Musical questions and answers thread

[teamsaint]

I'm not sure I can really, I don't know of any publications that deal exclusively with the folk music connection for example, though for example Steven Zohn's book on Telemann has a long chapter on his and his contemporaries' interest in forms and materials from folk music, and I remember there being an interesting section on folk music in the OUP Companion to Haydn. If anything else springs to mind I'll let you know, but my previous observation was more the result of piecing together many little ideas from here and there, and of listening as much as reading.

Thanks RB, much appreciated. The Telemann thing is interesting, part of my interest was sparked by the Baroque Gypsies CD, which I love.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Telemann-And-The-Baroque-Gypsies/dp/B002NTSMMO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412250311&sr=8-1&keywords=baroque+gypsies

The whole area Sounds like a Phd in the making for somebody.

[BBMmk2]

Does anyone know wether, if JSB, had the right way oif writing a French Overture?

[vinteuil]

... and what would be "the right way of writing a French Overture?"

[Serial_Apologist]

... and what would be "the right way of writing a French Overture?"

Well you'd need to have been born in France, for a start...

[Richard Barrett]

Well you'd need to have been born in France, for a start...

Apart from the fact that the French Overture was invented by Lully who was born in Florence.

[DracoM]

If singing a note someone plays on a piano, or we hear and sing along with, how on earth do we get the pitch right? What processes go on in the brain to make sure we tune in?

[Alison]

Thanks, very informative answers as ever. I believe we did go into these areas at school but I didn't start paying attention until we got to the symphony! That transition from slow intro to allegro first subject is something I never tire of, so often a marvellous start to an orchestral concert. (Lots to be said for concluding with a classical symphony too of course!)

[teamsaint]

Icould probably look this up....but I was wondering what key (!!) moments there may have been in the move from using "simpler" key signatures, towards using those with many more sharps and flats.
Perhaps these were in part developments associated with more sophisticated instruments?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Depends how you define "sophisticated", ts. Is a Lute less sophisticated than a Boehm flute, for example?

Probably the first key moment was the gradual adoption of Equal Temperament as a tuning system over the 17th & 18th Centuries (after the move from Modes to Keys over the previous century) . When Ab = G#, it becomes less complicated to make Music in keys more remote from those perhaps more traditionally associated with the human voices: so Bach can create two sets of works in which every major and minor key appears. These works themselves set a sort of challenging encouragement to later composers (Chopin's Preludes, for example) and so a repertoire grows. And then there are theories about "key colour" which suggest that each key has its own unique mood/emotional association, and the Romantics want to explore these unchartered expressive regions. And to facilitate such explorations, instrument makers (like Boehm or Sax) developed ... ahem ... sophisticated technical features. And the growth of the virtuoso performer in the 18th & 19th Centuries also contributed - complicated fingerings help show off a performer's technical prowess.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps slightly off-topic, but in the case of woodwind instruments, the more "sophisticated" they are, the easier the fingering becomes in general. The saxophone is mind-blowingly high-tech in construction, but it's the easiest woodwind instrument to play by a wide margin.

But in terms of instrumental development (aimed at an "improvement" in sound), the nature of the bore/reed/headjoint/materials used, etc., is paramount.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Perhaps slightly off-topic, but in the case of woodwind instruments, the more "sophisticated" they are, the easier the fingering becomes in general. The saxophone is mind-blowingly high-tech in construction, but it's the easiest woodwind instrument to play by a wide margin.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If singing a note someone plays on a piano, or we hear and sing along with, how on earth do we get the pitch right? What processes go on in the brain to make sure we tune in?

Forgot about this - I meant to make a joke about your not having heard my singing, DracoM! (Actually, beyond a joke.)

I think it might have something to do with sympathetic vibration - and is developed from an early age: a child hears a pitch and "feels" the particular vibration in their body and (after a series of trial-and-error attempts) gets it right - and knows that it's right from the delighted responses from the adults around them. And repeats the experience to get the same responses and so begins the process of learning how to sing. (Or, being continually told to "stop making that row!", abandons the effort.)

[Pabmusic]

Forgot about this - I meant to make a joke about your not having heard my singing, DracoM! (Actually, beyond a joke.)

I think it might have something to do with sympathetic vibration - and is developed from an early age: a child hears a pitch and "feels" the particular vibration in their body and (after a series of trial-and-error attempts) gets it right - and knows that it's right from the delighted responses from the adults around them. And repeats the experience to get the same responses and so begins the process of learning how to sing. (Or, being continually told to "stop making that row!", abandons the effort.)

I can't disagree, but I think it's even more basic. Our hearing detects pitches that 'mean' something to us. We instinctively copy these. It's this sort of process that leads us to 'understand' the timbres of speech. Thus I suspect that an instinctive knowledge of copying pitch is inbuilt (thanks to natural selection, of course).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - and in the womb we hear before we see. The developmental process(es) of getting the same note as one that's heard is fascinating and charming to observe. The instinct has to be nurtured - sadly, there are many people who have "lost" it because of negative responses to their attempts.

[Pabmusic]

Yes - and in the womb we hear before we see. The developmental process(es) of getting the same note as one that's heard is fascinating and charming to observe. The instinct has to be nurtured - sadly, there are many people who have "lost" it because of negative responses to their attempts.

Yes, indeed. I suspect it's so because we developed speech (last 2-3 million years?) making pitch important. Steven Pinker (at least) argues this as a forerunner of music.