So here is how far we have come in exploring the evolution of music – approximately 5,500 years! Naturally each blog covering a new era has barely touched the surface of what you could know. But it is at least giving you a tiny nip a super juicy steak – or a tiny motif of a HUGE symphony. Study the following timeline of music history. See how much you can remember for a VERY DEFINITE TEST coming in the very near future.
You have FOUR weeks to actually explore the entire timeline, click on the music links and digest 5,500 years of music. As far as blogging, here is your assignment:
Note: DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE FOURTH WEEK TO ATTEMPT THIS. It will be graded weekly.
WEEK #1:
1) Read the entire timeline and
start to listen to the links (at least 1-2 min. of each link)
2) Post how far you have gone in your reading and listening.
WEEK #2:
1) Read the entire diagram/timeline again and take notes. Finish listening to the links.
2) Choose one period that stands out to you and post it. Tell why in at least three sentences.
3) Gather more information on that period.
WEEK #3:
1) Read the entire diagram/timeline again and review your notes. Re-listen to some of the links.
2) Describe the music development of your chosen period: i.e. instrumentation, melody, harmony, rhythm, form… You may use the information I give you. However, you will have to look up the period and offer more information then I shared with you.
WEEK #4:
1) Review for the test (reading, notes and listening).
2) Pick a composition from your chosen period that best illustrates what you are describing. Copy and paste the link into your post. (It cannot be one that I have already posted.)
3) Use at least five sentences describing your selection of music and how it fits your period.
Again: DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE FOURTH WEEK TO ATTEMPT THIS.
Music History Time Line:
(NOTE TO THE WISE: the bolded and underlined terms may be important to the upcoming test…)
Music history can be split into three main eras:
Monophonic, Polyphonic and Homophonic. You should remember these from our blogs on the study of harmony.
MONOPHONIC (no harmony – only melody)
Creation – 60 A.D: Starting with
Jubal (the “father of all who handle the harp and organ” according to Genesis 4:21), man discovered pretty quick how to make purposeful noise that entertained and emotionally effected the human being.
Overtones through wind instruments were figured out. Strings could be plucked at different lengths creating new pitches. Rhythms could be pounded out, creating a sense of order and creative motion.
David (Samuel, Chronicles and Psalms) was probably the greatest composer and music promoter of this era. He strongly supported music education in order to preserve history and to worship God. The
Greeks gave us
modes (our first scales) and music philosophy (including the claim in the
“Doctrine of Ethos” that music was powerful enough to make a person good or evil).
Instruments of the first few thousand years were
primarily string instruments (
lyre, kythera, harp, psaltry…) accompanying the
voice (all in unison – no harmony). The
wind instruments (trumpet, shofar…) were more for calls to war or worship. The
flute or aulos were “for the country” or “not-so-healthy festive occasions” according to the Greeks (too emotional).
Rhythm instruments like the cymbals or timbrel (tambourine) were for very joyful celebrations.
Earliest composition known is the
“Epitaph of Seikilos” (Greek):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xERitvFYpAk
Aulos (double pipes) and early harp: (This sounds like harmony to me but extremely primitive…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvgtAHV4mzw&feature=related
Early Church - 60-500A.D.: In order to avoid association with all the pagan Greek and Roman traditions, the Early Church tried to recreate its music. In order to do this, it stepped back. It almost seemed to stop music development for a while when controversies among Church fathers (Particularly Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Origen and Basil) suggested
no instrumentation and
no emotion (which could distract from a focus on God). However, after this “soul-searching” method of purging the World from its music, a brand new sound emerged. Still strongly influenced by the Greek and Jewish traditions, and colored by the new cultures to which the Gospel fast spread (Africa, Ireland…) the Church discovered and developed
Chant – a monophonic, modal form of music from which all Western music grew. The most famous chants were
Abrosian and
Gregorian. The coolest part is that they actually developed a way to write down the sounds they were creating (music notation). This way their music could be preserved (unlike the thousands of years lost from the Greek and Jewish cultures).
Gregorian Chant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlr90NLDp-0&feature=related
Ambrosian Chant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKtyZwtrTCQ&feature=related
POLYPHONIC (multiple melodies)
Middle Ages or Dark Ages – 500-1400A.D.: Someone figured out that two singers singing the same melody but at different intervals and different rhythms could actually sound REALLY COOL together! At first they tried singing it at
intervals of 4ths or 5ths all in the same rhythm (
Parallel Organum). But they soon found that singing at different rhythms and branching out into new intervals could sound fairly cool as well. Plenty of controversy surrounded this outlandish practice but over the next 900 years, polyphony grew by leaps and bounds – literally! The sopranos tried singing all sorts of frilly parts that didn’t make a whole lot of sense but sounded pretty nifty over the
melody in the bass. This was called
Florid Organum (
organum is another word for harmony). Then altos and tenors tried to to copy each other in rounds – everyone singing the words at a different time until it was really quite chaotic. The sound was so amazing though that it didn’t seem to matter too much that the words were lost.
Composers soon realized if everyone was going to sing the melody at different times, they would need to know when to come in, how long to hold their particular note and when to stop. So rhythmic notation began. At first they just developed
rhythmic modes or patterns (
6 of them). They would simply mix and match the six rhythmic patterns to create their song. All of the patterns were
compound meter (in divisions of 3). 3 was considered the perfect number where as singing in 2/4 or 4/4 would have been imperfect.
Perotin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtnjyH05Yek
Leonin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2TDS255jSE&feature=related
Renaissance –1400-1600A.D.: Polyphony continued to develop and become more and more complex. Each part was still its own melody. Harmony was the “miracle” of so many melodies getting along.
The rhythmic modes were confining. So
Franconian Notation developed in which
the individual note head showed a specific time value. This freed composers to break away from only 6 modes to limitless rhythms. Franconian notation doesn’t really look like our standard notation today but, with stems, empty note heads and filled in black shapes, it was definitely off to a great start!
To bring a little more order to the chaos of polyphony, harmony rules developed (like avoiding the tri-tones and try to keep to mostly 4ths, 5ths and 8vas). Chords were being discovered and the concepts of dissonance and resolve were starting to be grasped.
Modal music was giving way to tonal music based on
Major and
minor scales (with a
big emphasis on the I and V chords).
Solfege was being laid down with a VERY strong DO and SOL.
The bass became the important glue to all the voices skipping and flying around. It was called the
Basso Ostinato or
Ground Bass (it usually followed a set pattern with little variation). This is where you get good old
Pachelbel’s Cannon and other similar songs.
While the
voice was still the main instrument of the church, instruments – especially string instruments – were finally on the rise. Secular music was growing too.
Minstrels and
Troubadours traveled from town to town singing the news and entertaining with love songs.
Guillaume Machaut (who wrote both secular and sacred) and
William Byrd (late Renaissance composer) both composed incredible polyphonic compositions.
Late Renaissance:
Church music was somewhat in trouble with polyphony “getting out of hand”. It was too busy, complicated and hard to understand.
Giovanni Palestrina, along with other composers of this time frame tried something that changed the course of both secular and Church music forever. They began to make it homophonic. This meant that they brought the still independent melodies together in rhythmic , stacking the notes in triadic chords and minimizing independent melodies.
Secular Music: Guillaume Machaut (GREAT instrumental piece – note ALL the instruments involved):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOoYtdFhfqw&feature=related
William Byrd: Sing Joyfully:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o47_KTPYiVQ&feature=related (Note all the different parts at different times. See how each voice is an independent melody)
Palestrina:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pp0XUU6Rmk&feature=related
Baroque Period 1600-1750: Polyphony (now known as
counterpoint) continued but only in the sense that it was
ruled by chord progressions. Tonal theory was perfected at this time with
Bach (the “Father of Modern Theory”). Dissonance was carefully created and even more perfectly resolved. The basso ostinato became
figured bass (like a really fancy tab with improvisation) and ruled the harmonic direction of a composition. Choral music became more hymn-like and less chaotic.
Text painting (using music dynamics, range, tempo, articulations, harmony, etc. to illustrate the lyrics) was very important. It was all about the message the composer wanted to portray.
Secular music was on the rise. Operas, oratorios, sonatas and concertos were becoming hugely popular. Because of the Reformation which occurred during the Renaissance period, music took a drastic turn back to
simplicity. It had to be understood by the common man. Both Church music and Secular music moved even further away from the complications of polyphony and closer to homophonic music.
Instrumental music was growing fast with the perfection of string instruments (
Stradivarius) and the development of woodwind instruments. Horns and percussion were minimal but definitely used. The violin, organ and harpsichord were the primary solo instruments. The
harpsichord was a keyboard instrument but the strings were plucked rather than hammered.
Bach: Badinerie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv40mcAM1ZA&feature=fvwrel
Bach: Fugue in Gminor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhRa3REdozw
Handel: Oratorio: Solomon “Oh Praise the Lord”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMLYMD3Dbq4
Christoph Gluck: Orfeo “Orphée et Eurydice (Orpheus among the Blessed Spirits)”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTd_fwRm0wU&feature=related
HOMOPHONIC (melody with accompaniment)
Classical Period: 1750-1820: Now that tonal harmony in Major and minor keys had been perfected, now that rhythmic notation was finally developed, now that polyphony had exhausted itself, music was free to grow and express itself in new ways. The Classical period, now very much homophonic, distinguished itself in the following ways:
1) It focused on the melody. Everything else (rhythm and harmony) was subservient to the creation and development of a beautiful, thematic, melody.
2) It focused on form. Sonatas, concertos, symphonies… All of these had melodic themes which developed in very systematic and reliable forms. This made it easier for the listener to follow. The trick was to be so creative and “sneaky” with the developments that you had to really listen to catch the form. Otherwise you could get bored.
3) It gave us the Piano Forte. Note that “Piano” means quiet and “Forte” means loud. The piano forte was a huge breakthrough in music because it changed the harpsichord from plucked strings to
hammered strings. Whereas the plucked strings could never play either loud or soft, the hammered strings COULD play both “piano” AND “forte” thus giving the new instrument its name. We have shortened the name to simply “piano”.
4) It gave us Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. These guys were absolutely amazing composers. It is interesting to hear Haydn (the “Father of the symphony”) and his orderly music “proper” music compared to Mozart and his playful/ADD music, compared to Beethoven and his troubled, rule-breaking music. All three of these men knew and admired each other. In fact Haydn taught Beethoven and would get frustrated that Beethoven kept pushing the rules of harmony. It is a good thing Beethoven tried new sounds however because there was MUCH more to discover in the next periods. In fact Beethoven has been called
“the bridge between the Classical and Romantic periods”.
Haydn’s “Surprise Symphony”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqXtKCdqRNA
Mozart’s “Symphony #25”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjh1YmlKYk
Beethoven’s “Symphony #3, Eroica”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHvztnHOWEQ&feature=related
So this is where I am stopping our exploration. While there is still so much more to know, you need to at least understand music this far. You need to be able to listen and distinguish between music periods
(there will DEFINITELY be a listening portion to your exam). You need to understand harmony and form just enough to follow and appreciate it when you hear it and play it in concerts. Developing an inner sense of music, where it came from and how YOU are a part of all of this is absolutely vital to your becoming an excellent musician.
Thank you for letting me take you this far. I have greatly enjoyed reading so many of your blogs.
