Ancient and Medieval [古代至中世紀] (1800 B.C. - ca. 1180)
From the beginning of human existence, singing is regarded as the most natural outlet [途徑] for the expression of feelings. In fact, vocal music dominates [主導] the first two parts of our history: antiquity and Renaissance [古代(中世紀前)與文藝復興時期]. However, the music survives is mainly in written form, which belongs almost exclusively [獨享], if not all, to the elite [精英] and literate [有文化修養的] classes of society. Nonetheless, with these written forms of vocal music, we can still have a glimpse to the splendid realm of vocal music at that time.
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greeks believed that music was magic that healed one’s body and soul.
To the ancient Greeks, they emphasized vocal music at the expense of instrumental music because they expected from their arts a distinctive character (ethos) that only words could impart to music. In other words, they thought words were superordinate [高於] to music and music should serve the text.
Ancient and Medieval Christian music
Notation invented by the church musicians
All ancient Christian music was vocal. However, during the Middle Ages, some church leaders were disturbed by the sensuality [情感] of the voice in the performance of religious plainsong [單聲聖歌] (or chant) and expressed concern about the potential distractions [注意力分散] of song as an aide to worship. They became to sing acappella in plainchants [單聲聖歌] in liturgy [禮拜儀式].
Court Cultures in Italy
In the court cultures [宮廷文化] of sixteenth-century Italy, the art of singing was particularly significant. It was regarded not only as a marker for grace and nobility [高貴], but it was also believed to be the link that connected us to the entire cosmos, putting the individual in touch with the harmony of the universe. They composed mainly secular [世俗的] songs, which include, Goliard songs, and songs sung by Jongleurs, Troubadours and trouveres.
Learning about the vocal music in Ancient and Medieval Periods will more or less make us hesitate because the aesthetics [審美] differs a great deal from our modern day music. Nevertheless, it is surprising to know that the repertoires [曲目] of ancient peoples were not very different from ours today: wedding songs, funeral dirges [哀樂], military marches, work songs, nursery songs, dance music, banqueting music, ceremonial music, etc.
Keywords
► ‘plainchat’: A kind of sacred vocal repertory (later known as Gregorian chant) which was created for ceremonial use and served as a principal element in the communal liturgy of the Western Christian Church. The music does not have much pitch variation and is nearly monotonal [單音調] and it is usually sung unaccompanied [無伴奏].
► ‘liturgy’: The body of texts and rites [儀式] that make up a sacred service is known as the liturgy with the purpose of glorifying God and the saints and teaching the gospels [福音] (the life and work of Jesus Christ).
► ‘Notation’: Any means of writing down music.
► ‘Goliard songs’: They were music from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Their poets and composers were students or clerics who exalted [頌揚] a libertine [自由自在的] lifestyle. The lyrics in these songs only concerned about three topics: wine, women and satire [諷刺].
► ‘Jongleurs’: The people who sang these songs were the jongleurs (in English, jugglers). These jongleurs traveled alone or in small groups from village to village, earning a precarious [不穩定的] living by performing tricks, telling stories, and singing or playing instruments.
► ‘Troubadours and trouveres): They were poet-composers who flourished during the twelfth century in the south of France. Trouveres were their equivalent [同類] in northern France. The troubadours flourished [興盛] in castles and courts throughout France with some of them kings, others came from families of merchants, craftsmen. Their songs were preserved in collections called chansonniers (songbooks).
Fun Facts
► Ancient Greeks paid a lot of attention of chanted music. They would even use music as a kind of magic to heal people’s body as well as their soul.
► Many of the music in the Middle Ages were able to survive because of the invention of notation [記譜法]. It was first developed within church music. The invention of notation enabled song to be written down with increasing accuracy.
► Boethius wrote an influential treatise [論著] based on the Greek view of music as a science of numerical ratios [數字比率].
Food for Thought
► Ancient Greeks believed that music was a kind of magic that could heal. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
► Singing/Vocal music was regarded as the main genre of music in the Ancient and Medieval Period. What do you think contribute to this phenomenon?
Music Examples
Gregorian Chant (Advocatam) Llibre Vermell de Montserrat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HEKhr002Ts
Golliard songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1TPfRPqkC4
LiliumLyra - Medieval Music by Troubadours and Trouvères
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJv3Oz094J8
Renaissance Period [文藝復興時期] (1300s - 1600s)
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were a period of great change for European culture, literature art, and music. The beginning of the Renaissance (meaning ‘rebirth’) has been debated ever since the term Renaissance was introduced. It continued on political and economic paths established by the late MiddleAges, rather than breaking with medieval traditions.
The Development of an International Musical Culture
In music, this period saw numerous developments as well. From the fifteenth century on, musicians frequently held positions outside their native regions, especially in Italy. A new international sacred style emerged that drew on elements of French, Burgunidian, Italian, and English traditions. Composers, likeDunstable and Binchois and Du Fay played a large role in forming and disseminating this new international musical language. This musical style synthesized [綜合了] the rhythmic suppleness [靈活性] from the French, the melodic suavity [柔和] from the Italians, and its clear, bright harmonies from the English.
Development in Italy
Among all the European countries, Italian music evolved significantly and it was increasingly recognized for her vocal music. Two types of native songs prevailed during the Renaissance: frottola and lauda (plural: frottole and laude). Both songs were four-part homophonic [諧音] songs with refrains [副歌]. The texts were set syllabically to catchy rhythmic patterns that repeat from one line to the next. Frottole were composed for enetertainment in the sophisticated [精緻的] Italian courts of Ferrara and Mantua. Laude, performed at semi-public gatherings of the faithful, were religious and devotional [虔誠的].
Another form of vocal genre, madrigal [牧歌], dominated secular music in the sixteenth century, allowed Italy to assume a leading role in European music for the first time. Italian madrigal was a through-composed [每節旋律各異的] setting of a short poem. The term ‘through-composed’ means that every line of poetry received a different musical setting reflecting the rhythm and sense of the words In a madrigal performance, all voices have essentially equal roles to play. Madrigals were composed chiefly for the enjoyment of the singers themselves and were typically performed in mixed groups of women and men at social gatherings, after meals, and at meetings of academies [院校]. Some famous madrigal composers in Italy are, Jacques Arcadelt (ca. 1505-1568), Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565), Luca Marenzio (1553-1599), and last but not least, the giant Cluadio Monteverdi (1567-1643).
The Rise of Instrumental Music
The Lute Player (1590s).
The youth is simultaneously playing and singing an Italian madrigal from the early sixteenth century.
It is not difficult to understand the reason why the history so far has been silent about instrumental music, with almost all the composers were trained principally [主要地] as singers (most were choirboys), understandably, they channeled their talents and made innovative contributions to the body of vocal music sung in churches and courts. Also, during the Middle Ages, improvisation [即興創作] and playing from memory were the norm for instrumental music performance practice. Without notation, instrumental music could hardly survive. During the late Renaissance, there was a revival [復興] of instrumental music mainly because some of the songs were written with accompaniment, such as lute songs [魯特琴(琉特琴)彈奏的歌曲] (solo song with accompaniment).
Keywords
► ‘homophonic’: musical texture in which melodic interest is concentrated in one voice or part that is provided with a subordinate [從屬的] accompaniment.
► ‘refrain’: Text or music that is repeated at regular intervals in the course of a larger form.
Fun Facts
► Italian madrigal composers employed a technique called ‘word painting’. When they were composing a madrigal, they were looking at the meaning of the poem and they would put notes to depict [描繪] the meaning in the poem. For instance, if the poem has a very somber and sad mood, the composer may write many sustained notes in the low register [低音音域] as well as descending scales.
Food for Thought
► What kind of music secured Italy to be one of the cultural hubs in Europe during the Renaissance Period?
► What is the most significant difference between the musical style in Middle Ages and Renaissance?
Music Examples
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)"Settimo libro de Madrigali"
- O come sei gentile
- Io son pur vezzosetta
- Tu dormi?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX7Ty9I7jiQ
Frottola
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaRGwB8IFuY
Baroque Period [巴洛克時期] (1600-1750)
Italy: the Center of European Musical Development
In the Baroque Period, the Italian composers continued to dominate musical fashions during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Florence, for example, hosted a brilliant period of musico-theatrical innovation which led to the flowering of early opera. Rome continued to influence sacred music. Venice, a leading musical city throughout the seventeenth century, nurtured the development of opera, as did Naples in the eighteenth century.
Alongside with the development of vocal music, instrumental music became more and more prominent [突出的] and formed its own shape with much of its works done in early seventeenth century truly experimental [嘗試性的], finding new resources of harmony, tone color, and form.
Early Opera
An opera is a drama sung to continuous or nearly continuous music and staged with scenery, costumes, and action. It is composed to a libretto (Italian for ‘little book’). This quintessential [精粹的] art form, combining drama, spectacle, poetry, music, and visual arts, became the most common path to fame and fortune to many Baroque composers and performers.
Opera took root with a group of elite called The Florentine Camerata in Florence, with influential members like, Count Giovanni de’ Barli (1534-1612) and composer Vincenzo Galilei (ca. 1520s-1591). They began to compose music for solo singing called monody [獨唱] which served as a union between music and poetry.
The first opera was staged in 1598. It was Dafne composed by Jacopo Peri (1561-1633) and the libretto was written by Ottavio Rinuccini (1562-1621). This tradition was followed by GiulioCaccini (1551-1618)’s L’Euridice.
Instrumental Music in Late Baroque
A portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Approaching to the middle of the eighteenth century, for the first time in history, the leading composers in Europe came from German-speaking lands, including the Father of Music, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Their music employed a newer and more gallant style. This newer instrumental music sounded more songful and less contrapuntal [複調], more natural and less artificial [人為的]. Alongside with J.S. Bach, Vivaldi (1678-1741), Rameau (1683-1764)), and Handel (1685-1759) were among the leading composers in late Baroque Period.
Keywords
Contrapuntal: with respect to texture, exhibiting counterpoint, i.e. a degree of independence among the lines or parts making up the texture.
Food for Thought
► What do you think are the reasons contributing to secure Italy’s position as the leading cultural center in Europe in the Baroque Period?
► Why opera was perceived [被認為] as a popular kind of music/art in the Baroque Period?
Music Examples
Peri, L'Euridice, Prologo "La Tragedia" e Coro "Se de' boschi"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHMJgGE5Doc
Bach - Brandenburg Concertos No.5 - i: Allegro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49IOKnhX0Sk
J.S.Bach G minor fugue (the great) BWV 542/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6clTa8_QYQE
Classical Period [古典主義時期] (1750 - 1830)
The galant style: Evolving [發展演變] to a more naturalistic [自然的] approach
Music life in the early Classical Period reflected the international culture and many advocated [提倡] that the ideal musical style was made up of the best features of music from all nations. At the same time, many repelled [排斥] the flamboyant [浮誇的] Baroque style of music with melissmatic [花腔式] and ornamented [有裝飾音的] melodic lines. They regarded music should be ‘natural’ to the extent that it emulated [效仿] the flow of speech. Educated people wanted music to communicate expression without artifice i.e. in a manner free of any complication that would hinder music’s enjoyment and appeal. Based on the above two prevailing trends, a musical style known as thegalant style [瀟灑風格] became the foundation for the musical idiom of mid- to late eighteenth century.
Musical Characteristics
Melody
With the emergence of the galant style, the melody tended to be more linearly constructed. Also, the melodic flow is divided by predictable resting points into smaller units or phrases. We use the adjective periodic [間歇的] to describe this kind of composition comprising of a succession of periods (a period is made up of two or more phrases and are related to each other).
Harmony [和聲]
In terms of harmony, it tends to change less frequently than in the older Baroque style. In order to compensate for the slower harmonic rhythm, composers often animated the musical texture by pulsing chords or other rhythmic means. One of the most widely used devices in keyboard music was the
Alberti bass
Alberti bass in the left hand with repetitive broken chord figuration.
Emotion
With respect to emotion, Classical composers tended to abandon the older idea of expressing just one basic affection. Instead, they began to introduce contrasts between the various parts of a movement or even within the themes themselves.
Vocal music: Opera seria and Da Capo Aria
Opera seria (serious opera) was based on Italian librettos that treated serious subjects and were purged of comic scenes and characters. Its standard form came from the Italian poet Petro Metastasio (1698-1782), whose dramas many eighteenth-century composers set to music hundreds of times. Opera seria was intended to promote morality [道德] through entertainment and to present models of merciful and enlightened rulers. One of the widely adopted storyline would be the conflict of human passions, often pitting love against duty. The resolution [轉變] of the drama, which rarely has a tragic ending, often turns on a heroic deed or a sublime [令人崇敬的] gesture of renunciation [放棄] by one of the principal characters.
The three acts of an opera seria almost invariably consist of alternating recitatives [宣敘調] and arias [詠唱調]: recitatives were used to promote the action through dialogue, while each aria is a virtual dramatic soliloquy in which a principal actor gives vent to an overriding [壓倒一切的] emotion or reaction to the preceding scene. The most commonly used form of aria was called Da Capo aria. The musical structure of a Da Capo aria is A1 – A2 – B – A1 – A2. Two contrasting moods were portrayed in A and B sections and it is the trait [特點] of this kind of aria to have the repetition of A section.
Instrumental Music
Many of the characteristic genres of Baroque instrumental music fell out of fashion in the Classical Period. Composers in Classical Period devoted more time on writing multi-movement works such as the sonata [奏鳴曲], symphony [交響樂], and concerto [協奏曲].
Keywords
Gallant style: In 18th-century writings about music, the free or homophonic style as opposed to the strict, learned, or contrapuntal style.
Period: a complete musical utterance [表達], defined in tonal music by arrival at a cadence [終止式] on some harmony that does not immediately require further resolution [和弦轉變].
Alberti bass: An accompaniment figure, found frequently in the left hand of 18th-century keyboard music.
Recitatives: a style of text setting that imitates [模仿] and emphasizes the natural inflections [轉調], rhythms, and syntax [句法] of speech. Such a setting avoids extremes of pitch and intensity and repletion [充斥] of words.
Arias: a self-contained [獨立的] composition for solo voice, usually with instrumental accompaniment and occurring within the context of a larger form such as opera, oratorio, or cantata.
Food for Thought
► Why do you think it is necessary to have both recitative and aria in an opera?
► In what sense is classical music more ‘natural’ than Baroque music?
Music Examples
Mozart Don Giovanni Catalog Aria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAei1IlntEI
Haydn - String Quartet in D Minor "Fifths" - Mov. 1/4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCXg8xo31h0
Romantic Period [浪漫主義時期] (ca. 1800s - 1890s)
The Early Romantics
Orchestral Music
The first generation of Romantic composers found new ways to engage the established musical genres of eighteenth century: orchestral music and other large-scale works such as concerto [協奏曲] and oratorio [清唱劇]; song; solo piano music; chamber music; and opera. Their new philosophy [見解] was that instrumental music could communicate pure emotion without using words. Naturally, orchestra, with its infinite variety of colors and textures, became the medium par excellence [典型的] of Romantic music. Among the composers who composed, and possibly conducted orchestral concerts, were Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Schumann.
Songs
Winterreose. A famous song cycle by Franz Schubert
Alongside with the flourishing of orchestral music, song, in particular the German art song (lied) became a favorite outlet for intense personal feelings. In the works of Franz Schubert, for example, it served as the most suitable medium for the literary [文學的] and lyrical [抒情的] tendencies [趨勢] of Romanticism.
Piano
The piano, instead of mere accompaniment, became an equal partner with the voice in illustrating [表明] and intensifying [加強] the meaning of the poetry. Moreover, composers found new ways of writing for the instrument in order to fully capture its rich expressiveness and virtuosity.
The Later Romantics
Amid the era of the industrial revolution, novelty and innovation were much valued. People developed enthusiasm towards things futuristic in nature. For instance, Beethoven’s works were sometimes referred to as if written for a later age instead of for his contemporaries.
At the same time, people were also interested in music of the past. There was a renewed interest in the polyphonic [復調的] music by Palestrina and Lasso, as well as works by Handel and Mozart. The mixture of old and new music had wide-ranging consequences for the development of a versatile musical style which had never before been present in the performing tradition. New musical genres, like music drama and symphonic poem prospered. This gave rise to the dichotomies between absolute music [純音樂] and program music [標題音樂].
Keywords
Concerto: In the 16th through the early 18th centuries, a diverse ensemble of voices, instruments, or a composition of such an ensemble [合奏].
Oratorio: An extended musical setting of a text based on religious or ethical subject matter, consisting of narrative [敘述的], dramatic, and contemplative [冥想的] elements.
Absolute music: It is a term used to describe music that is not explicitly "about" anything.
Program music: Music that, most often explicitly [明白地], attempts to express or depict one or more nonmusical ideas, images, or events.
Food for Thought
► If you are given a choice, do you like composer to write music that expresses emotions through words or purely instrumental sound?
► Why do you think that the position of human voice was suddenly uplifted in the Romantic era?
Music Examples
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique-4th Movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7BJQ7LAlo
Schubert's "Winterreise"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSHdVCy6Gj8
Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvxS_bJ0yOU
Twentieth-Century Music (1900 - present)
Modern composers in the classical tradition all faced a common challenge – how to secure a place in an increasingly crossed concert repertory by writing works that performers, audiences, and critics deemed worthy of performance alongside the classics of the past. To succeed, they started to offer more unique style of composition and perspective that balanced tradition and novel elements. Most of the early twentieth-century composers continued to use tonality [音調], but many wrote music that diverged from the common-practice tonal language. As a result, music became increasingly diverse in style and approach, a process that accelerated and never ended throughout the twentieth century.
French Impressionism [法國印象派]
An impressionistic painting, Starry Night (1889), by Van Gogh
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)were the two representatives of French impressionism. Impressionistic composers strive to suggest a mood or quality instead of a very clear and well-delineated [刻劃] idea. Their music focuses on developing musical images (as if you are seeing a picture while you are listening to the music) through motives, harmony, exotic scales (e.g. whole-tone [全音的], octatonic [八音的], and pentatonic [五音的] scales, instrumental timbre (the sound quality of instruments).
Atonal [無調性音樂]/Post-tonal Music [後調性音樂]: Serialism [序列音樂主義]
The maestro of serialism, Arnold Scheonberg
The representative of serialism is Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) who was notorious [出了名的] in writing atonal music (music avoiding the establishment of any note as a tonal center). Schoenberg was so compelled [感到必須] to abandon [放棄] tonality in part because it could make music more liberated [解脫] or in his words, ‘emancipation’ [解放]. Furthermore, he created pitch-class sets which contained three or more pitches and these pitch-class sets could be transposed [變調], inverted [倒置], and arranged in any order and register to generate melodies and harmonies. It is Schoenberg’s equivalence to the Romantic motives.
Neo-classicism in Russia [俄羅斯新古典派]
A ballet based on ‘Rite of Spring’ by Stravinsky
Neo-classicism – the use of classical genres and forms, tonal centers, and common-practice harmonies, allied with emotional restraint [克制] and a rejection [擯棄] of Romantic excess – became the prevailing [盛行的] trend in France after the First World War, one associated with patriotism [愛國主義]. This ideology of composition gradually spread to Russia and influenced Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). Stravinsky was a Nationalist [民族主義者] and his music was distinctive with his use of unpredictable [捉摸不定的] accents and rests or through rapid changes of meter, together with colorful use of instruments.
Keywords
Tonality: The organized relationships of tones with reference to a definite center in western music.
Motive: A short rhythmic and or melodic idea that is sufficiently well defined to retain its identity when elaborated or transformed and combined with other material.
Harmony: The relationship of tones considered as they sound simultaneously.
Whole-tone scale: A scale consisting only of whole tones. Such a scale includes six pitches in each octave e.g. C D E F+ G+ A+
Pentatonic scale: A scale consisting of five pitches (C D E G A). Scale of this type, of which there are many, are widely distributed geographically and historically e.g. American Indian music, etc.
Serialism: Music constructed according to permutations [排列] of a group of elements (pitches, durations) placed in a certain order or series.
Fun facts
► John Cage (1912-1992) was a leading composer and philosopher [哲學家] in the post-modern period. In one of his music, he was influenced by the idea of chance [可能性] expounded [闡釋] in the ancient Chinese book of prophecy I-Ching (Book of Changes). He tossed coins six times to determine the answer from a list of sixty-four possibilities.
Food for Thought
► Most music in the twentieth century or post-twentieth century is not pleasant to common ears. Why do you think composers still strive to write huge amount of ‘unpleasant’ music?
► Among the three musical schools we introduced earlier: impressionism, serialism, and neo-classicism, which of them you like best and why?
Music Examples
Debussy: Suite bergamasque - 3. Clair de lune (1890-1905)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJCLiam3Am4
Arnold Schoenberg, Transfigured Night Op. 4 (1899)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohaKpIYg3ow
Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFRwKQqbk4
John Cage "4'33" (really funny piece in which the orchestra plays nothing in 4’33”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E
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