Good Morning To You,

Good Morning To You,

Good Morning, dear children,

Good Morning To All!

Did you know that “Happy Birthday to You” was originally titled “Good Morning to You?” It’s one of the best known songs in history, but its origins are relatively recent. In fact, “Happy Birthday” only entered the public domain, meaning it was free to use and perform, in 2016.

“Good Morning to You” was originally composed in 1893 by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill. Patty was a kindergarten principle at the Little Loomhouse school in Louisville, Kentucky, and Mildred was a pianist and composer. They wrote the above lyrics and the tune together for use in the schoolhouse, and later published the song in the collection Song Stories for Kindergarten.

The tune proved popular, and was published in 1911 with the common lyrics we all know today, which are derived from the poem “Roy’s Birthday” by Edith Goodyear Alger. The Summy Company claimed copyright on “Happy Birthday to You” in 1935, and was later purchased by Warner/Chappell music in 1988. Warner/Chappell music began to enforce the copyright at that point, requiring a $700 royalty fee for each public performance or recording, which made “Happy Birthday to You” one of the highest earning songs in history by in licensing alone! After a lengthy lawsuit started in 2013, the song was deemed public domain, and is now free to perform anywhere with the common lyrics intact.

Would you like to learn how to play “Happy Birthday to You?” All it takes is a few music lessons from Thompson Tutoring! Contact us today for information about in-person or virtual lessons.

An orchestra is seated on stage, almost ready to begin the concert. The lead oboist plays a single note, followed by her section, then the remainder of the orchestra, who matches that note or plays one of a handful of others. The musicians then tune their instruments based on the oboe’s note, and when they all match, the maestro is free to begin the show. But how did the oboist decide that her instrument was in tune?

Before taking the stage, the oboist in our example would have tuned her instrument to the note A above middle C, which is generally set at 440 Hz (vibrations per second). A440, also called Stuttgart pitch, is now the international standard for tuning all common Western instruments. It was recognized by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) as ISO 16 in 1976.

Prior to the 19th century, tuning methods varied by location. In many cases pitch was set by any instruments used that could not be easily tuned “on the fly”, such as a pipe organ. Particular tuning forks, which were invented to give musicians a fixed note to tune to quickly, would also vary, since early crafters lacked the scientific equipment necessary to produce them with consistent pitch. For example, Beethoven is thought to have owned a tuning for set to A455, and Handel used one set to A422, which is effectively Ab instead of A.

In 1859, the French government established the first legal standard for an A at 435 Hz. This tuning proved quite popular, and was even included in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Lower pitches were especially popular among singers, who struggled to keep up with higher values. The Stuttgart pitch of A440 was first proposed by a conference of physicists in 1839, and became gradually more widespread, especially in the English speaking world, until its adoption by the ISO in 1955. Initially the Stuttgart Conference considered 439, but was ultimately rejected since 439 is a prime number and therefore more difficult to work with.

Today, the vast majority of Western instruments are set to A440 Hz, though some performers prefer other pitches for various reasons. Baroque music ensembles sometimes use lower pitches to better represent the preferences of musicians from that era. In Cuba, orchestras have generally preferred A436 Hz to combat scarcity, since it requires lower string tension, resulting in less string wear over time.

Does your instrument sound a little funny? Interested in learning more about tuning? Contact Thompson Tutoring for music lessons today!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most renowned musicians of all time. Just about everyone can hum a snippet of his music, and countless musicians amateur and professional have studied his compositions. Here are a few interesting facts about Mozart’s remarkable life.

Mozart began composing at age 5

Leopold, Wolfgang’s father, was his first teacher, and taught Wolfgang his sister Nannerl both how to play and compose music from their first lessons. Mozart composed a few short pieces at age 5, and Leopold wrote the music down and provided critiques and advice. These pieces are collected in the Nannerl Notenbuch, which also contains compositions by Leopold that he used to teach the children.

Mozart performed throughout Europe as a child prodigy

Leopold quickly recognized both Nannerl and Wolfgang’s talents and took them on tours of European courts. Child prodigies were very fashionable among the nobility at the time and brought them into contact with many important musicians, including one of J.S. Bach’s children, Johann Christian Bach. These tours were arduous, and exposed the family to difficult conditions and serious illness.

Mozart composed his first opera at age 14

From 1769 to 1771, Leopold and Wolfgang traveled throughout Italy. During that tour, Mozart completed his first opera, Mitridate, re di Ponto, which was performed in Milan in December 1770.

Wolfgang loved his pets

Later in life, Mozart was known to keep a number of pets, including a dog, a starling, a canary, and a horse. The starling is thought to have learned to mimic at least one of Mozart’s melodies, since there is a brief musical transcription of one of its songs in his expense book from the day he purchased it. This theme would later appear in one of his compositions. Mozart was so aggrieved when the bird passed away three years later that he held a funeral procession in its honor.

Mozart’s music is preserved in outer space on the Voyager Golden Record

Mozart’s composition Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen, from his opera The Magic Flute, was included in Voyager Golden Records. The records are carried by the Voyager 1 and Voygaer 2 spacecraft, whose contents were selected by a committee lead by Carl Sagan.

Interested in learning to play some of Mozart’s timeless music? Contact us today for music lesson with Thompson Tutoring!

The piano is a staple of modern music practice, and can be found virtually anywhere that music is played, from living rooms to orchestra halls around the world, in many genres. But what is the origin of the piano? Phil Edwards, writing for Vox on the topic, says “When you do think about someone actually inventing it, it’s hard not to wonder: why haven’t I heard of this person before?”

Bartolomeo Cristofori, born in Padua, Republic of Venice in 1655, was a talented inventor and craftsman. Cristofori’s early life is a bit of a mystery, but records of his work begin in 1688, when he was recruited by Prince Ferdinando de Medici to maintain musical instruments for the court in Florence. Aside from his work tuning and repairing existing instruments, he was given access to materials and tools that would enable him to experiment with new designs. From this tinkering was born Cristofori’s most famous invention, the pianoforte.

To understand the impact of the pianoforte on musical practice, it is important to understand the instrument that it would come to replace. The harpsichord is a keyboard instrument that is superficially similar to a piano – it has black and white keys and a wood case full of strings that produce the sound. The major difference lies in how the strings are struck. Harpsichord keys are attached to a mechanism called a plectrum, similar to a modern guitar pick, which pluck each string when a key is pressed. Plectrums were effective because they could create a crisp, loud tone that was always the same volume. Cristofori replaced the plectrum with a device called a hammer, which strikes the string instead of plucking it. Hammers enable the instrument to respond to variable levels of pressure applied to the keys, creating loud and soft sounds in the process. This dynamic response is what gives the pianoforte its name, since in Italian piano means soft, and forte means loud. Although the pianoforte’s spread throughout Europe was initially slow, musicians were quick to recognize its significance. Within a century the most prominent composers and performers on the continent were regularly composing with and for the pianoforte.

Interested in learning more about what makes the piano so special? Contact Thompson Tutoring today for information about music lessons!

Music notation is a crucial tool used by musicians today, and is taught in classroom across the globe. The modern system of notation is robust and nuanced, enabling highly specific instructions to be communicated with ease. But where does music notation come from, and how did it become a standard part of musical practice?

Guido of Arezzo was a music theorist, teacher, and Benedictine monk, born in Italy between 990-1000 CE. At the time, musical performance was an integral part of many Catholic monks’ responsibilities. In his first work, Prologus in antiphonarium, Guido expressed frustration at the amount of time that his peers had to spend learning and rehearsing new music, and set about creating a system that would allow them to spend more time at prayer and study.

After being selected as the musical director in charge of singers at the Arezzo Cathedral, Guido began writing his major work, Micrologus de disciplina artis musicae. Micrologus would soon become the standard manual for teaching singers throughout Italy and later much of Europe. The methods outlined in Micrologus reduced the typical training period for a singer from ten years to only one or two.

Though many of Guido’s innovations are still present in various forms throughout modern music, two of them are particularly recognizable. The first is music notation on a staff composed of lines and spaces, onto which specific notes are placed. This method of notation has gone largely unchanged over time, besides the addition or removal of lines depending on the era.

Another easily recognizable creation is the practice of solmization, where specific pitches (notes) are referred to by syllables. Guido named these syllables “ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la,” referred to collectively as the gamut, which is nearly identical to the modern solfege syllables “do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti.” These syllables were very important to his teaching method. Each syllable was mapped to a specific joint on the palm of the hand and fingers, and choir leaders would point to each joint as they taught a new piece of music to aid with memorization.

Are you interested in learning how to read music? Contact Thompson Tutoring today to schedule your first lesson! https://coreythompsontutoring.com/contact-us/

Image credit: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Main_Harmonique_Venise_1554.jpg

The benefits of musical training have long been acknowledged by parents, educators, and more recently, researchers focused on learning and development. In Laura Lewis Brown’s article “The Benefits of Music Education” (https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/the-benefits-of-music-education), a number of experts weigh in on the effects of studying music. Musical education is linked with increased test scores, motor skills, memory, and language learning:

“Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music.”

Among the most impactful effects include an improvement in language skills, especially for children:

“This relationship between music and language development is also socially advantageous to young children. “The development of language over time tends to enhance parts of the brain that help process music,” says Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician. “Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.””

Considering all of the advantages granted by musical training, it’s a perfect fit for any parent seeking to provide their child with an educational boost. In addition to improvement in myriad cognitive skills, playing music also enables the student to express themself in a positive, creative way. If you’d like to know more about music lessons, contact Thompson Tutoring today: https://coreythompsontutoring.com/contact-us/

Sources:

Brown, L. L. (2021, August 13). The benefits of music education. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/the-benefits-of-music-education.

File:Grand piano action – lots of levers, at piano shop Steinway Pianos of Calgary.jpg. (2020, September 15). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 18:21, August 16, 2021 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Grand_piano_action_-_lots_of_levers,_at_piano_shop_Steinway_Pianos_of_Calgary.jpg&oldid=459665633.

Have you ever wondered what is happening in the brain when you hear music? How do virtuoso musicians learn to play works of great complexity with ease? Why are certain songs catchier than others? In This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Dutton Penguin, 2006), neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin summarizes currents in cognitive research involving how we perceive, experience, and learn music. Levitin’s engaging style and brisk pacing make the sometimes dense subject matter entertaining and easy to follow for listeners and musicians alike. The book has received praise from a wide range of scientific and musical luminaries from Francis Crick to Victor Wooten, and has become required reading in numerous university music programs.

If you’d like to learn more about this remarkable work, more information can be found on the publisher’s website here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/298964/this-is-your-brain-on-music-by-daniel-j-levitin/