Sound and Timbre - Elements of Music

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

• Timbre - the unique quality of a musical sound in a voice or instrument.

• Rhythm - the organization of music in time using long and short sounds and silences.

• Expressive Techniques:
• Tempo - the speed of the beat or the "rate of speed"

  

• Dynamics - the loudness or softness of a musical sound

• Articulation - how each note is attacked, sustained and released.

• Stylistic Indications - advise on how to play the music

• Melody - A melody is a series of pitches sounding one after the other, i.e., the tune of a song.

• Harmony - two or more pitches sounding at the same time

• Texture - the layers of music

• Form - a musical plan

Strophic form

Binary form

Ternary form

Round form

Sound and Timbre - What is music?

What is music?

How does sound differ from music? Sound can be pleasant and unpleasant. Unpleasant sounds around us are called noise, even if it is produced by a musical instrument. For example, the sound was irregular, without an order and rhythm so it was not pleasing to hear so it is called noise.  Noisy sound causes discomfort to the ears while music is pleasing to the ears. However, if music  becomes too loud it is considered noise. Music is an organized pattern of sound and silence.

Music is all around us. Can you imagine a world without music? Music is part of our life and is an art of communication. In its rhythmic patterns of sounds and silences, one can communicate various feelings and moods for any occasion. Every country in the world has its own special kind of music. Each kind is different and tells us about the place it comes from and what is happening in life at that place. Music is a common language of mankind. It is one of the oldest forms of communication. It is a means of transmitting the thoughts of people not met by other means of communication. As a universal language, it is read, written and spoken by people all over the world. It uses symbols, words and numbers from its vocabulary. Just as you read sentences in English, music is read from left to right. In order to learn the language of music, musicians and composers memorize musical symbols and ideas, practice playing and singing alone and in groups, and study different musical forms and structures. As a powerful communication of thoughts and feelings, music transcends language, since its effect does not depend upon words. It is an artistic expression that can convey emotion or feeling. It can be used for recreation, to uplift one's soul and release it, to describe people, places, memories or animals that words can't and allows people to be creative and it offers more life to them.

NATURE OF MUSICAL SOUND

Not all sound is music.
What separates music from other sounds?

• Music is planned, organized and meaningful.
• Music occurs in a specified space of time

PURPOSES OF MUSIC

• Ceremonial - performed for celebrations, worship or special occasion. It is used for ritualistic,                         celebratory and commemoration purposes.

• Recreational - performed for entertainment or as a means of diversion to support recreational                            activities, e.g., dances, social gatherings, festivals, or social events.

• Artistic Expression - used to communicate emotion, feeling, ideas or information (narrative).

Sound and Timbre - Sound

What is sound?

How do you get up in the morning? E.g. birds chirping, alarm on your phone? Sound is what you hear. Sound is everything that we hear: a clock ticking, a door slamming, a dog barking, a car changing gear on the hill, the wind in the trees, a voice speaking in the next room and another voice singing in the house across the road. It is everywhere and very important. We need it to talk to and understand other people, to pick up alarms and what they mean to us. E.g., a phone ringing says someone is calling, a fire alarm warns about a fire.

How is sound produced?

Sound is produced by vibrations. The back and forth movement of an object is known as vibrations.

Properties of Musical Sound

• Amplitude (intensity/volume) - loudness or softness of a sound.
• Low waves - soft sounds
• High waves - loud sounds
• Volume is relative to the other sounds around it.
• It is measured by decibels (dB).

• Frequency (pitch)- highness or lowness of a sound.
• Fast vibrations - high pitch
• Slow vibrations - low pitch
• Small objects vibrate faster and have higher pitches.
• Large objects vibrate slower and have lower pitches.
• It is measured by hertz (Hz) or cycles per second.

• Timbre (tone colour/quality) - the unique quality of musical sound. 
• The ability to distinguish one instrument from another. 
• It is described using words like bright, dark, brilliant, mellow, rich.
• It is determined by many factors, including:
• the skill of the performer
• the size of the instrument
• the shape of the instrument
• how sound is produced (blowing, plucking, striking, etc)

• Duration - the length of time a musical sound lasts. 
• How long or short sounds are.
• It is measured by beats per minute (bpm).

Expression - Repeats, D.C., D.S., CODA AND FINE

To reduce the amount of music needed to notate a piece, several additional Italian words and symbols are used by composers to indicate repeats. These directions are written above the staff.

The Italian words and symbols for repeating are frequently combined.

SIGN                                      ENGLISH

D.C. al Fine                Repeat from the beginning and play to the end (Fine).

 

Expression - Dynamic Signs

DYNAMIC SIGNS indicate volume, or how soft or loud the music should be played. Dynamic signs are also written in Italian. They are written below the staff.

The word piano in Italian means soft; the word forte means loud.

            The most commonly used dynamic signs are:

            Mezzo means moderately; issimo means very.

            Dynamic signs arranged in order from very soft to very loud, are: pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff.

A Gradual Change in Dynamics

Terms used to indicate gradual change in volume from soft to loud or loud to soft are: 

Expression - Slurs

A SLUR smoothly connects two or more notes of different pitches by a curved

line over or under the notes. There is no break in sound between pitches.

This is also referred to as LEGATO playing or singing.

On wind instruments (woodwind and brass), only the first note of a group of slurred notes should be tongued.

On string instruments, a slur indicates a group of notes to be played in one bow.

On keyboard instruments, slurs indicate when to lift the hands.

When all the note stems are in the same direction, the slur is written on the side opposite from that of the stems. When stem direction is mixed, the slur is written above the notes.

Harmony - Chords

 Harmony - when two or more notes are played or sung at the same time.

A chord is a group of three or more notes played at the same time. When a three-note chord consists of the root, the third and the fifth is called a triad.

A triad gets its name from the root of the chord (the note at the bottom).

Here are the triads on each scale degree of the C Major Scale

The most important triads of a major scale are built on the I, IV and V degrees. They are called primary triads or primary chords of the key. These chords contain all the tones of the major scale.

Here are the primary triads in the C Major Scale

Melody - Intervals

An interval is the distance between two (2) pitches.

To find an interval, count up from the bottom note like this:

This is an interval of a 5th.
Five (5) letters names starting from the bottom

There are two intervals that are not usually known by a number:

•      The interval between two identical notes is called unison (where both notes sound the same):

•    The interval of an eighth is called an octave or 8va. This interval is the distance between any note and the next note with the same letter name:

A harmonic interval is the distance between two (2) pitches which are played at the same time.

A melodic interval is the distance between two (2) pitches which are played one after the other.

When the interval is so close together, the second note is
placed very close to the side of the lower note,
just gently touching.

Drawing the Harmonic 2nd interval

Tip#1 Writing a Harmonic Second Interval on the staff:

• The note that has the lower pitch (sound) is written as the note on the left.
• The note that has the higher pitch is written on the right.

Tip #2 Writing a Harmonic Second Interval using Ledger Lines:

• If the lower line note is on a ledger line, the upper space note will share the same ledger line. The ledger line will be extended so that only one ledger line is used for the harmonic second interval.
• If the lower note is in the space, the ledger line for the upper line note does not need to extend across the top of the space note. It only needs to extend for the length of the line note itself.

Melodic range is the total distance between the highest note of a melody and the lowest note of the melody. We can describe ranges as high, medium, or low, as well as large or small. Each of these qualities adds something different to the expression of the tune.

Expression - Tempo marks

TEMPO is an Italian word meaning “rate of speed”. Tempo marks tell how fast or slow the music should be played. Most musical terms are written in Italian since Italian composers were among the first to write such instructions on their manuscripts. Tempo marks are written above the music.

Moderato may be combined with other words:

Allegro moderato (Allegretto) = slightly slower than Allegro but quicker than Moderato.

A Gradual Change of Tempo

Terms used to indicate a gradual change in tempo are:

A tempo - Return to the original speed.

Expression - Articulation

Notes may be performed in different ways. The manner in which a note is performed is called ARTICULATION.

Expression - Style/Mood

The following are Italian words of expression that tell the performer how to perform a piece of music and their meanings:

Cantabile - in a singing style

Grazioso - graceful

Dolce - sweetly

Espressivo - expressively

Pesante - heavy

Brillante - brilliantly; with spirit; lively

How to pronounce Brillante in Italian

Tranquillo - tranquilly; calmly

How to pronounce Tranquillo in Italian

A tempo - Go back to the original tempo

How to pronounce A Tempo in Italian