The history of the music

By:

Raquel Mentxaka 3B

Ekain Diaz de Junguitu 3B

Galder Etxaniz 3B

Nagore Fernandez 3A

Izaskun Gomez de Salazar 3A

The Index:

1. Ancient Greek music:

-What it is.-Instruments. -The Gregorian chant.

2. Classical Period:

-This type of music forms.-Beethoven.-His symphonies.-His deafness.-Mozart vs. Beethoven.

3. The Renaissance:

-What the renaissance is.-What it means.-The situation of the musicians at this time.-The printing press.-A Capella style.-Madrigal music.-Motet music.-Mass music.-Instrumental music.-The instruments.-Some important composers.

4. The Baroque Period.

-What the Baroque means.-Singing.-Instruments and the Chamber Orchestra.-The instrumental suite.-The fugue.-Texture.-How to listen.

Ancient Greek musicWhat it is:

The Greeks loved music, and made it an important part of their live, they thought that the music is a way of honour the gods, and make the world a more human place.This type of music was almost universally present from marriages and funerals, the word music comes from the muses, daughters of Zeus, and they were creative and intellectual women. The Greeks had pipes, lyres, and drums, and cymbals such as instruments. The first lyre was made from a turtle; it was believed that this instrument was invented by the god Apollo.

Instruments:

Panpipes: invented by the gods, were cane tubes arranged in a scale. Sound could be produced by blowing across the holes.

The syrinx: A series of wooden tubes, tuned by their differing lengths were blown, the sound is popular at poetry recitals.

The aulos: was a wind instrument which produced a low and resonant clarinet sound, it was difficult to play.

The Gregorian chant:

In the Middle Age started the Gregorian Chant, and represents almost a thousand year of the music history of Europe, but much of the music had been lost. Most of the composers of this period are anonymous. There are some techniques at this time, such as the plainchant, witch considerer that was sung only and without rhythm or harmony, everyone sang in a unison, this means that everyone sang the same thing and these tunes are also called Gregorian Chant.

Classical Period(1750-1827)

The music of this period is very structured and the excitement was controlled. The music was melodious and simple. There are like 40 musicians. The classical period wanted balance and contrast.

This type of music forms:

Sonata was the most important musical form during this period.

The symphony became very popular in this period. A symphony is an immense musical work. For example: Symphony 40 by Mozart.

Very famous composers during this period are: Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn…This period ended when Beethoven died in 1827.Beethoven was the bridge between the classical and the Romantic periods.

Beethoven:

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Germany in 1770 and died in 1827 at the age of 56.Beethoven’s grandfather and father were professional musicians. Children often caught the trade from his father or grandfather. His father teaches him to play the piano and to be a good musician.Beethoven’s father wanted his son to be successful. His father wanted that because his dream was to his son became the family rich. Sometimes the parents got up Beethoven to practice how to play the piano. Beethoven gave his first public performance when he was 7 years old.He became a fine pianist and would often improvise. When he was a teenager he played to Mozart. Mozart was very impressed with him.

His symphonies:

While he was in Vienna (Austria), the French Revolution began and a French general called Napoleon inspired ideas of freedom and equality.With only 4 notes he could be able to create his most famous piece of music: Symphony No. 5. Symphony No. 6 was inspired by the beauty Beethoven saw in nature. This symphony was also called the Pastoral Symphony.Symphony No. 9 was written by Beethoven when he was deaf. He was inspired in a love poem (Ode To Joy).

His deafness:

When Beethoven was 28 began his deafness. First it wasn’t a problem but then when he was 50 he couldn’t hear anything. The amazing thing is that he wrote his best pieces of music when he was deaf.He was angry and sad about his deaf and in some occasions he thought to kill himself but he didn’t do it.He cut the legs of his piano and put the instrument on the floor to feel the vibrations of the music on the floor.Famous pieces of music of him are: Moonlight Sonata, Bagatelle in G (sol) Minor.

Mozart vs. Beethoven:

Mozart was happy and not very responsible with his money. Beethoven was moody and ill-tempered.The music by Mozart was neat and thought in his head before he write it. Beethoven’s music was remiss.Beethoven published his first symphony when he was 30 years old and Mozart at the same time published over 40 symphonies.Mozart married, had children and died at age of 35. Beethoven never married; he didn’t have any children and died at the age of 56.

The Renaissance 1400-1600

What the Renaissance is:

The renaissance is a period of time that started in the middle of the XV th Century and finished at the beginnings of the XVII th Century.This period of time is between the baroque age and the middle ages and makes the modern age.

What it means:

It means the rebirth of the knowledge and the science and arts became more important.El Greco, da Vinci, Rafael, Shakespeare… were the most famous people or renaissance men who started this age.

The situation of the musicians at this time:

At this age, all the monarch had the power and they paid musicians to work in their houses, but with the new technologies and the transports, they started moving their own ideas to all the composers.

The Luther reform also had an important position on the age.The humanism was important too, the human was the centre of all the things that left the teocentrism in an other position.

The printing press:

In that period of time, the printing press was invented and they put it like a contribution for the civilization and by this method, the musician’s didn’t have to write the music and their compositions by hand. They printed their own scores too.

But some people already liked the teocentrism idea and they said that this age was a dark era with no artistic interest and they disregard that new art returning to the one who they liked .This was made in Greece and Rome mostly.At this time, the music started not been religious and it became more popular that the other music because it had dances and instruments too.A Capella style:

A Capella style was on the renaissance. It refers not singing with instruments, the Italians brought it to all the world to people knew without melody who the singers sang truly.

The popular songs were three: the madrigal, the motet and the mass.

Madrigal music:

It means rebaño in Spanish and was used to sing poetically .The first madrigal were simple, they had two or three verse in each strophe ,they were only sang with two people .Then they started singing with four person and then they changed to six voices. It is similar to the motet, the only difference was that this was profane and the other religious.

Motet music:

It is one of the most important forms of singing, because it started in the XIII th century and it finished in the XVIII.It has a lot of polyphonic variations, for example the cantus firmus, it was named like tropo.It had a short text written in Latin with sacred scripture.

Mass music:

This music was religious, and somebody said that was hypnotic. Was a celebration sang in Latin.

Instrumental music:

After those three music styles, the instrumental music started growing up. This kind of music was isolated a lot of years before; this music was going to be pure, only for the placer of our inner ears.The lute was the most popular instrument, the families of instruments started forming and were called consorts and of that word we get the concert word.With the instruments, voices and dances people of that era started creating groups of music sets.Four of them were the most important:

-Pieces for vocal acts:

They were principally used to be sang with voices and some instruments like the organ and another instrument with keypad.

-Improvised pieces:

They were to types here: pieces to be improvised with a melody reference and pieces with any reference.

-Pieces based on variety: The singer has to repeat the same part lot of times; this was invented in Spain by Antonio de Cabezon.

-Pieces created for dancing:

The dance was the favourite pastime in the renaissance.It was elegant, that’s why the noble families were the people who mostly danced, and this was used in the celebrations.But the town people invented another form of dancing because they wanted to move their bodies too.The noble families weren’t allowed to dance only if the wanted, they had to memorise the dances. But was a thing that impeded dancing well, those beautiful dresses that women wore. The dances had to be danced clearly and with the enormous dresses they can’t, but that thing left the dances been elegant and slowly and were very well known by that.

The instruments:

The lute was the most used instrument, but there were a lot of more instruments that had importance in the renaissance music. These are ones of the renaissance instruments:

The sweet flute: was made of wood and today has an educated form. Trumpets: were made of metal and they were used in military and in

shows. The guitar: was used in Spain but had an Arabian origin. Lauds: it was used in the middle ages, but the renaissance people

took it to be used in that age too.

Some important composers:

-Monteverdi:

He is the most important figure of the baroque and the renaissance.

He marked the transition of the polyphonic music and he bornt the drama

-Milan:

Was a Spanish composer of the renaissance, he published the first music for the vihuela and he made instructions for the tempo.

-Josquin des prez:

He was an influence character of the beginnings of the renaissance in France.

Baroque Period (1600-1750)What the Baroque means:

Baroque means highly decorated. The world Baroque was borrowed from architecture to describe the elaborate music of the day. Baroque music is full of confidence and very complicated.

Musicians of the day made up music as they played it. That is called improvising. People who supported musicians were called patrons. They were usually kings, queens, dukes, and wealthy business people.

Singing

Opera appeared during this period. Opera is a singing play, like a musical. Opera singers had to learn how to sing very loud because there was no way to amplify their voice.An oratorio was like an opera, but without scenery. Solo singers, choirs, and an orchestra were used in oratorios. There were very serious and dramatics works.

Instruments and the Chamber Orchestra

Two popular keyboard instruments of the day were the organ and harpsichord. The violin was the queen of the instruments during this time. The piano wasn’t invented yet .Before the Baroque period, instrumental music was used mostly for singing and dancing. Now instrumental music is written and played for its own sake.Chamber music is played by trios (3), quartets (4), quintets (5), and up to about ten players.

The instrumental Suite

An instrumental suite is a set of dances. It is like an assortment of chocolates. Instrumental suites were very popular during the Baroque period. A suite could be played by one instrument or many instruments.

The Fugue

A popular form of this time was the fugue. No one wrote better fugues than Bach. A fugue is like a round. One voice starts the piece, and then other voices enter, one after another, just like in a round. The difference is that the voices in fugues enter on higher and lower pitches.

Texture

Baroque music has a polyphonic texture. The music has many voices playing different things all at the same time. It is like listening to five people talking to you at the same time. Just think how hard it would be to keep track of what everyone was saying to you.

How to listen

If you hear the harpsichord, you are probably hearing Baroque music. Ornamentation was used to dress up the music. Baroque music uses lots of ornamentation, more than any other style of music.