Anonymous (2010). Music notation. Wikipedia. Online document
available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_notation
(version of 15 February 2010, visited 1 March 2010).
Anonymous (2010). Sound recording and reproduction. Wikipedia.
Online document available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_recording
(version of 22 February 2010, visited 1 March 2010).
Noted by one student: http://www.slate.com/id/2245891/.
I guess pianos used to be quite different back in the day, so different that the music some big-name composers wrote doesn't sound the same on modern pianos. The way we write music now doesn't address this problem at all!
Why did the most commonly used modern music notation stem from
European influences rather than Arabic ones?
When playing guitar for example, the staff shows which string to play (with the left hand), but does the staff also says how to play the right hand and how to move the strings so that it sounds right?
Modern notation seems to be the most recognizable of notations. I was wondering if modern notation was limited in the types of music and instruments it can be applied to? I saw that music from different cultures focus on different characteristics of sound like in Japan where the focus is more on timbre than it is on pitch. [+]
I was also interested in the Indian form of notation and its use of seven distinct pitches similar to western music. But I was confused on the finer details of this form of notation so I was wondering if this could be explained better?
Are there any limitations/drawbacks of the modern notation system?
In a previous class discussion we had a debate about the pros and cons for English, Chinese and other languages. I had a revelation caused by today's reading. Wikipedia noted that there are other forms of Musical notation. Since we are speaking about notation, where the main purpose is to record a meaning on paper and have it read by someone else, is it possible to say that one form of Musical Notation is better than another?
Is the modern musical notation, the only type of musical notation that is used currently or are there other types that are less known that have not died out. Also were most of these early forms of musical notation used by specific groups of people were generally could be learned with an instrument or with a song?
How often (if ever) are new musical symbols created?
I'm intrigued by the notion of Braille music. How would a blind
person read it and still be able to use their hands to play an instrument?
Musical notation has an obvious benefit for people who want to transmit music, without having to personally teach each musician each song. What I wonder is how the modern system came to be so standardized, and accepted so widely? (There clearly have been other systems in use at various times, and in various places, was the current system just better?)
Apparently, new musical notations have been patented in some countries (including the USA). What is the point of patenting musical notations? How does it work? What is an example of a new (improved?) musical notation?
The article on sound recording briefly discusses how increased storage capacity has improved sound quality, has sound quality reached its maximum, ie even if the space was increased we could not hear the difference?
In the phonograph section, it says the first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph cylinder invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. What's the difference between the mechanical phonograph cylinder and the device the phonautograph that was created in 1857? Both of these can't be first.
The article on music recording mentions that notes can be digitally recorded using a binary system. Can you explain in more detail how this process works? (The digital recording page was pretty unhelpful).
Hi-Fi music recordings are those that use multiple simultaneous tracks to enliven the sound. How common is it that music tracks today are really many overlapping recorded tracks?
Is the bitrate of digital recordings proceeding at a rate such that they will eventually essentially become analog?
What kind of various information is contained in a phonautograph? I am asking because apparently it was enough so that we can recreate the music today: "it was not understood at that time that the waveform recorded by the phonautograph contained enough information about the sound wave that a playback mechanism could be used to recreate that sound" (wiki, phonautogrpah). Isn’t it just recording frequency?
The reading says that the gramophone disc form of recording was not able to record sounds of high or low frequency. Does this type of recording work to record frequencies by means of the material of the disc? Therefore does the vinyl capture any other type of frequencies than a shellac?
With early recording technology, accuracy and volume were both very poor; the clip embedded on the wiki page about recording of "Au Clair de la Lune" is almost inaudible. What benefit did people see in this tech. or were they just hopeful that it could be improved?
What are the advantages of multitrack recording?
Explain a little bit more about how cassette tapes capture and produce sound.
What exactly is "voice-to-note" technology?
Assuming the phonograph had not be invented or popularized by
Edison, what would the state of popular music exist as today?
"Modern musical notation originated in European classical music, but is now used for multiple genres around the world." If European classical music notation, English language and the alphabet as the norm has become the norm or "uniformed" or "universal" way of communicating music and language, what can we say about this power/privilege?
With the invention and popularity of multitracking the U.S. has been able to record movies with audio on one "magnetic tape," and CDs and DVDs have been more desireable since the personal computer became "portable," but what has blue-ray, "instant Netflix," TVBO and rentals from "itunes" offered to the "improvement" of the media industry?
How are improvements in sound recording and reproduction techniques blurring the lines between sound and music? What about art, sound, and music? Were these boundaries more clear when there were not digital recording and reproduction devices? [+]
How might a particular system of writing music affect the way composers and musicians think about it? [+]
How has the digital music age transformed the role of a "celebrity" in both American and world cultures? For example, the difference between Lady Gaga and The Beatles - how they rose to stardom, how they make/made "statements" (fashion, political, whatever), who their target audience were/are?
In terms of sound quality/aesthetic appeal, what does live music give us that recordings do not? Contemporary recording technology has made great strides in bettering the quality of recorded sound. Is this enough? [+]
In the opening of the Wikipedia article on recording, one sees delineation between fidelity and quality. How does/should one weigh the relative value of each? How does one's value of fidelity vs. quality affect one's view of advances in recording technology?
In the last segment of the Wikipedia article on notation we see a reference to the fact that "new musical notations can be patented. In the United States for example about 90 new patents have been issued on new notation systems." How does this interest in patenting musical notation expose problems in the artistic/technological relationship between music and notation? Is the extremely technological nature of the musical art beneficial, or does it stand in the way of free expression?
The sound recording Wiki article presents a section regarding the UK's approach to the legal difference between a 'musical work' and a 'sound recording.' I am led to believe that the UK still frowns upon pirating since the definition is provided from the Copywright, Designs, and Patents Act of 1988, but why is this information particularly significant? Does the United States legislation have a different approach to separating the two terms, or does it not even bother to do so?
The History section states that the Diatonic Scale is the basis of the "European musical tradition." Does that imply that other areas of the world, particularly Eastern Asia, may have developed a different musical scale to produce music?
Why did Solfege "Do, Re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do" catch on, while the Indian equivalents of syllables "Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni" didn't?
Does the speed of the disc changed the speed of the songs?
Is there any loss of sound quality when a digital audio signal is converted back to analog before being applied to a loudspeaker or headphones?
In my experience, there are a lot of musicians that cannot read music notes. What percentage of musicians are musically literate?
I understand that visually impaired people can play instruments, but what happens when they get to a point in the song they can no longer remember? Do they have to completely stop and reread the entire piece or what? (This question was brought on by the section on Braille notes followed by reading the article on Braille notes)
Since piracy of music has become easier and easier as time and technology has progressed, do you think all musicians will become like Chinese musicians who do commercials to make money while bowing down to the inevitability or piracy, or do you think they will continue to try to make piracy more difficult?
I know when I was younger and recorded things on VHS there was an option for the speed of the recording and my dad told me that the slower speed would result in higher quality videos. Why is this?
Since Blue ray discs have a shorter wavelength they have a higher definition than standard dvds. Would an even smaller wavelength results in more data storage/higher definition or is it not a big enough difference to have a shorter wavelength than blue ray and if it would be better why did the creators not go straight to that wavelength and skip blue ray?
What are equal temperament and no-equal temperament (I read the articles, but I still don't understand how these systems work, and can't think of a more elegant way to phrase the question)?
What does it mean for a person to have 'perfect pitch'? Couldn't the sounds between the lowest and highest notes in a scale be divided into any number of notes? I mean, isn't having 8 notes in a scale arbitrary, and there are some non-western scales that have more? So perfect pitch would have to be conditioned, right? Not just someone having a 'better sense of hearing' than other people?
Why is that musical notations can be patented, even though music is a
universal idea.
How are the musical sounds broken up into different waves and frequencies to create a pleasant sound?
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