Music, Music, Music. How are they written?

 

 

Almost the entire 8,000 million people on this earth have heard music except the very few who were born totally deaf to all sounds.

We hear music almost everywhere, over the radio, television, cinemas, in 5-star hotel reception halls, in elegant airports, shopping malls, sometimes even in the streets, buses, trains. Music is plenty for almost everyone, but very few know how music is written, read, interpreted, let alone played on a musical instrument. Perhaps if we were to conduct a population survey, we may be surprised although  all have heard music being played,  perhaps only 20 – 50 out of a 1,000 people can play some simple musical instruments such as those street musicians who can  strum on the guitar and tapping on his right foot while singing at the same time, or someone who blows on their harmonica to churn out a tune, does not mean they know music. They would have no clue how to read a single written musical note because almost none of them have musical education in school. They can only play by ear, but unable to read musical notes.

But those musicians who place sheet music (collectively known as a music score) in front of them, sitting on the stage in a elegant concert hall performing a symphony, or a soloist performing a violin or a piano concerto with a conductor conducting, these musicians can read music and they know music. This is the difference.  

Those who do are from rich and educated families who send their children to learn music such as the piano, violin, cello, flute, harp or other instruments and also learn how to read sheet music, the interpretation of their notes, instruction clearly printed on the musical scores. They learn music independently outside their school education.

Out of one million people in this world, possibly only about 10 or 30 can actually read musical notes and how to play them on a musical instrument. The rest of the world population only know how to hear or sing but have no clue how to play a musical instrument even by ear, let alone read the technical language of music being composed.

  Six months ago, I was playing my violin with an orchestra when a senior consultant surgeon old friend of mine was in the audience. About three months later I was playing my violin accompanied by a pianist when my surgeon friend was also there. Two days ago, he asked me if music can be written as:

do, re, mi, fa, so, la ti, doe, such as:  

do, a deer, a female deer.
re a drop of golden sun.
mi, a name I call myself.
fa, a long, long way to run.
so, a needle pulling thread,
la, a note to follow sew,
ti, a drink with jam and bread!
That will bring us back to do oh-oh-oh!

as sung by Julie Andrews who was the nanny to the seven von Trapp children in the movie "Sound of Music"

I told him music is not normally written in this way, but in a mixture of seven music notes – a b c d e f g that can be natural notes or with sharps or flats on the musical scale.

For example, on the four strings GDAE of a violin we may start with the G note on open G string, then A note, B note on the first and second fingers, on the 3^rd finger we go to middle C note, then on the 4^th finger the D note which is the same note on the next open D string.

Then on the next D string, we E F G notes, and third string A, then B (1^st index finger) and C (2^nd finger) close together as semitones, then D note (3^rd ring finger) and E note on 4^th little finger which is the same note as the next E open string.  

Before we proceed further let me admit what I write here is a very, very brief (perhaps 5%) run through on the theory of music. The theory of music must be written as a book or in several series of music books from elementary to advanced levels.

Of course, I told my surgeon friend he can sing “do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti do” at any pitch he wishes. He or anyone can repeat the same notes at the next octave (8^th note), but I don’t think any ordinary voice can go higher than after the second octave after middle C unless he or she is a tenor or a soprano where his or her voice may be able to climb above the third C note.

 Try this yourself on your voice using various pitches as if repeated in octaves.  But they can also be written to sound as Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si as the letters C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.

The notes can be arranged in any way a composer wishes so long it sounds harmonious. Most music written for cello is written on the bass clef, and so is for the bass instruments. There are written instructions that requires key signatures placed just after the treble or G clef as on instruments like the violin, flute, oboe, cor anglais, all clarinets, all saxophones, horn, trumpet, cornet, vibraphone, xylophone, mandolin, recorder, bagpipe, and guitar.

On the cello or bass instrument music is written on the bass clef with middle C between the lower bass clef and the upper treble (G) clef or treble staff.

Piano music is written in both treble clefs using the right hand on the white keys, and left hand for bass clef using the black keys

The notes a b c d e f g can either be neutral (natural) notes, or they need to be sharpened or flattened.

A sharp sign (#) raises the note by one half step or one semitone. A and B are a step apart, but A# and B are a half step apart.

Musical notes all look like sprouted beans with a stem, and often with little tails sticking out at the end of the stem. The round note is a semibreve or whole note, the white note with a stem is a minim or half note (1/2), the black note with a stem is called a crotchet or a quarter note (1/4), and the same black note with a stem but with a curved tail sticking at the end is a quaver or eighth note (1/8).

The timing and duration of a whole note is made of 2 minim, or 4 crotchets, or 8 quavers. There are of course shorter notes like semiquavers like a quaver except that it has two tails. Other shorter notes are demisemiquavers, for example, a semibreve has 32 demisemiquavers, a semiquaver has 2 demisemiquavers, a crotchet has 8 demisemiquavers, a minim has 16 demisemiquavers.

 

There are also rest symbols like a tiny black tile or block hanging above or below a ledger line for the duration of a semibreve rest. A semibreve rest hangs below the fourth line, and a minim rest hangs on the third line.  A crotchet rest is written differently in two ways. Unfortunately, I do not have the software to write all these musical symbols or other signs or symbols whether they were mathematical symbols or musical symbols as much as I wish to. I only have an ordinary home PC and a smartphone with limited applications to type only A – Z and 123456….   The semibreve rest hangs below the fourth leger line, and the minim rest sits on the top of the third leger line. We shall explain a ledger line shortly. Then there are also signs, instructions and symbols meant for various instruments such as arco to mean use the bow after a passage of pizzicato, pizzicato to mean pluck the string with a finger for the violin or a tie or a slur over or under the notes to mean all the notes to be played with one stroke of the bow either up or down. There are dozens of all these symbols or instructions and it is far beyond the scope of this short article for me to explain all of them.

All written music is broken up into bars with a bar line separating them and all. The entire music with the bars has time signatures such as 2/4. The top figure (2) in the time signature shows how many beats there are in a bar. For example, ‘2’ on the top shows there are 2 beats in each bar and is a double time. If the top number is ‘3’ there are 3 beats in each bar and is a triple time. If it is 4 such as 4/4, this means there are 4 beats in each bar and is a quadruple time. The bottom number of a time signature shows the value of each beat. For instance, in each of the following time signatures – 2/4, ¾, 4/4, the bottom number 4 stands for crotchet beats. Hence, there are 2 crotchet beats in 2/4, 3 crotchet beats in ¾ and 4 crotchets in 4/4.

 The beats and timing are the same throughout the entire written music.

A ledger line or leger line is used in Western musical notation to notate pitches above or below the lines and spaces of the regular musical staff. All notes on the Staff or Clef must be written exactly either with the ledger line passing through the notes, or in the spaces between the ledger lines.

A semitone (sometimes called a half tone or a half step) is the distance from a white key to a neighbouring black key on the piano keyboard—for example, from G to G-sharp or from E to E-flat.

A semitone in music is the smallest gap between two notes. It represents the distance of one half-step between one note and another. For example, if you start on the note C and move up one semitone, you will land on the note C# (C sharp) or Db (D flat), depending on how it is named in the specific context. In a normal musical scale where there is neither sharp or flat such as in C major or in A minor, B and C notes, and E and F notes are semitone apart. But F♯ and G, and G and G# are also semitone apart.

Example, when F note is raised one half step higher is F sharp written as F #, and C sharp as C #,   B flat as ♭ B, E flat as ♭ E, A flat as ♭ A… etc, etc... They are called major or minor scales... lots of them too long and technical to explain here.

All notes written exactly in the position in the spaces or across the ledger lines on either the treble or G clef or on the bass clef have precisely the same pitch, although the tone colour or tone quality termed as ‘timbre’ varies from musical instrument to musical instrument or voice to voice such as a violin sounds different from a flute, piano, harp, saxophone, clarinet. The timbre of a female voice differs from that of a male even for the same note. It also differs within the same sex and gender. For instance, the piano note middle C has a frequency of 261.63 Hz and this frequency for middle C is the same for all instruments theoretically although mixed sine waves of the same frequency may account for their tone colour or timbre.
 

Musician needs  to follow instructions written on the sheet music such as repeats given as D.S. al Coda, D. C. al Fine as end,  beside dozens of other written instructions given there, examples "dynamics, fermata, glissando, grace notes, octaves, ornaments, rest, slurs, staccato, tempo marks, tenuto and ties, tuplets, trill, harmonics, braces and bars, accidentals, bowing signs, grand staff, time signature" .... etc, etc, etc... a 1001 more symbols and other musical instructions depending on the musical instrument the musician plays. That is why as an example, we see violinists in an orchestra bowing up and down in unison with each other because they read the up (^) or down (v) bowing signs written there on their music scores.

The understanding of the theory of music may take a few years to learn.  They can rank from Grade 1 to Grade 8 and can cover many music theory books or published in many parts. So is the practice of music on a musical instrument that may take many hours a day to practise for many years.  Once again what I write here is a very, very brief idea, maybe just 5% how music is written.

Sorry to my surgeon friend,  music is not sung as do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti do like others who have no music education think

But music can also be written the Chinese way using 123456 instead of using alphabets

Using 1234567 is okay for singing simple tunes, but not for highly advanced western composition and  repertoires composed by great composers where a lot of other instructions are also printed there for the musician to follow, in which case it is better to use the western conventional musical notes

For example, music written as 123456 notations may have their limitations because often the style and movements of the music need to be written and expressed - how they need to be sung or played on a musical instrument, and not just sung using their simple natural notes. Then what about notes that need to be sharpened by a semi note such as C into C#, or flattened as B flat (♭ B)?  

Music written in numbers 1 to 7 represent musical notes (more accurately the scale degrees) always correspond to the diatonic major scale. For example, in the key of C, their relationship with the notes and the solfege (adiate, or mentally hear, the pitches of a piece of music and sung aloud) such as the notes C D E F G A B when sung orally corresponds to do re mi fa sol la ti which when written in figures or notation instead of in alphabets would be in numbers - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

An example of numbers used, instead of alphabetical notes is here:

“I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady”

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L_mY2ryI5NTZvj60io7NYVM69sT06CB2/view?usp=sharing

or it may also be written as alphabetical notes Here is an example of “I Could Have Danced All Night” arranged for both the violin and the piano

https://bearrivertheatre.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/7/9/117937594/336205732-i-could-have-danced-all-night-my-fair-lady.pdf

Let us give a few examples of conventionally written music below:

Here’s a” Song of India” composed by Rimsky Korsakov from the 1896 opera Sadko being sung here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5k-TaOmq5o

It can also be played on the piano here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK55ceFVY0M

However, I have also personally translated the same audible music from a video into a handwritten one as sheet music for the violin here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u6M-9OUHPfwrIjWD46Zb0qa7LefAhunk/view

 

Here is more music from CDs or from videos translated into handwritten sheet music:    

Fragrance of the Night video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ1X4zEKwZw

The written translation of the above “Fragrance of the Night” video is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hMYclKk_LnLka7FA8hz2EfpbBgojMjmS/view

Military March by Franz Schubert, from this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKEiOiluqTY

into this written music is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XucjNgo9-Y3IHTSDdXwGWKDmOkQB9M1R/view

Here is a beautiful violin piece called “Souvenir by F.Drdla” where  you may follow the musical notes as it is being played note-by-note.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbV3_XLbzyA

Since I do not have the software to write musical symbols as much as I wish to inside my blog using my personal PC or smartphone, you may get them from Google here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols

Written music will have a key signatures such as the number of sharps (#) or flats (♭) written at the top of the sheet music just immediately after either the treble of bass clefs to mean all the same notes throughout the sheet or written music must either be in sharp or flat, unless there is an accidental sign (♮) somewhere along the written music to cancel out a particular note written only in that bar prescribed in the key signature for the entire music score. 

Accidentals are sharps (#) flats (♭) and natural (#) which are placed immediately to the left of the note in a tune. Their functions are: 

. A sharp raises a note a semitone - C to C#

. A flat lower a note a semitone - B down to B♭. 

. A natural puts a note back to its original pitch - C# to C♮ , B♭ to B ♮

Key signatures are either in sharps or flats but not a mixture of sharps and flats. 

For example, the scale of C major has no sharp

The scale of G major has one sharp (F #). The scale of D major has two sharps (F# C#), the scale of A major has three sharps (F# C# G#), and the scale of E major has four sharps (F # C# G# D#)   

There is a pattern of minor key signatures corresponding to the pattern of major-key signatures. For example:

No sharp or flat is A minor (C major)

1 sharp (F) ………… E minor (G major)

2 sharps (F C) …… B minor (D major)

3 sharps (F C G) …. F# minor (A major)

4 sharps (F C G D) … C# minor (E major)

5 sharps (F C G D A) … G# minor (B major)

6 sharps (F C G D A E) …D# minor (F# major)

 

1 flat (B)…D minor (F major)

2 flats (B E) … G minor (B flat major)

3 flats (B E A) … C minor (E flat major)

4 flats (B E A D) … F minor (A flat major)

5 flats (B E A D G) … B flat minor (D flat major)

6 flats (B E A D G C) … E flat minor (G flat major)

Then of course there is fast and slow music, and of certain beat, pace, tempo, and rhythm to be played.  These are written in the sheet music, examples:

Adagietto (rather slow, but faster than adagio), affettuoso (tenderly), allegro (quick and cheerful), andante (at a walking pace), brio (vigour), calando (getting softer), dolce (sweet and soft) … espressivo (expressive), felice (happy) … all the way down to tranquillo (calm) and vivace (lively and quick), mezzo forte means moderately loud, piano (p) means soft, staccato = short, detached, tempo = speed, time, ritardando ( ritard) = getting gradually slower… etc, etc, 1001 of these symbols and instructions far too many for me to write them here as this is not a book on the theory of music. It is just a very brief article to answer and to educate my surgeon friend who asked me about how music is written.

I have a music library containing thousands of compositions, some printed ones I bought from the United States or from the UK, some personally written or translated by me into notes from CDs or from videos.

 I started to play the violin when I was an undergraduate student while reading for my degree for some completely unrelated courses, but I only learned to play the flute a few years ago.

I have also previously joined an orchestra, and I used to be a member of the Symphony Club of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO)

"If music be the food of love, play on"

(William Shakespeare, from "Twelfth Night Night")

Music is just one of my love besides mathematics, sciences, medicine, nutrition, food and analytical food chemistry and microbiology, food quality control, astronomy, evolutionary biology, forensic science, toxicology and medical research.

But today I am more interested in the mystery of life, how it originated, chemically or spiritually, and where life or the soul goes when physical life ends.  

Lim ju boo

(3,242 words in 7 pages)