peak among works in the form. In his collections of preludes and fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Back explored with unprecedented thoroughness systems of tuning instruments that enabled a composer to write in all 24 keys, even keys with many sharps and flats. Bach also composed what is probably the most monumental setting of the Roman Catholic mass (Mass in B Minor). It was too long to be performed in a mass, so Bach was just probably being a show-off. Bach wrote about 295 church cantatas. Cantata No. 140 is his most famous.