Materials of Music: Sound, Perception and Documentation

Sound is the fundamental material of music. This course provides an introduction to the elemental components, and acoustic principles of musical sound, examining the ways in which these principles shape our perception and understanding of music. The exploration of musical acoustics incorporates aspects of frequency, sound envelopes, and amplitude measurement. These principles then inform a grounding in the key concepts and skills of musical practice, including the consideration of diatonic pitch space, its systems of documentation, and the ways in which we use it to explain relationships between musical sounds. An understanding of the components of sound also informs the ways in which we perceive, analyse, manipulate and articulate the sounds of music. Techniques of critical listening are introduced in multiple contexts, from the exploration of the frequency content of sound through spectral solfege, to the perception of pitch relationships within diatonic pitch space. Techniques for the analysis of musical sound are introduced which are foundational for the future studies of the music practitioner, technologist, and analyst alike.