1.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
2.
Repetition (music)
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Repetition is important in music, where sounds or sequences are often repeated. It may be called restatement, such as the restatement of a theme, while it plays a role in all music, with noise and musical tones lying along a spectrum from irregular to periodic sounds, it is especially prominent in specific styles. A literal repetition of a passage is often indicated by the use of a repeat sign. Repetition is a part and parcel of symmetry—and of establishing motifs and you find a melodic or rhythmic figure that you like, and you repeat it throughout the course of the melody or song. This sort of repetition. helps to unify your melody, its the equivalent of a steady drumbeat. However, too much of a thing can get annoying. If you repeat your figure too often, it start to bore the listener. Memory affects the music-listening experience so profoundly that it would be not be hyperbole to say that without memory there would be no music, as scores of theorists and philosophers have noted. music is based on repetition. Music works because we remember the tones we have just heard and are relating them to the ones that are just now being played, theodor Adorno criticized repetition and popular music as being psychotic and infantile. There is no universal norm or convention for the amount or type of repetition, all music contains repetition - but in differing amounts, thus Middleton distinguishes between discursive and musematic repetition. A museme is a unit of meaning, analogous to morpheme in linguistics. Discursive repetition is at the level of the phrase or section and he gives paradigmatic case, the riff and the phrase. Musematic repetition includes circularity, synchronic relations, and openness, discursive repetition includes linearity, rational control, and self-sufficiency. Discursive repetition is most often nested in larger repetitions and may be thought of as sectional, put more simply, musematic repetition is simple repetition of precisely the same musical figure, such as a repeated chorus. Discursive repetition is, both repetitive and non-repetitive, such as the repetition of the rhythmic figure with different notes. Therefore, they would repeat parts of their song at times, making music like sonata very repetitive, Repetition is important in musical form. The repetition of any section of ternary form results in expanded ternary form, types of repetition include exact repetition, repetition after digression, and nonrepetition. Copland and Slatkin offer Au clair de la lune and Ach. du lieber Augustin Play as examples of aba, at the tone level, repetition creates a drone
3.
Repeat sign
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In music, a repeat sign is a sign that indicates a section should be repeated. If the piece has one repeat sign alone, then means to repeat from the beginning. A corresponding sign facing the other way indicates where the repeat is to begin and these are similar to the instructions da capo and dal segno. When a repeat calls for a different ending, numbered brackets above the bars indicate which to play the first time and these are called first-time bars and second-time bars, or first and second endings. They are also known as volta brackets and have no limit to how many there can be. | In Gregorian chant and this is common particularly in a Kyrie, where the lines followed by iii are to be repeated three times. In shape-note singing, repeat signs usually have four dots, between each line of the staff, the corresponding sign to show where the repeat is from is either the same sign reversed, or the dots themselves. First and second endings are given with just the numbers above the corresponding bars, abbreviation Coda Da capo Dal segno Repetition List of repeat variations
4.
Section (music)
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In music, a section is a complete, but not independent musical idea. Types of sections include the introduction or intro, exposition, recapitulation, verse, chorus or refrain, conclusion, coda or outro, fadeout, bridge or interlude. In sectional forms such as binary, the unit is built from various smaller clear-cut units in combination. Some well known songs consist of one or two sections, for example Jingle Bells commonly contains verses and choruses. It may contain auxiliary members such as an introduction and/or outro, a section is, a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena. An episode may also refer to a section, a passage is a musical idea that may or may not be complete or independent. For example, fill, riff, and all sections, musical material is any musical idea, complete or not, independent or not, including motifs. Song structure Period Phrase Repetition and repeat sign
5.
Musical form
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The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections. According to Richard Middleton, musical form is the shape or structure of the work and he describes it through difference, the distance moved from a repeat, the latter being the smallest difference. Difference is quantitative and qualitative, how far, and of what type, in many cases, form depends on statement and restatement, unity and variety, and contrast and connection. This phrase may be regarded as the unit of musical form. Even at this level, the importance of the principles of repetition and contrast, weak and strong, climax and repose, thus, form may be understood on three levels of organization. For the purpose of exposition, these levels can be roughly designated as passage, piece. The smallest level of construction concerns the way musical phrases are organized into musical sentences and this may be compared to, and is often decided by, the verse form or meter of the words or the steps of a dance. In the analysis of form, any components that can be defined on the time axis are conventionally designated by letters. Upper-case letters are used for the most fundamental, while lower-case letters are used for sub-divisions, if one such section returns in a varied or modified form, a numerical digit or an appropriate number of prime symbols appears after the letter. Even at this simplest level, there are patterns that may be re-used on larger timescales, for example, consider the analogy with rhyme schemes, The following verse is composed of two differently-rhymed couplets, and thus its organization is binary or twofold. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. There once was a fellow from Leeds Who swallowed a packet of seeds, in less than an hour he burst into flower And he died trying to pull up the weeds. The next level concerns the structure of any single self-contained musical piece. If the hymn, ballad, blues or dance alluded to above simply repeats the same musical material indefinitely then the piece is said to be in strophic form overall. If it repeats with distinct, sustained changes each time, for instance in setting, ornamentation or instrumentation, then the piece is a theme and variations. If the theme is played, then a new theme is introduced, great arguments and misunderstanding can be generated by such terms as ternary and binary, as a complex piece may have elements of both at different organizational levels. The grandest level of organization may be referred to as cyclical form and it concerns the arrangement of several self-contained pieces into a large-scale composition. For example, a set of songs with a theme may be presented as a song-cycle
6.
Ternary form
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Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form where the first section is repeated after the second section ends. It is usually schematized as A–B–A, examples include the da capo aria The trumpet shall sound from Handels Messiah, Chopins Prelude in D-Flat Major and the opening chorus of Bachs St John Passion. In ternary form each section is self-contained both thematically as well as tonally (that is, each section contains distinct and complete themes and it usually also has a contrasting character, for example section A might be stiff and formal while the contrasting B section would be melodious and flowing. Da capo arias are usually in simple ternary form, commonly, the third section will feature more ornamentation than the first section. In these cases the last section is sometimes labeled A’ or A1 to indicate that it is different from the first A section. In a trio form each section is a movement in binary form. An example is the minuet and trio from the Haydns Surprise Symphony, the minuet consists of one section which is repeated and a second section which is also repeated. The trio section follows the same format, the complete minuet is then played again at the end of the trio represented as. By convention in the rendition of the minuet, the sections are not repeated with the scheme. The scherzo and trio, which is identical in structure to other trio forms, examples include the scherzo and trio from Beethovens Symphony No.9 and the scherzo and trio in Schuberts String Quintet. Another name for the latter is composite ternary form, trio form movements written from the early romantic era sometimes include a short coda and possibly a short introduction. The second movement of Beethovens Symphony No.9 is written in style which can be diagrammed as Polkas are also often in compound-ternary form. In a complex ternary form each section is itself in ternary form in the scheme of By convention each part is repeated, an example are the Impromptus by Jan Voříšek. Thirty-two-bar form Small Ternary Form by Jon Brantingham,17 October 2011, artofcomposing. com
7.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
8.
Aria
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An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term became used almost exclusively to describe a piece for one voice, with or without orchestral accompaniment. The typical context for arias is opera, but vocal arias also feature in oratorios and cantatas, the term, which derives from the Greek and Latin aer first appeared in relation to music in the 14th century when it simply signified a manner or style of singing or playing. By the end of the 16th century, the term refers to an instrumental form. By the early 16th century it was in use as meaning a simple setting of strophic poetry, melodic madrigals. In the context of staged works and concert works, arias evolved from simple melodies into structured forms, the aria evolved typically in one of two forms. Binary form arias were in two sections, arias in ternary form were known as da capo arias, in the da capo aria the B episode would typically be in a different key – the dominant or relative major key. This version of form with ritornelli became a dominant feature of European opera throughout the 18th century. It is thought by some writers to be the origin of the forms of concerto. The ritornelli became essential to the structure of the aria – while the words determine the character of a melody the ritornello instruments often decided in terms it shall be presented. By the early 18th century, composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti had established the aria form and it offered balance and continuity, and yet gave scope for contrast. The very regularity of its conventional features enabled deviations from the normal to be exploited with telling effect. In the early years of the century, arias in the Italian style began to take over in French opera, giving rise eventually to the French genre of ariette, normally in a relatively simple ternary form. Types of operatic aria became known by a variety of terms according to their character – e. g. aria parlante, aria di bravura, aria buffa, and so on. By the end of this first vocal paragraph the music, if it were in a key as it usually was, had modulated to the dominant. The orchestra then played a second ritornello usually shorter than the first, the singer re-entered and sang the same words through a second time. The music of this paragraph was often slightly more elaborate than that of the first. There were more repeats of words and perhaps more florid vocalisations, the key worked its way back to the tonic for the final vocal cadence after which the orchestra rounded the section off with a final ritornello
9.
Grace note
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A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments, it is usually printed smaller to indicate that it is melodically and harmonically nonessential. When occurring by itself, a grace note normally indicates the intention of an acciaccatura. When they occur in groups, grace notes can be interpreted to indicate any of several different classes of ornamentation, in notation a grace note is distinguished from a regular note by print size. A grace note is indicated by printing a note that is smaller than a regular note. The presence or absence of a slash through a note stem is often interpreted to indicate the intention of an acciaccatura or an appoggiatura, respectively. Such a group of small printed notes may or may not have a principal note. As either an appoggiatura or an acciaccatura, grace notes occur as notes of short duration before the sounding of the relatively longer-lasting note which immediately follows them. This longer note, to which any grace notes can be considered harmonically and melodically subservient, is called the principal in relation to the grace notes. A Grace note or notes is always noted in terms of half of its principal note. Where they are multiple, their proper notation must always equal exactly half of the principal note, in bagpipe music there is extensive use of grace notes. Indeed, because the chanter is not tongued but supplied by an air source from the bag. For example, inserting a grace note between two crotchets played at the pitch is the only way to indicate them as opposed to them sounding like a single minim. Various multiple grace note ornaments are formalised into distinct types, such as doublings, throws, a single grace note is played on the beat as is the first grace note of a complex ornament such as a doubling. Some complex ornaments, such as taorluath can be played starting or ending on the beat, gracenotes are typically played as short as possible by lifting the fingers quickly and a short distance off the chanter. Most modern composers, although by no means all of them, have followed this trend in the prima facie notation of their works, in the context of Indian classical music some specific forms of notes fulfill the technique of playing a note. Such ornamentic in Indian Classical Music is important for the proper rendition, some notes are linked with its preceding and succeeding note, these linked notes are called Kan-swars. Kan-swars deal with so called touch notes and these grace notes are often referred to as sparsh-swars. Kan-swars or sparsh-swars can be executed vocally and on instruments in three ways, using a short glide, as a Sparsh and as a Krintan
10.
Fermata
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A fermata is a symbol of musical notation indicating that the note should be prolonged beyond its normal duration or note value would indicate. Exactly how much longer it is held is up to the discretion of the performer or conductor and it is usually printed above but can be occasionally below the note to be extended. When a fermata is placed over a bar or double-bar, it is used to indicate the end of a phrase or section of a work, in a concerto, it indicates the point at which the soloist is to play a cadenza. A fermata can occur at the end of a piece or in the middle of a piece and it can be followed by either a brief rest or more notes. Other names for a fermata are corona, point dorgue, Fermate and this symbol appears as early as the 15th century. It is quite common in the works of Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Prez, in chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers of the Baroque, the fermata often signifies only the end of a phrase, and a breath is to be taken. In a few compositions, the fermatas occur in different measures for the right and left hands and for the feet. The word lunga is sometimes added above a fermata to indicate a longer duration, however, that is not standard usage. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
11.
Coda (music)
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Coda is a term used in music primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence and it may be as simple as a few measures, or as complex as an entire section. The presence of a coda as an element in a movement is especially clear in works written in particular musical forms. Codas were commonly used in both form and variation movements during the Classical era. In a sonata movement, the recapitulation section will, in general, follow the exposition in its thematic content. In works in form, the coda occurs following the last variation. For one famous example, see Symphony No.8, codetta has a similar purpose to the coda, but on a smaller scale, concluding a section of a work instead of the work as a whole. A typical codetta concludes the exposition and recapitulation sections of a work in sonata form, following the second theme, thus, in the exposition, it usually appears in the secondary key, but, in the recapitulation, in the primary key. The codetta ordinarily closes with a cadence in the appropriate key. If the exposition is repeated, the codetta is also, but sometimes it has its ending slightly changed, cauda, a Latin word meaning tail, edge or trail is the root of coda and is used in the study of conductus of the 12th and 13th centuries. The cauda was a long melisma on one of the last syllables of the text, conducti were traditionally divided into two groups, conductus cum cauda and conductus sine cauda, based on the presence of the melisma. Thus, the cauda provided a role, also similar to the modern coda. Many songs in rock and other genres of music have sections identifiable as codas. A coda in these genres is sometimes referred to as an outro, while in jazz, modern church music, in music notation, the coda symbol, which resembles a set of crosshairs, is used as a navigation marker, similar to the dal Segno sign. It is used where the exit from a section is within that section rather than at the end. The instruction To Coda indicates that, upon reaching that point during the final repetition, for example, this can be used to provide a special ending for the final verse of a song. Coda Da capo Epilogue Repeat sign Transition Fade This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
12.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
13.
Musical notation
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Types and methods of notation have varied between cultures and throughout history, and much information about ancient music notation is fragmentary. Although many ancient cultures used symbols to represent melodies and rhythms, none of them were particularly comprehensive, the seeds of what would eventually become modern western notation were sown in medieval Europe, starting with the Catholic churchs goal for ecclesiastical uniformity. The church began notating plainchant melodies so that the same chants could be used throughout the church, Music notation developed in the Renaissance and Baroque music eras. The introduction of figured bass notation in the Baroque era marked the beginning of the first compositions based around chord progressions, in the classical period and the Romantic music era, notation continued to develop as new musical instrument technologies were developed. Music notation has been adapted to many kinds of music, including music, popular music. The earliest form of notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Sumer. The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, a tablet from about 1250 BC shows a more developed form of notation. Although the interpretation of the system is still controversial, it is clear that the notation indicates the names of strings on a lyre. Although they are fragmentary, these represent the earliest notated melodies found anywhere in the world. The notation consists of symbols placed above text syllables, an example of a complete composition is the Seikilos epitaph, which has been variously dated between the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Three hymns by Mesomedes of Crete exist in manuscript, the Delphic Hymns, dated to the 2nd century BC, also use this notation, but they are not completely preserved. Ancient Greek notation appears to have out of use around the time of the Decline of the Roman Empire. Byzantine music has survived as music for court ceremonies, including vocal religious music. It is not known if it is based on the monodic modal singing, unlike Western notation Byzantine neumes always indicate modal steps in relation to a clef or modal key. These step symbols themselves, or better phonic neumes, resemble brush strokes and are colloquially called gántzoi in Modern Greek, Notes as pitch classes or modal keys are represented in written form only between these neumes. In modern notation they simply serve as a reminder and modal and tempo directions have been added. In Papadic notation medial signatures usually meant a change into another echos. With exception of vú and zō they do correspond to Western solmization syllables as re, mi, fa, sol, la, si
14.
Staff (music)
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Appropriate music symbols, depending on the intended effect, are placed on the staff according to their corresponding pitch or function. Musical notes are placed by pitch, percussion notes are placed by instrument, the absolute pitch of each line of a non-percussive staff is indicated by the placement of a clef symbol at the appropriate vertical position on the left-hand side of the staff. For example, the treble clef, also known as the G clef, is placed on the second line, the lines and spaces are numbered from bottom to top, the bottom line is the first line and the top line is the fifth line. The musical staff is analogous to a graph of pitch with respect to time. Pitches of notes are given by their position on the staff. A time signature to the right of the clef indicates the relationship between timing counts and note symbols, while bar lines group notes on the staff into measures, staff is more common in American English, stave in British English. The plural is staves in either case, stave is, in fact, the vertical position of the notehead on the staff indicates which note to play, higher-pitched notes are marked higher on the staff. The notehead can be placed with the center of its notehead intersecting a line, notes outside the range of the staff are placed on or between ledger lines—lines the width of the note they need to hold—added above or below the staff. Exactly which staff positions represent which notes is determined by a clef placed at the beginning of the staff, the clef identifies a particular line as a specific note, and all other notes are determined relative to that line. For example, the treble clef puts the G above middle C on the second line, the interval between adjacent staff positions is one step in the diatonic scale. Once fixed by a clef, the represented by the positions on the staff can be modified by the key signature. A clefless staff may be used to represent a set of percussion sounds, a single vertical line drawn to the left of multiple staves creates a system, indicating that the music on all the staves is to be played simultaneously. A bracket is a vertical line joining staves, to show groupings of instruments that function as a unit. A brace is used to join multiple staves that represent a single instrument, such as a piano, organ, harp, or marimba. Sometimes, a bracket is used to show instruments grouped in pairs, such as the first and second oboes, or the first. In some cases, a brace is used for this instead of a bracket. When more than one system appears on a page, often two parallel diagonal strokes are placed on the left side of the score to separate them. Four-part SATB vocal settings, especially in hymnals, use a notation on a two-staff system with soprano and alto voices sharing the upper staff
15.
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
16.
Fifteenth
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In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated 15ma, is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, it is two octaves and it is referred to as a fifteenth because, in the diatonic scale, there are 15 notes between them if one counts both ends. Two octaves do not make a sixteenth, but a fifteenth, in other contexts, the term two octaves is likely to be used. For example, if one note has a frequency of 400 Hz, the note a fifteenth above it is at 1600 Hz, the ratio of frequencies of two notes a fifteenth apart is therefore 4,1. As the fifteenth is a multiple of octaves, the ear tends to hear both notes as being essentially the same, as it does the octave. Passages in parallel fifteenths are much less common than parallel octaves, in particular, sometimes an organist will use two stops a fifteenth away. Like the notation 8va for octave, 15ma means play two octaves higher than written and it could also mean two octaves lower, but that is usually notated 15mb. Either direction can be cancelled with the loco, but often a dashed line or bracket indicates the extent of the music affected. The notations 16va and 16vb are sometimes used instead. On organs, the stops labelled Fifteenth are two octaves above the principal, or an octave above stops labelled Octave, if the principal is 8, then the octave is 4 and the superoctave 2. Note that this is different from the organ coupler named super octave, which adds notes an octave above, not two octaves above
17.
Abbreviation (music)
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For crescendo, ob. for oboe, fag. for bassoon. This article is about abbreviations used in music notation, the continued repetition of a note or chord is expressed by a stroke or strokes across the stem, or above or below the note if it be a whole note or double whole note. In the first bar of the example below, the note with the single stroke across the stem in the written staff becomes 4 eighth notes in the played staff. Through the use of 2 strokes across the stem in the second bar and this is however seldom done, as only a small amount of space is saved. It will be observed that a passage lasting for the value of one half note requires two half notes to express it, on account of the group consisting of two notes. The duration of the whole passage should be at least a half note, nevertheless, a group of 32nd notes altogether to the value of a quarter note is occasionally found abbreviated. Such abbreviations, though useful in certain cases, are generally avoided as ambiguous. A group of three, four, or more notes is abbreviated by the repetition of the cross strokes without the notes as many times as the group has to be repeated. This can also be written with the forming the group are written as a chord. Another sign of abbreviation of a group consists of a line with two dots, one on each side, this serves to indicate the repetition of a group of any number of notes of any length. This can even apply to a composed of several groups. Passages intended to be played in octaves are often written as single notes with the words coll ottavi or con 8vi placed above or below them, the word 8va written above a passage does not add octaves, but merely transposes the passage an octave higher or lower. In clarinet music the word chalumeau is used to signify that the passage is to be played a lower than written. Where two parts are written on one staff in a score the sign a 2 denotes that both play the notes, and a 1 that the second of the two is resting. The indication a 3 or a 4 at the head of fugues indicates the number of parts or voices in which the fugue is written and this is not met with in printed scores. There are also abbreviations relating to analysis, some of which are of great value. Gottfried Weber represents an interval by a number one or two dots before it to express minor or diminished, and one or two after it for major or augmented. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Grove, George
18.
Bar (music)
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Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations within a piece of music. It also makes written music easier to follow, since each bar of staff symbols can be read and played as a batch. Typically, a piece consists of bars of the same length. In simple time, the top figure indicates the number of beats per bar, the word bar is more common in British English, and the word measure is more common in American English, although musicians generally understand both usages. In international usage, it is correct to speak of bar numbers and measure numbers. Along the same lines, it is wise to reserve the abbreviated form ‘bb, 3–4’ etc. for beats only, bars should be referred to by name in full. The first metrically complete measure within a piece of music is called ‘bar 1’ or ‘m. 1’, when the piece begins with an anacrusis, ‘bar 1’ or ‘m. 1’ is the following measure. Originally, the bar came from the vertical lines drawn through the staff to mark off metrical units. In British English, these lines are called bar, too. Note that double bar refers not to a type of bar, another term for the bar line denoting the end of a piece of music is music end. A repeat sign looks like the end, but it has two dots, one above the other, indicating that the section of music that is before is to be repeated. The beginning of the passage can be marked by a begin-repeat sign. This begin-repeat sign, if appearing at the beginning of a staff, does not act as a bar line because no bar is before it, in music with a regular meter, bars function to indicate a periodic accent in the music, regardless of its duration. Igor Stravinsky said of bar lines, The bar line is much, much more than a mere accent, bars and bar lines also indicate grouping, rhythmically of beats within and between bars, within and between phrases, and on higher levels such as meter. The earliest barlines, used in keyboard and vihuela music in the 15th and 16th centuries, didnt reflect a regular meter at all but were only section divisions, or in some cases marked off every beat. Barlines began to be introduced into music in the late 16th century. Not until the mid-17th century were used in the modern style with every measure being the same length. Modern editions of music that was originally notated without barlines sometimes use a mensurstrich as a compromise
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Clef
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A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the stave, it indicates the name and this line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the stave may be determined. Only one clef that references a note in a rather than on a line has ever been used. There are three types of clef used in music notation, F, C, and G. Each type of clef assigns a different reference note to the line on which it is placed, once one of these clefs has been placed on one of the lines of the stave, the other lines and spaces can be read in relation to it. The use of three different clefs makes it possible to music for all instruments and voices, even though they may have very different tessituras. The use of different clefs for various instruments and voices allows each part to be written comfortably on the stave with a minimum of ledger lines, to facilitate writing for different tessituras, any of the clefs may theoretically be placed on any of the lines of the stave. The further down on the stave a clef is placed, the higher the tessitura it is for, conversely, the higher up the clef, since there are five lines on the stave, and three clefs, it might seem that there would be fifteen possible clefs. Six of these, however, are redundant clefs, each of these clefs has a different name based on the tessitura for which it is best suited. In modern music, only four clefs are used regularly, the treble clef, the bass clef, the alto clef, of these, the treble and bass clefs are by far the most common. Here follows a complete list of the clefs, along with a list of instruments, each clef is shown in its proper position on the stave, followed by its reference note. An obelisk after the name of a clef indicates that that clef is no longer in common use, where the G-clef is placed on the second line of the stave, it is called the treble clef. This is the most common used today, and the only G-clef still in use. For this reason, the terms G-clef and treble clef are often seen as synonymous, the treble clef was historically used to mark a treble, or pre-pubescent, voice part. Treble clef is the upper stave of the grand stave used for harp and it is also sometimes used, along with tenor clef, for the highest notes played by bass-clef instruments such as the cello, double bass, bassoon, and trombone. The viola also sometimes uses treble clef for very high notes, treble clef is used for the soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, contralto and tenor voices. The tenor voice sounds an octave lower, and is written using an octave clef or double-treble clef. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a special clef was used for violin music, for this reason it is known as the French clef or French violin clef although it was more commonly used for flute music
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Key signature
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In musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp, flat, and rarely, natural symbols placed together on the staff. Key signatures are written immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line of musical notation, although they can appear in other parts of a score. A key signature designates notes that are to be played higher or lower than the natural notes and applies through to the end of the piece or up to the next key signature. A sharp symbol on a line or space in the key raises the notes on that line or space one semitone above the natural. An accidental is an exception to the key signature, applying only in the measure in which it appears. Although a key signature may be using any combination of sharp and flat symbols, fifteen diatonic key signatures are by far the most common. A piece scored using a diatonic key signature and no accidentals contains notes of at most seven of the twelve pitch classes. Each major and minor key has a key signature that sharpens or flattens the notes which are used in its scale. However, it is not uncommon for a piece to be written with a key signature that does not match its key, for example, in some Baroque pieces, for example, in his Sonata No.31 in A♭ major, Op. In principle, any piece can be written with any key signature, using accidentals to correct the pattern of whole, the purpose of the key signature is to minimize the number of such accidentals required to notate the music. The sequence of sharps or flats in key signatures is generally rigid in modern music notation and this allows musicians to identify the key simply by the number of sharps or flats, rather than their position on the staff. For example, if a key signature has one sharp, it must be an F sharp. However, in 20th-century music, there are exceptions to this, where a piece uses an unorthodox or synthetic scale. This may consist of a number of sharps or flats that are not the normal ones, key signatures of this kind can be found in the music of Béla Bartók, for example. The effect of a key signature continues throughout a piece or movement, for example, if a five-sharp key signature is placed at the beginning of a piece, every A in the piece in any octave will be played as A sharp, unless preceded by an accidental. In a score containing more than one instrument, all the instruments are usually written with the key signature. Exceptions include, If an instrument is a transposing instrument, If an instrument is a percussion instrument with indeterminate pitch. Composers usually omit the key signature for timpani parts. g, timpani in D–A, if they were tuned A and D
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Ledger line
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A ledger line or leger line is used in Western musical notation to notate pitches above or below the lines and spaces of the regular musical staff. A line slightly longer than the head is drawn parallel to the staff, above or below. There is no basis to support the claim that the word originates from the French léger. The Oxford online dictionary describes the origin of the spelling as a variant of ledger that first appeared in the 19th century. Although ledger lines are occasionally in manuscripts of plainchant and early polyphony. Even then printers had an aversion to ledger lines which caused difficulties in setting type, wasting space on the page and causing a messy appearance. Except for woodwind players, who prefer ledger lines to 8va notation because they associate fingerings with staff positions, in order to prevent this issue, the composer would usually switch clefs or use the 8va notation. Some transposing instruments, such as the piccolo, double bass, guitar, Notation of tuba, trombone, and euphonium parts always use ledger lines below the bass staff, and never the 8va bassa notation. A ledger line is used to support a half rest or whole rest where there are multiple voices on one staff. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, Music Notation, A Manual of Modern Practice, second edition. Reprinted, New York, Taplinger Publishing Company,1979, writing for the Orchestra, An Introduction to Orchestration. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall
22.
Mode (music)
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In the theory of Western music, mode generally refers to a type of scale, coupled with a set of characteristic melodic behaviours. This use, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the Middle Ages, regarding the concept of mode as applied to pitch relationships generally, Harold S. being in the domain of mode. This synthesis between tonus as a tone and the older meaning associated with an octave species was done by medieval theorists for the Western monodic plainchant tradition. Since the end of the century, the term mode has also applied to pitch structures in non-European musical cultures, sometimes with doubtful compatibility. The word encompasses several additional meanings, however, authors from the ninth century until the early eighteenth century sometimes employed the Latin modus for interval. A scale is a series of pitches that, with the key or tonic as a reference point, defines that scales intervals. The concept of mode in Western music theory has three stages, in Gregorian chant theory, in Renaissance polyphonic theory, and in tonal harmonic music of the common practice period. In all three contexts, mode incorporates the idea of the scale, but differs from it by also involving an element of melody type. By the early 19th century, the mode had taken on an additional meaning. At the same time, composers were beginning to conceive of modality as something outside of the system that could be used to evoke religious feelings or to suggest folk-music idioms. Early Greek treatises describe three interrelated concepts that are related to the later, medieval idea of mode, scales, tonoi—, and harmonia —pl. harmoniai—this third term subsuming the corresponding tonoi but not necessarily the converse. The association of ethnic names with the octave species appears to precede Aristoxenus. Depending on the positioning of the tones in the tetrachords. The diatonic genus, the genus, and the enharmonic genus. The framing interval of the fourth is fixed, while the two internal pitches are movable. Within the basic forms, the intervals of the chromatic and diatonic genera were varied further by three and two shades, respectively, the term tonos was used in four senses, as note, interval, region of the voice, and pitch. We use it of the region of the voice whenever we speak of Dorian, or Phrygian, or Lydian, in Ptolemys system, therefore there are only seven tonoi. Pythagoras also construed the intervals arithmetically, in their diatonic genus, these tonoi and corresponding harmoniai correspond with the intervals of the familiar modern major and minor scales
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Ossia
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Ossia is a musical term for an alternative passage which may be played instead of the original passage. The word ossia comes from the Italian for alternatively and was originally spelled o sia, ossia passages are very common in opera and solo piano works. They are usually an easier version of the form of passage, but in Mily Balakirevs Islamey, for instance. Bel canto vocal music also frequently uses ossia, also called oppure and this reflects Liszts desire to leave his options open during a performance. Many of his ossia passages are cadenzas, an unusual use of ossia is found in Alban Bergs Violin Concerto where several ossia parts are included for the solo violin. If the soloist chooses to play these, the concertmaster is required to play a different ossia, ossia, Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,2001
24.
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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Rehearsal letter
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Rehearsal letters are most often used in scores of the Romantic era and onwards, beginning with Louis Spohr. They may also be generically called rehearsal marks or rehearsal figures, or, many scores and parts have bar numbers, every five or ten bars, or at the beginning of each page or line. But as pieces and individual movements of works became longer as the Romantic era progressed, bar numbers became less practical in rehearsal. For example, a conductor can tell her musicians to resume at bar 387, so that the musicians have to find the nearest bar number in their parts, even if the number 387 is written at the appropriate bar, it might not particularly stand out. But if there is, for example, a big, bold letter M in the score and parts, even if the conductor were to say one bar before letter M, that would still be more convenient than saying bar 386. Alternatively the conductor could first say before M. and allow the time to find M. In the score of an orchestra, rehearsal letters are typically placed over the flutes staff. For concert bands, rehearsal letters are placed over the piccolos staff, for typical pieces or movements of the Romantic era marked allegro, the letters A to Z can be used up, though the letter I, J or O may be skipped. Placement and frequency of the letters do not follow a hard-and-fast rule, the letter A is almost always used for a point close to the beginning, but not for the very beginning itself because it is much easier to say from the beginning. Likewise, rehearsal letters are not necessary at changes in tempo, key signature or time signature, a rehearsal letter usually breaks a multimeasure rest in a part. They are also useful for reference in scholarly essays about orchestral works. However, rehearsal letters are absent from some editions of some pieces that have them in other editions. Songs also tend not to use them, because it is useful to refer to the lyrics. In some cases, A to Z might not be enough, after Z, Aa may be used, followed by Bb, and so on until Zz. The Wilhelm Hansen edition of Jean Sibeliuss Symphony No.7 in C major presents one unusual case, for the final flute and bassoon solo, the editors use Ö as a rehearsal letter. But in the case of composers, such as Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich. For this reason, some editors prefer rehearsal numbers to rehearsal letters, Mahlers and Shostakovichs scores use rehearsal numbers rather than letters. These are typically in boldface and enclosed in a box, or less commonly, confusingly, however, some editions enclose bar numbers in boxes, though usually not in bold
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Time signature
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The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are to be contained in each bar and which note value is to be given one beat. A mid-score time signature, usually following a barline, indicates a change of meter. | Simple time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other, The lower numeral indicates the value that represents one beat. The upper numeral indicates how many beats there are grouped together in a bar. For instance,24 means two quarter-note beats per bar—38 means three eighth-note beats per bar, the most common simple time signatures are 24,34, and 44. The symbol is used for 44 time, also called common time or imperfect time. In modern notation, it is used in place of 22 and is called alla breve or, colloquially, in compound meter, subdivisions of the main beat are in three equal parts, so that a dotted note becomes the beat unit. Compound time signatures are named as if they were simple time signatures, in which the part of the beat unit is the beat. The lower number is most commonly an 8, as in 98 or 128,34 is a simple signature that represents three quarter notes. To the ear, a bar may seem like one singular beat, for example, a fast waltz, notated in 34 time, may be described as being one in a bar. Terms such as quadruple, quintuple, and so on are also occasionally used, as mentioned above, though the score indicates a 34 time, the actual beat division can be the whole bar, particularly at faster tempos. Correspondingly, at slow tempos the beat indicated by the time signature could in actual performance be divided into smaller units, on a formal mathematical level the time signatures of, e. g.34 and 38 are interchangeable. In a sense, all simple triple time signatures, such as 38,34,32, etc. —and all compound duple times, such as 68,616, a piece in 34 can be easily rewritten in 38, simply by halving the length of the notes. Other time signature rewritings are possible, most commonly a simple time signature with triplets translates into a compound meter, though formally interchangeable, for a composer or performing musician, different time signatures often have different connotations. First, a note value in the beat unit implies a more complex notation. Second, beaming affects the choice of actual beat divisions and it is, for example, more natural to use the quarter note/crotchet as a beat unit in 64 or 22 than the eight/quaver in 68 or 24. Third, time signatures are traditionally associated with different music styles—it might seem strange to notate a rock tune in 48 or 42. For all meters, the first beat is stressed, in time signatures with four groups in the bar
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Transposition (music)
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In music transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval. For example, one might transpose a piece of music into another key. Similarly, one might transpose a tone row or a collection of pitches such as a chord so that it begins on another pitch. The transposition of a set A by n semitones is designated by Tn, thus the set consisting of 0–1–2 transposed by 5 semitones is 5–6–7 since 0 +5 =5,1 +5 =6, and 2 +5 =7. There are two different kinds of transposition, depending on one is measuring intervals according to the chromatic scale or some other scale. In chromatic transposition one shifts every pitch in a collection of notes by a number of semitones. For instance, if one transposes the pitches C4–E4–G4 upwards by four semitones, in scalar transposition one shifts every pitch in a collection by a fixed number of scale steps relative to some scale. For example, if one transposes the pitches C4–E4–G4 up by two steps relative to the familiar C major scale, one obtains the pitches E4–G4–B4, if one transposes the same pitches up by two steps relative to the F major scale, one obtains instead E4–G4–B♭4. Scalar transposition is sometimes called diatonic transposition, but this term can be misleading, however, scalar transposition can occur with respect to any type of scale, not just the diatonic. There are two kinds of transposition, by pitch interval or by pitch interval class, applied to pitches or pitch classes. Transposition may be applied to pitches or to pitch classes, although transpositions are usually written out, musicians are occasionally asked to transpose music at sight, that is, to read the music in one key while playing in another. There are three basic techniques for teaching sight transposition, interval, clef, and numbers, first one determines the interval between the written key and the target key. Then one imagines the notes up by the corresponding interval, a performer using this method may calculate each note individually, or group notes together. Clef transposition is routinely taught in Belgium and France, one imagines a different clef and a different key signature than the ones printed. The change of clef is used so that the lines and spaces correspond to different notes than the lines and spaces of the original score. Seven clefs are used for this, treble, bass, baritone, and C-clefs on the four lowest lines, the signature is then adjusted for the actual accidental one wants on that note. The octave may also have to be adjusted, but this is a matter for most musicians. Transposing by numbers means, one determines the degree of the written note in the given key
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Transposing instrument
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A transposing instrument is a musical instrument whose music is notated at a pitch different from the pitch that actually sounds. Playing a written C on an instrument produces a pitch other than C. For example, a written C on a B♭ clarinet sounds a concert B♭, rather than a property of the instrument, the transposition is a convention of music notation—however, instruments whose music is typically notated in this way are called transposing instruments. As transposing instruments is a convention, the issue of transposition is mainly an issue for genres of music which use sheet music, such as classical music. For some instruments, the pitch is still a C, but in a different octave. There are several reasons that composers, orchestrators and arrangers transpose music for certain instruments, many instruments are members of a family of instruments that differ mainly in size. For example, the fingerings which produce the notes of a C major scale on a standard flute, instruments that transpose this way are often referred to as being in a certain key, such as the A clarinet or clarinet in A. The instruments key tells which pitch will sound when the plays a note written as C. A player of a B♭ clarinet who reads a written C will sound a B♭ while the player of an A clarinet will read the same note, the non-transposing member of the family is thus called a clarinet in C. In the early 20th century, however, instruments with basic scales other than C were sometimes written as transposing instruments, before valves were invented in the 19th century, horns and trumpets could play only the notes of the overtone series from a single fundamental pitch. As a result, all music was written as if for a fundamental pitch of C. The introduction of valves made this unnecessary, though many players and composers found the tone quality of valved instruments inferior. F transposition became standard in the early 19th century, with the horn sounding a fifth below written pitch in treble clef. In bass clef composers differed in whether they expected the instruments to transpose down a fifth or up a fourth, when they played together in an ensemble, the parts of some instruments would then have to be transposed to compensate. In many of Bachs cantatas the organ part is notated a full step lower than the other instruments, a few early-music ensembles of the present day must do something similar if they comprise some instruments tuned to A415 and others to A440, approximately a semitone apart. Modern builders of continuo instruments sometimes include moveable keyboards which can play with either pitch standard. The harpsichord has a string for each note, plucked by a plectrum. Moving the keyboard mechanism right or left causes the A key to play the next string, instruments that transpose at the octave are not playing in a different key from concert pitch instruments, but sound an octave higher or lower than written
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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
30.
Accidental (music)
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In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the sharp, flat, and natural symbols, among others, in the measure where it appears, an accidental sign raises or lowers the immediately following note from its normal pitch, overriding sharps or flats in the key signature. A note is raised or lowered by a semitone, although microtonal music may use fractional accidental signs. One occasionally sees double sharps or flats, which raise or lower the note by a whole tone. Accidentals apply within the measure and octave in which appear, unless canceled by another accidental sign. If a note has an accidental and the note is repeated in a different octave within the same measure, the accidental does not apply to the same note of the different octave. The modern accidental signs derive from the two forms of the letter b used in Gregorian chant manuscripts to signify the two pitches of B, the only note that could be altered. The round b became the sign, while the square b diverged into the sharp. Sometimes the black keys on a keyboard are called accidentals or sharps. In most cases, a sharp raises the pitch of a note one semitone while a flat lowers it a semitone, a natural is used to cancel the effect of a flat or sharp. This system of accidentals operates in conjunction with the key signature, whose effect continues throughout an entire piece, an accidental can also be used to cancel a previous accidental or reinstate the flats or sharps of the key signature. Accidentals apply to subsequent notes on the staff position for the remainder of the measure where they occur, unless explicitly changed by another accidental. Once a barline is passed, the effect of the accidental ends, subsequent notes at the same staff position in the second or later bars are not affected by the accidental carried through with the tied note. Though this convention is still in use particularly in music, it may be cumbersome in music that features frequent accidentals. As a result, a system of note-for-note accidentals has been adopted. Accidentals are not repeated for repeated notes unless one or more different pitches intervene, if a sharp or flat pitch is followed directly by its natural form, a natural is used. Cautionary accidentals or naturals may be used to clarify ambiguities, because seven of the twelve notes of the chromatic equal-tempered scale are naturals this system can significantly reduce the number of naturals required in a notated passage. Thus, the effect of the accidental must be understood in relation to the meaning of the notes staff position
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Flat (music)
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In music, flat, or bemolle means lower in pitch. In music notation, the symbol, ♭, derived from a stylised lowercase b. Intonation or tuning is said to be flat when it is below the true pitch, the order of flats in the key signatures of music notation, following the circle of fifths, is B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, and F♭. A mnemonic for this is, Before Eating A Doughnut Get Coffee First, the Unicode character ♭ can be found in the block Miscellaneous Symbols, its HTML entity is ♭. Under twelve tone equal temperament, C♭ for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B♮, in any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents, double flats also exist, which look like and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats, the Unicode character
32.
Natural (music)
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In music theory, a natural is an accidental which cancels previous accidentals and represents the unaltered pitch of a note. A note is natural when it is neither flat nor sharp, natural notes are the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G represented by the white keys on the keyboard of a piano or organ. On a modern concert harp, the position of the seven pedals that alter the tuning of the strings gives the natural pitch for each string. In musical notation, a sign is an accidental sign used to cancel a flat or sharp from either a preceding note or the key signature. Naturals are assumed in key signatures and mentioned only in key signature changes, the natural sign is derived from a square b used to denote B♮ in medieval music. The Unicode character MUSIC NATURAL SIGN ♮ should display as a natural sign, in a case where one needs to cancel a double sharp or double flat, it is acceptable to write a single natural. Alternatively, two naturals can be written
33.
Sharp (music)
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In music, sharp, dièse, or diesis means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means higher in pitch by a semitone, and has a sharp symbol, ♯. Sharp is contrasted with flat, which refers to a lowering of pitch, intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously. Under twelve-tone equal temperament, B♯, for instance, sounds the same as, or is equivalent to, C natural. In other tuning systems, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist, to allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents, or a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents. In tuning, sharp can also slightly higher in pitch. If two simultaneous notes are out of tune, the higher-pitched one is said to be sharp with respect to the other. Furthermore, the verb sharpen means raise the frequency of a note, double sharps also exist, these are denoted by the symbol and raise a note by two semitones, or one whole tone. They should not be confused with a ghost note, less often one will encounter other sharps. A half sharp raises a note by a quarter tone =50 cents, a sharp and a half raises a note by three quarter tones =150 cents and may be denoted. Although very uncommon, a triple sharp can sometimes be found and it raises a note by three semitones. The sharp symbol may be confused with the number sign, both signs have two sets of parallel double-lines. However, a correctly drawn sharp sign must have two slanted parallel lines which rise from left to right, to avoid being obscured by the staff lines, the number sign, in contrast, has two compulsory horizontal strokes in this place. In addition, while the sharp also always has two vertical lines, the number sign may or may not contain perfectly vertical lines. The order of sharps in key signature notation is F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯, each extra sharp being added successively in the sequence of major keys. Similarly the order of flats is based on the natural notes in reverse order, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, F♭, encountered in the following series of major keys. In the above progression, key C♯ may be conveniently written as the harmonically equivalent key D♭
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Dotted note
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In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. In modern practice the first dot increases the duration of the note by half of its original value. A dotted note is equivalent to writing the basic note tied to a note of half the value, or with more than one dot, a rhythm using longer notes alternating with shorter notes is sometimes called a dotted rhythm. Historical examples of performance styles using dotted rhythm include notes inégales. The precise performance of dotted rhythms can be a complex issue, even in notation that includes dots, their performed values may be longer than the dot mathematically indicates, a practice known as over-dotting. If the note to be dotted is on a space, the dot goes on the space, while if the note is on a line. Theoretically, any note value can be dotted, as can rests of any value, if the rest is in its normal position, dots are always placed in third staff space from the bottom. The use of a dot for augmentation of a note dates back at least to the 10th century, although the amount of augmentation is disputed. More than one dot may be added, each dot adds half of the duration added by the previous dot, a double-dotted note is a note with two small dots written after it. Its duration is 1 3⁄4 times its basic note value, the double-dotted note is used less frequently than the dotted note. Typically, as in the example below, it is followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the note value. Before the mid 18th century, double dots were not used, until then, in some circumstances, single dots could mean double dots. Example 2 is a fragment of the movement of Joseph Haydns string quartet, Op.74. Haydns theme was adapted for piano by a composer, the adapted version can be heard here. In a French overture, notes written as dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes, a triple-dotted note is a note with three dots written after it, its duration is 1 7⁄8 times its basic note value. Use of a note value is not common in the Baroque and Classical periods. An example of the use of double- and triple-dotted notes is the Prelude in G major for piano, Op.28, the piece, in common time, contains running semiquavers in the left hand. Several times during the piece Chopin asks for the hand to play a triple-dotted minim
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Note value
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A rest indicates a silence of an equivalent duration. The breve appears in different versions, as shown at right. The first two are used, the third is a stylistic alternative. Sometimes the longa or breve is used to indicate a long note of indefinite duration. When a stem is present, it can go either up or down, in most cases, the stem goes down if the notehead is on the center line or above, and up otherwise. Any flags always go to the right of the stem, a note value may be augmented by adding a dot after it. This dot adds the next briefer note value, making it one, a number of dots lengthen the note value by 2n − 1/2n its value, so two dots add two lower note values, making a total of one and three quarters times its original duration. The rare three dots make it one and seven eighths the duration, and so on, the double dot was first used in 1752 by J. J. Quantz, in music of the 18th century and earlier the amount by which the dot augmented the note varied, it could be more or less than the modern interpretation, to fit into the context. To divide a note value to three parts, or some other value than two, tuplets may be used. However, see swung note and notes inégales, around 1250, Franco of Cologne invented different symbols for different durations, although the relation between different note values could vary, three was the most common ratio. Philippe de Vitrys treatise Ars nova described a system in which the ratios of different note values could be 2,1 or 3,1 and this black mensural notation gave way to white mensural notation around 1450, in which all note values were written with white noteheads. In white notation the use of triplets was indicated by coloration, both black and white notation periodically made use of ligatures, a holdover from the clivis and porrectus neumes used in chant. Around 1600 the modern system was generally adopted, along with barlines. In the 17th century, however, old usages came up occasionally, the British names go back at least to English renaissance music, and the terms of Latin origin had international currency at that time. Obviously, longa means long, and the rest rarely indicate relative shortness, breve is from Latin brevis, short, minim is from minimus, very small, and quaver refers to the quavering effect of very fast notes. The elements semi-, demi- and hemi- mean half in Latin, French, the chain semantic shift whereby notes which were originally perceived as short came progressively to be long notes is interesting both linguistically and musically. On-line activity that counts musical notes
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Beam (music)
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In musical notation, a beam is a horizontal or diagonal line used to connect multiple consecutive notes in order to indicate rhythmic grouping. Only eighth notes or shorter can be beamed, the number of beams is equal to the number of flags that would be present on an un-beamed note. The span of beams indicates the rhythmic grouping, usually determined by the time signature, therefore, beams do not usually cross bar lines, or major sub-divisions of bars. If notes extend across these divisions, this is indicated with a tie. It is basically a line that joins notes together, in modern practice beams may span across rests in order to make rhythmic groups clearer. In vocal music, beams were used only to connect notes sung to the same syllable. In modern practice it is common to use standard beaming rules. Notes joined by a beam usually have all the stems pointing in the same direction. The average pitch of the notes is used to determine the direction – if the pitch is below the middle staff-line. Feathered beaming shows a change in the speed of notes. It is shown with a straight beam and other diagonal secondary beams. These secondary beams suggest a gradual acceleration or deceleration from the first note value within the beam to the last. The longest value possible to show being the eighth note, when the number of notes played is not of interest, but rather the effect of acceleration or deceleration, an approximate number of headless stems are used. To ensure clarity, sometimes the number of notes within the beam, or the duration of the total beamed notes, is shown above the music, as is done with tuplets
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Notehead
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In music, a notehead is the elliptical part of a note. Noteheads may be colored black or white, indicating the note value. In a whole note, the notehead is the component of the note. Shorter note values attach a stem to the notehead, and possibly beams or flags, the longer double whole note can be written with vertical lines surrounding it, two attached noteheads, or a rectangular notehead. Noteheads ultimately derive from the used to notate Gregorian chant. The punctum, seen at right, is the simplest of the shapes, when placed on a clef, the position of a notehead indicated the relative frequency of a note. The development of different colors of noteheads, and the use of it to indicate rhythmic values, was the use of white mensural notation, franco of Cologne, ancient composer and music theorist, codified a system of rhythm notation. He explained this system in his work, Ars Cantus Mensurabilis, in this system, the relative duration of notes was indicated by the note shapes. The noteheads were rectangles, squares, or diamonds depending on the note length and this system was expanded during the Ars Nova period. Shortly before the Renaissance, scribes began to write the notes of the Franconian, during the Renaissance, composers added shorter note durations that used filled-in noteheads. Near the end of the 16th century, the square or diamond-shaped notes changed to the round noteheads that are used today
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Stem (music)
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In musical notation, stems are the, thin, vertical lines that are directly connected to the head. Stems may point up or down, different-facing stems indicate the voice for polyphonic music written on the same staff. Within one voice, the stems usually point down for notes on the line or higher. If the stem points up from a notehead, the stem originates from the side of the note. There is an exception to rule, if a chord contains a second. If the chord contains an odd numbered cluster of notes a second apart, the length of a stem should be that of an octave on the staff, going to either an octave higher or lower than the notehead, depending on which way the stem is pointing. If a note head is on a line more than an octave away from the middle line of a staff. In any polyphonic music in two parts are written on the same staff, stems are typically shortened to keep the music visually centered upon the staff. Stems may be altered in ways to alter the rhythm or other method of performance. For example, a note with diagonal slashes through its stem is played tremolo
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Pitch (music)
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Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. Pitch is a major attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness. Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property, Pitch is an auditory sensation in which a listener assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on their perception of the frequency of vibration. Pitch is closely related to frequency, but the two are not equivalent, frequency is an objective, scientific attribute that can be measured. Pitch is each persons subjective perception of a wave, which cannot be directly measured. However, this not necessarily mean that most people wont agree on which notes are higher and lower. Sound waves themselves do not have pitch, but their oscillations can be measured to obtain a frequency and it takes a sentient mind to map the internal quality of pitch. However, pitches are usually associated with, and thus quantified as frequencies in cycles per second, or hertz, by comparing sounds with pure tones, Complex and aperiodic sound waves can often be assigned a pitch by this method. According to the American National Standards Institute, pitch is the attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high. That is, high pitch means very rapid oscillation, and low pitch corresponds to slower oscillation, despite that, the idiom relating vertical height to sound pitch is shared by most languages. At least in English, it is just one of many deep conceptual metaphors that involve up/down, the exact etymological history of the musical sense of high and low pitch is still unclear. There is evidence that humans do actually perceive that the source of a sound is slightly higher or lower in vertical space when the frequency is increased or reduced. The pitch of tones can be ambiguous, meaning that two or more different pitches can be perceived, depending upon the observer. In a situation like this, the percept at 200 Hz is commonly referred to as the missing fundamental, Pitch depends to a lesser degree on the sound pressure level of the tone, especially at frequencies below 1,000 Hz and above 2,000 Hz. The pitch of lower tones gets lower as sound pressure increases, for instance, a tone of 200 Hz that is very loud seems one semitone lower in pitch than if it is just barely audible. Above 2,000 Hz, the pitch gets higher as the sound gets louder, theories of pitch perception try to explain how the physical sound and specific physiology of the auditory system work together to yield the experience of pitch. In general, pitch perception theories can be divided into place coding, place theory holds that the perception of pitch is determined by the place of maximum excitation on the basilar membrane. However, a purely place-based theory cannot account for the accuracy of pitch perception in the low, temporal theories offer an alternative that appeals to the temporal structure of action potentials, mostly the phase-locking and mode-locking of action potentials to frequencies in a stimulus
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Rest (music)
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A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a symbol indicating the length of the pause. Each rest symbol and name corresponds with a note value for length. Rests are intervals of silence in pieces of music, marked by symbols indicating the length of the pause, each rest symbol and name corresponds with a particular note value, indicating how long the silence should last, generally as a multiplier of a measure or whole note. The quarter rest may also be found as a form in older music, the four-measure rest or longa rest are only used in long silent passages which are not divided into bars. The combination of rests used to mark a pause follows the rules as for note values. When an entire bar is devoid of notes, a whole rest is used, regardless of the actual time signature. For a 42 bar rest, it is common to use the whole rest instead of the double whole rest. Some published music places the numeral 1 above the rest to confirm the extent of the rest, occasionally in manuscript autographs and facsimiles, bars without notes are sometimes left completely empty, possibly even without the staves. In instrumental parts, rests of more than one bar in the meter and key may be indicated with a multimeasure rest, showing the number of bars of rest. The number of whole-rest lengths for which the multimeasure rest lasts is indicated by a number printed above the musical staff. If a meter or key change occurs during a multimeasure rest and this also applies in the case of double barlines, which demarcate musical phrases or sections. A rest may also have a dot after it, increasing its duration by half, in these meters the long-standing convention has been to indicate one beat of rest as a quarter rest followed by an eighth rest. Caesura List of silent musical compositions List of musical symbols
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Tacet
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Tacet is Latin for it is silent. It is a term to indicate that an instrument or voice does not sound. In vocal polyphony and in scores, it usually indicates a long period of time. In more modern music such as jazz, tacet tends to mark considerably shorter breaks and it is also commonly used in accompaniment music to indicate that the instrument does not play on a certain run through a portion of the music, i. e. Tacet 1st time. The phrase tacet al fine is used to indicate that the performer should remain silent for the remainder of the piece, a unique usage of this term is in John Cages 1952 composition 4′33″. A tacet is indicated for all three movements, for all instruments, the piece lasts a total of 4 minutes and 33 seconds, without a note being played
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Tuplet
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In music a tuplet is any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the time-signature. This is indicated by a number, indicating the fraction involved, the notes involved are also often grouped with a bracket or a slur. The most common type is the triplet, an alternative modern term, irrational rhythm, was originally borrowed from Greek prosody where it referred to a syllable having a metrical value not corresponding to its actual time-value, or. A metrical foot containing such a syllable, the term would be incorrect if used in the mathematical sense or in the more general sense of unreasonable, utterly illogical, absurd. Alternative terms found occasionally are artificial division, abnormal divisions, irregular rhythm, the term polyrhythm, sometimes incorrectly used of tuplets, actually refers to the simultaneous use of opposing time signatures. Besides triplet, the terms duplet, quadruplet, quintuplet, sextuplet, septuplet, the terms nonuplet, decuplet, undecuplet, dodecuplet, and tredecuplet had been suggested but up until 1925 had not caught on. By 1964 the terms nonuplet and decuplet were usual, while subdivisions by greater numbers were commonly described as group of eleven notes, group of twelve notes. The most common tuplet is the triplet, shown at right, similarly, three triplet eighth notes are equal in duration to one quarter note. If several note values appear under the bracket, they are all affected the same way. If the notes of the tuplet are beamed together, the bracket may be omitted, for other tuplets, the number indicates a ratio to the next lower normal value in the prevailing meter. Some numbers are used inconsistently, for example septuplets usually indicate 7 notes in the duration of 4—or in compound meter 7 for 6—but may sometimes be used to mean 7 notes in the duration of 8. Thus, a septuplet lasting a whole note can be written with either quarter notes or eighth notes, a French alternative is to write pour or de in place of the colon, or above the bracketed irregular number. This reflects the French usage of, for example, six-pour-quatre as a name for the sextolet. There are disagreements about the sextuplet —which is also called sestole, sestolet, sextole, some go so far as to call the latter, when written with a numeral 6, a false sextuplet. In compound meter, even-numbered tuplets can indicate that a value is changed in relation to the dotted version of the next higher note value. Thus, two eighth notes take the time normally totaled by three eighth notes, equal to a dotted quarter note. Four quadruplet eighth notes would also equal a dotted quarter note, the duplet eighth note is thus exactly the same duration as a dotted eighth note, but the duplet notation is far more common in compound meters. A duplet in compound time is often written as 2,3 than 2, 1 1⁄2
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Tremolo
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In music, tremolo, or tremolando, is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo, tremolo picking, in which a single note is repeated extremely rapidly, is also possible on classical guitar, acoustic guitar and electric guitar. Between two notes or chords in alternation, an imitation of the preceding that is common on keyboard instruments. Mallet instruments such as the marimba are capable of either method, a roll on any percussion instrument, whether tuned or untuned. This non-standard use of the term refers to pitch rather than amplitude. True tremolo for a guitar, electronic organ, or any electronic signal would normally be produced by a simple amplitude modulation electronic circuit. Electronic tremolo effects were available on many guitar amplifiers. In the 2010s, electronic effects units in the form of pedals are also available as a method to produce this sound. The measured tremolo, presumably played with rhythmic regularity, was invented to add dramatic intensity to string accompaniment, however, it was not till the time of Gluck that the real tremolo became an accepted method of tone production. Four other types of historical tremolos include the obsolete undulating tremolo, the tremolo, the fingered tremolo. The undulating tremolo was produced through the fingers of the right hand alternately exerting and relaxing pressure upon the bow to create a very uncertain–undulating effect, there is some speculation that tremolo was employed in medieval Welsh harp music, as indicated in the transcription by Robert ap Huw. In musical notation, tremolo is usually notated as regular repeated demisemiquavers, generally, there are three strokes, except on note which already have beams or flags, quavers then take two additional slashes, and semiquavers take one. In the case of semibreves, which lack stems, the strokes or slashes are drawn above or below the note, because there is ambiguity as to whether an unmeasured tremolo or regular repeated demisemiquavers should be played, the word tremolo or the abbreviation trem. is sometimes added. In slower music when there is a chance of confusion. Above the staff, Arpeggio, a chord played one note after the other Leslie speaker, a rotating speaker horn
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Interval (music)
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In music theory, an interval is the difference between two pitches. In Western music, intervals are most commonly differences between notes of a diatonic scale, the smallest of these intervals is a semitone. Intervals smaller than a semitone are called microtones and they can be formed using the notes of various kinds of non-diatonic scales. Some of the very smallest ones are called commas, and describe small discrepancies, observed in some tuning systems, Intervals can be arbitrarily small, and even imperceptible to the human ear. In physical terms, an interval is the ratio between two sonic frequencies, for example, any two notes an octave apart have a frequency ratio of 2,1. This means that successive increments of pitch by the same result in an exponential increase of frequency. For this reason, intervals are often measured in cents, a derived from the logarithm of the frequency ratio. In Western music theory, the most common naming scheme for intervals describes two properties of the interval, the quality and number, examples include the minor third or perfect fifth. These names describe not only the difference in semitones between the upper and lower notes, but also how the interval is spelled, the importance of spelling stems from the historical practice of differentiating the frequency ratios of enharmonic intervals such as G–G♯ and G–A♭. The size of an interval can be represented using two alternative and equivalently valid methods, each appropriate to a different context, frequency ratios or cents, the size of an interval between two notes may be measured by the ratio of their frequencies. When a musical instrument is tuned using a just intonation tuning system, Intervals with small-integer ratios are often called just intervals, or pure intervals. Most commonly, however, musical instruments are tuned using a different tuning system. As a consequence, the size of most equal-tempered intervals cannot be expressed by small-integer ratios, for instance, an equal-tempered fifth has a frequency ratio of 2 7⁄12,1, approximately equal to 1.498,1, or 2.997,2. For a comparison between the size of intervals in different tuning systems, see section Size in different tuning systems, the standard system for comparing interval sizes is with cents. The cent is a unit of measurement. If frequency is expressed in a scale, and along that scale the distance between a given frequency and its double is divided into 1200 equal parts, each of these parts is one cent. In twelve-tone equal temperament, a system in which all semitones have the same size. Hence, in 12-TET the cent can be defined as one hundredth of a semitone
