Ebook Ta225 Block2companion v1 1 Sup829605 l3

l Supplementary Material
Technology: Level 2
The Technology of Music
TA225
Block 2 Companion
Copyright © 2005 The Open University SUP 82960 5
1.1
2 TA225 THE TECHNOLOGY OF MUSIC
Contents
1 Introduction 4
2 How to study this block 6
3 Software, audio CD and DVD 6
4 Chapter study guides 7
4.1 Significant figures in calculations 7
4.2 Chapter 1 Producing musical sounds 8
4.2.1 Study guide 8
4.2.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 1 8
4.3 Chapter 2 Woodwind 8
4.3.1 Study guide 8
4.3.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 2 11
4.4 Chapter 3 Brass 12
4.4.1 Study guide 12
4.5 Chapter 4 Strings 13
4.6 Chapter 5 Percussion 16
4.7 Chapter 6 Keyboard instruments 18
4.8 Chapter 7 The voice 20
4.8.3 WaveSurfer activities and files for Chapter 7 21
4.9 Chapter 8 Electronic instruments 21
5 Additional activity instructions 22
5.1 Chapter 7 22
5.1.1 Activity 12 – WaveSurfer familiarisation 22
5.2 Chapter 8 27
5.2.1 Activity 17 – Subtractive synthesis 27
5.2.2 Activity 20 – Applying envelopes 30
5.2.3 Activity 28 – Cross-fading

32
6 Further reading
33
7 Further listening
34
8 Acknowledgements for sound clips
35
Tutor-marked assignment TMA TA225 03
cut-off date 29 June 2005 36
BLOCK 2 COMPANION 3
1 Introduction
Block 2 of TA225 The Technology of Music is called Musical Instruments. It

looks at the construction and operation of a number of families of musical
instruments.
The main teaching material for the block consists of eight chapters of study
material in two separate books (Musical Instruments 1 and Musical Instruments 2).
As in Block 1, these incorporate comprehensive sets of computer, listening and
other activities. You can carry out the listening activities either at your computer or
using an audio CD player and hi-fi system. In addition, there is a DVD that
contains a number of video sequences associated with three of the chapters in the
block.
Part 1 of Block 2 contains the first four chapters:
Chapter 1 Producing musical sounds
Chapter 2 Woodwind
Chapter 3 Brass
Chapter 4 Strings
and the second part contains the remaining four chapters:
Chapter 5 Percussion
Chapter 6 Keyboard instruments
Chapter 7 The voice
Chapter 8 Electronic instruments
Finally, associated with this block there is a tutor marked assessment (TMA03).
Below are some brief details about each of the above components of Block 2 of
TA225.
Chapter 1 Producing musical sounds

This chapter contains an introduction to the basic physical ideas of sound creation
through excitation and resonance. It provides the theory that underpins the studies
of conventional musical instruments that are contained in the subsequent
chapters. The chapter looks at vibrations on a string, and how standing waves are
set up. The discussion then moves on to look at air vibrating in a column – both
cylindrical and conical – and then there is a look at vibrations in bars, circular
membranes and plates. Finally damping and radiation are discussed.
Chapter 2 Woodwind
Chapter 2 provides an introduction to the members of the woodwind family of
instruments. The discussion starts with a look at reeds, how they vibrate, and how
standing waves are set up in a reed instrument to produce sound. The main reed
woodwind instruments (oboe, clarinet, bassoon) are then described. In each case
their construction, workings, range and historical development are discussed.
There is then a short section on some other reed woodwind instruments. The
discussion then moves on to look at air-jet woodwind instruments. Again the
basic principles on how these instruments produce sound are examined before the
main air-jet instrument, the flute, is discussed. Finally a range of other air-jet
instruments is introduced, including the descant recorder that is included in the
Home Experiment Kit.

Chapter 3 Brass
In Chapter 3, brass instruments are examined. These are instruments where the
player’s lips are used as the excitation mechanism. The components and
underlying acoustics of these instruments are examined and used to explain why
they produce the characteristic ‘brass’ sound. There is also a survey of the
technological development of brass instruments and how this development has
influenced the way they have been played and used in music. There is also a short
section on current research and development in brass instruments.
Chapter 4 Strings
Chapter 4 looks at bowed and plucked stringed instruments. As in earlier chapters
in this block the construction and acoustical properties of these classes of
instruments are described. The different methods of exciting the strings (bowing
or plucking) and the consequent sounds produced are examined. There is also an
introduction to the materials used in stringed instrument manufacture and their
properties.
Chapter 5 Percussion
Chapter 5 looks at a range of tuned and untuned percussion instruments that use
different types of vibrating membranes, plates or bars. The chapter draws on the
introductory material on these types of vibrators from Chapter 1 in this block, and
examines drums, cymbals and gongs, and a selection of ‘keyboard’ percussion
instruments – the glockenspiel, the xylophone, the marimba and the vibraphone.
Chapter 6 Keyboard instruments

Conventional keyboard instruments such as pianos, harpsichords and pipe organs
are the subject of Chapter 6. The chapter starts off by looking at stringed
keyboard instruments, and explains their workings by following through the
development of this class of instrument from the clavichord through the virginal,
spinet and harpsichord to the piano. This part of the chapter draws on material
from Chapters 1 and 4 in this block, and also includes a description of the
operation and development of the piano hammer mechanism.
The second part of this chapter looks at the pipe organ and draws on material
from Chapters 1 and 2 in this block. A range of different types of organ pipe are
studied, and there is a brief look at how an organ ‘works’.
Chapter 7 The voice

The human voice can be considered a musical instrument in its own right, and so
Chapter 7 gives an introduction as to how the human voice works. The chapter
starts with a brief look at the parts of the body that are involved with the voice,
and explains how we produce sounds using them. There is then a look at how we
produce vowel sounds and a number of different sounds are analysed to discover
their essential characteristics. The discussion moves on to look at the singing
voice. In particular the characteristics and ranges of the singing voice are studied,
as is the question of how classically trained singers manage to be heard over the
sound of a full orchestra. This chapter uses spectrograms and spectrum sections,
together with the WaveSurfer program, to analyse vocal sounds.
Chapter 8 Electronic instruments

Chapter 8, the last chapter of Block 2, looks at some of the most popular types of
electronic instrument. The chapter begins by explaining the general principles
upon which the operation of electronic musical instruments are based, and
provides a general classification scheme for these instruments based on the
mechanisms used for sound production. There is then a study of some examples
BLOCK 2 COMPANION 5
of electronic instruments with respect to their technologies and, to a lesser extent,
their history and musical uses. One of the aims of the chapter is to highlight the
complexity of the relationship between musical instrument development and
music-making by looking at examples that illustrate the cross-fertilisation
between these two spheres of action.
Tutor-marked assignment
TMA03 covers the whole of Block 2, which naturally draws on material from
Block 1 as well. You will find the questions for this TMA at the end of this
companion document. General notes and advice on completing TA225 TMAs are
included in the TA225 Course Guide, which you should read before answering
the TMA questions.
2 How to study this block

A study period of 11 weeks is allocated to the whole of Block 2. The eight
chapters are unlikely to take you equal amounts of time to study, so the detailed
study guides in Section 4 below should help you to estimate how long each
chapter may take you to study. However, it’s probably best to try to study a
chapter a week, and to allow yourself an extra week to catch up at the end of each
part of the block, and a final week for completion of the TMA.
As in Block 1, all the chapters contain a number of listening activities and
computer animations. In addition, you will be asked to use Adobe® Audition™,
the course’s sound editor program, to analyse a number of instrument sounds
which are supplied as computer sound files. Unless the activity requires you to
use a feature of Audition that was not introduced in the Audition Familiarisation
Exercises, detailed steps on how to carry out these activities are not given. You
should have completed these exercises at the end of your study of Block 1, so if
you are unsure of the procedure you should refer back to the relevant section in
this booklet. Where a feature of Audition is required that you have not previously
used, detailed practical steps are given in Section 5 of this companion booklet.
This only occurs in Chapter 8 of this block.
Chapters 3 (Brass) and 8 (Electronic instruments) include a number of watching
activities that require you to look at video sequences on DVD 1, and there is also
one short sequence in Chapter 7 (The voice). If you are not able to view these
video sequences as you come across the relevant watching activities in the
chapter texts, you should look at them as soon as you can afterwards. Remember
that these video sequences may contain material that is used in the assessment.
Chapter 7 (The voice) includes a number of activities that analyse various
features of the voice, and for this you will use a simple analysis program called
WaveSurfer1 which is supplied on CD-ROM 2. This program does not require
any separate detailed familiarisation. Familiarisation is carried out in the first
activity that uses WaveSurfer, in conjunction with some short practical steps
contained in Section 5 of this companion booklet.
3 Software, audio CD and DVD

There are three CDs and one DVD associated Block 2. CD-ROM 2 contains the
launcher details and computer files associated with Block 2 and also the sound
files that you will be analysing using Audition and the WaveSurfer program. To
1
WaveSurfer is a free open source program that is also available for Linux and Macintosh
platforms. See http://www.speech.kth.se/wavesurfer/ for details.

install the launcher material you run the installation program on the CD-ROM in
exactly the same way as you did for CD-ROM 1 in Block 1. Do not uninstall any
earlier material. After the installation program has been run, CD-ROM 2 will
extend the Activities Launcher on your computer to include all of the Block 2
activities and their associated software. The launcher activities and files for
Block 1 will still be available.
Audio CD 2A should be used during your study of Chapters 1–4 and
Audio CD 2B for Chapters 5–8 in the same way as you used Audio CDs 1A
and 1B in Block 1.
Also supplied is DVD 1 which contains the video sequences for all the watching
activities in Block 2. Each DVD sequence has a title and a sequence number, and
it is referred to by this title and number in the relevant watching activity in the
block text. The DVD contains its own menus which should allow you easily to
find the appropriate sequence when you come across a watching activity. The
main launcher program does not therefore list these watching activities.
The WaveSurfer program which you will use in Chapter 7, does not have any
separate installation and will be installed automatically as part of the CD-ROM 2
installation.
4 Chapter study guides

4.1 Significant figures in calculations
In some of the chapters you will be required to carry out a number of simple
calculations. There is however no discussion in the text as to the number of
significant figures you should use when giving your answers to these calculations.
In essence it really depends on the individual situation. For example, if the
calculation is to compare the lengths of two tubes and the two lengths turn out to
be 2 m and 2 m plus 1 mm, then is clearly important to give the answers to at
least three decimal places as 2.000 m and 2.001 m (although 2.000 could be
shortened to 2.0). However, in general, three or four significant figures is usually
sufficient. Often in the text were such calculations occur there is an exploratory
activity with a sample calculation that you can use to get an idea of the sort of
significant figures such a calculation requires.
If your calculator displays too many significant figures for your purposes you
should round up or down to the required number. For example if your calculator
gives a result as 4.27694163 and you only want the figure to 3 decimal places
then the number you give is 4.277. (Numbers 0 to 4 cause the next significant
digit to remain unchanged and numbers 5 to 9 cause it to be increased by 1 –
which, if it is a 9, will cause the 9 to be set to 0 and the next most significant digit
to be increased by 1 – and so on if necessary. For example 5.69974 when given to
three decimal places would be 5.700.)
In assessment questions you are unlikely to lose marks by giving results with too
many or too few significant figures as long as your answer clearly shows what
you are trying to achieve. However, it is good practice to get into the habit of not
giving too many significant figures where the least significant ones are clearly not
relevant (or valid) in practical terms. Take for example the number 4.27694163
given above. If this represented the length of a tube in metres, then the end digits
9, 4, 1, 6 and 3 represent tenths, hundreds, thousandths, ten thousandths and
hundred thousandths of a millimetre respectively. Clearly measuring length to
such accuracy is rather impractical with a simple ruler!
BLOCK 2 COMPANION 7
4.2 Chapter 1 Producing musical sounds
4.2.1 Study guide
This is a fairly theoretical chapter that introduces the basic acoustic ideas needed
in later chapters where real acoustic instruments are studied. There is some
simple mathematical content, but you are not required to learn any of the
equations introduced, you are only required to be able to use them. Often there is
an exploratory activity with a worked solution to show you how to carry out a
calculation, and this is followed by a self-assessment activity to allow you to test
how well you have followed the calculation.
There are a number of computer animations in this chapter that are designed to
help you to understand how stretched strings and columns of air vibrate. There is
also one short computer video clip (stored as a file on your computer, not on the
DVD). You should make sure you are able to carry out theses activities when
they occur in the text. In contrast, there are only two short listening activities and
no DVD video sequences to watch.
Towards the end of the chapter you will need to use the descant recorder, the
three cardboard tubes and the microphone from the TA225 Home Experiment
Kit. You will also need a 30 cm (12 inch) ruler or measuring tape calibrated in
millimetres. One of the activities that uses these items will also require you to use
Audition to record and analyse recorder sounds in terms of their frequency
components. The procedure is detailed in the Audition Familiarisation Exercises
booklet which you may need to refer to as you carry out the activity.
Note, if you have difficulties in carrying out the above practical activities or any
of the practical activities in the following chapters, then a friend should easily be
able to carry out the practical element for you.
4.2.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 1

The audio clips are contained on Audio CD 2A.
Activity Track Description Duration
1 1 Vacuum cleaners as musical instruments 01:50

A short section from Malcolm Arnold’s A Grand,
Grand Overture from “The Hoffnung Festival of
Music” recorded in 1988.
“The Hoffnung Festival of Music”
The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Michael
Massey with Jane Glover, Christopher Laing, Bill
Oddie, Donald Swann – vacuum cleaners
Decca 444 921-2
5 2 Short or continuous, transient or sustained? 00:20
Sound clips of five instruments.
4.3 Chapter 2 Woodwind

4.3.1 Study guide
There is a small amount of simple calculation in this chapter, using the material
you learned about in Chapter 1 on standing waves in air columns, and you will
need to use a calculator. However, the main thrust of the chapter is looking at the
range of woodwind instruments (past and present), how they work, and analysing
the sounds they produce to see how closely the analysis ties up with the theory.

You are not expected to learn every detail of the development of woodwind
instruments neither are you expected to learn all the names and details of the
various instruments. However, you should be able to give a rough outline of an
instrument’s development, particularly how this has been affected by technology,
and you will be expected to be able to describe the construction, operation, sound
and underlying technology of the instruments whose names are emboldened in
the chapter text.
There are a number of listening activities in this chapter, and a short computer
video clip to look at.
In the first two activities you will need two sheets of A4 paper, and in Activity 6
you will need to use the drinking straw that is supplied in the TA225 Home
Experiment Kit together with some clean, sharp scissors with which to cut it. If
you have mislaid the straw, then you can use just about any other clean plastic
straw. Note, the activity involves you putting the cut end of the straw in your
mouth, so ensure the straw is kept clean.
For each of the main woodwind instruments, you will be asked to listen to the
sound of the instrument playing by itself, and then you will listen to it in the
context of a piece of music. When carrying out these listening exercises, you
should listen carefully to the sound of the instrument as you will be expected to
recognise it in other (straightforward) situations. In most cases you will also be
asked to analyse the frequency components of a short section of the instrument’s
waveform using Audition. As in Chapter 1, the procedure is detailed in the
Audition Familiarisation Exercises booklet which you may need to refer to as you
carry out these activities.
Towards the end of the chapter you will need to use the descant recorder from the
TA225 Home Experiment Kit again, as well as the ruler or measuring tape you
used in Chapter 1. You will also need to use an open plastic or glass bottle – a
clean plastic drinks bottle is ideal.
Finally, note that in the course the Course Team has decided to follow convention
and specify notes for transposing instruments in terms of their notated pitch rather
than their actual sounding pitch, although in most cases the equivalent sounding
pitch is given as well. (The concept of transposing instruments is explained
within this chapter.) When answering assessment questions relating to such
instruments, unless the question specifically asks for a written or a sounding
pitch, either can be given, as long as you make it clear which system you are
using.

8 3 Chromatic scale played on an oboe 00:17

10 4 Effect of operating the speaker key on an oboe 00:16
(repeated three times)
11 5 The oboe in context 00:24
Instrumental introduction to Handbags and Glad
Rags by The Stereophonics. (Theme music to the
BBC sitcom “The Office”).
“Just enough education to perform”
The Stereophonics
V2 VVR1018292
BLOCK 2 COMPANION 9
14 6 The cor anglais in context 01:15
A short section from the beginning of the second
movement of Dvorak’s Symphony No 9 “From the
New World”.
“Dvorak, Symphony No 9, ‘From the New World’”
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by
Stephen Gunzenhauser.
Naxos 8.550271
17 7 Chromatic scale played on a bassoon 00:20
18 8 The bassoon in context 00:31
A short section from Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice.
“Dukas, L’Apprenti sorcier”,
Ulster Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortrlier.
Chandos CHAN 8852
20 9 The contrabassoon in context 00:32
The fourth movement, ‘Funk Scherzo’, from Daniel
Dorff’s In a Deep Funk: Dance Set for
Unaccompanied Contrabassoon commissioned for
the 1997 International Contrabassoon Festival in Las
Vegas.
http://www.danieldorff.com/contrabassoon.htm
Roger Soren – contrabassoon
22 10 Effect of operating the speaker key on a clarinet 00:19
23 11 Chromatic scale played on a clarinet 00:18
24 12 The clarinet in context 00:49
The first few bars of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in
Blue.
“George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue”,
Columbia Jazz Band conducted by Michael Tilson
Thomas, George Gershwin – Piano
Columbia Masterworks SMK 42240
28 13 The saxophone in context 1 00:38
A short section of George and Ira Gershwin’s song
They Can’t Take That Away From Me.
“Complete Verve Masters with Strings”
Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker – alto saxophone
Definitive Records DRCD11185
29 14 The saxophone in context 2 00:25
The introduction to Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street.
“Baker Street”
Raphael Ravenscroft – tenor saxophone
EMI Gold 4949412
Also on “City to City”, Fame CDFA3119 and “The
Best of Gerry Rafferty”, Music for Pleasure
CDMFPE6415
30 15 The bagpipes in context 00:45
A rendition of Scotland the Brave played on the
Scottish Highland bagpipes.
“Tartan Top 20 Pipes and Drums”
King’s Own Scottish Borderers
Emerald EMICD 7312
34 16 Chromatic scale played on a flute 00:19

36 17 The flute in context 01:15
A short excerpt from the Courante of J.S. Bach’s
Partita in A minor, BWV 1013.
“J.S. Bach Complete Flute Sonatas”
Lisa Beznosiuk – flute; Richard Tunnicliffe – cello;
Paul Nicholson – harpsichord
Hyperion CDA264
39 18 The piccolo in context 00:58
A short excerpt of the ‘Chinese Dance’ from
Tchaikovsky’s suite The Nutcracker.
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal
Dorati
Mercury Living Presence 432 752-2
40 19 The bass flute in context 01:21
An excerpt from Giorgio Colombo Taccani’s Adagio
for Bass Flute.
http://g.colombo.taccani.web.planet.it/inglese.html
41 20 The panpipes in context 00:37
An excerpt from Cachapaya by Incantation.
“Panpipes from the Andes”
Cooking Vinyl GUMB OCD 016
Also on “The Very Best of Incantation”, Music Club
MCCD 262
42 21 The penny whistle in context 00:22
The introduction to the song My Heart Will Go On
from the soundtrack to the film ‘Titanic’.
“All the way – a decade of song”
Celine Dion
Columbia 496 0942
Also on “Let’s talk about love”, Epic 4891592 and
“Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture”, Sony
Classics SK63213
48 22 Chromatic scale played on a descant recorder 00:15
50 23 The ocarina in context 1 01:02
A solo ocarina playing the Scottish folk song Auld
Lang Syne.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/suimin/japan/suimin-
records_e.htm
Suimin – ocarina
51 24 The ocarina in context 2 01:33
An arrangement for six ocarinas of the ‘Dance of
Swans’ from Tchaikovsky’s ballet suite Swan Lake.
Arrangement by Suimin
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/suimin/japan/swan_e.htm
4.3.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 2

The sound files for analysis are contained in ‘Chapter 2’ within the ‘Block 2 files’
folder.
Activity Description File name
12 Analysing an oboe note A12oboea4.wav
19 Analysing a bassoon note A19bassoonf2.wav
BLOCK 2 COMPANION 11
25 Analysing a clarinet note 1 A25clarinete3.wav
26 Analysing a clarinet note 2 A26clarinetg5.wav
37 Analysing a flute note 1 A37fluted6.wav
38 Analysing a flute note 2 A38flutec4.wav
49 Analysing a descant recorder note A49recorderc5.wav
4.4 Chapter 3 Brass

4.4.1 Study guide
This chapter follows a similar pattern to Chapter 2, except here the various brass
instruments are studied.
As with Chapter 2, you are not expected to learn every detail of the development
of brass instruments neither are you expected to learn all the names and details of
the various instruments. However, you should be able to give a rough outline of
an instrument’s development, particularly how this has been affected by
technology, and you will be expected to be able to describe the construction,
operation, sound and underlying technology of the instruments whose names
are emboldened in the chapter text.
There are a few calculations, which will again require the use of a calculator, a
number of listening activities and a number of activities that use Audition. You
will also need two or more differently sized plastic or glass bottles – as in
Chapter 2, clean plastic drinks bottles are ideal. There is one computer
animation early in the chapter.
The material in this chapter is integrated with a set of DVD video sequences
called “Brass Instruments” which you will find on DVD 1. In the main text, each
watching activity that requires you to view one of these sequences contains the
relevant number and title of the sequence. The DVD has its own menu which lists
these sequence numbers and titles and allows you to select and play either an
individual sequence or a set of sequences. Thus these watching activities are not
contained in the launcher activities list on your computer.
You should try to watch the DVD video sequences as you come across them in
the chapter text. If you are unable to do this, then you should watch them as soon
as possible after you have studied the chapter. (The sequences can also be used to
give you a good introduction to Chapter 3 before you start studying the text.)
Do not let a lack of DVD viewing facilities prevent you from studying this
chapter so that you get behind with the course. However, you should remember
that the DVD material is not an optional extra and is therefore assessable, so you
must arrange to view the sequences at some point in your study of the course.
When you view the DVD video sequences, you should make notes of the
important points each contains. This should help you with revision, and also help
you to answer any associated self-assessment activities.
The other video sequences on DVD 1 are associated with Chapters 7 and 8 of this
block.

10 25 Natural notes played on a horn 00:25

12 26 The horn in context 00:35
Charles Koechlin’s Sonnerie, op. 123 no. 10, a short
piece for two hunting horns.
“Barry Tuckwell plays Koechlin”
Barry Tuckwell – French horn, Daniel Blumenthal –
piano
ASV CD DCA 716
17 27 Popping trumpet and trombone mouthpieces 00:07
32 28 The keyed trumpet in context 03:03
An excerpt from the first movement of Haydn’s
Trumpet Concerto.
“Joseph Haydn Trumpet Concerto”
Academy of Ancient Music conducted by
Christopher Hogwood
Friedemann Immer – keyed trumpet
L’Oiseau Lyre 417 610-2
38 29 Exploiting the clarino register 02:30
An excerpt from the first movement of Bach’s
Second Brandenburg Concerto.
“Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos”
The Brandenburg Consort conducted by Roy
Goodman
Hyperion CDA 66711/12

folder.
13 Analysing notes of brass instruments A13hornsofttoloudbflat4.wav
A13hornmuteandnomutef4.wav
A13trombonesofttoloudg3.wav
A13trumpetsofttoloudbflat3.wav
18 Analysing the popping sound A18trumpetandtrombonepops.wav
4.5 Chapter 4 Strings

4.5.1 Study guide
The final chapter in Part 1 of Block 2 follows a similar pattern to the previous two
chapters, except here bowed and plucked stringed instruments are studied.
As with Chapters 2 and 3, you are not expected to learn every detail of the
development of stringed instruments neither are you expected to learn all the
names and details of the various instruments. However, you should be able to
give a rough outline of an instrument’s development, particularly how this has
been affected by technology, and you will be expected to be able to describe the
construction, operation, sound and underlying technology of the instruments
whose names are emboldened in the chapter text.
There are some simple calculations, which will again require the use of a
calculator, a number of listening activities and a number of activities that use
Audition. There are two computer animations, but no DVD video sequences.
Remember that you are not required to learn any of the equations introduced or
used in the chapter, you are only required to be able to work with them. To help
you with this, there are a number of exploratory and self-assessment activities
that contain example calculations.
This chapter marks the end of your study of the main sections of pitched orchestral
acoustic instruments. Thus, at the end of this chapter there are two activities
designed to help you test the listening skills you should have acquired in Chapters
1–4. These get you to identify instrument sections or individual instruments whose
sounds you have earlier heard individually, from within a piece of orchestral music.
Remember that this listening skill is a learning outcome of the course, and such an
activity may be part of the course assessment. Thus, you may find it helpful to get
any additional listening practice that you can (see Section 6 ‘Further listening’).

3 30 The violin in a classical context 01:05

An excerpt from the first movement of Sibelius’s
Violin Concerto in D.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted
by Simon Rattle
Nigel Kennedy – violin
EMI CDC 497172
4 31 The violin in a folk context 00:39
An excerpt from the song Mason’s Apron by the
Dubliners.
“The Transatlantic Anthology”
Sanctuary B00005Y4OM
6 32 The viola in context 01:17
An excerpt from the Prelude in Bach’s Suite No. 1 in
G.
“Six Suites for Violoncello Performed on the Viola”
Barbara Westphal – viola
Bridge 9094A
7 33 The cello in context 00:56
An excerpt from the first movement of in Elgar’s
Cello Concerto in E Minor
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John
Barbirolli
Jacquelin du Pré – cello
EMI 7243 5 56219 2 4
8 34 The double bass in context 00:59
An excerpt from the track So What? by Miles Davis.
“Kind of Blue”
Columbia 01-064395-10

11 35 The classical guitar in context 00:40
An excerpt from the first movement of Rodrigo’s
Concierto de Aranjuez.
Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal conducted by
Charles Dutoit
Carlos Bonell – guitar
Decca London 430 703-2
12 36 The folk guitar in context 02:03
An excerpt from Princess and the Puddings by John
Renbourn.
“The Hermit”
John Renbourn – guitar
Castle communications ESM CD 436
16 37 Bowed violin notes (repeated three times) 00:35
17 38 Violin harmonics (repeated three times) 00:23
21 39 Guitar notes (repeated three times) 00:36
25 40 The effect of a mute on a violin (repeated three 00:28
times)
26 41 The concert harp in context 03:30
‘Interlude’ from Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of
Carols.
London Oriana Choir conducted by Leon Lovett
Osian Ellis – harp
ASV CD WHL 2096
27 42 Vibrato in a bowed string instrument (repeated three 00:31
times)
29 43 Comparing solo and orchestral strings 1 02:42
An excerpt from the movement ‘Notturno’ from
Borodin’s String Quartet No.2.
“String Quartet No.2 by Borodin”
Le Quatuor Talich (Petr Messiereur and Jan Kvapil –
violins, Jan Talich – viola, Evzen Rattay – cello)
Calliope CAl 5202
29 44 Comparing solo and orchestral strings 2 03:28
The last section of the second movement, ‘Elegy’,
and the first section of the third movement, ‘Minuet’,
of John Ireland’s A Downland Suite.
“A Downland Suite”
City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard
Hickox
Chandos CHAN 9376
30 45 Listening to and identifying orchestral instruments in 06:11
context 1
The complete first movement of Rodrigo’s Concierto
de Aranjuez of which the excerpt in the audio track
for Activity 11 was taken.
Orchestre symphonique de Montreal conducted by
Charles Dutoit
31 45 Listening to and identifying orchestral instruments in 06:11
context 2
The complete first movement of Rodrigo’s Concierto
de Aranjuez of which the excerpt in the audio track
for Activity 11 was taken.
Orchestre symphonique de Montreal conducted by
Charles Dutoit

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18 Analysing violin open string and A18violin(harmonic)e6.wav
harmonic notes A18violine5.wav
22 Analysing guitar notes A22guitarfarbridgeg3.wav
A22guitarnearbridgeg3.wav
28 Analysing vibrato A28violavibratoe4.wav
4.6 Chapter 5 Percussion

4.6.1 Study guide
This chapter is structured in a similar way to the earlier chapters on other
orchestral musical instruments, although it is somewhat shorter. In addition to a
number of listening activities, there is one computer simulation, and five of the
activities require you to use Audition to analyse waveforms.
The chapter draws on some of the material in Chapter 1 of Block 2, so you may
need to look at this chapter to refresh your memory as you study Chapter 5.

The audio clips are contained on Audio CD 2B.
2 1 A selection of percussion instrument sounds 00:57
7 2 Timpani sounds 00:32
10 3 The nominal pitch of a timpani note 00:28
12 4 Snare drum sounds 00.17
13 5 Drums in action 01:11
An extract from the 1st movement of Richard Rodney
Bennett’s Concerto for solo percussion and chamber
orchestra.
“Rebounds – Concertos for Percussion”
Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel
Evelyn Glennie – drums
RCA 09026-61277-2
Also on “Evelyn Glennie – her greatest hits”
RCA 74321-47629-2
14 6 Orchestral cymbal sounds 01:08
17 7 Tam-tam sound 01:44

18 8 Tuned gong sound 00:29
22 9 Glockenspiel sounds 00:15
25 10 Xylophone sounds 1 00:17
26 11 Xylophone sounds 2 00:11
27 12 The xylophone in context 02:06
Jan Berenska’s Taps in Tempo
“Dancin’”
National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Barry
Wordsworth
Evelyn Glennie – xylophone
RCA 09026-60870-2
RCA 74321-47629-2
28 13 Marimba sounds 00:11
30 14 The marimba in context 00:34
An extract from Paul Smadbeck’s Rhythm Song
“Rhythm Song”
National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Barry
Wordsworth
Evelyn Glennie – marimba
RCA 09026-60242-2
RCA 74321-47629-2
31 15 Vibraphone sounds 01:10
33 16 The vibraphone in context 04:01
‘Eldorado’ from Ney Rosauro’s Cenas Amerindias
No.2 for vibraphone, suspended cymbals, cowbell,
triangle and crotale
“Light in Darkness”
Evelyn Glennie – percussion
RCA 09026-60557-2
RCA 74321-47629-2

folder.
9 Analysing a timpani sound A09timpani.wav
11 Analysing a bass drum sound A11bassdrum.wav
15 Analysing orchestral cymbal sounds A15cymbalsoftatstartsec.wav
A15cymbalsoftafter1sec.wav
19 Analysing a tuned gong sound A19tunedgong.wav
32 Analysing vibraphone sounds A32vibmotoroff.wav
A32vibmotorslow.wav
A32vibmotorfast.wav
4.7 Chapter 6 Keyboard instruments
4.7.1 Study guide
Like Chapter 5, this chapter is structured in a similar way to the earlier orchestral
instrument chapters. It is also fairly short and should be quite straightforward to study.
The chapter again draws on some of the material in Chapter 1 of this block. In
addition, there is an introduction to and some simple calculations on levers, as
these are central to the operating mechanisms of pianos. This mechanism is quite
complex, particularly in the modern grand piano, so to help you visualise how it
operates, there are two computer simulations.
Most of the activities in this chapter (apart from exploratory and self-assessment
activities) are listening activities that give you a chance to listen to a number of
different keyboard instruments. However, there are three activities that use
Audition to analyse some piano sounds.
2 17 The clavichord in context 01:25
William Byrd’s Miserere played on a double strung
clavichord made in 1972 by Thomas Goff.
“Keyboard Music by William Byrd”
Davitt Moroney – clavichord
Hyperion CDA66558 Track 5
6 18 The virginal in context 01:39
William Byrd’s Galliard played on a modern muselar
virginal by John Phillips copied from a 1650 Flemish
instrument from Johannes Couchet.
“Keyboard music by William Byrd”
Davitt Moroney – virginal
Hyperion CDA66558
7 19 The harpsichord in context 1 03:58
J.S. Bach’s ‘Prelude in E’ from Book 2 of the Well-
tempered Clavier played on the harpsichord.
“J. S. Bach, Well Tempered Clavier, Book 2”
Gustav Leonhardt – harpsichord
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi GD77012
8 20 The harpsichord in context 2 01:46
John Johnson’s Galliard to the Delight Pavan arranged
for keyboard by William Byrd. The piece is played on
the buff stop of a harpsichord made by Reinhard von
Nagel, copied from a 1679 Flemish instrument from
Johannes Couchet.
“Keyboard Music by William Byrd”
Davitt Moroney – harpsichord
Hyperion CDA66558
14 21 The Cristofori piano in context 01:40
Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata (Kirkpatrick number 85)
played on a copy of a Cristofori piano made by Kerstin
Schwarz.
“Scarlatti sonata K85”
Tony Chinnery – piano
Private recording
http://www.tony-chinnery.com/

17 22 The Silberman piano in context 01:20
An excerpt of J.S. Bach’s ‘Prelude in E major’ from
Book 2 of the Well-tempered Clavier played on a
Silberman piano dating from 1776.
“Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier”
Daniel Chorzempa – fortepiano
Philips 446 690-2
20 23 The modern grand piano in context 02:23
An excerpt from Ravel’s piano piece Alborado del
Gracioso.
“Ravel Piano Works”
Pascal Rogé – piano
Decca 440 836-2
24 24 The effect of the piano sustaining pedal 02:01
The start of Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie (‘The
Sunken Cathedral’) played first without the sustaining
pedal, then with both the sustaining and una corda
pedals as appropriate and lastly with the sustaining
pedal continuously held down.
Bill Strang – piano
30 25 The sounds of pipe organ flues 00:46
Played on the Walker 1865 organ in All Saints Church,
Wing, Buckinghamshire
31 26 The sounds of reed organ pipes 00:17
32 27 Effect of the swell box shutters 00:15
33 28 The pipe organ in context 02:43
The final section of a live recording of the Toccata
from Widor’s Fifth Symphony for organ, played on the
Klais organ at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham
“Pulling out all the stops”
Thomas Trotter – organ
Recording produced by the Symphony Hall,
Birmingham

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25 Analysing piano notes 1 A25pianog5.wav
26 Analysing piano notes 2 A26pianog5softandloud.wav
27 Analysing piano notes 3 A27pianog5hammertype.wav
4.8 Chapter 7 The voice
4.8.1 Study guide
Chapter 7 looks at the human voice, and starts off with a look at the parts of the
body that are involved with this. Like the Block 1 chapter that looked at the ear
and its workings (Chapter 5), a number of anatomical terms are introduced, but
you do not need to remember these unless they are emboldened in the text.
This chapter will probably take you a little longer to study than the previous two
chapters, mainly because there are a number of practical activities that get you to
analyse various features of the human voice using the WaveSurfer program. This
program is quite simple to use, but in the first activity which uses this program
(Activity 12) there are some simple familiarisation exercises. These exercises are
detailed in Section 5.1 of this companion booklet, but the block text will direct you
to these when you get to Activity 12. It is important therefore to make sure you
study this chapter when you have your computer to hand and when others won’t be
disturbed by some of the rather odd noises that you will be asked to make!
Most of the voice analysis activities are carried out using your own voice rather
than with supplied sound files. Note though that a number of the activities work
better the lower the frequency of the voice (you will find out why this is so as you
study the chapter). This means that if you are a woman, you may find you get
better results if you are able to enlist the help of a (male) friend in carrying out
these voice analysis activities (all of which are quite short). However, most of the
practical activities include comments as to their expected results, so you should
not stop studying the chapter just because you are unable to get particularly
satisfactory results yourself.
Also included in this chapter are a small number of listening activities and a short
computer video clip of a person’s vocal folds vibrating in slow motion.
6 29 The versatility of the human singing voice 02:20
A version of the Peruvian song Cachapaya sung by
The Swingle Singers.
“Around the world: Folk songs”
The Swingle Singers
EMI Records/Virgin Classics VM 5 61997 2
32 30 Choral voices in context 03:04
Grieg’s unaccompanied choral anthem Ave Maris
Stella.
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills: Sacred music
from St. Barnabas”
The Linsdale Singers conducted by Dennis Pim
Private recording
36 31 Classical singing voices in context 02:11
An excerpt from ‘And this is my beloved’ from Robert
Wright and George Forrest’s musical Kismet, based on
the music of Borodin.
“Kismet”
Ambrosian Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra
conducted by Owen Edwards
Valerie Masterson, David Rendall, Donald Maxwell
and Richard Van Allen
TER CDTER2 1170

4.8.3 WaveSurfer activities and files for Chapter 7
This list only contains the WaveSurfer activities that use sound files supplied by
the Course Team. Most WaveSurfer activities do not require a file as you will be
asked to generate the sounds yourself.
The files to be used with WaveSurfer are contained in ‘Chapter 7’ within the
‘Block 2 files’ folder.
29 Examining the main features of the singing A29fourtriads.wav
voice
30 Analysing the singer’s formant 1 A30singer.wav
31 Analysing the singer’s formant 2 A31singersformants.wav
34 Analysing formants at high pitches A34d4tod5chromaticscales.wav
4.9 Chapter 8 Electronic instruments

4.9.1 Study guide
This final chapter in Block 2 is probably the longest chapter in the second part of
the block. The chapter contains a mixture of listening and computer activities as
well as a number of short watching activities that are contained on DVD 1. As
with Chapter 3 in this block ideally you should try to watch the video sequences
as you come across them in the text, but if you are unable to do this, then you
should make sure you watch them as soon as possible afterwards. Remember they
are an integral part of the chapter and may contain assessable material.
The subject of electronic instruments is very wide, and this chapter cannot hope to
cover any areas in much detail, and it certainly does not set out to teach you ‘how to
program your synthesiser’. Instead, it concentrates on the classifications, principles
and theory behind the common types of electronic instrument so that you will be
able to apply this knowledge to practical situations outside the course if necessary.
The chapter therefore introduces a number of topics from the area of electronics.
There are three activities that require you to use features of Audition that you
have not previously met. For these there are some additional instructions in
Section 5.2 of this Companion booklet. The text in the relevant activity will direct
you to these.

1 32 Electronic film and television music 00:43
The first section is the 5-note theme from the film
Close Encounters of the Third Kind taken from the
actual film sound track. The second section is the
theme from the BBC television series Dr Who created
by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
3 33 Electronic music examples 03:03
and The first track is Stockhausen’s Elektronische Studie II, 00:39
34 and the second is an excerpt of Isao Tomita’s re-
creation of Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue in D.
“Stockhausen 3: Elektronische Musik 1952-1960”
Stockhausen-Verlag, Germany
“Tomita’s greatest hits”
Isao Tomita - synthesisers
RCA 5660
6 35 Guitar effects 01:53
10 36 The Theremin in context 00:34
An extract of ‘The Swan’ from Saint-Saëns’s suite Le
Carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals)
played on a Theremin.
“The art of the Theremin”
Clara Rockmore – theremin, Nadia Reisenberd – piano
Delos DE 1014
14 37 The Ondes Martenot in context 00:30
An extract from Oliver Messaien’s Turangalîla which
combines the Ondes Martenot with strings and piano.
“Messaien: Turangalîla-symphonie”
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted
by Simon Rattle
Peter Donohoe – paino, Tristan Murail – Ondes
Martenot
EMI CDS 7 47463 8
18 38 Amplitude modulation and tremolo 00:29
19 39 Frequency modulation and vibrato 00:44
27 40 Creating loops 00:18
30 41 Additive synthesis 1 00:27
31 42 Additive synthesis 2 00:40
32 43 Granular synthesis and physical modelling 00:42
33 44 Amplitude modulation and ring modulation 01:05
38 45 Computerised interpretation 00:44
A repeat of Block 1 Chapter 3 Activity 26 (Audio CD 1
track 32)

There are four activities in Chapter 8 that use Audition, two of these do not
require any sound files. The sound files for the other two are contained in
‘Chapter 8’ within the ‘Block 2 files’ folder.
28 Cross-fading A28crossfade.wav
29 Pitch changing A29pitchchanging.wav
5 Additional activity instructions

5.1 Chapter 7
5.1.1 Activity 12 – WaveSurfer familiarisation
WaveSurfer is a simple program designed mainly for the recording and analysis
of vocal sounds. There are three main procedures that you need to be able to carry
out with WaveSurfer:
• recording sounds through your computer’s microphone,
• displaying and analysing spectrograms, and
• displaying and analysing spectrum sections.

Before you start this activity, you should ensure that WaveSurfer has been
installed as part of the CD-ROM 2 installation procedure given in Section 3. To
prevent any possible conflicts, you are also recommended to close down any
other programs that use your computer’s sound card, such as Audition, before you
run WaveSurfer.
When Wavesurfer is first started, it contains an empty sound and you should see a
screen like Figure 1. You can start recording a sound directly using the Transport
controls in the upper right hand corner or you can load a sound file in the normal
way using File > Open. In Chapter 7 you will be using Wavesurfer in both of
these ways.
WaveSurfer is quite self-explanatory and is easy to use. However, below is an
outline of the main sections of the program that you will be using in this and
subsequent activities in Chapter 7.
Figure 1 Initial WaveSurfer screen
Transport controls
The buttons that control recording and playback of sounds are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Transport buttons
The buttons running from left to right operate as follows:
Go to Beginning
Moves the cursor to the start of the file.
Play
Begins playback of the file. Right clicking on the play button brings up a popup
menu with different play options.
Play looped
Plays the file, or the current selection continuously until you click stop.
Pause
Halts playback of the file until you click the button again.
Stop
Halts the playback or recording of the file.
Record
Starts recording.
Close file
Closes the sound file in the main WaveSurfer window.
Recording a sound
Wavesurfer can be used to make digital sound recordings. By now you should
have completed both parts of the Audition familiarisation exercises, and so should
have set-up and be familiar with using your microphone. See Section 18.1 of the
Audition Familiarisation Exercises booklet if you need reminding.
If you have not already done so, launch WaveSurfer. You’ll notice it opens an
empty sound file. Click the Record button to start recording sound from the
microphone. Make a recording about 3 seconds long of your own voice whilst
sustaining an /ae/ sound (as in ‘bad’). Click the Stop button to stop recording.
You should now be able to see an outline of the sound similar to the one shown in
Figure 3 in the Wavebar which is the panel beneath the transport controls.
Figure 3 A captured sound in WaveSurfer showing in the Wavebar
Save this file in ‘Chapter 7’ of the ‘Block 2 Files’ folder as ‘ae_sound.wav’. Now
close this file by clicking on the Close button at the right hand end of the
Transport buttons. This will close the file but leave WaveSurfer open.
Loading a sound file
Select File > Open. The Open file dialogue box will be displayed. Use the ‘Look
in:’ box to navigate to the ‘Chapter 7’ folder, and then select and open the
‘ae_sound.wav’ which you have just saved.
When the ‘Choose Configuration’ dialog box appears, click OK and the
‘ae_sound.wav’ file will now open in the Wavebar.
Displaying a spectrogram
With your ‘ae_sound.wav’ file open, position your mouse over the Wavebar and
click the right mouse button. A popup menu will appear similar to Figure 4.
Figure 4 Right clicking in the Wavebar brings up the WaveSurfer popup menu
Select Create Pane > Spectrogram. This will create a spectrogram pane above the
Wavebar as shown in Figure 5. Note that in WaveSurfer, the various displays are
called panes. It is sometimes useful to have the time-axis on view. Right click on
the Wavebar once again to view the popup menu and select Create Pane > Time
Axis.

Figure 5 Spectrogram pane
Viewing the Spectrum Section Plot

When you have the Spectrogram pane open, right click in its window to bring up
the popup menu again. This time you will notice a slight difference. There are
some other selections on the left hand side. Select Spectrum Section and a new
window will open as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 Spectrum Section Plot
Normally when this window opens it covers the bottom left hand corner of your
main Wavesurfer window. You can move it as you wish, but it will remain on
top (always visible) if you move and keep the mouse cursor within the
Spectrogram Pane. However if you select the Wavesurfer Title bar it may
disappear behind the main window. Just select the Spectrum Plot window to bring
it to the top again.
By clicking in the middle of the spectrogram, you can set a cursor point (a
vertical line through the spectrogram) from which playback will start, and also
the point at which the waveform will be analysed to create a spectrum section
display. Try this now, and notice the spectrum section changing as you click in
different parts of the spectrogram.
The spectrum section will also change in real time as you playback a sound. Set
the cursor back to the beginning of the sound, select the Play button and observe
the waveform in the Spectrum Section Plot window changing as the sound plays.
You can also select sections of sound in the spectrogram by clicking and
dragging.
Experiment with positioning the cursor in the spectrogram, making selections and
playing them. You will find these actions most useful when carrying out the
WaveSurfer activities in Chapter 7.
In some activities you will need to analyse Spectrum Section Plots. Click in the
Spectrum Section Plot pane, and then move the cursor around the graph. Notice
that the cross-hairs move as you do so, and at any point, the amplitude and
frequency of the graph at the cursor point can be read off from the information
given in the boxes below the graph.
Modifying the spectrogram upper frequency limit
During some of the activities in Chapter 7, you will be asked to change the upper
frequency limit of the spectrogram. To do this, right click on your spectrogram
and select Properties at the bottom of the popup menu. This will open a Properties
box similar to the one shown in Figure 7.
Make sure the Spectrogram tab is selected, change the value in the ‘Cut
Spectrogram at:’ box to the value you require and click OK. For now though, do
not make any changes but simply click OK.
Beware of multiple executions
If you are launching WaveSurfer through the TA225 Activites Launcher, you
should now quit the program. This also applies at the end of each WaveSurfer
activity unless you need to compare two or more sounds. This is because each
time you launch WaveSurfer through the activities launcher, a new copy of the
program will be loaded into memory and executed.
So be aware that if you do not close down the program each time you could end
up having up to 16 copies of WaveSurfer loaded at the same time which might
cause confusion and possibly memory problems.
The above procedures are the only ones you need to be able to carry out the
activities in Chapter 7. However, you may find WaveSurfer useful outside of the
course and if so, you may like to experiment further to see what other features the
program offers.
You have now completed the WaveSurfer familiarisation exercises in Activity 12
and you should continue with your study of Chapter 7. Note though that most of
the subsequent activities in this chapter will require you to use this program.

Figure 7 Spectrogram Properties box
5.2 Chapter 8
5.2.1 Activity 17 – Subtractive synthesis
There are two parts to this activity. The first is to use Audition to generate a noise
waveform, and the second is to filter this waveform to produce a musical sound.
This is an example of subtractive synthesis. A pure noise waveform contains,
theoretically, a mixture of all frequencies all at varying amplitudes. Thus if this
signal is passed through a process which allows only certain frequencies or ranges
of frequencies to pass through, then the result could sound like a pitched sound.
The purpose of this activity is to try this and hear the result.
Step 1: Generating noise
Open Audition and from the menu select Generate > Noise. This should open up
a ‘New Waveform’ window, as shown in Figure 8. Choose the parameters for the
new file as shown in the figure (44100 Hz, Mono, 16 bits) and click ‘OK’. The
‘Generate Noise’ window should then appear with a number of parameters you
need to set. Choose ‘White’ for ‘Color’ (white noise is noise which has frequency
components that average to the same amplitude over the whole audio frequency
spectrum – other ‘colours’ have particular variations of amplitude over the
frequency spectrum), set ‘Intensity’ at 10 and ‘Duration’ to 5 seconds, as shown
in Figure 9. When you’re done, click ‘OK’. Audition should then create a new
waveform which should look similar to Figure 10 – notice that the amplitude is
more or less constant. Select Analyse > Show Frequency Analysis to open a
frequency display, and then click on the ‘Play’ button. As the sound plays, as well
as listening to the resulting noise, you should also see that the frequency spectrum
is essentially flat which means the signal contains a mixture of all frequencies at
roughly the same amplitudes.
Figure 8 New Waveform window
Figure 9 Generate Noise window
Step 2: Filtering
As you may have noticed when carrying out the Audition familiarisation
exercises, this program offers a variety of filter types, and of course you are
welcome to carry out your own experimentation. For this activity, however,
choose the Effects > Filter > Dynamic EQ option. This will allow you to create
dynamic filters, that is, filters with parameters that change as the sound is playing.

Figure 10 Five seconds of white noise
The ‘Dynamic EQ’ option, as shown in Figure 11, offers three types of filter (low
pass, band pass, and high pass) with controls organised under three tabs
(‘Frequency’, ‘Gain’ and ‘Q (bandwidth)’), each of which you can manipulate
graphically. In all three of these settings, the vertical axis adjusts the parameter
and the horizontal axis is the time from the start of the sound (you will notice that
on all three graphs the horizontal axis goes from 0 to 5 seconds since the sound
you generated in Step 1 was 5 seconds long).
Figure 11 Dynamic EQ window
You can create an enormous variety of sounds by filtering the noise-based sound
you created in Step 1, and remember that the filtering parameters are not
necessarily static, but can change as the sound is played. You can create effects
from scratch, or you can start from the standard presets offered on the right-hand
side of the control window and modify them by re-shaping the curves (you can
drag the existing points, remove them by dragging them out of the graphic area or
add new ones by clicking on any point on the curve); you can then save your
newly created settings using the ‘Add’ button.
As an example of a simple subtractive synthesis effect, select the
SweepTheQ(1800hz) preset, then click on Preview to listen to the effect (the
preview button causes the sound to loop continuously until it is pressed again).
This produces a sound that could be looped to simulate the sounds of sea waves
(although I’d manipulate this a little to get a slightly better effect).
To demonstrate another effect, you can modify the RhythmicSweep preset to
generate a tone that sweeps up and down. To do this, first stop any preview from
playing, and then select the RhythmicSweep preset. Now change the stop band to
-100 dB (which provides a very narrow frequency band for the band pass filter).
Do not change the Frequency parameter display, but set the Gain display to a flat
+10 dB throughout the whole 5 seconds of the noise sound (remember that you
can remove graph points by dragging them out of the graph window), and then set
the Q (bandwidth) display to a constant maximum ‘narrowness’ (i.e. a straight
line right at the top of the graph). Now press Preview and listen to the result –
remember that what you are hearing is achieved simply by filtering out
frequencies from the original white noise signal. Note though that one would not
normally create such a sound from filtering noise, it would most likely be created
directly by a variable-frequency oscillator.
Finally, stop any preview sound and click OK to apply this dynamic EQ to the
noise waveform. Now select Analyse > Show Frequency Analysis to open a
frequency display, and then click on the ‘Play’ button. This time you should see a
frequency peak rising and falling as the sound is played (remember last time the
frequency display was essentially flat).
You should now return to the main block text, there is no need to save your
waveform unless you wish to.
5.2.2 Activity 20 – Applying envelopes

Like Activity 17, there are two parts to this activity. The first is to use Audition to
generate a waveform, and the second is to hear the effect of different types of
envelope applied to the sound. Changing the envelope of a sound can have quite a
dramatic effect on the resulting sound so, for the purposes of this activity, we’ll
use a very simple sinusoidal waveform to demonstrate the effect.
Step 1: Generating a waveform
Open Audition and from the menu select Generate > Tone to create a sinusoidal
waveform of frequency 440 Hz and duration 5 seconds. (If you cannot remember
how to do this, refer to Section 14 in the Audition Familiarisation Exercises
booklet.)
Step 2: Superimposing envelopes
Choose from the menu Effect > Amplitude > Envelopes to open the ‘Create
Envelope’ window, as shown in Figure 12. Like the dynamic EQ filtering you
studied in Activity 17, you can choose from amongst the given presets (which
you can also modify), and, before applying any changes to your waveform you
can click on ‘Preview’ to listen to the resulting sound. (Of course, if you do
change the sound you can undo the changes by choosing Edit > Undo from the
menu.)
You are welcome to try any of the presets (and to create your own envelopes),
but, for the purposes of this activity, I would like you to try three short
experiments.

(a) Create two new sounds using the ADSR (Attack – Decay – Sustain –
Release) and the ‘Soft Curve’ models, in turn. These sounds should feel more
‘natural’ than the original sinusoidal sound in that the sound takes some time
to establish itself and, eventually, decay; in particular, the former model
produces a sound with a more ‘organic’ feel to it, as if produced by a wind
instrument.
Figure 12 Create Envelope window
In synthesis, envelopes with soft curves rather than straight lines are used
when a more realistic effect is desired, as it is generally understood that
sounds produced with acoustic source–causes are soft-curved in their
envelopes. Sinusoids were used in early synthesisers to emulate flute-like
sounds, although the effect is more convincing if the sound is shorter than the
5 seconds you are using in the activity. In part this is because you are
producing a sound with no subtleties in the sustain portion (vibrato etc.), so
the shorter the sound is, the better is the approximation to a flute-like sound.
(b) Create a new sound using the ‘Smooth Ends’ model. You may have noticed
that the original sound had clicks at the beginning and the end; applying this
envelope removes those clicks by increasing the amplitude quickly from zero
at the start and decreasing it quickly to zero at the end. Thus, when the sound
is looped, at the join the end of one sound and the start of the next will both
be at zero amplitude.
(c) Create a new sound using the ‘Keep attack only’. Experimenting with
different profiles here produces sounds that are strikingly different from the
original sinusoid; if you shorten the attack and decay portions enough, you
should create sounds that suggest struck keys and, for very short durations,
percussion-like sounds.
5.2.3 Activity 28 – Cross-fading
The purpose of this activity is to illustrate the technique of cross-fading. In this
activity you will use Audition’s Copy and Paste facilities to create a looped sound
‘manually’.
Open the file associated with this activity in Audition, and play the sound. You
will notice that this is a very short sound, but it is adequate for the purposes of
this exercise. Now choose ‘Play Looped’ to listen to a loop created with this
sample. You should hear a ‘clicky’ result due to the differences of level and slope
at every junction between the end of a sample and the beginning of the next one.
To create a transition without clicks, you can use Audition’s ‘Mix Paste’ facility
as follows. Choose from the menu Edit > Select Entire Wave; this will highlight
the whole waveform. Then choose Edit > Copy to place a copy of the entire
waveform in the clipboard. Now carry out the following four operations three
times to produce a waveform that contains four copies of the original sound with
crossfades at the three joins.
1 Click on the ‘Go to end button’ to locate the end of the waveform.
2 Choose from the menu Edit > Mix Paste which should open the Mix Paste
window shown in Figure 13.
3 At the bottom of the window, click on the ‘Crossfade’ box to activate this
option and leave the default value of 50 ms.
4 Click on ‘OK’ to apply the process.
Once you have carried out the above four steps three times, listen to the resulting
sound and you should find that there are no clicks at the joins.
Figure 13 Mix Paste window
Before you leave this activity, you may like to start again but this time try
different values for the crossfade times and you may also like to unlock the left
and right channels for added spatial effects.
Of course, this method of looping ‘manually’ is not a particularly efficient
method of creating a sound, but you should be able to appreciate the problems
involved in the process.

6 Further reading
As mentioned in the Block 1 Companion, you are not required to do any
additional reading beyond what is supplied in the course material. However,
below are a few publications that you may find interesting if you wish to delve
further into some of the topics covered in Block 2.
Backus, J. (1977) The Acoustical Foundations of Music, second edition, W. W. Norton
and Company, London and New York. Excellent study of sound, instruments and basic
room acoustics. Also listed as Block 1 further reading.
Baines, A. (ed.) (1961 reprinted 1963) Musical instruments through the ages.
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. A descriptive text which gives details about the
historical development of a wide range of musical instruments.
Baines, A. (1976) Brass Instruments, their History and Development, London: Faber and
Faber. A good historical catalogue/guide to brass instruments, music, techniques, with
pictures.
Baines A. (1992) Woodwind instruments and their history, Paperback 384 pages, Music
Sales Limited. ISBN 0486268853. A descriptive text which give details about the
historical development of woodwind instruments.
Bate, P. (1969) The Flute, hardcover 288 pages, Benn. ISBN 0510363512. A descriptive
text which give details about the historical development of the flute.
Bate, P. (1975) The Oboe, hardcover 256 pages, Benn. ISBN 0510362508. A descriptive
text which give details about the historical development of the oboe.
Benade, A.H. (1990) Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics, paperback 608 pages, Dover
Publications. ISBN 048626484X. More mathematically involved than the other
Benade publication below.
Benade, A.H. (1993) Horn Strings and Harmony, Paperback 288 pages, Dover
Publications. ISBN 0486273318. A good introductory text about the acoustics/physics
of instruments with a low maths content.
Blades, J. (revised ed. 1992) Percussion Instruments and their History. Westport, Conn.:
Bold Strummer. A descriptive text which gives details about the historical
development of instruments of the percussion family.
Brice, R. (2nd ed. 2001) Music Engineering. Oxford: Newnes. This was a recommendation
in Block 1, but it is also good reading for Chapter 8 as it covers a variety of electronic
instruments (and offers further information if you are interested in hardware).
Campbell, M. and Greated, C. (1987) The Musicians Guide to Acoustics, Oxford
University Press. Thorough coverage of acoustics and instruments, biased towards the
musician. Not highly mathematical. Very readable. Also listed as Block 1 further
reading.
Fletcher, N.H. and Rossing, T.D. (1999) The Physics of Musical Instruments, hardcover
756 pages, New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0387983740. A more mathematically
involved text on the physics/acoustics of musical instruments.
Goossens, L. and Roxburgh, E. (1993) Oboe (Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides), paperback
252 pages, Kahn & Averill. ISBN 1871082439. A descriptive text which give details
about the historical development of the oboe.
Herbert, T. and Wallace, J. (Eds) (1997) The Cambridge Companion to Brass
Instruments, Cambridge University Press. A text on the historical and musicological
development of brass instruments with elements on the basic technology as well as
playing techniques and repertoire. Very little acoustics content.
Károlyi, O. (1965) Introducing Music, Penguin, Harmondsworth. A short introduction to
basic musical ideas and concepts. Contains a very readable non-technical section on
the orchestral instruments covered in Chapters 1–4 together with their pitch ranges and
basic playing techniques. Also listed as Block 1 further reading.
Langwell (1965) Bassoon and Contra Bassoon, hardcover 288 pages, Benn. ISBN
0510365019. A descriptive text which give details about the historical development of
the bassoon and contrabassoon.
Miranda, E.R. (2nd ed. 2002) Computer Sound Design. Synthesis Techniques and
Programming. Oxford: Focal Press. This is a good introductory text if you are
interested in learning more about sound synthesis. The text is fairly clear, and the book
comes with the added bonus of a CD containing a variety of software tools for sound
synthesis (for PCs and Macs alike!)
Pinch, T. and Trocco, F. (2002) The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. This is an interesting book that
looks at the history and impact of the Moog. A very readable text written in a fairly
journalistic style.
Rendall, G. (1971) The Clarinet, hardcover 224 pages, Benn. ISBN 0510367011. A
descriptive text which give details about the historical development of the clarinet.
Roads, C. (1996) The Computer Music Tutorial. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
This is a massive reference volume on all things related to computer-based music-making.
Having said that, the book is not about making music with general-purpose computers
using a few pieces of software: the book is generally about making music with electronic
instruments. It concentrates on the principles (that is, it is not software/hardware specific),
has details on the mathematical bases (in particular, Fourier analysis and FM synthesis are
covered in detail), and also covers electronic instrument design.
Rossing, T.D., Moore, F.R. and Wheeler, P.A. (2002) The Science of Sound, hardcover
794 pages, Pearson Addison Wesley. ISBN 0805385657. A good introduction to
musical acoustics and the physics of musical instruments with low technology content.
Stowell, R. (Ed.) (1992) The Cambridge Companion to the Violin, paperback 303 pages,
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521399238. A text on the historical and
musicological development of the violin with elements on the basic technology as a
well as playing techniques and repertoire. A little acoustics content. There is also a
similar companion to the cello by the same editor.
Taylor, C. (1992) Exploring Music paperback 268 pages, The Institute of Physics. ISBN
0750302135. A good introduction to musical acoustics and the physics of musical
instruments with low technology content.
Taylor, T.D. (2001) Strange Sounds. Music, Technology and Culture. New York and
London: Routledge. This is an excellent book that explores electronic music by looking at
the relationship between music and its technology in context. It is not easy reading but
well worth the effort if you are interested in learning more about electronic music. The
examples cited are wide ranging and in agreement with the slant adopted in the Chapter 8.
Vail, M. (2000) Vintage Synthesizers. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. This is a
very readable book that provides a (journalistic) view of a number of analogue
synthesisers. It has contributions from renowned experts (including Bob Moog) and
includes the added bonus of copious illustrations (some in colour).
Five Lectures on the Acoustics of the Piano, see http://www.speech.kth.se/music/
5_lectures/
7 Further listening
There is of course a huge range of music that contains examples of the instruments
introduced in Block 2. However, the piece of music below can be used as a good
basis for further developing your listening skills with orchestral acoustic instruments.
A Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten. English Chamber
Orchestra/London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Britten, Decca
417509. This recording is with the composer conducting, but there are a number
of other recordings available.

8 Acknowledgements for sound clips
Several people or organisations have generously given permission for the use of
sound clips or have taken part in special recordings. In particular, the Course
Team thanks:
Ian Every (bassoon), Julie Fraser (clarinet, descant recorder), Toby Hill
(trumpet, tenor horn, French horn), Keith Hodgkinson (violin, viola), Allan
Jones (classical guitar), James Law (drum kit), Keith Martin (drum kit),
Dennis Pim (violin and organ), Les Pittam (trumpet, flugel horn), Su
Sampson (flute), David Sharp (oboe and percussion), Bill Strang (piano), and
Johan Sundberg (voice)
for the audio tracks of individual instruments.
Thanks also to Tony Chinnery and Denzil Wraight for clarifying the Cristofori
piano action; to the Milton Keynes Music Service for allowing their range of
percussion instruments to be photographed and played; and to the PCC of All
Saints Church, Wing, Buckinghamshire for allowing the Church’s Walker pipe
organ to be photographed and played.
Also the copyright holders for permission to use sound clips from the following
works:
Adagio for Bass Flute by Georgio Colombo Taccani. Auld lang syne and Swan
dance by Suimin from http://www.ne.jp/asahi/suimin/japan. Notturno from
Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 Calliope. Prelude from the Suite No. 1 in G by
Barbara Westphal © Bridge Records Inc. (BRIDGE 9094A/B). Widor, C.M.
(2001) Toccata from Symphony No.5 in F minor. Pulling Out All The Stops.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
WaveSurfer copyright conditions

The WaveSurfer program is copyright © 2000–2004 Jonas Beskow and Kåre
Söander.
The following terms apply to all files associated with the software unless explicitly
disclaimed in individual files.
The authors hereby grant permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and license this
software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that existing copyright notices
are retained in all copies and that this notice is included verbatim in any distributions. No
written agreement, license, or royalty fee is required for any of the authorized uses.
Modifications to this software may be copyrighted by their authors and need not follow
the licensing terms described here, provided that the new terms are clearly indicated on
the first page of each file where they apply.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR DISTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY
FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, ITS DOCUMENTATION, OR ANY
DERIVATIVES THEREOF, EVEN IF THE AUTHORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES,

INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-
INFRINGEMENT. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS, AND THE
AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE,
SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
Tutor-marked assignment TMA TA225 03
Covering Block 2.
You should submit your completed assignment to your course tutor to arrive no
later than the cut-off date: Wednesday 29 June 2005. (Please note the contents of
Section 6.2.6 in the TA225 Course Guide, entitled ‘TMA cut-off dates –
beware’.)
Weighting of the assignment

This assignment constitutes 25% of the course’s continuous assessment. The
assignment is marked out of 100 marks.
Completing your assignment

Use A4-size paper for your written assignment, and put your name, your personal
identifier, the course code (TA225) and the assignment number at the top of every
sheet. Electronic submission of TMAs is not available for this course.
Sending in your assignment

When you have completed your written assignment, fill in Section 1 of the PT3
form, taking particular care to enter your personal identifier and the assignment
number correctly.
The complete assignment, together with the TMA form, should be sent to your
course tutor for marking. Before posting it, make sure that you have put your
name, address and course code on the back of the envelope.
You are asked NOT to send your assignment by recorded delivery, special
delivery or any method that requires a signature on delivery as this may actually
delay its receipt and/or cause your tutor the inconvenience of having to travel to
the local depot to pick it up. Instead, keep a copy of the assignment, obtain a
certificate of posting and if you are really concerned, check with your tutor by
telephone or e-mail that it has arrived. Remember also to put the correct postage
on the envelope.
For general information about the submission of assignments you should refer to
the current Assessment Handbook.
Important note: before starting to answer this TMA, please make sure you have
read and taken note of Section 6.2 in the TA225 Course Guide concerning the
completion and submission of TA225 TMAs.
Question 1
(This question carries 25 per cent of the marks for this assignment.)
A 1.2 m long cylindrical tube of radius 15 mm is closed at one end and open at
the other.
(a) Explain why for the purposes of standing waves in the tube, the effective
length of the cylinder is 1.209 m.
(3 marks)
(b) Taking into account end effects, calculate the first three resonance
frequencies of the tube. Assume that the speed of sound is 340 m/s. Show all
of your working.
(7 marks)

The air column of a brass instrument behaves as if it is closed at one end and
open at the other. If the air column were cylindrical, its resonance frequencies
would be the odd numbered members of a harmonic series. However, the
geometry of a brass instrument air column is a little more complicated.
(c) Describe how the mouthpiece and bell of a brass instrument shift the air
column resonance frequencies so that they form an almost complete harmonic
series.
(5 marks)
(d) Explain why, in practice, brass players seldom (if ever) play the note based
on the lowest resonance frequency of the instrument.
(3 marks)
(e) Explain what is meant by the ‘pedal tone’ in a brass instrument, mentioning
how it can be produced and what is its sound.
(5 marks)
(f) In addition to modifying the resonance frequencies, the bell of a brass
instrument is vital in determining the instrument’s sound radiation properties.
Describe the sound radiation properties of a narrow bore instrument with a
rapidly flaring bell, mentioning the effect on the sound of the instrument.
(2 marks)
Question 2
This question requires you to analyse waveforms in two supplied sound files
named TMA03 2005 Q2a.wav and TMA03 2005 Q2b.wav. The files are available
on the TA225 eDesktop and also in the TA225 News FirstClass conference on FC
server 2. You will NOT find them on CD-ROM 2. The files are each only 3K bytes
in size so will not take long to download. Before starting this question you will
therefore need to have downloaded these files.
Note, the apparently generous allocation of marks for parts (a) and (b) is in
recognition of the fact that you will need to have used Audition in order to answer
the questions.
(a) The file TMA03 2005 Q2a.wav contains a short portion of a violin note. Run
the course’s sound editing software, open the sound file and create a
frequency spectrum display using an FFT size of 4096 points and a
Blackmann-Harris window.
(i) What is the pitch of the violin note?
(ii) Is the portion of the note flat or sharp and, if so, by how many cents?
(6 marks)
(b) The file TMA03 2005 Q2b.wav contains another short portion of the same
violin note. Use the course’s sound editing software to open this sound file
and create a frequency spectrum display. Again use an FFT size of 4096
points and a Blackmann-Harris window.
(i) Is this portion of the note flat or sharp and, if so, by how many cents?
(ii) What is the pitch difference (in cents) between the two portions of the
violin note?
(6 marks)
(c) (i) What is the name of the effect produced when a musician introduces
small, rapid pitch fluctuations into a note?
(ii) Explain how this effect is produced on the violin.
(iii) By how much might the pitch vary when this effect is produced on a
violin?
(iv) Explain why, on the violin, these fluctuations in pitch might be
accompanied by small fluctuations in amplitude.
(8 marks)
(d) The violin note from which the two short excerpts were taken was played on
the D string of the instrument. Assuming that this string is 330 mm long and
has a mass per unit length of 1.4 g/m, calculate what tension the string must
be under for it to play in tune. Show all your working. (For the purposes of
this question, the fundamental frequency of the pitch D4 should be considered
to be 294 Hz.)
(5 marks)
(e) The A string on the same violin is also 330 mm long and, when under a
tension of 55 N, it plays perfectly in tune. Calculate the mass per unit length
of the string in g/m. Show all your working. (The fundamental frequency of
the pitch A4 is 440 Hz.)
(5 marks)
Question 3
Figure 1 shows the first four modes of vibration of a circular plate. The shaded
parts of the plate show at a particular instant where the plate is moving up (say)
and the unshaded parts where it is moving down.
Mode number: 1 2 3 4
Natural frequency: f1 1.73 f1 2.33 f1 3.91 f1
Figure 1 Vibrational modes of a circular plate for Question 3
(a) State the number of nodal circles and the number of nodal lines in:
(i) mode 1
(ii) mode 4
(4 marks)
(b) The tam-tam is essentially an approximately flat bronze disc with a narrow
rim. Its modes of vibration are very similar to those of a circular plate.
Explain why the tam-tam produces a note of indeterminate pitch and why that
note has a shimmering quality.
(6 marks)
(c) Describe the difference in geometry between the tuned gong and the tam-tam.
Explain why this difference in geometry results in the tuned gong producing
pitched notes.
(5 marks)

Question 4
(a) The Mellotron and the Moog constitute two families of electronic instruments
that were quite popular in the 1960s and early 1970s.
(i) Identify and describe the class of electronic instrument to which each of
these families belong.
(4 marks)
(ii) Compare and contrast these two instruments, including consideration of
their sound production principles, the types of sounds available, and any
issues related to their use in live performance.
(6 marks)
(b) (i) Suppose you program a ring modulator that uses two sinusoidal
oscillators, with the modulator tuned to 140 kHz and the carrier tuned to
150 kHz. Explain the principle of ring modulation and describe the
frequency spectrum of the ring modulated signal for the oscillators
given.
(5 marks)
(ii) Consider a wavetable synthesiser that uses a lookup table containing
2000 values. Explain the principle of wavetable synthesis and calculate
the frequency of the synthesised signal if the table were scanned in its
entirety with a sampling rate of 20 kHz. Show your working.
(5 marks)
(c) The Telharmonium and the Hammond Organ are examples of a particular
class of electronic instrument.
(i) Identify and describe this class.
(2 marks)
(ii) Compare and contrast the two instruments, including consideration of
the construction aspects of the instruments and the sound production and
diffusion methods.
(8 marks)
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l Supplementary Material

The Technology of Music

Copyright © 2005 The Open University SUP 82960 5

2 How to study this block 6

3 Software, audio CD and DVD 6

4 Chapter study guides 7

4.1 Significant figures in calculations 7

4.2 Chapter 1 Producing musical sounds 8

4.2.1 Study guide 8

4.2.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 1 8

4.3 Chapter 2 Woodwind 8

4.3.1 Study guide 8

4.3.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 2 9

4.3.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 2 11

4.4 Chapter 3 Brass 12

4.4.1 Study guide 12

4.4.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 3 13

4.4.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 3 13

4.5 Chapter 4 Strings 13

4.5.1 Study guide 13

4.5.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 4 14

4.5.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 4 16

4.6 Chapter 5 Percussion 16

4.6.1 Study guide 16

4.6.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 5 16

4.6.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 5 17

4.7 Chapter 6 Keyboard instruments 18

4.7.1 Study guide 18

4.7.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 6 18

4.7.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 6 19

4.8 Chapter 7 The voice 20

4.8.1 Study guide 20

4.8.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 7 20

4.8.3 WaveSurfer activities and files for Chapter 7 21

4.9 Chapter 8 Electronic instruments 21

4.9.1 Study guide 21

4.9.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 8 21

4.9.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 8 22

5 Additional activity instructions 22

5.1.1 Activity 12 – WaveSurfer familiarisation 22

5.2.1 Activity 17 – Subtractive synthesis 27

5.2.2 Activity 20 – Applying envelopes 30

5.2.3 Activity 28 – Cross-fading

Block 2 of TA225 The Technology of Music is called Musical Instruments. It

Chapter 1 Producing musical sounds

4 TA225 THE TECHNOLOGY OF MUSIC

Chapter 6 Keyboard instruments

Chapter 7 The voice

Chapter 8 Electronic instruments

2 How to study this block

3 Software, audio CD and DVD

6 TA225 THE TECHNOLOGY OF MUSIC

4 Chapter study guides

4.2.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 1

Activity Track Description Duration

1 1 Vacuum cleaners as musical instruments 01:50

4.3 Chapter 2 Woodwind

8 TA225 THE TECHNOLOGY OF MUSIC

4.3.2 Listening activities and audio tracks for Chapter 2

Activity Track Description Duration

8 3 Chromatic scale played on an oboe 00:17

10 TA225 THE TECHNOLOGY OF MUSIC

4.3.3 Audition activities and files for Chapter 2