Alli Whitener

Music History I

Chapter 1: Music in Antiquity

Terms
1. Lyre: plucked string instrument with a resonating soundbox, two arms,
crossbar, and strings that run parallel to the soundboard and attach to the
crossbar
2. Harp: plucked string instrument with a resonating soundbox, neck, and
strings in roughly triangular shape. The strings rise perpendicular from the
soundboard to the neck.
3. Bull Lyre: Sumerian lyre with a bulls head at one end of the soundbox
4. Genre: type or category of musical composition, such as sonata or symphony
5. Hymn: Song to or in honor of a god. In the Christian tradition, song of praise
sung to God.
6. Diatonic: (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective describing a tetrachord with
two whole tones and one semitone. (2) Name for a scale that includes five
whole tones and two semitones, where the semitones are separated by two
or three whole tones. (3) Adjective describing a melody, chord, or passage
based exclusively on a single diatonic scale.
7. Notation: A system for writing down musical sounds, or the process of writing
down music. The principal notation systems of European music use a staff of
lines and signs that define the pitch, duration, and other qualities of sound.
8. Aulos: ancient Greek reed instrument, usually played in pairs
9. Kithara: ancient Greek instrument, a large lyre
10.Melody: (1) Succession of tones perceived as a coherent line. (2) Tune. (3)
Principal part accompanied by other parts or chords.
11.Monophonic: consisting of a single accompanied melodic line
12.Heterophony: music or musical texture in which a melody is performed by two
or more parts simultaneously in more than one way, for example, one voice
performing it simply, and the other with embellishments

13.Polyphony: music or musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous

lines of independent meldy.
14.Harmonia: Ancient Greek term with multiple meanings: (1) the union of parts
in an orderly whole; (2) Interval; (3) scale type; (4) style of melody
15.Ethos: (1) Moral and ethical character or way of being or behaving. (2)
Character, mood, or emotional effect of a certain tonos, mode, meter, or
melody.
16.Diastematic: having to do with intervals. In diastematic motion, the voice
moves between sustained pitches separated by discrete intervals; in
diastematic notation, the approximate intervals are indicated by relative
height
17.Note: (1) a musical tone. (2) a symbol denoting a musical tone.
18.Interval: distance in pitch between two notes
19.Scale: a series of three or more different pitches in ascending or descending
order and arranged in a specific pattern
20.Tetrachord: (1) In Greek and medieval theory, a scale of four notes spanning
a perfect fourth. (2) In modern theory, a set of four pitches or pitch-classes.
(3) In twelve-tone theory, the first four, middle four, or last four notes in the
row.
21.Genus: In ancient Greek music, one of three forms of tetrachord: diatonic,
chromatic, and enharmonic.
22.Chromatic: (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective describing a tetrachord
comprising a minor third and two semitones, or a melody that uses such
tetrachords. (2) Adjective describing a melody that uses two or more
successive semitones in the same direction, a scale consisting exclusively of
semitones, an interval or chord that draws notes from more than one diatonic
scale, or music that uses many such melodies or chords.
23.Enharmonic: (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective describing a tetrachord
comprising a major third and two quarter tones, or a melody that uses such
tetrachords. (2) Adjective describing the relationship between two pitches
that are noted differently but sound alike when played, such as G and A
24.Conjunct: (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective to describe the relationship
between two tetrachords when the bottom note of one is the same as the top
note of the other. (2) Of a melody, consisting mostly of steps.

25.Disjunct: (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective used to describe the

relationship between two tetrachords when the bottom note of one is a whole
tone above the top note of the other. (20 Of a melody, sconsisting of mostly
of skips (thireds) and leaps (larger intervals) rather than steps.
26.Greater Perfect System: In ancient greek music, a system of tetrachords
spanning two octaves.
27.Species: the particular ordering of whole tones and semitones within a
perfect fourth, fifth, or octave
28.Tonos: ancient Greek term used with different meanings by various writers;
one meaning is a particular set of pitches within a certain range or region of
the voice.
Outline
Music in Antiquity: Western music has roots in the ancient past, from the scales
we use to the functions music serves. European views of music are most strongly
influenced by ancient Greek writings. The influence of ancient music is hard to
trace because very little notated music survived and very few musicians in Europe
before the sixteenth century could read. The influences of ancient music are
passed down mostly through oral tradition.
Types of Evidence: The remains of music from past eras are
divided into four types of artifacts. We can be confident of fully
understand a musics influence if these four types of artifacts
are in abundance. In ancient music, very little remains. The
four types of artifacts are
Physical remains, such as musical instruments and
performing spaces
Visual
images
of
musicians,
instruments,
and
performances
Writings about music and musicians
Music itself, preserved in notation, through oral tradition,
or in the 20th century, recordings
The Earliest Music: In the Stone Age, people made whistles and flutes out
of animal bones, and this dates from before 36,000 BC. Wall paintings in
Turkey from the sixth millennium BC depict drummers playing for dancers. In
the Bronze Age, beginning in fourth millennium BC, people began working
with metal and made bells, jingles, cymbals, rattles, and horns. Plucked
string instruments appeared around the same time, as stone carvings have
portrayed them.
Music in Ancient Mesopotamia: Mesopotamia (now a part or Iraq and
Syria) was home to many groups of people during ancient times.
In

Mesopotamia in fourth century BC, Sumerians developed one of the first

known forms of writing using cuneiform impressions on flat clay tablets.
Many tablets have been deciphered and mention music.
Instruments and Images: Archaeological remains are crucial
for understanding music of ancient times. Pictures depict how
instruments were held and played and in what circumstances
music can be used; the remaining instruments give details as to
how they were constructed. In the tombs of a Sumerian city on
the Euphrates River, Ur, archaeologists found several lyres and
harps and pictures of them being played. A bull lyre, which
features a bulls head on one end of the soundbox, had religious
significance in Sumerian culture. Images of instruments and
written records gave a thorough idea of how Mesopotamians
used music: wedding songs, funeral laments, military music,
work songs, nursery songs, dance music, tavern music, music
for entertaining at feasts, songs to address the gods, music to
accompany ceremonies and processions, and epics sung with
instrumental accompaniment.
Archaeologists find the best
records of music from elite social classes, who had resources to
hire instrument makers, musicians, artists (to depict), and
scribes (to write). Written sources provide a vocabulary for
music, such as terms for instruments, tuning procedures,
performers, performing techniques, and genres, and some
information on musicians. The earliest known composer is an
Akkadian high priestess at Ur, Enheduanna, who composed
hymns to the moon good Nanna and the moon goddess Inanna.
Only the text of these hymns survive on tablets.
Babylonian Writings on Music: Babylonian musicians began
to write down what they knew instead of passing the traditions
orally in 1800 BC.
Diatonic Scales: Instructions for tuning stringed instruments
were among the written artifacts found by archaeologists.
Babylonians used seven-note diatonic scales, roughly
corresponding to the seven diatonic scales playable on the white
keys of a piano. These scales have parallels in other musical
systems, suggesting that Babylonian theory influenced that of
Greece, directly or indirectly, and European music.
The Earliest Notated Music: The Babylonians used their
terminology for intervals to create the earliest musical notation.
Despite the invention of notation, music was either played from
memory or improvised. Musicians used notation as a written
record from which a melody could be reconstructed (like a recipe
for musicians).

Other Civilizations: India and china developed independently from

Mesopotamia and were too far away to affect Greek or European
music. Surviving sources show that Egyptian musical traditions were
rich, including many artifacts, paintings, and hieroglyphic writings.
Music in religious observances of ancient Israel is described in the
Bible. Through physical remains, we gain a sense of vibrancy in the
musical life of the Near East, but without actual music to perform, it
remains silent.
Music in Ancient Greek Life and Thought: From the ancient Greek
culture, we have images, a few surviving instruments, writings about musics
roles and effects, theoretical writings on the elements, and over forty of
examples in a notation we can read.
o Instruments and Their Uses: We know about ancient Greek
instruments and how to play them from various writings,
archaeological remains, and images on clay pots. The aulos, lyre, and
kithara seemed to be the most important instruments, but the Greeks
also used harps, panpipes, horns, an early form of organ, and a variety
of percussion instruments. The aulos was used in the worship of the
god of fertility and win, Dionysus. This instrument was played by
women who were likely prostitutes/musicians.
Lyre: The lyre was associated with the god of light, prophecy,
learning, and the arts, Apollo. Learning to play the lyre was a
core element
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