MU • II indicates that they are to be played, • ...-.------ _I— .
v smoothly or fluently (legato)— so omen= .. — ma. • pp ...
When notes are to be played short, distinct, and detached (staccato), a dot is placed over them. A clash implies a greater, and the union of dot and slur a less degree of ' staccato s 1 .. . ' ila • - _ _e .___D 1 ...... ...= --_-_-[-i- .
The pause placed over a note indicates a delay in the time of the movement, and a continuance of the sound made on that part of the measure.
The various degrees of softness and loudness which occur in a piece of music are indicated by the letter f for forte, loud; p for piano, soft, also pp for pianissimo, very soft; nif for mezzo forte, rather loud, and ff for fortissimo, very loud. A gradual increase of loudness is denoted by the word crescendo, or the sign <; and a diminution from loud to soft by the word diminuendo, or the contrary sign >. Many other expressions are used in the body of written music, indicating slowness, quickness, and the character of execution. The most important of them are explained under separate articles—as are the various musical graces or embellishments known under'the names of the appoggia tura, beat, shake, and turn. Among abbreviations in frequent use are a line drawn over or under a semibreve, or through the stem of a minim or crotchet, to divide it into qua vers; or a double line, to divide it into semiquavers. Two minims may be connected indicate their repetition as quavers. Thus— Written.
ET, —2L-r4-=-0Cr..t.....6..„___ — - • Harmony.—We have mentioned that when a string is struck, its harmonics are more or lei distinctly heard along with it. _ This arisesfroin the string spontaneously if.seif into aliqu4tp_arta--as MI e-half, one-third, Otk-fciurth, one-fifth, One-sixth, one-sev. enth, etc., of the string. The numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, expressing the relative number of: vibrations in a given time, are a measure of the pitch of the note, and placed proportion ally to one another, or in the form of a fraction, they arc a measure of the interval. The•
prime numbers 2, 3, 5, and 7, and their compounds, constitute the harmonics of a musi cal sound: no division by a higher prime number is tolerable to the ear along with the fundamental note, and no sound corresponding to such division is audible in the vibra tions of a string 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I_ 11The degrees of the harmonic scale consist of intervals decreasing in a geometrical ratio from the octave to the minor tone, viz,: 1 : 2 Octave. 6 : 7 Grave third.
2 : 3 Fifth. 7 : 8 Tone maximus.
3 : 4 Fourth. 8 : 9 Tone major.
4 : 5 Major third. 9 : 10 Tone minor.
5 : 6 Minor third.
Other intervals more or less consonant are to be found in the harmonic scale, of.whiclt the most important is 4 : 7, the grave seventh. From this scale is derived the triad, which we have seen to be the foundation of the diatonic scale, and also the whole theory of chords.
The first five notes of the harmonic scale are the component parts of the major com mon chord, by far the most consonant chord that can be produced by five notes. lecting octaves, its essential notes are the major triad, C E G, or 4, 5, 6, which, as already Seen, consists of a fifth divided harmonically into major third and minor third. The root on which a chord is formed, or the note by whose division into aliquot parts the notes or the chord are produced, is called its fundamental bass, and the fundamental bass of the triad C E G is C. The common chord is the triad with the addition of the octave of the root; its proportions are 4, 5, 6, 8. Every key contains within itself two other triads. besides that of the key-note—viz., those of the subdominant and dominant, which have the subdominant and dominant of the key-note respectively for their fundamental bases; and the feeling of satisfaction produced by the diatonic scale arises out of the fact that its notes belong to a progression of chords formed on a fundamental bass suggested by the ear. This fundamental bass is here indicated on the lower staff ! _ I tr.