Boy Scout Merit Badge Requirements

Classification of Musical Instruments
Old Answer:

• Brass: Trumpet: Say "Sim", Buzz and blow with lips into mouth piece
• Woodwind: Oboe: Grip reed between lips, hum and blow into reed
• Percussion: Drum: Strike with fingers, hands, sticks, or mallets
• Strings: Violyn: Pluck strings with fingers or stroke with bow

1. Idiophones - Self sounding instruments. They are of naturally sonourous material. They may be struck, shaken, plucked, or rubbed. A few examples of struck idiophones are bells, cymbals, and lithophones. Shaken Idiophones are rattles. An example of plucked idiophones are harps, and an example of rubbed idiophones are harmonicas.
2. Membranophones - Instruments producing sound by means of a stretched skin, or membrane. Some examples are kettledrums, snare drums, and tambourines. Some of these drums are rubbed instead of struck.
3. Aerophones - Wind instruments. The sound is caused by vibrating air. In Tubular Aerophones, the air is inclosed in a tube in 3 ways: 1) Trumpets and Horns - The players compressed lips set the air into motion 2) Reed Instruments (clarinet, saxaphone, oboe) - a single or double beeting reed sets the air into motion 3) Flutes: The sharp edge of a hole, against which the players breath is directed, sets the air into motion Most saxophones, flutes, and many clarinets are made of metal. Horns and trumpets haven been made of other materials such as wood, ivory tusk, animal horn, gold, and clay.
4. Chordophones - String instruments. 4 types: a) Zithers - neckless instruments, with strings stretched from end to end of a board. They are struck or plucked. b) Lutes - instruments with necks. They may be plucked or bowed. c) Lyres - Instruments with two projecting arms linked by a crossbar. May be plucked or bowed d) Harps - instruments in which the string's plane is at an angle, rather than parallel to the sound board.
5. Electrophones Instruments using electronic circuits. Amplification of Sound - May use an electronic circuit to reinforce means of amplification. Examples: Electric guitar, electric piano

Music History

Medieval Period: 1000-1450
Music was first developed during the Medieval period. Music of the Medieval period was, for the most part, sacred. Because ancient composers often did not affix their names to their compositions, many of the composers of this era are unknown to us. However, a few major composers from this era were Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, Perotin Magnus, and Guillaume de Machaut.

Renaissance: 1450-1600
In all forms of art and music, this period marked a burst of musical innovations. They were quickly disseminated, primarily facilitated by the advent of music printing, and thus the development of music theory and practice was likewise propelled forward. The late years of the Renaissance does show a great increase in sophistication for instrumental composition, as well as the emergence of dramatic works and the first operas.

Baroque period: 1600-1750
The Baroque period can be characterized by a greater development of string instruments. The violin became the most important bowed string instrument. Keyboard instruments also gained in importance during this period, as the organ and harpsichord were used more and more frequently. Music of the Baroque Era showed a breaking away from the severity of Medieval and early Renaissance music with emphasis on the use of great vocal and instrumental color. The spectacular harpsichord music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau, as well as the instrumental music of George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli and Johann Sebastian Bach was perhaps among the greatest elements of the Baroque period.

The Classical Era: 1750-1820
During the Classical Era, there was an improvement in various instruments and there was a development of orchestra. Winds took on greater complexity in the 19th century. Valves were added to horns and trumpets and more efficient fingering keys were added to flutes and clarinets. Orchestras also expanded in size. In Haydn's Creation in Vienna in 1843, 320 players and a chorus of 600 were used in performance. The orcestras also used more instruments than ever before. In the music of this period there was a revolution against the musical trends of the Baroque era. The compositions of Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in particular, exemplify the concepts of Classicism.

Romanticism: 1820-1910
During this period, formal concern, intellectuality and concise expression have now been augmented by sentiment, imagination and effect.

Twentieth Century: 1900-present
During this time, there has been a greater use of percussion instruments and electrophones were introduced. Serial and atonal composition gained an impressive following during the 50s & 60s, but these were not the only mode of musical expression, and have since given way to an increasingly expanding set of styles.

MUSICAL TERMS

• A Capella - unaccompanied choral music
• Accelerado - increasing speed
• Accent - stress on a beat
• Accidental - signs indicating the normal pitch is to be raised or lowered
• Accompaniment - secondary musical material, supports more important material
• Adagio - slower than andante
• Agitato - agitated
• Al Fine - to the end
• Allargando - decreasing speed while increasing loudness
• Allegretto - moderately fast
• Allegro - fast
• Alto - the lowest female singing voice
• Andante - slower than allegretto
• Animato - lively
• Arco - indication to play with the bow after a passage of pizzicato
• A Tempo - indication to return to the original tempo
• Bar Line - vertical line through a staff to separate measures
• Baritone - man's voice of medium pitch
• Bass - the lowest man's voice and part in music
• Beat - regularly occurring brief unit of time serves as a basis of meter, rhythm and tempo
• Candenza - passage in which a soloist may display their skill
• Chord - combination of three or more tones
• Chromatic - melodic or harmonic use of tones other then those of the diatonic scales
• Coda - closing section
• Common Time - four beats to a measure
• Counterpoint - combination of two or more melodic lines
• Crescendo - Gradually increasing in loudness
• Da Capo (D.C) - direction to begin at the beginning again
• Dal Segno (D.S) - direction to begin again at the point indicated by the sign
• Decrescendo - Gradually decreasing in loudness
• Diatonic - seven tones of any major or minor scale
• Diminuendo - gradually decreasing in loudness
• Dissonance - unpleasant combination of tones
• Dominant - fifth tone of a major or minor scale
• Duet or Duo - composition for two performers
• Dynamics -volume, loudness, and softness
• Ensemble - group of performers
• Falsetto - high unnatural vocal sound
• Fanfare - short piece of music for brass to attract attention
• Fermata - a hold or pause
• Fine - the end
• Form - structure or organization of a piece of music
• Forte - loud grace note very short ornament
• Improvisation - making new music while playing
• Key - tonal center of a composition or a lever pressed by the finger on an instrument
• Glissando - A fast scale produced by sliding the finger across the keyboard or the strings of a harp
• Key Signature - accidentals at the left end of the staff indicating what key the piece is in
• Largo - very slow
• Ledger Line - a line for a note drawn above or below the staff Maestoso Majestic
• Measure - a group of beats with the accent on the first beat
• Melody - succession of tones forming a musical line of individual expression
• Metronome - device used for sounding any number of desired beats per measure
• Modulation - change of keys
• Molto -very
• Mordent - melodic ornament
• Moto - with motion
• Note - written symbol for a tone
• Octave - the interval of an eighth
• Opus - work; used in numbering the works of a composer
• Period - A segment of musical form consisting of two or more phrases
• Piano -
  1. soft
  2. short for "pianoforte" a keyboard instrument
• Pitch - the highness or lowness of a tone
• Pizzicatto - plucking the strings of an instrument that uses a bow
• Poco - little
• Rallentando - decreasing in speed
• Refrain - section of a composition that occurs several times
• Requiem - A musical mass for the dead usually featuring vocalists, chorus and orchestra.
• Rest - sign indicating a silence of a specific duration
• Ritardando - gradually decreasing speed
• Scale - ascending or descend series of single tones related to a certain chosen fundamental tone
• Score - notation of a composition which shows all its parts
• Sempre - always
• Soprano - The highest female singing voice.
• Suite - A collection of short instrumental movements.
• Symphony - An orchestral work of three to four movements
• Tempo - The "speed" of music; How fast it is played
• Tenor - The highest male singing voice
• Tone - A musical sound having a certain manner of expression to it
• Virtuoso - An instrumental performer of exceptional skills.
• Vivace - A very quick tempo.

Why some Latin words?

Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages descend from a Latin parent, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a lingua franca , the learned language for scientific and political affairs, for more than a thousand years, being eventually replaced by French in the 18th century and English in the late 19th. It remains the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, which includes being the official national language of the Vatican. It is also still used to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things.

Lingua franca
=General sense= The term lingua franca (the name comes from the historical sense) refers to a language most widely used: adopted as a common means of communication between people of different languages. English is the current lingua franca of the world, and people worldwide are fast becoming acclimated to its use. Despite superficial differences, such as accents, an overall proficiency in English is steadily growing. Accents simply bear the tonal qualities of the regional dialects. India, for example, speaks with a distinct accent, yet maintains a high level of literacy and proficiency.