UNIT 1: ELEMENTS

1. UNIT 1: ELEMENTS

2. Chapter 1: SOUND Sound is all around us • John Cage (1912-1992), 4’33” • What is “sound”?

3. Sound – • Vibration of an object • Transmitted to our ears through the air • Eardrums begin to vibrate • Impulses/signals sent to the brain • Signals organized and interpreted

4. Music – a type of sound with 4 main properties: • Pitch • Dynamics • Tone color or timbre • duration

5. 1. PITCH • Pitch – the relative highness or lowness of a sound • Determined by the frequency of its vibrations • The faster the vibrations, the higher the pitch.

7. Vibration is measured in cycles per second. The smaller the vibrating object, the faster is vibrations • Sound that has a definite pitch is called a tone • The distance in pitch between any two tones is called an interval.

8. When tones are separated by the interval called an octave, they sound very much alike • Octave = important in music • The interval between the first and last notes of most familiar scales

9. Range – the distance between the highest and lowest pitch in a song or that an instrument can play • Pitch – the first tool a composer has in creating a mood.

10. 2. DYNAMICS • Dynamics – degrees of loudness or softness in music • Loudness is related to amplitude of vibration • Accent – when a performer emphasizes tone by playing it more loudly than the tones around it.

11. Notating Dynamics (in Italian): Term Abbreviation Meaning Pianissimo pp very soft Piano p soft Mezzo piano mp moderately soft Mezzo forte mf moderately loud Forte f loud Fortissimo ff very loud

12. Gradual changes are shown as: Symbol Term Meaning crescendo gradually louder decrescendo or gradually softer diminuendo

13. Listening for Dynamics • Turn in books to page 11: • “Lohengrin,” Prelude to Act III • Richard Wagner (“Vahgner”) • “The Firebird,” Scene 2 • Igor Stravinsky • O Magnum Mysterium • Morten Lauridsen

14. 3. TONE COLOR/TIMBRE • Timbre – the quality that distinguishes one tone from another • Words like bright, dark, mellow, rich, etc. • Composers use different combinations of instruments to create the tone color they want.

15. 4. DURATION • Music is divided into long and short notes • Rhythm – the organization of long and short pitches through time • Beat – a regular, recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time • Forms the background against which the composer places notes of varying lengths. Beats are basic units of time by which all notes are measured.

16. Meter – the organization of accented and unaccented beats in music • Look in books, page 40 • Syncopation – an effect when an accented note comes where we normally would not expect one (the “offbeat”) • Defining characteristic of jazz music

17. Listening for Syncopation • Turn in books to page 42 • I Got Rhythm • George Gershwin • Unsquare Dance • Dave Brubeck

18. Tempo – the speed of the beat, the pace of music • Tempo markings: Prestissimo – as fast as possible Presto – very fast Vivace – lively Allegro – fast Allegretto – moderately fast Moderato – moderate Andante – moderately slow, walking speed Adagio – slow Grave – very slow, solemn Largo – very slow, broad

19. Other markings: accelerando(becoming faster) and ritardando (becoming slower) • metronome