Download Pitch- the relative “highness” or “lowness” of a sound

Pitch- the relative “highness” or “lowness” of a sound- In science, the pitch is called the Frequency, and
is measured in Hertz (Hz), which corresponds to the number of cycles (waves) per second (ie, A440 is a
soundwave that vibrates 440 times in a second)
The “space” between two pitches is called the Interval- and the most important interval is the Octave,
or two pitches whose frequency ratio is 1:2 or 2:1 (ie, A440 vs A220, an octave lower, or A880, an octave
higher)
In most musical systems, octaves are considered to be equivalent- ie (men and women generally sing an
octave apart, but can still be considered to be singing “in unison” (see parallel octaves in the Texture
notes)
A succession of pitches that occur horizontally over time is a Melody. This is the basic pitch material
used in most music, the most recognizable feature of more pieces, the part you would sing or hum.
Pitches stacked vertically in time, in other words, two or more pitches sounding
together/simultaneously, is Harmony. There are MANY different ways of organizing harmony, which
we’ll talk about later as we run into them. Many of harmony’s organization principles are governed by
Texture.
A melody can be conjunct, meaning the pitches used are relatively close together (Mary Had A
LittleLamb), or disjunct, meaning the pitches are far apart (Star-Spangled Banner). A rough, connect-thedots of the pitches in a melody gives you an idea of that melody’s contour, or general shape, which can
also be described as conjunct or disjunct.
Range is the relative distance between all the pitches used (may also refer to the actual number of
different pitches that occur as well…). Mary Had A Little Lamb has a very narrow range (only 4 pitches, in
fact), while the SSB has a very wide range, it’s pitches are all over the place, from very high to low.
The Tessitura of a sound is its relative high or lowness of a melody in relation to the capabilities of the
object creating the sound. You can sing MHALL very low in your voice, which would be a low tessitura, or
at the very top of your voice, which would be a high tessitura. Since women’s voices are generally an
octave higher than men’s, men’s high tessitura is only about the mid-range on a woman’s voice.
[Mongolian Longsong] versus [Gyuto Monks]
Ornaments/Embellishments- all the stuff that occurs that modifies the original or “root” melody. In
some cases, such as in Irish traditional music, this is very highly tied into the capabilities of the different
instruments- a fiddle, and accordion, and the flute might not be able to ornament in the same ways, etc.
Tuning Systems and Scales and stuff…
The Tuning System is whatever method a culture uses to divide the pitch space into the specific tones
that the music will use. Most times, this will be how the space between an octave is divided. In WEAM,
we divide the octave into 12 equally-spaced pitches. In Indian ragas, there are 22 Shruti in an octave (so
the distance between adjacent pitches is obviously smaller than in WEAM). In Indonesia, the pelog
system has 7 tones divided more or less equally, while the slendro system has 5, with larger and smaller
gaps between the tones.
Tonality is the tendency of a melody to favor a certain pitch as the sort of “home pitch”, also called the
Tonic, and the importance of all the tones in the melody is calculated in relation to that pitch. The first
or last pitch of a melody can usually tell you the most information about the melody’s tonality (for
example, the pitch that is the Tonic of MHALL is the pitch where you sing “snow”).
Most pieces do not use all of the pitches available in the entire tuning system. The Mode or Key of a
piece of music is the subset of pitches within a Tuning System that will be used. When those pitches are
arranged in a sequential order from low to high, it creates a Scale. It is important to understand that the
scale is a WEAM convention and not all cultures recognize it as an item of organizational importance (for
example, it is absolutely NOT possible to play “the scale” that is used in any given Indian Raga, as the
rules for pitch organization are entirely different).
Let’s put all this craziness into a practical application:
Let’s say our tuning system has 12 pitches in the octave (like in the WEAM model) and we’ll number
them 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,x,y,z (so that 10-12 only take up one character…). This is our Tuning System. But
our piece of music is only going to use 7 of those pitches- 1,3,5,6,8,X,Z, and then repeat 1 again (octave
equivalency). That subset is our Key, based on pitch 1. Since we ordered it sequentially, we now have a
Scale. If I had just listed the pitches randomly- 3,x,6,z,8,5,1- that isn’t anything, it’s just an unordered list
of the pitches in our subset.
If I create a piece of music where the most important pitch is 1, then that determines my Tonality. It is
(Western) convention to list the Tonic of a key as the pitch you start a scale on.
Now look at the Intervals between the pitches in our subset- 1-3, 3-5, 5-6, 6-8, 8-X, X-Z, and Z-1. There
are certain gaps and non-gaps in the pattern. In this case, the interval sequence is 2-2-1-2-2-2-1. This
specific sequence of gaps helps us determine our Mode. You could use the exact same interval sequence
starting on ANY other pitch out of our original 12- let’s say…4. So your new sequence would be
4,6,8,9,Y,1,3,4 and this would still be the same mode because the interval sequence is the same. But
since you started your scale on a different pitch (4 instead of 1), it’s a different key. You might notice
that this means you had to use some pitches in your new scale that weren’t in the original scale. Same
Mode (interval sequence), different Key, different subset of pitches.
Let’s go back to original sequence- 1,3,5,6,8,X,Z. Let’s start on a different note of the scale, but keep the
sequential ordering of this subset, let’s do…5, which gives us 5,6,8,X,Z,1,3,5. Now the interval sequence
is 1-2-2-2-1-2-2. Even though the pitches are the same, the interval sequence is different, so we are now
in a different mode. And we started on pitch 5, so we have a new key. Different mode, different key,
same subset of pitches.
So, as you can see, in a subset of 7 different pitches, we can create 7 different unique modes/interval
sequences by starting on any pitch and listing the rest of the pitches in the subset sequentially.
Now, if we take our original sequence- 1,3,5,6,8,X,Z, interval sequence 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 and apply a
different interval sequence to pitch 1, we’d get a different mode, a different subset of pitches, but still
the same key. Let’s use the second mode we identified- 1-2-2-2-1-2-2. If we apply that to pitch 1, then
we’d get a scale of 1,2,4,6,7,9,Y. Obviously a much different subset than our original mode. Same key,
different mode, different pitch set.
A few notes about structure
We will discuss structures more in depth as we get into specific topics, but in general, the basic
structural element in most musics is the Phrase. The phrase can be defined loosely as a musical
sentence, a complete thought, just like in our own conversation. In vocal music, a key indicator of where
phrases lie is where singers take breath or where punctuation naturally occurs (if the text has
punctuation).
Two smaller units of organization are the Motive and the Theme. Both definitions are loose, but a
motive generally is short, just a few notes long, and a theme can be longer. When you put a bunch of
iterations of a motive back-to-back and at different pitch levels (within the key/tonality/mode…), then
you create a Sequence. If a theme is repeated, but at a different pitch level, the process is usually called
a Transposition.
Much (but not all) vocal music will fall into two broad categories: Strophic form, and Verse/Refrain form.
Strophic form is where for each group of lines, the music is the same, but the words are all different,
with no repeated lines. [Sacred Harp singing] In Verse/Refrain forms, each verse will have new lines, but
the refrain will remain the same throughout [There’s The Day].