History of Music

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History of Music

• Lecture I
• The Beginnings of Music

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Overview

• Music
• about as common old as language
• found in every culture on Earth
• consistently existed from ancient time to today
• Therefore,
• Music is a powerful thing

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Pre-Historic

• 56,000 4,000 BCE
• No records of early music
• Unknown origins
• Earliest music was probably imitation
• Natural sounds
• Hunter/gatherer culture

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Pre-Historic

• Form/Texture
• ????
• No written record
• Early imitation
• Very simple and random
• No real purpose
• Not for pleasure or entertainment
• No instruments
• Whistling, growling, etc.

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Pre-Historic

• Earliest Instruments
• Percussion
• Beating sticks or rocks together
• Making of stone tools
• (_at_ 10,000 years ago)
• Rhythmic beating leads to regular beat
• Work music found throughout human history
• Ex Pounding nails
• Slave songs
• Stomp!

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Pre-Historic

• Earliest Instruments
• Woodwinds
• Earliest flute _at_ 45,000 years old
• Hollowed out bones
• Some flutes actually had holes bored in them

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Quick Questions

• 1. What was probably the earliest form of music?
• Imitation
• 2. What were the earliest forms of instruments
  found?
• Percussion and Woodwinds

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Ancient Music

• 4000 BCE 476 CE
• (Fall of Roman Empire)
• Pre-Historic no writing no
  history
• 4000 BCE beginning of written language
  beginning of history

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Ancient Music

• With written language, music begins to be
  recorded (written down) and standardized
• Conscious, purposeful effort
• Ex melody, rhythm, etc.

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Ancient Music

• Music did NOT evolve at the same pace everywhere
• Some areas faster than others
• Music became standardized in individual cultures
  and regions
• Same even today

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Quick Questions

• 1. What was the time period for Ancient music?
• 4000 BCE 476 CE
• 2. With the creation of written language, music
  became _______ ___________?
• Recorded and Standardized

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Ancient Music

• The Roots of Western Music
• Mesopotamia
• Egypt
• Greece
• Rome

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Ancient Music

• Mesopotamia
• Modern day Iraq
• Cradle of civilization
• Music primarily for religious purposes
• 1800 BCE - Babylonian hymns

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Ancient Music

• Earliest Written Music
• 2000 BCE
• Sumer (city of Ur)
• Ur Tablet
• Clay tablet inscribe with cuneiform
• Oldest song
• Actually instructions on how to perform music

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Ancient Music

• Form/Texture
• Named the strings of the lyre Monophonic
• Early polyphony??
• Harmonies made up of 3rds
• Antiphonal
• Diatonic scales

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Vocabulary

• Antiphonal
• (an-TI-funal)
• Two or more voices singing
• One at a time
• call and response

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Vocabulary

• Diatonic Scale
• (die A tonic)
• A scale containing eight notes within an octave
• Includes 5 whole steps and 2 half steps
• Common Western scale

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Vocabulary Beginnings

• Antiphonal
• Diatonic Scale

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Drums
• Flutes
• Harps
• Lyres
• Note strings now added

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Quick Questions

• 1. How old is the oldest known piece of music?
• 2000 BCE
• 2. What is another name for call and response?
• Antiphonal
• 3. What is the name of a 8 tone scale?
• Diatonic

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Ancient Music

• Egypt
• Very advanced culture
• Music also religious
• A gift from the gods

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Ancient Music

• Form/Texture
• No actual written music found
• Monophonic (?)
• Male and female voices
• Pentatonic scales

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Vocabulary

• Pentatonic Scale
• (pen TA tonic)
• A scale containing five notes within an octave
• Ex 1, 3, 5, 7, 8

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Vocabulary Beginnings

• Antiphonal
• Diatonic Scale
• Pentatonic Scale

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Some of the earliest developments
• Drums
• Flutes
• Lyres
• Harps

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Double clarinets
• Tambourine
• Guitar
• Trumpet

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Sample Egyptian music
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Quick Questions

• 1. What purpose did ancient Egyptian music serve?
• Religious
• 2. What type of scale did ancient Egyptian music
  use?
• Pentatonic

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Ancient Music

• Greece
• Circa 500 BCE 146 BCE
• Becomes absorbed by the Romans
• Greece goes on to dominate culture
• Also makes great advances
• 1st truly Western music as we know it
• What would later become European

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Ancient Music

• Greece
• Religious origins of music
• The god Apollo
• Also mythological musician Orpheus
• The word music actually comes from the Greek
  mousike meaning art of the Muses

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Ancient Music

• Power of music
• Music was a microcosm of the universe
• Music influenced human thought action

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Ancient Music

• Greece
• Aristotle
• Created modern music theory
• Politics
• Music should be included in formal education of
  the young
• (Thats why youre here!)

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Ancient Music

• Greece
• Modes
• Aristoxenus (student of Aristotle)
• 7 modes
• 7 pitches of a diatonic scale
• Follows the same pattern
• Depends on which pitch you start on
• Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian,
  Aeolian, Locrian

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Ancient Music

• Greece
• Greeks really wanted to explain the world around
  them
• Looked for patterns and formulas

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Ancient Music

• Pythagoras
• Octave and the length of string
• Ratios of intervals
• Creates the scales and modes used in all Western
  melodies and harmonies

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Ancient Music

• Purposes of Greek Music
• Religious
• Marriages/Funerals
• Stage dramas
• Poetry
• Musical competitions
• General entertainment

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Ancient Music

• Form/Texture
• Monophonic
• Music basically followed the rhythm and pitches
  of poem, etc.

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Lyre
• Strummed and occasionally plucked
• Hand-held
• Sometimes built on a tortoise-shell frame
• Normally seven or more strings
• Tuned to the notes of one of the modes
• Used to accompany recitation and song

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Lyre
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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Kithara
• Strummed string instrument
• More complicated than the lyre
• Box-type frame with strings stretched from the
  cross-bar at the top to the sounding box at the
  bottom
• Played with a plectrum
• The strings were tunable

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Kithara
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Lyre vs. Kithara
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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Aulos
• Two double-reed pipes
• Like an oboe
• A mouth-band held both pipes steadily between the
  player's lips
• Produced a low, clarinet-like sound

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Aulos
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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Panflute
• Also known as pan pipes or syrinx
• Series of such pipes of gradually increasing
  length
• Tuned (by cutting) to a desired scale
• Sound is produced by blowing across the top of
  the open pipe
• like blowing across a bottle top

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Panflute
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Note the stopped ends
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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Also various percussion
• Drums
• Tambourines
• Cymbals
• Shakers

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Hydraulis
• First keyboard instrument
• Forerunner of the modern organ.
• Used water to supply a constant flow of pressure
  to the pipes

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Hydraulis
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Sample Greek music
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Quick Questions

• 1. Who was the Greek god of music?
• Apollo
• 2. What Greek philosopher believed music was so
  important that it should be included in
  education?
• Aristotle

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Quick Questions

• 3. How many modes are there?
• Seven
• 4. What famous philosopher/ mathematician
  discovered intervals including the octave?
• Pythagoras

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Quick Questions

• 5. What type of form/texture did Greek music
  have?
• Monophonic
• 6. Name an instrument the Greeks used?
• Lyre, kithara, aulos, panflute, etc.

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Ancient Music

• Roman
• 27 BCE 476 CE
• Roman Empire
• Accomplished 3 major things
• Copied/maintained Greek music
• Added diversity through other cultures
• Spread Greek-based music throughout Europe for
  Western culture

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Ancient Music

• Roman music
• Copied/maintained Greek music
• Roman music is less original than Greek
• Very little Roman music exists
• Did not consider it as spiritual

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Ancient Music

• Roman music
• Added diversity through other cultures
• With a huge span, the Roman empire encompassed
• The Gauls
• The Egyptians
• The Greeks
• Many other cultures
• Adds onto what the Greeks have done
• Still primarily Greek

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Ancient Music

• Roman music
• Spread Greek-based music throughout Europe for
  Western culture
• Roman empire led to a farther reaching influence
  throughout Europe
• Established roots for Western music
• Greek Roman Europe Western
  culture

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Ancient Music

• Purposes of Roman Music
• Funerals
• Military
• General entertainment
• Public performance/theater
• Religious ceremonies
• Celebrations
• Music competitions
• Etc!!

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Ancient Music

• Romans musicians, etc.
• Many guilds
• Like modern-day labor unions
• Musicians
• Dancers
• Actors
• Writers

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Ancient Music

• Roman music
• Form/Texture
• Just like Greek music
• Monophonic
• Music basically followed the rhythm and pitches
  of poem, etc.

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Lyre
• Lute
• Kithara
• Flutes and panpipes
• Aulos
• Hydraulis

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Cornu
• Bronze
• Shaped like an upper-case letter 'G
• Used in the military

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Tuba
• not the modern tuba
• a long and straight bronze trumpet
• Over 4 feet
• Also used in the military 'bugle calls

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Ancient Music

• Instruments
• Askaules
• a bagpipe

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Video on Hydraulis
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Closure

• 3-2-1
• Write down 3 things you learned about today
• Write down 2 things you found interesting
• Write down 1 thing you still have a question
  about
• Pass your paper in