Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Music

String Instruments

These instruments produce sound through the vibration of one or more strings.

Depending on the vibration technique, we distinguish bowed, plucked, and struck strings.

Bowed String

Sound is produced by rubbing the strings with a bow. They typically have four strings and a similar shape.

• Violin: Smallest, highest pitch.
• Viola: Slightly larger than the violin, middle pitch.
• Violoncello: Larger, lower register, played sitting with an endpin.
• Double Bass: Largest, very low register, played standing.

Plucked String

Sound is produced by plucking the strings with fingers, a pick, or a plectrum.

• Harp: Has 47 strings.
• Guitar: Has six strings and a fretted neck.

Struck String

Sound is produced by striking the strings with hammers activated by a keyboard.... Continue reading "Musical Instrument Families: Strings, Winds, and Percussion" »

Tragedy:

a serious drama or other literary work in which conflict between a protagonist and a superior force (often fate) concludes in disaster for the protagonist.

Comedy:

the genre of dramatic literature that deals with the light or the amusing or with the serious and profound in a light, familiar, or satiric manner.

Tragicomedy:

a drama combining the qualities of tragedy and comedy.

Tragic Flaw:

a flaw that brings about a hero’s downfall.

Farce:

a light, comic work using improbable situations, stereotyped characters, horseplay, and exaggeration.

Satire:

in drama, the use of ridicule, irony, or sarcasm to hold up to ridicule and contempt vices, follies, abuses, and so forth.

Melodrama:

a genre characterized by stereotypical characters, implausible plots,... Continue reading "Exploring Drama and Theatre Concepts" »

Athenian Rule in the 5th Century BCE

• 490 BCE: Athens defeats Persians at Marathon
• 404 BCE: Athens is defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War
• Between these two events, Athens enjoys cultural and political supremacy.

Dramatic Festivals

• In honor of Dionysus, son of Zeus and Semele.
• Dionysus was reared by satyrs, killed, dismembered, and resurrected.
• In Attica, four annual festivals were held: Rural Dionysia, Lenaia, Anthesteria, and City Dionysia.

Origins of Tragedy

• Various hypotheses for the meaning of TRAGOIDIA or “goat song”.
• Aristotle’s Poetics: from improvisations by leaders of the DITHYRAMBS.
• Other hypotheses: recited stories, sung poetry, and narrative dance.
• First recorded author of tragedies: THESPIS.
• Thespis started dialogue between himself

The Baroque Era in Music (1600–1750)

The Baroque era is characterized by its extravagant and sometimes bizarre qualities in music, as noted by historians. It was a period of significant innovation and development in musical forms and styles.

Key Characteristics and Forms

• Opera: The most important new genre of the Baroque era. Unlike Greek drama which features spoken dialogue, opera is entirely sung. The emergence of homophony, with its clear melody and accompaniment, was crucial to the development of opera.
• Bar Form: A musical structure consisting of an opening phrase (A) moving to a contrasting phrase (B), often followed by a return to or variation of the opening phrase (AAB).
• Overture: An instrumental piece played at the beginning of an opera

Idiophones

Idiophone instruments are those in which the sound is produced by the vibration of the instrument itself. They are classified considering the way the sound is produced, that is, how they are played. They can make sounds when hit, concussed, shaken, plucked, scraped, or even rubbed.

Percussion Idiophones

They can be pitched like bar instruments and those we can find in sets like the temple block. They can also be unpitched like the triangle, the gong, the woodblock, or the cajón flamenco.

Concussion Idiophones

Castanets, claves, and cymbals.

Shaken Idiophones

Maracas and rattles.

Plucked Idiophones

The berimbau and the sansa.

Scraped Idiophones

The güiro, the washboard, or the ratchet.

Friction Idiophones

Musical glasses, the glass harmonica,... Continue reading "Musical Instrument Classification: Types and Examples" »

Early Canadian Music and Folk Songs

Alexander Muir

• The Maple Leaf Forever (1867)

Calixa Lavallée

• O Canada (1880)

Eva Gauthier

• À la claire fontaine
• (French woman singing with choir men; old days; associated with the founding of Samuel de Champlain’s L’Ordre de bon temps in 1606)

Traditional

• J'ai fait faire un beau navire

Stephen Codman

• The Fairy Song (1824)
• (Fast running pace piano with soprano)

Joseph Vézina

• Le Fétiche: J’ai pour maison
• (Piano with baritone at first, then with soprano; operetta)

Harry Somers

• Louis Riel
• (Male baritone/tenor singing opera; about Métis leader Louis Riel, who was executed in 1885)

Isidore Soucy

• En Roulant Ma Boule
• (Old French recording with men; primary activity is paddling, sung to paddle faster with one person taking the

Baroque art is characterized by its rich ornamentation and dramatic intensity, pursuing the exploration of form and the contrast of light and shadow.

Profane Vocal Music: The Birth of Opera

Characteristics of Opera

• Main profane vocal form.
• Understood as an entirely sung piece, written for orchestra, choirs, and soloists.

Early Operas

• First opera: Euridice by Jacopo Peri.
• First drama in music: L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi (1607).

Parts of an Opera

Key Composers

• Antonio Vivaldi
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• George Frideric Handel

Vocal Parts

• Recitative: Halfway between spoken word and singing.
• Aria: A part sung by a soloist.

Instrumental Parts

• Overture: An instrumental introduction.
• Interludes: Connecting instrumental sections.
• Choruses and Ballets: Often integrated into

Sound, Noise & Silence

Essentially, music is sound and the way it orders tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity. Sound is produced when an object vibrates, and it is what can be perceived by a living organism through its sense of hearing. It travels through physical mediums by sound waves, and it is normally a pleasant feeling.

Noise is a disagreeable auditory experience, but this is a subjective definition (for instance, most percussion instruments produce noises when they are played). Anyway, the physical difference between sound and noise is the sort of waves: sound waves are regular, while in noise, the wave is irregular.

Finally, silence is the... Continue reading "Understanding Sound, Noise, and Silence: Key Qualities Explained" »

Key Musical Terms and Concepts

• Arias: Songs for a solo singer and orchestra.
• Recitative: Sung conversation between characters to advance the story.
• Opera seria: Serious opera with heroic themes from history and mythology.
• Opera buffa: Comic opera with contemporary, down-to-earth stories.
• Verismo: Italian opera style with realistic portrayals of everyday life.
• Libretto: The text of an opera or musical, including dialogue and lyrics.
• Sonata: A work in several movements for one or more instruments.

Notable Composers and Their Works

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

The Erlking (Lied for piano and voice, 1815): A father and son ride a horse; the son, ill, imagines scary things and dies. The Erlking is the ghost calling to the son.

Hector Berlioz (1811-1869)

Symphonie