lecture 22 one last musical instrument november 12, 2004
TRANSCRIPT
Lecture 22
One Last Musical Instrument
November 12, 2004
When did all of this start?
Our ability to make sounds was probably initially a way of warning others of danger.
It was also a way of calling to other members of the “clan .. pack ..”.
It is not clear what came first … speech or music. They probably developed together.
The first musical instrument was therefore probably (who really knows??) the almost human voice.
Verbal communication is probably the “glue” that allowed civilization to develop.
Again – warnings Calls to draw members of the
group together Calls to the opposite sex Music ---> seduction??
“smooth” sounds Pleasant voice fluctuations leads
to “song”
A Quick History We don’t know much about the good old days of BC. In 367 AD, The Council of Laodicia banned all
congregational singing so choir singing became necessary. Music was believed to be pretty “holy” and not to be trusted
in the hands of the common folk. In 600 AD, Pope Gregory set up schools to train choirs.
The Gregorian Chant probably evolved from this. Strong, versatile MALE voices were called for in this kind of
singing.
More Quick History
13th Century – Composers were also singers and music became the domain of “high pitched” male singers. Timbre specifics unknown. Perhaps nasal?
Chaucer: “Ful week she soong the service dyvyne, Entuned in hir nose full semely”
Or who knows???
Voice Registers
15th century Bass, Tenor, Alto, Descant (very high) Falsetto singing became popular
Renaissance Women’s voices became popular because
“only certain kinds of women” sang in public!
Sopranos became the rage. especially on HBO!
Next step was the castrato.
More Castrato – Positions Available, Somewhat difficult start but great $$$ potential.
The popularity of the motion picture "Farinelli" (1994) contributed tremendously to the current surge of interest for works originally written for castrati. Of course, a cruel and inhuman custom of castration has since long gone, the best we can hope for is a vocal approximation performed by sopranists, countertenors, mezzo-sopranos or female contraltos
ItHurts!
With the passage of time
More and more music for voice has been and is being written with an increasing complexity from generation to generation
Singing somewhat followed the way that musical instruments developed.
OK .. enough history … all of this and more is in the textbook (Johnston).
Vocal Range – Fundamental Pitch
♩♩
♩♩ ♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩ ♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
Bass Bass EE22 – E – E44
BaritonBaritone Ge G22 – –
GG44
Tenor Tenor CC22 – C – C55
ContralContraltoDtoD33 – –
DD55
Mezzo-Mezzo-SopranSopranoEoE33 – A – A55
SopranSopranoGoG33 – D – D66
♂♂:: ♀♀::
82 Hz82 Hz
329 329 HzHz
98 Hz98 Hz
392 392 HzHz
131 131 HzHz
523 523 HzHz
147 147 HzHz
587 587 HzHz
165 165 HzHz
880 880 HzHz
196 196 HzHz
1175 1175 HzHz
Remember open and closed tube resonances??
BOTH ends open
Closed End
OpenEnd
Open Tubes
Standing waves are just like a string!
Ends are PRESSURE NODES
Resonant Frequencies are multiples of the fundamental.
These are the ONLY strong tones that can be played on this tube
The Human Open Pipe(s)
Open End of Tube
Flow
Variable
Tube Length
Vocal Chords Do it All!
Balloon Thing
OpenOpen
Spectral analysis of a female voice. Note that the peaks occur at multiples of about 270 Hz (C♯).
Vocal Range – Fundamental Pitch
How do they do that?????How do they do that?????
♩♩
♩♩ ♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩ ♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
♩♩
Bass Bass EE22 – E – E44
BaritonBaritone Ge G22 – –
GG44
Tenor Tenor CC22 – C – C55
ContralContraltoDtoD33 – –
DD55
Mezzo-Mezzo-SopranSopranoEoE33 – A – A55
SopranSopranoGoG33 – D – D66♂♂:: ♀♀::
82 Hz82 Hz
329 329 HzHz
98 Hz98 Hz
392 392 HzHz
131 131 HzHz
523 523 HzHz
147 147 HzHz
587 587 HzHz
165 165 HzHz
880 880 HzHz
196 196 HzHz
1175 1175 HzHz
Changing Frequency
Higher Frequencies - FALSETTO
Sound “shape” from vocal chords
Fourier Lived 1768-1830 Mathematician Fourier’s Theorem
ANY periodic function can be recreated as the SUM of oscillations at the frequencies represented by the harmonic series … f1, f2……. f425 ….
Joseph Fourier
Using Fourier’s Idea
=
An example . consider this shape:
Nine Terms
Your vocal tract
Has many different possible lengths. You adjust them with your muscles, your
tongue, and lots of other things. Your lungs literally make you a
“windbag” for the purpose of making sounds.
The vocal chords produce a periodic pressure wave that enters the vocal tract.
One Example
The component waves whose frequencies resonate with thelength of the “tube” are the ones that come out the loudest.
Articulated Speech
Suppose thisis how we make
a particularvowel sound
FORMANTFORMANT
Some Formant Combinations
Some Specific Formant Frequencies
We adjust the tube length using some feedback from the ear.
Because we sing WORDS, we need speech articulation
While the singing voices look like this.
So ………
The human voice is the ONLY instrument that can entertain itself!
It also is a beautiful sound because it is ours and we grew up with it.
And because it has lots of harmonic content.
We can adjust our fundamental tones to exactly match other voices … the chorus is born!
Next … the impact of electricity and magnetism on music and its performance