Understanding the Fundamentals of Music - Part 1.A.

A Simple Reincarnation of my understanding of this great TTC Course.

Theory: Analysis of a set of facts, and their relation to one another.

Scientific Method: Principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, collection of data through observation and experiment and Formulation and testing of Hypotheses.
Thus both Relativity and Music Theory can be both reasoned through the Scientific method, albeit with different approaches for perceiving Structural integrity.

Music Definitions:
  • The Science or Art of incorporating intelligible combination of tones into a composition having Structure and Continuity. (Merriam Webster)
  • Controlled Movement of Sound in time. (Roger Sessions)
  • Sound in Time. (or Time ordered by Sound.)
Timbre: Pronounced /ˈtæm-bər'/, and refers to actual physical tone color produced by instruments; Single or Collective. The physical characteristics of sound that mediate the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. Timbre is also known in psychoacoustics as tone quality or tone color.

Musical Instruments: Apart from human voice, we have five different classes;
  • Stringed Instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. They are usually categorized by the technique used to make the strings vibrate, The three most common techniques are plucking, bowing and striking.
  • Wood-Wind Instruments.
  • Brass Instruments.
  • Percussion Instruments.
  • Keyboards.
I. Bowed Strings; Violin Family: Span over five Octaves, and they contain four instruments that correspond to the four basic ranges of human voice; Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass; or SATB for short, and usually they are all used together in a String Quartet.
  • The Violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, thus it's the one of most resemblance to the human voice. Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin, especially the fifth ciaccona movement, pushes the violin to its extreme.
  • The Viola has a softer fuller less-focused tone than the violin, that usually complements it, via counter melodies and fill-in harmonies. The rich, dark-toned sonority of Viola's timbre can usually sets it apart from the violin. The viola's four strings are tuned in fifths: C3 (an octave below middle C) is the lowest, with G3, D4 and A4 above it. This tuning is exactly one fifth below the violin, so that they have three strings in common—G, D, and A—and is one octave above the cello.
  • The Cello
  • Double Bass, providing the foundation
On the Bow.
bow consists of a carefully chosen stick (usually wood) with some other material stretched between its ends. The type of bow used to play the stringed instruments of the violin family has many hairs stretched between its ends.

The characteristic long, sustained, and singing sound produced by the violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass is due to the drawing of the bow against their strings. This sustaining of musical sound with a bow is comparable to a singer using breath to sustain sounds and sing long, smooth, or legato melodies. Without the bow the violin family could only be played pizzicato.

Each instrument has its characteristic grip of the bow, but generally they all share the basic idea, where the bow is placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point half way between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge. However, different bow placements can be selected to change timbre. Application of the bow close to the bridge (known as sul ponticello) produces an intense, sometimes harsh sound, which acoustically emphasizes the upper harmonics. Bowing above the fingerboard (sul tasto) produces a purer tone with less overtone strength, emphasizing the fundamental, also known as flautando, since it sounds less reedy and more flute-like.

To understand how the above-mentioned bowed instruments actually work, I'll quote this great explanatory example from Wiki. Generally speaking, bowing the instrument's string causes a stick-slip phenomenon to occur, which makes the string vibrate.

Stick-slip is caused by the surfaces alternating between sticking to each other and sliding over each other, with a corresponding change in the force of friction. Typically, the static friction coefficient between two surfaces is larger than the kinetic friction coefficient. If an applied force is large enough to overcome the static friction, then the reduction of the friction to the kinetic friction can cause a sudden jump in the velocity of the movement.

The attached picture shows symbolically an example of stick-slip.

V is a drive system, R is the elasticity in the system, and M is the load that is lying on the floor and is being pushed horizontally.

When the drive system is started, the Spring R is loaded and its pushing force against load M increases until the static friction coefficient between load M and the floor is not able to hold the load anymore.

The load starts sliding and the friction coefficient decreases from its static value to its dynamic value. At this moment in fact the spring can give more power and accelerates M. During M’s movement, the force of the spring decreases, until it is insufficient to overcome the dynamic friction. At this point, the M stops. The drive system however continues, and the spring is loaded again. etc...





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