Origins of Music

Step 1

What is sound?

Sound is anything that we are able to hear, created by sound waves traveling through space. Even if you're deaf and cannot hear, sounds will still exist. It can be music, footsteps, a fork hitting a plate, etc.

What is the difference between hearing and listening?

Hearing is just subconsciously listening to anything that is existing around you, whereas listening is the conscious choice of hearing sounds. Instead of subconsciously hearings sounds, you are immersing yourself in the things you are hearing around you and almost analyzing them, rather then just knowing they happened.

What is music?

"Music is organized sound." - Neil Freebern

Music is organized sound that can have a strong level of impact on someone and trigger feelings that are almost impossible to describe. It is usually a performance of sound where you connect with others in order to effect other people.

What is the difference between sound and music?

Sound is anything and everything you hear around us, music is more of a subcategory of sound. Where sound is just anything and everything, music is a more organized and orchestrated event of sound. You don't need to organize and practice in order for the sound of rain falling to happen, but you do need to organize and prepare for a concert to take place.

Does music have universal characteristics?

Music will always be something that provokes feelings in an individual. No matter where you go or what music is presented, people of all types will be able to have some sort of feeling come from it. Its history may not be relevant to all, but it can certainly have an impact on everyone. It will also almost always be something performed and passed down, and the methods may vary. You may perform to a large audience, or you may upload it online.

What is the purpose of music?

The purpose of music is quite subjective when it comes to answers, but I believe the purpose of music is for communication through all forms. Between passing it down from generation to generation, to closing gaps between people from all backgrounds, music is one of the only things that can accomplish that. Moving people emotionally without having to communicate via the same language is a powerful thing.

What is it about music that people enjoy?

People will enjoy music for many different reasons, it depends from person to person. Some will enjoy the feeling of community you get from performing with others, some will enjoy the feelings that music provokes for them. Music is a universal concept that can apply to any individual, no matter who or what they are.

Step 2

Peer Assignment

Answer Key

NOTES

Rhythm

Rhythm - the art of sound in time, an arrangement of durations

  • Is involved in sports, poems, and paintings as well

Beats - basic unit of measurement for time in music

Accent - making some beats more emphatic

Meter

Meter - any recurring pattern of strong and weak beats

Measure/Bar - each occurrence of a meter

Duple Meter - beats grouped in twos or fours

  • Yankee Doodle example

Triple Meter - beats grouped in threes

  • The Star-Spangled Banner and My Country ’Tis of Thee examples

Simple Meter - dividing the main beats in twos

Compound Meter - dividing the main beats in threes

Syncopation - displacing accents on upbeats (background beats)

Tempo

Duration of sounds - all beats are equal, some notes are longer than others

Tempo - the speed of music

  • In metrical music, tempo is the rate at which the basic, regular beats of the meter follow one another

Metronome - a mechanical or electrical device that ticks out beats at any desired tempo (expressed exactly and measure)

Common tempo indications

  • Adagio - slow
  • Andante - on the slow side, but not too slow
  • Moderato - moderate
  • Allegretto - on the fast side, but not too fast
  • Allegro - fast
  • Presto - very fast

Less common tempo indications

  • Largo, lento, grave - slow, very slow
  • Larghetto - somewhat faster than largo
  • Andantino - somewhat faster than andante
  • Vivace, vivo - lively
  • Molto allegro - faster than allegro
  • Prestissimo - very fast indeed

Pitch
Sound is produced by vibrations that occur when objects are struck, plucked, stroked, or agitated in some way

Frequency - the scientific term for the rate of sound vibration

Pitch - the musical term for this quality of sound

Dynamics
Amplitude - in scientific terms, the level of strength of sound vibrations (the amount of energy they convey)

Dynamics - in musical terms, the level of sound

  • Pianissimo - very soft
  • Piano - soft
  • Mezzo piano - medium soft
  • Mezzo forte - medium loud
  • Forte - loud
  • Fortissimo - very loud

Sudden dynamic changes - subito

Soft transition into loud - crescendo

Loud transition into soft - decrescendo or diminuendo

Tone Color/Timbre
Tone color and timbre - musical sounds differ in their general quality, depending on voice or instrument

Overtones - fractional vibrations

Pizzicato - string plucked on violins/cellos/etc.

Scales
Scale - pitches assembled in a collection; the pool of pitches available for making music

Interval - any two pitches

Octave - “special” interval (ex. Low C and high C) “eight span”

Diatonic scale - scale originally used in Western music with 7 pitches within an octave

Chromatic scale - a complete set of black and white keys on a keyboard with 12 pitches in-between the original 7

Flat - down a half-step

Sharp - up a half-step

Half-step - the smallest interval

Whole-step - equivalent of two half-steps

Melody
Melody - an organized series of pitches

Tune - a simple, easily singable, catchy melody such as a folk song, Christmas carol, or popular song

Motive and theme - melody in a longer piece

Motive - a distinctive fragment of melody that is easily noticeable throughout a composition

Motives are shorter than tunes, and sometimes even shorter than the phrase of a tune.

Phrases - tunes that naturally fall into smaller sections

Sequence - in a melody, a series of fragments identical except for their placement at successively higher or lower pitch levels

A melodic high point is always an emotional high point

Step 3

A.  How Music Evolved

  • First Impression: It is a very funny video and I appreciate the way that they approached the idea of the creation of music.
  • Adjectives: Funny, creative, unique
  • Theories on how music was born: An individual was crying out in pain, and his friend covered and uncovered his mouth in order to start making different effects. He proceeded to continuing injuring his friend in order to maintain the tone. From there they developed singing and using rocks to still hurt individuals.
  • Natural resources used: Voices(?), rocks/stones

B.  Oldest Flute

  • First Impression: It certainly peaked my curiosity as to how old they date this flute to be, as well as what it may have sounded like at that time. I find it quite funny that no one believed her when she said it was a flute, and she had to prove it to them.
  • Adjectives: Wild, fascinating, amazing
  • Natural resources used: Ivory

C.  Neanderthal Bone Flute

  • First Impression: Right off the bat, this one certainly seems to be my favorite one. I love seeing the development through what the bone came from as well as the tools they may have used, where they found it, etc. etc.
  • Adjectives: Chilling, Creepy, Historic
  • Natural resources used: Cave bear femur bone
  • Emotional responses triggered from sound: This made me feel like I was watching Star Wars, both in the video they used and the way the music sounded. It was almost eery and creepy, but it was very cool to see and experience what was used in the very beginning of time for instruments.

D.  Playing with Rocks

  • First Impression: This is very cool and I wish we could do something like this at BBA. I also want to know what kind of rocks they use and how they created the different pitches for the rocks.
  • Adjectives: Cool, fascinating, scientific
  • Theories on how music was born: People always talk about how music started with people beating rocks together, and I believe that this definitely has some ties to that theory.
  • Natural resources used: Rocks

E.  Orchestra Trash

  • First Impression: This is super cool and inspiring! It makes me want to meet these kids and listen to them perform. This is something that we should start to incorporate more and more in our world as the rate of our waste is going up.
  • Adjectives: Smart, eco-friendly, inspiring
  • Theories on how music was born: We initially didn't start with instruments made of the fine materials that we have now. People were more resourceful, using every item they had with little to no waste. With the first flute, it was from a cave bear bone that someone decided to turn into an instrument. This can apply to this situation as well, taking waste and things not used and turning them into instruments instead.
  • Natural resources used: Trash found throughout the town
  • Emotional responses triggered from sound: You can tell that everyone is much happier with the music in their lives. As the director said, instead of doing drugs, the kids are happy and playing their instruments, and even other kids are becoming inspired to start learning how to play an instrument. The grandmother of a violinist even said she can die happy knowing that her granddaughter is now playing an instrument.

F.  Ice Band

  • First Impression: Very very cool (haha). It makes me want to see if we could ever do something like that in Vermont (it's definitely not as cold but it may be a possibility in some way). Also, it inspires me to look into working on carving parts for instruments myself. Overall it is very innovative and impressive.
  • Adjectives: Cold, innovative, creative
  • Theories on how music was born: Similar to answers above, this fuels the theory that people used whatever they had around them in order to create instruments. Although their intention may not have been directly to create INSTRUMENTS in the beginning, I believe the intention to create something that would fuel the craving for music/entertainment.
  • Natural resources used: Ice

G.  The Vegetable Orchestra

  • First Impression: I really appreciated seeing them making the instruments in the beginning as well as banging on the vegetables in the marketplace in order to determine the instrumental abilities of each one and what pitches/tones they had. When I heard them perform I thought it was very unique and unlike anything I've heard before!
  • Adjectives: Crafty, upbeat, thick
  • Theories on how music was born: Same as before, people used the resources naturally around them in order to fuel their desire to create music/entertainment. It wouldn't surprise me if people made vegetables into instruments in the past.
  • Natural resources used: Vegetables
  • Use of rhythm to create special or interesting musical effects: With this one I noticed that they used very interesting rhythmic patterns unlike most other music I've listened to before. This makes their performance even more unique, not only are they performing on instruments but they're creating some very unique music.
  • Emotional responses triggered from sound: This one specifically made me feel like I was traveling through a jungle on an expedition. It made me a bit uneasy but it was also very energetic and the rhythm got me excited

H.  Touch of Wood in a Japanese Forest 

  • First Impression: This is always one of my favorites! This is very very relaxing and always impressive that they set this up and it worked out so perfectly in the forest. I am wondering how many takes it took them to get it done just right.
  • Adjectives: Relaxing, impressive
  • Theories on how music was born: I don't think I should keep repeating this but... using your natural resources around you. Maybe as people evolved more and more they moved on to wood!
  • Natural resources used: Wood

Step 3

(I now like to think that the reason we tune to Bb is because it is the sound of black holes.)

a. Can music make us smarter?

Researchers are seeing a direct connection to music and our brains, helping tie neurons together as we listen and have music affect our bodies. It also states that we have better auditory abilities. Outside of this documentary, I have heard countless stories of how music makes individuals smarter, by allowing people to perform math better or evaluate a situation differently due to their knowledge with music. By participating in analyzing the effects of music on our bodies, they are seeing that people are having positive effects and changes in their brain when listening or performing music. Learning to play an instrument early on helps fuel some cognitive advantages, such as motor skills and auditory skills. Children around the age of 10 that have had musical training have had an increase in global/vocabulary skills and visual skills. Children with musical training also have an increased ability in syntax compared to children without musical training. Blind people can develop better ability in hearing, since they can call on parts of the brain that normal rely on visuals using music. Also, a non-musician had a scientist run scans on him before and after vocal lessons, and noticed an increase in activity in certain parts of the brain. A certain lobe towards the front right has shown an increase in activity with musical individuals. This shows that musical abilities definitely have an impact on the brain. When you learn how to play music at an earlier age you start to read at an earlier age, you’re better at math, and other school topics. Music also trains attentional networks.

b. Can music heal?

People have better agility in healing due to music. Music can make people feel more positive and help change their mood based on the music they choose to listen to. In a way I believe this is healing. If you are struggling mentally or emotionally and need to get into the right mindset, you can select a song that makes you feel that way in order to change your mindset. People use music to heal all the time, recovering from tragic events, breakups, etc. There is even research being conducted for using music in order to heal people that have been physically injured (music therapy). People with chronic neurological problems, such as Parkinson’s, receive help from music due to its ability to connect auditory and motor skills. They are also helped by having a rhythm track played while they walk, something that is in the system of all ages and types of people. If we understand the mechanisms that make these changes, there is the chance that people can patch up the areas that are damaged via music. No matter how severe dementia is, they never lose the memory/response of music. Even after they lose memories, the memory of an old song is there and even brings back certain emotions. Music therapy shows an improvement in long and short term memory. It even helps stroke patients, by helping with their movement and language/speaking (specifically with people who have the ability to understand but struggle to speak). This specifically involves the left part of the brain, whereas the left part is more involved in recognizing a specific melody. Eventually it can help with all things such as strokes, tumors, or lesions of the brain (forms of brain damage).

c. Does music serve an evolutionary purpose?

In some cases, music can have evolutionary advantages, such as mates keeping faithful to one another and finding each other after being separated via their song. Although it may not serve an exact purpose, there is a clear pattern that the parts of our brain used to identify certain parts of music have stayed with us throughout our different phases of evolution. Parts that involve prediction that we kept from our ancestors are tied into our music analysis now. Music made the male more desirable to the female since it was a display of stronger cognitive and physical abilities. It also even assisted in culture-building. A close ancestor of ours showed no signs of language, but still had extremely developed vocal chords. They believe that since there was no language prominent in their society, they used music as an advanced form of communication. They are our direct ancestors, and from their “musical language” it is believed that is the reason why we now have both music and language in our society. Even their body posture used during these musical phrases is thought to be incorporated into dance. There is also the idea that music and the brain co-evolved, as music became more advanced, our brain accommodated and adapted, and vice versa.

d. Does music belong to humans only?

There is one species that shows the same rhythmic response to music in time as we do (synchronicity), and that is the cockatoo. It also has the ability of complex vocal learning, and shows the tie between those and motor skills. They even stated that when the owner of the bird is completely stationary, the bird will still be dancing (showing that it is not simply just mimicking the owner). The bird even has the ability to start dancing to songs its never heard before as well as the same song at different tempos (within a limited range). This shows that you do not need to be a human in order to do this, it can be seen within other species. This supports the theory that music is not an adaptation in humans (uniquely just to us). Meaning that it does not involve natural selection specifically for music. We can even see it in songbirds, where they can sync and harmonize the choruses that they are singing. The main purpose we see this is the male singing in order to attract a female, but there is a symbol of just musical beauty that the birds are just attracted to. It’s not just a desire or call for a mate though, it is music. Even whales have an organized sound to their noises.

e. Where do goose bumps come from in response to music?

When we hear music, it goes through our ears and are converted into neurosignals. This presses against the eardrum and this snail-like figure which has hair-cells lining it. The signal goes from the ear to the brainstem, into the brain, and the electrical charge goes straight to the auditory cortex. This causes goose bumps to form on our body.

f. What are common musical elements found in lullaby's?

They have falling pitch contours, quiet, a narrow pitch range, and are extremely repetitive. This is what makes lullaby’s one of the most universal recognizable versions of music. No matter where you go or what culture you are in, you can recognize what a lullaby is based on those basic traits. It makes hearing one turn all of them into familiarized phrases.

g. Can music physically change the brain?

Yes, music can physically change the brain. This is seen through the experiment the man who has never been a musical individual. The scans of his brain before and after showed that the blood flow in his brain was focused in different areas due to his involvement in music. This exhibits music causing a change within the human brain based on its involvement in our lives. Humans develop stronger motor and auditory skills, which are also located in the brain. I don't know if the concentration of blood flow changing in the brain counts as physical, but it is definitely amazing that music can affect our brains in that way.

Unit Reflection

Pictures:

Top left - a picture of Circuits from Fall semester 2018. A group of kids from all different backgrounds coming together with the common interest to make good music.

Top right - a picture of me and Li Qiaochuhan. We met in band and have since become best friends. :)

Bottom left - a picture of me playing a duet with a random stranger in Boston on the local pianos.

Bottom right - a picture of me and my childhood best friend. We also met in band (when I first started playing Oboe!) and have been very close ever since.

Music is the universal language of mankind because it brings together people that otherwise would have never been brought together. A solid example of this idea is right here at BBA, with all of the international students involved in the music programs. Without music, I never would've met these people from other countries or created these bonds that I now have. Thanks to music, it has brought together myself with many people from around the world and of many different backgrounds. I have met people that have experienced all sorts of different things, cultures, upbringings, etc. because we all have been able to come together and perform a piece of music together. Even if we both don't fully speak the same language, we can both read a piece of music and understand and perform it. I believe that has an insane level of ability that almost nothing else in the world has. And, music has appeared all across the world throughout all sorts of different time periods. People have either created instruments on their own, or been inspired by others to start their own work. This and the fact that I could bond with someone without ever speaking the same language as someone genuinely solidifies music as the universal language of mankind.

HONORS TRACK

Book Review

Step 1

Choose a resource from the following list to read during the course of the semester

This is Your Brain on Music; The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin