midterm

musicology (American Musicological Society)

• the study of music

• encompassing all aspects of muic in all cultures and all historical periods

• although the study of music performance is an important facet of musicology, music performance itself is a different area of study

different ways of studying musicology

• as part of history

  • era / period (ie., the renaissance)
    nation / region (American music, south asian music, german music)

  • music style (sacred music, opera, sonata, popular music, jazz)

  • people involved (composers, performers, audiences)

• as part of society (sociology or anthropology of music)

• structure (music thoery, form, analysis)

• how it functions as art (aesthetics, philosophy of music)

• how it is perceived (music perception and cognition)

• means of performance (musical instruments, physiology of voice)

the Middle Ages

• 400-1400

• music notation

• fall of Rome

• in 476 AD

• monophonic

• polyphony introduced

• church music / music for monarchy

renaissance

• 1400-1600

• madrigals

• motets

• tenor most important

• reformation (martin luther)

• composer josquin

• MODES

• humanism introduced

early music

• the middle ages & renaissance

• MODES

modern music

• baroque, classical, romantic, 20^th century

• TONALITY

baroque

• 1600-1750

• tonality established

• polyphony

• opera

• affect

• jacopo peri - first opera composer

• monteverdi

• handel

• purcell

classical

• 1750-1820

• concerts

• ENLIGHTENMENT

• symphony

• mozart, haydn, beethoven

• music more aesthetic

• homophonic

romantic

• 1820-1900

• provoked modernism

• tristan chord

20th century

• 1900 - 2000

• western music influenced by other world cultures

music notation

• neumes

• heightened neumes

• 3 lines, clef, staff

neumes

• showed the general shape of the melody

  • only showed the direction of the notes, therefore could not be sight read

  • music still learned by ear

heightened neumes (10-11^th century)

• clearer pitch indication through height

  • clearer pitch contour, but still not enough to sight read

lines, clef, staff (11^th century)

• designating a pitch to a line

  • finally sightreadable

modes

early medieval music was written in modes

2 types of modes

authentic and plagal

authentic mode

starts on final

plagal mode

starts 4^th below the final

final

• final note of the whole piece (similar to tonic)

• 4 types: D, E, F

reciting tone

the most frequent or prominent note in a chant (consider it like the dominant)

reciting tone: authentic modes

the reciting tone is a fifth above the final (ex. in dorian, the reciting tone is A)

reciting tone: plagal mode

the reciting tone is a third below the reciting tone of the corresponding authentic mode (in hypo-dorian, the reciting tone is F (a third below A)

if the reciting tone lands on B

it is moved up to C

B or B^b

• B^b is the only chromatic alteration allowed

• in chants that give prominence to F, the B is often flattened to B^b

• often the case in dorian, hypodorian, hypophrygian, lydian, hypolydian

four types of historical traces of music

1. physical remains

2. visual images / artwork

3. writing about music

4. music itself (notation or recordings)

the earliest music

• 40,000 BC

• 2,500 BC

• 1,800 BC

40,000 BC

people bored finger holes in animal bones and mammoth ivory to make whistles and flutes in present day germany

2,500 BC

• lyres and harps are found in royal tombs of a ancient mesopotamia

• ancient mesopotamian written sources provide information on occasions that music is written for (wedding songs, funeral laments, military, work songs, etc)

1,800 BC

Babylonian musicians describe improvisation, performing techniques, and genres

music in ancient Greece

• ancient greece is the earliest civilization that offers us enough evidence to construct a wellrounded view of musical culture

• more writings about music survive from ancient greece than any earlier civilization

• the surviving music is monophonic

• two principal kinds of writings on music

  • philosophical doctrines on the nature of music its effects and its proper uses

  • systematic descriptions of the materials of music (music theory)

the epitaph of Seikilos (1st century)

• a greek song with a poem attached to it

• the oldest surviving musical composition

music and number

• for many Greek writers, numbers governed the niverse and music was inseperable from numbers

• music was closely connected to astronomy through harmonia (the unification of parts in an orderly whole)

• plato gave this idea poetic form in his myth of the “music of the spheres”

  • a concept that regards the orbiting planets in the solar system as having a cosmic “harmony”

  • inaudible, not “heard” music, but music through movement and proportions

plato gave the idea of music and number poetic form in his myth of the “music of the spheres”

• a concept that regards the orbiting planets in the solar system as having a cosmic “harmony”

• inaudible, not “heard” music, but music through movement and proportions

Bandy quote

• “in pre-enlightenment contexts, boundaries between the spheres of religion and science were more ambiguous and fluid than in today’s secular culture”

• “in the middle ages, alchemy and Christian theology began to intermingle, particularly in ways employing the story of Christ as an analogy for various laboratory processes”

pythagorean tuning

• tuning is based on the interval of the pure (perfect) fifth

• uses whole number ratios

• we don’t use Pythagorean tuning today because it is not “in tune”

music and ethos

• greek writers believed htat music could affect ethos (one’s ethical character)

• built on the view of music as a system of pitch and rhtyhm

the Christian Church in the first millennium

• roman subjects were not allowed to worship a single God. Therefore, Christians were persecuted and had to gather in secret

• 313 AD: Emperor Constantine I was introduced to Christianity and legalized the religion

• 392 AD: Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion

• 476 AD: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

• 600 AD: almost the entire area that was once controlled by Rome was Christian

• 1054 AD: the Great Schism

  • Western: Roman Catholic Church

  • Eastern Orthodox Church

christians take influence from Greeks

• early church philosophers, scientists, and musicians looked back to ancient Greece for knowledge

• Boethius is a good example of a Christin philosopher who drew heavily from the Greeks

the seven liberal arts

developed in the 5th century in a treatise by called the Marriage of Mercury and Philology

Trivium

1. Grammar

2. logic

3. rhetoric

Quradruvium

1. geometry

2. arithmetic

3. astronomy

4. music - numbers through time

boethius’ three types of music

1. musica mundana (the music of the universe)

2. music humana (human music)

3. musica instrumentalis (instrumental music)

musica mundana

music of the universe → the numerical relations controlling the movement of stars and planets, the changing of seasons, and elements

musica humana

human music → harmonizes and unifies the body and soul and their parts

musica instrumentalis

instrumental music → audible music produced by voices or instruments

liturgy

the customary order of worship for a religious group

instruments in worship

• for early church leaders, music was seen as the servant of religion

• they believed that because music without words cannot do this, most church fathers condemned instrumental music

• christians may have used instruments to accompany hymns and psalms in their homes, but instruments were not used in church

• the entire early Christian music tradition featured unaccompanied singing

standardizing the liturgy and music

• starting the 8^th century, christian leaders tried to standardize the liturgy and music during church services

• there is now a single dialect (Latin) and liturgical practice that is led by Rome

• this standardization led to:

  • Liturgy: Mass

  • Music: Music notation and Gregorian Chant

gregorian chant (plain chant)

• monophonic sacred singing in Latin

• legend attributes the repertory of chant to Pope Gregory I, but there is no evidence that he played any role in composing or standardizing the chant

finals

D, E, F, G

boethius

• the most revered philosopher on music in the early middle ages

• music for him is a science of numbers - numerical ratios and proportions determine intervals consonances, scales, and tunings

boethius

• musica mundana (the music of the universe)

monophony

• a single melody line without any harmonic accompaniment or other melodic lines

• monophonic music can be sung by one or more people, just as long as there is only one melody line

polyphony

• many voiced

• describes a texture in which two or more different melodic lines are combined

• polyphonic texture is based on counterpoint which is one musical line set against another

homophony

single melody line over a harmonic accompaniment

guideo of arezzo (11th century)

• itallian music theorist of the late middle ages

• invented the musical staff (4 lines at the time)

• also invented the solmization syllables (solfege of that time) to help singers with sight singing

solmization syllables

ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, san

(first syllables of the words to a hymn)

conflict

• there is a conflict between Greek reason and Judeo Christian faith

• this is why there is a conflict between Greek’s Pythagoras and the Bible’s Jubal

hellenism

• the influence of greek culture on the roman empire

• during the first century BC, the roman empire took control of israel

• greek culture had great influence over Jews and the early years of Christianity

  • ex, Sadducees worked closely with Greek rulers and welcomed Greek influence

  • Saul changed his name to Paul to connect with Gentiles

father tertullian

• founder of western theology

• early Christian philosopher and theologian

• first writer to use the term “trinity”

• tertullian refused to accept Pythagoras as the father of music

early music theorists

• most early theorists, including Boethius, favor Pythagoras

• “jubal appears as a Hebraic interloper among the Hellenes”

• because Boethius was so revered, many other philosophers will just follow his lead

the abrupt shift in favor of jubal

• in the 13th century, several theorists led the way for an abrupt shift in favor of Jubal

  • Aegidius amorensis

aegidius’ 3 points for Jubal

1. jubal’s half-brother Tubalcain is a blacksmith

2. aegidius doesn’t wish to exclude Pythagoras, but rather establish his priority in time

3. the observation of nature has importance in musical discovery

universal history

• an important medieval concept that embraces all aspects of the past and connects it chronologically

• this thought accepts the entire past (biblical and pagan) as history

• medieval christian historians accepted pagan gods as historical figures made possible by euhemerism

euhemerism

the thought that Greek gods were real people that were deified after their exploits

mass

the most important service in the Roman Catholic Church that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus

purpose of the liturgy

• role of the church was to teach the congregation of church doctrine

• the liturgy was to reinforce these lessons in way that is standard

church calendar

• every year the church commemorates each event or saint with a feast day celebrated on days

• this yearly cycle is the church calendar

parts of the mass

• proper - part of the mass that varies day by day

• ordinary - part of the mass that doesn’t change, although the melodies do

3 sstles of text setting

1. syllabic

2. neumatic

3. melismatic

syllabic

every syllable has a single note

neumatic

1-6 notes per syllable (generally one neume per syllable)

melismatic

long melodic passages on a single syllable → give emphases to a word

women in the church

• women were silenced in the church and were not allowed to be priests

• however, women could hold leadership positions in convents

• convent life revolved around singing Office services and attending mass

• in convents, women had access to education

hildegard of bingen

• abbess in her own convent and wrote sacred music

• there are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages

• her largest work is the Ordo virtutum (“the virtues”), which is a sacred music drama with 82 songs

the office (the liturgy of the hours)

• the series of 8 services throughout the day and night where Christians prayed and sang songs

• particularly important in monasteries and convents

• services include matins (early morning), lauds (morning), and vespers (evening prayers)

music of the office

• antiphon

• responsories

• hymns

• canticles

• prayers

antiphon

chant sung before and after the pasalm

responsories

musical responses to the Bible reading

canticles

poetic passages from parts of the Bible other than the Psalms

psalmody

• the singing of psalms

• part of both the Mass and the Office

• during the Mass it became the Introit and Communion

3 types of Gregorian Chant

1. responsorial

2. antiphonal

3. direct

responsorial chant

soloist alternates with the choir/congregation

antiphonal chant

two groups of the choir/congregation alternate

direct chant

without alternation

melodic shape in Gregorian Chant

• the creators of chant made no attempt to express emotions or depict images, as in later opera or song, but their melodies reflect the shape of the text

• most phrases resemble an arch, wich parallels the way Latin is spoken

• melismas are often placed on important words

  • st augustine regarded long melismas an expression of joy beyond words

trope

expanding existing chants to link a chant more closely to the occasion

tropes can be expanded in 3 ways

1. new words and music before the chant or before each phrase of the chant

2. new melodies

3. new text to existing melodies

secular life and music

• outside of the church, very few read music

• secular music existed, but not much is known about it

• there were instruments used for dance music and song accompaniment in secular music

latin

• began to die out shortly after the fall of Rome

• local dialects began to develop which would become the romantic languages

• although Latin was no longer anyone’s native tongue by the High Middle Ages, music was still written in the language

• this would become a problem because outside of the educated church and legal leaders, most of the medieval society was illiterate

• the society’s illiteracy would be a problem because the music in the vernacular was not saved

counterpoint

the combination of multiple independent melody lines

4 concepts that distinguish Western music

1. counterpoint

2. harmony

3. notation

4. composition

harmony

the regulation of simultaneous sounds

notation

music being written down and regulated

composition

written music as distinct from spontaneous performance

early polyphony

began as a manner of performance and developed into a written tradition

musica enchiriadis and scolica enchiriadis

• anonymous music treatise that includes instruction in the throy and practice of church music

• contains the first technical discussion of modal theory based on final, reciting tone, and range

• the first surviving display of how to perform polyphony

  • explains what intervals are most consonant

  • not treated as innovation but as something already established

organum

• term used to describe two or more voices singing different notes in agreeable combinations

• in the enchiriadis treatises, organum refers to improvised/unwritten singing at a 5^th/4^th below the given melody

  • principal voice: original chant melody

  • organal voice: the 5^th/4^th below

2 types of organum

1. parallel organum

2. mixed parallel organum

parallel organum

• two voices moving in parallel motion

• parallel 5ths