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Well Temperament
Well temperament (also good temperament, circular or circulating temperament) is a type of musical temperament, tempered musical tuning, tuning used for keyboard instruments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The term is modeled on the German word ''wohltemperiert''. This word also appears in the title of Johann Sebastian Bach, J. S. Bach's famous composition "Das wohltemperierte Klavier", ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''. Origins As used in the 17th century, the term "well tempered" meant that the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard were tuned in such a way that it was possible to play music in all Major and minor, major or Major and minor, minor key (music), keys that were commonly in use, without sounding perceptibly out of tune. One of the first attestations of the concept of "well tempered" is found in a treatise in German by the music theorist Andreas Werckmeister. In the subtitle of his ''Orgelprobe'', from 1681, he writes: The words and were subseq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Musical Temperament
In musical tuning, a temperament is a tuning system that slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation to meet other requirements. Most modern Western musical instruments are tuned in the equal temperament system. Tempering is the process of altering the size of an interval by making it narrower or wider than pure. "Any plan that describes the adjustments to the sizes of some or all of the twelve fifth intervals in the circle of fifths so that they accommodate pure octaves and produce certain sizes of major thirds is called a ''temperament''." Temperament is especially important for keyboard instruments, which typically allow a player to play only the pitches assigned to the various keys, and lack any way to alter pitch of a note in performance. Historically, the use of just intonation, Pythagorean tuning and meantone temperament meant that such instruments could sound "in tune" in one key, or some keys, but would then have more dissonance in other keys. In the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
G♯ (musical Note)
G♯ (G-sharp) or sol dièse is the ninth semitone of the solfège. In the German pitch nomenclature, it is known as ''gis''. It lies a chromatic semitone above G and a diatonic semitone below A, thus being enharmonic to ''la bémol'' or A (A-flat). When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of the G♯ semitone is approximately 415.305 Hz. See pitch (music) for a discussion of historical variations in frequency. The notes A and G are the only notes to have only one enharmonic, since they cannot be reached in any other way by a single or double sharp or a single or double flat from any of the seven white notes. In the medieval period the musical note G# was known as gesolreut within the Guidonian hand hexachord system. Designation by octave Scales Common scales beginning on G * G major: G A B C D E F G * G natural minor: G A B C D E F G * G harmonic minor: G A B C D E F G * G melodic minor ascending: G A B C D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Chromatic Scale
The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce the chromatic scale, while other instruments capable of continuously variable pitch, such as the trombone and violin, can also produce microtones, or notes between those available on a piano. Most music uses subsets of the chromatic scale such as diatonic scales. While the chromatic scale is fundamental in western music theory, it is seldom directly used in its entirety in musical compositions or improvisation. Definition The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone, also known as a half-step, above or below its adjacent pitches. As a result, in 12-tone equal temperament (the most common tuning in Western music), the chromatic scale covers all 12 of the available pitches. Thus, there is only one chromatic scal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Nicola Vicentino
Nicola Vicentino (1511 – 1575 or 1576) was an Italian music theory, music theorist and composer of the Renaissance music, Renaissance. He was one of the most progressive musicians of the age, inventing, among other things, a microtonal keyboard. Life Little is known of his early life. Born in Vicenza, he may have studied with Adrian Willaert in Venice, which was close by, and he acquired an early interest in the contemporary humanistic revival, including the study of Musical system of ancient Greece, ancient Greek music theory and performance practice (about which little was known, but was then being uncovered, through the work of scholars such as Girolamo Mei and Gian Giorgio Trissino, Giangiorgio Trissino). At some time in the 1530s or early 1540s, he went to Ferrara, which was to become the center for experimental secular music in Italy from the middle to the end of the 16th century. Apparently, he served as a music tutor to the Duke of Ferrara and some of his family mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Archicembalo
The archicembalo (or arcicembalo, ) was a musical instrument described by Nicola Vicentino in 1555. This was a harpsichord built with many extra keys and strings, enabling experimentation in microtonality and just intonation. Construction The archicembalo had two manuals, but unlike those on a normal harpsichord these two keyboards were used to provide extra pitches rather than a timbral difference. Both manuals contained all of the usual white and black keys, but in addition each black key was divided into two parts so that a distinction could be made between a sharp or flat note. The lower manual also included black keys between B and C, and between E and F. In total, 36 keys were available in any octave, each of which was tuned to a different pitch, as shown in the diagram of thlower manual Tuning There were two systems of tuning the archicembalo considered by Vicentino: # The most important was the extended quarter-comma meantone temperament—which, given such a wid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Manual (music)
The word "manual" is used instead of the word "keyboard" when referring to any hand-operated keyboard on a keyboard instrument that has a Pedal keyboard, pedalboard (a keyboard on which notes are played with the feet), such as an organ; or when referring to one of the keyboards on an instrument that has more than one hand-operated keyboard, such as a two- or three-manual harpsichord. (On instruments that have neither a pedalboard nor more than one hand-operated keyboard, the word "manual" is ''not'' a synonym for "keyboard".) Music written to be played only on the manuals (and not using the pedals) can be designated by the word manualiter (first attested in 1511, but particularly common in the 17th and 18th centuries). Overview Organs and synthesizers can, and usually do, have more than one manual; most home instruments have two manuals, while most larger organs have two or three. Elaborate pipe organs and theater organs can have four or more manuals. The manuals are set into th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Split Sharp
A split sharp is a kind of key (instrument), key found in some early keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, clavichord, or organ (music), organ. It is a musical key divided in two, with separately depressible front and back sections, each sounding its own pitch (music), pitch. The particular keys that were split were those that play the sharps and flats on the standard musical keyboard (the "piano keys, black keys" on a modern piano). Split sharps served two distinct purposes. First, in the broken octave, they allowed an instrument to include deep bass (sound), bass notes while retaining a short, compact keyboard. Second, in older music, musical tuning, tuning was generally not done by equal temperament, which treats note pairs such as A and B as the enharmonic, same pitch. Instead, they were assigned slightly different pitches on enharmonic keyboards (particularly in "meantone temperament"). This allowed certain interval (music), musical intervals, such as the major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Enharmonic Keyboard
An enharmonic keyboard is a musical keyboard, where enharmonically equivalent notes do not have identical pitches. A conventional keyboard has, for instance, only one key and pitch for and , but an enharmonic keyboard would have two different keys and pitches for these notes. Traditionally, such keyboards use black split keys to express both notes, but ''diatonic'' white keys may also be split. As an important device to compose, play and study enharmonic music, enharmonic keyboards are capable of producing microtones and have separate keys for at least some pairs of not equal pitches that must be enharmonically equal in conventional keyboard instruments. The term (divergence of scholar opinions) "Enharmonic keyboard" is a term used by scholars in their studies of enharmonic keyboard instruments ( organ, harpsichord, piano, harmonium and synthesizer) with reference to a keyboard with more than 12 keys per octave. Scholarly consensus about the term's precise definit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest. Treatment of a chord as the tonic for less than a phrase is considered tonicization. Requirements *Harmonic: quasi- tonic, modulating dominant, pivot chordForte (1979), p. 267. * Melodic: recognizable segment of the scale of the quasi-tonic or strategically placed leading-tone *Metric and rhythmic: quasi-tonic and modulating dominant on metrically accented beats, prominent pivot chord The quasi-tonic is the tonic of the new key established by the modulation. The modulating dominant is the dominant of the quasi-tonic. The pivot chord is a predominant to the modulating dominant and a chord common to both the keys of the tonic and the quasi-tonic. For example, in a modulation to the dominant, ii/V–V/V–V co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Transposition (music)
In music, transposition refers to the process or operation of moving a collection of notes ( pitches or pitch classes) up or down in pitch by a constant interval. For example, a music transposer might transpose an entire piece of music into another key. Similarly, one might transpose a tone row or an unordered collection of pitches such as a chord so that it begins on another pitch. The transposition of a set ''A'' by ''n'' semitones is designated by ''T''''n''(''A''), representing the addition ( mod 12) of an integer ''n'' to each of the pitch class integers of the set ''A''. Thus the set (''A'') consisting of 0–1–2 transposed by 5 semitones is 5–6–7 (''T''5(''A'')) since , , and . Scalar transpositions In scalar transposition, every pitch in a collection is shifted up or down a fixed number of scale steps within some scale. The pitches remain in the same scale before and after the shift. This term covers both chromatic and diatonic transpositions as follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Accidental (music)
In musical notation, an accidental is a symbol that indicates an alteration of a given Pitch (music), pitch. The most common accidentals are the Flat (music), flat () and the Sharp (music), sharp (), which represent alterations of a semitone, and the Natural (music), natural (), which cancels a sharp or flat. Accidentals alter the pitch of individual Degree (music), scale tones in a given key signature; the sharps or flats in the key signature itself are not called accidentals. An accidental applies to the note that immediately follows it and to subsequent instances of that note in the same Bar (music), measure, unless it is canceled by another accidental. A sharp raises a note's pitch by a semitone and a flat lowers it by a semitone. Double flats () or sharps () may also be used, altering the unmodified note by two semitones. If a note with an accidental is Tie (music), tied, the accidental continues to apply, even if the note it is tied to is in the next measure. If a note has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mode (music)
In music theory, the term mode or ''modus'' is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context. Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It is applied to major and minor keys as well as the seven diatonic modes (including the former as Ionian and Aeolian) which are defined by their starting note or tonic. ( Olivier Messiaen's modes of limited transposition are strictly a scale type.) Related to the diatonic modes are the eight church modes or Gregorian modes, in which authentic and plagal forms of scales are distinguished by ambitus and tenor or reciting tone. Although both diatonic and Gregorian modes borrow terminology from ancient Greece, the Greek ''tonoi'' do not otherwise resemble their medieval/modern counterparts. Previously, in the Middle Ages the term modus was used to describe intervals, individual notes, and rhythms (see ). Modal rhythm was an essential ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
