what is music?

What is music?

Hmm... tricky one this...

• Music can be defined as organised sound, but this is not strict enough, because not all organised sound is music.
  • Most people would agree that the regular throb of a motor or a drill is not music. Something which has a regular beat could be used as part of the rhythmin a piece of experimental music, but this does not make it music in its own right.
  • I define the boundary line as being between a simple beat, which is not music, and a rhythm, which is a very simple form of music. You and others may disagree.
• The most general definition of music is any set of organised sounds which has been planned (and usually notated) so that the sound produced is largely consistent every time it is performed (this definition would however exclude some experimental music which uses chance or random events).
• The theory of music tends to concentrate on the notated form of music, because the notated form reflects the underlying structures (or theory) of music.
• Even if a piece of music is not written down, the underlying structures of the music in the piece still exist, and the terms used to describe the structure would be the same ones used in the notated form of music.
  • By "underlying structures", I mean things like key, chords, and harmony.
• Over many centuries, a standard method of notation has grown up, which is inevitably linked quite closely with the way in which sounds are produced and organised in the music.
• Here I am referring to "western" traditions which have developed over the last thousand years in the Western hemisphere.

• What is the theory of music?

• The theory of music, sometimes called the "rudiments" (and, I'm told, "solfege" in the USA) traditionally concentrates on the study of the elements of the notation of music, in other words, how it is written down. However, it also includes underlying concepts of music such as structure, organisation, history and, to some extent, physics.
• These underlying concepts are included for a number of reasons:
  1. Some of the concepts of the notation of music are difficult to understand without knowledge of the underlying concepts; for example, the use of key signatures and accidentals is far easier to understand when the concepts of key and scale are fully understood.
  2. Since music and its notation has grown and evolved over many years (and this process is still going on), an understanding of the underlying principles is helpful in understanding the reasons for things, rather than just being told "this is the way it is done".
  3. To understand properly the way notation is used in different circumstances, it may be necessary to understand some of its history.
  4. An understanding of any of the physics of music is certainly not necessary, but I find it interesting - you may not!
• The theory of music therefore includes the following:
• The basic elements of standard music notation such as staves, clefs, note lengths, note pitches, key signatures, time signatures, beats, bars (or measures), etc.
• Basic underlying concepts such as scales, keys, intervals, rhythm, etc.
• More advanced elements such as dynamics, phrasing (notated with slurs) etc.
• Advanced material such as the history of notation, form, physics of scales, etc..

Why learn the theory of music?

Possible reasons include:

• to enhance general understanding, and therefore appreciation, of music
• to aid the ability to "read" music
• to help in learning to play an instrument or sing
• to pass exams
• to satisfy curiosity
• to get trivia quiz questions right
• to show off!

The appreciation of music

• Music can be listened to and appreciated by anyone.
  • An understanding of the notation of music or any other technicalities of how music is produced is not needed.
  • People who admit that they are not at all "musical" (whatever that means) can still find music relaxing, exciting and enjoyable; they can dance to it, sing along with it or just listen to it.
  • The emotions generated in a "non-musical" person might range from sadness to joy.
• Like reading a book, or studying almost any subject, there are different levels of understanding and appreciation.
  • A deep level of appreciation of music would be difficult without an understanding of music, and this in turn is very difficult without knowledge of the notation of music and other underlying concepts including in the theory of music.
  • It is this deeper level of appreciation which is more likely to help to generate deeper emotions in a listener.
  • These emotions can range through the whole range of human emotions; that is what is so amazing about music.
• Of course, a lot of music includes words which will greatly increase the amount of information passed to the non-expert listener, and therefore greatly increase the possibility of generating emotions.
• Other factors can also affect this, for example, the performer, the location of the performance, the concentration of the listener, past experiences, and so on.

History of notation

• Notation, the way of writing down music, has developed over many years.
  • Many types of early music, just like stories, were passed down the generations without being notated, hence they tended to evolve over time. Notation is required for consistency and precision.
  • Notation clearly begun and developed in parallel with music theory, because you cannot record what notes are being used if you have no names for the notes, or way of identifying what relationships are between the notes.
  • Hence, as the concepts of scales and keys began to take shape, so notes started to be named.
• The Greeks and Romans both had non-graphical notations which used letters of their alphabets to symbolise notes. From this came our use of the letters A to G to represent notes which is still common in many countries.
  • The letter names are sometimes called the "Boethian notation" after Boethius, a Roman writer and statesman who lived in the 5th century. He was in the service of Emperor Theodoric, was accused of treason and executed in the year 524 A.D. He was the first to document the use of letters as names for notes.
  • An alternative method of note naming was introduced about 1000 A.D. by the monk Guido d'Arezzo. This has survived up to today as tonic sol fa. The most important aspect of this development however, is that it used six of the notes which we use in the major scale today.
  • France, Italy and other associated countries now tend to use the tonic sol fa names (based on C as Doh) as names of notes, rather than alphabetical letters, but this change has (I believe) only happened in the last two hundred years.
• Early systems of notation which used letters of the alphabet were the origin of some of the symbols used nowadays
  • In early times, B flat was a different note, and a rounded, lower-case "B" was used to represent it. From this comes our use of a  for a flat sign.
  • A squarer, gothic, lower-case "B" was used for B natural, and from this comes our natural sign: 
  • Our sharp sign comes from this gothic B with a line through it: 
• Modern notation is much more precise than older notation.
  • When I was a boy in an Anglican choir, we used a hymn book which had some hymn tunes in old plainsong notation. (I still have a copy in the cupboard in fact - the English Hymnal of 1933).
  • This plainsong notation uses a four line stave instead of five, no time signatures or key signatures, and has some diamond-shaped notes.
  • This notation, compared to modern notation, is quite imprecise in its specification of how the music should be performed.
  • However, this was probably good enough for the style of music it was used for.
  • This is also true of even older notations: it may seem sparse to us, but it was appropriate and sufficient for the type of music it notated.
• Graphic forms of notation are first known from the seventh century
  • The earliest forms of graphical notation were probably just marks indicating approximate pitch to remind readers of a tune they had already learnt. These would have been used by strolling minstrels and monks in monasteries.
  • This evolved in church music into plainsong
  • Plainsong was at first very imprecise, without clefs or staves
  • The modern system for notes was developed initially in the fourteenth century.
• The features of modern notation are there in order to notate music that we know today.
  • Over the years, many experiments have added new signs, new methods and new complications.
  • Those that proved useful for the music of the day have stuck
  • Those that were complicated, cumbersome, or not useful have mostly been forgotten
  • Unfortunately, some old music uses obsolete signs, and in some cases it is not even clear what they mean
• Modern notation developed in Europe and spread to the rest of the world.
• This makes music notation one of the most widely recognised international languages of all time

Dynamics

• Dynamics is a generic word meaning indications of volume.
• A composer uses them to indicate to the performer(s) the volume of a piece or part of a piece of music.
• As with other musical directions (such as speed indications), they are usually written in Italian, which is the internationally used language for music.
• These indications are written as abbreviations near the stave, but not on it.
• These abbreviations are written in a curly, bold italic font.
• All the common abbreviations are for Italian words.
  

  Italian word(s)	Literal translation	English meaning	Abbreviation used
  piano	soft	soft	p
  forte	loud	loud	f
  mezzo-forte	half loud	moderately loud	mf
  mezzo-piano	half soft	moderately soft	mp
  pianissimo	as soft as possible	very soft	pp
  fortissimo	as loud as possible	very loud	ff
  forte piano	loud soft	loud then immediately soft i.e. an accent	fp
  forzato or sforzato or sforzando	forced/forcing	accent	fz or sf or sfz
  rinforzando	reinforcing	sudden accent	rf or rfz or rinf
  crescendo	get louder	get louder	cresc. or
  diminuendo or decrescendo	get softer	get softer	dim. or decresc. or

• Composers do use other abbreviations such fff and ppp which have meanings which are obvious extensions to the above, but they are not actually abbreviations for anything!
• The visual signs for crescendo  and diminuendo  are printed as long or short as necessary to indicate how long the getting louder or softer should last. They tend to be known as "hairpins", for hopefully obvious reasons (as in a pin to hold hair, also used in the phrase "hairpin bend"). They are usually written above or below the stave.

Alternative names

This page compares British English use of musical terms compared with other (mostly American) usage. However, because I am British (English), I may be wrong about other usage, so please mail me if you know different!

• Stave/staff
  • In Britain, the word "staff" for the five lines on which music is written is considered old-fashioned and is hardly ever seen now, except in old books. "Stave" is the word used in Britain nowadays.
  • "Staff" is still used in some countries, including the USA, with "staves" as the plural.
• Bar/Measure
  • A "measure" is now quite often used as the word for a bar of music, although (to my British mind) it has more of a connotation of the "length" of the bar. I believe that in the USA this is standard usage.
  • "Bar" then sometimes refers to the actual bar line, especially as in "double bar" for "double bar line".
• Semibreve/Whole note etc.
  • There are three completely different naming methods for the names of notes which govern their length. Two are used in English, and these are described in the page on note lengths.
  • English names and Italian names are based on original Latin names from the Middle Ages. American and German names are based upon the relative lengths of notes. French names are based the appearance of the notes.
• Note/tone
  • In Britain, the word "note" can mean a written symbol as well as a sound. Americans separate these meanings and use the word "note" for a written note, and "tone" for the sound.
  • We do sometimes use this meaning for the word "tone", for example in the phrases "resultant tone" and "tone deaf".
  • "Tone" can also mean the quality of a sound, for example, its brightness or its dullness (as in the tone control on a tape player or radio).
  • In Britain, the word "tone" has an additional different and specific meaning (see Tone/Whole-step below).
• Tone/Whole-step, Semitone/half-step
  • In Britain, "a tone" (in musical usage) is defined as an interval of a major second, or one-sixth of an octave. Americans refer to this as a "whole-step".
  • A Semitone is half a tone, the interval of a minor second, one-twelfth of an octave, the smallest gap between two notes on a piano (and many other instruments). Americans call this a "half-step".
  • A major scale consists of the intervals TTSTTTS where T=tone and S=Semitone.
  • Confusingly, a scale made up of six intervals of major second (tones), as used by some 20th Century composers, is called a "whole-tone scale".
• Do-re-me/Ut-re-me
  • See Tonic sol fa
• B/H
• In Germany our note B is called H, and our B flat is called B

Ornament

• Ornaments are "frills" or embellishments made on notes.
• An ornament is basically a historic shorthand method of indicating how a single note can be made more interesting.
• Ornaments first started to be used at the beginning of the 17th century, but the methods used to notate them varied quite a lot, and in some cases they were not indicated at all, but just assumed.
• Their use became much less common towards the end of the 18th century, and the notation for those that were used became reasonably standardised.
• Those which are seen in modern editions of works of this period include (in no particular order):
  1. Trill - a rapid shake between an added note and the main note
  2. Mordent - a single movement from the main note then down or up then back to the main note
  3. Grace note or acciaccatura (pronouced atch-ack-a-too-ra) - a quick movement from an unaccented added note to the main note
  4. Appoggiatura (pronouced appog-a-too-ra) - a slower movement from an accented added note to the main note
  5. Arpeggio - a spread chord, so playing the notes of a chord rapidly after each other, usually starting at the bottom
  6. Turn - a quick movement around a note, usually up, down and up again

The folowing (unrealistic) example shows all six ornaments in the same order as listed above. The stave below shows approximately how it should be played.

Frequency or pitch

• Pitch is a musical term with a meaning which is very close to the meaning of the scientific term frequency
  • The scientific term frequency is slightly more specific than the normal use of the word frequency, which means simply "how often something happens".
  • It means the number of times an event occurs in a period of time.
  • Hertz (abbreviated to Hz), is the scientific unit for the number of times an event happens in one second.
    • For example, an electric current which alternates its direction 50 times each second is referred to as 50Hz
    • A computer with a clock tick 90 million times a second is called a 90MHz machine ("M" being short for the prefix "Mega" meaning a million)
    • H. R. Hertz was a physicist in the 19th Century (1857-1894)
• A note (in my definition) has one, and only one, pitch.
• The pitch or frequency can be stated in a number of different ways:
  • The scientific way, e.g. "512Hz"
    • This method is absolutely precise and accurate
      • There is no possibility of error or inaccuracy
  • As a musical description, e.g. "Treble C" or, " c' ", or "The third space on the treble-clef", or "C above middle C"
    • This method is not precise and not accurate
      • There is scope for misunderstanding
      • If the instruction is understood, the exact pitch is imprecise and will depend on the tuning of the instrument
  • An extract from musical notation: 
    • This method is precise but not accurate
      • There is very little scope for misunderstanding
      • The exact pitch is still imprecise
• A note is produced by a very rapid, regular pulsing.
  • If you take a drum sound with a beat every second
  • Then speed it up to 512 times per second
  • You will perceive it as a note of 512Hz, as in the example above
• There are a lot of examples in real life that you will already be familiar with:
• The high-pitched whine of a mosquito is caused by the wings beating at over 1000 times a second
• The sound of a propeller starting up, at first a slow thump, which turns into a low noise, and finally into a whine
• The note produced by a razor or a vacuum cleaner is caused by the regular movement of a blade or motor.
• The best example is probably a electronic metronome, which uses the same oscillating circuit to produce a beat as to produce a tuning note. A tuning note is produced by getting the circuit to oscillate at 440Hz.

Rhythm

• Rhythm in music is dependent on the fact that humans recognise a beat occurring at a regular interval.
• Rhythm in music is more than just a beat, however; it is the way that sounds with differing lengths (or gaps between them) and accents can combine to produce patterns in time which contain a beat.
  • These sounds do not have to be particularly musical; rhythms can be made by striking almost anything, as long as there can be difference in accent.
  • Differences in accent can mean different sounds or just different loudness (i.e. amplitudes) of sounds
• It is common to speak of a particular rhythm, referring to a pattern of note lengths which occurs in a piece of music.
  • It is important to understand that the rhythm is defined by the pattern; the overall speed of it could vary from performance to performance, but the rhythm would still be the same.
  • The speed or tempo of a piece of music is indicated by a metronome marking and/or a direction word or phrase; its rhythm is specified by various note lengths creating beats within bars.
• Modern songs often include syncopation in their rhythm