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MUSIC BEFORE 1600

Chapter 18

MUSIC BEFORE 1600

The origins of music are shrouded in mystery.


Scholars can only speculate regarding its
beginnings, but recent research has expanded our
knowledge of early music and pushed back the
date for the earliest evidence of music.
No one has been able to establish precisely when, where,
why, or how music originated
The word music was originally an adjective derived from
Muse, a Greek term denoting any one of nine goddesses
who collectively presided over song and prompted the
memory and who individually governed a particular realm
of literature, art, or science.
(Source: The Development of Western Music A History by K Marie Stolba)

THE EARLIEST MUSIC


Soviet archaeologists report that they have
unearthed musical instruments made from
mammoth bones twenty thousand years ago.
The instruments found near Chernigov in Ukraine
and were described as a drum, kettle drums, and
xylophones.

The dawn of history of music was firmly established


as an adjunct of rituals, ceremonies, festivals, and
entertainments. The singing and dancing of the
celebrants were accompanied by a variety of
percussion, wind, and string instruments.

THE EARLIEST MUSIC


The death pits of Ur have yielded the remains of
court musicians buried with their lyres and
harps which were richly ornamented with gold,
silver, shell, lapis lazuli and red stone.
Singers and various instruments are included in
the depictions of a Sumerian banquet on the
Royal standard from Ur ca. 2700 B.C., now in the
British museum
(see photo on the next slide)

A Sumerian banquet with music and song from the Royal Standard, Ur,
ca 2700 B.C.

Sumerian uses of music are reflected in a few lines praising music taken
from a long poem inscribed ca. 2400 B.C., on a clay cylinder of Gudea, a
peaceful priest-king who ruled at Lagash.
The poem is given in original cuneiform script, (see photo above)

Recent interpretations of cuneiform inscriptions


on five clay tablets from the ancient Near East
have provided specific information about scale
structures and tuning systems as early as 1800
B.C and a complete song from about 1400 B.C.
The tablets came from excavations during the
last century in modern Iraq and Syria.

Musics ministry
To fill with joy the temple court,
And chase the citys gloom away,
The heart to still, the passions calm,
Of weeping eyes and tears to stay.

This cuneiform tablet, now in the National museum in


Damascus, is inscribed with the words and music
symbols of a Hurrian cult hymn concerning to goddess
Nikkal, wife of the moon god, and probably is addressed
to her.

The most ancient example of written song. A hymn to Nikkal, wife of the moon
god. The text is written upon a fragmented tablet and, therefore, is incomplete.
The hymn has four stanzas, each with a refrain. Stanzas 1 and 4 are imitation,
and stanzas 2 and 3 are identical musically. The singer is accompanied by a lyra.
The lyra harmony is predominantly in thirds and sixths, a few fourths, and one
fifth.
There are startling similarities between the Babylonian principles of music theory
and those used by ancient Greeks. Moreover, the Babylonian principles antedate
the Greek ones by more than a millenium.
The Babylonians seem to have used music exclusively in connection with religious
observances and festivals. The names of lyra/kithara strings and musical pitches
were related to their cult deities and to the planets in a cosmology similar to
Greek philosophers' "harmony of the spheres."

GREEK MUSIC

Music was included in the quadrivium of liberal


arts, along with arithmetic, geometry, astronomy.
The Greeks believed that music was capable of
influencing character and behaviour and
associated certain modes and instruments with
specific qualities.

GREEK MUSIC

The followers of Apollo played the lyre and the


kithara. (see photo)
The followers of Dionysus played the aulos, a
double-pipe reed instrument with a shrill tone in
a manner intended to incite the passions. (see
photo)

Both cults used their instruments alone and in


conjunction with singing.

Aulos

Kithara

Lyre

EPITAPH OF SEIKILOS

Is the earliest and perhaps the only piece of


Greek music preserved complete and intact. It
was engraved in the tombstone of Seikilos wife
some time between the second century B.C. And
the first century A.D. At Tralles in Asia Minor.

MESOMEDES: HYMN TO THE SUN


(A.D 130)

The Hymn to the Sun, ascribed to Mesomedes of


Crete, is grouped with the examples of Greek
music in histories and anthologies, but its
authenticity and dating have been questioned.

The earliest known ancestor of keyboard


instruments is the hydraulos, a hydraulic organ
invented by Ktesibos of Alexandria ca. 300-250
B.C.,
Water pumped by hand produced the air pressure
to activate the organs nineteen pipes.
Cicero (Rome, 106-43 B.C) wrote regarding the
use of the hydraulos at banquets and described
the sound as delectable to the ears
The hydraulos, perhaps a louder version, was
also played at outdoor Roman spectacles such as
the exhibitions of gladiators.

ROMAN MUSIC
The Romans are credited with the development of
brass instruments and the cultivation of music
independent from poetry and drama.
In theatres and homes of rich citizens music was
performed by slaves, but virtuoso performers
were highly regarded and richly rewarded for
winning competitions.

EARLY SACRED MUSIC


Music in the early Christian era was concerned
principally with the development of the sacred
monody of the Catholic liturgy.
Between roughly A.D. 200 and 1300 a supreme
body of unaccompanied vocal music was
collected under the patronage of the Church. It
is known variously as plainsong, plainchant,
Gregorian chant, or by its Latin name cantus
planus.

GREGORIAN CHANT: ALLELUIA


VIDIMUS STELLAM

By the 9th century, a second part was sometimes


added to a Gregorian melody in a type of
polyphonic music called organum. In its most
archaic form the added part moved parallel with
original at the interval of fourth or fifth
throughout, with both parts often doubled at
the octave.
Types of Organum:

organum strict parallelism is maintained


during the middle of the phrase but not at the
beginning or end
Free organum - with rhythmic independence and
greater variety of intervals between the voices.
Melismatic organum free flowing line added to the
chant melody in long sustained notes
Parallel

Rex Caeli Domine


(parallel organum)

Alleluia justus ut palma


(Free Organum)

Alleluia Angelus Domini


(Melismatic organum)

EARLY SECULAR MUSIC


During the centuries when the early development
of polyphonic music was taking place, both sacred
and secular music continued to be
preponderantly monophonic.
Secular monophonic songs were being
disseminated by travelling minstrels and
students in minor church orders who roamed
Europe.
By 12th century, poet-musicians were writing
aristocratic poetry in the dialect of southern
France and setting it to music. These poetmusicians were the TROUBADOURS.

RAIMBAUT DE VAQUEIRAS:
KALENDA MAYA (1195)

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras was one of the four


hundred known troubadours who left a legacy of
some 2,600 poems and 260 melodies. His
Kalenda Maya was set to a dance tune played on
a vielle, an important instrument of the 12th and
13th centuries.

The trouvres wrote and sang songs similar to


those of the troubadours but using the dialect of
northern France.

ADAM DE LA HALLE: THE PLAY OF ROBIN


AND MARION (1284)

Starting somewhat later in Germany, the Minnersingers


took up the practices of the troubadours and trouvres, and
even some of their melodies.
The Germans were less influenced by popular dance music
than the French, and the style and subject mater of their
songs were sometimes of a religious nature.

WALTER VON DER VOGELWEIDE:


PALESTINE SONG (1228)

The English produced some monophonic songs


during this period, but an insignificant number
in comparison with the French and Germans. By
the time the English were already writing
multipart music like the monumental Sumer is
Icumen In.

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT (13001377)


He was a cleric, courtier, poet, and the greatest
musician of his age. He composed a wide range
of forms and styles monophonic, polyphonic,
secular, and sacred.
He is the first individual to write a complete
polyphonic setting of the Ordinary (unchanging
sections) of the Mass.
The technical device characteristic of Machauts
style is isorhythmic; that is, rhythm patterns
which are repeated with different pitches, a
common 14th century practice.

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT: MASS OF


NOTRE DAME (1364)

JOSQUIN DES PREZ (1440-1521)


Was born between 1440 and 1450 in the present
Franco-Belgian border region.
The first composer whose music is apt to appeal
immediately to 20th century listeners, in the
century following Machaut wherein the
procedures of polyphonic composition were
refined and perfected at an accelerated rate
facilitated by improvements in the system of
rhythmic notation.

JOSQUIN DES PREZ: AVE MARIA (BEFORE


1521)

MUSIC PRINTING
The printing of music was first accomplished
during Josquins lifetime.
A liturgical book containing monophonic music
was printed in 1476, just 21 years after
Gutenbergs Bible.
The first printing of polyphonic music was done
by Ottaviano dei Petrucci of Venice in 1501.
The publication consists of 96 part-song of which
eight were by Josquin.
The printing of their music enhanced the
reputations of composers and diffused their
musical styles throughout Europe.

MUSIC PRINTING
Prior developments culminated in the 16th
century with a period known as the golden age
of vocal polyphony which matched the splendor
of Renaissance painting and literature.
The art of creating beautiful, euphonious texture
by interweaving graceful, fluid, melodic lines was
developed to the ultimate degree.
The two composers who contributed the most to
vocal polyphonys golden age were Giovanni
Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlandus Lassus

PALESTRINA
For almost 400 years has been universally
regarded as the greatest composed of Catholic
church music.
After a period of study he became an organist
and choirmaster.
In 1551 he was appointed maestro of the
Cappella Giulia, the post he held at his death.
He was a prolific composer, his complete works
fill thirty-three volumes.

G. P. DA PALESTRINA: POPE MARCELLUS


MASS (1555)
Pope Marcellus Mass have been cited repeatedly as
models of the purest religious style.
This Kyrie, has served previously as an illustration
of the a cappella choir medium, triad harmony, and
the Mass; A magnificent example of Palestrinas
music and 16th century vocal polyphony.

ORLANDUS LASSUS (1532-1594)


Was an incredibly versatile composer.
He wrote in the reserved style of the church and
the popular idiom of the day with equal fluency,
and he set Italian, French, German, and Latin
texts with equal skill.
He was born in the Netherlands, and like
Palestrina, started in music as a choirboy.
By the time he was 12, he was in the service of
the Viceroy of Sicily.
He held posts briefly in Milan, Laterano, and
Naples

ORLANDUS LASSUS (1532-1594)


1555 in Antwerp the year his compositions were
first published in Venice.
1556 he accepted a court appointment in
Munich where he remained, except for occasional
journeys, until his death.
He wrote in all the styles and forms of his day,
and his output totals a phenomenal 2000
compositions.

Two madrigals, Matona mia cara (Matona, my


dear) written when he was only 18 years old, and
Il grave de leta (The burden of age) composed 37
years later, give some idea of his style in this one
type of composition

ORLANDUS LASSUS: MATONA MIA CARA


(1550)

This delightful piece is still a favorite of madrigal


singers and a capella choirs. The mood of its
text, which is humorous and more than a little
suggestive, is captured in the musical setting.

ORLANDUS LASSUS: IL GRAVE DE LETA


(1587)

Lassus dedicated his last volume of madrigals to the


physician who attended him during his declining
years. The words by Gabriele Fiamma contain the
phrases In the war of daily living I weaken. In vain
do I search for peace or armistice.

When Palestrina and Lassus died, the golden age


of vocal polyphony and the Renaissance were
drawing to a close. Music was on the threshold of
a new era, one that would have to suffer through
its growing pains before it could rival the
splendour of the past.

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