Doctrine of Ethos

 Ancient Greeks believed music had a magical power to speak directly to human emotion
 Greeks believed that the right kind of music had the power to heal the sick and shape personal
character in a positive way
 Aristotle believed that when music was designed to imitate a certain emotion, a person listening
to the music would have that emotion. 
 In Aristotle’s mind, someone listening to the wrong type of music would become the wrong type
of person.  
 Certain instruments and modes would take one toward either the logos (rational) or pathos
(emotional), and it was essential to raise children with the right kind of music.
 Music has the potential to affect our emotions so deeply that it can cleanse our soul and connect
us with something that might best be described as “spiritual.”

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

RHYTHM
 Element of “TIME” in music
 Duration – how long a sound (or silence) lasts
 Beat – pulse
 Tempo – speed of the beat

 Meter - beats organized into recognizable/recurring accent patterns

 Duple – 2-pulse grouping
 Triple – 3 – pulse grouping
 Quadruple – 4-pulse grouping
 Other basic terms relating Rhythm are:
 Syncopation – an “off-the-beat” accent (between the counted numbers)
 Ritardando – gradually slowing down the tempo
 Accelerando – gradually speeding up the tempo
 Rubato – freely and expressively making subtle changes in the tempo (a technique
commonly encountered in music of the Romantic era)
DYNAMICS

 Relative loudness or quietness/softness of a music

 Dynamic levels:
 Pianissimo (pp) – very quiet
 Piano (p) - quiet
 Mezzo piano (mp) – moderately quiet
 Mezzo forte (mf) – moderately loud
 Forte (f) - loud
 Fortissimo (ff) – very loud
 Other basic terms relating to dynamics are
 Crescendo – gradually getting LOUDER

 Decrescendo or Diminuendo – gradually getting softer

 Accent – “punching” or “leaning into” a note harder to temporarily emphasize it.

MELODY
 Linear/horizontal presentation of pitch
 Pitch
 Based on the frequency of vibration and the size of the vibrating object
 The slower the vibration and the bigger the vibrating object, the lower the pitch
 The faster the vibration and the smaller the vibrating object, the higher the pitch
 Highness and lowness of a sound
 Theme
 A melody that is the basis for an extended musical work
 Ex. “Ah! Vous dirai-je Maman” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart K. 265
 Scales (major and minor scales of tonal music)
 Old church modes (Medieval and Renaissance periods 500-1600)
  Chromatic scale and Whole tone scale (both used in popular and art music styles of the
late 19th and 20th century periods)
 Pentatonic scale (scale system devised in most Asian countries)
 Melodies can be described as:
 Conjuct (smooth; easy to sing or play)
 Disjunct (disjointedly ragged or jumpy; difficult to sing or play)
HARMONY
 Verticalization of pitch
 Thought of as art combining pitches into chords (several notes played simultaneously)
 These chords are usually arranged into sentence-like patterns called chord progressions
 Harmony is often described in terms of its relative harshness:
 DISSONANCE – a harsh sounding combination
 CONSONANCE – a smooth-sounding harmonic combination
 Dissonant chords produce musical “tension” which is often “released” by resolving to
consonant chords
 Other basic terms relating to Harmony are:
 MODALITY – harmony created out of the ancient Medieval/Renaissance modes
 TONALITY – harmony that focuses on a “home” key center
 ATONALITY – modern harmony that AVOIDS any sense of a “home” key center
TONE COLOR (TIMBRE)
 Brightness or darkness or a sound
 The upper register produces tones are are brilliant and piercing
 Lower register gives a rich and dark timbre
TEXTURE
 Refers to the number of individual musical lines (melodies) and the relationship these lines have
to one another.
 MONOPHONIC – one note sounding at a time (no harmony or accompaniment)
 HOMOPHONIC – two or more notes sounding at the same time, but generally featuring
a prominent melody supported by a harmonic accompaniment
 POLYPHONIC – music with two or more independent melodies sounding at the same
time (may introduce three or more independent melodies simultaneously)
MUSICAL FORM
 Large-scale form of a musical composition
 Letters (A, B, C) are used to designate musical divisions brought about by the repetition of
melodic material or the presentation of new, contrasting material
 BASIC FORMS:
 Strophic – same music is used for several different verses of words
 Through-composed – structure in which there is no repeat or return of any large-scale
musical section
 Binary Form – two-part form in which both main sections are repeated
 Ternary Form – a three-part form featuring a return of the initial music after a
contrasting section
WESTERN HISTORICAL PERIODS

MIDDLE AGES
 This era witnessed the “dark ages” (a time of migrations, upheavals, and wars)
 Period of cultural growth:
-romanesque churches and monasteries and gothic cathedrals were constructed
- towns grew
-universities were founded
 There was a very sharp division among three main social classes
- nobility
- peasantry
- clergy
 Cathedrals are the center of the musical life
 Most important musicians are the priests
 Important occupation in thousand of monastries was liturgical singing
 Women were not allowed to sing in church but did music in convents
 For over 1,000 years, the official music of the Roman Catholic church has been Gregorian chant
 named after Pope Gregory I (the Great) who reorganized the Catholic liturgy during his reign
 It consists of melody set to sacred Latin texts and sung without accompaniment
 They set the atmosphere for prayers and ritual actions
 It represents the voice of the church, rather than of any single individual
 Rhythm is flexible, without meter, has little sense of beat
 Alleluia: Vidimus Stellam (We have seen His star)
 Elaborate and jubilant Gregorian chant for Epiphany
 Many notes are sung to single syllables of text
 The long series of tones on ia is a wordless expression of joy and religious ecstasy
 Sacred music
 Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous (Since I am forgotten by you, 1363)
 By de Machaut
 “farewell to joy”
 Secular music
RENAISSANCE
 Renaissance – a borrowed French word which means “rebirth”
 Man began to rediscover himself as a complete human being with faculties of thought, feeling
and imagination
 Artistic standards of the period – balance, harmony, proportion and intellectual order
 Maritime expeditions
 Man circumnavigated the world for the first time
 Proved that it was round, not flat
 Cartographers became busy mapping out the new lands
 1492, Christopher Columbus set foot in America, the New World
 1521, Ferdinand Magellan and his men landed in Cebu
 The era of colonization had begun
 Science discoveries
 Galileo and Copernicus in the field of astronomy
 Copernican theory is the heliocentric concept of the universe
 The earth and the other planets revolved around the sun vs the Medieval idea that
the whole universe revolved around the earth
 1517, Martin Luther’s 95 theses – Reformation
 Age of curiosity and individualism (da Vinci)
 Monalisa (da Vinci)
 Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
 Rebirth of human creativity
 Humanism (intellectual movement)
 Ave Maria ... Virgo Serena ( Hail, Mary ... Serene Virgin, 1475)
 By Josquin Desprez
 Latin prayer to the Virgin is set to delicate and serene music.
 Motet (each voice enters while the preceding one is in the middle of its melody)
 As Vesta Was Descending (1601)
 By Thomas Weelkes (on of the first English madrigalist, organist and church composer)
 As Vesta was Descending comes from The Triumphes of Oriana (an anthology of English
madrigals to honor Queen Elizabeth, who was often called Oriana)
 Light mood
 Word painting
 The word descending is sung downward scales, and ascending to upward ones.
 Passamezzo
 By Pierre Francisque Caroubel
 Stately dance in duple meter

BAROQUE ERA
 Derived from the Portuguese barroco, or “oddly shaped pearl,” the term “baroque”
 Comparing some of music history’s greatest masterpieces to a misshapen pearl 
 to the nineteenth century critics who applied the term, the music of Bach and Handel’s era
sounded overly ornamented and exaggerated 
 a belief in music as a potent tool of communication
 Result of the revival of the ideas of the Greeks and Romans about the powerful effect of music as
a tool of communication and having the ability to arouse any emotion in its listeners
 Composers used the power of music to communicate
 public concert was rare.
 Many of the most famous baroque compositions were performed in churches for a service, or as
part of a private concert or celebration in the home of a wealthy patron. 
 During the course of the baroque, however, public performances became more common,
particularly in the genres of opera and oratorio, and our modern concert tradition began to
coalesce in many European cities. 
 The advent of the public concert made the growing middle class an important source of income
for musicians. By the end of the baroque, this social subset had become a musical patron almost
as powerful as the church or court.
 Let the Bright Seraphim from “Samson” by George Frederic Handel
 Toccata and Fugue in Dminor by Johann Sebastian Bach
 Hallellujah Chorus from “The Messiah” by George Frederic Handel

CLASSICAL ERA
 The name classical is applied to the period because in art and literature, there was keen interest in,
admiration for, and emulation of the classical artistic and literary heritage of Greece and Rome.
 Age of Enlightenment and Reason
 Philosophers wrote of the value of the common person and the power of human reasoning in
overcoming the problems of the world
 This revolution in thinking inevitably led to conflict between the old order and new ideas
 The French and American revolutions in the last quarter of the eighteenth century were stimulated
by this new attitude.
 This was the first era in music history in which public concerts became an important part of the
musical scene. 
 MUSIC IS FOR EVERYBODY not just for the elite
   the choral music of the classical era was dominated by three composers: Franz Joseph Haydn
(1732-1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
 Music became less complex
 Lighter in texture than of the Baroque
 The Classical era was an era of formality. The music was characterized by careful attention to
form and by elegance and restraint
 While emotion is an important aspect of all music, in the Classical period, emotions were
carefully controlled
 This control is evident in the use of dynamics and expressive differences within sections or
movements of a composition. (crescendo and decrescendo)
 12 Variations of “Ah vous dirai-je Maman” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 Queen of the Night from “The Magic Flute” by W.A. Mozart

ROMANTIC ERA
 compositions became increasingly expressive and inventive
 Expansive symphonies, virtuosic piano music, dramatic operas, and passionate songs took
inspiration from art and literature. 
 known for its intense energy and passion. 
 Beethoven pioneered Romanticism
 Centered on the human emotions
 The Romantic era gave birth to the virtuoso. 
 Franz Liszt was one of the greatest of his time, and wrote demanding piano music to show off his
own brilliance.
 Frederic Chopin is also among the outstanding composer-performers from this time in the world
of opera
 Habanera from “Carmen” by Georges Bizet
 Doll song from “The Tales of Hoffman” by Jacques Offenbach
 Swan Lake from “The Black Swan” by Tchaikovsky

CONTEMPORARY
 In Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg developed atonality, out of the expressionism that arose in the
early part of the 20th century. 
 developed the twelve-tone technique which was developed further by his disciples Alban
Berg and Anton Webern
 Twelve Tone Matrix
 Stravinsky (in his last works) explored twelve-tone technique, too, as did many other composers
 Scott Bradley used the technique in his scores for the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
 Minimalism – (ostinato)
 Philip Glass