Week 05: Out of Nothing... Sound

Principles, sound theories, and facts about sound:

Sound is Vibration
When we hear a musical tone, we hear a vibration.
Music is made of tones in time.
The “pitch” or height of a tone is determined by the speed of the vibration.
Fast is high, slow is low.

Frequencies:
A = 440 Hz (cycles per second)
C = 261.626 Hz
See chart:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies

Other (cycle per second) examples:
2 Hz, 120 bpm, one of the most common tempos in music.
10 Hz, cyclic rate of a typical automobile engine at idle (equivalent to 600 rpm)
50 Hz or 60 Hz (50 Hz for European AC, Tokyo AC or 60 Hz for American AC, Osaka AC), electromagnetic — standard AC mains power
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Hearing:
The human ear is capable of detecting sound waves with a wide range of frequencies, ranging between approximately 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz. Any sound with a frequency below the audible range of hearing (i.e., less than 20 Hz) is known as an infrasound and any sound with a frequency above the audible range of hearing (i.e., more than 20 000 Hz) is known as an ultrasound.

Humans are not alone in their ability to detect a wide range of frequencies.

Dogs can detect frequencies as low as approximately 50 Hz and as high as 45 000 Hz.

Cats can detect frequencies as low as approximately 45 Hz and as high as 85 000 Hz.

Bats, being nocturnal creature, must rely on sound echolocation for navigation and hunting. Bats can detect frequencies as high as 120 000 Hz.

Dolphins can detect frequencies as high as 200 000 Hz.

While dogs, cats, bats, and dolphins have an unusual ability to detect ultrasound, an elephant possesses the unusual ability to detect infrasound, having an audible range from approximately 5 Hz to approximately 10 000 Hz.
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Four Organizing Factors
1. Rhythm – beats of time (number of beats per time unit) plus the distribution of accents.
2. Melody – variation of pitch in a sequence of tones. Do re mi …
3. Harmony – combination of tones of various pitches, sounding simultaneously. Chords are an example of this.
4. Tone (timbre) – the character or quality (or colour) produced from the combination of the fundamental tone (pitch) and overtones, blended together. For example, a trumpet and guitar may play the same note, but the tone quality/timbre of the note will be different.
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The Four Brain Wave States
1. Beta (14-20Hz): This is the state of active awareness or active consciousness during our normal activities. Attention to activities of the external world.
2. Alpha (8-13Hz): Mentally awake, alert, and relaxed. We are powerfully creative and productive in this state. Daydreaming. Closed eyes. Meditative state.
3. Theta (4-7Hz): In this state we may be able to sense the energy of people and things fairly acutely. This is the half-awake, half-asleep state. High creativity. Shamanic states of consciousness. Deep meditative state.
4. Delta (0.5-3Hz): This is the deepest level of consciousness. This state may simulate a near-death experience. Deep meditation may produce this state.
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Binaural Frequencies

By pairing frequencies, another frequency may be experienced. This pairing up of frequencies is known as “binaural frequencies” or “binaural beats”.

For example: pairing up the pitch of “A” (A as 440 Hz, is 440 cycles per second) and “A sharpened” (410 cycles per second), sounded together would produce a frequency of 10Hz, which is an Alpha state frequency.

Chanting has a similar effect upon our brain waves and states of consciousness.
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Entrainment (active)
Entrainment is the effect of changing frequency to align with another close frequency. A less powerful object is set in motion by a more powerful one. Pendulum’s will eventually swing in-sync with each other

Resonance (passive)
Resonance is a cooperative phenomenon between two objects that share the same frequency. It is a meeting of the natural vibrations of one with the natural vibration of the other. One object may set another object of the same frequency into a state of movement. Shattering a wine glass with a resonant voice, is one example.
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Sound samples

George Frideric Handel’s, Pastoral Symphony
Influenced by the Victorian Era 1700’s England
Music effects: Formalism, Formal in character, grandeur, unsubtle, glorification of repetition of phrases, chords, imitation, conventionalism.
Human conduct effects: Love of outward ceremony and adherence to convention.

Johann Sebastian Bach, Little Suite
German music, 1700’s
Effects: grandeur but also mental, intellectual, mathematical, with counterpoint, complex, rich, philosophical.

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827), Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major
Effects: portray in sound every variety of human emotion. Sympathy-inducing aspect to the works. Through Beethovan’s music, the listener realizes the troubles of others, grief, deprivation, sickness, yearning and the vast emotions that go along with these sufferings. The music evoked the feeling of sympathy toward fellow humans. Emotional relief (weeping) – the music gave utterance to all the feelings that could not be expressed in any other way.

Edvard Greig’s, Peer Gynt Suite
Music of the Devas, or nature spirits
Suggests dancing gnomes.
Intermediary between the little nature-spirit and humanity.
Nature music, Nature-spirit world, spirit of the woods, landscape.

Gregorian Chanting
Gregorian is meant to train one to rise up out of the body. The whole technique of building churches is to amplify the high frequencies, to give the sensation of another centre of gravity above the head.
Effect: well-being, rising upwards, above the head.
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Vowels/Sounds in words
Pay attention to the sound/pitch of a vowel in a word.

E (“eee”): is a high sound.
A (“ah”): is a heart sound (found in the words: heart, art).
I (“eye”): suggests a centering in the self.
O (“ooh”): is like the ocean from which all sounds emerge.
U (“uh”): is a low sound.
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