Transcript Music from the Greeks to the Eighteenth Century

Music from the Ancient World
to the Eighteenth Century
Ancient Greek Philosophy of Music
• Plato and Aristotle discuss the
doctrines of musical theory,
arguing that music can affect
human behavior
• Greek music is composed of
distinct modes
• Dorian mode: expressed firm,
powerful, warlike feelings
• Phrygian mode produced
passionate, sensual emotions
• Myxolydian is plaintive and
pathetic
Early Christian music drew on Jewish
sources. Sacred texts were sung, often to
the accompanyment of instruments such as
the Lyre.
Church authorities resisted the
professionalization of music in the Church,
seeing it as a distraction and fearing the
emotive effect the music’s ethos might have
on worshippers.
Thus, early Christian church leaders
eventually rejected instrumental music and
encouraged a standard form of music called
chanting, which took two forms:
responsorial singing, with a cantor intoning
lines from the Psalms and the congregation
responding with a simple repeated refrain,
or with parts of the congregation alternating
verses of a psalm in a simple chant tone.
Music in the Middle Ages
• Two kinds of music: popular instrumental and
secular troubadour and minstrel music; and
sacred choral chanting.
• Vocal (i.e., choral) music was considered the
heart of the musical experience.
• Chanting is originally monophonic (a single
melodic line is sung)
• Chanting is “a cappella” (meaning “like in a
chapel” with no instruments)
• Cadence is created by emphasizing the final
word or phrase with the addition of one or two
extra notes.
Polyphony
• In the 11th century, composers began scoring music for
many voices singing different notes at the same time—
not monophony, but polyphony.
• Music thus becomes more complex
• Some members of the chorus would sing in
counterpoint—matching descending series of notes with
rising ones, for instance.
• In motets, two voices sing interweaving melodies,
sometimes in different languages.
Baroque Music:
The Birth of Opera
• Play in which text was sung, not spoken
• Aristocratic and middle-class audience
• Florentine Camerata
– Objected to polyphonic style
– Monody, recitative
– Inspired by Greek drama, tradition
Baroque Music:
The Birth of Opera
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Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
– L’Orfeo
– Dramatic instinct,
emotionality of music
– Academic principles of
Camerata
Opera houses
Audience appeal
– Lavish stage spectacles,
arias
Baroque Instrumental and Vocal Music:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Virtuoso of composition, performance
• Complexity of musical thought
– Polyphony, fugue, counterpoint
• Expression of deep religious faith
– Chorale preludes, cantatas
• Brandenburg Concertos
– Concerto grosso (Vivaldi)
Baroque Instrumental
and Vocal Music
• Vivaldi (1676-1741)
– Concerto Grosso
• George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
– Oratorios (Messiah)
– Operas
Wolfgang
Amadeus
Mozart
Classical Music
• General vs. Technical definitions
• Technically, classical music is a musical style
that was in use from the second half of the 18th
century
• It is a new musical idiom that stresses:
– Emotion, intellect, balance, order
• Unlike earlier forms of music, which explored
single emotions, classical compositions
juxtapose contrasting emotions by playing
different themes against one another.
The Classical Symphony Orchestra
Classical Music:
The Classical Symphony Orchestra
The Classical Symphony
is standardized much like the orchestra itself
4 Symphonic movements
1. Sonata form, relatively fast
Exposition, development, recapitulation
2. Slow, lyrical movement
3. Minuet (a stately dance)
4. Spirited, cheerful conclusion
Romantic Classical Music:
inspiring, personal, evocative, highly emotive
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Fifth Symphony: pushes
classicism to the limit; this piece is built on a
short theme that Beethoven likened to his
“shaking a fist” against destiny, his triumph over
fate
• Hector Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony: describes
the hallucinations of an opium-induced dream
• Richard Wagner, “Ride of the Valkyrie”: thought
of operas as Gesamtkunstwerks, put new
emphasis on orchestra through leitmotivs