Thinking Historically about Music

Andrew Cashner, PhD

Tu 2022/01/18, MUSC222 Week 1–2

Check-in about class structure, policies, assignments

What does your map of the musical world look like?

16th-century world map

Political map of the world c. 1700

I. Sonic and social elements of music

Sonic (how does it sound?)

  1. Rhythm
  2. Melody
  3. Harmony
  4. Texture
  5. Color

Social (who does it and why?)

  1. Performer
  2. Composer
  3. Audience
  4. Patron
  5. Venue
  6. Medium

Mixed

  1. Genre
  2. Canon

Sonic Elements (detail)

  1. Rhythm
    • How is time structured in patterns of stress, movement?
    • What would you tap or dance along with?
  2. Melody
    • How is pitch structured in the most prominent way?
    • What is the principal idea that you could sing along with?
  3. Harmony
    • How are multiple pitches (voices or chords) combined?
  4. Texture
    • How are different layers of music combined and what is the relationship between them?
    • E.g., monophony, polyphony, heterophony, melody-and-accompaniment (distinct from “homophony”); groove-based musics
  5. Color
    • What timbres, tones, instruments, “overtone signatures” are used?

Social Elements

  1. Performer
    • Who makes the music sound?
  2. Composer
    • Who thinks up the musical ideas?
  3. Audience
    • Who hears (participates in) the music?
    • What do they do with it? What do they expect it to do for them?
  4. Patron
    • Who pays for the music?
  5. Venue
    • Where is the music presented?
  6. Medium
    • How does the music get from one person to another?

Mixed Elements

  1. Genre
    • What do people expect to hear from this kind of music?
    • “generic contract” between creator and audience
    • style + social function = genre
  2. Canon
    • How do people understand this music to be connected to other music as part of a tradition?
    • How do people assign value to this music?

II. Thinking historically about music

Four examples of music from the 17-18C or older

  1. G. F. Handel, Messiah: “Hallelujah”
  2. African-American spiritual, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
  3. Akwesasne Water Song
  4. “Píng Yùn Chuàn” (平韵串) (“A String of Serene Harmonies”), from the collection “Qīng gù gōng wángfǔ yīnyuè” (清故恭王府音乐)

Handel’s Messiah

G. F. Handel, Messiah: “Hallelujah”

1857 performance in Crystal Palace, London

African-American spiritual, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

African-American church singers

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since I laid my burdens down.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since I laid my burdens down!

I feel better, so much better
Since I laid my burdens down.
I feel better, so much better
Since I laid my burdens down!

I’m goin’ home to be with Jesus
Since I laid my burdens down.
I’m goin’ home to be with Jesus
Since I laid my burdens down!

Akwesasne Water Song

Haudenosaunee lands

“Píng Yùn Chuàn” (平韵串)

Sanxian player

  • China, Qing dynasty (大淸) (1644–1912)
  • From the collection “Qīng gù gōng wángfǔ yīnyuè” (清故恭王府音乐)
  • Sānxián (三弦) music learned by Tan Longjian (谈龙建, b. 1952) from Àixīnjuéluó Yùhuán (爱新觉罗·毓峘, 1929–2003)

III. Four style worlds in European music 1600–1800

  1. “Renaissance”, stile antico (16C)
  2. “Early Baroque”, stile concertato (17C)
  3. “High Baroque” (17–18C)
  4. “Viennese Classic”, galant (18C)

Examples

  1. Vicente Lusitano, Inviolata, integra et casta es
  2. Chiara Maria Cozzolani, O Jesu meus amor
  3. Antonio Vivaldi, Nulla in mundo pax sincero: Mvt. I
  4. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, “Coronation” Mass: Agnus Dei

IV. Polystylism

Examples

  1. Claudio Monteverdi, Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, opening:
    • Deus in adjutorium
    • Dixit Dominus
  2. Mozart, Piano Sonata in F, K. 332: Mvt. I

Closing question

1641 world map