Understanding the Elements of Music and Sound
Music:
A system for expression of feelings, music has played different roles throughout history.
Acoustics:
Acoustics is the science that studies the physics of sound fundamentals.
Height:
Height depends on the number of vibrations per second; treble and bass sounds produced are measured in hertz (Hz).
Musical Expression:
- Notes
- Scales
- Staves
- Clefs
Intensity:
Intensity depends on the vibration or wave and produces soft and loud sounds, measured in decibels (dB). Overtones (piano, forte, mezzo forte) are regulators.
Duration:
Duration depends on the time a sound wave remains, producing long and short sounds, fast and slow. It is measured in hours and minutes. Figures, bars, and tempo (adagio, allegro, vivo) are important.
Timbre:
Timbre depends on sound fundamentals and harmonics, allowing us to distinguish between various instruments and voices. Families of instruments and types of choral conductors are included.
Respiratory System:
Air is stored and circulates through the trachea, nose, lungs, and diaphragm.
Phonation:
The larynx transforms sound as it passes through the vocal cords.
Resonators:
Composite structures include the mouth, soft palate, nasal sinuses, and pharynx.
Breathing:
- Inspiration: The lungs fill with air through the nose.
- Expiration: Air is expelled from the mouth.
Types of Breathing:
- Top: Using the upper lungs.
- Abdominal: Utilizing the muscles of the diaphragm and lower lung.
- Completed: The most appropriate combination of the two.
Ostinato:
Continuous repetition of a musical fragment.
Echo:
Repetition with accuracy.
Lied:
Repeats the first verse.
Rondo:
Alternation between a repeated chorus and various stanzas.
Canon:
An imitative form in which the voices or instruments come in successively.
Historical Age:
The historical epoch runs from the fall of the Roman Empire to the final prehistoric period. General concepts of beauty included harmony, order, and proportion. Music had pedagogical roles and helped maintain social order.
Characteristics:
The modes are nested around a tone or mood: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian.
Secular Music:
Fun music that accompanies celebrations and commemorates events.
Religious Music:
Used for worship, it was important in the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, and is now performed in concert halls.
Cultured Music:
Originally performed in palace halls, it is now found in concert halls.
Modern Music:
Characterized by urban influences, including pop and rock styles.
Folklore:
Rooted in oral tradition with a rural character.
Average Age:
The period from the fall of the Roman Empire until the 15th century. Although not all music was religious, some ecclesiastical music was written. The melodies were inspired by Greek modes and followed the rhythm of the text. Jugglers, minstrels, and troubadours created and developed secular music in castles. The function of the average was religious, and musical forms were homogeneous. Medieval vocal music was accompanied or replaced by instruments.
Gregorian Chant:
A vocal, monophonic chant, unaccompanied, in Latin, which can be syllabic or melismatic.
Rhythm:
The internal engine of music, setting the sound in time duration. It determines the character and style of a composition.
Pulsation:
The constant rate of a musical work.
Length:
Represented by figures and silences.
Figures:
Duration represents sounds; the sounds do not have sound but have duration.
Measure:
Division of a music piece into equal parts or according to the featured sounds. Among others, they are separated by dividing lines, and a double bar is placed to finish. Measures can be binary, ternary, or quaternary.
Scales:
Ordination of sounds at heights, upward or downward. There are bitonal, tritonal, pentatonic, chromatic scales, and more.
Harmony:
The relationship between notes when sounded simultaneously.
Texture:
The form of melody and harmony in a composition. Monophonic (one line), polyphonic (several lines simultaneously), and homophonic or harmonic (where one voice carries the melody and others accompany with chords).
Tempo:
The rhythm and nuances express a number of terms that indicate speed and character in music.
Nuances:
Symbols and terms indicate intensity and nuance in sound.
Regulators:
Gradual transition points between hues.
Medieval Music:
Mostly vocal, with instruments accompanying or replacing voices.
Psalter:
A string instrument struck with mallets.
Tambourine:
A drum played with one hand while the other plays the flute.
Laud:
A string instrument with a box shape.
Carol:
Diverse musical expressions of Christmas, pastoral, and popular character. Depending on the area, they have different names.
Madrigals:
Popular during the Renaissance.
Ligation:
A curved line connecting two or more notes of the same name, adding their values.
Puntillo:
A point placed to the right of the figure or silence, extending its duration by half.
Calderón:
A sign of elongation that stretches the sound pulse.