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[PCjs Machine "ibm5170"]
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MIT.TXT
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ General Instructions: ║
║ While in any given chapter, ║
║ Screens may be changed in 2 ways: ║
║ >> "+","-",PgUp,PgDn = forward/backward 1 screen ║
║ >> F1 = enter screen number directly ║
║ F2 = chapter contents ║
║ F3 = this information ║
║ Alt/M = main menu ║
║ Alt/X = exit to DOS ║
║ any key to resume ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ File Locations: (3.5",5.25") ║
║ ║
║ Main Menu --- 1,1 Scales ----------- 1,2 Meredith Monk - 2,3 ║
║ Preface ----- 1,1 Intervals -------- 2,3 Melody Writer - 2,4 ║
║ Schedule ---- 1,1 Musical Analysis - 2,3 Keybaord ------ 2,4 ║
║ Course Info -- 1,1 Harmony ---------- 2,3 Pitch Memory -- 2,4 ║
║ Acoustics ---- 1,1 Sound Polltion --- 2,3 SoundForms ---- 2,4 ║
║ Pitch Basics - 1,2 Harry Partch ----- 2,3 Editor -------- 2,4 ║
║ Rhythm ------- 1,2 Creativity ------- 2,3 ║
║ (any key to resume) ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
PITCH.TXT
MUSICAL SPACE
That music is a temporal art is an easy notion to grasp.
It is, also, spatial, and in more than one way.
It is most clearly spatial in that sound has location in space.
Where a sound comes from can affect the listener. Thus the loca-
tion of a sound can be an integral aspect of the compositional
conceptioning...
This fact has often been ignored by composers,
but its use in antiphonal church music during
the Renaissance, and its "rediscovery" and de-
velopment by some composers (like Henry Brandt)
in the 20th century, illustrate its viability.
At this time, however, we are not going to consider this
kind of spatiality, but rather the metaphorical sense in
which the pitch of sounds is thought of as corresponding
to relative height, the "up and down" axis.
Pitch, as the frequency (rate of vibration) of a sound, has, of
course, no direct spatial higher or lower coordinate. Why we re-
present frequency in this way, and have throughout history, as
well as cross-culturally, is a matter of speculation.
Be that as it may, pitch is conceived of and represented
in spatial terms. And it is most destinctly a character-
istic of music, to be shaped and controlled. It is often
thought of as the chief incrediant of melody, although
the other parameters of sound also contribute their share.
Pitch is decidely the stuff of which intervals
and scales are made, and since these in turn
are primary organizing factors in most musics,
knowledge of how pitch is notated is of help in
understanding music.
Pitch, being a vibratory rate and perceived on an up versus down
axis, affects the human physiology in both clear and subtle ways.
Extremes of pitch, high or low, produce tensions, both muscular
and mental. Frequencies in the middle range of the audible
spectrum, expecially within the speech range, are more soothing.
These are generalities, of course, for other factors such as
loudness and timbre also affect the mind and body. Subtle
shadings of pitch, especially melodies employing microtones
(East Indian music, for instance, or the Blues), produce very
distinct reactions in us which can be felt bodily in changing
breath rate and heart contractions, among other things.
Every physical body resonates in response to sonic
vibrations, hence pitch has very direct effect on
material objects. The destructive uses to which
sound has been put, described in the chapter on
sound pollution, illustrate this. There is also,
in occult literature, speculation that particular
frequencies can be and have been used to produce
levitation, and are capable of healing properties.
However we approach the issue,
pitch is an essential ingredient
of music and knowledge of its
notation crucial for our better
comprehending how music works.
The Staff
Pitch is most commonly represented on some form of vertical axis.
Generalized pitch level could be notated around a single line
specified as a particular pitch. Or, as has occasionally been done
as a reminder of pitch relationships learned by rote, with up or
down gestures of the hand.
The extension of this idea into the use of more lines to stand for
other specific pitches, called a staff, is attributed to Guido
d'Arezzo (c. 990-1050 AD), who suggested the use of a 3- or 4-line
staff to denote specific pitches (the pitches we now call F2, A2,
and C3). The four-line staff is still employed for the notation
of Gregorian Chant, but as early as the 13th century, a 5-line
staff was used to notate polyphonic ("many-voiced") music, and it
is this staff which is in general use today.
The convention in referring to pitch placement on the modern 5-line
staff is to count from the bottom line or space upwards. Thus we say
"note such and such" is on the 3rd line up, or the 2nds space up, etc.
Pitch Names
In our investigation of acoustics, we discovered that each
doubling of frequency produces an octave. The term octave was
used because the most common number of pitches employed in
melodies in Western music within this doubling of frequencies has
been 7,the 8th pitch being twice the frequency above or below some
starting point--hence, octave.
PRELIMINARY EXERCISE
Hit "H" (to HEAR) to play "Doe A Deer" from The Sound of Music.
Try to determine how many distinctly different pitches there are
within the octave this tune encompasses. (You should be helped by
association with the "do-re-mi" format)! Proceed to next page to
see the tune written out. You will see notes on different lines
and spaces adding up to the number you heard from lowest to highest.
Careful observation of this tune should have lead you to hear and
see 8 different notes, from an extra line below the staff to the
third space up. These 8 notes, when arranged in sequential
ascending order, produce what is called a scale (from the Latin
scala, meaning "ladder"). The bottom note and the top note
constitute the frequency ratio of 2:1, the octave. Each of the
seven different pitches within the octave is designated by a
letter name, from A to G.
If a line or space on the staff is reserved for one of these
pitches, the location of the other pitches can easily be de-
termined by counting, in order, up or down (forward or back-
ward) the letter names of the pitches. For instance, on the
4-line staff of the Gregorian Chant tune you heard a while
ago, the stylized "C" at the top left of each staff desig-
nates that line as what we know via the piano as "middle"
C (261.6 hz). Counting, in order, down the lines and spaces,
one arrives at the pitch F as the first note of the piece.
The other notes can be determined accordingly.
The Clefs
Given a set of parallel horizontal lines on which to designate specific
pitches, all that is necessary is to indicate a starting point: one line
or space of the staff being a particular frequency.
Music notation, evolving at the same time as different styles and
genres of music, developed primarily to accomodate vocal music.
It was reasonable then that the pitches the staff
evolved to denote should essentially represent the
human voice range. We will accept this tradition,
even though instruments can sound frequencies well
outside the range of the voice.
The TREBLE CLEF was invented to represent the frequency range of female
voices. Originally called the "G" clef, it marks where the pitch "G"
within the SOPRANO and ALTO ranges is to be notated. This is on the
second line up, using the stylized "G" symbol.
This is, specifically, 392.2 hz.
The BASS CLEF was designed to accomodate the lower voice ranges (tenor and
bass). It originated as the "F" clef, which designates where F (174.6 Hz),
is written.
Originally, the Bass and Treble clefs were movable, so that their
placement on the staff indicated slightly higher or lower ranges.
Today, however, these clefs remain fixed. But there is a clef which is
movable. It originated to designate a range between treble and bass,
and is known as the "movable C' clef. It is used to locate "middle C."
LEDGER LINES
Notes outside the range of the five lines of the staff may be written
with the use of ledger lines. The same order of notes is continued
above or below the staff and the lines themselves are drawn with the
same distance between them as on the staff itself.
G A B C D E F G B C D E F G A B
D C B A G F E D F E D C B A G F
Notes several ledger lines above or below a staff exceed normal vocal
ranges, but are useful for instruments whose ranges are greater.
THE OTTAVA SIGN
Sometimes, to avoid excessive and confusing addition of ledger
lines, the ottava sign is employed, which shifts the entire
range of the notes under the bracketed sign by an octave. If
the sign is above the notes, the shift is obviously upward;
if below the notes, and often accompanied by the word basso,
the shift is down one octave. <RET>
Previous convention called for the abbreviation of ottava as 8va. Mod-
ern usage, however, accepts the numeral 8. In either case, the length
of time the octave displacement is to occur must be indicated by the
dotted lines.
Occasionally, some instruments (the piano, for one) play in extreme high
or low registers, which may call for so many ledger lines as not to be
accomodated by even one octave's shift. A double octave shift may then
be called for, the sign for which is the numeral 16. <RET>
Use of ledger lines, the ottava sign, and the double ottava sign,
is determined by common sense and custom. Flutists, for instance,
are trained to read notes which extend by five ledger lines above
the treble staff, while violinists, by training, are generally
more comfortable reading these same notes under an ottava sign.
In writing music for several instruments, use of these different
procedures is often a matter of what is appropriate for the
particular score format being used. If staves are too crowded
together, with parts extending above and below, the ottava sign
would be called for.
THE GRAND STAFF
Much music, including that for piano, is notated in a format known
as the grand staff, which conjoins the treble and bass staves
with middle C being the common link between them, one ledger line
below the treble staff, and on ledger line above the bass staff.
Specific Pitch Designation
Often, it is necessary to distinguish a specific pitch in a speci-
fic octave range. If you were asked, for instance, to notate "A"
on a grand staff, you would have to know which of the several oc-
tave displacements of "A" was meant. There are several systems for
designating specific pitches. With the advent of digital synthe-
sizers and especially the development of MIDI (Musical Instrument
Digital Interface), one method seems to be emerging as a standard.
It simply labels "Middle C" as C3 and every pitch within the
octave up to the next "C" with this number. Thus the octaves from
middle C to the highest note on the piano are labelled as follows:
Beyond Basic Notes
All of the pitches under discussion so far are known as "basic"
notes. In the chapter on acoustics, we discussed the fact that in
Western music the octave is normally divided into twelve equal
parts. Our pitch notation system enables us to denote 7 of these,
so far - the "basic" notes "A" to "G". Accidentals are used to
indicate the additional 5 pitches on the 5-line staff. Each of the
smallest increments between the twelve notes within an octave is
known as a half-step. A sharp sign (#) increases the frequency of
a basic note by a half-step:
A flat sign (b) decreases the frequency of a basic note by a half-
step:
Accidentals apply to an entire measure in which they are found.
The bar line "erases" the effect of an accidental unless the acci-
dentalized note is tied over the bar-line, or, for clarity's sake,
there has been an accidental just prior to the bar-line, whose
effect is to be cancelled out in the new measure. To cancel the
effect of a sharp or flat, a natural sign is used, which returns
the note to its "basic" frequency ( ).
Sometimes it is necessary to raise or lower a basic note by two
half-steps, in which case a double sharp or double flat is used:
PREFACE.TXT
PREFACE
Harry Partch, that quintessentially American individualist
composer, said that true education, as far as he was concerned, is
a matter chiefly compounded of investigation, investigation, and
investigation. That is the underlying premise of MUS 1/Music:
Technique and Imagination.
I assume that we are here to learn something that we didn't
previously know, and that we are here to question and challenge
anything and everything that we think we know. The etymological
roots of the word "education" mean "to draw out," or "to bring
out." The methods used in this course, and the approaches taken to
learning, are intended to be useful throughout one's life in the
continual process of bringing out of one's inner self insights
which range beyond the acquisition of facts. We use the study of
music as a means to acquire critical thinking skills, develop
imagination, and to become incurably curious, inveterate question-
ers, seekers after knowledge and wisdom.
A recurring theme in MUS 1 is the notion that creativity
can be and needs to be fostered and nurtured. Our goals
in this regard are to apply the insights provided for us
in this catalogue of the traits of creativity:
Creativity includes the ability to:
*WONDER, BE CURIOUS
*BE OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCE, SEE THE FAMILIAR FROM AN UNFAMILIAR
POINT OF VIEW
*CONFRONT COMPLEXITY AND AMBIGUITY WITH INTEREST
*TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ACCIDENTAL EVENTS IN ORDER TO MAKE DESIRABLE
BUT UNSOUGHT DISCOVERIES (CALLED SERENDIPITY)
*MAKE ONE THING OUT OF ANOTHER BY SHIFTING ITS FUNCTIONS
*GENERALIZE IN ORDER TO SEE UNIVERSAL APPLICATIONS OF IDEAS
*SYNTHESIZE AND INTEGRATE, FIND ORDER IN DISORDER
*BE INTENSELY CONSIOUS YET IN TOUCH WITH UNCONSCIOUS SOURCES
*VISUALIZE OR IMAGINE NEW POSSIBILITIES
*BE ANALYTICAL AND CRITICAL
*KNOW ONESELF, AND HAVE THE COURAGE TO BE ONESELF IN THE FACE
OF OPPOSITION
*BE PERSISTENT, WORK HARD FOR LONG PERIODS, IN PURSUIT OF A
GOAL, WITHOUT GUARANTEED RESULTS
(from Art Creates Us Creates Art, Duane Preble,
Canfield Press, San Francisco, 1976, p.10)
This text itself is an attempt to apply some of these principles.
It is most certainly an experiment. While there are numerous
music theory programs on the market, and very useful ones,
especially for computers capable of multi-voice and multitimbral
effects, I know of no text like this one. Its incorporation of
audible examples, interactive exercises and experimental "labora-
tories" excites me, even given the definite limitations of present
sound and memory capabilities. At least we are able to hear some
things, which is more than the usual text provides. And in the
not distant future, with further advance of digital recording and
storage techniques, we will be able to have texts with aural
examples sounding like live orchestral concerts and providing full-
scale experimental and compositional control of sound.
Use this text as a tool. To learn about music. To learn about
learning itself. And take to heart this message, from the closing
lines of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
README.DOC
Music Imagination & Technique by Norman Lowrey
Copyright (C), 1990. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
MIT is a fully functional music instruction program that I developed for
use in an introductory music theory/composition course at Drew University.
Since every student at Drew acquires a computer as part of their matricula-
tion, I have been able to completely do away with a hard-copy text. All the
reading, exercises, and assignments are done on the computer and assignments
are transmitted over E-Mail, evaluated on screen, and returned via E-mail.
Since one of the intentions of creating this program was to have a 100%
software based text, it is essentially self-contained, needing very little
external documentation. It is menu driven, following mostly standard key-
stroke conventions. Its intended audience is high school age or above,
people interested in learning basic principles of music notation and
compositional processes and who have fairly good reading skills.
While the obvious advantages of using the computer for learning about
music (audibility, animation, interaction) make for a livelier approach
than the standard text, the presentation here is not intentionally "enter-
taining." Little has been done to hide the fact that acquiring knowledge
and applying it is rarely easy. This does not mean that you can't have fun
using this program! It's just to state that it is not intended as a computer
game.
=============================================================================
CONTENTS
The files included in the complete MIT program are divided into 4 cate-
gories, which appear as the main menu headings on bootup. These are:
Music Theory, Utilities, Discussion, and Help.
The topics included under Music Theory are:
1. Acoustics
2. Pitch Basics
3. Rhythm
4. Scales & Keys
5. Intervals
6. Analysis
7. Harmony
Each of these topics is a complete "chapter" devoted to the designated
subject, complete with table of contents, thorough discussion, notated
examples, animated illustrations, and drill/practice screens. The infor-
mation is presented beginning with the most basic material and leading to
increasingly more complex matters. Use of the materials does not have to
proceed in a sequential manner, however. Any screen is accessible through
directly entering a screen number while in any given chapter and return-
ing to the main menu for changing chapters.
The Utilities include:
1. Melody Writer
2. Keyboard
3. Pitch Memory
4. SoundForms
5. Editor
We use Melody Writer more than any other utility in the course for which
MIT was written. It is a simple music notation module for the writing of
single-line melodies that can be played back over the PC's internal
speaker or through an external MIDI synthesizer. This is like a word
processor for music, having a variety of editing features, and capable
of printing out fairly high quality music notation.
The Keyboard is accessible from both the main menu and from Melody
Writer. It can be used to turn the computer keyboard into a piano-
style instrument to play real-time tunes and also includes a feature
to accompany the tunes with rapidly arpeggiated chords. Unlike many
computer music "keyboards," I have written the program replacing the
standard key interrupt and thus tones can be sustained for as long as
a key is held down.
Pitch Memory is a little "game" in which you are presented with a random
pitch played by the computer and asked to try to match it as nearly as
possible by adjusting a pitch up and down on the computer.
SoundForms is like a musical Etch-A-Sketch. Up to 6 different screens
of pitch "shapes" can be drawn, with variable rates of playback. These
are treated like sound "objects" that are linkable on a "construction"
screen. I use this utility in the beginning weeks of my course for
students to create musical structures without their having to know
anything about traditional musical notation.
The Editor is also accessible from both the main menu and from Melody
Writer. It is a no-nonsense WordStar style text editor which contains
some extensions for writing Basic type music code to drive an external
4-voice synthesizer which plugs into the printer port. This unit is
still under development and will be available with a future upgrade of
MIT. I use the editor to do direct manipulation of the text files which
constitute the raw data generated by both Melody Writer and SoundForms.
The Discussion topics presently consist of:
1. Sound Pollution
2. The Music of Harry Partch
3. Creativity
4. The Music of Meredith Monk
I am leaving these texts in MIT for general distribution, not because
they directly pertain to the subject of music theory, but because they
are integral parts of the liberal arts orientation of my teaching method-
ology. Other topics may be added to the program as it evolves.
Under the menu heading of Help are:
1. Instructions
2. Print Texts
3. OS Shell
These items should be, I think, self-explanatory.
=============================================================================
INSTALLATION
MIT will run on an IBM or compatible computer with at least 256K of memory.
CGA card required.
On hard drive:
Make a subdirectory with whatever designation you wish (I use MIT).
Copy all files to this subdirectory.
Two floppies:
If you do not have an autoexec.bat file, make one which sets your
path=a:\;b:\. If you already have an autoexec.bat file, make sure
it includes this path statement.
Simply make backup copies of all MIT disks. The disk with the MIT.EXE
file needs to be in your 'A' drive and disks with filenames related to
the selected topic needs to be either in the 'A' drive after booting
into main menu or in the 'B' drive. You can run the program from one
drive, but a lot of disk swapping may be necessary.
=============================================================================
BOOTING
Move to whatever directory contains the MIT.EXE file and type MIT [Return].
Access to all of the other files of the program is gained through the main
menu that appears at this point.
If you want to print the graphics screens of any chapter or the
Melody Writer, you need to load the GRAPHICS.COM file (or equivalent)
that is part of your DOS utilities. If you want Melody Writer screens to
be printed down the length of an 8-1/2" x 11" paper, you will need some
other utility like HIGRAF-L.COM (available in DOS POWERTOOLS by Paul
Somerson, Bantom Books, 1988).
=============================================================================
REGISTRATION
Music Imagination & Technique has been developed over the past three years
and is, as you can tell by the number of disks required, an extensive
program. It is being offered as shareware with no limitations.
If you find the program useful, I encourage you to register your copy.
Your registation will entitle you to some minimal documentation,
including tutorials for the SoundForms and Melody Writer utilities, as
well as free phone support and low-cost upgrades. Your registration will
also help support continued development of this product. I am scheduled
for sabbatical leave from Drew University next fall during which time
I plan a major revision of MIT into a less text-based and more hyper-
text oriented program with development of an inexpensive external poly-
phonic synthesizer.
To register your copy of Music Imagintion & Technique, send a check or
money order for $50.00 to:
Norman Lowrey
37 Intervale Rd.
Boonton, NJ 07005
Phone (201) 316-8142
or:
Norman Lowrey, Chair
Music Department
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
Phone (201) 408-3421
=============================================================================
SOUND.TXT
Thunder let loose upon the Void. The Voice of God. And trillions
of years later we are still rocking with the waves of that Big
Bang. For everything is still vibrating and all is vibration, and
in its broadest sense all vibration is a kind of "sound" whose
primacy has been recognized by virtually every culture, including
the Judeo-Christian heritage: "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was God..." The identification of the Word, which had to
be articulated through sound, with deity, the creative and
sustaining spirit of God... For other cultures, the primacy of
sound as a basis for existence has been even more emphatic.
Marius Schneider, in an article on "Primitive Music" in The New
Oxford History of Music, affirms that "sound represents the
original substance of the world" as far as the historian of
culture is concerned, and points out that the (East) Indian
tradition emphasizes the "luminous nature of sound" in the
similarity between svar (light) and svara (sound). [quoted in
McClain, Ernest G., The Myth of Invariance, p.7]
India's oldest sacred book, the Rg Veda, not only posits sound as
the "original substance of the world," but as discussed in a study
of the philosophical methodology of the Rg Veda by Antonio de
Nicolas [Four-Dimensional Man], the meanings of existence derived
by our sensorium, the whole sensory apparatus of the body, are
organized primarily on a model of sound. "Rgvedic man (sic) was
enveloped by sound, looked for centers of experience in the
experience of sound, found the model of complete, absolute
instantaneity and communication in sound." [McClain, ibid, p.2]
These same ideas, in different guises, can be found in the sacred
texts and mythologies of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Palestine, in
the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Bible, and Plato [ibid.,
p.xi], particularly as sound tuning systems and music are defined
by number, by mathematical relationships. And while, for most
people in the present day in Western culture, sound has lost this
primacy of meaning, there still occur discussions drawing us back
to this fundamental level, as in the scientist/inventor Itzhak
Bentov's book Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of
Conciousness, in which it is speculated that the "orderly pattern
of atoms in matter" may be "the result of the interaction of some
kind of 'sound waves' in matter." [p.11] He further says that "we
could actually associate our whole reality with sound of one kind
or another because our reality is a vibratory reality, and there
is nothing static in it. Starting with the nucleus of an atom,
which vibrates at enormous rates, the electrons and the molecules
are all associated with characteristic vibratory rates. A most
important aspect of matter is vibratory energy."
And continuing:
"When we think, our brains produce rhythmic electric
currents. With their magnetic components, they
spread out into space at the velocity of light, as
do the electric waves or sounds produced by our
hearts. They all mingle to form enormous interference
patterns, spreading out and away from the planet.
"They are admittedly weak, but they are there. The
more finely our systems are tuned, the clearer a
signal we can pick out of the general noise and
jumble of 'sounds.'
"Our planet itself is producing shock waves in the
plasma that fills the solar system. These shock waves
interact with those caused by other planets and produce
resonances between the planets and the asteroids. In
short, our whole reality is based on one common factor,
and that is periodic change, or sound." [p.23]
It is in the context of the underlying significance of sound that
I wish for us to place our study of all aspects of sound's
emanations, from acoustics to the structure of a symphony or a pop
tune. In our most common understanding of sound as an auditory
phenomenon, sound is, as has been stated, a vibration. But no
simple vibration, this, for oscillographic analyses of a "large
number of musical, linguistic, and environmental sounds...reveal a
previously unrecognized sonic substructure of immense detail that
directly determines the nature of perceived sound." [Cogan, Robert
and Escot, Pozzi, Sonic Design, p.439]
COMPONENTS OF SOUND
In order for sound to exist, as we know it, at least three
mutually-supportive components are necessary. First, something
which vibrates, called the sound source. Second, a medium through
which the vibrations travel from the sound source to the third
element, a receptor capable of responding to the vibrations and
interpreting their significance.
SOURCE:
David Reck, in Music of the Whole Earth, says that "there are a
limited number of ways that sound can be produced, and it is
unmute testimony to the imagination of man that he has discovered
most of them and has used them with astounding variety." [p.61]
He lists the basic ways a sound source may be set into vibration
along with examples of musical instruments from various cultures
that use these methods: "A solid object may be hit (like a log
drum), scraped (like a comb), whirled through the air (like a bull-
roarer), shaken (like a rattle), plucked (like the metal prongs of
an mbira), or rubbed (like a glass harmonica...). A stretched skin
may be beaten, rubbed, or scraped (as in the drums of the world);
or stretched strings may be made to vibrate by plucking them (like
a guitar), by the friction of a bow or stick rubbed across them
(like a fiddle), or by striking them (like a hammer dulcimer).
Reeds set in an enclosed chamber with air forced across or through
them (by breath, bellows, or bag) will vibrate into sound (like a
harmonica, oboe, or bagpipe), as will breath (or air) split across
the edge of a hole and into an enclosed space (like blowing across
the top of a bottle or a flute). Air buzzed through the tightened
lips into a tube also causes sound vibrations (like trumpets,
horns, trombones). And finally, sound can be produced by
electronic means."
MEDIUM:
The medium through which vibrations are normally carried to our
ears is, of course, air. We know, however, of other materials
through which vibrations may be propagated: wood, metal,water....
any substance other than a vacuum. Water, in fact, is a far better
medium than air for transmitting vibrations. Whales can hear their
amazing "songs" over distances of hundreds of miles because of this.
[SONIC ACTIVITY #1: Tie the two ends of an arm's length of thread
to the bottom sides of a common wire coat hanger. Wrap the thread
around index fingers a couple times, leaving enough space between
hands to fit around head. Stick index fingers in ears, lean over
to allow hanger to be suspended, and swing hanger to strike
against any solid object, a desk, for instance. Listen carefully.
{A student in one of my classes once called this activity
"ridiculous." Aside from this failing, by thus labeling the
activity, to hear how incredible this sound actually is, he demon-
strated a deeper ignorance of the processes by which discoveries
are made. The mind at play, often even in seemingly "ridiculous"
or "silly" activities, is in, or borders on, that mode of
receptivity to experience in which previously unnoticed things may
be noticed, and more importantly, in which disparate "facts" may
be drawn together to arrive at unique and creative syntheses.}]
RECEPTOR:
A receptor is properly called a transducer, which is a device for
converting one form of energy to another. The chief receptor by
which we perceive sound is the ear. The ear converts acoustic
energy, the vibrations of air molecules, into electro-chemical
impulses which the brain in turn converts into sonic sense. A
microphone is another example of a sound receptor or transducer.
It functions similarly to the ear, only its electrical impulses
are directed to some other electronic processing device, like a
tape recorder or an amplifier.
Each one of these components, the sound source, the medium, and
the mechanism of the human ear, would provide fit study for a
complete book, but for the moment we want to take a closer look at
the sound source, the origin of the vibrations we eventually "hear."
VIBRATION
By vibration is meant some kind of back and forth motion (oscil-
lation). In order to vibrate, the sound source must be, as it is
known in the jargon of acoustics, an "elastic body." A good and
obvious example of an elastic body is a stretched rubber band.
[SONIC ACTIVITY #2: Try the index-finger-in-the ear trick with a
rubber band, for yet another amazing sound. (See p.8)]
To set the rubber band into vibration, it must be displaced from
its position of rest--usually by pulling it or plucking it. Being
elastic (and here don't confuse the word elastic only with
material like rubber--anything is "elastic" that returns to its
original state after being "disturbed" or displaced), when
released from displacement, its molecules seek to return to their
original place of "rest." But since a certain amount of energy
has been invested in its displacement, it is carried by the force
of momentum, a carrier of that initial energy investment, beyond
its original point of rest until the strictures of its molecular
structure balance the momentum and pull it back toward the
original position. The rubber band thus vibrates back and forth
until the forces of molecular cohesion and friction have complete-
ly absorbed the original energy, converting it into heat and sound.
When the rubber band is displaced and released, as it makes its first vigorous
snap back in the direction of rest, it pushes the air molecules surrounding it
in the direction of its movement, disturbing them, pushing them in fact, to-
gether, compacting them, making what is called a condensation. At the same
time, the air molecules behind the rubber band are dragged along with it, thus
spreading them out, causing a rarefaction. These disturbances in the air occur
with every back-and-forth motion of the rubber band, creating a series of con-
densations and rarefactions which are transmitted in all directions around
the rubber band as molecules of air knock together and pull apart, creating
waves of air. Thus a series of pressure waves is created in the air which
causes our eardrums to vibrate in response, and hence, sound. <RETURN>
FREQUENCY
We know that if we stretch the rubber band tauter, we'll hear a
different sound, which we describe as "higher," although this is
purely a metaphorical term. What we have just done is to make the
molecules of the rubber band seek their original point of rest
with greater intensity, causing the rubber band to vibrate faster.
Frequency is the technical term for rate of vibration. We
subjectively perceive the frequency as pitch, the "highness" or
"lowness" of a sound.
Frequency is measured by the number of times something vibrates
back and forth per some given time unit, which, when measuring
acoustic vibrations, is the second. The proper designation for
the frequency of a sound is cycles per second (abbrviated c.p.s)
or hz (pronounced Hertz, named for a 19th century physicist who
studied the nature of vibration). A cycle is one complete "trip"
of the vibration. This can be illustrated by observing the action
of a swinging pendulum.
The cyclic motion is usually measured in terms of movement from
the state of rest to maximum point of displacement, back through
the resting point to maximum point of displacement on the opposite
side, and back to the resting point. Actually, one may start from
any point and measure to the analogous point in the cycle, and
this is done in examining the phase of one vibration in relation
to another. <RETURN>
If a pen were to be attached to the bottom of the pendulum and a roll of
paper moved from right to left underneath the pen, a picture of the
pendulum's motion could be drawn. <RETURN>
If the distance between the starting line and ending line were to
represent one second, then the frequency here is 1 c.p.s., or 1 Hz. <RET>
If the distance between the starting line and ending line were to
represent one second, then the frequency here is 2 c.p.s., or 2 Hz.
The human ear responds to acoustic frequencies within the general range
of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (sometimes abbreviated 20K Hz). Some people can
hear somewhat beyond these ranges, and other animals are capable of
much wider response, which signifies that human perception of reality
is actually very limited.
You can now enter frequencies at the prompt to test your hearing, as
well as the frequency response of your computer. Hit 'E' to enter.
THE OCTAVE
[ <RETURN> to hear sound discussed below, any key to stop ]
The sound you are hearing as you read this is a sweep of frequencies from
20 Hz to 4K Hz and back down to the lowest frequency on a standard piano
(whose frequency you will be asked to calculate in a minute).
Then the frequency jumps by octaves up to 440 Hz, which, since the 1920's
has been used as the international tuning standard.
The distance from one frequency to another can be expressed
as a ratio. When we hear one frequency in relation to another,
their difference (or ratio) produces a perceived difference
in pitch, which is called a musical interval. The term octave
refers to what is perhaps the most important musical interval,
which is a ratio between two frequencies of 2:1.
The word octave is derived from the fact that most common tunes in Western
music employ 7 different pitches (labeled A,B,C,D,E,F,G), within the
frequency ratio of 2:1. The eighth pitch (thus octave) is the same
letter name (in this case "A") at a frequency ratio of 2:1. This ratio is
possibly the only universally common interval, forming the basis for the
world's diverse tuning systems. Since we'll be referring to the octave
again and again, a thorough understanding of this interval is important.
Here are a series of octaves, with their frequencies given. Note that
octaves have a similarity of sound. They are just "higher" or "lower".
They all form 2:1 ratios. <RETURN>
OCTAVE PRACTICE AND PROBLEMS 1 & 2
You may again enter frequencies as you did on page 16. This time focus
on listening to frequencies with rations of 2:1. ['E' TO ENTER,
'+' FOR NEXT PAGE, '-' FOR PRIOR. HIT 'R' TO GOTO TO PROBLEM #1].
ENTER FREQUENCY (no commas):
EQUAL TEMPERAMENT [ <RETURN> to hear sound mentioned below ]
As you read this sentence, the 7 basic pitches deployed within the
octave, which are common to Western music, are being sounded. You
have no doubt heard this scale before, and its particular pattern
will be described in greater detail later. An incredible variety
of music has been produced using only these pitches, but by adding
just a few more the possibilities for pitch combinations increase
geometrically. 5 additional pitches are common to Western music.
A tuning of pitches within an octave has been developed which is
called equal temperament. A temperament is another name for a way
of relating one pitch to another within an octave. Any equal
temperament is a tuning in which an octave is divided into equal
increments. The temperament of Western European music, which was
only codified within the past 300 years, divides the octave into
12 equal parts. To hear these 12 increments, hit 'H'.
What you have just heard is a pattern of intervals, each one of
which is called a half step. Whereas the frequency ratio of the
octave is 2:1, the ratio of a half step is much smaller. It can
be calculated as the 12th root of 2, which results in an
irrational number (1.0594531...). The starting frequency of the
series just sounded was 220 Hz. Each successive pitch was arrived
at by multiplying the previous pitch by this small amount.
If you consider that our hearing range is from 20 to 20K Hz, and
that this represents a little over 10 octaves, you can calculate
that 12-tone equal temperament makes available somewhat more than
120 distinctly different frequencies. It has been calculated that
"...the total of perceptible pitches...within our hearing
range...is about 1400..." [Cogan & Escott,p.442] We therefore are
capable of hearing many more pitches than we are used to hearing
in the music we are familiar with. Many cultures other than our
own employ much finer gradations of pitch difference. This is
true especially in the Orient, India, and Southeast Asia.
At least from the time of Pythagorus, scientists and musicians
have experimented with many tuning systems. We will hear later on
some of the music of Harry Partch, a composer in our own century
who used a tuning which employed up to 43 increments within an
octave. Just within the past year, the latest synthesizers
(including the "industry standard" Yamaha DX7II) have added the
feature of alternative tuning systems, so you will no doubt be
hearing more music containing smaller divisions of the octave.
You can now experiment with hearing varying divisions of the
octave. The standard way of dealing with small pitch differences
is to divide up the half step into 100 parts, each one of which is
called a cent. At the prompt, you can enter the number of cents,
from 1 to 100, you wish to hear as the smallest frequency change.
[ 'E' TO ENTER, <RETURN>. TO HEAR 1ST TIME, ALT/P TO HEAR AGAIN.
ENTER AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT WITH 'E'-<RETURN> SEQUENCE. ]
Frequency changes, along with varying lengths of tones, are the basis
for melody, which is the foundation of Western music. One final issue
regarding frequency before moving on:
A musical tone may be properly conceived of as vibration which is
periodic, that is, whose frequencies are consistent. If fluctuation
of frequency is very rapid, the vibration is aperiodic and results in
noise. Noise is technically defined as erratic, intermittent, or
statistically random oscillation. For an example, hit <RETURN>.
AMPLITUDE
The amount of energy invested into setting the vibrating source
into oscillation determines how loud a sound is. Loudness is how
we subjectively perceive amplitude. The farther something is
displaced from its resting state, the greater is the amplitude.
Whereas frequency is represented along the horizontal axis , as we
saw with the representation of a pendulum's swing, amplitude is
measured along the vertical axis. The farther out the swing, the
greater the displacement, thus the louder the sound.
Another term used to describe loudness is intensity. The common meas-
urement of intensity is the decibel. The decibel is a logarithmic num-
ber in which 0 decibels represents the threshold of hearing (for a
frequency of 1000 Hz). Every 3 decibels represents a doubling of
perceived sound intensity; every 10 decibels represents an increase of
pressure by a factor of 10. From 0 to around 40 db (as the decibel is
abbreviated), sounds are very quiet indeed. It is not until a sound
reaches this level that it said to cross the threshold of intelligibil-
ity. Sounds approaching and louder than 120 db achieve the distinction
of crossing the threshold of pain. The difference between 0 and 120
decibels is a one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) increase in intensity.
Since there is no programable control of loudness on this
computer, we cannot demonstrate changes in amplitude with good
aural examples. You may have noticed, however, that during the
frequency "sweep" in the unit on pitch, some frequencies seemed
louder than others. This is due to the whole computer vibrating
along with its tiny speaker, with some components (like side wall)
having particular frequencies more likely to vibrate than others.
This computer has its own resonance frequencies, and you'll have
the chance later on to try to find out what they are. For the
moment, we'll rely upon this phenomenon to illustrate differences
in loudness. By holding down the UP/DOWN arrows, you can sweep up
and down from approximately 50 to 4000 Hz. Listen for subtle varia-
tions in loudness. These are actually the result of the original
vibrations in the speaker being reinforced and not by any actual
increase of amplitude within the speaker itself. Nonetheless, you
should be able to hear what probably could be measured as a 3-4
decibel difference overall.
Sound loudness measurements are complex because the human ear
responds to different loudnesses at different frequency ranges and
with differing qualities of sound. Greater pressure is needed in
the extremities of the hearing range in order to produce a given
loudness, than in optimum response ranges of the ears. The
optimal response range is from 1000 to 4000 Hz. "Human hearing is
variable. It is affected, for example, by culture: some Africans
hear sounds that, to 20th-century urban North Americans, are
remarkably soft. In industrialized cultures, the young are able
to hear a wider range of frequencies than the old. We are still
ignorant of the exact roles that culture, habit, and environment
play in affecting human hearing equipment and ability." [Cogan &
Escott, p.442]
Sound Level Reference
0-40 db:.........barely perceptible sounds, not clearly
identified--distant wind sound, for instance
40-50 db:........whispering at 5-10 feet distance
rustling leaves, 10-20 feet away
cat purring, 5 feet distant
50-60 db:........normal conversation, 5-10 feet away
central air conditioning unit in big building
your own footsteps on concrete, hard-soled shoes
60-70 db:........orchestra, moderate passage, 30-40 feet
general din, dining hall
light traffic at 30 feet
70-80 db:........truck traffic, 30 feet
stereo, 3/4 gain, 10 feet
shouting
80-90 db:........lawnmower, 20 feet
loud orchestral passages, 20 feet
90-100 db:.......hammering nails, 5 feet
thunder, half mile to mile
100-110 db:......jackhammer, 10 feet
table saw, 5 feet
110-120 db:......Rock concert, 20-30 feet
airplane taking off, 200 feet
TIMBRE
The diagrams we've seen illustrating the swinging of a pendulum
are pictorial representations of wave forms. The pendulum swing
creates a simple curvilinear form because as it swings out to the
positive side of displacement it slows down until it reaches the
turn-around point, then regains speed as it passes the resting
point, slowing down on the opposite swing, and so on. This simple
motion is similar to the way a piano string or a violin string
vibrate over their overall length. The resultant wave form is a
sine wave. The tone such a vibration would produce is called a
sine tone.
No acoustic vibration is quite this simple, however. The vibration of a
piano string can illustrate this. When it is set in motion, it not only
oscillates back and forth over its whole length, but also vibrates in
parts, each one of which vibrates at its own rate. This occurs because
the molecules of the string are knocking against each other, waves of
kinetic energy are flowing along the string, being reflected back from
the stopped ends of the string, and reinforcing or cancelling each other.
You've seen this happen if you've ever thrown a pebble into a small pool
of water. A circle of waves radiates outward, reflects back off the sides
and crosses on-coming waves. Reinforcement and cancellation of the waves'
energies create an overall wave structure called an interference pattern.
The interference pattern in a vibrating string was discovered at
least as long ago as the 6th century BC, by Pythagorus. At
exactly whole-number (integer) divisions of the string, points of
no energy occur. These are called nodal points. The result is
that the string vibrates over its whole length at the same time as
it is vibrating over half its length, over a third of its length,
over a quarter of its length, and so on. Each of these subsidiary
vibrations occur at frequencies inversely proportionate to the
lengths and with varying amplitude relationships. The vibration
over the whole length is called the fundamental. It is the
frequency of this whole-length vibration which we have been
referring to in describing pitch. If this frequency is 100 Hz
then the half-length vibration of the string is 200 Hz, the third-
length vibration is 300 Hz, the quarter-length vibration is 400
Hz, and so on. ( <RETURN> for illustration ).
These subsidiary vibrations are variously described as overtones,
partials, or harmonics. They are audible, and every acoustic
vibration produces them. We generally do not perceive them
discretely, however, but rather coalesce them into a composite
sound whose quality varies from sound to sound, instrument to
instrument, depending upon their particular configurations. The
pattern of harmonics is different for virtually every sound, and
thus we can distinguish between one kind of sound and another.
This is what is called timbre (pronounced "tam-ber"), or "tone
color." Together with the manner in which a tone is initiated
(called onset), timbre allows us to distinguish whether we are
hearing a flute, oboe, human voice, and so on.
Depending upon overtone constituency, a sound may be described on
a continuum from relatively pure to relatively harsh. The fewer
the audible overtones, the more pure the sound, the greater the
number of partials the harsher the sound. The purest sound would
be a sine tone, and the closest instrumental sound to a sine tone
is a flute in its higher register. Electronic instruments can
produce sine tones within their circuitry such that they appear as
simple pendulum-swing curves on an oscilloscope, but when they are
made audible through a speaker, the membrane of the speaker itself
generates harmonics and thus a tone which is not entirely pure.
The timbre of the tone generated by this computer is not quite
pure and varies, like the amplitude, with different frequency
ranges. We again have no programable way of altering the timbre
here, but with some programming manipulation we can approximate a
variety of tone qualities. Listen first of all for the quality of
the unaltered tone and hear if you can perceive the slightly buzzy
quality indicative of the presence of overtones. Then imagine
that your ears are capable of focusing toward the bottom of the
frequency spectrum being sounded and, like a flashlight beam,
capable of being swept upward. Focus in on successively higher
frequency territories and try to isolate the pitches which cause
the buzzy sound. Do this with each example. With practice, you
should be able to hear discretely varying frequencies within the
framework of what, at first "glance", appears to be a single sound.
There are 7 examples. You may hear them as many times as you wish
by hitting 1-7.
Each of these sounds is distinctly different, and examples 5-7
sweep up and down through the harmonic series in the way you can
imagine doing when listening to a single sound.
Harmonics are so named because of the whole-number relationships
they bear to one another. Some sounds, like a cymbal crash,
generate partials whose relationships are inharmonic, non-whole
number ratios. When sounds produce harmonics (as opposed to in-
harmonics), their ratios are simply calculated. The fundamental
is harmonic number 1. The next highest is number 2, and so on. The
number in the series also indicates proportion. Number 2 is 2x1
(or 2:1). Number 3 is 3x1 (or 3:1). Ratios also may be determined
between any two harmonics. The ratio from harmonics 2 to 3 is 2:3,
and so on. Our pictorial representation of a vibrating string
only illustrated 4 divisions of the string, but actually the
divisions continue on to a theoretical infinity. We are capable
of hearing up to 16 harmonics, but as you can determine that the
proportions become smaller and smaller the higher one goes in the
series, hearing discrete upper partials becomes difficult. The
frequency sweeps in the preceding examples focused on the first 8
harmonics, which are easily perceived.
To facilitate calculation, all of the examples used a fundamental
of 100 Hz. Thus the second harmonic is 200 Hz, the 3rd is 300 Hz,
and to continue on: 4=400 Hz, 5=500 Hz, 6=600 Hz, 7=700 Hz, and
8=800 Hz. Listen now to these frequency relationships with each
pitch sounding for about one second. <RETURN>
When a single note on a piano is struck, these pitches are
component parts of what we normally designate as a single sound.
Some common sense analysis can lead to realization of why our ears
focus in on the fundamental as the indicator of frequency. First
of all, it is the loudest, having the greatest displacement. But
second, within the first 8 harmonics, it is replicated in octaves
3 more times. The second harmonic is an octave above the first
(2:1 ratio, remember!). The 4th harmonic is 2 octaves above the
fundamental, and the 8th harmonic is 3 octaves above the
fundamental. (There is yet one more octave relationship within
the first 8 harmonics--the relationship of the 3rd harmonic to the
6th forms a 2:1 ratio).
PROBLEM 3:
Given a fundamental of 55 Hz (3 octaves below tuning "A"), what
are the successive harmonics up to the 8th? <RETURN>
Wave Form
We have seen an image of a sine wave, with its simple curvilinear
form. If one started superimposing one sine wave upon another,
the resultant reinforcement and cancellation of oscillations would
produce other patterns. This is exactly what the 18th century
mathematician, Joseph Fourier, determined. He devised a theorem
which states that any wave can be written as a unique sum of sine
waves. This principle was employed in the early development of
electronic music, since all that was available to composers at
that time (the 1940's) were sine wave generators. Some
present-day synthesizers use this technique also, in a procedure
called additive synthesis. Many current synthesizers make
available other wave forms and present math theory contends that
"...almost any waveform family will work as the basic alphabet of
a wave language." [Quantum Reality, Nick Herbert, Anchor Books,
1987]
There are four commonly available wave forms. The sine, which
we've seen; a square wave (which is actually what this computer
generates); a sawtooth wave; and a triangle wave. <RETURN> to see
how these would appear as oscillographic images.
Sine wave additive synthesis is capable of producing virtually any
sound. With the added capability provided by other waveforms,
composers now have entire orchestras of sound contained in desktop
instruments no larger than the clavichords of the 17th century.
ENVELOPE
All sounds vary, to greater or lesser degree, with the passage of
time. The description of the overall changes in a sound over time
is called the sound's envelope. While timbre or frequency may
change over time and thus may be described in terms of timbral or
frequency envelope, the most usual application of the term is to
amplitude. Amplitude envelope is a description of the manner in
which a sound's loudness changes with the passage of time.
There are four standard components of amplitude envelope: Attack,
Decay, Sustain, and Release (often seen abbreviated as ADSR).
Attack is the amount of time it takes for a sound to reach its
maximum loudness level from the instant of its initiation. Decay
is the time it may take to level off to its Sustain level (if it
is cabable of sustaining). And release is the time it takes for
the sound to die out once "turned off." Some sounds bypass the
sustain segment, and the release cycle is equivalent to the decay.
A piano, for instance, whose envelope is called a "bell" shape
(since it has the same configuration as a struck bell), has a
nearly instantaneous attack cycle with gradual tapering off of the
sound (decay) until reaching 0 loudness. We cannot illustrate
amplitude envelope with this computer, but as various pictorial
representations appear, you will hear the envelope traced by the
analogous frequency changes. <RETURN>
Conclusion
This discussion has been somewhat technical. The greater our un-
standing of the nature of sound, the better we can hear. I can
think of no better way to enhance our hearing capabilities than to
develop the ability to hear harmonics. Used as an exercise,
focusing in on harmonics hones our hearing equipment to a fine
degree. Knowledge of other components of sound, like frequency,
amplitude, and envelope, also enhances our hearing acuity by
making it possible to focus on details of sound. The more detail
we can take in, the richer is our experience. In depth exploration
may also stimulate curiosity--the more we know, the more questions
we are able to ask. The more questions we ask, the more we come
to know. The more we know, the more questions....
There is, furthermore, a broader perspective here. For it is in
the rather mysterious property of vibrating things to vibrate in
complex ways, yet having simple harmonic proportions, that there
exists a model for the relationship of the heavenly bodies one to
another. This in fact led Pythagorus and others to devise
theories about the so-called Music or Harmony of the Spheres.
These theories manifest themselves in many ways, among the latest
being Superstring theory, in which reality is conceived to consist
of ten dimensions and "...the fundamental building blocks of
matter and energy aren't infinitesimal points but infinitesimal
strings." And "it's at this ultimate smallness that everything
exists as the dance of one-dimensional strings in a
ten-dimensional universe. A string vibrating and twitching in a
specific fashion might manifest itself in the real world as a
quark. Another string, shaking and rolling in a different
fashion, might appear as an electron, or a photon, or one of the
many other creatures of the subatomic bestiary. The strings are
the same; only the modes of vibration change." [Gary Taubes,
"Everything's Now Tied To Strings," Discover, November, 1986]
Also, in sound we have a representation of the idea of the One and
the Many. A single sound is all one sound, a whole, perceived as a
unified entity; but at the same time it is many-voiced, a
composite of an infinite number of vibrations, each unique and
discrete. Hence, when you listen to sound, listen carefully.
Listen not only to what is perceived at first as the fundamental
pitch, but listen also for the many voices, the overtones, which
coalesce into forming the overall sound. Listen with ears attuned
to the harmonic structure of the universe, and maybe you will come
to understand the importance of sound in the Rg Veda, sound as the
basis for all else, the primal vibration upon which the whole
phenomenological world floats, sound as Bentov suggested, giving
structure to the very atoms of which we are made.
SUBMISSN.DOC
Music Imagination & Technique by Norman Lowrey
Copyright (C) 1990. All rights reserved.
Detailed Program Description:
Music Imagination & Technique is a 100% software based course of instruc-
tion in the fundamentals of music theory. It is run from a main menu which
accesses four categories of "discourse:" Music Theory, Utilities, Discussion,
and Help.
The topics included under Music Theory are:
1. Acoustics
2. Pitch Basics
3. Rhythm
4. Scales & Keys
5. Intervals
6. Analysis
7. Harmony
Each of these topics is a complete "chapter" devoted to the designated
subject, complete with table of contents, thorough discussion, notated
examples, animated illustrations, and drill/practice screens. The infor-
mation is presented beginning with the most basic material and leading to
increasingly more complex matters. Use of the materials does not have to
proceed in a sequential manner, however. Any screen is accessible through
directly entering a screen number while in any given chapter and return-
ing to the main menu for changing chapters.
The Utilities include:
1. Melody Writer
2. Keyboard
3. Pitch Memory
4. SoundForms
5. Editor
We use Melody Writer more than any other utility in the course for which
MIT was written. It is a simple music notation module for the writing of
single-line melodies that can be played back over the PC's internal
speaker or through an external MIDI synthesizer. This is like a word
processor for music, having a variety of editing features, and capable
of printing out fairly high quality music notation.
The Keyboard is accessible from both the main menu and from Melody
Writer. It can be used to turn the computer keyboard into a piano-
style instrument to play real-time tunes and also includes a feature
to accompany the tunes with rapidly arpeggiated chords. Unlike many
computer music "keyboards," I have written the program replacing the
standard key interrupt and thus tones can be sustained for as long as
a key is held down.
Pitch Memory is a little "game" in which you are presented with a random
pitch played by the computer and asked to try to match it as nearly as
possible by adjusting a pitch up and down on the computer.
SoundForms is like a musical Etch-A-Sketch. Up to 6 different screens
of pitch "shapes" can be drawn, with variable rates of playback. These
are treated like sound "objects" that are linkable on a "construction"
screen. I use this utility in the beginning weeks of my course for
students to create musical structures without their having to know
anything about traditional musical notation.
The Editor is also accessible from both the main menu and from Melody
Writer. It is a no-nonsense WordStar style text editor which contains
some extensions for writing Basic type music code to drive an external
4-voice synthesizer which plugs into the printer port. This unit is
still under development and will be available with a future upgrade of
MIT. I use the editor to do direct manipulation of the text files which
constitute the raw data generated by both Melody Writer and SoundForms.
The Discussion topics presently consist of:
1. Sound Pollution
2. The Music of Harry Partch
3. Creativity
4. The Music of Meredith Monk
I am leaving these texts in MIT for general distribution, not because
they directly pertain to the subject of music theory, but because they
are integral parts of the liberal arts orientation of my teaching method-
ology. Other topics may be added to the program as it evolves.
Under the menu heading of Help are:
1. Instructions
2. Print Texts
3. OS Shell
These items should be, I think, self-explanatory.
=============================================================================
Unique features of the program:
MIT includes complete and thorough information pertaining to the funda-
mentals of music theory and is not just a "drill and practice" program.
Also, it contains several novel utilities and instructional tools to
make learning interesting and challenging.
=============================================================================
Program's capacity or limitations:
MIT is fully functional even without registration.
=============================================================================
Does your program require any special system requirements:
CGA card required.
=============================================================================
How to start the program:
Disk 1 in active drive: type MIT at prompt.
=============================================================================
What is the registration fee for your program:
$50.00
=============================================================================
Materials or services that come with registration:
Brief documentation, tutorials, free phone support, low-cost upgrades.
=============================================================================
List of program files and one-line description of each file:
Disk 1:
README.DOC - General description, installation instructions, booting.
MIT.EXE - Main menu system for all other files.
MIT.TXT - Text file for MIT.EXE
PREFACE.TBC - Prefatory discussion of Music Imagination & Technique;
PREFACE.TXT - Text file for PREFACE.TBC
SOUND.MNU - Table of contents for chapter on Acoustics.
SOUND.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Acoustics.
SOUND.TXT - Text file for SOUND.TBC.
PRELUDE.EXE - Animated text introduction to chapter on Acoustics.
CGA.BGI - Graphics driver for PRELUDE.EXE.
TRIP.CHR - Font for PRELUDE.EXE
PITCH.MNU - Table of contents for chapter on Pitch Basics.
PITCH.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Pitch Basics.
PITCH.TXT - Text file for PITCH.TBC.
SUNNY.SEQ - Example file for Melody Writer.
EXAMPLE.SNX - Example file for SoundForms.
Disk 2:
RHYTHM.MNU - Table of contents for chapter on Rhythm.
RHYTHM.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Rhythm.
RHYTHM.TXT - Text file for RHYTHM.TBC.
SCALES.MNU - Table of contents for chapter on Scales.
SCALES.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Scales.
SCALES.TXT - Text file for SCALES.TBC.
INTERVALS.MNU - Table of contents for chapter on Intervals.
INTERVALS.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Intervals.
INTERVALS.TXT - Text file for INTERVALS.TBC
ANALYSIS.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Analysis.
ANALYSIS.TXT - Text file for ANALYSIS.TBC.
Disk 3:
HARMONY.TBC - Overlay file for chapter on Harmony.
HARMONY.TXT - Text file for HARMONY.TBC.
POLLUTE.TBC - Overlay file for discussion of Sound Pollution.
POLLUTE.TXT - Text file for POLLUTE.TBC.
PARTCH.TBC - Overlay file for discussion of Harry Partch.
PARTCH.TXT - Text file for PARTCH.TBC.
CREATE.TBC - Overlay file for discussion of Creativity.
CREATE.TXT - Text file for CREATE.TBC.
MONK.TBC - Overlay file for discussion of Meredith Monk.
MONK.TXT - Text file for MONK.TBC.
Disk 4:
MW.TBC - Overlay file for Melody Writer.
KEYBOARD.EXE - Keyboard utility.
PITCHMEM.TBC - Overlay file for Pitch Memory utility.
SNDFORM.TBC - Overlay file for SoundForms utility.
SYNTHED.EXE - Text editor utility.
EDITERR.MSG - Error message file for SYNTHED.EXE
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #3470
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
MIT EXE 78504 12-07-90 5:53a
MIT TXT 1583 4-21-90 4:48p
README DOC 7981 12-07-90 5:45a
SUBMISSN DOC 7400 12-09-90 4:38p
PREFACE TBC 9538 8-17-89 2:33p
PREFACE TXT 3866 8-14-89 8:37a
SOUND MNU 1140 8-13-89 12:22p
SOUND TBC 51529 1-22-90 7:48p
SOUND TXT 39494 1-20-90 6:33p
PRELUDE EXE 19968 6-25-88 4:39p
PITCH MNU 1190 7-07-89 9:13a
PITCH TBC 60195 4-01-90 5:09p
PITCH TXT 12804 9-21-89 9:49a
CGA BGI 6029 12-16-87 4:00a
TRIP CHR 7213 12-16-87 4:00a
SUNNY SEQ 8136 2-17-90 3:28p
EXAMPLE SNX 4993 12-09-90 4:06p
GO BAT 38 4-13-93 9:00a
SHOW EXE 2040 9-12-88 10:48a
19 file(s) 323641 bytes
29696 bytes free