Music:

Characteristics of Musical Sounds:

1.                  Pitch- location of the musical sound from high to low or low to high

2.                  Intensity – relative degree of softness or loudness

3.                  Tone color – also called timbre – the quality of the sound that distinguishes it from other musical sounds of the same pitch and intensity.

4.                  Duration – length of the sound, how long it is audible

Four elements of music:

1.                  Rhythm – organization of musical time

2.                  Melody – horizontal organization of pitches – succession of musical notes

3.                  Harmony – vertical organization of pitches in which two or more pitches are sounded together

4.                  Tone color – (timbre) like color in painting.   It is the color of the tone, each instrument has a different color, each voice has a different color.

Musical notation:

            Rhythm – duration.  The modern notation consists of fractional parts of the whole. 

            Eighth note = 1/8 of the whole

            Quarter note = ¼ of the whole

            Half note = ½ of the whole

Time signatures

            Expressed as fractions, indicating the amount of beats in a measure (music is organized into groups of measures) by the top note, and the type of note that will receive one beat – bottom note i.e. ¼, 1/8, ½.

Rhythm is both relative and fixed.  The actual length of a whole note will vary depending on the tempo (speed) of the piece.

Pitches:

            Pitches are notated on a staff.  A staff consists of 5 horizontal lines and 4 spaces.  A clef sign is used to determine the names of the notes.

Texture:           

            Monophonic (one sound) single unaccompanied melody line

            Hommophonic (same sound) principal melody line with harmonic accompaniment - hymns

            Polyphonic (many sounds) two or more melodies sounding simultaneously.  A round, fugue

ART:

Composition:

Skeleton or backbone of the picture.  One of the most powerful means the artist has of communicating with the spectator.  How the picture is organized, what to put in and what to leave out.

            Lines – horizontal, verticial

            Balance

            Rhythm and spaces

            Curves and diagonals

            Color

Space:

            The creation of the illustion of three dimensions on a flat surface.  Concerned with the width and depth, interval and distance surrounding solid objects rather than their own volume.

Perspective:  Diagonal lines of direction (orthognals) converge at a point (vanishing point) which is usually placed on a horizontal line (horizon).  It mimics the way our eyes see objects.  Discovered by Euclid in classical times and then revived by in the Renaissance.  Can be single (from one persons view) or multiple where the artists allows you to see from multiple angles.

Aerial prespective -  developed by Leonardo da Vinci.  Cool colors like blues, grays, and greens are used in the backgrounds of paintings to create distance (cool colors receded).  Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges are used in the foreground.  

If objects in the foreground are painted in greater detail than those in the background distance will be achieved (like we see things).

Form:  How the artists describes the feeling of volume in a painting.

            Perspective, foreshortening

Chiaroscuro:  (daVinci) use of light and dark to achieve the illustion of form

Sfumato:  blurring the edges of an object to indicate roundness, fullness.

Tone:            Contrast between light and dark.

-               Create drama

-               Express emotion

-               Atmosphere

Color:  

            Primary – red, yellow, blue

            Secondary – green orange indigo and violet

Subject matter