Lecture Notes Detailed notes of everything covered during lectures. Completely based upon what the Professor said during class; he covers many things which are not in the textbook and are important for tests. Very helpful if you miss a class!
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Music 100 Notes
January 4th 2010
•Western music; Western Europe (Germany, France, Italy)
•Became the center of excellence
•Catholic church centered in Rome, influenced Western culture more than anything
•Influenced the way music and literature developed
•Created a world dominated by Christianity
•Germany important b/c of military power
•In modern day, Western music is defined by certain cultural behaviours; one goes to
concert, does not talk, claps at the end
•Music is valued as a commodity; traded, bought etc. as such
January 6th 2010
•Music is defined as being deliberately humanly organised sound
•Things like the sound of birds chirping questionable – the sound alone is not music; but
the fact that humans deliberately recorded it can make it music
•Harmonic series is a group of notes tied together naturally; can hear almost all notes in
the series by playing just one
•Notes measured by vibrations/second
•Ex) Low A = 110 Hz (vibrations/second) Middle A = 220 Hz High A = 440 Hz
•A 5th plus a 4th is an octave
•One step between notes (Ex. E and F) is called a semi-tone (no sharp/flat between)
•Two steps between notes is called a tone (Ex. C and D; C sharp between)
•All major scales are the same, all minor scales are different
•Rhythm is the displacement of times between notes in a melody
•1, 4, 5, 8 are Consonant intervals
•2, 7 are Dissonant intervals
•5, 4, 8 are Perfect intervals
•3 & 6 are Major/Minor
•2 & 7 are Major/Minor
January 27th 2010
•1640’s, Louis XIV king of France
•Absolute monarch (enlightened despot = in power whether the people want him in power
or not)
•Upon his death he was pelted with rotten vegetables by the people of France b/c he
almost bankrupted the country
•Only appreciated later once it was realized that his plan for France was actually very wise
•Took over France when he was only 6 years old
•One vision he had was in line with values at the time; interest in balance, order and
organization, emphasis on scientific understanding and measurement, artists highlighted
contrasting emotions, illusion – the ability to initiate reality artistically – was highly
prized
•Rembrandt created “camera obscura” using a room split in half, with the subject on one
side and him in total darkness on the other with only a small hole in the dividing wall;
reflected an upside down image of the person on his canvas (Baroque period)
•Palace of Versailles – all political leaders lived here with different levels of power;
created the desire to assassinate one another
•Referred to himself as “Le Roi Soleil”
•Created ballets for himself to perform in b/c he loved his legs? Lol
•Appeared as Apollo (sun God) with elaborate costumes
•Members of the court appeared in these ballets also; how talented they were at dance
determined if they got a particular position in parliament
•Playing violin was extremely important in this time period because this was what people
danced to
•Eventually established orchestras; Musiciens du Roi, Les violins de Roi, Les musiciens
de la chambre
•Rich people constantly ate meat, poor people ate grains
•Best music did not come out of France, as they were the power country of the time
•Best music came from broken countries rather than France, b/c France was under too
much control, only certain composers were allowed to publish music and there were
many limits/laws
•Louis XIV created a line of perfumes to cover his stench b/c it was thought to be
improper to wash with water; natives & others regularly fainted when meeting him b/c of
smell
•Music in the Baroque period was made very complicated; tried to fool people by making
it seem like the music was going to end, etc.
•This theme of trying to fool people showed through art as well
•Composer Claudio Monteverdi wrote first famous Opera; wrote a book of madrigals
using particular sounds to suit words & actually make the music sound like what the story
was describing, example lightning, etc. (“word-painting”); used dissonance
•L’Artusi wrote that Monteverdi was a terrible composer, etc. b/c of his use of dissonance
– accused of being unaware of rules of music; used dissonance to accentuate emotions
like anger, etc; new idea, as word-painting was previously not acceptable
•Monteverdi got together with brother to combat L’Artusi’s accusations by claiming that
he is on the cutting edge, doesn’t haveto obey old outdated rules of music (Prima Prattica
vs. Seconda Prattico); L’Artusi satisfied by this argument
•“A certain noble negligence of song” – phrase meaning music is not supposed to
specifically reflect the content of the story, but the higher purpose/bigger picture
•In 1607 Monteverdi was asked to write an opera for a wedding along with Alessandro
Striggio, a poet – wrote an opera called L’Orfeo; performed for only 40-50 people;
received fully published opera as a party favour – Monteverdi became famous b/c of this