Summary:
Chapter 7 unwinds the fifth and final principal musical parameters: sound, which is given the anthropomorphic simile of the “personality of music”—given its importance in defining the experience of encountering a song or work. The chapter begins with some reminders and expansion on the nature of sound and continues with some primary elements of musical sound: pitch, dynamics, and timbre. It continues with a two-part discussion of instruments, from an historical and classification standpoint. It then concludes with an historically-grounded account of the primary textures utilized in music of all styles and eras: monophony, heterophony, polyphony, and homophony—both melody-dominated and chordal.
Supplements:
( More on our ability to hear the upper partials ):
In the right conditions, however, you can make out these soft, upper partials. For example, try loudly striking and holding a low note (e.g., 2 octaves below Middle C) on a grand piano in a quiet room; do you softly hear tones higher than the “fundamental”? See also the discussion of Mersenne and his “petits sons” in Interlude B.
( More on our complex timbral elements of an instrument’s attack ):
Technically, an instrument’s attack is called its “starting transient”. It usually involves the production of inharmonic partials (non-integer multiples), even when the steady state produces perfectly harmonic partials. And yet, what we recognize as the characteristic sound of the clarinet or saxophone or trombone or violin is significantly formed by this “noisy” attack phase. This is verified in experiments and studies where removing the attack phase of an instrument makes it difficult if not impossible, to identify which instrument it is.
( More on Schoenberg’s notion of Klangfarbenmelodie ):
The term was first used in Schoenberg’s Harmonielehre (1911). Noted early works that employ the Klangfarbenmelodie technique include the 3 rd movement of Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (1909) and his pupil Anton Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op.24 ; after WW II, composers such as Stockhausen (e.g., Kontra-Punkte , 1953) and Boulez (e.g., Le marteau sans maître , 1955) adapted the technique into their own aesthetic.
( More on flexible use of instruments in the Middle Ages ):
A particularly clear example of this variety involves the troubadour and trouvère repertoire (12th-13th centuries). Although notated originally as monophonic vocal music, this repertoire has been recorded by an array of vocal and/or instrumental forces—including flutes, recorders, fiddles, vielles, lutes, harps, bagpipes, percussion, etc. For a discussion of this debatable topic, see for example, Cohen, Joel. "Peirol's Vielle: Instrumental Participation in the Troubadour Repertory." Historical Performance 3 (1990): 73-77. See also the list of troubadour / trouvère recordings on the medieval.org website.
( More on early reaction to the pianoforte, by no less than J. S. Bach ):
Interestingly, J.S. Bach initially had a negative reaction to the pianoforte when encountering it in the 1730s, finding it hard to play and harsh-sounding; however, his opinion improved somewhat by 1747, when at the court of Frederick the Great he first improvised what would become the Musical Offering .
( More on early history of the Gregorian chant repertory ):
Though collated only in the 8th century or so, the chants themselves date from much earlier—some back to the 3rd and 4th centuries (e.g., from 313 CE, when the Edict of Milan sanctioned freedom of worship for all Christians). The musical templates of these chants stem from practices of the Jewish synagogues, as well as from Byzantine and Middle Eastern models. In all such cases, the very definition of a musical “composition” was a single, unison melody.
( A clarification on Figure 7.7 ):
As will be discussed below with regard to polyphonic texture, technically this sustained / repeated approach is an example of “oblique” motion.
( More on Plato, heterophony, and the lyre ):
Keep in mind that the very word “lyrics” stems from the notion of poetry being sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. It is thus inevitable that the lyre—especially in the hands of a “professional”—would embellish the melody and stray from the exact notes and rhythms performed by the singer. Plato does not say that such a thing is bad in all cases, but specifically when teaching young boys, since “the jarring of opposites with one another impedes easy learning; and the young should above all things learn easily.”
Page 240
To be precise, the Musica enchiriadis displays contrary motion only at the beginning and end of the notated examples.
( More on the concepts of balance and symmetry in the early Renaissance ):
Architecture was one key arena in which balance and symmetry were robustly articulated during the Renaissance; it followed upon translations of Vitruvius’s De architectura (c.15 BCE) — such as those by Andrea Palladio and Daniele Barbaro. It is not for nothing, moreover, that Palladio and Barbaro took inspirations as well from music theorists like Zarlino (see Interlude B) in forging their theories. For example, Barbaro wrote (1556): “Where there is proportion there can be nothing superfluous. And as nature’s instinct is the ruler of natural proportion, so the rule of art is master of artificial proportion.” See the Wittkower citation in n. 280.
( More on the pre-Classical era of melody-dominated homophony ):
This is especially true with secular forms such as the chanson and frottola—an Italian vocal form from the late 15th century.
Principal Bibliography:
Charles Taylor and Murray Campbell, “Sound,” Grove Music Online.
Thomas Rossing and Neville H. Fletcher, Principles of Vibration and Sound (New York: Springer, 2004).
Murray Campbell, “Timbre (i),” Grove Music Online
Mark Vail, The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument (Oxford University Press, 2014).
Leonard B. Meyer, Style and Music: Theory, History, and Ideology (University of Chicago Press, 1989)
Klaus Wachsmann et al., “Instruments, Classification of,” Grove Music Online
Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments (1940; Mineola, NY: Dover, 2012).
Cyril Ehrlich, The Piano: A History (Oxford University Press, 1990)
Jonathan Dunsby, “Considerations of Texture,” Music & Letters 70, no. 1 (1989): 46–57
External Links:
"Musical Sound" (Encyclopaedia Britannica)