CHAPTER 4

The Performing Arts

Lesson 1 MUSICAL ARTS

AND THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS

In Western societies, art music is described thoughtfully as cultivated music, and

as in contrast to pop and folk music. Art music includes written musical traditions
with advanced structural and theoretical considerations. In fact, classical music is the
main tradition in Western countries. It has two extensions, the serious music and the
light music. Genres of art music existed through time development from medieval to
contemporary eras. There is no better style of music because of the significant changes
and differences to each generation. Thus, one can say that musical genres are significantly
relative to time.

ORIGIN OF MUSIC
Of all human inventions, music is seemingly the most celebrated discovery on earth.
The genres of art music dates way back around the 11th century, and before the 16th
century, the staff notation system of art music started. Composers used western staff
notation to express pitches, meter, tempo, and rhythms to the performer. In 1550 to
1900s, the central norms for the art of West music started. Around the 1700s and 1800s,
monks in Christian churches used to sing classical and romantic symphonies. And
before the onset of the 19th century, instrumental music such as the concerto, sonata,
symphony, mixed vocals, and operas were developed to give a distinctive feel from
other types of music. Significantly, the relationship of art music to folk music became
apparent in the 18th century. As a matter of fact, western societies started to glorify folk
and peasant life. However in the early 19th century, classical music only appeared with
the earliest reference to the term “classical music” started in 1836.

MUSIC AS PERFORMING ART

The performing arts range from vocal and instrumental music, dance and theatre
to pantomime, sung verse and beyond. Music is perhaps the most universal of the
performing arts and is found in every society, most often as an integral part of other
performing art forms and other domains of intangible cultural heritage including
rituals, festive events or oral traditions.
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Types of Music
1. Classical Music. This is a serious or conventional music following long-established
principles.
2. Country Music. Country music is music that developed from Southern American
folk and western cowboy music in the rural regions of the Southern United States
in the 1920s. Dance tunes and ballads with harmonies and simple form played
with banjoes, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonicas and fiddles.
3. Electronic Music. The term Electronic music today suggests that the character
and quality of the music is synthetic, the music is created and manipulated by
electronics instead of performance by acoustic instruments. This type of music
began about 1942 when Pierre Schaeffer put up what is believed to be the first
Electronic music studio using a mixture of recorded normal sounds, variable
speed tape recorders, phonographs and microphones.
4. Jazz. At the beginning of the 20th century, African American communities in
southern areas of the United States invented Jazz music, which is a combination
of European and African music traditions. The distinction of African undertones
is clear in the mixture of blue notes, polyrhythms, improvisation, syncopation,
and the swing note.

Classical Music Country Music Electronic Music Jazz

Symphony Early Country Ambient New Orleans Jazz
Opera Blue Grass Break The Chicago Style
Choral Traditional Country Down tempo Bebop
Chamber Cowboy and Electro Fusion Jazz music
Gregorian chant Western Electroacoustic
Madrigals Western Swing Electronica
Honky Tonk Electronic rock
Rockabilly Euro dance
Nashville Sound Hard dance
Country Rock House music
Bakersfield Sound Industrial
Outlaw Country Intelligent dance
New Traditionalist Jungle
Texas Country Post-disco
Alternative Country Techno
Contemporary Trance music
Country UK garage

5. Latin Music. Latin music naturally originates from the broader Latin world,
mainly from Latin America with fusions by Latinos of the United States as well
as genres from European countries such as Portugal and Spain. Language, the
cultural background of the artist, geography and music style is the main elements
that define Latin music. These four elements fuse in different ways usually with
a combination of two or more of the main elements to give a production the
Latin Music Tag.
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6. Pop Music. Often, pop music is confused with popular music. Whereas Pop music
describes music that evolved from the rock and roll revolution of the middle
1950s and continues in a definite route today, popular music refers to music
that is associated with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class during
the period covering 1800s and industrialization to date. From the 1950s until
today, Pop music is identified as the hits most often played on radio, that which
attracts the largest audiences, sells the most copies, and the musical styles that
displayed by the biggest audience therefore it is really an amalgam of whatever
is popular at any given moment and doesn’t represent any specific genre.
7. Metal. Metal music is characteristic of powerful and loud bass drums and
aggressive electric guitars. It was developed in the United Kingdom in the 1960s
and early 1970s and also in the United States. The words are usually about
provocative and controversial themes. Metal music fans are referred to as head
bangers and metal heads.
8. Punk. Developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, United Kingdom,
and Australia, Punk Music is a type of Rock Music Genre based on Garage rock
Protopunk music. Bands made hard-edged songs that were short, political, anti-
establishment with stripped down instrumentation.

Latin Music Pop Music Metal Music Punk Music

Salsa n/a Avant Garde Metal Anarcho Pun
Tango Black Metal Celtic Punk
Merengue Celtic Cow Punk
Death Metal Gypsy or Immigrant
Doom Metal Punk
Funk Metal Pop Punk
Gothic
Grind core
Groove Metal
Hard-core Metal
Nu-Metal
Power metal
Speed Metal
Thrash Metal

9. Rap music. It originated among African-Americans’ inner-city street culture in

the 1970s. Rap is considered as a mainstream type and is popular among people
of all ages and background around the world. Rap music is generally not sung.
The words are spoken with a backdrop of music borrowed from soul, funk and
rock pieces.
10. Reggae. Reggae Music arose from Jamaica in the late 1960s. Reggae Music refers
to a style that developed from Ska and Rock Steady.
11. Rhythm and Blues (R&B). This is a genre of popular music that originated in
African American communities in the 1940s.
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 12. Rock Music. This is a popular music that evolved from rock and roll and pop music
during the mid and late 1960s.

Rhythm and Blues

Rap Music Reggae Rock Music
(R&B)
Gangsta Rap Roots Motown Rock n Roll
Political Rap Dub Funk Garage Rock
Alternative Rap Dub Poetry Disco Punk Rock
Crunk Toasting Doo-wop Glam Rock
Lover’s Rock Club blues Southern Rock
Niyabingi Jump Blues
Slack Dancehall
Conscious Dancehall

THE ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS

This is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which
combines instruments from different families. The typical orchestra is divided into four
groups of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
1. Woodwind Instruments. Woodwinds are basically tubes pierced with holes. They
produce sound through the vibration of the air column inside the tube. Some
woodwinds have reeds. A reed is a thin piece of cane that vibrates when blown
across.
a. Piccolo. Highest Pitched; Mimics sound of bird; Smallest of family
b. Flute. No Reed
c. Clarinet. Single Reed; Expressive tone
d. Oboe. Double Reed; Sad tone
e. Bassoon. Double Reed; Lowest Pitched

piccolo flute clarinet oboe bassoon recorder

https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/404549978997948334/

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2. String Instruments. Comprises the largest section of the orchestra. Crafted by
carving, shaping and gluing wood pieces together; no nails or screws are used.
Each instrument has four strings, the vibration of which makes the instrument
sound. Come in many sizes: the larger the instrument, the lower the sound,
the smaller the instrument, the higher the sound. Sound is made on string
instruments by playing their strings two ways; plucking or bowing.
a. Violin: Smallest member of family
b. Viola: Slightly larger than violin with a much warmer and lower tone
c. Cello: Bass member of family; musician must sit to play instrument.

Violin Viola Guitar

Cello Double
Bass

Harp

https://www.teachingkidsmusic.com/string-family.html

3. Brass Instruments. Metallic loops of tubing, in different lengths, with a

mouthpiece at one end and a bell shape at the other. The longer the length of
tubing, the lower the sound. Brass players’ lips act as reeds. Sound is produced
by buzzing with the lips while blowing in the mouthpiece. Most have valves that
are pressed and released to change and produce different tones.

Saxophone French Horn Tuba

Mouthpiece Valve

Trombone Trumpet
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 4. Percussion Instruments. Made of naturally resonant materials like skin, wood or
metal. Sound is produced when the instrument is struck. The role of this section
is to provide rhythm and character to the orchestra. These instruments range
from simple wooden blocks to tuned instruments.

The Percussion Family

Xylophone Triangle Tambourine Maracas Chimes

Snare Drum Marimba

Djembe

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