在英语环境中学乐理－音乐教育研究

1、在英语环境中学乐理音乐教育研究    在英语环境中学乐理A Self-Checklist for Basic Music Concepts Prepared for those who want to be facilitated for their communication with people interested in music in this global-village environment刘沛By Liu peiThis checklist is developed to encourage the students to check

2、 periodically whether the music concepts they know are understood in English.Simply go through the following. Ask yourself, from the standpoint of an evaluator, the questions and give your responses such as:1.Yes, I fully understand the meaning of it and I can even get the sense out of it while play

3、ing certain pieces where the concept stands a salient feature arousing much meaning in my emotion, thinking and aesthetic imagination.2.Yes, but not quite sure. Then I might review the concept and at least get some implications or hints based on reading the descriptions provided, and then think abou

4、t what I possibly could even through my intuition. Please remember that this task does not mean to impose an extra burden on you but to provide a self-governed and self-study based opportunity for you to review and better organize what you have exposed to, pertaining to your doing, thinking and feel

5、ing in the realm of music. Having yourself equipped with the knowledge in English of music-related ideas will facilitate your communication with music interested people in this global village where talks in any topic using English is becoming a routine practice.【 】Concepts about sound, the basic sub

6、stance used in the art of music:(1) Vibration vs. Sound: Please note that the former refers to a phenomenon in the realm of objectivity and the latter is with what we experience in the hearing mechanism being subjective in its nature. There are four physical attributes or properties considered essen

7、tial in vibrationfrequency, intensity, time and wave formthat determine, respectively, what we hear as sensations of pitch, loudness, duration and timbre or tone qualitythe four corresponding mental parameters. These terminologies are included in the field of psychoacoustics, not normally in the stu

8、dy of music. However, it is necessary for music students to be acquainted with these concepts because they might be useful when your communication occurs with people out of the circle of musicians, but those such as psychologists.(2) A tentative definition of sound: 【 】Sound is mental reflection of

9、vibration within a certain range of its acoustic properties. The definition given is based, among other things, on the following facts: (a) Range of frequencies that humans could possibly perceive is from the lowest possible frequency of 12 Hz to the highest 20,000Hz roughly. The higher vibrations b

10、eyond this range of frequency could be heard by, maybe, puppies. (b) If the vibration is, in terms of its intensity, too weak, then humans would not able to sense it as a sound.(3) Considerations of tones employed in music:【 】Music tone vs. Noise; Pure tone vs. Composite tone; Fundamental tone and o

11、vertones, partials; Relationship with timbre: Musical tones, or simply tones, fall into two categories when evaluated by the criteria whether the tone has a definite pitch: musical tone has but noise does not. You may conduct a quick experiment with two different sound sources. You could easily sing

12、 back, within your voice range of course, a tone produced from the piano but it is difficult even impossible for you to imitate exactly the sound emitted by clapping your hands. It is so because the former (a musical tone) is pitched but the latter (a noise) not. However it does not mean that noise

13、makes no contributions to the art of music. In fact, it does and is so significant that African drumming and ethno-music in China resort much to the percussion instruments and many of the percussions are noise-based.Pure tone is rarely used in music but is most often used in pychoacoustic research w

14、here it is crucial that unnecessary variables be eliminated to avoid interference of the influential elements, other than the defined independent variable, with the effect of an experiment so that the finding of the research may be secured as a function of independent variable only. The tone produce

15、d by a tuning fork, the small fork-shaped metal device as a pitch standard for helping tuning the musical instruments, is supposed to be pure tone. It is safe to claim that all the musical tones rendered by pitched music making media belong to the category of composite tones. Composite tone, simply

16、put as the name suggests, is composed of the fundamental tone and overtones, that is, it is a blend of them. To better understand this phenomenon, you might imagine that a string of the piano is vibrating where the fundamental tone is heard most salient as its pitch that is produced by a “whole stri

17、ng in motion” vibration. Simultaneously, however, parts of the string at the lengths in ratios of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 etc. in an ideal situation, are also vibrating, thus emitting the frequencies as partials, the lowest of which is what was described above as fundamental viz. the first partial; the o

18、ther partials are called overtones or harmonics. The significant role overtones play is in the perception of timbre. Before we go further to approach this marvel, note that wide differences exist among the overtone series produced by different as well as the same music media as vibrators. Rigorously

19、, no one could possibly imitate exactly one sound produced by others. If you ever had the opportunity to view the scene of the wave form presented on the monitor of a spectrum detector, you would be convinced totallycomplex! These descriptions tell us a fact that overtones vary according to types of

20、 vibrators or even the same vibrator under different conditions. The variances of overtones embody in the fact (1) the actual numbers of the overtones appearing vary; for example, the tones produced by the flute that sound “hollow” contain much fewer overtones than those by the cello (2) the sequenc

21、es of theipage_breakr appearance vary, (3) the elegant shaping of the overtones and the intensity of each is so complex that no pair of sound sources could be possibly the same unless the artificial digital techniques are employed, and (4) many more reasons. As mentioned earlier, the fundamental is

22、heard as the pitch and only this pitch; however, the overtones, though not affecting the sensation of this pitch, find their way inevitably to the hearing mechanism and affect ones sensation of the timbre or tone quality. An analogue could be borrowed for describing it when one sees two copies of a

23、picture which are printed from the same printing machine, due to a slight different color processing for printing the two copies, the factual colors imprinted onto them may differ though the differences of the properties are small. The general impression of the two copies is the same, but the differ

24、ent coloring is detected. The analogue applies to the sense of timbre well, that is, the different properties of overtones, or more technically the different wave forms, like the coloring, make our perception aware of themas timbre or tone quality or romantically tone color though the sense of pitch

25、 is not altered, like the same general impression of the picture. 【 】The implications of a knowledge in the scientific basics of sound:If you are asked what should be the logical starting point of the study for music. What will your respond? Because of its complicated nature of music, it may functio

26、n, like those anthropologist Merriam identified, as endeavors of human beings for emotional, aesthetical, communicational and educational purposes or just for entertainment, of societal and cultural inheritance, of tribal conventional uses, of industrial and commercial benefits, of reinforcing cohes

27、ion or conformity to social criteria. Viewed from different angles, the logical starting points for the studies of music vary. Despite these many functions music assumes, one thing is inevitably certain, that is, it uses sound. And the ultimate elements of sound are rooted in the four mental paramet

28、ers that are reflections of the physical properties of vibration. These psycho-physical relationships should be made clear that the physical attributes of vibration are the causal resources on which the sense of sound is based; this is the objective side of the phenomenon in regard of the substance

29、used for music, and the subjective side of mental sensations of sound is the reflection of the former. To reiterate the relationship between these two sides, the physical properties per se are not sound but the sounds causal resources; they are there hylic, immune to subjective hearing. Based on the

30、se interrelationships, the elements of music are organized. We may consider, therefore, these four relations and their interactions as the logical starting points for the beginning study of music:(1) From pitch-frequency to musical elements of names of pitches or steps, staffs, intervals, keys and r

31、elated signatures, modes, tonalities, and, those larger elements of melody, harmony and counterpoint, etc.(2) From duration-time to musical elements in lengths of notes and rests, beats and times as well as the time signatures, and the larger elements of rhythm and so on.(3) From loudness-intensity

32、to musical elements of dynamics embodied in the related terminologies and signs indicating the artistic rendering and shaping such as crescendo, pianissimo, and the interactive dynamic effects from the domain of rhythm and time, belonging mainly to the description above but exerting collaborated dyn

33、amic effects on music. Remember, music is an organized whole where the four elements can never be separately functioning.(4) From timbre-waveform to the realm of tone quality or tone color, the crucial music element not only determined by one particular musical instrument pre se but also largely sha

34、ped through nuances in performing skills as well as the various thoughtful texturing and instrumentation via composing techniques.Please keep in your mind the above four roots from which varieties of music concepts generate. For example, when you read the entries such as rhythm, tempo marks and note

35、s in different lengths, discuss with yourself in your mind and decide which of the four categories these concepts belong to. This process would better organize your thinking for your learning.【 】Temperament; Equal temperament; Just intonation: Temperament is a general designation for various systems

36、 of tuning in which the intervals are “tempered”, i.e. they deviate from the acoustically correct intervals of the Pythagorean scale and of just intonation. Such adjustments are necessary since systems based on the pure intervals are limited, restricting choice of keys as well as harmonic progressio

37、ns. During the 16th and 17th centuries various systems of tempered tuning were in use which provided for partial adjustments, so that a number of keys could be used. These are called unequal temperament, in contrast to equal temperament universally adopted during the 18 century. The piano uses the e

38、qual temperament.【 】Pitch names: Pitch names are the designations used to indicate the various tones (pitches). The basic steps or tones within an octave, simply those white keys at risk of overgeneralization as we will see later, are called c, d, e, f, g, a, and b, starting from each c to b. To rei

39、terate the idea, these tones, in the study of music theory, are called basic steps. With the accidentals (those signs of # sharp , bflat, ×double-sharp, bbdouble-flat and 口natural canceling the alternations; For a full description see below) added on, the original pitch names of the basic steps

40、 get the corresponding pitch names, e.g., c-sharp, because of chromatic alternations. As warned before, cautions should be taken not to take it for granted that the white keys are always basic or natural steps, for one might logically figure out that white keys could also stand for chromatic stepspa

41、ge_break. For example, the tone of C could be either B# or Dbb and these tones or notes, identical in sound but written differently according to the context in which they appear, are called enharmonic. Could you count how many pitch names, if the basic and chromatic steps are all included and the id

42、ea of enharmonic is under consideration, an octave possess? And then please think about this on the actual keyboard of piano or an imagined keyboard: there are twelve keys, white and black within an octave, but thirty-five pitch names, natural and chromatic. Which key, the black key of course, then

43、has less than three names? And why? 【 】Octave and grouping of pitches:As we know it, a same pitch name is not used for only one single tone but applies to any tone an octave or octaves higher or lower than a given pitch, say, a pitch within the middle group on the keyboard. Therefore, the basic step

44、s (pitches of c, d, e, f, g, a and b) as well as the chromatic steps alternated by accidentals, must have several groups of them on the keyboard because a standard piano has 88 keys, white and black. Each group of the basic steps starts from c and ends with b within a certain group. On the keyboard

45、of a standard piano, therefore, there are nine such groups of pitches (note that there are two incomplete “groups” on the keyboard of pianothe lowest having three keys and highest only one. To name the pitch related to the affiliated group, take the pitch c for example counted from the lowest high u

46、p, names of contra C1, great C, small c, one line c, two line c, three line c, four line c, and five line c are called. Another way is to write them as, take pitch a for instance, A2, A1, A, a, a1, a2, a3, and a4 . To name a group of pitches or an octave, we may say contra octave, great octave, unac

47、cented octave, one-line octave, two-line octave, three-line octave and four-line octave.【 】Accidentals: The signs of accidentals are used to indicate chromatic alternations or to cancel them. The five signs are # (sharp), which raises the tone indicated by a semi-tone, b (flat) which lowers by a sem

48、i-tone, ×(double-sharp) which raises by two semi-tones, bb(double-flat) which lowers by two semi-tones, and口(natural) which cancels a previous alternation. These accidentals apply to the note before each they appear, as well as all the notes of the same pitch on the same line or space within th

49、e same measure. Please remember this but also warn yourself that it is easier remembered than actually played correctly. Sometimes, one plays the first alternated note correctly but forgets to keep alternating the following ones on the same line or space within that measure because the sign is place

50、d earlier and no such sign placed afterwards. Did you ever have such an experience? Yes? Good! Making errors is a necessary part of learning.【 】Whole tone and half-tone or semi-tone: The interval relation between each adjoining pair of two white keys on the keyboard is not identical. The interval be

51、tween e-f and b-c is called half tone or semi-tonethe smallest intervalwhile other adjoining pairs of white keys are of an interval of whole tone. A whole tone is，naturally, composed of two additive half tones. A half tone or semi-tone also occurs, of course, between a black key and the adjoining wh

52、ite key. 【 】Notation; Staff; Lines and space; Ledge lines: Generally, any system of symbols designed for the recording of music in written form is called musical notation. The basic components of the traditional system, as used in our class, contain a staff of five lines and other signs. The lines a

53、nd spaces of the staff, defined by a clef, indicate the pitches where notes, rests and other signs should be placed. Because the pitch range of a staff per se is not wide enough for music beyond the range, short lines drawn underneath or above the staff called ledge lines are thus useful to record p

54、itches higher or lower than that of the fourth or the first line of the staff. Other symbols include key signature if the music is not in the key of C and a time signature,. Furthermore, bar lines, accidentals, ties, dots, etc., are needed for indicating the basic music rendering. There are, however

55、, many other systems, older or modern, where music is written down for its particular composing and performing purposes. You are encouraged to search on the web by putting words like music notation and music notation modernization into to find newer descriptions. 【 】Clefs: There are three types of c

56、lefs, signs written at the beginning of each staff that designate the pitches of the lines and spaces, representing tones g using G clef, c and f with C clef and F clef. The clefs used for piano are G and F. The G clef, also called treble clef, is placed on the second line of the staff and indicates

57、 that the note on that line is g. The F clef, placed on the fourth line of the staff, is called bass clef indicating that the note on that line is f. With reference to these two notes indicated by the two clefs, notes on other lines and spaces could then be correspondingly read in regard of their na

58、mes of pitch or steps. The C clef is generally used in two positions, on the third line (alto clef) or on the fourth line (tenor clef) and indicate respectively either former or latter as c. As concerned by a piano learner, the G clef is employed in the upper staff and the F clef in the lower staff

59、for piano music. However, it is not surprising to see that in certain pieces of piano, the G and F clefs are not used in the usual way as aforementioned so that the unnecessary ledger lines are then wisely avoided as demanded by the musics needs.【 】Notes and Rests.Conceptualized earlier, one logical starting point in music study is the category of duration-time concerned with values and proportions of temporal lengths in the pro