COMPONENTS OF MUSICComing to a quiz and final near you…

Our Learning Targets for Today• KNOW THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF SOUND

• LEARN WHEN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARD NOTATION TOOK PLACE IN EUROPE

• LEARN WHO DEVELOPED THE STANDARD NOTATION

• LEARN WHY THE STANDARD NOTATION WAS DEVELOPED

• LEARN ABOUT EARLY PITCH NOTATION

• Hint, hint…items in ORANGE may show up on a quiz or final…

Stay in the game!

•Put your name on your pink “Standard Music Notation Paper”

•You will need it to study later•Read the text on the paper•Take notes in the margins or highlight information that you think will be useful later!

The Four Components

•Frequency/Pitch•Duration/Rhythm•Volume/Dynamic•Tone Color/Timbre

The History of Music Notation• There is evidence that various systems of music notation

were used by the great ancient civilizations: Egypt, Greece, Japan, China and India

• Written language systems required the creation of symbols to represent verbal sounds of the language (alphabet, words…)

Music Notation• A Music Notation System requires the development of

various symbols and symbol creations that represent the music of a culture.

• Written language focuses on vowel and consonant sounds, but music has to focus on all four COMPONENTS OF SOUND (That’s a little more complicated…)

So how did music get passed on before notation?

• It all had to be imitated and passed on to others by ear! As you can imagine, it was not an exact science!

The 11th Century• In the European churches, chants were sung for each event of the liturgy (part of the service)

• All of these were learned by ear and passed on to other singers

• What’s the danger in this? They could be forgotten!

• Any existing notation were simple markings to indicate that the melody was rising or falling

Early Notation• The first forms of notation were created to preserve thousands of melodies/chants and only had the following characteristics:• Male voices (monophonic)• Narrow intervals between pitches• No dynamics• Rhythms were controlled by the text

So who got the notation ball rolling?A Monk Named:

Guido d’ Arezzo (Italy 990-1050)The Middle Ages

Why did Guido create this?• As the liturgy grew, there needed to be a way to remember all of the different melodies

• The Catholic church wanted a standardized, written record of their music, known as Gregorian Chant (sung by males, one part-no harmony, narrow pitch range, minimal dynamics and rhythms all to deliver parts of the liturgy or church service

What did he create?

Four line staff

Shapes/boxes to represent pitches. These are calledNEUMES.

Words over the top define rhythm

Let’s take a listen to some Gregorian Chant and find out more about this Guido character:

http://youtu.be/LxkstaYPztM

High-Five to Guido for Paving the Way!

His notation system helped to catalogue the music of the church across Europe during the Middle Ages and standardize a system of music notation that paved the way for not only modern day notation, but the concept of a composer as a creative artist whose work could be shared and preserved.

NOTATION OF PITCHGrab your pencil and pink paper-it’s note taking time!

Neumes and the staff• Neumes were the symbols to represent pitch. They were not pitch specific and did not show time. They simply showed a relationship between the neumes around each other

The First Staff• Sometime in the 10th century, Guido placed a red line above the text that gave the singer a fixed note: F=fa

• A Second line, yellow for C=ut (do) was added later

• These two pitches represented the beginning and middle of a scale

• Black lines were added later (five lines in France and six lines in Italy)

• It was not until the 16th century that the five line staff was the standard

What did Guido think of next?• Guido decided to ditch the red and yellow lines and use letters to indicate the pitch of certain lines. From one assigned pitch, the remaining lines and spaces followed.

• Bass and Alto clefs identifying the note F and C became the standard

How do you put the music into the different ranges of the singers as females got added?

• CREATE DIFFERENT CLEFS: • F clef/bass clef• G clef/treble clef• C clef/alto-tenor clef (moveable)This also helped to accommodate the addition of instruments to the liturgy, too.

Modern Day Grand Staff

• How do we show pitch in modern notation? Movement up and down on a staff-relationship by height!

Time to reflect! Turn to a neighbor and discuss:

• How was music learned before notation?• Who created the first notation system and why?• How did his system using neumes compare to your drawing from last week when Mrs. Binder was the high priestess and asked you to be her scribe?

• Why was a notation system such a big deal?• Guido’s system was not perfect. What is not getting shown in his system?

Key Signatures• Key signatures as we know them today developed in the latter part of the 18th century

• Before that time, composers thought more in modes or scale patterns that lacked a sense of gravitation to a tonic note

• As instrumental music became more popular, the harmonic system became simpler and led to a huge development: major/minor tonality (diatonic v. modal). It became more important to be able to play in any key.

What did key signatures look like early on?

• In the Medieval period, one-flat key signatures were developed

• More than one flat did not appear until the 16th century and sharps did not appear until the mid-17th century

• As more complicated key signatures came about, the order of flats was not standardized. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was common for different voice parts in the same composition to have different signatures

Accidentals• In our notation, accidentals alter the written pitch

• The use of symbols for sharps or flats began very early and were derived from gothic letters.

• For a time, 2 different note shapes were used for B natural and B flat: a square for natural and a rounded one for flat.

• Our symbols for flat and natural signs came from those letters. Extending the gothic “b” symbol’s lines in all directions gave us our symbol for the sharp: #

NOTATION OF RHYTHMMusic is the art of sound, organized in time.

First Thing’s First!• Rhythm ≠ Beat ≠ Meter ≠ Tempo - They’re all different!

• Rhythm: Duration of Sounds and Silences • Beat: The underlying pulse • Tempo: The speed of the beat• Meter: A recurring pattern of strong and weak beats

(Gregorian Chant didn’t have meter!)

Note and Rest Duration• News flash- a quarter note does not always = 1!

• Without a meter signature, which ORGANIZES the beat, the only thing we can say is that a quarter note is twice as long as an eighth note.

• In modern notation, the RELATIVE duration of each note type is shown by its shape and color.

Note Values

Whole Note Half Note ½ of Quarter Note ¼ of or ½ of Eighth Note 1/8 of or ½ of Sixteenth Note 1/16 of or ½ of Thirty-Second Note 1/32 of or ½ of Sixty-Fourth Note 1/64 or or ½ of

Notes consist of up to 3 parts- a note head (open or filled in), a stem, and a flag. Each flag added to the stem decreases the

value by one half.

Rest Values

Whole Rest

Half Rest ½ of Quarter Rest ¼ of or ½ of Eighth Rest 1/8 of or ½ of Sixteenth Rest 1/16 of or ½ of Thirty-Second Rest 1/32 of or ½ of Sixty-Fourth Rest 1/64 or or ½ of

The value of rests correspond exactly to notes with the same name. Again, additional flags added to the rest decrease its

value by one half.

Dots and Ties and Bears (Oh My!)• Just kidding about the bears. Sorry.

• A dot added to the right of a note increases the value of the note by one half.

Let’s do some math!• Dotted half = half + quarter = quarter + quarter + quarter

• Dotted quarter = quarter + eighth = eighth + eighth + eighth• Dotted whole note (WHAT?) = whole + half

Dots and Ties and Bears (Oh My!)• A Tie connects two note values of the same pitch. It’s

like an addition sign.

Let’s do some math!

• Half note tied to half note= whole note• Quarter note tied to quarter note = half note

• Half note tied to quarter note= dotted half note

Meter Signatures• Remember, note and rest values do not indicate a

fixed length of time. A meter signature (time signature) is necessary to show the performer the rhythmic organization of the music.

• Meter is a recurring pattern of weak and strong beats. The top number of a meter signature tells us how MANY beats are in each group (measure) of the pattern.

• The bottom number tells us what TYPE of note that receives 1 beat (and it’s not always the quarter note!).

Meter Signatures• Because the bottom number shows a TYPE of note, we

could replace it with a picture.

4 = 4 6 = 6 4 8

Number of beats per measure

Type of note that = 1 beat

Meter Signatures

• Since the top number represents a QUANTITY, it can be anything!

• Because the bottom number represents a TYPE of note, it can only be a number that represents a note duration.

(1, 2,4,8,16,32…)

NOTATION OF DYNAMICSThis is rather subjective…

Symbols that show dynamics• Our dynamics are typically in Italian…why?

• Pianissimo pp very soft• Piano p soft• Mezzo pianomp medium soft• Mezzo forte mf medium loud• Forte f loud• Fortissimo ff very loud

• You can also have ppp or fff (don’t try this at home)

How is a change in dynamics shown?• Crescendo (cresc.) = to get louder

• Decrescendo (decresc.) = to get softer• (Diminuendo)

• Subito forte (or any other dynamic) = suddenly loud

• Crescendo or Decrescendo poco a poco = get louder or softer little by little

Why are dynamics so subjective (up to someone’s opinion) or tricky?• They are related to the piece that they are in.

Should a forte in There Will Come Soft Rains or the beginning of Irish be the same volume as a forte in Thunder and Roar?

Heck, no!

Is the dynamic in your music specifically for you or is it for the whole ensemble?

It is for the whole ensemble!

Percy Grainger might have been on to something

He never used conventional dynamics because he thought they were unclear.

He used: lessen; louder bit by bit; to the fore; slacken

NOTATION OF TONE/TIMBREHuh?

How do you do this?• How do you notate tone? Most of the time, you can’t

• Sometimes, it can be done:• Adding mutes in brass instruments• Specifying mallets in percussion