Section I: Introduction to Music and Art History Flashcards
What is required to make music?
a time frame, sound, and a cognizant mind to perceive and interpret the sounds
What is music?
sound organized in time
What is a composer?
a person who first imagines the music and has performers make the sounds, and records and reproduces this music
What is sound?
a wave of energy
What are 2 attributes of sound waves that vary between each one?
amplitude and frequency
What does amplitude affect?
the decibel level, or how loud/soft a sound is
What does frequency affect?
the pitch
What is pitch?
the highness or lowness of a sound
When a wave is between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second, what do we hear it as?
a single, sustained tone
What does Hz represent?
cycles per second
What frequency do musicians in the U.S. typically tune their instruments to?
440 Hz or A-440
What are the 2 types of musical sounds?
pitched and non-pitched
What type of instruments typically provide non-pitched sounds in music?
percussion instruments
Who are scholars that study the music of other cultures called?
ethnomusicologists
Curt Sachs and Erich von Hornbostel created which 4 groups of instrument categories?
chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, and idiophones
What fifth category was later added to the Sachs and Hornbostel classification of instruments?
electrophones
What are examples of chordophones?
string instruments, like violins, guitars, and harps
What are examples of aerophones?
brass and woodwind instruments, like horns and flutes
What are membranophones?
instruments that have a skin or other type of membrane that vibrates when struck
What are examples of idiophones?
bells, woodblocks, and xylophones
What are the instrument families?
brass, woodwinds, strings, percussion, and sometimes keyboards
When did electronic instruments first begin to appear?
the early 20th century
What is one of the best-known early electronic instruments?
the theremin
A single musical sound has which 4 properties?
pitch, duration, volume, and timbre
What is the distance between any 2 adjacent keys on the keyboard of a piano called?
a half-step or semitone
What is the distance between every other piano key called?
a whole step
What are the white keys of a piano keyboard typically called?
the natural keys
What is the distance between any 2 pitches called?
an interval
Intervals can be performed so that it is _______ or ________.
harmonic or melodic
What are the 3 types of minor scales?
natural/pure minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor
What is a melody?
a series of successive pitches perceived to form a coherent whole
What is rhythm?
the way music is organized in time
What is a beat?
a steady pulse that underlies most music
What is the speed of a beat called?
the tempo
What does Allegro mean?
cheerful
What is a ritardando?
when the music slows down
What is an accelerando?
when the music speeds up
What is gradually slowing or speeding up the tempo in music written as?
poco apoco
What is suddenly slowing or speeding up the tempo in music written as?
subito
What is it called when music has no beat?
unmetered
What is slowing down or speeding up the tempo for expressive effect called?
rubato
Which beat of each measure is typically the strongest?
the first beat
What is the first beat of a measure called?
the downbeat
What is the longest note symbol used today?
the whole note
What does a dot after a note do to the note value?
it increases it by 1/2
What are ties?
curved lines that connect notes of the same pitch to tie or add up their values together
What are symbols for silence called in music?
rests
What is harmony?
2 or more tones occurring simultaneously
What is a chord?
3 or more pitches sounding simultaneously
What is form considered as?
the architecture of music
What is form?
how music is organized on a larger time scale
What is the smallest unit of form?
a motive
What is a melodic or rhythmic motive that is repeated many times in succession called?
an ostinato
Ostinato comes from the Italian word for ___________.
obstinate
What is a phrase?
a cohesive musical thought
What is a theme?
a set of phrases that make a complete melody
What is an Introduction in music?
music that precedes the first main theme
What is a coda?
a conclusive composition that wraps up the piece
What are the most basic formal processes in music?
repetition, variation, and contrast
What is repetition?
repeating musical material
What is a sequence?
a musical idea repeated at a different pitch level
What can a sequence be?
melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, or a combination of them
What is variation?
repetition with enough changes that the listener senses similarities and differences
What is a fine art?
paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and architecture
Which ancient Roman historian sought to analyze historical and contemporary art?
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder wanted to analyze art in which text?
Natural History
Who wrote Natural History?
Pliny the Elder
Who made The Lives of Artists?
Giorgio Vasari
Modern art history was strongly influenced by which 18th-century philosophy?
the Enlightenment philosophy
What is the most basic of the art elements?
the line
What is a line?j
the path of a point moving through space
What are the characteristics of a line?
length, width, and direction
What feeling do horizontal and vertical lines create?
a stable and static feeling
What feeling do horizontal lines create?
peace and tranquility
Medieval churches were made with high arched ceilings to raise the eyes of people and create what feeling?
spiritual awe
What sense do curved and jagged lines create?
a sense of activity
What is shape in art?
an art form that defines the 2D area of an object
What is form in art?
3D objects that have length, width, and depth
Is a triangle an example of shape or form?
shape
Is a cube an example of shape or form?
form
Is a cone an example of shape or form?
form
Is a square an example of shape or form?
shape
Is a pyramid an example of shape or form?
form
What techniques do artists use to create the illusion of form in art?
shading, foreshortening, perspective, and others
What are geometric shapes and forms?
shape and form that can be defined mathematically, like a square
What are organic shapes and forms?
shape and form that is irregular and freeform
What is space in art?
the organization of objects and the areas around them
What is positive space in art?
the objects, shapes, and forms that take up space
What is negative space in art?
the area around the positive space
What are the 2 types of sculptures?
freestanding and relief
What are freestanding sculptures?
sculptures that can stand by themselves and aren’t attached to anything
What are relief sculptures?
sculptures that project off of another surface
What are high-relief sculptures?
sculptures that project greatly off of another surface
What are bas-relief sculptures?
also called low-relief, sculptures that don’t project much off of another surface
What is perspective in art?
the illusion of depth
What are contours?
visible borders
What does placing objects lower on the picture plane do?
it makes them look closer
What does placing objects higher on the picture plane do?
it makes them look farther
What is aerial perspective?
a type of perspective that takes account of fog, smoke, and other airborne particles
What is linear perspective?
a visual phenomenon where lines seem to recede into the distance
What are the 3 primary colors of pigment?
red, blue, and yellow
How many tertiary colors are there?
6
Who made the underlying concepts for the color wheel?
Sir Isaac Newton
When does the color wheel date back to?
the 18th century
What colors are not hues?
black, white, and the colors you can make from them
What are black and white considered as?
neutrals
What is value?
the lightness or darkness of a color or gray
What is intensity in art?
the brightness or purity of a color
What are the most intense colors?
the unmixed primary colors
What does mixing 2 colors do to the intensity of the colors?
it lowers their intensity
What are the warm colors?
red, orange, and yellow
What are the cool colors?
green, blue, and violet
What do we associate warm colors with?
the warmth of the sun, the heat of a fire, or the dry grass of a summer day
What do we associate cool colors with?
cool forests, mountain lakes, and snow
What can colors be?
optical, arbitrary, or local
What are local colors?
the true appearance of a color, like a field of grass being painted as green
What are optical colors?
the effect of special lighting on other colors
What are arbitrary colors?
colors used for their aesthetic or emotional impact
When have arbitrary colors become more popular?
the 20th and 21st century
What is texture?
how things would feel if they were touched
