Music For Voices

Tonality-


Whether the piece is in a Major, Minor, Atonal or Modal.
Major- More happy feel.
Minor- Depressing.
Atonal- All over the place.
Modal- A form of scale that a lot of traditional folk songs are written in.


Male Voies choir include- Tenor, Baritone, Bass and Counter Tenor.


Types of Music

Madrigal-

·     For between 6 and 7 voices.

·     Non-religious songs, just about normal every day life.

·     Do not have any instrumental accompaniment.

·     Copying of melody and lyrics between different voices.

·     Could be all female, or male and female. It is unlikely to hear a madrigal with all male vocalists.

·     Melisma- when you have lots of notes on for a one syllable word.

·     If you hear “Fa la la la” its usually madrigal.

Choral Music-

·     Refers to choirs- a large number of people all singing together.

·     Could be a SSA choir (an all female choir). A three part harmony.

·     Male voice choirs are more famous in Wales.

·     Also an SATB choir, mixed voice choir.

·     They can be singing a song made for a choir, like a pop song. But they could be singing as a bigger piece, like in a symphony or a oratorio.

World Music-

Indian Music

·     Tabla- A pair of Indian drums, they aren’t joined together. There are 3 different playing areas on the table. There are also 3 ways you can play the drum either with playing it with your finger tips, with the palm of you hands of your whole hand.

·     Very complex and very fast.

·     Tambura- an Indian version of a base guitar, not electric. Simply plays a drone, you play a note then twang it and that’s all you do for the whole song, like a bass line. very boring.

·     Sitar- The melody instrument for Indian music, and Indian version of a guitar, pluck instead of string, two different sets of strings. You pluck the main ones which set of the ‘sympathetic’ strings underneath, if you are a very good player of it you can play the sympathetic strings.

·     Indian songs have Rags/Ragas, which is the Indian scale or key. They only play some certain Rags in the morning or evening. The songs are referred to as Rags as well. “Have you heard the new Rag?”

·     Indian Flutes, they are wooden, but they sound pretty much the same.

·     Alap- A slow section of a Raga. Very slow and boring.

·     Gat- Fast section of a Raga.

·     Bhangra- Indian pop music, upbeat and Indians usually dance to it.

African Music-

·     Mostly made from wood and natural products.

·     Djembe- A talking drum.

·     Dunun- A classic African drum.

·     Polyrhythm- A rhythm with lots of different rhythms played together and over each other.

·     Chanting- Everybody singing the same thing with each other.

·     Call and Response- One person sings a line and everybody else responds with a different phrase.

·     A Capella- Singing unaccompanied. 

Music For Voices

Pop Ballad

A ballad is a form of slow emotional love song, often a narrative set to music. Often  accompanied by Keyboard and Guitar. Basic verse chorus structure. 

Christina Aguilera- Beautiful is a very popular Pop Ballad.

Westlife- Flying Without Wings.

Folk Song

A song that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style.

 Often has a very simple stringed accompaniment usually on guitar.

 Sometimes folk songs are sung a cappella with no instruments at all. 

Usually verse after verse, as it is telling a story, doesn't usually have a chorus.

The lyrics tend to tell a story, sometimes the story they tell are political.

Dubliners- The Irish Rover

An example of an British Isles Folk song.

Bob Dylan- Lily, Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts.

An example of an American Folk Song.

Madrigal

A part-song for several voices, no more than six singers.

Without instrumental accompaniment. Not religious it is secular.

A form of vocal Chamber Music, which originated in Northern Italy. Popular in the 1400's. 

Concerto Through The Ages

A concerto is a piece of music composed usually in three movements. In it, usually, one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. Some common solo instruments that are in a concerto are pianos, violins, cellos and flutes.

Concertos started in the Baroque Period along with Concerto Grosso.

Baroque Period:

Concerto Grosso is not an solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra but a small group (concertino) of soloists accompanied by an orchestra.

Some of the main composers of Concertos in the Baroque Period where:
*Antonio Vivaldi
*George Hendel
*Tommaso Albinoni

Harpsichords were common in only the Baroque Period.

Classical Period:

Concerto grosso faded in the Classical Period. It was mainly strings concertos in the Classical Period.
As time went on the string family in concertos grew and grew.

Haydn and Mozart were big Concerto Composers in the Classical Period.

Romantic Period:

Brass and Woodwind players came into the the Romantic Period.
Orchestras in the Romantic Period were the biggest they've ever been.

20th Century Music

Electronic Music:
Karlheinz stockhausen. Etherophone was the first electronic Insturment. Later on called a Theremin. Hammond Organ, Novachord.

Serialism:
Uses every single note in an octave. (Chromatic Scale). Put notes in any order in that chromatic scale, and only use them once. The line of notes in the particular order is called their serial. Schoenberg is the inventer of serialism. You play the row of notes, then you play it backwards. After you have played it inverted, then put it in retrograde order Retrograde- every interval between two notes in a row would be inverted.

Romantic Period

Changes in Opera 

Opera had become a marriage of the arts, a musical drama. Go on for about 3 hours. Romantic Period was often based on the expression of Beauty terror of Nature, supernatural and myths, they loved operas about the gods. Very extreme emotion expressed in romantic operas. 70-80 players, mostly brass.

Dissonance 

Clashy sounds, notes not within in the key etc. can make things tense and full of emotion. This was thought of as bad music in the classical period. It was not allowed. Dissonance broke the rules of music in the classical period. Beethoven started experimenting with dissonance.

Virtuoso

A performer that excels in technical ability. Fancy and complicated instrument playing. Lizt was amazing an virtuoso pianist and composed operas that were so complicated only he could play them.

Tone Poems 

A composer looking at something non-musical and writing a piece of music to describe that something. Instrumental only. Often shorter than programme music.

Programme Music

Often from a piece of writing and would create an instrumental piece. Almost the same as tone poem just longer.

Impressionism

Towards the end of romantic period. To describe a feeling instead of it being tangible.

Romantic Symphony

Enormous orchestra. Lasted from about 20-45 minutes. Didn't follow strict rules like classical symphony's did. Most of them had more than 4 movements. More expressive using harmonisation.

Wagner

Composed many operas

Lizt-

A virtuoso performer

Schumann- 

Mahler-

Composed many symphonys

Classical Period

1750-1810

Diatonic Music
Music where all the notes are within the same key.
No clashy sounds so it will all sound in harmony.
Even Phrases
Two equal length chunks of music, as if separated by commas (breathing points).

Symphony
Large orchestral piece. Split into chunks called movements. There was 3 movements.
1st movement in Sonata Form.
2nd movement is slower and in a different keys and most probably have a stronger melody line.
3rd movement is more lively, more lighthearted, in Rondo Form.

Concerto
A piece of music for a solo instrument and orchestra.

Mozart;
(1756-1791)

Haydn;

(1732-1809)

Schubert;

(1797-1828)

Baroque Music

Ground Bass- 
A short melodic bassline is repeated over and over again.
Another word for it is Ostinato. Played on a cello or bass notes of a harpsichord.

 Pachelbel's Canon;

Continuo-
An independent bass line, usually on a keyboard instrument like a harpsichord. Also called basso continuo.

Figured Bass-
Usually played by a harpsichord. Has numbers underneath the bass line to show; the bass note and the two other notes to make a chord.

String Quartet-
Two Violins, Viola and a Cello.





Concerto Grosso- 
A small group of instruments that work as a group of soloists within an orchestra.

Baroque Opera- 
Recitative: A style in which the lyrics are sang in the rhythm of natural speech.
Aria: A solo vocal piece accompanied by instruments.
Chorus: 

Oratorio- 
Long dramatic piece, with no sets or dramatic action, and performed by soloists, chorus, and orchestra.

Composers- 

Vivaldi;

Purcell;

Bach;