Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/86

 78 MUSIC ting music in four parts is to put the alto on the same staff with the trehle, and the tenor with the hass or treble. With these staves, and the aid of short lines called leger lines above and below the staves, we are able to represent all the notes of the human voice, and even more. The following is the musical scale from the lowest bass note to the highest soprano : DE FGAB CD EF G A B C DE The pitch of any note may be raised half a tone by means of a sharp (ft) placed before it, or low- ered half a tone by a flat fo). When a sharp or flat is placed on a line or space at the begin- ning of a staff, it affects every note occurring on that, line or space and its octaves through- out the piece. A natural (J|) restores to its nor- mal pitch a note affected by a flat or sharp. A note or passage may be raised or lowered an octave by writing over or under it the sign 8va. Besides the words forte, fortissimo, piano, pianissimo, and their abbre- viations,/.,/"., p., pp., indicating that a note or passage is to be given loud, very loud, soft, or very soft, there are the signs ==C (crescen- do), denoting a tone gradually increasing from soft to loud ; ^= (diminuendo), the reverse of crescendo ; > (sforzando), an explosive tone instantaneously diminished ; (staccato), a short articulate utterance as if each note were followed by a brief rest ; and *~f (legato), a binding together of successive tones. The system of musical notation adopted in- dicates to the performer the pitch, the dura- tion, and in an imperfect manner the intensity of musical sound, but; conveys no idea of the timbre or composition of these sounds. A musical note, indeed, gives merely the pitch of the fundamental or first harmonic of a musi- cal sound. This defect is unavoidable, and to the musician is generally of little consequence ; for in concerted music the parts are writ- ten for special instruments, whose qualities of sound are well known to the musical ear. It was only after ages of experience, and many changes, that the system of music reached its present condition. The principal problem was this: Whatever the note selected from the scale to begin the gamut, the other notes when combined with the former shall give the estab- lished musical intervals. In order to solve this problem, the fixed notes were altered, either by elevating them in pitch by a semitone, which operation is called sharpening a note, and is indicated by the sign |, or by lowering them a semitone in pitch, which is to flatten a note, and is indicated by the sign |j. For the value of this semitone the interval f f- has been adopted, which is smaller than the ratio -^f , the value of the interval E F. The notes 0, D, E, &c., are given by the white keys of the piano and organ, while the black keys give the sharps and flats. The gamuts are always designated by the name of their first note, or tonic. All the gamuts called major are model- led on the primitive gamut of 0, formed by the series of natural notes, 0, D, E, &c. The gamut of G is formed of the notes G, A, B, 0, D, E, F#, G; that of F, of the notes F, G, A, Bfr, 0, D, E, F. These gamuts constitute the major mode. Music, however, requires also a minor mode, formed of gamuts whose type is the gamut of A minor : A, B, 0, D, E, F, G, A. The principal difference between the two modes consists in the introduction of the minor third, A C (5 : 6), in the place of the major third, E (4 : 5). They are both character- ized by a perfect accord, formed with the third and fifth of the tonic, as follows : Perfect major accord, C minor E G. E, or C Ej, G. The major and minor scales give us a series of 11 notes, which, severally combined with the tonic, form 10 distinct intervals. In musical notation they are as follows : Second. Minor Third. Major Third. Fourth. Fifth. ^fee - ^ id '

5- Minor Sixth. Major Sixth. Minor Seventh. Major Seventh. Octave. m