Western Culture

• Traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome

• Up to 476 AD

• Very “Classic” period. Structure, balance, logic, reason.

Classic vs. Romantic

• Classic - form, symmetry, balance, emotional detachment.

• Adoration of the Magi by Botticelli• Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David

Adoration of the Magi by Botticelli

Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David

Classic vs. Romantic

• Romantic - freedom, emotion, drama, individual

• Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek by Peter Paul Rubens

• Traveler Looking Over A Sea of Fog by Caspar David

Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek by Peter Paul

Rubens

Traveler Looking Over A Sea of Fog by Caspar David

Common Practice Period

• 1600-1900

• Composers use the common language of “tonality”

• Music is written using a central key or “home sound”

• Can be both Classic and/or Romantic

Middle Ages

• 400AD to 1450• Followed fall of the Roman Empire• Church was the institution that

organized culture.• Sacred - all of life revolved around the

church

Sacred

• Pertaining to the church or religion.

• Only those associated with the church could read or write.

• Only written down sacred subject material

• Does not mean that secular culture didn’t exist, it just was not preserved.

Middle Ages

“Romantic” - not as concerned with the “ideal” portrayal of life on earth, structure, balance. Artworks are not particularly realistic.

Middle Ages

Gregorian chant. Cant- or Chant- singing / voiceLarge body of music sung during the worship

service and other prescribed times.

Named for Pope Gregory (590-604)

Gregorian Chant

Musical features: narrow range, conjunct intervals, little changes in dynamics, nonmetric.

Rhythm and melody were based on the natural flow of the Latin text.

Not "performance" music. Melodies are not attributed to composers. It was not

about the composers, but giving glory to God.

Gregorian Chant

Hundreds of tunes that were appropriate for different times and events of the church calendar.

Tunes became very well-known.

Gregorian Chant

Tunes became very well-known.Well-known tunes are perfect for adding

new things and trying something new with it…

Gregorian Chant

Single melody that is well-known.Add another melody higher or lower, the

same melody but at a “harmony”.

Gregorian Chant

Single melody that is well-known.Add another melody higher or lower, the

same melody but at a “harmony”.• Add yet another melody, maybe with some

contrasting direction?

Gregorian Chant

Single melody that is well-known.Add another melody higher or lower, the

same melody but at a “harmony”.• Add yet another melody, maybe with some

contrasting direction?• OR distort the original melody, using it as a

“base” for a new melody in higher pitches.

Organum

Single melody that is well-known.Distorted the melody, using it as a “base” for a

new melody with higher pitches.

Cantus Firmus “Fixed Song”. The base of a song is in the chant melody, with a new melody above.

Organum

Single melody that is well-known.Distorted the melody, using it as a “base” for a

new melody with higher pitches.

Cantus Firmus “Fixed Song”. The base of a song is in the chant melody, with a new melody above.

Leonin is an early composer of organum.

Cantus Firmus

“Fixed Song”. The base of a song is in the chant melody, with a new melody above.

Composers wrote many new works based on chant melodies. Titles of the new works would include the chant title.

Cantus Firmus

“Fixed Song”. The base of a song is in the chant melody, with more new melodies added.

When more parts are moving together, it is important to have a clear rhythm to keep everyone in time.

Perotin is a composer of more complicated organum with more of an emphasis on rhythm.

Organum

The musical considerations of several melodies together were based on if they went together rhythmically.

Not as much emphasis on the actual notes used, and the harmony that would result.

Sometimes, the different melodies would be in different languages!

Motet (mot = word)

• An early example of a structured 3-part vocal work. Bottom part was taken from the chant melodies, and lower voices or instruments “held” the note values.

• Middle part was often from religious poetry and in Latin.

• Top part was sometimes in French and a secular poem!

Development of Polyphony

• Chant melody (monophonic)

• Chant melody is used as basis for new composition (cantus firmus) (homophonic)

• Several more melodies are added along with rhythm / motet (polyphonic)

Isorhythmic Motet

• “same rhythm”

• Rhythm and Melody.

• Different lengths.

• Overlapped at different times.

• Compositional device, not a listener’s method. Probably cannot hear an Isorhythmic form.

14th Century

• The church was losing power in the 14th century.

• There were two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon (France).

• Avignon more of a secular capital, French composers are more likely to experiment with rhythmic complexity, syncopations, subdividing beats, etc.

14th Century

• The plague hit Europe during this time and wiped out entire towns and cities.

• For the arts, the 14th century was fantastic.

• Music increased in energy and realism.

Ars Nova

• Recognized division of the beat from the standard 3 to the new 2

• Duple meter was now acceptable.

• Triple meter continues.

Renaissance• Renaissance means the rebirth of Classical Antiquity;

a reawakening of the human spirit; the beginnings of a reawakening in Greek culture and Latin literature.

• Invention of the printing press. This transforms the Western World by improving literacy; more people have the opportunity to read with a better distribution of ideas and preservation.

• This is the time of Columbus (all the other explorations were occurring at this time too). Celebration of maps.

• This is also a great age for literature, chivalry, humanism.

Renaissance

• In the musical aspects, the instruments were not given, but contemporary performers are interpreting some of the parts as instrumental.

• We can see in some of the pictures and engravings of the period the secularism...the ability to tap their feet while playing, etc.

Renaissance

• 1450-1600

• Secular period (not as strongly guided by the church, but rather more worldly pursuits)

• Looked to Ancient Greece and Rome as the model for society.

Renaissance Vocal Music

• Mass - sacred, a cappella vocal work. Text is taken from the Mass (worship service)

• Motet - sacred, a cappella vocal work. Text is religious, but not from the Mass

• Madrigal - secular, a cappella vocal work. Text comes from poem or other non-religious source

Church Music

• Council of Trent: 1545-1563 (18 years) • met in Northern Italy to discuss abuses in church.

• After that long, the verdict is very general. “everything impure or lascivious” must be avoided in order that the “House of God may rightly be called a house of prayer”.

• No technical points were included (polyphony, secular imitation, etc) in any kind of ban.

•

Giovanni da Palestrina 1525-1594

• Approached Council of Trent to show that it was not necessary to abolish polyphony, even with 6 voices, the text can still be understood.

• He became the “savior of church music”.

• Wrote Pope Marcellus Mass 1555

Renaissance Timbre

• 4 or more voices of similar color. (Medieval) 3 dissimilar lines of contrasting color.

• Ideal performing medium was unaccompanied vocal ensemble (a cappella). The sound most composers had in mind ...it was not always heard in actual performances. Doubling instruments to help out.

• Bass is gradually given the function of a harmonic foundation.

• Music became more closely united with words (word painting) and more independent of words. Unity was done in vocal music, independence was gained by focusing on more instrumental works, beautiful in their own right.

Renaissance vocal music

• text painting or word painting - illustrating the meaning of words using music. Ex. an ascending scale might be used to illustrate "running up" a hill.

As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending• As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending,• she spied a maiden Queen the same ascending,

• Attended on by all the shepherds' swain,• to whom Diana's darlings • came running down amain,• First two by two, • then three by three together,• Leaving their goddess all alone hasted thither

Vesta (cont.)

• And mingling with the shepherds of her train,

• with mirthful tunes her presence entertain.

• Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana,

• Long live fair Oriana!

• Common Practice Period 1600-1900 in Art Music. Music revolves around a "central key" or "home sound".