Music Vocal Medium: Voice Types and Classifications

Vocal Medium

• The human voice is the oldest and most popular medium for music, being personal and natural.
• The human voice has been classified into different types, including:
  • Soprano: the highest female singing voice.
  • Mezzo Soprano: a female singer with a voice pitched between soprano and contralto.
  • Contralto: a female singing voice that is low and rich in quality.
  • Tenor: the highest adult male singing voice.
  • Bass: a male singing voice that is low and rich in quality.
  • Baritone: a male singing voice that is between tenor and bass.

Instrumental Medium

• Instruments produce sound by blowing, beating, plucking, or using a bow.
• String instruments provide basic orchestral sounds and produce tones through the vibration of stretched strings.
• There are two types of string instruments:
  • Bowed strings: produce tones using a bow of horse hair (e.g., violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass).
  • Plucked strings: produce tones by plucking the strings with a finger or plectrum (e.g., guitar, harp).

Drama and Theater

• Genres of drama include:
  • Tragedy: presents life as solemn and serious, with a central character who becomes arrogant and meets a sad or disastrous end.
  • Comedy: the opposite of tragedy, portraying human weakness and limitations, and evoking laughter from the audience.

Genres of Music

• Pop music: originated in the 1950s and is inspired by rock and roll.
• Jazz: originated in African-American communities in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Blues: originated from African Americans in the Deep South of the United States in the late 19th century, incorporating spiritual songs, work songs, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.
• Rock music: evolved from rock and roll and pop music, characterized by musical experimentation and drug-related/anti-establishment lyrics.
• Alternative music: a style of rock music that emerged from independent music in the 1980s and gained popularity in the 1990s.

Dance

• Dance is the oldest of all arts, using the body to communicate ideas or feelings to the audience.
• Dance can be a personal expression, telling a story, setting a mood, or expressing an idea.

Genres of Motion Pictures

• Feature films: typically last from 1 1/2 to 2 hours, portraying fictional stories or stories based on real events.
• Animated movies: use images created by artists/animators, creating the illusion of movement from a series of two-dimensional drawings, three-dimensional objects, or computer-generated images.
• Documentary movies: provide information on a particular topic or subject.
• Melodrama: emphasizes the battle between good and evil, with good always winning.
• Comedy: portrays human weakness and limitations, evoking laughter from the audience.
• Educational films: intended to facilitate learning at home or in the classrooms, providing instruction on various subjects.

People Behind a Motion Picture

• Actors: play the roles of characters in the film, preparing themselves mentally and physically for the role.
• Producer: handles finances, including paying for production, hiring actors and crew, supervising production, and distributing the finished film.
• Screenwriter: writes scripts for motion pictures, such as the Star Wars Saga, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Director: studies the script, plans and visualizes the film, and guides actors and the production crew.