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Music technology

Music technology is the study or the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, playback or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music.

For mechanical music technologies, see Music technology (mechanical); For electric music technologies, see Music technology (electric); for electronic or digital music technologies, see Music technology (electronic and digital)

History[edit]

The earliest known applications of technology to music was prehistoric peoples' use of a tool to hand-drill holes in bones to make simple flutes.[1]


Ancient Egyptians developed stringed instruments, such as harps, lyres and lutes, which required making thin strings and some type of peg system for adjusting the pitch of the strings. Ancient Egyptians also used wind instruments such as double clarinets and percussion instruments such as cymbals.


In Ancient Greece, instruments included the double-reed aulos and the lyre.


Numerous instruments are referred to in the Bible, including the cornu, pipe, lyre, harp, and bagpipe. During Biblical times, the cornu, flute, horn, pipe organ, pipe, and trumpet were also used.


During the Middle Ages, music notation was used to create a written record of the notes of plainchant melodies.


During the Renaissance music era (c. 1400-1600), the printing press was invented, allowing for sheet music to be mass-produced (previously having been hand-copied). This helped to spread musical styles more quickly and across a larger area.


During the Baroque era (c. 1600–1750), technologies for keyboard instruments developed, which led to improvements in the designs of pipe organs and the harpsichord, and the development of a new keyboard instrument in approximately 1700, the piano.


In the Classical era, Beethoven added new instruments to the orchestra such as the piccolo, contrabassoon, trombones, and untuned percussion in his Ninth Symphony.


During the Romantic music era (c. 1810–1900), one of the key ways that new compositions became known to the public was by the sales of sheet music, which amateur music lovers would perform at home on their piano or other instruments. In the 19th century, new instruments such as saxophones, euphoniums, Wagner tubas, and cornets were added to the orchestra.


Around the turn of the 20th century, with the invention and popularization of the gramophone record (commercialized in 1892), and radio broadcasting (starting on a commercial basis ca. 1919-1920), there was a vast increase in music listening, and it was easier to distribute music to a wider public.[1]


The development of sound recording had a major influence on the development of popular music genres because it enabled recordings of songs and bands to be widely distributed. The invention of sound recording also gave rise to a new subgenre of classical music: the Musique concrete style of electronic composition.


The invention of multitrack recording enabled pop bands to overdub many layers of instrument tracks and vocals, creating new sounds that would not be possible in a live performance.


In the early 20th century, electric technologies such as electromagnetic pickups, amplifiers and loudspeakers were used to develop new electric instruments such as the electric piano (1929), electric guitar (1931), electro-mechanical organ (1934) and electric bass (1935). The 20th-century orchestra gained new instruments and new sounds. Some orchestra pieces used the electric guitar, electric bass or the Theremin.


The invention of the miniature transistor in 1947 enabled the creation of a new generation of synthesizers, which were used first in pop music in the 1960s. Unlike prior keyboard instrument technologies, synthesizer keyboards do not have strings, pipes, or metal tines. A synthesizer keyboard creates musical sounds using electronic circuitry, or, later, computer chips and software. Synthesizers became popular in the mass market in the early 1980s.


With the development of powerful microchips, a number of new electronic or digital music technologies were introduced in the 1980s and subsequent decades, including drum machines and music sequencers. Electronic and digital music technologies are any device, such as a computer, an electronic effects unit or software, that is used by a musician or composer to help make or perform music.[2] The term usually refers to the use of electronic devices, computer hardware and computer software that is used in the performance, playback, composition, sound recording and reproduction, mixing, analysis and editing of music.

the : a strummed and occasionally plucked string instrument, essentially a hand-held zither built on a tortoise-shell frame, generally with seven or more strings tuned to the notes of one of the modes. The lyre was used to accompany others or even oneself for recitation and song.

lyre

the , also a strummed string instrument, more complicated than the lyre. It had a box-type frame with strings stretched from the cross-bar at the top to the sounding box at the bottom; it was held upright and played with a plectrum. The strings were tunable by adjusting wooden wedges along the cross-bar.

kithara

the , usually double, consisting of two double-reed (like an oboe) pipes, not joined but generally played with a mouth-band to hold both pipes steadily between the player's lips. Modern reconstructions indicate that they produced a low, clarinet-like sound. There is some confusion about the exact nature of the instrument; alternate descriptions indicate single reeds instead of double reeds.

aulos

the , also known as panflute and syrinx (Greek συριγξ), (so-called for the nymph who was changed into a reed in order to hide from Pan) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting of a series of such pipes of gradually increasing length, tuned (by cutting) to a desired scale. Sound is produced by blowing across the top of the open pipe (like blowing across a bottle top).

Pan pipes

the , a keyboard instrument, the forerunner of the modern organ. As the name indicates, the instrument used water to supply a constant flow of pressure to the pipes. Two detailed descriptions have survived: that of Vitruvius [16] and Heron of Alexandria.[17] These descriptions deal primarily with the keyboard mechanism and with the device by which the instrument was supplied with air. A well-preserved model in pottery was found at Carthage in 1885. Essentially, the air to the pipes that produce the sound comes from a wind chest connected by a pipe to a dome; air is pumped in to compress water, and the water rises in the dome, compressing the air, and causing a steady supply of air to the pipes.[18]

hydraulis

Bush, Douglas Earl; Kassel, Richard, eds. (2006). . Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-94174-7.

The Organ: An Encyclopedia

(1988). Historical facts for the Arabian Musical Influence. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 0-405-08496-X. OCLC 220811631.

Farmer, Henry George

Ginsberg-Klar, Maria E. (February 1981). "The Archaeology of Musical Instruments in Germany during the Roman Period". . 12 (3, Archaeology and Musical Instruments): 313–320. doi:10.1080/00438243.1981.9979806. JSTOR 124243.

World Archaeology

Kartomi, Margaret J. (1990). On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. University of Chicago Press.  0-226-42548-7.

ISBN

Ulrich, Homer; Pisk, Paul Amadeus (1963). A History of Music and Musical Style. Harcourt, Brace & World.  9780155377202.

ISBN

Werner, Eric (1959). The Sacred Bridge: The Interdependence of Liturgy and Music in Synagogue and Church During the First Millennium. London; New York: Dobson; Columbia University Press.

Campbell, Murray; Greated, Clive; Myers, Arnold (2004). . New York: Oxford University Press.

Musical Instruments

Cunningham, Mark (1998). Good Vibrations: a History of Record Production. London: Sanctuary Publishing Limited.

Edmondson, Jacquelin. Music In American Life.

Holmes, Thom (2008). Electronic and Experimental Music. New York: Routledge.

Kettlewell, Ben (2002). Electronic Music Pioneers. USA: Pro Music Press.

Taylor, Timothy (2001). . New York: Routledge.

Strange Sounds

Weir, William (21 November 2011). . Slate. Retrieved December 9, 2015.

"How the Drum Machine Changed Pop Music"

. Audio Engineering Society. Retrieved December 8, 2015.

"An Audio Timeline"