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• 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.

Classical Music:

The Classical Symphony Orchestra

The Classical Symphony Orchestra

The Classical Symphonyis standardized much like the orchestra itself

4 Symphonic movements

1. Sonata form, relatively fastExposition, development, recapitulation

2. Slow, lyrical movement3. 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