Music has been passed on through generations and expressed through natural rhythmic

gestures as the clapping of the hands, the pounding of feet, movements of the body,
and the utterances of the voice. It reveals Man’s thoughts, feelings and aspirations as it
reveals his life ways too.
Music organizes the movement of sounds through time; which are structured and
continuous, uniform and synchronous.
Medium of Music
Tone is the medium of music and refers to the sound that travels through air and
reaches the audience. It is produced by an instrument or by the voice and has 4
qualities:
 Timbre
 Pitch
 Duration
 Intensity
Timbre (also called tone color or tone quality) is the distinctive quality of a tone.
Pitch refers to the highness and lowness of a tone. The vibrations and sound-producing
material determine the pitch of a tone : the slower the vibration, the slower the pitch; the
shorter the vibrating material, the higher the pitch it produces.
Duration is the length of sound in time. The varying length of sounds in time creates
rhythm, and these variations are what make compositions interesting. In music, time is
indicated by symbols we call notes.
Intensity means the loudness and softness of a sound produced by the varying
degrees of pressure applied to the instrument producing the sound. It evokes the
emotional features in music as music moves from loud to soft and vice versa. Symbolic
indications of intensity are often written in Italian like forte (loudly), fortissimo (very
loudly), piano (softly) and pianissimo (very softly). Indications of softness and loudness
are written as crescendo (becoming louder), decrescendo (decrease loudness)
or diminuendo (becoming softer).
Pianoforte is the longer name of piano, because it was an innovative instrument in the
17th century Italy that allowed the dynamics of softness (piano) and loudness (forte) to
be reproduced by its mechanisms.
The Musical Instruments
The Western Orchestra has the following classification of instruments:
Strings. The string section includes the violins, violas, violoncello (cello) and double
bass (string bass). They produce sound because a string stretched across these
instrument’s bodies vibrate. Vibrations are produced by horsehair stretched in a violin’s
bow rubbing over these strings or by fingers plucking them. The string section is the
nucleus of an orchestra.

Woodwind. Woodwinds produce sound with musicians blowing air through them, directly
across a hole or through a reed or reeds at the mouthpiece. Instruments in this section are
made of tubes with holes which are closed or opened by the fingers or a set of keys to vary the
pitch of tones. Examples are clarinets, oboes, English horns, bassoons and contrabassoons.

Brass. Brass are instruments cylindrical tubes with bell-shaped ends molded from brass (an
alloy of copper and zinc). Musicians blow in a special way into conical mouthpieces to produce
tones. Examples are trumpets, trombones, French horns and the tubas. They provide style to
climactic moments of an orchestral piece.

Percussion. Percussion instruments are played by striking, scraping, shaking or scratching

them using hands, sticks or other hard objects. Examples are timpani or kettledrums,
xylophones, glockenspiel (or lyre) and vibraphone and family of drums (snare, bass, tomtom
etc), cymbals, chimes, triangles and gongs. They provide rhythmic accents of the percussion
section.

Piano and guitar both belong to string and percussion sections : string section if they
play melody and percussion section if they play rhythm.
Different Musical Ensemble
Symphonic or Philharmonic Orchestra. It is a large music ensemble that may have
over hundred members and have a complete set of string, woodwind, brass and
percussions. Example is the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO).

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra

Chamber Orchestra. It is a music ensemble that may have members of about 30 to 50
instrumentalists also divided in orchestra section of instruments.
Prague Chamber Orchestra
String Quarter. It may have as few as 4 members only : 2 violins, viola and cello.

Allegrezza String Quarter

Woodwind Quintet. It is composed of musicians playing flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon
and French horn.

Dorian Wind Quintet

Jazz Band. It may have a pianist, drummer, string bassist.

Jazz Band
Combo. It may have 5 musicians who play lead guitar, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and
drums and keyboard.

Combo
In the Philippines
Rondalla. It is composed of string instruments played by using plectrums (known locally
as pik) like banduria, octavina, laud, guitar and arco de bajo (string bass).

String Bass
Kulintangan. Indigenous music ensemble among the Islamized groups in Mindanao will
have kulintang, agong and debakan. The following can be added : gandingan, ganding,
seronay.

Sarunay
Voice It is the most expressive of all the instruments. It is Man’s first instrument. Tones
are produced by the vibrations of vocal chords in the voice box (larynx) resonating in the
cavities of the chest, mouth and nose.
Classification of Voice
 Soprano is the highest of all vocal pitches. It is sung by females.
 Alto is just below soprano and also sung by females.
 Tenor is the highest pitch for a male voice.
 Bass is the lowest pitch in a chorus and sung by males.
Mezzo-soprano is the pitch in between soprano and alto.
Baritone is the pitch in between tenor and bass.

Elements of Music
RHYTHM.Rhythm is that movement through time, of the arrangement of tones and
silences, of the order of long and short notes, and of the accents of these tones so that
a regular movement is produced. It is the most basic element of music because music
can do without the other elements but cannot exist without rhythm.
Music played or sung brings out a regular rhythmic pattern or pulsation which we call
beats. Beats are grouped in a measure that contains units of four, three, or two beats
called a meter.
Quadruple Meter. This can be indicated in a pattern of ONE-two-THREE-four, with
ONE having the primary accent and THREE as secondary accent. Two and four are
weak beats.
Duple Meter. This carries two beats in a measure, indicated by the pattern ONE-two /
ONE-two, with ONE having the accent. March music is written in the duple meter.
Triple Meter. This will have groups of three beats to a measure : ONE-two-three / ONE-
two-three.
MELODY. It is the coherent succession of notes. It is notes played one after another. It
is the tune of the song you sing. Melody is also referred as motif, theme, air or melodic
line. It is called the horizontal element of music because it moves in a line : it is derived
from the tones of a scale in a musical system.
HARMONY. It combines tones when played together bring out a pleasant sound. It is
considered as vertical element of music. We can think of harmony in terms of chords.
Two or more tones play simultaneously to add depth and texture to a complementing
melody.
TEXTURE. It refers to the ‘thickness or ‘thinness’ of segments in a music composition
produced by the combinations of the elements of music particularly melody and
harmony. Musical textures come in 3 general types: monophonic, homophonic,
polyphonic.
 Monophonic is melody sang alone without accompaniment.
 Homophonic is when a melody is accompanied by a guitar or when a piano
accompanies singing with chords.
 Polyphonic is when two melodies are played together simultaneously.
FORM. It refers to the musical structure or musical form that comprised musical
elements that are put together. Repetition, variation and contrast (RVC) are organic
principles in any artistic creation.
A binary form would be an A-B structure representing one or two different musical
ideas. Example is Blowing In The Wind.
A ternary form (song form) has 3 sections with an A-B-A formula; wherein motif A is
repeated after motif B. Example is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Elements of Sound
From the perspective of a musician, anything that is capable of producing sound is a potential
instrument for musical exploitation. What we perceive as sound are vibrations (sound waves)
traveling through a medium (usually air) that are captured by the ear and converted into
electrochemical signals that are sent to the brain to be processed.
Since sound is a wave, it has all of the properties attributed to any wave, and these attributes are the
four elements that define any and all sounds. They are the frequency, amplitude, wave form and
duration, or in musical terms, pitch, dynamic, timbre (tone color), and duration.

Element Musical Term Definition

Frequency Pitch How high or low

Amplitude Dynamic How loud or soft

Wave form Timbre Unique tone color of each instrument

Duration Duration How long or short

Frequency

The frequency, or pitch, is the element of sound that we are best able to distinguish.
We are mesmerized when a singer reaches a particularly high note at the climax of a
song, just as we are when a dancer makes a spectacularly difficult leap. We feel very
low notes (low pitches) in a physical way as well, sometimes expressing dark or
somber sentiments as in music by country singers like Johnny Cash, and other times
as the rhythmic propulsion of low-frequency pulsations in electronically amplified
dance music.

The ability to distinguish pitch varies from person to person, just as different people
are better and less capable at distinguishing different colors (light frequency). Those
who are especially gifted recognizing specific pitches are said to have “perfect pitch.”
On the other hand, just as there are those who have difficulty seeing the difference
in colors that are near each other in the light spectrum (color-blind), there are
people who have trouble identifying pitches that are close to each other. If you
consider yourself to be such a “tone-deaf” person, do not fret. The great American
composer Charles Ives considered the singing of the tone-deaf caretaker at his
church to be some of the most genuine and expressive music he experienced.

An audio compact disc is able to record sound waves that vibrate as slow as 20 times
per second (20 Hertz = 20 Hz) and as fast as 20,000 times per second (20,000 Hertz =
20 kiloHertz = 20 kHz). Humans are able to perceive sounds from approximately 20
Hz to 15 kHz, depending on age, gender, and noise in the environment. Many
animals are able to perceive sounds much higher in pitch.

Amplitude

Amplitude is the amount of energy contained in the sound wave and is perceived as
being either loud or soft. Amplitude is measured in decibels, but our perception of
loud and soft changes depending on the sounds around us. Walking down a busy
street at noon where the noise in the environment might average 50 decibels, we
would find it difficult to hear the voice of a person next to us speaking at 40 decibels.
On that same street at night that 40 decibel speaking voice will seem like a shout
when the surrounding noise is only about 30 decibels.

Wave Form

The wave form of a sound determines the tone color, or timbre that we hear and is
how we can tell the difference between the sound produced by a voice, a guitar, and
a saxophone even if they are playing the same frequency at the same amplitude.

The simplest wave form is the sine wave, which we have seen diagrammed in the
examples for frequency and amplitude above. Pure sine waves rarely occur in nature
but they can easily be created through electronic means. An instrument with a
timbre close to the purity of a sine wave is the flute. The violin section of the
orchestra, by contrast, has a much more complex timbre as seen in its wave form
below.
Duration
Every sound event has its unique duration, which we perceive as being either short or
long, depending on the context. Several durations, one after another, create the rhythm
of a piece.

Rhythm

All music involves the unfolding of sounds in time. Some of the terminology used in
describing music therefore refers to the durational and temporal organization of
musical sounds. The attack points of a sequence of sounds produce rhythm. The three
syllables of the word “strawberry” can be pronounced at evenly spaced intervals
(straw-ber-ry), or the first syllable can be stretched out, producing one long and two
shorter durations (straaaaw-ber-ry)—two different speech rhythms. The speech
rhythm of “My country, ‘tis of thee” moves in evenly spaced syllables up to “tis,”
which is elongated, followed by “of,” which is cut short and leads directly to “thee”—
ta ta ta taaa t-ta. In both vocal and instrumental music, rhythm is generated by the
onset of new sounds, whether the progression from one word or syllable to the next in
a song, the succession of pitches of a violin melody, the striking of a drum, or the
strumming of chords on a guitar.

Meter

The succession of attacks and durations that produces rhythm may proceed in a quite
unpredictable flow (“to be or not to be, that is the question”—the opening of Hamlet’s
soliloquy)—what is called nonmetered or free rhythm—or may occur so as to create
an underlying pulse or beat (“bubble, bubble, toil and trouble”—four beats coinciding
with buh–buh–toil–truh—from the witches’ incantation in Macbeth ). Recurrent
groupings of beats by two’s, three’s, or some combination of two’s and three’s,
produces meter. The first beat of each metric group is often described as accented to
characterize its defining function in the rhythmic flow (My country ‘tis of thee, sweet
land of liberty, of thee I sing—six groups of three beats, each beginning with the
underlined syllable).

Another important rhythmic phenomenon is syncopation, which signifies irregular or

unexpected stresses in the rhythmic flow (for example, straw-ber-ry instead
of straw-ber-ry). A distinctive sequence of longs and shorts that recurs throughout an
individual work or groups of works, such as particular dance types, is called a
rhythmic pattern, rhythmic figure, or rhythmic motive.
Texture

Like fabric, music has a texture, which may be dense or transparent, thick or thin,
heavy or light. Musical texture also refers to how many different layers of sound are
heard at once, to whether these layers have a primarily melodic or
an accompaniment function, and to how the layers relate to each other. A texture of a
single, unaccompanied melodic line is called monophony from the Greek “monos”
(single, alone) and “phone” (sound). Monophony becomes heterophony when
spontaneous variations of two or more performers produce different versions of the
same melody at the same time. The simultaneous combination of two or more
independent melodies is classified as polyphony and of two or more simultaneous
rhythmic lines as polyrhythm. Another principal textural category is homophony, one
dominant melody with accompaniment. These classifications are often useful in
describing individual works and repertory groups, but in practice many works and
styles do not fall neatly into one category. For example, a common texture in jazz
entails some instruments whose interaction would be described as polyphonic and
others whose function it is to accompany them.

Tone Color

Tone color, or timbre, is the distinctive quality of a voice or instrument. Tone color is
the result of an acoustic phenomenon known as overtones. In addition to the
fundamental frequency heard as a sound’s pitch, musical tones contain patterns of
higher frequencies. Though these higher frequencies, or overtones, are not usually
perceived as pitches in themselves, their relative presence or absence determines the
characteristic quality of a particular voice or instrument. The prominence of overtones
in musical instruments depends on such factors as the materials from which they are
made, their design, and how their sound is produced.

Form
The interaction of such elements as melody, rhythm, texture, and harmony in the
unfolding of a musical work produces form. Most music conforms to one of the
following three basic formal prototypes:

1. sectional, falling into units of contrasting or repeating content,

2. continuous, usually involving the development and transformation of one or more

germinal ideas,

3. a combination of sectional and continuous.

https://prezi.com/naejieinumld/the-mediums-of-music/
http://scchumanities.blogspot.com/2010/07/lesson-6-music.html

Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—
traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes
any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part (in
contrast to orchestral music, in which each string part is played by a number of performers).
However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". [1] For
more than 100 years, chamber music was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes,
and even today, when chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall,
many musicians, amateur and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing
chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for
playing solo or symphonic works.[2]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music (specifically, string quartet music) as "four
rational people conversing".[3] This conversational paradigm – which refers to the way one instrument
introduces a melody or motif and then other instruments subsequently "respond" with a similar motif
– has been a thread woven through the history of chamber music composition from the end of the
18th century to the present. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of
chamber music compositions.
conductor, in music, a person who conducts an orchestra, chorus, opera company, ballet,
or other musical group in the performance and interpretation of ensemble works. At the most
fundamental level, a conductor must stress the musical pulse so that all the performers can
follow the same metrical rhythm.