1.
Johann Sebastian Bach
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bachs compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor and his music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth. He is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Bach was born in Eisenach, in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach and his father Johann Ambrosius Bach was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michaels School in Lüneburg for two years. He received the title of Royal Court Composer from Augustus III in 1736, Bachs health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on 28 July 1750. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany and he was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius, who taught him violin. His uncles were all musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ, Bachs mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, there he studied, performed, and copied music, including his own brothers, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper of that type was costly. He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord, also during this time he was taught theology, Latin, Greek, French and Italian at the local gymnasium. By 3 April 1700 Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann–who was two years Bachs elder–were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michaels School in Lüneburg, some two weeks travel north of Ohrdruf and their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the Schools three-manual organ and he came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany, sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in other disciplines. While in Lüneburg, Bach had access to St. Johns Church and possibly used the famous organ from 1553. His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties, despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir and he called one of them a Zippel Fagottist
2.
Moonlight Sonata
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The Piano Sonata No.14 in C♯ minor Quasi una fantasia, Op.27, No. 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil and this piece is one of Beethovens most popular compositions for the piano, and it was a popular favorite even in his own day. Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata in his thirties, after he had finished with some commissioned work. The first edition of the score is headed Sonata quasi una fantasia, grove Music Online translates the Italian title as sonata in the manner of a fantasy. Translated more literally, this is sonata almost a fantasy, the name Moonlight Sonata comes from remarks made by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five years after Beethovens death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne, within ten years, the name Moonlight Sonata was being used in German and English publications. Later in the century, the sonata was universally known by that name. Other critics have approved of the sobriquet, finding it evocative or in line with their own interpretation of the work, instead, the sonata possesses an end-weighted trajectory, with the rapid music held off until the third movement. In his analysis, German critic Paul Bekker states, The opening sonata-allegro movement gave the work a character from the beginning. Which succeeding movements could supplement but not change, Beethoven rebelled against this determinative quality in the first movement. He wanted a prelude, an introduction, not a proposition, the movement opens with an octave in the left hand and a triplet figuration in the right. A melody that Hector Berlioz called a lamentation, mostly by the hand, is played against an accompanying ostinato triplet rhythm. The movement is played pianissimo or very quietly, and the loudest it gets is mezzo forte or moderately loud. The adagio sostenuto has made an impression on many listeners, for instance. Beethovens student Carl Czerny called it a nocturnal scene, in which a ghostly voice sounds from the distance. The movement was popular in Beethovens day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself. Franz Liszt is said to have described the movement as a flower between two chasms
3.
The Star-Spangled Banner
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The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States of America. Key was inspired by the large American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, the poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a mens social club in London. To Anacreon in Heaven, with lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Keys poem and renamed The Star-Spangled Banner, it became a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one octave and one fifth, it is known for being difficult to sing, although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom, hail, Columbia served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. My Country, Tis of Thee, whose melody is identical to God Save the Queen, following the War of 1812 and subsequent American wars, other songs emerged to compete for popularity at public events, among them The Star-Spangled Banner, as well as America the Beautiful. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers, because Key and Skinner had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise and later back on HMS Minden. On the morning of September 14, the flag had been lowered. During the bombardment, HMS Terror and HMS Meteor provided some of the bombs bursting in air, Key was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the large American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, had made by Mary Young Pickersgill together with other workers in her home on Baltimores Pratt Street. The flag later came to be known as the Star-Spangled Banner and is today on display in the National Museum of American History and it was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program. Aboard the ship the day, Key wrote a poem on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket. At twilight on September 16, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore and he completed the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel, where he was staying, and titled it Defence of Fort MHenry. Much of the idea of the poem, including the flag imagery and some of the wording, is derived from a song by Key. The song, known as When the Warrior Returns, was written in honor of Stephen Decatur, absent elaboration by Francis Scott Key prior to his death in 1843, some have speculated in modern times about the meaning of phrases or verses. Professor Mark Clague has stated that the two verses of Keys lyric vilify the British enemy in the War of 1812 and in no way glorifies or celebrates slavery. Clague asserts that the used to refer to British professional soldiers but also the Corps of Colonial Marines which Key viewed as scoundrels
4.
Chord (music)
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A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of pitches consisting of two or more notes that are heard as if sounding simultaneously. In everyday use by musical ensembles such as bands and orchestras, however, the notes of a chord do not have to be played together at the same time, arpeggios and broken chords may, for many practical and theoretical purposes, also constitute chords. Other chords with more than three notes include added tone chords, extended chords and tone clusters, which are used in classical music, jazz. Triads commonly found in the Western classical tradition are major and minor chords, the descriptions major, minor, augmented, and diminished are referred to collectively as chordal quality. Chords are also classified by their root note—for instance, a C major triad consists of the pitch classes C, E. While most chords have at least three notes, power chords, which are used in rock music, particularly in hard rock. An ordered series of chords is called a chord progression, one example of a widely used chord progression in Western traditional music and blues is the 12 bar blues progression, the simplest versions of which include tonic, subdominant and dominant chords. To describe this, Western music theory has developed the practice of numbering chords using Roman numerals which represent the number of steps up from the tonic note of the scale. Common ways of notating or representing chords in Western music include Roman numerals, figured bass, macro symbols, the chords in a song or piece are also given names which refer to their function. The chord built on the first note of a scale is called the tonic chord. The chord built on the note of a major scale is called the subdominant chord. The chord built on the degree of the major scale is called the dominant chord. There are names for the built on every note of the major scale. Chords can be played on instruments, including piano, pipe organ, guitar. Chords can also be performed when multiple musicians play together in an ensemble or when multiple singers sing in a choir. The English word chord derives from Middle English cord, a shortening of accord in the sense of agreement and later. A sequence of chords is known as a progression or harmonic progression. These are frequently used in Western music, a chord progression aims for a definite goal of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord
5.
Musical note
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In music, the term note has three primary meanings, A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound, A pitched sound itself. Notes are the blocks of much written music, discretizations of musical phenomena that facilitate performance, comprehension. In the former case, one note to refer to a specific musical event, in the latter. Two notes with fundamental frequencies in an equal to any integer power of two are perceived as very similar. Because of that, all notes with these kinds of relations can be grouped under the pitch class. However, within the English-speaking and Dutch-speaking world, pitch classes are represented by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet. A few European countries, including Germany, adopt an almost identical notation, the eighth note, or octave, is given the same name as the first, but has double its frequency. The name octave is also used to indicate the span between a note and another with double frequency, for example, the now-standard tuning pitch for most Western music,440 Hz, is named a′ or A4. There are two systems to define each note and octave, the Helmholtz pitch notation and the scientific pitch notation. Letter names are modified by the accidentals, a sharp ♯ raises a note by a semitone or half-step, and a flat ♭ lowers it by the same amount. In modern tuning a half step has a ratio of 12√2. The accidentals are written after the name, so, for example, F♯ represents F-sharp, B♭ is B-flat. Additional accidentals are the double-sharp, raising the frequency by two semitones, and double-flat, lowering it by that amount, in musical notation, accidentals are placed before the note symbols. Systematic alterations to the seven lettered pitches in the scale can be indicated by placing the symbols in the key signature, explicitly noted accidentals can be used to override this effect for the remainder of a bar. A special accidental, the natural symbol ♮, is used to indicate an unmodified pitch, effects of key signature and local accidentals do not accumulate. If the key signature indicates G♯, a flat before a G makes it G♭, though often this type of rare accidental is expressed as a natural. Likewise, a sharp sign on a key signature with a single sharp ♯ indicates only a double sharp. Assuming enharmonicity, many accidentals will create equivalences between pitches that are written differently, for instance, raising the note B to B♯ is equal to the note C
6.
Octave
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In music, an octave or perfect octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. It is defined by ANSI as the unit of level when the base of the logarithm is two. The octave relationship is a phenomenon that has been referred to as the basic miracle of music. The most important musical scales are written using eight notes. For example, the C major scale is typically written C D E F G A B C, two notes separated by an octave have the same letter name and are of the same pitch class. Three commonly cited examples of melodies featuring the perfect octave as their opening interval are Singin in the Rain, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave. The octave has occasionally referred to as a diapason. To emphasize that it is one of the intervals, the octave is designated P8. The octave above or below a note is sometimes abbreviated 8a or 8va, 8va bassa. For example, if one note has a frequency of 440 Hz, the note one octave above is at 880 Hz, the ratio of frequencies of two notes an octave apart is therefore 2,1. Further octaves of a note occur at 2n times the frequency of that note, such as 2,4,8,16, etc. and the reciprocal of that series. For example,55 Hz and 440 Hz are one and two away from 110 Hz because they are 1⁄2 and 4 times the frequency, respectively. After the unison, the octave is the simplest interval in music, the human ear tends to hear both notes as being essentially the same, due to closely related harmonics. Notes separated by a ring together, adding a pleasing sound to music. For this reason, notes an octave apart are given the note name in the Western system of music notation—the name of a note an octave above A is also A. The conceptualization of pitch as having two dimensions, pitch height and pitch class, inherently include octave circularity, thus all C♯s, or all 1s, in any octave are part of the same pitch class. Octave equivalency is a part of most advanced cultures, but is far from universal in primitive. The languages in which the oldest extant written documents on tuning are written, leon Crickmore recently proposed that The octave may not have been thought of as a unit in its own right, but rather by analogy like the first day of a new seven-day week
7.
Harp
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The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard, which are plucked with the fingers. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa and Europe, Harps vary globally in many ways. In terms of size, many smaller harps can be played on the lap, whereas larger harps are quite heavy, different harps may use strings of catgut or nylon, or of metal, or some combination. While all harps have a neck, resonator, and strings, frame harps have a pillar at their end to support the strings, while open harps, such as arch or bow harps. Modern harps also vary in techniques used to extend the range and chromaticity of the strings, the earliest harps and lyres were found in Sumer,3500 BC, and several harps were found in burial pits and royal tombs in Ur. The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar can be adjacent to the Near East, in the wall paintings of ancient Egyptian tombs in the Nile Valley. These murals show an instrument that resembles the hunters bow. The chang flourished in Persia in many forms from its introduction, about 3000 BC, around 1900 BC arched harps in the Iraq–Iran region were replaced by angular harps with vertical or horizontal sound boxes. By the start of the Common Era, robust, vertical, angular harps, in the last century of the Sasanian period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible, while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. At the height of the Persian tradition of illustrated book production, such light harps were still frequently depicted, the works of the Tamil Sangam literature describe the harp and its variants, as early as 200 BC. Variants were described ranging from 14 to 17 strings, and the instrument used by wandering minstrels for accompaniment, another early South Asian harp was the ancient veena, unlike the modern instrument of the same name, the ancient veena was a harp vice the modern lute-type instrument. Some Samudragupta gold coins show of the mid-4th century AD show the king Samudragupta himself playing the instrument, the ancient veena survives today in Burma, in the form of the saung harp still played there. The harp was popular in ancient China and neighboring regions, though harps are largely extinct in East Asia in the modern day, the Chinese konghou harp is documented as early as the Spring and Autumn period, and became extinct during the Ming Dynasty. A similar harp, the gonghu was played in ancient Korea, Harps are essentially triangular in shape, and are made primarily of wood. Harp strings are made of gut or metal, the top end of each string is secured on the crossbar or neck of the instrument, where each will have a tuning peg or similar device to adjust the pitch of that string. It is the distance between the tuning peg and the soundboard, as well as the tension and weight of the string, the body is hollow and when a taut string is plucked, the body resonates, projecting sound. The longest side of the harp is called the column or pillar, though some earlier harps, such as a bow harp, on most harps, the sole purpose of the pillar is to hold up the neck against the great strain of the strings. On harps which have pedals, the pillar is a column and encloses the rods which adjust the pitch of strings
8.
Nonchord tone
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A nonchord tone, nonharmonic tone, or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music or song that is not part of the implied or expressed chord set out by the harmonic framework. Similarly, a tone is a note that is a part of the functional chord. Chord and nonchord tones are defined by their membership in a chord, The pitches which make up a chord are called chord-tones and they are also defined by the time at which they sound, Nonharmonic tones are pitches that sound along with a chord but are not chord pitches. For example, if an excerpt from a piece of music implies or uses a C major chord, then notes C, E and G are members of that chord, such tones are most obvious in homophonic music but occur at least as frequently in contrapuntal music. Most nonharmonic tones are dissonant and create intervals of a second, fourth or seventh, if the note fails to resolve until the next change of harmony, it may instead create a seventh chord or extended chord. While it is possible that for a three-note chord there are nine possible nonchord tones. Nonharmonic tones generally occur in a pattern of three pitches, of which the tone is the center, Nonchord tones are distinguished through how they are used. The most important distinction is whether they occur on a strong or weak beat and are thus accented or unaccented and they are also distinguished by their direction of approach and departure and the voice or voices in which they occur, and the number of notes they contain. Over the centuries of history, tones which were considered to be nonchord tones came to be viewed as chord tones. In 1940s-era bebop jazz, tones which were considered to be nonchord tones, such as playing an F♯ note with a C7 chord. Certainly no one doubts the need for embellishments. They are indeed indispensable and they connect notes, animate them, lend them a special effect and weight when required, make them pleasing and thus arouse a particular attentiveness. Embellishments help to clarify the content of the notes—be it sad, joyful, an anticipation occurs when this note is approached by step and then remains the same. It is basically a note of the second chord played early, the dissonant in bar 1 is approached by step and resolves when that same pitch becomes a chord tone in bar 2. However, following Heinrich Schenkers usage in Free Composition, some reserve the term neighbor note to the lower neighbor a half step below the main note. The German term Nebennote is a broader category, including all nonchord tones approached from the main note by step. A passing tone or passing note is a nonchord tone prepared by a tone a step above or below it. Where two non-chord notes are before the resolution they are double passing tones or double passing notes, as with above but on an accented beat. A neighbor tone where you step up or down from the chord tone, endeavor, moreover, to introduce suspensions now in this voice, now in that, for it is incredible how much grace the melody acquires by this means
9.
Music theory
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Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. The term is used in three ways in music, though all three are interrelated. The first is what is otherwise called rudiments, currently taught as the elements of notation, of key signatures, of time signatures, of rhythmic notation, Theory in this sense is treated as the necessary preliminary to the study of harmony, counterpoint, and form. The second is the study of writings about music from ancient times onwards, Music theory is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including tuning systems and composition methods among other topics. However, this medieval discipline became the basis for tuning systems in later centuries, Music theory as a practical discipline encompasses the methods and concepts composers and other musicians use in creating music. The development, preservation, and transmission of music theory in this sense may be found in oral and written music-making traditions, musical instruments, and other artifacts. In ancient and living cultures around the world, the deep and long roots of music theory are clearly visible in instruments, oral traditions, and current music making. Many cultures, at least as far back as ancient Mesopotamia and ancient China, have also considered music theory in more formal ways such as written treatises, in modern academia, music theory is a subfield of musicology, the wider study of musical cultures and history. Etymologically, music theory is an act of contemplation of music, from the Greek θεωρία, a looking at, viewing, contemplation, speculation, theory, also a sight, a person who researches, teaches, or writes articles about music theory is a music theorist. University study, typically to the M. A. or Ph. D level, is required to teach as a music theorist in a US or Canadian university. Methods of analysis include mathematics, graphic analysis, and especially analysis enabled by Western music notation, comparative, descriptive, statistical, and other methods are also used. See for instance Paleolithic flutes, Gǔdí, and Anasazi flute, several surviving Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets include musical information of a theoretical nature, mainly lists of intervals and tunings. The scholar Sam Mirelman reports that the earliest of these dates from before 1500 BCE. Further, All the Mesopotamian texts are united by the use of a terminology for music that, much of Chinese music history and theory remains unclear. The earliest texts about Chinese music theory are inscribed on the stone and they include more than 2800 words describing theories and practices of music pitches of the time. The bells produce two intertwined pentatonic scales three tones apart with additional pitches completing the chromatic scale, Chinese theory starts from numbers, the main musical numbers being twelve, five and eight. Twelve refers to the number of pitches on which the scales can be constructed, the Lüshi chunqiu from about 239 BCE recalls the legend of Ling Lun. On order of the Yellow Emperor, Ling Lun collected twelve bamboo lengths with thick, blowing on one of these like a pipe, he found its sound agreeable and named it huangzhong, the Yellow Bell
10.
Polyphony and monophony in instruments
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Polyphony is a property of musical instruments that means that they can play multiple notes simultaneously. Instruments featuring polyphony are said to be polyphonic, instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophonic or paraphonic. A monophonic synthesizer or monosynth is a synthesizer that produces one note at a time. Well-known monosynths include the Minimoog, the Roland TB-303, and the Korg Prophecy, duophonic synthesizers, such as the ARP Odyssey and Formanta Polivoks built in the 1970s and 1980s respectively, have a capability to independently play two pitches at a time. These synthesizers have at least two oscillators that are controllable, and a duophonic keyboard that can generate two control voltage signals for the lowest- and highest-note. When two or more keys are pressed simultaneously, the lowest- and highest-note will be heard, when only one key is pressed, both oscillators are assigned to one note, possibly with a more complex sound. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were built in the late-1930s, but the concept did not become popular until the mid-1970s, harald Bodes Warbo Formant Orguel, developed in 1937, was an archetype of a voice allocation polyphonic synthesizer. Novachord by Hammond Organ Company, released in 1939, is a product of frequency divider organs. It uses octave divider technology to generate polyphony, and about 1,000 Novachords were manufactured until 1942, using an octave divider a synthesizer needs only 12 oscillators - one for each note in the musical scale. The additional notes are generated by dividing down the outputs of these oscillators, to produce a note one octave lower, the frequency of the oscillator is divided by two. Polyphony is achieved so long as one of each note in the scale is played simultaneously. One notable early polyphonic synthesizer was the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, six-voice polyphony was standard by the middle 1980s. With the advent of synthesizers, 16-voice polyphony became standard by the late 1980s. 64-voice polyphony was common by the middle 1990s and 128-note polyphony arrived shortly after, there are several reasons for providing such large numbers of simultaneous notes, Even with only ten fingers, it is possible to play more than ten notes at once. Notes may continue to sound even after a key is released, the synthesizers resources may still be in use to produce the sound of the previously struck notes tapering off, especially when a sustain pedal is used. A sound may be generated by more than one oscillator or sound-source to allow more complicated sounds to be produced, a synthesizer with 16 oscillators may be capable of 16-note polyphony only when simple, single-oscillator sounds are produced. If a particular patch requires four oscillators, then the synthesizer is only capable of four-note polyphony, synthesizers may be configured to produce multiple timbres, particularly necessary when sounds are layered or sequenced. Multitimbral instruments are always polyphonic but polyphonic instruments are not necessarily multitimbral, some multitimbral instruments have a feature which allows the user to specify the amount of polyphony reserved or allowed for each timbre
11.
Flute
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The flute is a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening, according to the instrument classification of Hornbostel–Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aerophones. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a player, flautist, flutist or, less commonly. Flutes are the earliest extant musical instruments, as paleolithic instruments with hand-bored holes have been found, a number of flutes dating to about 43,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe. Flutes, including the famous Bansuri, have been a part of Indian classical music since 1500 BC. A major deity of Hinduism, Krishna, has been associated with the flute, the English verb flout has the same linguistic root, and the modern Dutch verb fluiten still shares the two meanings. Attempts to trace the word back to the Latin flare have been pronounced phonologically impossible or inadmissable, the first known use of the word flute was in the 14th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this was in Geoffrey Chaucers The Hous of Fame, today, a musician who plays any instrument in the flute family can be called a flutist, or flautist, or simply a flute player. Flutist dates back to at least 1603, the earliest quote cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, flautist was used in 1860 by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun, after being adopted during the 18th century from Italy, like many musical terms in England since the Italian Renaissance. Other English terms, now obsolete, are fluter and flutenist. The oldest flute ever discovered may be a fragment of the femur of a cave bear. In 2008 another flute dated back to at least 35,000 years ago was discovered in Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, the five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone. The researchers involved in the officially published their findings in the journal Nature. The flute, one of several found, was found in the Hohle Fels cavern next to the Venus of Hohle Fels, on announcing the discovery, scientists suggested that the finds demonstrate the presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonized Europe. Scientists have also suggested that the discovery of the flute may help to explain the probable behavioural and cognitive gulf between Neanderthals and early modern human. A three-holed flute,18.7 cm long, made from a mammoth tusk was discovered in 2004, the earliest extant Chinese transverse flute is a chi flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty and it is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flutes side instead of the top
12.
Saxophone
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The saxophone is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet, the saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. He patented the saxophone on June 28,1846, in two groups of seven instruments each, each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for bands, have proved extremely popular. The saxophone is used in music, military bands, marching bands. The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Prior to his work on the saxophone, he had several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and he wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers, Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, the patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered orchestral, the C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. Saxs patent expired in 1866, thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design, the first substantial modification was by a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B♭. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification and this extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings allows a player to play faster and more easily, a player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, a substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. This enables a chromatic scale to be played two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit
13.
Trumpet
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A trumpet is a musical instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group contains the instruments with the highest register in the brass family, trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. They are played by blowing air through almost-closed lips, producing a sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century they have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, there are many distinct types of trumpet, with the most common being pitched in B♭, having a tubing length of about 1.48 m. Early trumpets did not provide means to change the length of tubing, most trumpets have valves of the piston type, while some have the rotary type. The use of rotary-valved trumpets is more common in orchestral settings, each valve, when engaged, increases the length of tubing, lowering the pitch of the instrument. A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter, the earliest trumpets date back to 1500 BC and earlier. The bronze and silver trumpets from Tutankhamuns grave in Egypt, bronze lurs from Scandinavia, trumpets from the Oxus civilization of Central Asia have decorated swellings in the middle, yet are made out of one sheet of metal, which is considered a technical wonder. The Shofar, made from a ram horn and the Hatzotzeroth and they were played in Solomons Temple around 3000 years ago. They were said to be used to blow down the walls of Jericho and they are still used on certain religious days. The Salpinx was a straight trumpet 62 inches long, made of bone or bronze, Salpinx contests were a part of the original Olympic Games. The Moche people of ancient Peru depicted trumpets in their art going back to AD300, the earliest trumpets were signaling instruments used for military or religious purposes, rather than music in the modern sense, and the modern bugle continues this signaling tradition. Improvements to instrument design and metal making in the late Middle Ages, the natural trumpets of this era consisted of a single coiled tube without valves and therefore could only produce the notes of a single overtone series. Changing keys required the player to change crooks of the instrument, the development of the upper, clarino register by specialist trumpeters—notably Cesare Bendinelli—would lend itself well to the Baroque era, also known as the Golden Age of the natural trumpet. During this period, a vast body of music was written for virtuoso trumpeters, the art was revived in the mid-20th century and natural trumpet playing is again a thriving art around the world. The melody-dominated homophony of the classical and romantic periods relegated the trumpet to a role by most major composers owing to the limitations of the natural trumpet. Berlioz wrote in 1844, Notwithstanding the real loftiness and distinguished nature of its quality of tone, there are few instruments that have been more degraded. The attempt to give the trumpet more chromatic freedom in its range saw the development of the keyed trumpet, the symphonies of Mozart, Beethoven, and as late as Brahms, were still played on natural trumpets
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Chord progression
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A chord progression or harmonic progression is a succession of musical chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition, in tonal music, chord progressions have the function of establishing or contradicting a tonality. Chord progressions are usually expressed by Roman numerals, a chord may be built upon any note of a musical scale, therefore a seven-note scale allows seven basic chords, each degree of the scale becoming the root of its own chord. A chord built upon the note A is an A chord of some type The harmonic function of any particular chord depends on the context of the chord progression in which it is found. The diatonic harmonization of any major results in three major triads. They are based on the first, fourth, and fifth scale degrees and these three triads include, and therefore can harmonize, every note of that scale. The same scale also provides three relative minor chords, one related to each of the three major chords, separate from these six common chords there is one degree of the scale, the seventh, that results in a diminished chord. In addition, extra notes may be added to any chord, if these notes are also selected from the original scale the harmony remains diatonic. If new chromatic intervals are introduced then a change of scale or modulation occurs and this in turn may lead to a resolution back to the original key, so that the entire sequence of chords helps create an extended musical form. In western classical notation, chords built on the scale are numbered with Roman numerals, other forms of chord notation have been devised, from figured bass to the chord chart. These usually allow or even require an amount of improvisation. Diatonic scales such as the major and minor scales lend themselves well to the construction of common chords because they contain a large number of perfect fifths. Such scales predominate in those regions where harmony is an part of music, as, for example. Alternation between two chords may be thought of as the most basic chord progression, many well-known pieces are built harmonically upon the mere repetition of two chords of the same scale. The Isley Brothers Shout uses I - vi throughout, three-chord tunes, though, are more common, since a melody may then dwell on any note of the scale. They are often presented as successions of four chords, in order to produce a binary harmonic rhythm, often the chords may be selected to fit a pre-conceived melody, but just as often it is the progression itself that gives rise to the melody. (Common in Elizabethan music, this also underpins the American college song Goodnight Ladies, is the exclusive progression used in Kwela, similar progressions abound in African popular music. They may be varied by the addition of sevenths to any chord or by substitution of the minor of the IV chord to give, for example
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Rhythm
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Rhythm generally means a movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. In the performance arts, rhythm is the timing of events on a scale, of musical sounds and silences that occur over time, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language. In some performing arts, such as hip hop music, the delivery of the lyrics is one of the most important elements of the style. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as timed movement through space, in recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Maury Yeston, Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty, Godfried Toussaint, William Rothstein, and Joel Lester. In Thinking and Destiny, Harold W. Percival defined rhythm as the character and meaning of thought expressed through the measure or movement in sound or form, or by written signs or words. In his television series How Music Works, Howard Goodall presents theories that human rhythm recalls the regularity with which we walk, other research suggests that it does not relate to the heartbeat directly, but rather the speed of emotional affect, which also influences heartbeat. Yet other researchers suggest that certain features of human music are widespread. The perception and abstraction of rhythmic measure is the foundation of human instinctive musical participation, Joseph Jordania recently suggested that the sense of rhythm was developed in the early stages of hominid evolution by the forces of natural selection. Plenty of animals walk rhythmically and hear the sounds of the heartbeat in the womb, some types of parrots can know rhythm. There is not a report of an animal being trained to tap, peck. For this reason, the fast-transient sounds of percussion instruments lend themselves to the definition of rhythm, Musical cultures that rely upon such instruments may develop multi-layered polyrhythm and simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature, called polymeter. Such are the cross-rhythms of Sub-Saharan Africa and the interlocking kotekan rhythms of the gamelan, for information on rhythm in Indian music see Tala. For other Asian approaches to rhythm see Rhythm in Persian music, Rhythm in Arabian music and Usul—Rhythm in Turkish music and this consists of a series of identical yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time. It is currently most often designated as a crotchet or quarter note in western notation, faster levels are division levels, and slower levels are multiple levels. Rhythms of recurrence arise from the interaction of two levels of motion, the faster providing the pulse and the slower organizing the beats into repetitive groups. Once a metric hierarchy has been established, we, as listeners, a durational pattern that synchronises with a pulse or pulses on the underlying metric level may be called a rhythmic unit. A rhythmic gesture is any pattern that, in contrast to the rhythmic unit
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Alberti bass
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Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment figure in music, often used in the Classical era, and sometimes the Romantic era. It was named after Domenico Alberti, who used it extensively, Alberti bass is a kind of broken chord or arpeggiated accompaniment, where the notes of the chord are presented in the order lowest, highest, middle, highest. The broken chord pattern helps to create a smooth, sustained, Alberti bass is usually found in the left hand of pieces for keyboard instruments, especially for Mozarts piano pieces. However, it is found in pieces for other instruments. Well-known examples of Alberti bass include the beginning of Mozarts Piano Sonata, a famous example from 20th-century American popular music is the rhythm guitar part of the 1962 surf rock standard Pipeline, by The Chantays
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Classical period (music)
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The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about the year 1730 and the year 1820. This article is about the period in most of the 18th century to the early 19th century, though overlapping with the Baroque. The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods, Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic, using a melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment. It also makes use of style galant which emphasized light elegance in place of the Baroques dignified seriousness, variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before and the orchestra increased in size, range, and power. The harpsichord was replaced as the keyboard instrument by the piano. Instrumental music was considered important by Classical period composers, vocal music, such as songs for a singer and piano, choral works, and opera were also important during this period. Ludwig van Beethoven is regarded either as a Romantic composer or a Classical period composer who was part of the transition to the Romantic era, Franz Schubert is also a transitional figure, as were Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Luigi Cherubini, and Carl Maria von Weber. The period is referred to as the era of Viennese Classic or Classicism, since Gluck, Mozart, Haydn, Salieri. In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture, literature, and this style sought to emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity, especially those of Classical Greece. Classical music was still linked to aristocratic Court culture and supported by absolute monarchies. Classical music used formality and emphasis on order and hierarchy, in contrast with the richly layered music of the Baroque era, Classical music moved towards simplicity rather than complexity. In addition, the size of orchestras began to increase. The remarkable development of ideas in natural philosophy had already established itself in the public consciousness, in particular, Newtons physics was taken as a paradigm, structures should be well-founded in axioms and be both well-articulated and orderly. This move meant that chords became a more prevalent feature of music. As a result, the structure of a piece of music became more audible. The new style was encouraged by changes in the economic order. As the 18th century progressed, the nobility became the patrons of instrumental music, while public taste increasingly preferred lighter
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Root (chord)
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In music theory, the concept of root is the idea that a chord can be represented and named by one of its notes. It is linked to harmonic thinking—to the idea that vertical aggregates of notes can form a single unit and it is in this sense that one speaks of a C chord or a chord on C—a chord built from C and of which the note C is the root. When a C chord is referred to in Classical music or popular music without a reference to what type of chord it is, it is assumed a C major triad, which contains the notes C, E and G. The root needs not be the note, the lowest note of the chord, the concept of root is linked to that of the inversion of chords. In this concept, chords can be inverted while still retaining their root, in tertian harmonic theory, that is in a theory where chords can be considered stacks of third intervals, the root of a chord is the note on which the subsequent thirds are stacked. For instance, the root of a such as C Major is C. Regardless of whether a chord is in position or in an inversion. Four-note seventh chords have four possible positions, five-note ninth chords know five positions, etc. but the root position always is that of the stack of thirds, and the root is the lowest note of this stack. With chord types, such as chords with added sixths or chords over pedal points, more than one possible chordal analysis may be possible. For example, in a piece of music, the notes C, E, G, A, sounded as a chord. Deciding which note is the root of this chord could be determined by considering context, and its low note considered as the root, or as an inversion of the same, second, fourth, sixth, etc. in which cases the upper note is the root. Johannes Lippius, in his Disputatio musica tertia and Synopsis musicae novae, is the first to use the triad, he also uses the term root. Thomas Campion, A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Conterpoint, London, c1618, notes that chords are in first inversions, the bass is not. a true base. Campion’s true base is the root of the chord, full recognition of the relationship between the triad and its inversions is generally credited to Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Traité d’harmonie. The concept of root has some basis in the properties of harmonic sounds. When two notes or more notes from the series are played at the same time, people sometimes perceive the fundamental note of the series. This property has been used in building for the production of low notes by resultant tones. Andreas Werckmeister’s Harmonologia describes the major triad in root position and in first inversion in terms of the harmonic series, but this description cannot be extended to the minor triad
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Major third
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In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions, and the major third is a third spanning four semitones. Along with the third, the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the larger of the two, the major third spans four semitones, the third three. The major third may be derived from the series as the interval between the fourth and fifth harmonics. The major scale is so named because of the presence of this interval between its tonic and mediant scale degrees, the major chord also takes its name from the presence of this interval built on the chords root. The older concept of a made a dissonantly wide major third with the ratio 81,64. The septimal major third is 9,7, the major third is 14,11. A helpful way to recognize a third is to hum the first two notes of Kumbaya or of When the Saints Go Marching In. A descending major third is heard at the starts of Goodnight, Ladies and Swing Low, in equal temperament three major thirds in a row are equal to an octave. This is sometimes called the circle of thirds, in just intonation, however, three 5,4 major thirds are less than an octave. For example, three 5,4 major thirds from C is B♯, the difference between this just-tuned B♯ and C, like that between G♯ and A♭, is called a diesis, about 41 cents. The major third is classed as an imperfect consonance and is considered one of the most consonant intervals after the unison, octave, perfect fifth, a diminished fourth is enharmonically equivalent to a major third. For example, B–D♯ is a third, but if the same pitches are spelled B and E♭. B–E♭ occurs in the C harmonic minor scale, the major third is used in guitar tunings. For the standard tuning, only the interval between the 3rd and 2nd strings is a third, each of the intervals between the other pairs of consecutive strings is a perfect fourth. In an alternative tuning, the tuning, each of the intervals are major thirds. Decade, compound just major third Ear training List of meantone intervals Doubling the cube, 21/3 = 3√2
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Minor third
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In the music theory of Western culture, a minor third is a musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the third as encompassing three staff positions. The minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds and it is called minor because it is the smaller of the two, the major third spans an additional semitone. For example, the interval from A to C is a minor third, diminished and augmented thirds span the same number of staff positions, but consist of a different number of semitones. The minor third is a skip melodically, notable examples of ascending minor thirds include the opening two notes of Greensleeves and of Light My Fire. The minor third may be derived from the series as the interval between the fifth and sixth harmonics, or from the 19th harmonic. The minor third is used to express sadness in music. It is also a quartal tertian interval, as opposed to the major thirds quintality, the minor third is also obtainable in reference to a fundamental note from the undertone series, while the major third is obtainable as such from the overtone series. The minor scale is so named because of the presence of this interval between its tonic and mediant scale degrees, minor chords too take their name from the presence of this interval built on the chords root. A minor third, in just intonation, corresponds to a ratio of 6,5 or 315.64 cents. In an equal tempered tuning, a third is equal to three semitones, a ratio of 21/4,1, or 300 cents,15.64 cents narrower than the 6,5 ratio. If a minor third is tuned in accordance with the fundamental of the series, the result is a ratio of 19,16. The 12-TET minor third more closely approximates the 19-limit minor third 16,19 Play with only 2.49 cents error. Other pitch ratios are given related names, the minor third with ratio 7,6. The minor third is classed as an imperfect consonance and is considered one of the most consonant intervals after the unison, octave, perfect fifth, instruments in A – most commonly the A clarinet, sound a minor third lower than the written pitch. In music theory, a semiditone is the interval 32,27 and it is the minor third in Pythagorean tuning. The 32,27 Pythagorean minor third arises in the C major scale between D and F, Play It can be thought of as two octaves minus three justly tuned fifths. It is narrower than a justly tuned minor third by a syntonic comma, musical tuning List of meantone intervals Pythagorean interval
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Tonic (music)
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The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord in these styles of music. More generally, the tonic is the pitch upon which all other pitches of a piece are hierarchically referenced, scales are named after their tonics, thus the tonic of the scale of C is the note C. Simple folk music and traditional songs may begin and end on the tonic note, in very much conventionally tonal music, harmonic analysis will reveal a broad prevalence of the primary harmonies, tonic, dominant, and subdominant, and especially the first two of these. The tonic is often confused with the root, which is the note of a chord. The root of a chord is different from the tonic, because different types of chords have root notes. It is also represented with the Roman numeral I, two parallel keys have the same tonic. For example, in both C major and C minor, the tonic is C, however, relative keys have different tonics. For example, C major and A minor share a key signature that feature no sharps or flats, thus a pitch center may function referentially or contextually in an atonal context, often acting as axis or line of symmetry in an interval cycle. Pitch centricity was coined by Arthur Berger in his Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky
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Musical instrument
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A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes
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Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
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Scale (music)
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In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is a scale. Some scales contain different pitches when ascending than when descending, for example, the Melodic minor scale. Due to the principle of equivalence, scales are generally considered to span a single octave. A musical scale represents a division of the space into a certain number of scale steps. A measure of the width of each scale step provides a method to classify scales, based on their interval patterns, scales are put into categories including diatonic, chromatic, major, minor, and others. A specific scale is defined by its interval pattern and by a special note. The tonic of a scale is the selected as the beginning of the octave. Typically, the name of the scale specifies both its tonic and its interval pattern, for example, C major indicates a major scale with a C tonic. Scales are typically listed from low to high, most scales are octave-repeating, meaning their pattern of notes is the same in every octave. An octave-repeating scale can be represented as an arrangement of pitch classes. The distance between two notes in a scale is called a scale step. The notes of a scale are numbered by their steps from the root of the scale, for example, in a C major scale the first note is C, the second D, the third E and so on. Two notes can also be numbered in relation to other, C and E create an interval of a third. A single scale can be manifested at many different pitch levels, for example, a C major scale can be started at C4 and ascending an octave to C5, or it could be started at C6, ascending an octave to C7. As long as all the notes can be played, the octave they take on can be altered, the pitch distances or intervals among the notes of a scale tell us more about the sound of the music than does the mere number of tones. The notes of a scale form intervals with each of the notes of the chord in combination. A 5-note scale has 10 of these intervals, a 6-note scale has 15, a 7-note scale has 21
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Ostinato
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In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, usually at the same pitch. The repeating idea may be a pattern, part of a tune. Both ostinatos and ostinati are accepted English plural forms, the reflecting the words Italian etymology. If the cadence may be regarded as the cradle of tonality, within the context of film music, Claudia Gorbman defines an obstinate as a repeated melodic or rhythmic figure that propel scenes that lack dynamic visual action. Ostinato plays an important part in improvised music, in which it is referred to as a riff or a vamp. A favorite technique of contemporary writers, ostinati are often used in modal and Latin jazz. Ostinato are used in 20th-century music to stabilize groups of pitches, as in Stravinskys The Rite of Spring Introduction and Augurs of Spring. A famous type of ostinato, called the Rossini crescendo, owes its name to a crescendo that underlies a persistent musical pattern and this style was emulated by other bel canto composers, especially Vincenzo Bellini, and later by Wagner. Applicable in homophonic and contrapuntal textures they are repetitive rhythmic-harmonic schemes, more familiar as accompanimental melodies, the techniques appeal to composers from Debussy to avant-garde composers until at least the 1970s. Lies in part in the need for unity created by the abandonment of functional chord progressions to shape phrases. Relentless, repetitive character help to establish and confirm the modal center and their popularity may also be justified by their ease as well as range of use, though. Ostinato must be employed judiciously, as its overuse can lead to monotony. Ground bass or basso ostinato is a type of form in which a bass line. Aaron Copland describes basso ostinato as, the easiest to recognize of the variation forms wherein. A long phrase—either an accompanimental figure or an actual melody—is repeated over and over again in the bass part, however, he cautions, it might more properly be termed a musical device than a musical form. Many instruments south of the Sahara Desert play ostinato melodies and these include lamellophones such as the mbira, as well as xylophones like the balafon, the bikutsi, and the gyil. Ostinato figures are also played on string instruments such as the kora, gankoqui bell ensembles, often, African ostinatos contain offbeats or cross-beats, that contradict the metric structure. Other African ostinatos generate complete cross-rhythms by sounding both the main beats and cross-beats, in the following example, a gyil sounds the three-against-two cross-rhythm
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String instrument
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String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord or piano, with bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a wheel that rubs the strings. Bowed instruments include the string instruments of the Classical music orchestra. All of the string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp, in the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, in most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it, the vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur, the development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. During the medieval era, instrument development varied from country to country, Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar and these instruments typically used catgut and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history, violins and guitars became more consistent in design, and were roughly similar to what we use in the 2000s. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more associated with six string models. In big bands of the 1920s, the guitar played backing chords. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier, the development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups, volume control knobs and an output jack, in the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called stacks
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Classical music
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Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical and secular music. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period, Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches, tempo, meter and rhythms for a piece of music. This can leave less room for such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation. The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, the earliest reference to classical music recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, the written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them, J. S. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works, Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music being reproduced. That said, the score does not provide complete and exact instructions on how to perform a historical work, even if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction, we do not know exactly how fast the piece should be played. Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations, during the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto, during the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano. The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century and they consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments. The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for music and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass and it generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many bands use a double bass. Many of the used to perform medieval music still exist. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle, Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut, during the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th
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Bass guitar
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The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb, by plucking, slapping, popping, strumming, tapping, thumping, or picking with a plectrum, often known as a pick. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to a guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The four-string bass, by far the most common, is tuned the same as the double bass. The bass guitar is an instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the guitar has pickups and it is plugged into an amplifier and speaker on stage, or into a larger PA system using a DI unit. Since the 1960s, the guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While types of basslines vary widely from one style of music to another, many styles of music utilise the bass guitar, including rock, heavy metal, pop, punk rock, country, reggae, gospel, blues, symphonic rock, and jazz. It is often a solo instrument in jazz, jazz fusion, Latin, funk, progressive rock and other rock, the adoption of a guitar form made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments. The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in more easily than on acoustic or electric upright basses. Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period, around 1947, Tutmarcs son, Bud, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948, however, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success. In the 1950s, Leo Fender, with the help of his employee George Fullerton and his Fender Precision Bass, which began production in October 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. This split pickup, introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups, the pole pieces and leads of the coils were reversed with respect to each other, producing a humbucking effect. Humbucking is a design that electrically cancels the effect of any AC hum, the Fender Bass was a revolutionary new instrument, which could be easily transported, and which was less prone to feedback when amplified than acoustic bass instruments. Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, roy Johnson, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, were other early Fender bass pioneers. Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, switched from bass to the Fender Precision Bass around 1957. The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, following Fenders lead, in 1953, Gibson released the first short scale violin-shaped electric bass with extendable end pin, allowing it to be played upright or horizontally. In 1959 these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass, the EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance
29.
Banjo
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The banjo is a four-, five- or six-stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity as a resonator, called the head. The membrane, or head, is made of plastic, although animal skin is still occasionally but rarely used. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by Africans in America, the banjo is frequently associated with country, folk, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. Historically, the banjo occupied a place in African American traditional music. The banjo, with the fiddle, is a mainstay of American old-time music and it is also very frequently used in Traditional Jazz. The modern banjo derives from instruments that had used in the Caribbean since the 17th century by enslaved people taken from West Africa. Written references to the banjo in North America appear in the 18th century, the etymology of the name banjo is uncertain. The word could have come from the Yoruba word Bami jo and it may derive from the Kimbundu word mbanza. A Banza, a five double string courses Portuguese viuhela with two short strings, mbanza is a string African instrument that has been built after the Portuguese Banza. Banza is quite similar to Banjo, various instruments in Africa, chief among them the kora, feature a skin head and gourd body. Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th century, 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as bangie, banza, bonjaw, banjer and banjar. Instruments similar to the banjo have been played in many countries, another likely relative of the banjo is the akonting, a spike folk lute played by the Jola tribe of Senegambia, and the ubaw-akwala of the Igbo. Early, African-influenced banjos were built around a body and a wooden stick neck. These instruments had varying numbers of strings, though often including some form of drone, the five-string banjo was popularized by Joel Walker Sweeney, an American minstrel performer from Appomattox Court House, Virginia. In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage and his version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth string. This new banjo was at first tuned dGdf♯a, though by the 1890s this had been transposed up to gcgbd, Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeneys group, the American Virginia Minstrels, in the 1840s, and became very popular in music halls. In the Antebellum South, many black slaves played the banjo, two techniques closely associated with the five-string banjo are rolls and drones. Rolls are right hand fingering pattern that consist of eight notes that subdivide each measure
30.
Scruggs style
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Scruggs style is the most common style of playing the banjo in bluegrass music. It is a method, also known as three-finger style. It is named after Earl Scruggs, whose approach and technical mastery of the instrument have influenced generations of bluegrass banjoists ever since he was first recorded in 1946. Scruggs-style banjo is played with picks on the thumb, index and middle fingers, the strings are picked rapidly in repetitive sequences or rolls, the same string is not typically picked twice in succession. Melody notes are interspersed among arpeggios, and musical phrases typically contain long series of staccato notes, the music is generally syncopated, and may have a subtle swing or shuffle feel, especially on mid-tempo numbers. The result is lively, rapid music, which lends itself both as an accompaniment to other instruments and as a solo, scruggs-style back-up is effective for any. break when it is played with the deeper tones of the banjo. However, it is particularly effective. fiddle, mandolin, because these licks were widely copied by later players, they have become one of the defining attributes of the style, and give it its characteristic sound. These licks often contain fretting-hand embellishments such as slides, chokes, hammer-ons, or plucking the strings with the fretting hand, many licks also make use of blue notes, giving the music a bluesier feel. There is some debate as to how much of the Scruggs style was invented by Scruggs. For example, Scruggs names Snuffy Jenkins as a major influence, but there is little doubt that he did more to popularize the style than any of his contemporaries, it is hard to overstate his influence. In 1968, the instructional manual Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo was published and this made Scruggs technique more widely accessible, and as one of the earliest books of its kind for bluegrass banjo, helped spread Scruggs influence considerably
31.
Guitar
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The guitar is a musical instrument classified as a fretted string instrument with anywhere from four to 18 strings, usually having six. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier. It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers, the guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. There are three types of modern acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of a guitar is produced by the strings vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar. The term finger-picking can also refer to a tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass. The acoustic bass guitar is an instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar. Early amplified guitars employed a body, but a solid wood body was eventually found more suitable during the 1960s and 1970s. As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars and solid-body guitars. The electric guitar has had a influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as an instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar, at least two instruments called guitars were in use in Spain by 1200, the guitarra latina and the so-called guitarra morisca. The guitarra morisca had a back, wide fingerboard. The guitarra Latina had a sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers moresca or morisca and latina had been dropped, and it had six courses, lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist
32.
Neoclassicism (music)
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Neoclassicism had two distinct national lines of development, French and German. Neoclassicism was a trend rather than an organized movement, even many composers not usually thought of as neoclassicists absorbed elements of the style. Although the term refers to a 20th-century movement, there were important 19th-century precursors. Sergei Prokofievs Symphony No.1 is sometimes cited as a precursor of neoclassicism, prokofiev himself thought that his composition was a passing phase whereas Stravinskys neoclassicism was by the 1920s becoming the basic line of his music. Igor Stravinskys first foray into the style began in 1919/20 when he composed the ballet Pulcinella, Stravinskys neoclassicism culminated in his opera The Rakes Progress, with a libretto by W. H. Auden. Neoclassicism found an audience in Europe and America, as the school of Nadia Boulanger promulgated ideas about music based on her understanding of Stravinskys music. In the first movement of the concerto, Falla quotes fragments of the 15th-century villancico De los álamos and he had similarly incorporated quotations from 17th-century music when he first embraced neoclassicism in the puppet-theatre piece El retablo de maese Pedro, an adaptation from Cervantess Don Quixote. Later neoclassical compositions by Falla include the 1924 chamber cantata Psyché and incidental music for Pedro Calderón de la Barcas, El gran teatro del mundo, written in 1927. Other important Spanish neoclassical composers are found amongst the members of the Generación de la República, including Julián Bautista, Fernando Remacha, Salvador Bacarisse,1 in D of 1939 consciously follows Mozarts concerto style. Portuguese representatives of neoclassicism include two members of the Grupo de Quatro, Armando José Fernandes and Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos, argentine composers associated with neoclassicism include Jacobo Ficher, José María Castro, Luis Gianneo, and Juan José Castro. Roberto Caamaño, professor of Gregorian chant at the Institute of Sacred Music in Buenos Aires, employed a dissonant neoclassical style in some works and a serialist style in others. Neoclassical traits figure in Guarnieris music starting with the movement of the Piano Sonatina of 1928. The Chilean composer Domingo Santa Cruz Wilson was so influenced by the German variety of neoclassicism that he became known as the Chilean Hindemith. In Cuba, José Ardévol initiated a school, though he himself moved on to a modernistic national style later in his career. Even the atonal school, represented by Arnold Schoenberg, showed the influence of neoclassical ideas, the forms of Schoenbergs works after 1920, beginning with opp. 23,24, and 25, have described as openly neoclassical. Schoenberg attempted in those works to offer listeners structural points of reference with which they could identify, beginning with the Serenade,24, and the Suite for piano, op. Schoenbergs pupil Alban Berg actually came to neoclassicism before his teacher, in his Three Pieces for Orchestra,6, and the opera Wozzeck, which uses closed forms such as suite, passacaglia, and rondo as organizing principles within each scene
33.
Synthesizer
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A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals, natural sounds like ocean waves, etc. or generate new electronic timbres. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals, synthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s, in the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in genres of pop, rock. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer, the beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as it is difficult to draw a distinction between synthesizers and some early electric or electronic musical instruments. One of the earliest electric musical instruments, the telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromechanical circuit and this musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraph line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, consisting of a diaphragm in a magnetic field. This instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy, though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer. In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium, which used dynamos, and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, however, Cahills business was unsuccessful for various reasons, and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs. In 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the electronics age and he invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube. This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films, ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to later synthesizers. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art, in 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States, during the three years that Hammond manufactured this model,1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. Both instruments were the forerunners of the electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers
34.
Roland TB-303
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The TB-303 played an important role in the development of house music, influencing Chicago house and forming the basis for acid house. It is also used in related dance genres such as acid techno. The TB-303 was originally marketed to guitarists for bass accompaniment while practicing alone, production lasted approximately 18 months, resulting in only 10,000 units. It was not until the mid- to late-1980s that DJs and electronic musicians in Chicago found a use for the machine in the context of the newly developing house music genre. The TB-303 has an audio oscillator, which may be configured to produce either a sawtooth wave or a square wave. The square wave is derived from the sawtooth waveform using a simple and this produces a sound that is subtly different from the square waveform created by the dedicated hardware found in most analog synthesizers. It also includes an envelope generator, with a decay control only. A lowpass filter is included, with -24dB per octave attenuation, and controls for cutoff frequency, resonance. It is a misconception that the filter is a 3 pole 18 dB per octave design when in fact it is 4-pole 24 dB per octave. The TB-303 sequencer has some features that contribute to its characteristic sound. During the programming of a sequence, the user can determine whether a note should be accented, and whether it should employ portamento, a smooth transition to the following note. The portamento circuitry employs a fixed time, meaning that whatever the interval between notes, the time taken to reach the correct pitch is always the same. The accent circuitry, as well as increasing the amplitude of a note, also emphasizes the EG filters cutoff and resonance, resulting in a distinctive, the instrument also features a simple step-time method for entering note data into the 16-step programmable sequencer. This was notoriously difficult to use, and would result in entering a different sequence than the one that had been intended. Some users also take advantage of a low voltage failure mode, rip It Up by Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice, which reached #8 in the UK singles chart in February 1983, was the first UK hit to feature the synthesiser. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as new Acid styles emerged, examples of this technique include Phutures 1987 Acid Tracks, Hardfloors 1992 EP Acperience and Interlect 3000s 1993 EP Volcano. Jesse Saunders also utilized the TB-303 with a Roland TR-808 drum machine, in other instances the TB-303 was extremely distorted and processed, such as Josh Winks 1995 hit Higher State of Consciousness. The acid sound is produced by playing a repeating note pattern on the TB-303, while altering the filters cutoff frequency, resonance
35.
Arpeggiator
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A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals, natural sounds like ocean waves, etc. or generate new electronic timbres. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals, synthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s, in the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in genres of pop, rock. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer, the beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as it is difficult to draw a distinction between synthesizers and some early electric or electronic musical instruments. One of the earliest electric musical instruments, the telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromechanical circuit and this musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraph line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, consisting of a diaphragm in a magnetic field. This instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy, though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer. In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium, which used dynamos, and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, however, Cahills business was unsuccessful for various reasons, and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs. In 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the electronics age and he invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube. This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films, ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to later synthesizers. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art, in 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States, during the three years that Hammond manufactured this model,1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. Both instruments were the forerunners of the electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers
36.
Keyboard instrument
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A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various keyboards, including synthesizers. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, today, the term keyboard often refers to keyboard-style synthesizers. Another important use of the keyboard is in historical musicology. Particularly in the 18th century, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the piano were in competition. Hence in a phrase like Mozart excelled as a player the word keyboard is usefully noncommittal. The earliest known keyboard instrument was the Ancient Greek hydraulis, a type of pipe organ, the keys were likely balanced and could be played with a light touch, as is clear from the reference in a Latin poem by Claudian, who says magna levi detrudens murmura tactu. Intent, that is “let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty roarings with a light touch”, from its invention until the fourteenth century, the organ remained the only keyboard instrument. Often, the organ did not feature a keyboard at all, almost every keyboard until the fifteenth century had seven naturals to each octave. The clavichord and the harpsichord appeared during the 14th century—the clavichord probably being earlier, the harpsichord and clavichord were both common until widespread adoption of the piano in the 18th century, after which their popularity decreased. The piano was revolutionary, because a pianist could vary the volume of the sound by varying the vigor with which each key was struck. The pianos full name is gravicèmbalo con piano e forte meaning harpsichord with soft and loud but can be shortened to piano-forte, which means soft-loud in Italian. In its current form, the piano is a product of the late 19th century, in fact, the modern piano is significantly different from even the 19th-century pianos used by Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms. See Piano history and musical performance, keyboard instruments were further developed in the early twentieth century. Early electromechanical instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot, appeared early in the century and this was a very important contribution to the keyboards history. Much effort has gone into creating an instrument that sounds like the piano but lacks its size, the electric piano and electronic piano were early efforts that, while useful instruments in their own right, did not convincingly reproduce the timbre of the piano. Electric and electronic organs were developed during the same period, more recent electronic keyboard designs strive to emulate the sound of specific make and model pianos using digital samples and computer models. Concerns celebrated keyboard players and the various instruments used over the centuries
37.
Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches
38.
Accordion
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Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist, the concertina and bandoneón are related, the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family. The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing pallets to open and these vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instruments reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the manual. The accordion is widely spread across the world, nevertheless, in Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music. The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, the oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical. Today, native versions of the accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, accordions have many configurations and types. Similar to a bow, the production of sound in an accordion is in direct proportion to the motion of the player. The bellows is located between the right- and left-hand manuals, and is made from pleated layers of cloth and cardboard, with added leather and metal. It is used to pressure and vacuum, driving air across the internal reeds and producing sound by their vibration. These boxes house reed chambers for the right- and left-hand manuals, each side has grilles in order to facilitate the transmission of air in and out of the instrument, and to allow the sound to better project. The grille for the manual is usually larger and is often shaped for decorative purposes. The right-hand manual is used for playing the melody and the left-hand manual for playing the accompaniment. The manual mechanism of the instrument either enables the air flow, or disables it, the different types have varying components. All instruments have reed ranks of some format, the most typical accordion is the piano accordion, which is used for many musical genres
39.
Video game music
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Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be heard over a title screen, options menu. Today’s soundtracks can also change depending on a player’s actions or situation, Video game music can be one of two options, original or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, today, original composition has included the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino. The popularity of game music has expanded education and job opportunities, generated awards. At the time video games had emerged as a form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion, an early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikados Gun Fight. The first game to use a background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikados Space Invaders. It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, the first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs, Sound capabilities were limited, the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or notes, at a time. As advances were made in technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines. This was further improved upon by Namcos 1982 arcade game Dig Dug, Dig Dug was composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed the music for other Namco games such as Xevious and Phozon. Home console systems also had an upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985
40.
Melody
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A melody, also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively and it may be considered the foreground to the background accompaniment. A line or part need not be a foreground melody, melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases or motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a composition in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals between pitches, pitch range, tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence, the true goal of music—its proper enterprise—is melody. All the parts of harmony have as their purpose only beautiful melody. Therefore, the question of which is the significant, melody or harmony, is futile. Beyond doubt, the means is subordinate to the end, given the many and varied elements and styles of melody many extant explanations confine us to specific stylistic models, and they are too exclusive. Paul Narveson claimed in 1984 that more than three-quarters of melodic topics had not been explored thoroughly, melodies in the 20th century utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than ha been the custom in any other historical period of Western music. While the diatonic scale was used, the chromatic scale became widely employed. Composers also allotted a structural role to the dimensions that previously had been almost exclusively reserved for pitch. Kliewer states, The essential elements of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality, texture, for example, Jazz musicians use the term lead or head to refer to the main melody, which is used as a starting point for improvisation. Rock music, melodic music, and other forms of popular music, indian classical music relies heavily on melody and rhythm, and not so much on harmony, as the music contains no chord changes. Balinese gamelan music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a melody played simultaneously. In western classical music, composers often introduce an initial melody, or theme, classical music often has several melodic layers, called polyphony, such as those in a fugue, a type of counterpoint. Often, melodies are constructed from motifs or short melodic fragments, richard Wagner popularized the concept of a leitmotif, a motif or melody associated with a certain idea, person or place. Appropriation Hocket Parsons code, a notation used to identify a piece of music through melodic motion—the motion of the pitch up. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. p. 517–19, the Art of Melody, p. xix–xxx. A Textbook of Melody, A course in functional melodic analysis, a History Of Melody, Barrie and Rockliff, London
41.
Demoscene
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A compo is a contest relating to programming, computer graphics and music that takes place within the demoscene and related subcultures. The term compo is a shortening of competition, compos are typically held at demoparties. The usual format is to show the competing entries sequentially with a video projector, in addition to party-based contests, there have also been online compos on websites and bulletin board systems. The main competition on most demoparties is the demo compo, a typical party also includes an intro compo, a music compo and a graphics compo. Other common contests include wild compo and game development compo, compos are often split into subcategories by technical and stylistic restrictions. Compos at a demoparty are usually held during the afternoon and lasting after midnight, each compo has its designated deadline, to which the competitors must deliver their entries, either via traditional physical media or through the party LAN. The crew also performs preselection on the entries to be able to fit in a given timeframe with the competition, and also to maintain a quality level for a given competition. Compos show the production in an order, some parties prefer to reorder competition entries in an ascending order quality-wise. At some parties, individual competitions omit the display of the name at this point. After the compo, visitors are given the opportunity to vote, to avoid mass-votes by individuals, a votesheet or votekey is usually only handed out to a visitor in exchange of a mark on the ticket, such as tickmark or the removal of the wristband. Votes, usually done via either preferential voting or range voting, are calculated after the voting deadline, fastcompos are a common form of entertainment at demoparties. Unlike regular compos, fastcompos are announced at the party, usually only a few hours to a day before the deadline, fastcompos may be held for music, graphics, demos and anything else regular compos are
42.
Commodore 64
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The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, C-64, C=64, or occasionally CBM64 or VIC-64 in Sweden, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International. It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the single computer model of all time. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595, preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes of RAM. It had superior sound and graphical specifications compared to earlier systems such as the Apple II and Atari 800, with multi-color sprites. The C64 dominated the low-end computer market for most of the 1980s. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodores founder, said in a 1989 interview, When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years. In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum, part of the Commodore 64s success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics and/or computer hobbyist specialty stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs, including custom integrated circuit chips from MOS Technology and it has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative and affordable mass-production. Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles have made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications. C64 emulators allow anyone with a computer, or a compatible video game console. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is used today by some computer hobbyists. In 2008,17 years after it was taken off the market, in January 1981, MOS Technology, Inc. Commodores integrated circuit design subsidiary, initiated a project to design the graphic, Design work for the chips, named MOS Technology VIC-II and MOS Technology SID, was completed in November 1981. Commodore then began a game console project that would use the new chips—called the Ultimax or the Commodore MAX Machine and this project was eventually cancelled after just a few machines were manufactured for the Japanese market. At the same time, Robert Bob Russell and Robert Bob Yannes were critical of the current product line-up at Commodore, with the support of Al Charpentier and Charles Winterble, they proposed to Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel a true low-cost sequel to the VIC-20. Tramiel dictated that the machine should have 64 KB of random-access memory, although 64-Kbit dynamic random-access memory chips cost over US$100 at the time, he knew that DRAM prices were falling, and would drop to an acceptable level before full production was reached. The product was named the VIC-40 as the successor to the popular VIC-20. The team that constructed it consisted of Yash Terakura, Bob Russell, Bob Yannes, the design, prototypes and some sample software were finished in time for the show, after the team had worked tirelessly over both Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends
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MOS Technology SID
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The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID is the built-in Programmable Sound Generator chip of Commodores CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore MAX Machine home computers. It was one of the first sound chips of its kind to be included in a computer prior to the digital sound revolution. Together with the VIC-II graphics chip, the SID was instrumental in making the C64 the best-selling computer in history, patent 4,677,890, which was filed on February 27,1983, and issued on July 7,1987. The patent expired on July 7,2004, the SID was devised by engineer Robert Bob Yannes, who later co-founded the Ensoniq digital synthesizer company. Yannes headed a team that included himself, two technicians and a CAD operator, who designed and completed the chip in five months, Yannes was inspired by previous work in the synthesizer industry and was not impressed by the current state of computer sound chips. Instead, he wanted a high-quality instrument chip, which is the reason why the SID has features like the envelope generator, emphasis during chip design was on high-precision frequency control, and the SID was originally designed to have 32 independent voices, sharing a common oscillator. Another feature that was not incorporated in the design was a frequency look-up table for the most common musical notes. The support for an input pin was a feature Yannes added without asking. The masks were produced in 7-micrometer technology to gain a high yield, the chip, like the first product using it, was finished in time for the Consumer Electronics Show in the first weekend of January 1982. Even though Yannes was partly displeased with the result, his colleague Charles Winterble said, the specifications for the chip were not used as a blueprint. Rather, they were written as the development work progressed, Yannes claims he had a feature-list of which three quarters made it into the final design. This is the reason why some of the specifications for the first version were accidentally incorrect, the later revision was revised to match the specification. For example, the 8580 expanded on the ability to perform a binary AND between two waveforms, something that the 6581 could only do in a limited and unintuitive manner. Another feature that differs between the two revisions is the filter, the 6581 version is far away from the specification, since 6581 and 8580 SID ICs are no longer produced, they have become highly sought after. In late 2007, various defective chips started appearing on eBay as supposedly new, all of these remarked SIDs have a defective filter, but some also have defective channels/noise generators, and some are completely dead. The different filter modes are sometimes combined to produce additional timbres, three attack/decay/sustain/release volume controls, one for each audio oscillator. Oscillator sync for each audio oscillator, two 8-bit A/D converters external audio input random number/modulation generator The SID is a mixed-signal integrated circuit, featuring both digital and analog circuitry. All control ports are digital, while the ports are analog
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Chiptune
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Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is synthesized electronic music which is made for programmable sound generator sound chips used in vintage computers, consoles, and arcade machines. The term also refers to tracker format music which sounds similar to older PSG-created music and music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. By the early 1980s, personal computers became less expensive and more accessible than they had previously been and this led to a proliferation of outdated personal computers and game consoles that had been abandoned by consumers as they upgraded to newer machines. They were in low demand by consumers as a whole, and not difficult to find, while it has been a mostly underground genre, chiptune has had periods of moderate popularity in the 1980s and 21st century, and has influenced the development of electronic dance music. The terms chip music and chiptune refer to music made by the sound chips found within early gaming systems, a waveform generator is a fundamental module in a sound synthesis system. A waveform generator usually produces a basic geometrical waveform with a fixed or variable timbre, common waveform generator configurations usually included two or three simple waveforms and often a single pseudo-random-noise generator. Available waveforms often included pulse wave, square wave, triangle wave, two notable examples of systems employing this technology comprise the Game Boy and the Commodore 64. The Game Boy uses two pulse channels, a channel for 4-bit PCM playback, and a pseudo-random-noise generator, the Commodore 64, however, used the MOS Technology SID chip which offered 3 channels, each switchable between pulse, saw-tooth, triangle, and noise. Unlike the Game Boy, the channels on the Commodore 64 allowed full control over wave duty cycles. The SID was a technically advanced chip, offering many other features including ring modulation. Due to limited number of voices in those primitive chips, one of the challenges is to produce rich polyphonic music with them. The usual method to emulate it is via quick arpeggios, which is one of the most relevant features of chiptune music, the earliest precursors to chip music can be found in the early history of computer music. In 1951, the computers CSIRAC and Ferranti Mark 1 were used to perform real-time synthesized digital music in public. One of the earliest commercial computer music albums came from the First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival, held August 25,1978, the First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival recordings were published by Creative Computing in 1979. The Global TV program Science International credited a PDP-11/10 for the music, Chiptune music began to appear with the video game music produced during the golden age of video arcade games. An early example was the tune in Tomohiro Nishikados arcade game Gun Fight. The first video game to feature continuous background music was Rally-X. It was also one of the earliest games to use a converter to produce sampled sounds
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Nintendo Entertainment System
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The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit home video game console that was developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game following the video game crash of 1983. With the NES, Nintendo introduced a business model of licensing third-party developers, authorizing them to produce. It was initially released in Japan as the Family Computer on July 15,1983, and was released in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986. In South Korea, it was known as the Hyundai Comboy and was distributed by SK Hynix which then was known as Hyundai Electronics and it was succeeded by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2009, the Nintendo Entertainment System was named the single greatest video game console in history by IGN and it was judged the second greatest console behind the Sega Dreamcast in PC Magazines Top 10 Video Game Consoles of All Time. Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to create a console called the Famicom. A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan up to that time, no cross-development software was available and it had to be produced from scratch. Perhaps we could say it is a family computer, meanwhile, Hiroshi Yamauchi decided that the console should use a red and white theme after seeing a billboard for DX Antenna which used those colors. Original plans called for the Famicoms cartridges to be the size of a cassette tape, careful design attention was paid to the cartridge connectors since loose and faulty connections often plagued arcade machines. As it necessitated taking 60 connection lines for the memory and expansion, the controllers were hard-wired to the console with no connectors for cost reasons. There were concerns regarding the durability of the design and that children might step on joysticks left on the floor. Katsuyah Nakawaka attached a Game & Watch D-pad to the Famicom prototype and found that it was easy to use, ultimately though, they installed a 15-pin expansion port on the front of the console so that an optional arcade-style joystick could be used. Uemura added an eject lever to the slot which was not really necessary. He also added a microphone to the controller with the idea that it could be used to make players voices sound through the TV speaker. The console was released on July 15,1983 as the Family Computer for ¥14,800 alongside three ports of Nintendos successful arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye. The Famicom was slow to gather momentum, a bad chip set caused the release of the system to crash. Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the deal was set to be finalized and signed at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1983
