Music Section ♫
Welcome to the music section!!! If you know me you should already know that I really love music, and I'm sure everyone else does too. It plays a huge part of our lives, we see it in movies,tv shows, games, stores, our phones etc, it's literally everywhere! That's why I believe it's something worth learning about. I made this section to share every little thing I know about music. I'm not a music expert or anything but hopefully anyone reading this will learn something or at least get curious to learn more.
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Music and Emotions
Why does music make us feel the way we do? Why does sad music sound sad and happy music sound happy? Some people would say it's obviously the lyrics right? But what about movie soundtracks that sound sad or happy, or classical music? Neither have lyrics but they still invoke unique emotions. Some people even say most love songs can become creepy stalker songs if you change the soundtrack but keep the lyrics, which is hilarious. So where does the emotion in music come from? Well… you won't get concrete answers from me cause i’m no expert, but here's some of the answers i've found:
One thing most people seem to be in consensus with is the association of the rhythm and tempo (“beats'' and the speed of the music) and the heartbeat of a person. When we’re excited or stressed our heartbeats are faster and they are slower when we are calm/relaxed or sad, it's not just the heart beats too but also peoples movements when they're in a certain emotional state, have you ever seen a sad person running around saying ‘’yaaay! i'm so sad yippee!!!’’ ? probably not, sad people move sluggishly and quieter while happy people are loud and energetic. Hence sad music is slower and quiet , while happy music is quick and loud.
Another point is that we have been preconditioned to associate certain music with certain emotions thanks to movies, the media and even our childhoods. Some psychologists said it has to do with mirror neurons, which is a type of brain cell that responds equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action, mirror neurons play a crucial role in empathy, imitation and understanding other people. Hence if you see someone sad on tv when ‘’sad music’’ is playing, you'll become sad when you listen to that kind of music, or if you have a song you used to sing in your childhood days while playing or at school it’ll invoke some joy similar to that you felt when you were young, that's my take away at least.one funny example is with Entry of the gladiators which was written to be a military march back in the day but today it is associated with clowns
Another thing is music theory related and it has to do with scales, a scale is any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave; they tell you what notes you should play to create a certain type of music…I believe, i'm still trying to understand scales myself to be honest .there are 12 major scales and 12 minor scales. Some people say minor sounds sad and major sounds happy but there's always contentions on whether that's the case or not. Then there are chords, a chord is when you play 2 or more different notes at the same time, on a keyboard it would be like pressing 2 or more keys at the same time. And when you do that, the sound can either be pleasant(consonant) or unpleasant(dissonant).dissonant chords create tension and uncertainty among other things and consonant chords create resolution and stability. it obviously gets more deeper than that, but that's all i’m qualified enough to explain.
Music and Mathematics
Since maths and music are 2 of my favourite things, I'm always looking for a connection between the 2 and unsurprisingly there are a lot of them.
- Sound and frequencies
frequencies, which is the speed of the vibration and how fast a sine completes one circle , it is measured in hertz or Hz, \(frequency={1\over period}\), higher frequency=higher pitch. A pitch is the position of a single sound in the range of sound.
Phase is the moment in 1 circle, represented by degrees or radians.
Magnitude, is the relative volume, represented by y values.
- Tuning
Sound is made from vibrations in the air. Vibrations over time are visualised by sine waves. Hence sound is made from an infinite number of sine waves.The properties of the sine wave are:
Sounds are not just pure sine waves however, they are made of Harmonics. There's the first harmonic, the 2nd harmonic which fits 2 times in the fundamental, and the third harmonic which fits 3 times to the fundamental, and so on… and all of them together create different sounds. The fourier series( \(f(x) = a_0 + \sum_{n=1}^\infty (a_n\cos nx +b_n\sin nx)\) ) and fouries transform (\(\hat f(w) = \sqrt{\frac{1}{2\pi}}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(x) e^{-iwx}dx \) ) are useful when it comes to representing such structures.
In music theory an octave is a series of 8 notes in a musical scale.
220 Hz-440 Hz is an octave and 440 to 880 is also an octave in frequencies. 2 notes an octave apart are named the same and sound the same like C and C , but one is a higher pitch/frequency and one is a lower pitch/frequency. From C (left) to C(right), it is double in frequency. A lot of physics goes into play when creating a single instrument like the Violin. The length and the thickness of the string matter, if you want to produce the desired sound, because the frequencies of vibrations of the strings of similar material depend primarily on the length, the mass per unit length, and the tension force on the string. That's why Violins, Cellos, Bass, Guitars, Ukuleles...etc, have distinct sounds.
The first system of tuning was created by Pythagoras when he noticed that different sizes of hammers produce different notes, and that striking them simultaneously created a pleasing combination of sounds. Since it was made by ratios/fractions it was not perfect because of the density of rationals (theres a lot of stories of how pythegoras hated the idea of a \(\sqrt{2}\) ), it misses some notes and creates ‘’the wolf interval’’ which sounds unpleasant. Equal temperament is what is now widely used today, Pianos and other instruments today may sound different from instruments of the past as a result. Equal temperament is done by Increasing a note by a semitone is done by multiplying a note by \( 2^{1/12} \). And lastly, Certain ratios discovered by Ptolemy like \( 2 \over 1\),\( 3 \over 2\)… \( 6 \over 5\) and multiplying or dividing them like \( {({2\over 1})\over({5\over4}) }= {8\over5} \) and \( {({4\over 3})({5\over4}) }= {5\over3} \) are consonant, meaning they sound good together, consonant and dissonant intervals are widely used by musicians today.
Understanding classical Music
Many people always ask me "Phuluso how do I get into classical music please tell me!", just kidding, nobody really cares about it, which is why I feel compelled to write this, cause I feel like the reason most people don't like it is because they don't really understand what’s happening. people just see a bunch of men and women playing random sounds or something. So here's a list of 4 things you should know.
clasical music gets better the more you listen to it and understand what a piece of music is trying to do, if you listen to a piece just once then you haven't listened to it at all
Classical music usually in the sonata form, with 3 movements, the first movement is the exposition of the theme, the second movement where the theme is developed and then the recapitulation which is in the third movement, think of movements as like acts in a play, or beat switches in hip hop or something. The funny thing about movements is that some movements are so popular that most people won't even know they're part of a full piece of music and think they're stand alones. Like with The Dark Knight Rises, who the hell cares about the other 2 films in the trilogy??? (I'm joking).
Another thing worth noting is that there's a different pace in each movement, the conventional pace typically goes 1. Andante(Walking pace), 2. Adagio(Slow) then 3. Allegro(Fast). So if you're listening to a piece and it suddenly feels slow and boring, that means you've entered the adagio(slow segment) which can be a hit or miss. So that's the basics of it. There are some pieces that break away from the typical form however, and have 2 or 4 movements, Or have a different structure like Beethoven's moonlight sonata with the structure of slow, fast, very fast.
Lastly, though not as important to know as the above, every individual movement also has a form of its own, it can be a sonata form(yes a sonata form inside a sonata form), or a Rondo, which is a musical form of ABACAD…the most famous rondo is the Turkish march from Mozart's Piano sonata 11, or it can be a Theme and variations, where a theme is given and variations of that theme follow. A famous theme and variations piece is Mozart's Twinkle little star ★ variations K. 265(there are some people who think Mozart wrote the original melody for twinkle little star but he didn't, he just made variations on it), another famous theme and variations piece is the chaccone which second movement of Bach's second violin partita,another one is Rachmaninov's variations on Paganini's caprice 24, especially the 18th variation because of how beautiful and heavily it sounds. My favourite theme and variations pieces are the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata 11 and the second movement of Beethoven's piano sonata 32. Theme and variations are my favourite thing in music that's why I gave so many examples.
- Sonatas
- Symphonies
- Concertos
- Chamber music
- Mass
- Suites
- Piano Miscs
A Sonata is a song played by an instrument in sonata form. There's piano sonatas, violin sonatas and cello sonatas, etc. The most famous is the Moonlight sonata which is piano sonata number 14 out of 32 beethoven's piano sonatas, my personal favourites are 32, 23,30,28,31, 21 and 14 in that order(I love all 32 of them though) and Piano sonata 32 Op. 111 is my favourite piece of music ever composed. Sonata in B minor by liszt, Chopin's piano sonata 3 and 2 and Beethoven's violin sonata 9 Kreutzer are also great, Mozart's piano sonata 11 K. 331 is also a personal favourite of mine and is the piece that really got me to start listening to classical music after I saw it being played in a show I was obsessed with back in 2021 called Steins Gate.
A symphony is when many instruments are playing in harmony as one, it's kind of like a sonata but with the orchestra as the instrument and the conductor as the player. My favourite are all of beethoven's 9 symphonies, especially the 9th symphony(with Ode to Joy in the 4th movement, which is now the anthem of Europe) and the 3rd Symphony(Eroica), Tchaikovsky 5th and 6th, Rachmaninov 2nd, Mahler 5th, Saint Saens 3rd symphony are also personal favourites of mine.
Concertos can be easily confused with symphonies, but they are different, unlike a symphony a concerto is kind of like of a duet between the orchestra and another instrument, in a piano concerto it's the orchestra and the piano, in a violin concerto it is the orchestra and the violin, and so on.The most popular concertos are Vivald's Four Seasons, Tchaikovsky piano concerto 1 and Rachmaninov piano concerto 2. My favourite concertos are Chopin's 1st and 2nd piano concertos. All 5 of Beethoven’s Piano concertos, especially number 5(Emperor)(Yes, I have a Beethoven bias). Mozart's piano concerto 10 K. 365, 20 K. 466, 23 K. 488 and 24 K. 491.Brahms Piano concerto 1, Paganini's violin concerto 1, and Mendelssohn violin concerto are also great.
Chamber music is music with fewer instruments like a piano trios, string quartets/quintets, etc, it is music that can be played in a chamber hence the name. My favourites are Beethoven's string quartet 7 and 14-16, beethoven's archduke trio and piano trio 3, mozart's string quartet 16, mendelssohn’s piano trio 1, haydn's string quartet 3(which the second movement of it is now the anthem of Germany), schubert’s trout quintet and many more. Chamber music is great because it's easier to focus on what every instrument is doing.
Masses are spiritual or religious music, usually sung by choirs. Mozart's requiem is the most popular mass ever, The great mass k.427, coronation mass k. 317, Bach's mass, Brahms’ requiem and Beethoven's missa solemnis are also amazing.
A suite is a collection of short musical pieces which can be played one after another. The pieces are usually dance movements. the most famous and influential suit is The Planets by Holst, most movie soundtracks take inspiraton from this piece. My favourite is Jupiter-bringer of jolity from this suite. My favourite suite is Suite Bergamasque by Debussy, it features Clair Delune,which is one of the most popular pieces for the piano, it is so popular most people don't even know it's part of a suite. I also like Bach's English suite 2.
The piano has too many sub categories on its own that it'd take too long to list but popular ones are :
Ragtime is “piano jazz”, like The entertainer, and many other works of Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. Ragtime was looked down upon in the past in America since it was created by black people and wasn't as “”tidy” as things like waltzes and minuettes), Ballades(are pieces with a structure of a story, like Chopin's 4 ballades which are some of the greatest piano works ever created, Ballade 1 Op. 23 is in my top 5 favourite pieces of all time), Waltzes(for fancy ballroom dances), Nocturnes(gives you a feeling of the night, like chopin's Op 9 no 2 and the C# minor nocturne ), Etudes(for flexing piano skills), Bagatelles(a simple short piano piece, like fur elise(most overhated piece of music ever!!!) and Beethoven's op 119 set ), Preludes, Minuettes, and probably many others I am still not aware of.
Just like other genres of music there's different eras in classical music. There's the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and the modern era. The Baroque is more tidy and technical, while the Romantic is more emotionally expressive, and the classical is more simple, and focuses more on melody, while the modern is more innovative and experimental. These are just the basics however, experts can go in depth with it. Romantic composers include; late Beethoven,Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Malher, Prokofiev ,Schubert,Ravel, Mandeson, Schuman, Dvorak, etc. Classical composers include: Mozart, early Beethoven,Haydn, Salieri, etc . Baroque composers include: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Corelli, etc.
My Music
⚠ Disclaimer!!! I made all of these for fun so they may sound a little nonsensical, Except Op. 4, I was a little serious when I made. that
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Wasted day Op. 4 |
Wasted day Op. 4 Score.pdf |
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ṱana ṱa goswi Op. 03 |
ṱana ṱa goswi Op. 03 Score.pdf |
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Hate Sama Op.01 |
Hate Sama Op.01.pdf |