Week 2 Thinking About Music: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Music · Reading by Lewis Rowell §0 Renaissance is seen as a period of high artistic accomplishment Musical style became more personal and spread quickly from country to country § § Musical style was a product of significant changes in technique and values · Medieval music - confined to a relatively narrow range and written for equal voices vs. Renaissance music expanded musical space to approx. 4 octaves · Delineation of specific voice parts, each with different ranges (ie. cantus, altus, tenor, bassus) · Bass was now the foundation of the sound structure · Dawning concept of harmony · Two things came into full fruition in the Renaissance: 1) Gradual groupings of modal scale patterns into minor and major modes 2) Recognition of the triad as a vertical entity · Move away from the cantus firmus, now imitative techniques distributed melodic activity among all parts and treated them as equals · Musical structure became a series of points of imitation separated by clear cadences · Unifying element was the imitative motive/motif · Individual lines were given independent rhythmic structure, loosely coordinated by the tactus (beat), resulting in a texture of cross rhythms and accents · Homogenous blending of sounds · Savor of sustained vertical sonorities (chords) · Clearly articulated cadences at regular intervals · Careful timing of dissonance to provide a regular rhythm of tension and release § New proposals for thinking about art/music: · Art is creativity · The being of each work of art is unique · Art does not necessarily represent nature · Primary purpose is expression . Truth of art is not truth of science · Art is diverse · Art is a kind of play · Art exists for its own sake, not for some higher purpose § Beginnings of Baroque music marked by:
· Major shift in musical organization from the linear, imitative motet to a vertical orientation where music is thought of more in chords rather than an interweaving of separate melodic lines · Basso continuo - combination of an instrumental bass line (cello, bass viol, bassoon or another bass instrument) and a chordal accompaniment (organ, harpsichord, or lute) · The system of major and minor keys rapidly took hold · Musical compositions became much longer · Baroque musical values: o Performance accomplishment had 3 aspects: technical virtuosity, emotional delivery, ability to improvise SI Transition from Baroque to Classical period was less pronounced con Classical composers wrote more songlike, simpler melodies in contrast to the multiple melodic strands of the Baroque · Its beginnings can be seen in simplification of texture, a universal musical style instead of the national style of the Baroque (ie. in the Baroque period, there were different styles each in France, Germany and Italy) Week 3 Age of Mozart and Beethoven · Reading by Giorgio Pestelli o Galant style: § Between 1740 and 1760 cas Associated with the words "pleasant", "free", "spontaneous" con Counterpoint was to be avoided