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Density 21.5
''Density 21.5'' is a composition for solo flute written by Edgard Varèse in 1936 and revised in 1946. The piece was composed at the request of Georges Barrère for the premiere of his platinum flute, the density of platinum being close to 21.5 grams per cubic centimetre. Structure AllMusic's Sean Hickey writes, "According to the composer, ''Density 21.5'' is based on two melodic ideas—one modal, one atonal—and all of the subsequent material is generated from these two themes. Despite the inherent limitations of writing for an unaccompanied melodic instrument, Varèse expertly explores new areas of space and time, utilizing registral contrasts to effect polyphonic continuity." George Perle analyses the piece both harmonically and motivically, and describes its background structure. Formally, he says, the piece consists of two parts of nearly equal length, the end of the first section being bars 24–28. The piece uses interval cycles, "inherently non-diatonic symmetrica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Western Concert Flute
The Western concert flute can refer to the common C concert flute or to the family of transverse flute, transverse (side-blown) flutes to which the C flute belongs. Almost all are made of metal or wood, or a combination of the two. A musician who plays the flute is called a “flautist” in British English, and a “flutist” in American English. This type of flute is used in many ensembles, including concert bands, military bands, marching bands, orchestras, Flute choir, flute ensembles, and occasionally jazz combos and big bands. Other flutes in this family include the piccolo, the alto flute, and the bass flute. A large Flute Repertoire, repertory of works has been composed for flute. Predecessors The flute is one of the oldest and most widely used wind instruments. The precursors of the modern concert flute were keyless wooden transverse flutes similar to modern Fife (instrument), fifes. These were later modified to include up to eight keys for chromatic notes. Six ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Motif (music)
In music, a motif () or motive is a short musical idea, a Salience (neuroscience), salient recurring Figure (music), figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a musical composition, composition. The motif is the smallest structural unit possessing theme (music), thematic identity. History The defines a motif as a "melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic cell (music), cell", whereas the 1958 maintains that it may contain one or more cells, though it remains the smallest analyzable element or phrase within a subject (music), subject. It is commonly regarded as the shortest subdivision of a Theme (music), theme or Phrase (music), phrase that still maintains its identity as a musical idea. "The smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grove and Éditions Larousse, Larousse also agree that the motif may have harmonic, melodic and/or rhythmic aspects, Grove a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Second Viennese School
The Second Viennese School () was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. Their music was initially characterized by late- Romantic expanded tonality and later, a totally chromatic expressionism without a firm tonal centre, often referred to as atonality; and later still, Schoenberg's serial twelve-tone technique. Twelve tone Composition was revolutionized by Arnold Schoenberg. Using this technique when composing he made sure he used all 12 notes in a chromatic scale when forming a melody, this would be called the "Primeseries". This series would later be enhanced in his compositions through permutations such as, Retrogrades, Inversions, Transformations etc. How this happens is, Schoenberg taking the pitches of the Primeseries and through his "Magic Square" of permutations takes said pitches and depending on which permutation he is utilizing, creates a new s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, scientific transliteration: ''Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin''; also transliterated variously as Skriabin, Skryabin, and (in French) Scriabine. The composer himselused the French spelling "Scriabine" which was also the most popular spelling used in English-language publications during his lifetime. First editions of his works used the RomanizationsScriabine,Scriàbine, andSkrjábin"., group=n () was a Russian composer and pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed in a relatively tonal, late- Romantic idiom. Later, and independently of his influential contemporary Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a much more dissonant musical language that had transcended usual tonality but was not atonal, which accorded with his personal brand of metaphysics. Scriabin found significant appeal in the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk as well as synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Octave
In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems". The interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave. In Western music notation, notes separated by an octave (or multiple octaves) have the same name and are of the same pitch class. To emphasize that it is one of the perfect intervals (including unison, perfect fourth, and perfect fifth), the octave is designated P8. Other interval qualities are also possible, though rare. The octave above or below an indicated note is sometimes abbreviated ''8a'' or ''8va'' (), ''8va bassa'' (, sometimes also ''8vb''), or simply ''8'' for the octave in the direction indicated by placing this mark above or below the staff. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Partition (music)
In music using the twelve-tone technique, derivation is the construction of a row through segments. A derived row is a tone row whose entirety of twelve tones is constructed from a segment or portion of the whole, the generator. Anton Webern often used derived rows in his pieces. A partition is a segment created from a set through partitioning. Derivation Rows may be derived from a sub-Set theory (music), set of any number of pitch classes that is a divisor of 12, the most common being the first three pitches or a trichord. This segment may then undergo Transposition (music), transposition, Melodic inversion, inversion, Permutation (music), retrograde, or any combination to produce the other parts of the row (in this case, the other three segments). One of the side effects of derived rows is invariance (music), invariance. For example, since a segment may be equivalence class (music), equivalent to the generating segment inverted and transposed, say, 6 semitones, when the entire ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Interval (music)
In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or harmonic if it pertains to simultaneously sounding tones, such as in a chord. In Western music, intervals are most commonly differences between notes of a diatonic scale. Intervals between successive notes of a scale are also known as scale steps. The smallest of these intervals is a semitone. Intervals smaller than a semitone are called microtones. They can be formed using the notes of various kinds of non-diatonic scales. Some of the very smallest ones are called commas, and describe small discrepancies, observed in some tuning systems, between enharmonically equivalent notes such as C and D. Intervals can be arbitrarily small, and even imperceptible to the human ear. In physical terms, an interval is the ratio between two sonic fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Diminished Seventh Chord
The diminished seventh chord is a four-note chord (a seventh chord) composed of a Root (chord), root note, together with a minor third, a diminished fifth, and a diminished seventh above the root: (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the diminished seventh chord built on B, commonly Chord names and symbols (popular music), written as B7, has pitches B-D-F-A: : The chord consists of a diminished triad plus the diminished seventh above the root. These four notes form a stack of three Interval (music), intervals which are all minor thirds. Since stacking yet another minor third returns to the root note, the four Inversion (music), inversions of a diminished seventh chord are symmetrical. The Pitch class#Integer notation, integer notation is . Since the diminished seventh interval is enharmonically equivalent to a major sixth, the chord is enharmonically equivalent to (1, 3, 5, 6). The diminished seventh chord occurs as a leading-tone seventh chord in the harm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Passing Tone
A nonchord tone (NCT), nonharmonic tone, or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music or song that is not part of the implied or expressed chord set out by the harmonic framework. In contrast, a chord tone is a note that is a part of the functional chord. Nonchord tones are most often discussed in the context of the common practice period of classical music, but the term can also be used in the analysis of other types of tonal music, such as Western popular music. Nonchord tones are often categorized as ''accented non-chord tones'' and ''unaccented non-chord tones'' depending on whether the dissonance occurs on an accented or unaccented beat (or part of a beat). Over time, some musical styles assimilated chord types outside of the common-practice style. In these chords, tones that might normally be considered nonchord tones are viewed as chord tones, such as the seventh of a minor seventh chord. For example, in 1940s-era bebop jazz, an F played with a C chord would be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Minor Third
In music theory, a minor third is a interval (music), musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval (music)#Number, interval number). The minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is called ''minor'' because it is the smaller of the two: the major third spans an additional semitone. For example, the interval from A to C is a minor third, as the note C lies three semitones above A. Coincidentally, there are three staff positions from A to C. Diminished third, Diminished and augmented thirds span the same number of staff positions, but consist of a different number of semitones (two and five). The minor third is a skip (music), skip melodically. Notable examples of ascending minor thirds include the opening two notes of "Greensleeves" and of "Light My Fire". The minor third may be derived from the Harmonic series (music), harmonic series as the interva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tritone
In music theory, the tritone is defined as a interval (music), musical interval spanning three adjacent Major second, whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adjacent whole tones F–G, G–A, and A–B. Narrowly defined, each of these whole tones must be a step in the scale (music), scale, so by this definition, within a diatonic scale there is only one tritone for each octave. For instance, the above-mentioned interval F–B is the only tritone formed from the notes of the C major scale. More broadly, a tritone is also commonly defined as any interval with a width of three whole tones (spanning six semitones in the chromatic scale), regardless of scale degrees. According to this definition, a diatonic scale contains two tritones for each octave. For instance, the above-mentioned C major scale contains the tritones F–B (from F to the B above it, also called augment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Symmetrical
Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations, such as translation, reflection, rotation, or scaling. Although these two meanings of the word can sometimes be told apart, they are intricately related, and hence are discussed together in this article. Mathematical symmetry may be observed with respect to the passage of time; as a spatial relationship; through geometric transformations; through other kinds of functional transformations; and as an aspect of abstract objects, including theoretic models, language, and music. This article describes symmetry from three perspectives: in mathematics, including geometry, the most familiar type of symmetry for many people; in science and nature; and in the arts, covering architecture, art, and music. The opposite of symmetry is asymmetry, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
