Week 7 Lecture Notes p.1

Transcription

1 Week 7 Lecture Notes p.1 Style Periods of Western Music Middle Ages Early Christian Period Gregorian Chant Romanesque Period Development of Polyphony Gothic Period Renaissance Period Baroque Period Rococo Period Classical Period Romantic Period Post Romantic And Impressionist Period

2 Week 7 Lecture Notes p.2 Twentieth Century and Beyond 1900 present Style: The style of a period is the total language of all its artists as they react to the artistic, political, economic, religious and philosophical forces that shape their environment. p.65 * * * Culture of the Middle Ages Early Middle Ages: Not known as the dark ages anymore. Not decline, but a period of ascent and development. The modern concept of strong, centralized government as the guardian of law and order is generally credited to Charlemagne ( ), the legendary emperor of the Franks. Late Middle Ages: Witnessed the construction of the great cathedrals and the founding of universities. Chant = Monophony not just the West.

3 Week 7 Lecture Notes p.3 SACRED MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES Gregorian chant Pope Gregory codified melodies known as Gregorian chant. (also plainsong/plainchant) More than 3000 Gregorian chants nearly all anonymous. Mostly conjunct. Undulating vocal line is the musical counterpart to the lacy ornamentation of Medieval art. Three main classes of chant: Syllabic (1 note sung to each syllable of text). Neumatic (small groups of notes up to 5 or 6 set to each syllable) Mellismatic style (long groups of notes set to one syllable of text) Western Mellismatic singing from elaborate Middle Eastern vocal improvisational style. Neumes (ascending and descending symbols) created as the number of chants increased. Examples of Text-setting styles: Messiah Rejoice and Hallelujah Modes preceded major and minor scales (which will talk about next week). Modes are more ambiguous, less definitive pull to tonic ( Home ).

4 Week 7 Lecture Notes p.4 Hildegard of Bingen ( ) in addition to writing music known for her scientific and medical writings. Her musical style highly original resembles Gregorian chant, but unlike most music of her time, didn t draw on existing repertory. Set her own poetry to music. Many of hers songs in praise to the Virgin Mary. Call and reposnse Responsorial style. Ternary (ABA) structure. Monophonic, Conjunct, alternating between neumatic and melismatic. CP3: Chant in the Judaic and Islamic traditions also often responsorial and free of fixed meter. Santeria, on the other hand, a combination of Catholocism and African traditional religions, is highly polyrhythmic as well as responsorial. Polyphony or the combination of two or more simultaneous melodic lines is the single most important development in Western music. Polyphony begun to emerge around the end of the Romanesque era. ( ) Polyphony brought the need for more exact notational system and fixed meters.

5 Week 7 Lecture Notes p.5 More exact notation = less improvisation/oral tradition more planning/preservation. Organum earliest polyphonic music Notre Dame School organum combined polyphony and homophonic chant Listening Guide 3 Gaude Maria virgo SECULAR MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES Sacred and Secular high and low comes back again Sacred = art, secular = popular In france, jongleurs/jongleuresses lower class intinerant actorsingers Upper class troubadours (provence) and trouveres (northern France) Like so many pop songs, subject matter was unrequited love/passion. Vaqueiras types the troubadour tradition. Kalenda Maya addressed to a noble lady whose husband the poet wished to make jealous. Strophic form (same melody repeated with every stanza). Instruments and improvisational style show Middle Eastern musical influence, which Raimbaud heard while on a crusade.

6 Week 7 Lecture Notes p.6 Machaut and Ars Nova (New Art): representative of composers moving from religious to secular themes. Machaut was a cleric and composer who wrote sacred and secular music. He wrote sacred motets (polyphonic, polytextual organum) and secular chanson (French for song). He innovated freedom of rhythm and interplay of duple and triple meter. Puis qu eu Oubli is a rondeau, a poetic form alternating refrain and verse. 3 parts and low range makes it for male voices. CP4: Troubadours brought back Middle Eastern Influence from the Crusades. Persian santur influenced string instruments (zither and other chordophones) in the West. Modern Chinese orchestra modes influenced Western modes. Early Instrumental Music 14 th century Rise of Instruments first as support for vocalists, then as all-instrumental arrangements of vocal pieces. Instrumental music became popular as dance music. Same divisions of instruments, but also divided into bas (soft, indoor, low) and haut (loud, outdoor, high).

7 Week 7 Listening (Review of Listening Test part 1 examples) Music of the Middle Ages and related examples: 1. Hildegard of Bingen Alleluia: O Virga Mediatrix 2. Santeria Chant Osain 3. Notre Dame School Organum Gaude Maria Virgo 4. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras Kalenda Maya 5. Persian (Iranian) Santur music Avaz of Bayate Esfahan 6. Modern Chinese Orchestra In a Mountain Path 7. Machaut Puis qu en Oubli