Broadly speaking, music is any kind of artistic, pleasant, prudent or other arranged sound. The definition of so-called music is still hotly debated, but it can usually be interpreted as a series of organizations with temporality for sound and silence, and contains rhythm, melody and harmony of different scales.

Music can be experienced in several ways. The most traditional one is to listen to musicians' performances on the spot. Live music can also be played by radio and television, which is similar to listening to tapes or watching music videos. Sometimes live performances will be mixed with some pre-recorded recordings, such as the friction sound made by DJ with records. Of course, you can also make your own music, by singing, playing musical instruments or composing loosely.

Even deaf people can experience music by feeling the vibration of their own bodies. The most famous deaf musician is Beethoven, and most of his famous works were written after he completely lost his hearing.

people take music lessons when they want to learn music. Musicology is a broad field of historical and scientific research on music, including music theory and music history.

As an ancient art, a great number of music genres have changed. Ethnomusicology, as a branch of anthropology, is a discipline that specializes in the origin and development of these schools.

This is a matter of different opinions, and there are many opinions. The author thinks that music is an art of sound, not an art of vision or other feelings. The art of organizing music sounds (and sometimes using noise appropriately) according to certain rules to make people feel beautiful when listening to them is called music.

knowledge about music The four elements of sound

The four elements of sound are: sound intensity, pitch, timbre and waveform envelope. Now their meanings are as follows:

1. Sound intensity,

Sound intensity is the loudness people feel when they hear it, that is, we usually say that the sound intensity is big or small, heavy or light. It is one of the subjective evaluation criteria of human ear for sound stability and weakness. Its objective evaluation scale, that is, the measurement of physical quantities, is the amplitude of sound waves. Sound intensity and amplitude are not completely consistent or proportional, and there is a great difference in the low frequency band of the audio frequency range, and there is also a considerable difference in the high frequency band.

the audio frequency range, that is, the normal frequency of sound vibration that people can hear, is 2 Hz to 2 kHz. Below 2 Hz is called infrasound, and above 2 kHz is called ultrasound. In the audio frequency range, the human ear is most sensitive to the sound in the middle frequency range of 1 ~ 3 kHz, but is relatively slow to the sound in the high and low frequency ranges, especially the sound in the low frequency range. There is another characteristic of human ear. For very strong sound, it feels that its loudness has little to do with frequency, or that sounds of various frequencies with the same amplitude are almost the same. But for low-level signals (that is, very light sounds), it feels that its loudness has a great relationship with frequency: for sounds with the same amplitude, sounds in low and high frequency bands sound lighter than those in the middle frequency band. The smaller the sound amplitude, the more serious the phenomenon of chicken breeding. For a sound signal of 1 kHz, the lowest sound pressure that the human ear can feel is 2X1 (minus 4th power) micro-bar. Micro-bar is the unit of sound pressure, which is equivalent to having 1 dyne pressure in an area of 1 square centimeter. Electroacoustic workers refer to this sound pressure as dB of sound pressure level, which is usually written as dB SPL(SPL is the abbreviation of sound pressure level), just as . 775 volts is set as decibel in a 6OO ohm circuit. It is obviously beneficial to use logarithmic "sound pressure level" to represent the amplitude of sound instead of sound pressure. This is because the range of sound pressure that people can hear is very wide, ranging from 2X1 (minus 4th power) minibus to 2XlO (minus 4th power) minibus, with a difference of 1 million (1C) times. It is inconvenient to calculate such a large range of changes, and it is much more convenient to express them by sound pressure level than by sound pressure. In addition, because the human ear's perception of loudness is nonlinear, logarithmic measurement is closer to the subjective characteristics of the human ear. When the sound pressure level reaches 12 dB SPL, the human ear will feel unbearable pain. Therefore, what is the natural dynamic range of music when listening to a band in a concert hall from to 12 dB SPL? For large-scale symphonic music, the loudest music segment can reach 115 dB SPL, and the weakest music segment is about 25 dB SPL, so the dynamic range can reach 9 dB. Of course, this is a rare situation. Usually, the dynamic range of symphonic music is about 5 ~ 8 decibels, the dynamic model of medium and small music is about 4 decibels, and the dynamic range of language is about 3 decibels.

Therefore, it is required that the home playback equipment can reproduce as much as possible:

1. The natural sound level dynamic range of the above music or language.

2] the natural sound pressure level of music or language. For the commonly used playback volume in the home, the average sound pressure level is about 86 decibels SPL for music and about 7 decibels SPL for language.

2. Pitch Pitch, or tone, is the subjective evaluation scale of human ears on the tone of sound. Its objective evaluation scale is the frequency of sound waves. Unlike the relationship between sound intensity and amplitude, pitch and frequency are basically the same. When the frequencies of two sound signals are twice different, that is, f2=2f1, f2 is said to be one octave higher than f1. 1(do) and I in music are just an octave apart, which is also called an octave apart in musicology. There are 12 semitones in an octave. Take the 1-I octave area as an example. The 12 semitones are: 1-# 1, # 1-2, 2-# 2, # 2-3, 3-4, 4-# 4, #-5, 5-# 5, # 5-6, 6-# 6 and # 6-7. Please note that the graduations of these 12 scales are basically divided in a logarithmic relationship.

when playing notes with the same frequency, people feel that their pitches are the same, which means that the played sounds have the same fundamental frequency. However, every time a musical instrument makes a sound, this sound has not only the fundamental frequency fo, but also harmonics that are positive integer multiples of fo. As mentioned earlier, the pitch feeling of each tone is determined by fo, and the different harmonic components of each instrument determine the unique timbre of the instrument. So, what is the natural fundamental frequency range of music? Among musical instruments, the piano has the widest range of basic audio strings, ranging from 27.5 Hz to 4136 Hz. The pitch range of orchestral music and symphony is 3 ~ 6 Hz. The pitch range of Chinese national musical instruments is 5 ~ 45 Hz. By the way, modern electro-acoustic research shows that the natural frequency range of musical sounds is beyond the range of 2 ~ 2, Hz audible audio string. For example, the pitch of some African drums is in infrasound frequency band, while the harmonic (overtone) of some China woodwinds can reach as high as 25 kHz. Infrasound signals can not be heard by human ears, but can be perceived by human skin. In addition, the fundamental frequency of language painting is in the range of 15 ~ 35 Hz.

3. timbre

people can accurately judge the "tone" of the sound besides having obvious differences in loudness and pitch. Although clarinet and horn play notes with the same pitch (fundamental frequency), people can clearly distinguish which is a single pipe and which is a horn without confusion. This is because their timbre and waveform envelope are different. The timbre is determined by the overtone (harmonic) spectrum of the music, which can also be said to be determined by the waveform of the music. Because the waveform of music (which can be seen on the electronic oscilloscope) is not a simple sine wave, but a complex wave. The analysis shows that this complex waveform can be decomposed into a series of sine waves, including fundamental frequency f and harmonics with integer multiples of f: f1, f2, f3, f4, and their amplitudes have specific proportions. This ratio gives each instrument a unique "color"-timbre. If there is no harmonic component, a simple pitch sinusoidal signal has no musical sense. Therefore, the frequency range of instrumental music is by no means just the frequency range of fundamental frequency, and all harmonics of instrumental music should be included, even very high overtones still have great influence on instrumental timbre. High-fidelity sound reproduction system should pay great attention to make all overtones can be reproduced, which makes the playback frequency range at least 15 Hz, and the required frequency range should reach 2 kHz or higher. In addition, the overtone of the language can reach 7 ~ 8 khz.

4. waveform envelope

the waveform envelope of a musical note refers to the transient at the beginning and end of the amplitude of a single musical note when the musical note is played (playing, blowing, pulling and plucking), that is, the waveform envelope. Some musical instruments, at the beginning of playing, blowing, pulling and plucking, reach the maximum amplitude immediately, and then the amplitude gradually decreases, while others, on the contrary, are less excited at the beginning, then gradually increase and then gradually decrease. These waveform envelope changes also affect the timbre of the instrument. Obviously, the playback equipment also requires good transient following ability, otherwise it will cause the distortion of the natural envelope of music.

Modern Music —— Two Thousand Years' Theoretical Exploration and the Birth of Twelve Equal Laws

There is a science in the theoretical heritage of China's traditional music, which has been explored since the 7th century BC. After that, it lasted for more than 26 years and continues to this day. It was once called "Juexue" by academic circles.

Rhythm is the science that studies the pitch system and the mathematical and logical relationship between * * in the musical sound system. It is an interdisciplinary subject that music acoustics (acoustics), mathematics and musicology permeate each other. In the research and application of pitch system, the law of temperament is almost everywhere. For example: the structure and intonation of melody tone; Harmony principle in mode and harmony theory; Various interval relationships when multiple voices are combined vertically; Rotation of the palace; Determination of pitch and phoneme in musical instrument manufacturing and tuning; Tone adjustment in duet and chorus ensemble is directly related to temperament. Therefore, in a "Twenty-four History", in addition to "music", every dynasty has chapters such as "law", "law book" and "law calendar".

The rich heritage of "Legalism" and its position in China's cultural and academic history can be imagined.

A complete legal theory was first produced in the history of China's music law, which was called "the law of three-point profit and loss", and it appeared in the middle of the Millennium. "Guan Zi Di Yuan Pian" and "Lv Shi Chun Qiu Melody Pian" respectively described its basic principles: based on a chord length, divide it into three segments, and if you give up one, you will get two, and "three points will lose one", and then the first upper fifth and fourth degree tone will be issued; If you add another paragraph to the three equally divided paragraphs, "three points are beneficial to one", the first tone of the next 4 degrees will be issued. If you continue to calculate by this method, you can get 12 tones, which are called "Twelve Laws", and each law has a fixed legal name, namely:

Does Mrs. Huang Jia Gu? Zhong Lin Yi Nan has no response

Zhong Lu clusters the bell, and Lu Bin shoots the bell

Because this "birth law" is to calculate the fifth degree step by step, it is also called "the law of five degrees". Later, Pythagoras (about 58-51 BC), the originator of Greek mathematics, also calculated the "Twelve Laws" in the same way.

Although the "three-point profit and loss" deduces the "twelve laws", it can't be revived circularly when it is calculated uniformly in the end. It is an uneven "twelve laws", and each law contains the difference between big and small semitones. Therefore, in order to find a kind of average law system that can be freely rotated, it has become the ideal that musicologists have been pursuing for more than two thousand years.

Jing Fang (77-37 BC), a famous legalist in the Han Dynasty, continued reading along the method of five degrees, and by the 53rd law of "color education", he had basically returned to the "yellow bell" (the 53rd law of equality appeared in Europe in the 16th century).

He finally got 6 laws, which was later called "Jing Fang Law". On the surface, Jing Fang's complicated legal system of calculating 6 laws is completely different from the concise ideal of twelve average laws, but if he abandons his cloak of mysticism, many legal heights he got in the operation process can be confirmed by the "clock law" embodied in Zeng Houyi's chime. Qian Lezhi and Shen Zhong in the Southern Dynasties continued to deduce the birth law according to the "dichotomy of profit and loss" on the basis of the 6 laws of Jingfang until the more detailed 36 laws. They reduced the number of sound differences of Huang Zhong's fundamental law to a minimum, thus providing a greater possibility for selecting the sounds of the twelve-average law from it. But at the same time, the exploration of solving the law of twelve averages along this way has also entered the dilemma of "no water"

Coincidentally, He Chengtian (37-447), a musicologist of the same age as Qian and Shen, boldly put forward a "new law". His practice is to divide the remaining errors that cannot be restored by the twelfth law into twelve parts, with one supplement for each law.

after twelve times of mutual birth, it just returns to the Huang Zhong Law. This can be said to be a genius's conception of the law of twelve averages. At that time, He Chengtian almost knocked on the door of this inscrutable legal system. Unfortunately, he did not calculate by frequency ratio, but by chord length, and the problem ran aground again. In Sui Dynasty, Liu Zhuo (581-618) got rid of the shackles of the "three-point profit and loss law" and calculated the "twelve-length equal difference law" based on the fact that the difference between the adjacent laws of the vibrating body is the same. In 1959, Wang Pu (95-959) put forward a new law, which rigidly adjusted the laws with octaves of half-times relationship. He clearly realized that solving the contradiction of uneven law can only be carried out within the scope of 12 laws, but his basic method is to tinker with the "three-point profit and loss method".

After such a long exploration and wandering, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the royal family passed away from Zhu Xi 'an (1536-1611) and finally became the first person to climb the pagoda top of the law and pick up the pearl of the "Twelve Equal Laws". He worked out the geometric progression of the legal system by calculating the square with abacus, and solved the eternal problem of freely rotating the palace in the twelve laws of music for the first time, realizing the dream of countless lawyers for thousands of years. His "new secret rate" has become one of the most important discoveries in the history of human science. As a giant in the history of art, Zhu Xi has made great achievements in science, culture, especially in the theory of traditional music. His life-long book The Complete Book of Music Law covers all aspects of music art.. However, due to the decline of feudal society in China. The "Twelve Average Laws" invented by Zhu Xi. Finally, it failed to be put into practice, and it was hidden in a book and shelved, which became a tragic silhouette reflecting the feudal empire's strangulation of genius.

Ancient Music-A History of Development (I)

The pre-Qin classic "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals" said: "The origin of music is far away!" As far back as when, there is no accurate record in history, but the constantly discovered musical relics have proved its "origin" again and again.

In the early 195s, the Shang Dynasty Tiger-patterned Stone Pan was unearthed in Yin Ruins in Anyang, which proved that Chinese musical instruments had a history of more than 3, years. In the mid-195s, the Neolithic site in banpo village, Xi 'an unearthed a "one-tone-hole pottery casket", and the musical instrument was dragged back to more than 6,7 years ago. In the 197s, a large number of "bone whistles" and a "pottery casket" more than 7, years ago were found at the Neolithic site in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province ... China music is really like a long river of history, which is winding and colorful and never stops. This river flows from a trickle to a surging river. In recent years, an archaeological excavation in Jiahu Village, Wuyang, Henan Province has extended it to an even older age ...

The history of China's music, and ancient literature generally dates back to the Yellow Emperor. Although the legend about the Yellow Emperor is mixed with the ideal elements of later generations, and there are many supernatural elements, it is not completely credible (for example, the establishment of the "Twelve Laws" in the era of the Yellow Emperor means that the later creation is attributed to the Yellow Emperor, which is inconsistent with modern scientific archaeological discoveries. It is too late to regard the Yellow Emperor as the source of China music: modern archaeological discoveries have greatly changed the history of China music from the era of the Yellow Emperor.