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cmcgee
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History of Music in two semesters
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Jun 5 19:07 UTC 2001 |
Suppose I wanted to take a course entitled "History of Music". Like History
of Art, it could be divided by time periods, and would start at a very early
time, and progressively lead me through to, say, 2001.
Throughout the course, the professors would use recordings of the music (like
slides of art) to demonstrate the points they were making, show connections
and influences, and otherwise walk me through the development of American 21st
century music.
If you were developing this course, where would you start, and what music
would you include as an example? How would it unfold? What music would
you play for each lecture? Assume that you have about 25 3 hour segments,
or the equivalent of two semesters of my attention. Also assume total
musical naivete on the part of your students.
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| 39 responses total. |
eeyore
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response 1 of 39:
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Jun 6 02:26 UTC 2001 |
Actually, Pioneer offers a Humanities course which includes Music History.
If I remember correctly, they started the musical part seriously with
Gregorian chants, although we did hear some recordings of "What we think the
music might have sounded like".
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cmcgee
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response 2 of 39:
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Jun 6 13:59 UTC 2001 |
Interesting. Has anyone every tried to recreate "Greek" or "Roman" music?
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krj
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response 3 of 39:
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Jun 7 00:02 UTC 2001 |
We have a CD which claims to be most of what's available from ancient
Greece, and the one small fragment that's available from Rome.
(Or maybe I have it backwards.)
Recreating anything before the development of notation which we can
read today is somewhat speculative, I would think.
cmcgee sure likes the big questions. :) In the 20th century, the
two key American players in the first half of the century are probably
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, but I don't listen to Armstrong much
and I listen to Ellington all the time. For the early stuff I would
look for an RCA-label compilation covering the late 1930s and early 1940s.
I think the most recent such one was called "Beyond Category," but
RCA spiffs up their Ellington material and reissues it every few
years.
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albaugh
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response 4 of 39:
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Jun 7 07:50 UTC 2001 |
Do not - I repeat, do NOT - miss the opportunity to make it a history of music
OF THE WORLD course! You need Asian music covered. Freak out on some Tibetan
monk chants! Get the idea? ;-)
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eeyore
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response 5 of 39:
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Jun 7 11:30 UTC 2001 |
True....Humanitites was History of the Western World.
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ashke
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response 6 of 39:
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Jun 7 14:10 UTC 2001 |
And even then, they tend to skip over a lot of history that deserves attention
more, like the ancient cites, more on egypt, more on ancient pre-greecian
medeteranian civilizations... They tended to focus more on what they thought
you needed to get out of it, rather than going through everything. I hated
that class, but when I got to college, I loved it. Had amazing amounts of
fun and learned things.
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bro
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response 7 of 39:
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Jun 13 18:33 UTC 2001 |
Hi
I love PINK FLOYD
And i hope someone would talk with me about them
hope there are many PINK FLOYD fans out there
Please reply
Bro
brorranum@hotmail.com
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tpryan
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response 8 of 39:
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Jun 14 00:01 UTC 2001 |
Several species of small furry animals gathered together grooving with
a Pict should be required headphone listening in History of Music class.
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ashke
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response 9 of 39:
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Jun 14 00:17 UTC 2001 |
YES!! Yanno, until I actually saw the album with that song name on it, I
didn't believe it existed...I thought everyone was pulling my leg about it...
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eeyore
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response 10 of 39:
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Jun 14 03:58 UTC 2001 |
And you even left out a few words from the title.....:)
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krj
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response 11 of 39:
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Jun 14 06:31 UTC 2001 |
We are *not* helping Colleen out here.
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eeyore
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response 12 of 39:
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Jun 14 13:22 UTC 2001 |
Maybe not, but at least we are amusing ourselves....:)
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cmcgee
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response 13 of 39:
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Jun 14 14:15 UTC 2001 |
Amusing me too. :-)
Well, I've started by listening to all the chants and drums I can find:
Hawaiian, Hindu, and Hildegard von Bingen.
Two particularly on topic (Western music history) CDs were
Mysteria: Gregorian Chants by Chanticleer
Canticles of Ecstasy, Hildegard von Bingen. Recorded by Sequentia
Remembering that I'm working with what the A2 library has to offer
(interlibrary loan doesn't work for CDs) and what locals are willing to
lend me, what else from that time period (or earlier) should I listen
to?
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krj
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response 14 of 39:
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Jun 14 20:28 UTC 2001 |
For performers, you might look for the women's quartet Anonymous 4,
who are very popular, the library should have something, and the
Tallis Scholars, though their period might be later. I need to get
Leslie to look at this item, she knows lots more about early music
than I do.
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tpryan
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response 15 of 39:
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Jun 15 03:20 UTC 2001 |
in a cave
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arabella
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response 16 of 39:
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Jun 17 08:08 UTC 2001 |
The text that all freshman music majors are required to read is
"A History of Western Music," by Donald Grout. It's considered
kind of a snooze, but should give you an idea of what composers
to listen too. The library probably has it. I would lend you my
1970s edition if I had any idea where it was.
Some pre-Bach composers you might try: Monteverdi (madrigals,
opera, sacred choral music), Palestrina (sacred choral music),
Heinrich Schuetz (usually there's an umlaut over the u, but I
don't know how to do that here, so I stuck in the e),
Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Orlando
di Lasso, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Guillaume
Dufay, Machaut. Those last two guys are Medieval, the prior
ones are mostly Renaissance. Other Baroque guys to look at besides
Bach: Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti (opera),
Domenico Scarlatti (A.S.'s son -- mostly harpsichord music).
There are lots more. This is off the top of my head, and leans
in the direction of my particular preferences.
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arabella
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response 17 of 39:
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Jun 17 08:10 UTC 2001 |
This is now linked to the classical conf as #59.
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cmcgee
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response 18 of 39:
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Jun 17 14:20 UTC 2001 |
Hey, I didn't know there was a classical conf. I'll go look. Thanks Leslie.
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keesan
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response 19 of 39:
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Jun 17 14:31 UTC 2001 |
I have 'Music in Europe and the United States, a History' Edith Borroff,
Eastern Michigan University, 1971, which is aimed at beginners without being
patronizing, and is information and interesting to read. More stress than
most music history books on Native American and African American music. The
library book sale had two used copies for $1 each. Every chapter ends with
a summary of the life and work of some important composers of the period.
An easy way to get an idea of what key works sounded like is to go online and
listen to MIDI files. Search on MIDI and classical and free. Some sound like
music boxes but some are quite well done. If you don't have a sound card,
there is some DOS software that will play the music on your PC speaker (sounds
pretty bad, but it gives you some idea of the music).
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gelinas
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response 20 of 39:
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Jun 17 23:34 UTC 2001 |
(Some day, I have to find a recording of the Tallis Canon.)
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eeyore
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response 21 of 39:
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Jun 18 03:06 UTC 2001 |
Such a beautiful piece. I remember playing it for a chamber group a million
years ago. I think I can still remember the fingerings, even though I haven't
played in about 12 years.
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davel
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response 22 of 39:
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Jun 18 12:29 UTC 2001 |
I'm surprised, Megan. You don't look a day over a thousand.
8-{)]
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keesan
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response 23 of 39:
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Jun 18 14:09 UTC 2001 |
My PC Speaker software only plays WAV files, not MIDI - sorry.
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krj
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response 24 of 39:
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Jun 26 21:52 UTC 2001 |
Todd Mundt had an excellent program yesterday featuring UMich music
professor Richard Crawford, who has a new book out, AMERICA'S MUSICAL
LIFE. Nearly 1000 pages, $45, woog. There are some tempting reviews
at amazon.com.
Paraphrasing ruthlessly: Crawford said that he focused more on performance
than on composition, because until the 20th century, most of the music
performed in America was composed in Europe. Europe had both a
patronage music tradition (the great composers) and a free-market
tradition; there was a problem in translating this to America because
Americans wanted the music from the patronage tradition -- the great
composers again -- but America lacked the aristocracy and rich
churches to support it. So much of Crawford's narrative focuses on
how people made a living from music at various times.
Crawford talked about the development of music publishing, and how one
person (forgot his name) promoted formal music training as a way to sell
sheet music. Crawford talked about Duke Ellington at length; he says
that Ellington's agent steered Ellington and his band into composing more
and more of their own material so that they could keep the publishing
royalties. (Most bands at the time played standard songs and had to
pay royalties to other people.)
There was lots more in the 30 minute segment. I really want that book
but I should try to be good and wait to see if a paperback comes out.
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