Week 4 – Lecture; Music
Music and Us
Music is something that we have all encountered in one shape or another. Some of us listen to music all the time while some of us have more casual encounters with music such as when we are in the grocery store. Regardless, we are all closer to music in our lives that any of the art we’ve already encountered. In essence, we have more knowledge of music. But what exactly makes music so important? Why do we hear it in films? Why do we hear it in commercials? Why are we told to play it to babies? These answers all revolve around the idea that music is more than just the notes we hear.
Emotion
Perhaps the most important aspect of music we discuss is the emotional impact it has on us. Hearing that one special song can make us cry or make us laugh. Music is able to penetrate our brains in a manner that no other art is quite capable of, mainly because there is no visual need. We hear music and we feel music. How many of you have ever heard a song that just made you feel good? Outside of personal experience, our connection with music can be a simple as “it was a happy song so it made me smile.” But there are other layers to the profound impact of music.
Physical Reaction
How many of you have been in a car when another car has cut you off? What was your reaction? Did you just let it go or did you decided that you should speed up and make sure the driver in the car could see you showing them certain hand gestures? Perhaps a better question would be, what music were you listening to at the time?
Because of the emotional impact of music, listening to more aggressive music can create a more aggressive mood, therefore leading to a different mood. May athletes listen to metal, hardcore rap, or rock music to get themselves going before a game. Even casual exercisers may prefer to listen to techno or dance music than classical because it keeps them motivated.
The opposite is also true. Many people will listen to classical music when they want to calm down or relax. Perhaps a slower beat directly affects the listeners heart rate, or perhaps it just puts them in the proper mood.
Try this experiment. Listen to classical music whenever you drive your car for a week and note how many times you become aggressive. Then listen to Metallica, Tool, or any other aggressive band and note how many times you are aggressive. I’m fairly sure that the classical music will lead to less aggressive driving. Then again, an entire week of Jessica Simpson music could lead to the same aggressive results.
Experience and Memory
Have you ever heard a song and been immediately transported to a moment or a time? Music has the ability to spark our memories and cement moments of time in our minds. Sometimes it is unexpected and sometimes you know exactly what listening to a certain song will do to you.
For example, Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” takes me back to a middle school dance where my girlfriend at the time was a few inches taller than me. Even though I hardly remember anything other than the smell of the gym, just hearing that song makes me laugh a bit. Another example would be hearing Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be”, since it was the song my wife and I danced to at our wedding. Oh don’t worry, I’ll be asking you about your embarrassing moments of music recall in this week’s graded discussion.
There is a connection between music and our lives. It’s not a surprise that many have called music the soundtrack to our lives. Many of our more memorable occasions are marked by music.
Growth and Development
We can even go one step further and discuss if music has the ability to increase knowledge. Some of you may have kids, or will be having kids, or will sometime in the distant future think about possibly having kids; I have no doubt you will or have been exposed to something called the Mozart effect. Essentially, having children listen to Mozart will make them smarter. While I have my own opinions on this topic (and experience), read the Wikipedia and Skeptic’s Dictionary entries on the Mozart effect.
While I may be skeptical of the Mozart effect, I am not skeptical about the good that music can do. While we may not get smarter through music, it can help us concentrate at times and it does cause better brain activity (perhaps just a few neurons firing but enough to provide stimulation). Even in children, music is a good thing. Whether you listen to The Wiggles or The Ramones (my daughter’s favorite song is “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”), exposure to music provides a benefit. Although perhaps having your daughter throw metal and know the words to “Iron Man” would cause some alarm. At least she loves music!
The Components
Rhythm
Rhythm is the organization of time in music. It divides up long spans of time into smaller, more comprehensible units. Typically we hear rhythm carried out by some sort of percussion. This is not always the case, but every single piece of music does have rhythm. Even if there is no distinct rhythm heard, there is still an organization of time.
The main component of rhythm is the beat which is an even pulse that divides the passing of time into equal segments (think of foot tapping). The quarter note (♩) is the most basic duration which surprisingly enough mimics the human heartbeat.
Press the play arrow to hear Prodigy’s Breathe. Listen to the rhythm.
Did you hear the rhythm? What did it sound like? Perhaps a heart beat? There is no doubt that the rhythms of our body influences the rhythm in music.
A meter in music is the measure, or bar and is a group of beats, usually 2 or 3, but sometimes 4 or more. Essentially it is a gathering of beats into regular groups. The downbeat is 1st and the strongest of a measure. The tempo in music is then derived from the speed at which the beats occur.
Certain genres of music rely more heavily on the rhythm. Rap remains one place in music where not only do you have a driving rhythm behind the music, but the voice is also performing a rhythm. (There are a few explicit lyrics in this clip.)
Harmony
Harmony is the component of music that adds depth and richness. In theory terms, it is the peaceful cohabitation of diverse elements. While harmony may not have originated with the Greeks, their ideas on the harmony if planets and the souls had an impact. Typically, harmony is an accompaniment for the melody. And while not needed, it adds a level of depth to the music.
One primary aspect of harmony is the chord which is a group of 2 or more pitches that sound at the same time. Chords are often based on a basic note such as C or D. We see evidence of chord use when you hear a guitar playing a chord or a piano.
Listen to the following example of harmony and notice how the addition of harmonious voices adds to the overall depth and richness of the piece.
Melody
The melody contains the main musical ideas ideas of a piece. It can be defined as a series of notes arranged in order to form a recognizable unit. The important part of the definition is “recognizable”. Melodies we remember and hum are memorable because they are familiar. Take for instance theme songs. Typically you can recognize a film or television theme song very fast because it is so recognizable.
Do you recognize this theme?
It’s the Mission Impossible theme.
When sounds come in regular vibrations it produces a musical tone. That tone has a pitch, which is the relative position (higher or lower) of a musical sound. A faster vibration creates a higher pitch. There are also irregular vibrations such as a crashing plane or a barking dog.
A octave is a tone that is an exact duplication of another pitch at a higher or lower level, the frequency of the vibration is exactly 2X or ½.
Keys
Many times you may notice that a piece is in a certain key such as D major or C minor. A key is the tonal center of a piece built on a tonic note and making use of a scale. We really do not have to go too deep with this except for noting the use of major and minor keys. Keys are designated by their use of sharps (major) and flats (minor). Melodies that are in a major key tend to be bright, cheery, optimistic, or positive; while melodies in a minor key tend to be dark, somber, ominous, or negative. As we go along I will point out pieces in major and minor keys.
Structure
You will also be encountering pieces of music that have a thematic progression. We will look closely at the Sonata Allegro format which is a structured thematic progression. Even in modern music, there is typically a highly structured format.
Listen to this Dashboard Confessional song and see if you can pick out the thematic progression.
We could boil down this progression as Theme 1 to Theme 2 to Theme 1 to Theme 2 ending with Theme 3. You could even argue that pop music is structured as verse – chorus – verse – chorus – bridge – chorus. Essentially, we sometimes forget just how organized music is.
GREEK & MEDIEVAL MUSIC
Greek Music
Our history of music is a bit shorter than our look back at the previous arts. Mainly because we have little in the way of recordings. Even though we do have existing manuscripts, these are not prevalent until the middle ages.
Greeks
Not much is known except for writings about their music. Any existing manuscript of music is unreadable because they do not share a common musical notation with any other culture. The ancient Greek music has never been heard and we are really unsure of how to play it. The one thing we are certain of is that the Greeks did have harmony.
Here is what Ancient Greek music could have sounded like.
Medieval Music
Most of the early music from the Middle Ages was lost because it was not written down. Only music of the church was preserved due to the hand copying of music by monks of the era.
Monasteries were the center for Medieval music. Gregorian Chant was named after Pope Gregory the Great (organizer). Typically, early chanting was sung in unison and in monophony (singing all together). Eventually he enlarged the range of Gregorian chant to include antiphons (verses sung as responses to text).
Here is an example of Gregorian Chant.
Carolingian monks embellished plainsong with the trope (an addition of music or words to established liturgical chant). As more dramatic incidents were added, full fledged musical drama emerged. Liturgical plays were performed at intervals in mass. By the 12th C., as spoken dialogue and musical instruments were introduced, church drama moved outside the walls of church.
Musical Notation
Musical notation was invented in monasteries to facilitate the performance and transmission of liturgical music. The monks arranged tones of common used scales in progression from A to G. They also developed a formal system of notating pitch. Guido of Arezzo (990-1050) added marks to indicate tonal ascent or descent and a precise means of indicating shifts in pitch. With this notation, more complexity could be achieved.
Polyphony
Polyphony was created before year 1000 as an alternate to monophonic style. Polyphony is music consisting of two or more lines of melody. The impact of this gave us voice parts. Polyphony was consistent with the rules of harmony from antiquity. The second musical part was usually pitched a 4th or 5th above or below the 1st, creating a pure hollow sound.
What follows is the progression of polyphony from its inception to a later more complex form.
Musical Forms
The middle ages also gave us one of the first musical forms. Later, we will be discussing many forms from concertos to operas, but the middle ages provides us with a starting point. This new religious musical genre was called a motet. A motet is a short polyphonic choral composition based on a sacred text.
Other parts of the World
Europe was not the only place in the world that was using voices for religious purposes. In China, we know of Buddhist chanting, which still exists even in today’s contemporary world.
We can also hear the past in the Middle East as Islamic Call to Prayers are still heard.
We will continue our exploration of music in the next week when we discuss he explosion of music in the Baroque era and the emergence of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
BAROQUE MUSIC
In addition to giving us new types of music, the era also gives us quite a few memorable composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We also encounter a bit of music theory as we look at the Sonata Allegro Form. Lastly, we venture into the tormented soul of Ludwig van Beethoven and try and answer the question: Who is the greatest composer?
Introduction to Baroque Music
The Baroque era of music takes place between 1600 and 1750. Leading into this era you have explosion of music mostly due to the introduction of the printing press in the mid 15th century which aided in the preservation and dissemination of music. The printing press allowed for the creation of how to play books and the rise of the amateur musician, which became the composers of the Baroque era.
During the Baroque era, instrumental groups were approaching the size of the standard orchestra . The era is characterized by the love of busy detail within large scale compositions which took the form of vigorous, pulsating rhythms with strong regular beats and many smaller sub-divisions. The basso continuo (“through bass”) became a constant throughout the Baroque era. One person played an instrument capable of chords (organ, harpsichord) while another played a low sounding one (cello, bassoon) playing bass line. This gave the music a solid harmonic foundation.
Breakdown of style
Melody
2 different styles
dramatic virtuosi in singing
more mechanical repetitious style in instrumental music
melody no longer focused on voice
new emphasis on writing melodies for specific instruments – well suited to technical demands (harpsichord, violin)
melodic sequence – repetition of a musical motive at successively higher or lower degrees of the scale
Harmony
chordally conceived & bound to basso continuo
total domination of major & minor keys
Rhythm
characterized by uniformity
The composers of this era were the first to think of instrumental music as different from choral and practiced writing for specific instruments. Giovanni Garieli (1557-1612) wrote ceremonial motets for semi-religious occasions, but importantly he was the first composer to prescribe specific instruments for parts. He was also the first to indicate dynamic level at which to play, piano (soft) or forte (loud).
The Baroque era was also the time when composers flourished and new musical genres and types were created.
Opera
You know you love it! Perhaps the most misaligned form of music to come of the Baroque era was opera. Opera simply means “work” and really has been around since the 13th century in China and Japan. A more precise definition comes from the Italian phrase “opera drammatica in musica” which means a dramatic work set to music. Although like a play, the lines of actors & actresses were sung. The music was used to heighten the emotional intensity of action that unfolds. Opera stressed solo singing where there was more freedom to express emotion.
The first full fledged operas of the time were written by Claudio Montevardi (1567-1643). His most famous one was Orfeo. Press the play arrow to listen to part of Act 2 of Orfeo. The song is “Vi recorda o boschi ombros.”
The most common languages used for opera are Italian, German, and French; which may explain why we have such a hard time with opera. Thankfully, many modern presentations are accompanied with translated lyrics. These are take from the opera’s libretto, which is the text of the drama.
The singing in an opera follows two separate styles.
recitative – musically heightened speech – tell audience what has happened, accompanied by basso continuo & simple chords, “action”
aria – more passionate, tuneful, expansive, accompanied by other parts of orchestra, “feelings & emotion”
It is important to know that operas were a measure of a composers skill. The Baroque era valued and respected composers that created masterful operas. What follow are some examples of opera and some other important tools for learning opera.
Habanera from Carmen
Rabbit Of Seville
Victor Borge – “A Mini Opera”
I hope you enjoyed your exposure to opera, but there are so many more types of music created in the Baroque era.
Other Types
What follows are other types or genres within Baroque music. I have also brought in many of the composers of the time. I have no doubt some names will be familiar.
Baroque Sonata
chamber music to be played on an instrument
something sounded
collection of short pieces – movements
Baroque Concerto
marked by friendly contest between a soloist & orchestra
only one soloist – solo concerto
more than one functioning as a group – concerto grosso
concertina – group of soloists
full orchestra is tutti
usually had 3 movements – fast-slow-fast
serious 1st movement – ritornello
2nd is more lyrical & tender
3rd using ritornello is lighter more dance like
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is well known for his concertos including “The Four Seasons.” Below is one movement from that concerto, can you guess which season it is?
It’s spring by the way.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) also pioneered certain types of music.
Cantata
“something sung”, added movements
if it’s in Italian – love, politics, morality
if it’s in German – religious
Chorale
well known spiritual melody
hymn
Fugue
contrapuntal form
one voice presents a theme & flies away – another enters with same theme
theme is called subject
exposition – each voice presents subject in turn
What follows is a short part from Bach’s Art of the Fugue.
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) also contributed to the Baroque era.
Water Music (1717)
dance suite – 4 to 7, all one key, one group of instruments
most dance suites began with overture – French overture because this style created at French royal court
Oratorio
something sung in a hall or chapel used specifically for religious devotion as expressed in prayer and music
opera with a religious subject
no staging & costumes
opportunity for moralizing through chorus therefore chorus is more important
sung in English not Italian
What follows is Handel’s Messiah (1741), in specific the “Hallelujah Chorus.”
Sonata Allegro Form
The Sonata Allegro Form is nearly always the form of the first movement of a sonata, symphony, concerto for solo instrument and orchestra, or string quartet. In most classical and early romantic compositions the Exposition is repeated. Here is the basic outline of the sonata form.
Intro (opt.)
Exposition
Development
Recapitulation
Coda (opt)
Theme I (tonic key)
Theme I (diff. key)
Theme I (tonic key)
transition (diff. key)
transition (tonic key)
Theme II (diff. key)
Theme II (tonic key)
Closing Theme (diff. key)
Closing Theme (tonic key)
The importance of this form is that because many pieces begin with this general structure, we are able to compare different composer’s handling of themes. It is important to note that although you may not hear the differences at first, repeated listening will allow you to begin picking up on the thematic progression.
Listen to the Sonata Allegro Form
As you listen to the lecture below, see if you can follow along and hear the form.
Congratulations, you have just experienced music theory and what scholars of music do. They listen and learn the intricacies of making music.
MOZART
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has been considered one of the greatest composers of all time. Not only is his music incredible. even his life is filled with intrigue. Please read his biography on The Mozart Project.
Other terms have been thrown around with Mozart, two of which are genius and prodigy. There is no doubt that he is a very skilled composer, but is he the best? We will discuss this later, but first the music.
Pieces
Mozart composed 626 pieces in his lifetime, which considering his age of death is astounding. While other composers have their worked cataloged by Opus number (a chronological listing of works), Mozart has his worked cataloged by Kochel number (K). Each of his pieces is numbered based on themes. Here are just a few selections from his canon. You can also find many more (all of them to be exact) at Mozart-Archiv Im Turm. The site is in German, just click on one of the systems to access Mozart’s collection in MP3 (if one does not work, try another system).
From the Marriage of Figaro.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
But perhaps his most interesting piece is his Requiem.
Requiem
Perhaps one of the more powerful Mozart pieces, it is also the one with perhaps the most interesting story. Read about the myths and legends associated with Mozart’s Requiem on Wikipedia.
It can be said that this piece was left unfinished, yet it serves as a move away from typical Mozart. Mozart was known for his technical ability, but this piece has perhaps his most emotional composition. Was he moving into the next era of music? Was it because he was dying? You decide as you listen to the first two parts of the Requiem, which were the only parts Mozart completed.
Introitus
Kyrie
While Mozart was a technical genius, is that all you need to be the greatest composer of all time?
Greatest Composer?
Is Mozart the greatest composer of all time? Well, that’s a difficult question to answer. For his time, Mozart was a technical genius and thrived in the Baroque era’s fascination with ornamentation. Yet, he is criticized for his lack of emotion. Had Mozart lived a few more years, he would have become part of the Romantic era. This era was known for its emotional depth. Could he have transitioned? Some say that his Requiem is a good example of what Mozart could have become. But he did not.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Some say that Beethoven is a direct challenger to Mozart’s title of greatest. While working in the Romantic era, Beethoven created pieces filled with the emotion Mozart lacked. His life story is just as interesting. Read more about his life at Ludwig von Beethoven. His hearing loss makes his accomplishments even more astounding. Listen to some examples of his work.
Symphony Number 3
His more famous Symphony Number 5
MODERN MUSIC
Modern Music
The era we live in is filled with multiple genres of music and multiple methods of consuming that music. There are whole classes dedicated to specific genres! As you can imagine, there is no way we could go in-depth on modern music with the time we have for this class. At one point I had a dedicated lecture on music piracy. At the time, music streaming was in its infancy and the iPod was still a thing (not your phone, the actual iPod).
As culture changes, so do our habits. The last idea I want to leave with you about music is the big question, where does it go from here? Are Soundcloud artists the wave of the future? Is Spotify going to be our default way to listen to music? How many smart speakers will we own? The questions go on and on and there are no definitive answers. However, I can make one prediction. I am sure that far in the future we will still be listening to something called music.
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