Academic Decathlon Concert Lecture Notes by Ronald M. Kean

(The following is a small portion of the lecture notes from the 2000 concert. These lecture comments address music fundamentals. This information may be applicable to future tests.)

Music Fundamentals - November 1, 2000

Music is a means by which we can go beyond the boundaries of ordinary experience to achieve a sense of discovery and enter into a new reality. Music is a means by which we can identify with a power greater than our own.

Our ancestors, as they danced wearing the masks of their gods, felt a sense of powerful identification with the forces that ruled the universe. By dressing like a deer, the Yaqui Indian dancer felt at one with the spirit of the animal he impersonated. The singer who blends her voice in harmony of a choir finds chills running down her spine as she feels at one with the beautiful sound she helps create. What could be more meaningful than to join a community of souls united in the pursuit of harmony?

Music has the power to transcend inherent limitations imposed by human life and desire. Music has been known to charm animals, move stones, put dragons and storms to rest, and even to conquer death in classical mythology.

Orpheus' triumphal descent into the underworld to rescue his deceased wife, Euridice, can be seen as an attempt to prove the power of his music by victory over death -- the representation of absolute limitation of human life. This event is the archetype of the power of music. Each of us probably feels somewhat inadequate in many aspects of life; through art, we can transcend our limitations. The artistic performance of great works helps to reconcile the differences of generations and populations. And when music is approached with love, integrity, and generosity of spirit combined with the skill and discipline of an artisan, the result is a living model of learning and community -- a celebration of life and of ourselves.

#Music – organized sound and silence #A cappella – vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment

#Timbre (tone color) – the quality of the sound: harsh, nasal, warm, cold, steel

#Dynamics – refers to the relative loudness or softness of the sound

#Pitch – refers to the speed of vibrations from a vibrating body referred to as high or low

#Scales (pentatonic, diatonic, chromatic, tonal, atonal, tone row)

#Mode-a means of organizing sets of pitches into tonal schemes associated with moods and physical and temporal states that function as guides for improvisation or composition. Modes in this sense are associated with different emotions, times of day, times of the year, or even different genders. In ancient Greek music, the Dorian and Phrygian modes were considered masculine and war-like while the Lydian and Mixolydian modes were heard as feminine and loving.

#Ragas – the modes of classical Indian music, have elemental and temporal associations such as the raga Malakosh, which is associated with the night, and the raga Megha, which has connections to water. In gamelan, the instrumental music of Indonesia, higher pitches are considered masculine while the lower pitches are feminine.

#Drone – a repeated or held pitch while a melody is being played

#Keys (system of whole and half steps)

#Octave duplication (2:1)

#Intervals – the distance between two pitches either conjunct (close together) or disjunct (far apart)

#Chromatic alteration (sharps and flats)

#Microtones – smaller and larger intervals that are smaller and larger than those of non-Western

#Melody – a meaningful arrangement of successive pitches

#Texture – the relative thickness or thinness of the music (how many parts are present)

#Monophonic – music of a single melodic line –chant

#Heterophonic – different versions of the same melody performed simultaneously

#Homophonic – more than one part is present sounding simultaneously

#Polyphonic – music with overlapping melodic lines that are performed simultaneously

#Sangati – composed melodic variations in the Carnatic music of south India

#Vocables – syllables representing either the remnants or fragments of an archaic tribal language or may be an effort to imitate the sounds of the language of another tribe from which the song was obtained ("Wey you hey," "Ya na ana," "yei hi yei")


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