Music history ch.

1 notes

Four main types of evidence in music history

1. Images(iconography): visual, painting. Example: inlaid panel,
2. Physical remains(archeological artifacts): instruments that have been dug up on an
archeological site. Example: bone flute
3. Written record : how it sounds, feels. Example:
4. The music itself(music notation and oral tradition) examples: tomb stele from Tralles,
papyrus fragment

Greek and roman music theorists

Greek:
Pythagoras(math)
-credited with discovering note ratio
1:2= Octave
3:2= Fifth
4:3= Fourth
9:8= Tone

Plato
Aristotle
Aristoxenus

Roman:
Quintilian
Boethius

Greek philosophy and music:

-Melos-name of music connects
-Harmonia- sympathetic vibration, space is not empty
-Ethos: music affects ethical character-
-Music moves its listeners
-octave

Greek music theory:

-Rhythm aligned with poetic rhythm
-Greater perfect system: series of half steps and whole steps encompassing the musical
gamut(the G sound, which is the lowest sound that Greek believes)(”gamma ut”)

-Not based on absolute pitch

Music in Ancient Rome

Continuation of Greek culture
Lyric poetry, public ceremonies

Charlemagne- unify the liturgy in the 9th century, Pepin the Short the father
Epitaph of Seikolos
NAWM 1
1st century CE
Original notation above the notes
Melody reflects the text
octave

Heritage of the Greeks and romans

Melody tied to words- not only meaning of the word but rhythm, connection to the musicality
Division of the octave- semitone and tone, whole steps and half steps. Pythagoras and other
theorists
Music affects human behavior and emotion

Book notes:
Two principal kinds of writing on music:
1. Philosophical doctrines on the nature of music, its effects, and its proper uses
2. Systematic descriptions of the materials of music, what we now call music theory.

Two successive tetrachords were conjunct if they shared a note, as do the first two tetrachords
in 1.2a, or disjunct if they were separated by a whole tone, as are the second and third
tetrachords.
The Greater Perfect System: with four tetrachords plus an added lowest note to complete a
two octave span

Ch 1 Vocab:

aulos (pl. auloi)

A Greek woodwind musical instrument that is commonly called a flute but is in fact a reed
instrument similar to an oboe

lyre
Plucked string instrument with a resonating soundbox, two arms, crossbar, and strings that run
parallel to the soundboard and attach to the crossbar.

kithara
Ancient Greek instrument, a large LYRE.
genre
Type or category of musical COMPOSITION, such as SONATA or SYMPHONY.

melos
Music as a performing art

monophonic
Consisting of a single unaccompanied MELODIC line.

heterophony
Music or musical TEXTURE in which a MELODY is performed by two or more parts
simultaneously in more than one way, for example, one voice performing it simply, and the
other with embellishments.

Plato
Greek philosopher who contributed to the doctrine of imitation.

Pythagoras
Greek philosopher who investigated the mathematical nature of music and all reality.

Aristotle
Greek philosopher who refined the doctrine of imitation after Plato.

The Republic
Famous work by Plato, in which among other things the proper role of music is discussed.

harmonia
The union of parts in an orderly whole.

harmony of the spheres

The unheard music produced by the revolutions of the planets, espoused by the Pythagoreans
and Plato.

ethos
One's ethical character or way of being.

doctrine of imitation (doctrine of ethos)

Aristotle's belief included in his Politics that music that imitated a certain ethos aroused that
ethos in the listener, thereby affecting behavior.

tetrachord
Four notes spanning a perfect fourth, basic musical scale unit of Ancient Greece.
Greater Perfect System
Musical system comprised of four tetrachords plus an added lowest note.

diatonic
Type of tetrachord that included two whole tones and a semitone. (WWH)

chromatic
Type of tetrachord that consisted of a minor third and two semitones.

enharmonic
Type of tetrachord that consisted of a major third and two approximately quarter tones.

conjunct
The quality of two adjacent tetrachords that shared a note.

disjunct
The quality of two adjacent tetrachords that didn't share a note.

Apollo
God of restraint, light, truth etc. Associated with the lyre.

Dionysus
Goddess of wine, frivolity etc; associated with the aulos.