Musical signs, symbols and instruments. A piece of music played as a greeting

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

From time immemorial, people have embodied their feelings, thoughts and experiences through art. Some painted masterpieces of painting, depicting objects of inspiration, everyday life, as well as episodes from their own biography that have sunk into their memory. Others built various kinds of structures and monuments, giving them some kind of symbolic meaning. The most extraordinary of them began to be called wonders of the world. From under the hands of third parties, pages of future poems, novels, epics came out one after another, where for each moment of the plot a strong, appropriate, in the opinion of the author, word was chosen.

However, there were those who found inspiration in the sound. They created special instruments to express the emotions that overwhelmed them. These people are called musicians.

What is music?

These days, the concept of "music" is given a huge number of definitions. But if you think objectively, then this is an art form, the main subject of whichis this or that sound.

It is noteworthy that in many ancient languages this word means "the activity of the Muses".

The Soviet scientist Arnold Sohor, in turn, believed that music reflects reality in a peculiar way, and also affects a person through sound sequences that are meaningful and organized in a special way in height, as well as in time, the main components of which are tones.

A Brief History of Music

Since ancient times, people have loved music. On the territory of ancient Africa, with the help of various songs that are part of rituals, they tried to contact spirits, gods. In Egypt, music was used mainly for religious hymns. There were such concepts as "passions" and "mysetria", equating to genres. The most famous works of Egypt were the Book of the Dead and the Pyramid Texts, which describe the "passions" of the Egyptian god Osiris. The ancient Greeks were the first people in the world who, in their culture, were able to achieve the highest expression of music. It is worth adding here the fact that they were the first to notice the existence of a peculiar pattern between mathematical quantities and sounds.

Over time, music has been formed and developed. Several main directions began to stand out in it.

According to the classical theory, by the 9th century the following musical genres existed on earth: Gregorian chant (that is, various kinds of church singing, liturgies), bard song and secular music(a vivid example of this genre is the anthem). In the process of human interaction, these genres gradually mixed with each other, forming new ones, unlike the previous ones. So, at the end of the 19th century, jazz appeared, which became the progenitor for many modern genres.

What are the musical signs and symbols?

How can you record sounds? Musical notation signs are conditional graphic symbols that are located on the stave. Their main function is to indicate the pitch, as well as the relative duration of a particular sound. It's no secret that musical notation is the practical foundation of music. However, it is by no means given to everyone. Studying musical signs is a rather laborious process, the fruits of which can only be tasted by the most patient and diligent.

If we now begin to delve into the features of modern notation, then this article will become, to put it mildly, very large. To do this, it is necessary to write a separate, rather voluminous work about musical signs and symbols. One of the most famous symbols is, of course, the "treble clef". During its existence, it has become a kind of symbol of musical art.

What are musical instruments and what are they?

Objects that make it possible to extract various kinds of sounds necessary to create a work are called musical instruments. The instruments that exist today, in accordance with their abilities, purpose, sound qualities, are divided into several main groups:keyboards, drums, brass, strings and reeds.

There are many other classifications (the Hornbostel-Sachs system is a prime example).

The physical basis of almost any instrument that produces musical sounds (with the exception of various electrical devices) is a resonator. It can be a string, a so-called oscillating circuit, a column of air (in a certain volume) or any other object that has the ability to store the energy transferred to it in the form of vibrations.

The resonant frequency sets the first overtone (in other words, the fundamental tone) of the sound currently being produced.

It is worth noting that a musical instrument has the ability to simultaneously reproduce the number of sounds equal to the number of resonators used. The design may include a different number of them. The extraction of sound begins at the moment when energy is introduced into the resonator. If the musician needs to stop the sound forcibly, then you can resort to such an effect as damping. In the case of some instruments, the resonant frequencies can be changed. Some instruments that produce non-musical sounds (such as drums) do not use this device.

What are pieces of music and what are they?

In a broad sense, a piece of music, or, as it is called, an opus, is anyplay, improvisation, folk song. In other words, almost everything that can be conveyed through the ordered vibrations of sounds. As a rule, it is characterized by a certain internal completeness, material consolidation (through musical signs, notes, etc.), a certain kind of motivation. Uniqueness is also important, behind which, as a rule, are the feelings and experiences of the author, which he wanted to present to the listeners of his work.

It is worth noting that the term "musical work" as an established concept appeared in the field of art relatively recently (the exact date is unknown, but somewhere around the 18th-19th centuries). Up to this point, he was replaced in every possible way.

So, for example, Wilhelm Humboldt and Johann Herder used the word "activity" instead of this term. In the era of avant-gardism, the name was replaced by "event", "action", "open form". Currently, there are a huge number of different musical works. We offer to consider the most famous, interesting and unusual of them.

I. Song (or song)

Song is one of the simplest but most common pieces of music, in which the poetic text is accompanied by a simple melody that is easy to remember.

It is worth noting that the song is one of the most developed directions in the sense that at the moment there are a large number of its various forms, genres, etc.

II. Symphony

Symphony (translated from Greek -“Slimness, elegance, consonance”) is a piece of music that is primarily intended to be performed by an orchestra, which can be wind, string, chamber, and also mixed. In some cases, vocals or chorus may be included in the simony.

Often this work is brought together with other genres, thereby forming mixed forms (for example, a symphony-suite, a symphony-poem, a symphony-fantasy, etc.)

III. Prelude and Fugue

Prelude (from the Latin prae - "forthcoming" and ludus - "play") is a small work that, unlike others, does not have a strict form.

Mainly preludes and fugues are created for instruments such as harpsichord, organ, piano

Initially, these works were intended for musicians to have the opportunity to "warm up" before the main part of the performance. However, later they began to be singled out already as original independent works.

IV. Touch

This type is also quite interesting, since not much attention is paid to it. Touche - (from the French "key", "introduction") is a piece of music performed as a sign of greeting. The term was first used in the middle of the 18th century in Germany.

The main purpose of such a work is to draw the attention of the audience to what is happening, as well as to introduce the appropriate emotional coloring into the event (as a rule, these are various solemn ceremonies). Often, a piece of music as a sign of greeting is performed by a brass band. Surely everyone has heard the tush, which is performed at the time of awards, etc.

In our today's article, we have analyzed what musical instruments, signs, works are. We hope that it was useful and informative for readers.