Ancien

t Music
Medieval
and
renaissanc
e (500-
1600)
Baroque
(1600-
1750)
Classical
(1750-
1820)
Romantiqu
e (1820-
1910)

20th
Century
Conventional style periods in music
History
CONVENTIONAL APPROXIMATE DATES FEW REPRESENTATIVE
COMPOSERS
Babylonian Times From about 1800 BCE to
approx 1250 BCE
Ancient Greek From about 1250 BCE to
600
Medieval (Middle Ages) From about 600 to 1400 Hildegard, Machault
Renaissance From about 1400 to Dufay,
1580 Josquin,Lassus,Palestrina
Baroque From about 1580 to Monteverdi, Corelli,
1750 Vivaldi, Handel, Bach
Classical From about 1750 to Haydn, Mozart,
1810 Beethoven
Romantic From about 1810 to Schumann, Chopin
1910 Verdi, Wagner,Brahms
Modern After 1910 Stravinsky, Schoenberg,
Berg, Bartok, Britten,
Technological stages in Western Music
STAGE 1 Development if musical literacy From about 800
(early music notation) creating the
possibility of transmitting music
from composer to performer,
distinguishing their respective roles.

STAGE 2 Invention of printing from moveable From about 1500

type, making the reproduction of
music relatively easy and cheap.

STAGE 3 Birth of Romanticism and with it the From 1810

idea of trancendent and autonomous
musical works, implying that art and
music was now intended for gazing
or listening, not for doing, and it was
intended for the ages rather than the
present. Creation of aesthetis
capital

STAGE 4 The age of recording, making it From about 1890

possible for people to consume
music without doing anything and
enabling music to be commercialized
to an extent previously undreamt of
 CONCEPT OF RECEPTION
An important concept on how we approch
musical studies in the 21st century.
Cook (2000) says that; Instead of the detached,
non-participant viewpoint of the traditional
hisotries and appreciation texts, the reception-
based approach says that we can best
understand music by being in the middle of it. It
says that the starting point must be how we
actually use, internalize, or otherwise care about
music, whether by going to concerts or discos,
relaxing to it in the sitting room, or whistling it at
work it assumes that to study music is to study
your own participation in it.
 Two important approch to Music
History
Composition based approach

Reception based approach

*****
To Read
Cook (2000)- Ch5 A matter of Representation

Activity:
1. Write a definition on how you understand the term
Reception History and briefly discuss how you
think this can aid in understanding musical genre of
your choice.

2. Make a list of the reasons for and against using

Style Periods (in any genre) as a way of studying
music.
 MUSIC IN BIBLICAL
TIMES

Destruction of second temple by the Romans and the loss of Jewish

national souvereigty in 70CE.
Music in Mesopotamia (Babylon)
 Genesis 24:10- The first time we here
of Mesopotamia.
1800 B.C.E.- The first music writing
in Mesopotamia.

Clay tablet
1400-1250
BCE
Hymn to
Nikkal, wife of
the moon god.
 Bible references on music
Genesis (4:20-21)- credits a man of
jubal with fashioning the first musical
instruments.
Exodus 19- The use of the Shofar.
 Music used in Worship
Genesis 4:4- First worship- Cain and
Abel
6 Generations later;
Genesis 4:26- Appearance of Vocal
offerings
Two Generations later;
Genesis 9:26.

Jewish music progressed from an initial

era of pure vocalism to a time when
singing was accompanied by a wind
 Music in public lithurgy and
private devotion
Leviticus Chapter 16- day of
atonement (Yom Kippur)
900 BCE- 586 BCE- Levites in the first
temple sang at top volume in order
to be heard (2 Chronicles 5:12)
Deuteronomy 6:4- Psalmodic
recitation lends solemnity above all
to Judaisms declaration of faith.
 Deuteronomy 6:4- Judaisms
declaration of faith the Schema:
Weekday and Sabbath (twice each)
Shema Yisrael,
Adonai Eloheinu,
Adonai Echad
***
Hear, O Israel
The Lord is our God
The Lord is One!
 Techniques used to transmit
lithurgy
Cantillation:
Is more rhetoric, each word is sung to a
tiny melody of its own, often consisting
of no more than two or three notes.
Use of neumes(Gestures) to indicate the
melodies.
Psalmody:
Follows no cantillation motifs. It of free
in order to stimulate the worshippers
imagination.
 Temple Music
1 Chronicles 15 refers to the formation of
a trained and official body of musicians to
lead worship. After Salomon had built the
temple around the year 900BC, the
lithurgy became more elaborate and
sumptuous. 2 Chronicles 5:11-13, we
read about the role of music at this time.
The Biblical Psalms, which have enriched
both Jewish and Christians music, were
not the only texts sung in the temple,
although they took a central role in the
 Instruments in the Bible
Chordophones: Genesis 31:27, 1
Chron.25:3, 1 Sam.10:5, 1 Sam.16:23

Silver Lyre from Ur,

Southern Irak
about 2600-2400
BC (British
Museum)
 Aerophones: Jos.6:16
Use of aerophones before something
happens; Mt 24:31, 1 Cor.15:52,
Rev.8:7, 1 Thess.4:16
 Membraphones:
Ex15:20, Judg.11:34, 1 Sam.10:5
 Idiophones:
Ex.28:33, Ex39:25, 2 Sam.6:5
 Activity:
1. Give a brief account of Jewish music
in Biblical times. To what extent did the
Jewish practice at this time share
similarities with that of other near
Eastern cultures?

2. Why were instruments important in

Jewish times. To what extent do you
agree that music is important in
Religion?
ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC
Greek gods
GREEK INSTRUMENTS
LYRE: String instrument (Associated
to Appollo god of light, prophecy
and arts.

Kithara:
(Guitar)
Aulos
GREEK MUSIC THEORY
Pythagoras-
Founder of Greek
music Theory

..numbers
were the key to
the universe and
music was
inseperable from
numbers (Grout
and Palisca .
Pythagoras Monochord
 Greek Music Theory
3 Types of Tetrachord
Cleonide species of consonances
Epitaph of Seikilos
EPITAPH OF SEIKOLOS
As long as you live,
Be lighthearted.
Let nothing trouble you.
Life is only too short,
And time takes its toll

Melody was closely linked to rhythm
and poems.
Musicians relied on their memory and
formulas rather than written
notations
Phytagoras, cleonides and
Aristoxenus conceived the music
system linked with nature.
A well-developed musical system
founded on aristhmetic.