Starting with a heavy discussion about the role of emotion in music, and referencing the Wagner piece, we moved around to why an understanding of music history is essential for understanding the gamut of music's purpose in the world today.
Jumping in the deep water of early music, our talk was rather superficial and general, skipping through a few hundred years fairly quickly, but still informative. Becoming too detailed would prevent further necessary discussions of other great topics! We discussed monody, plainchant, plainsong, early notation, Gregorian chant, and church modes. We recited 7 of the modes in order: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Locrian, deliberately avoiding much discussion of the hypo varieties.
A brief talk of tropes, sequences, and conductus explained how music came to be added to the Mass and how composers were needed to develop these additions. Much of the additions were born out of practical necessity to have music during the Mass. Since text was also needed with the music, eventually the motet was developed.
Spending some time on meter and rhythm, we alluded to the rhythmic modes used in sacred and secular music and then looked at how meter signatures developed. It really is a fascinating study and explains where we get the C that most people call "common" time. For an indepth understanding, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensural_notation
Organum is an early type of polyphony that likely resulted from the overtones in a Cathedral. There are different kinds of organum and different approaches to organum including melismatic organum and free organum with varying types of motion used, syllabic, oblique, and contrary. Eventually the voices became more independent, resulting in what we know of as polyphony. Passing through French Ars Nova, the Italian Ars Nova, Trouveres, Troubadours and host of other terms related to early music, we landed on Machaut where we discussed Isorhythm. An understanding of Talea and Color is central to knowing what Isorhythm means and how it is used in music. We looked at an example of this, referencing the amazingly clever piece My end is my beginning by Machaut. I will send a pdf of this piece to you by email.
You may ask what is the value of this kind of clever approach to music? It has to do with unifying the elements of a piece. A piece of music becomes consistent within itself through its unifying elements. Otherwise we simply have a gushing of complex emotions without any consistency. Isorhythm is simply one way, albeit an excellent way, of giving a piece unity.
Another "exciting" day in music 4000. Please read the early music articles in www.lcsproductions.net. We will discuss the reading on Thursday and then jump into some recent developments of music.
Comment Question: What is the purpose of knowing something about music history?
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I can't think of simply one purpose, but many! How else are modern humans going to learn how their favorite music came to be? Not studying history is an extremely ignorant thing to do. Don't believe me? Take a look around you and found out how many people are unfamiliar with their own native country's past. Ignoring is history is lazy.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I found Tuesday to be interesting. As we discussed in class, the same trends and fads that appear in modern music happened in distant history as well! For instance, you mentioned the birth of organum as a need for a use of harmony. People in the Middle Ages wanted a progression in their music! This is just the tip of the iceberg. I hope we get to discuss even more of the music from a period that I am not quite familiar with as opposed to others.
It it important to know how music of today developed. For one, if we are ignorant of the past we will simply repeat what has already been discovered & accomplished. Reinventing the wheel, if you will. Second, knowing the history of a style allows us to build on, tweak, and alter what has already been done so we can find something new.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very valuable. You can't know only what's happening currently. It wont mean anything, Especially for us who are going to make a profession out of music. It's our job know really understand our craft. If we don't have a good grasp of where this all began and the steps it took to get where it is today, then we can't adequately perform or teach music.
ReplyDeleteTrying to perform or teach music without studying music history would be something like applying for a job but having no idea what the requirements, qualifications, and duties of the job are. It would be like going into something completely blind as to what you are doing and expecting to succeed at it. And like Rebekah said, we need to know what has been done in the past so that we can move forward, not repeat the same things over and over.
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