托福听力考试背景知识综合辅导（3）

托福听力考试背景知识综合辅导（3）

　　MUSICAL TERMINOLOGY

　　PITCH is the perceived highness or lowness of a sound. Variations in frequency are what we hear as variations in pitch. The greater the number of sound waves produced per second, the higher the sound we hear; the fewer sound waves per second, the lower the sound.

　　INTERVAL is the distance between two different pitches.

　　? A tone (or a "note") is a musical sound of definite pitch.

　　MELODY is the element that in many musics makes the most direct appeal to the listener. It is often what moves us emotionally, what we remember and whistle, and hum. A melody is a succession of single pitches or tones perceived by the mind as a unity. Just as we hear the words of a sentence not singly but in relation to the entire thought, so do we perceive the pitches of a melody in relation to each other.

　　INTENSITY (amplitude, dynamics, volume) is the amount of energy affecting the vibrating body, and is heard as the loudness or softness of a sound.

　　Terms to Describe Intensity:

　　1. Very Loud --------------fortissimo

　　2. Loud --------------------------- forte

　　3. Medium Loud ------ mezzo forte

　　4. Medium Soft ------- mezzo piano

　　5. Soft ---------------------------- piano

　　6. Very Soft ---------------- pianisimo

　　7. Gradually getting louder

　　8. Gradually getting softer

　　9. Suddenly loud

　　10. Suddenly soft