I suck
If anyone is reading, pardon my inaction recently. I’ve been swamped, though my workload should be lightening considerably soon. So… I should be able to keep this up.
The Telharmonium
The Telharmonium, was patented by its inventor Thaddeus Cahill in 1897 (no. 580035). It is sometimes known as the first significant electric instrument. Its first completed model was exposed to the public in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1906.
The Telharmonium, was itself a series of 145 modified dynamos (some of the first electrical generators capable of providing the power necessary for industrial work) which used numbers of geared shafts and inductors to produce different audio frequencies.
The sound of the instrument itself, came from horns built from piano soundboard (in earlier models), though forthcoming models would use a series of telephone receivers fitted with horns. Such horns were the only way to amplify sound in the pre-amplifier era.
It required two musicians to function as intended, and was used to produce the music of Bach, Grieg, Chopin, etc.
The entire creation weighed around 200 tons, and cost nearly $200,000. It came to occupy the entire floor of “Telharmonic Hall” on 39th and Broadway in New York City. The final model, produced in 1911, was installed at 535 west 56th street.
Despite it’s massive size, the tones that could be coaxed from it were, flexible, and amusing. Though admittedly, it was prone to technical issues interfering with its function. It was technically portable, requiring around 30 railroad cars to do so.
(It also employed a 36-note per octave keyboard)
Rondo (or Rondeau)
Starting in the Baroque period, though often connected with Ritornello (meaning to return), Rondo taps into the pleasure of returning to something familiar. The Rondo works with this desire/feeling by setting up an original motif or principal theme that you depart from a number of times, but inevitably return to. it is always in the tonic key, providing that familiar feeling.
The themes (or refrains), may be short phrases, or longer binary forms.
These principal themes, are decoupled by periods of sharply contrasting key and mood.
Dividing the sections as letters, the most common Rondo forms are ABACA (small rondo), and ABACABA (large rondo).
The origin of Rondo, can be identified as an old Medieval song form called “forme fixe”. In said form, music could repeat, but text always varied. Rondo itself is often bright, happy, and normally Allegro.
Rag (India)
Often known as rag, a word connected with the Sanskrit raga meaning “color” or “passion”. This is derived from Ranj, which is a verb that means “to color”. So, in a way, a rag can be seen as a way to acoustically paint (color?) a mood, emotion, feeling etc. The concept itself is vague, it isn’t a tune, nor a melody, scale, or any idea that an English word exists for. It is a combination of characteristics, and the coalescence of these is what creates the rag.
These characteristics are…
- The notes of the rag. Called the Swar, which resemble Western solfège (think of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-te-do)
- A modal structure (called Thaat in North Indian music). For example.
- An ascending and descending form. Arohana, is the pattern with which the rag ascends. Avarohana, is the pattern with which it descends.
- Jati, which denotes the number of notes in a rag.
- Varying significance in notes, the important notes being called vadi and samavadi. (by my thoughts similar to the I, IV, and V chords in Ionian/Major in Western music)
- Characteristic movements to the rag, called Pakad or Swarup. A brief explanation can be found here
There are numerous other defining (though less important) qualities of a rag, for example some are connected with a specific time of the day, or even a gender.
It must be repeated, that a rag is not a modal structure as heard in Western music. As Ravi Shankar puts it here
Though Indian music is modal in character, ragas should not be mistaken as modes that one hears in the music of the Middle and Far Eastern countries, nor be understood to be a scale, melody per se, a composition, or a key. A raga is a scientific, precise, subtle and aesthetic melodic form with its own peculiar ascending and descending movement consisting of either a full seven note octave, or a series of six or five notes (or a combination of any of these) in a rising or falling structure called the Arohana and Avarohana. It is the subtle difference in the order of notes, an omission of a dissonant note, an emphasis on a particular note, the slide from one note to another, and the use of microtones together with other subtleties, that demarcate one raga from the other.
Intervals
A basic part of music theory, intervals are technically measures of the ratio between the frequencies of two notes, but on a more basic level they measure the distance between two notes. If you think of a guitar neck, each fret represents a note. Say we start on the E string, if we hit the open string and then hit it fretted on the first (an F), we have a minor second interval. If we do the same but fret it at the second (F#), we have a major second. This continues up the neck, the following intervals being named the minor third, major third, perfect fourth,tritone/diminished fifth/augmented fourth(sometimes called diabolus in musica, or the devil in music due to it’s strange and oft disturbing sound), perfect fifth,minor sixth, major sixth (also relatively commonly known as the augmented fifth), minor seventh, major seventh, and finally the octave.
- Intervals can be classified as Vertical (or harmonic) when they ring as one.
- Or, horizontal, linear, or melodic if they are played in succession.
Just some more review for myself, lest I forget.
brokofiev asked: Hey, I just found you a minute ago, and I have to say this looks pretty fantastic. Keep it up, man, I'll be constantly reading!
Glad you like the idea! I’ll admit, this was conjured up rather selfishly as a way for me to learn. But it gives me a good smile that someone else gets something out of it.
Overtones
Overtones, sometimes called harmonics, are the basic parts of a pitch. Each pitch we hear, includes additional pitches (overtones!). The strength and weakness of each overtone, is what determines the timbre, and tonal color of the pitch (no two instruments sound alike due to this).
When a note is played, the “main note”, is the fundamental (the note itself, say a C, or a D#, or whatever damned thing you want), while there are a host of higher pitches. The first overtone is an octave, the second is an octave and a fifth, the third two octaves and a third (and so on). Each overtone is closer to the last than the one preceding it.
Freddie King
Freddie King was born September 3rd, 1934 under the name Billy Myles. One of the three “Kings of Blues” (the other two being BB and Albert), he had a mellow (though never soulless voice) and a quick fingered guitar style. He learned to play guitar at an early age, influenced by his mother Ella Mae King, and his uncle Leon.
Freddie moved to Chicago sometime in his teens, and was soon influenced by local musicians (particularly Eddie Taylor and Robert Lockwood). He naturally developed his technique, and slowly built up his reputation.
He began recording seriously (with other musicians, along with his own works) around 1960, one of these earlier pieces being his famous Hideaway which would later be covered by John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers (with Eric Clapton, who was a known aficionado), Stevie Ray Vaughan and a host of others.
Freddie’s playing, and influence (in my opinion) is often undervalued despite the scores of professionals who were fans. King died December 28th, 1976 of heart failure three days after a performance in his hometown of Dallas.
Fugue
Fugue is often seen as a (pure) type of counterpoint (this page gives a good definition of it, and a load of others… I just bookmarked it). It is derived from latin (fuga meaning “flight”, as in fleeing from something).
It begins with a theme, usually played without accompaniment. This is called the subject, while directly following this a separate voice insinuates itself into the music (a conversation!). Any number of voices may manifest themselves, but they each must restate the subject before joining the fray.
This process of joining voices is known as the “exposition” (exposed, yadda yadda), after which there is often some free counterpoint. Following this is a repetition of the exposition’s pattern of introducing voices (which often has a similar counterpoint based free time afterwards).
To terminate a fugue, there are several common ways. One of which is playing the subject over a “Pedal Point” (sustained tone like the E in the bass clef here). Another method is known as stretto, which, in a sense, groups the subjects together so the answers begin before the subject is even completed.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, composers wrote fugues, which were renamed “canons” post creation. Bach is famous for his Fugues, a prime example is his Fugue in D minor (though he spelt it fuge). Another massively monster of composition, Beethoven, was known to include certain fugue-like sections in pieces of his music (look at some of his piano sonatas, there are sections that have that sort of feel).
Fugue can be seen as… imitative counterpoint.
Parts of a song (refresher for myself!)
Verse: The verse tells a story, it gives information leading up to the main message of the song (if it does have one, unlike certain… Kanye… the list goes here). A song may have a few verses, each of a few lines.
Chorus: The bit that stays in your mind, it varies from the verse, and is often repeated (“Take a load off…right on me” in The Weight )
Bridge (in a verse/chorus/bridge song): Briefer than the verse, the bridge differs from the verse and chorus. It acts as a transitional piece near the end of most songs, and only occurs once. It begs the restatement of the verse.
Brief but a good review of the main bits for me, as they’ve somehow begun to fade from my memory
