Transcript Part I
Concise History of Western Music Fourth Edition Part I The Ancient and Medieval Worlds By Barbara Russano Hanning Based on J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout, and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, Eighth Edition © 2010, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. THE ANCIENT WORLD Vocal Music • Singing has been a natural outlet for expression since the beginning of human existence. • When combined with language, music becomes a powerful tool for expression. Vocal Music • Vocal music dominated music history from Antiquity through the Renaissance. • Most of the surviving written music of this period is vocal, although there is evidence of instrumental music as well. Vocal Music • Both the ancient Greeks and the early Christians placed a higher value on vocal music than on instrumental music. • In sixteenth–century Italy, some believed the art of singing was the link that connected us to the entire cosmos. Mesopotamia and Egypt Mesopotamia and Egypt • Most of our ideas about music from these regions are conjectures, as little historical evidence has survived. • Evidence indicates that both vocal and instrumental music existed in the fourth millennium B.C.E. Mesopotamia and Egypt • Instruments: lyres, harps, lutes, pipes, drums, cymbals, rattles, and bells. • Reconstruction of a Sumerian bull lyre from the royal tombs at Ur, ca. 2500 B.C.E. Mesopotamia and Egypt • Inlaid panel from Ur showing a bull lyre being played at a victory banquet, ca. 2600 B.C.E. Mesopotamia and Egypt • Types of music, like those today, included wedding songs, funeral dirges, military marches, tavern songs, and ceremonial music. Music in Babylonia • Babylonian musicians used seven-note scales. • They created the first known notation during the second millennium B.C.E. • Most music was probably improvised or played from memory. Ancient Greece • Music was seen to have special powers, as suggested in the myth of Orpheus. • Music could heal the body and soul. • Plato recommended that the state be founded on suitable types of music. Fourteenth century Fourteenth century • Numerous important writers and artists appeared. – Petrarch wrote lyrics that inspired composers for centuries. – Boccaccio wrote Decameron: travelers escaping from the plague. – Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales: pilgrims going to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. – Sculptor Giovanni Pisano and painter Giotto anticipated the Renaissance in their works Giotto, The Nativity, detail, ca. 1305 Musical trends • Preoccupation with structure and form in certain genres • Songs of courtly love were extended into polyphonic settings. • Elaborate textures and complicated rhythms characterized music at the end of the fourteenth century. • Polyphonic church music flourished in cathedrals and private chapels. Andrea Orcagna (?), The Dream of Life, fresco, mid-fourteenth century This concludes the presentation slides for Part I: The Ancient and Medieval Worlds For more, visit our online StudySpace at: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/concise-history-western-music4/