Medieval Music

The Middle Ages, otherwise known as the Medieval Period, was full of darkness and death in England. Due to the cold, artic temperatures in England at this time, illness was prone to strike many homes. With all of the sickness and death, England didn't have much room to advance. Musical advances were not common in the majority of England except in Monk societies. Different kinds of music the Monks used were: plainsong, parallel organum, free organum, melismatic organum, and counterpoint. Plainsong, or plainchant, was the basis or these types and was known as monophonic. Gregorain Chant, named after Pope Gregory I, was used in Catholic Mass and other religious services. Parallel Organum, usually consisting of 4th and 5th harmonies, was used greatly in Notre Dame. People such as the trouvéres and the troubadours, spread this music throughout England. They would sometimes spread this music in the form of a motet. A motet is a vocal composition in polyphonic style, on a Biblical or similar prose text, intended for use in a church service.
Different instruments used in the Middle Ages were the Hurdy-Gurdy, a wooden string instrument; the Harpsichord, a stringed piano; the Lute, a guitar like instrument with wide body; and the Medieval Shawm, a wooden clarinet-type instrument. One of the main instruments used in the Medieval Period was the harp. The harp is a stringed aristocratic instrument used in all parts of Europe. The Troubadors used this instrument the most and would often sing lyrics along with playing the harp. The harpers would sometimes lead armies into battle and were not harmed by the enemy because they were respected by them. These instruments were used for mostly entertainment, but were used for other things as well.
Besides in England, music was advancing in other countries. In China, the musicians were developing pentatonic and diatonic compositions. Pieces included 12 notes to an octave and were mostly diatonic. To me, the most interesting advances were the rap developments in Scotland. Rap music originated in Scotish pubs back in the Middle Ages. The Scots would battle with insults back and forth. This came from the ancient art of Caledonia and it was called flyting.
Medieval music was different in all parts of the world. Some of the advances during this time are a basis to modern music and instruments we use today. In knowing how things such as theory and scales started back in this time period, is very interesting. Even with all of the death and darkness, music still survived and prevailed.

Ancient Music Before 300 A.D.

Throughout the ages, music has been used for many things. Such things are: entertainment, parties, gatherings, battles, ceremonies, rituals, and communication. Different cultures used music for various things. The Celts played instruments such as the bodhran, the feadan, the clarsach, and piob. The bodhran is a type of drum made from animal skin for the drum head and ash tree wood for the base. This is known as the oldest form of musical instruments in the world. The Celts used all of these instruments for entertainment, rituals, and gatherings. The Ancient Greeks used string instruments such as the Lyre. The Lyre or λύρα, has three or more strings and and soundbox. The Greeks used this mostly for entertainment. The Lyre has become a symbol of general music all over the world.

Another type of instrument the Greeks used was the Water Organ (ὕδωρ, hýdōr). The power of hydraulic pressure was used to make sound go through the pipes in the organ. The Greeks used the water organ for battles, ceremonies, and entertianment. The Ancient Egyptians used instruments such as hand-held drums, castanets(similar to Celtic bones excpet made with shells), rattles, and bells. Other instruments include flutes, trumpets, double and single reed woodwinds, and many string instruments such as the harp, lyre, and lutes(used with a bow). They used music for battles, ceremonies, and religion. These cultures are just a small example of ancient musical instruments.

Besides using instruments, ancient cultures used music notation. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest form of notation recorded. It was found on the side of a tombstone in Turkey. The tune includes ancient notation and lyrics. The notation transcribed into modern notation is in the key of D and is in 6/8 time signature. The symbols on the notation each mean a specific note name and the marks above the symbols represent the type of note(quarter, eight, etc). The lyrics attached are placed below the notes to know where and what to sing with the notes.
The lyrics are as follows:
While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll.

Types of ancient music like this were taught in many places. For example, the music teacher, Terpander, is know as the founder of classical Greek music. He expanded the world of music in many ways. One of the things he did was increase the number of strings on the lyre from four to seven. Another thing he did was introduce new rhythms and new ways a using music.

Ancient music is a wonderful and interesting subject. There are so many things about the history of music I didn't know that I learned by doing this research assignment. The most interesting to me was the Seikilos epitaph. It is amazing how that old type of notation looks and how it is interpreted. I hope to expand my knowledge in the history of music by doing more reseach like this and doing some on my own.

Introduction to Adding Research Links and Photos

Today we learned how to add links to our blogs. This will be very helpful for research and with other blogs. Here is a link to the ancient bone flute. Next we learned how to add photo links. Here is a picture of the bone flute.

Music Appreciation and History...

Music Appreciation, or Music App as I like to call it, is a great class. Our teacher Mr. Allder, is starting us off by having us listen to music from different time periods. After listening to a song, we give our opinions on whether we like or not and why. In our responses, we use musical terms to describe how we felt about that song. It has been a good experience learning how other people view different kinds of music. Today we moved on to ancient music and read some in the classroom's music books. It was fascinating to learn that ancient cultures made instruments and worked with scales. I'm looking forward to learning more about the past's music as we go on in the year.