Classical Music Composition

The notes of the Phrygian mode go from E to E. Or in the key of C, a Phrygian scale would be C,Db,Eb,F,G,Ab,Bb,C. Examples of pieces in the Phrygian mode are Bach's "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein", Bruckner's Vexilla regis, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherezade, and some monastic hymns and ancient Greek music. The character of this mode is highly unusual compared to the major scale. It is associated with Spanish flamenco music, Hungary, and Egypt, having a very Eastern sound. This mode resembles somewhat the natural minor scale, except for its second scale degree, which is flat in the Phrygian but not the minor scale. For writing music that is evocative of fascinating, moody, perhaps even scary locales, it's hard to do better than the Phyrgian mode. There are certain scales that are similar to it and have properties in common, but they are quite rare. These include the Hungarian minor and harmonic minor scales. In contrast, you sh

Introduction Example of pro-432 hz website If you aren't familiar with the 432 Hz conspiracy, that link would be an interesting primer. Basically, music now is played to the tuning standard of 440 vibrations per second. Hundreds of years ago, not much was standardized, so a large variety of tuning standards would be used. (no, it wasn't always 415.0hz, Mozart played at 422.3) They ranged from way lower to higher than our current standard. Tuning before the standard of 440hz in 1939 was a very complicated mess. Even after that, it was still split in different locations between 440 and 442, and then the modern Baroque tuning of 415 came around. (415 was only one of many Baroque pitches at the time.) What is a second? Part of the 432hz conspiracy is to make people believe that 432 was actually commonly used and that 440 was invented by Nazis and so on. Aside from the fact that 432 wasn't some old universal standard, 440 isn't even set in stone either. A lot of orch

Fretted vs. Fretless Frets are strands of nickel silver, or sometimes stainless steel or another metal that are inlaid into the neck of an instrument such as a guitar. They quantize the sound into specific pitches that are used for a certain tuning system. Typically, that would be the 12-note Western system, although there are instruments with movable frets and microtonal frets as well, that are able to play in other tuning systems. Here is an example of a Turkish microtonal guitar . However, the great majority of fretted instruments are in the standard 12-tone system. link Fretless Instruments The bowed string family does not have frets, neither does the oud, erhu, sarod, or a number of other traditional instruments. These instruments have a very expressive quality due to their vibrato. Although guitar-family instruments can also produce a bit of vibrato, the only comparable fretted one with true vibrato would be the clavichord. Another benefit of the lack of frets is

What is the future? One thing that seems hard to get information or speculation on, even on the World Wide Web, is what the future of music is going to entail. Sure, there's a lot of info out there with projections and statistics on the music industry itself and all the money it has, (or has been losing) and there are occasionally lists of the newest musical subgenres, but as far as what the future styles of music will actually be, there's not too much out there. Looking at the past: In the ultra-long view, we've went from bone pipes to 3-d virtual synthesizers. That's an unbelievable amount of improvement. So in total, we've went far, and the projection would be that we'll go further. In the long view, from 1500 to now, we started with the very beautiful choral polyphonic style of Palestrina , followed by Monteverdi's invention, more or less, of Baroque music. (that was fairly widely complained about at the time) The apex of that epoch was Telemann, B

What a mode is The notes of Dorian are from D to D. Or in the key of C, a Dorian scale would be C,D,Eb,F,G,A,Bb,C. Examples of pieces in the Dorian mode are Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Simon and Garfunkel, Bach BMW 538, large swathes of pre-Baroque music, and "So What" by Miles Davis. The character of Dorian is more minor than the Major scale, but less minor than the Minor scales. It's more or less halfway in between. It has a beautiful mystical and somewhat mysterious sound that is a mixture of dark and light, being very suitable for giving a piece a Medieval or Renaissance atmosphere. I would say Dorian is better for melodic or counterpoint-based works more than modern harmony. It can mix well when modulated to from either major or minor. Use of this mode started to decline during and after the Baroque period, as the modes condensed into the now-dominating major and minor keys. Sadly, this has at times had a negative effect on the psychological variety of music. Modes

The harmonic minor scale is similar to natural minor, but with a standard 7th instead of a flat 7th. Baroque (Bach and Handel), Liszt, Chopin, Pagannini, and much Eastern European music use it. Harmonic minor is the most standard form of the minor scale now. This is the harmonic minor scale in A: from germanguitarguy.com When compared to natural minor, harmonic minor has a more harmonizing effect, and it lends itself better to more modern styles of composition than the former. It also takes on a more Eastern air, and the monastic vibe of the natural minor scale is avoided. It is basically a default for composing in a minor key now. The only reasons I would avoid harmonic minor are for forays into either the austerity of natural minor or to temporarily modulate to major for a bit of an emotional boost. For some reason, when playing in A minor, I particularly like to modulate to A major for a bar or so, especially using the major 6th, as it's harder at times to use a major

Natural minor is the same scale as the Aeolian mode. The piece Greensleeves is in this scale, as well as a lot of chants, but it isn't generally used for music that's newer than the Renaissance. Generally, the harmonic minor scale has replaced it since then. In the key of A, this scale uses just white notes. In C, it uses C,D,Eb,F,G,Ab,Bb. This scale gives an ancient feeling, and it is not suited for modern harmony because of the flat 7th. Because of that, it has no leading tone. (which is a tone one semitone flat from the home key, and is used before the home key to bring tension which the tonic chord made from the home key resolves to) Composing something in natural minor, therefore, requires a shift in thinking and is easier to do with counterpoint than modern harmony. Transposing something that is usually in harmonic minor to natural minor will give it a more somber tone. As far as composing goes, I wouldn't recommend this key over harmonic minor except in situation

Hello, I thought it might be a nice idea to do a series on the psychology involved in different musical scales. Background: The major scale in C goes C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C. Major is the most common scale for music from the 1700's till now. Before the Baroque period, modes were common, and the major and minor scales did not have the dominance they've acquired since then. Many cultures have discovered the major scale, Chinese ( the Zhengsheng 正聲) and Indian ( Bilawal ) music have it as well as European.  I'm not sure whether or not studies have been conducted on the emotional effects of the major scale on people who have never heard music in it, but it's almost universally described as a typically happy, content scale. My defense for this is the ratios involved in the notes made from it. As written in Rameau's Treatise on Harmony, the major scale is made of mostly simple, small-numbered ratios, meaning the sound is more comprehensible and pleasant to the ear. Playing

The other day, I clearly realized for the first time that the majority of instrument-players think using chords. Their idea of music, although it may have solos and melodies in it, primarily consists of a chordal vocabulary. (Fux's famous treatise on counterpoint. Try reading it in Latin. (my comprehension= 4%) No, it's not pronounced like a swear word.) The idea of music that doesn't have chords or isn't related to in a chordal way is mostly alien to them. I used to be like that in a way, when I was a little kid taking piano lessons, and I learned some chord based songs (by Michael Jackson) in addition to the very rudimentary classical pieces in my lessons. I remember the feeling of hitting the one bass root note with my left hand and triads in various positions with my right. It was satisfying and simple. But that just didn't work forever, and even though my first composed piece was pretty much based off C, F, and G chords, the little songs I wrote on the