Humanities Study Guide

Humanities Study Guide

with their function at the forefront of their minds. Whether it was a temple to honor God or a palace for royalty, it had to be appealing to the eye and serve its purpose. Depending on the function and time period, the elements of the exterior will vary. One type of the earliest beam constructions is the post-and-lintel . This form uses strong, vertical pieces to support top horizontal sections, and it was one of the first building designs that went beyond basic earth formations. Post-and-lintel then became more elaborate, seen as columns you would recognize in Greek temples. It has more parts, including the stylobate , a thick, stone base at the bottom, supporting the column. The column is the vertical support beam that holds up the roof. The entablature is the horizontal part at the top of the columns or vertical beams used for decoration or embellishment. The pediment , or the point at the top of a building that looks like an obtuse triangle laid on its widest side, is another design element that architects have used. Before an architect can even begin with these design elements, they must choose the material. The longevity of the structure and its ability to withstand the fierce forces of nature will depend on the material that is used. This choice can also reflect how the exterior of the building is perceived. Sometimes the outside of a structure is for beauty, and the interior is all about function. Other times, the exterior is about function rather than decoration. It solely depends on what the architect chooses, and this is how we can evaluate architecture. 1.5 Music Music is the oldest and most powerful of the arts, partially because sounds can create involuntary reactions. Whether a person listens to a vocalist or a person singing words, they will react to the sounds produced and their correlation to the words. Imagine listening to the saddest song you have ever heard; similarly, think about a happy or exciting song. You likely reacted to the beat and lyrics of the song, which made the experience memorable. When we analyze music, we first need to understand some musical terms. The tone is the musical sound or what is being sung or played. Scale is a predetermined sequence of notes. The Sound of Music's do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do, is an example of a major scale. When we refer to the color of music, we are talking about how the tones sound. Some examples of color in music are bright, dark, and raspy. Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is. Dynamics describe what movement the music is taking on a decibel level. For example, when a musician creates music that goes from quiet to loud, it is called a crescendo. A decrescendo is the opposite, when the music goes from loud to soft. The composer marks these on the music, using piano (quiet), pianissimo (very quiet), forte (loud), and fortissimo (very loud), to name a few. A composer is the person who wrote the music. They combine tempo, rhythm, and melody to represent an internal tune. The tempo is how fast or slow the music should be played or sung. Rhythm is the beat or unique combination of accents and duration of notes. Melody is the series of notes that take center stage to the audiences' ears. The typical arrangement of melody in

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