music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LadUft_ly50&t=340s （Predictability and variability）

To create predictability and variability in music, composers can manipulate four elements of musical sound:

Pitch - the relative highness or lowness of sound

Rhythm - the relative duration of a sound

Dynamics - the relative loudness or softness of a sound

Timbre - the tone color or quality of a sound

Pitch is the element that allows us to differentiate between the relative “highness” or “lowness” of one sound as compared to another sound.  

There are two kinds of pitch: definite pitch and indefinite pitch. 

Definite Pitch

Sound travels in waves. If the waves oscillate at a consistent, regular frequency, the sound produces a clear, distinctive, measurable frequency called a musical tone. Musical tones are known as definite pitches. Most instruments including harps, pianos, guitars, flutes, violins, and saxophones produce definite pitches. 

All musical sounds last for a certain period of time.  The relative length of time one pitch is held in relation to that of the pitches immediately before and after it relates to the concept of rhythm.

Rhythm and the Beat

When you think of the word rhythm, the first thing that might pop into your head is a drum beat. But rhythm goes much deeper than that. Earlier, we defined music as the intentional organization of sounds. Rhythm is the way the music is organized with respect to time. It works in tandem with melody and harmony to create a feeling of order.

Tempo

The speed at which the beat is played is called the tempo.

The dynamic level of a sound refers to the relative loudness or softness of the sound.

Timbre (TAM-burr) is the musical element that allows us to recognize that a violin sounds different from a trumpet, even when they play the same pitch in the same rhythm at the same dynamic level.

  

Timbre also can be used to describe variations in the sound of the same types of instruments or similar voices. For instance, one violin might sound quite different from another violin, depending on factors such as construction materials, age, climate, and the way a person plays it. This is also the musical element that allows you to tell the difference between two singers' voices. 

Consider the adjectives below as you compare the female singer (Ella Fitzgerald) with the male singer (Louis Armstrong).

  

Full Clear  Hollow

Thin Raspy  Resonant

Bright Dark  Husky

Dull Mellow  Brassy

Rounded Deep  Breathy

Throaty Penetrating Gravely

Nasal Shrill  Smoky

Tinny  Reedy  Warm

Screeching  Silky Bellowing

Brittle Rough  Smooth

Musical Texture - the number and function of musical layers

Musical Meter - the number of beats in a musical meter

Instrumentation - which musical instruments to use to create specific timbral effects

There are four common types of musical texture: monophony, homophony, polyphony, and heterophony. Paying attention to the texture of a piece can help us understand how the composer put the work together by learning how the different musical layers function and interact.

 

Texture	Melody	Harmony
Monophonic	One melody	No
Homophonic	One melody	Yes
Polyphonic	Two or more melodies	Optional
Heterophonic	One melody + a simultaneous different version of that melody	Optional

Meter

Beats, the steady and regular pulses in music, can be grouped into patterns of accented (stressed) and unaccented beats. This beat grouping is called the meter. The first beat in a typical western meter is usually accented and is called the downbeat, or beat one. By listening for beat one, you can hear what kind of meter is being used.

Although the music of many world cultures use varied and sometimes quite complex conceptions of meter, we will start by learning a few basic meters commonly found in western music which we will frequently encounter throughout this course.

Quadruple Meter

In this type of meter, beats are grouped in 4.  This is the most common type of meter. The first beat receives the most emphasis, but the third beat is also accented more than the beats surrounding it.

Count quadruple meter as ONE – two – Three – four, ONE – two – Three – four.

 Triple Meter

In triple meter, beats are grouped in 3.  The first beat receives the emphasis, while the second and third beats are both de-emphasized.  

Count ONE – two – three.

Strings

Instruments whose sound is produced by setting strings in motion. These strings can be set in motion by plucking the strings with your finger, or a pick (a piece of plastic). They can also be set in motion by bowing. In bowing, the musician draws a bow across the string, creating friction and resulting in a sustained note. Most bows consist of horsehair held together on each end by a piece of wood. String examples: violins; violas; cellos (also known as violoncellos); string bass (also known as a double bass or stand-up bass); classical, acoustic, and bass guitars; harps.

Woodwinds

Instruments traditionally made of wood whose sound is generated by forcing air through a tube, thus creating a vibrating air column. This can be done in one of several ways. The air can travel directly through an opening in the instrument, as in a flute. The air can pass through an opening between a reed and a wooden or metal mouthpiece as in a saxophone or clarinet or between two reeds as in a bassoon or oboe. Although many woodwind instruments are in fact made of wood, there are exceptions. Instruments such as the saxophone and the modern flute are made of metal while some clarinets are made of plastic. These instruments are still considered woodwinds because the flute was traditionally made of wood and the saxophone and clarinet still use a wooden reed to produce the tone. Woodwind examples: flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon.

Brass Instruments traditionally made of brass or another metal (and thus often producing a “bright” or “brassy” tone) whose sound is generated by “buzzing” (vibrating the lips together) into a mouthpiece attached to a coiled tube. This “buzzing” sets the air within the tube vibrating. The pitches are normally amplified by a flared bell at the end of the tube. Brass examples: trumpet, bugle, cornet, trombone, (French) horn, tuba, and euphonium.

Percussion

Instruments that are typically hit or struck by the hand, with sticks, or with hammers, or that are shaken or rubbed. Some percussion instruments (such as the vibraphone) play definite pitches, but many play indefinite pitches. The standard drum set used in many jazz and rock ensembles, for example, consists of mostly indefinite-pitch instruments. Percussion examples: drum set, agogo bells (double bells), glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, bass drum, snare or side drum, maracas, claves, cymbals, gong, triangle, tambourine.

Keyboards

Instruments that produce sound by pressing, or striking keys on a keyboard. The keys set air moving by the hammering of a string (in the case of the piano) or by the opening and closing of a pipe through which air is pushed (as in the case of the vibraphone, organ, and accordion). All of these instruments have the capacity of playing more than one musical line at the same time. Keyboard examples: piano, organ, vibraphone, and accordion.