In music there are a variety of pieces, instruments, style vocal, and structure. The reading from Musical Architecture, “The Need for Structure” compares a great musical experience as a vacation; the feeling of excitement and getting the plans ready for the trip, experiencing and learning about new things and places and then there is that relief and joy returning back to reality. There are large forms in a composed musical piece and is broken up into many smaller sections which are called movements. Out of the many forms in a piece the most familiar and basic fundamental are the theme and variation and the fugue. Throughout the history of music singing has been around for ages and there are many styles that can be sung: opera like, or one as a choir. One particular style in this lesson that has been studied and observed is Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant originated from the 12th and 13th century named after Pope Gregory I (Megill 107). This chant is mainly heard in churches during religious services and has said that it inspires the Holy Spirit. Gregorian chant is sung in a single line or a single melody with Latin text. The single melody is unaccompanied and is without harmony, which is known as monophony. This style is not the most popular type of singing in our time, but this style is very interesting. In the music piece entitled, “Alleluia: Vidimus Stellam” by an unknown composer, the chant in this piece starts off with a solo and then unison of male singers and the style of this chant is that the phrasing is longer and they hold the syllables longer, which makes it more dynamic and adds emphasis.
The monophonic single lined music of chants is the oldest style of music known, which then developed polyphonic music. Polyphonic music changes the monophonic (mono meaning one) to a polyphonic (poly meaning many) multi-line style of music. Polyphonic is a little more modern and heard more today for example polyphonic tones on cellular devices. It started unknowingly since women were not allowed to sing in church back then, the older males who had deeper voices would sing with the young boys, who’s voices were not developed through hormones yet, would sing at a much higher pitch than the men. So the boys would sing at a higher octave as the men in parallel melodies. The notes are very close together but you can hear the distinction of the voices (Megill 108). And it could be possible for a radical monk to come up with this idea and if it were a radical monk then polyphonic music has great importance because it has revolutionized the music we hear today.
The renaissance period was from the years 1450-1600. Many people in society have their own interpretation of what the renaissance period may have looked like or have some knowledge of the lifestyle of people in those times. The word renaissance means in French, “rebirth” and is the period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values (Guisepi). During this period the growth of art and literature grew far more than expected. It was said in the reading Music Appreciation, that this period was the time of sacred and secular ambience. To capture this ambience of this time period there were two music styles that took place: motet and madrigal.
The motet started in the 13th century but improved by the time of the renaissance in the 14th century. Motets are in the Latin language and the text and form of motets are sacred, usually heard during worship services (Megill 149). Latin is probably used for this style because the language has holiness to it to be used during religious gatherings. For example in “Ave Maria, gratia plena” by Josquin des Prez this is an example of a motet. The structure of the piece is very restricted from adding “word paintings” because that would take away from the sacredness of the piece and its purpose for the worship services. The flow of this style is very solemn and doesn’t have that “word painting” to paint the music and emphasis of the piece like madrigals.
Madrigals are very similar to motets when it comes to the polyphonic and homophonic textures, also the imitation techniques are similar. The language that is used for madrigals are the common dialects of French, Italian and English. This style is not used for worship service because this style is more upbeat and they are secular topics with love, humor, scenery, etc. It can be heard during social activities and gatherings as well as those in their own home. Madrigals use “word painting” because when u hear that style when they emphasize certain words and put dynamics to the piece you can imagine what the voices are singing. For example in “Song of the Birds” by Clement Janequin is staccato; it is detached and is intense with the fast tempo and imitations/ repetitiveness. That kind of style would not be appropriate for a worship service.
During the time period of the 1600s through the 1750s music had continued to develop and reached its musical peak at that time. Over time we have been educated and taught that music started as a monophonic sound and then transitioned to polyphonic sound and text. As an example monophonic and polyphonic sounds were either heard in sacred places like during worship services or they were used for entertainment and emphasized the emotion through word paintings.
From a portion of the reading it had stated that the Renaissance polyphony had opened many options and different sounds to a musical piece, which gave vocal music more clear and speech like. This was the birth of opera.
One music style that led to opera was called Baroque oratorio. This style focused and gave emphasis on detailed, just like the details in the cathedrals. This style expressed emption and love of contrasts. The musical pieces were made from the dynamics and emotion. This then led to opera. Opera began in Italy in 1637 at the opera house in Venice. The style of opera took that emotion which then developed into arias. An Aria is a songlike, emotional, and often demanding vocal work used in opera, oratorios, and cantatas (Megill 161).
One type of music that has evolved over the years and is still heard today is opera. Opera began in Italy in 1637 at the opera house in Venice. The style of opera took that emotion which then developed into arias. An Aria is a songlike, emotional, and often demanding vocal work used in opera, oratorios, and cantatas (Megill 199). The baroque period, opera has evolved into the periods of Viennese and the Romantic period.
The Viennese period was the period of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and also Gluck. The two periods evolved from the baroque period and many of the music pieces follow the styles and traditions of that period, but they also have their differences. In the opera pieces of Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini (Megill 183) they all possess and express that emotion and dynamic style that the baroque period conveyed. The differences of these later and more modern musical pieces are the structure of each piece; they contain more instrument accompaniment, which developed the symphony. In the middle of the 1700s, composers realized the organization and regularity of the baroque pieces too intense and domineering (Megill). So another difference from the past opera compositions are the thin texture of each piece. Also, the Viennese period developed and started the multi-movement works that gave richness and new refreshing structural ideas (Megill).
The Romantic operas are considered as the Golden Age of Opera because of how pure and rich romantic opera pieces are. The pieces in this period are very dramatic and filled with so much passion, dynamics, and emotion and feelings about love. Romantic opera brings an interesting entertainment filled with emotions and feelings in every piece performed and that’s why it is considered music drama.
These classic pieces are still played and featured today, comes to show that music has definitely evolved over time.
Works Cited
"A Society That Values Music Must Pay For It.(OPINION: EDITORIALS / COMMENTARY / LETTERS)." Billboard 117.26 (June 25, 2005): 6(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. CCL Diablo Valley College. 20 Mar. 2009
Megill, Donald. Music Appreciation Online. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 2007.
"The Need for Structure." Musical Architecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment