Chapter 1~ What Is Music?

   The opening chapter explains music theory, defining key words necessary to know in order to better understand the novel. Daniel J. Levitin defines a set of key terms that are the basis to music and help explain other musical concepts. According to Levitin, pitch is the frequency of a particular tone and its relative position on the musical scale. Rhythm is defined as the duration and grouping of a series of notes. Tempo is the speed or pace of a particular piece. Contour is the overall shape of a melody. It only recognizes whether a note goes up or down and does not measure the amount of this change. Timbre is the distinct quality of sound produced by a particular instrument. Loudness refers to the amount of energy an instrument creates. These elements help one understand the concepts of meter, key, melody, and harmony. Meter is defined by Levitin as the way tones are grouped across time. The combination of rhythm and meter drive all music. Key refers the hierarchy that exists between the tones in a piece. Melody refers to the main theme of a piece. Harmony is a parallel to the melody and is chord progression that forms a background for the melody and forms expectations in a musical piece. Daniel J. Levitin emphasizes these terms and their importance in the first chapter because he uses them often in later chapters.

   Daniel J. Levitin then goes more in depth about pitch because music is defined by a set of pitch relations. He poses the question of what defines pitch. Frequency is the measuring device of pitch and if an object creates a sound with a frequency that can not be heard, then it is not truly a pitch. Daniel J. Levitin continues with how pitch conveys different emotions in a musical piece. Humans generally associate different pitches with different emotions. For example, low notes usually convey sadness while high notes usually convey excitement or happiness. Daniel J. Levitin then explains how humans distinguish different pitches. Hair cells in the basilar membrane of the inner ear are frequency selective. At one end of the basilar membrane, low-frequency pitches excite the hair cells and high-frequency pitches excite the hair cells at the other end. In the middle, medium-frequency excite hair cells. The frequency selective hair cells create what is called a tonotopic map because the different frequencies are spread across the membrane. Once there is activity detected in the membrane, an electrical signal is sent to the auditory cortex which also has a tonotopic map. Like the auditory cortex and basilar membrane, the brain responds to different pitches in different areas. Daniel J. Levitin also talks about timbre in greater detail. Timbre is the result of the overtone series which is the numbered order of overtones from the fundamental frequency. Timbre is important because it is what humans use to distinguish between two things whether they are living or nonliving. For example, timbre helps human recognize the bark of dog from the purr of a cat. Timbre also allows humans to detect emotions in another person's voice based on the timbre of their voice. Daniel J. Levitin compares timbre to the way a painter uses shading to change the overall emotion or feeling of a painting and to separate different shapes. Like painters, composers use timbre to convey a particular emotion and to separate different melodic shapes.  Daniel J. Levitin uses the first chapter to explain music theory to provide the basis for his novel.