De-Snobifying 1,000 Years of Music

Discussion in 'Music and Recordings' started by Arnold_J_Rimmer, Feb 14, 2021.

  1. Arnold_J_Rimmer

    Arnold_J_Rimmer Probationary member

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    There’s nothing more satisfying than discovering a new musician. If you’ll stop your sniggering for a moment, I’ll concede that, yes, there are a few things that can be more pleasurable. One of these is finding an appreciation for an entire new style. It opens up a huge back-catalogue to explore.

    This thread has a few purposes. The first is to open the doors to a back catalogue that extends back almost 1,000 years. For lack of a better term we’ll call it “Early Music”. Rather than quibbling over definitions, our starting point will be the inception of decipherable musical notation and you’ll hop out of your sedan chair in about 1640.

    Exposure to music is one thing, but understanding is better. Listening is more rewarding if our brain is engaged as well as our emotions. The second purpose of this thread is to give some insight into the toolboxes used by master craftsman composers: How does he/she make the shift from intricacy to simplicity? How do you shock an audience? Most importantly, what’s a double leading note Landini cadence?

    The thread is also about modern music. Sort of. The Beatles, Porcupine Tree, [Insert Your Favourite Artist Here, Unless He’s Justin Bieber] all owe a debt they’ll probably never realise to a tenth-century monk and other equally hip cats. There will be a focus on development and change, considering such influences as political rivalry, the meeting of cultures, organised religion, technology, spoiled rich kids and genius.

    [​IMG]

    This all sounds very systematic and planned, which it is. If I’m given the required editing privileges I’ll be compiling an index to a series of rationally organised articles/posts that I’ll be writing/vomiting. That said, the fact that this is a forum gives scope for an organic component. You are encouraged to add relevant content and ask questions, which may lead to the vine curling back on itself from time to time. Some of your contributions might be added to the index when considered suitable (with your permission).

    There’s another thread devoted to Early Music here, but it’s primarily just a place to share music we enjoy. The two can continue to exist happily side by side.

    Righto then. Climb aboard the litter while we break our backs carrying you around the centuries. You might need to get out and push from time to time and we might need some pit stops along the way, but I hope you enjoy the scenery.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2021
  2. Arnold_J_Rimmer

    Arnold_J_Rimmer Probationary member

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    Reserved for Index
     
  3. Arnold_J_Rimmer

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    Prologue - Ancient Music

    A good place to start is the beginning. A bit ho-hum, don’t you think? In our case the “beginning” is music recorded by a continuous and evolving tradition of musical notation, but let's rewind a bit further still. So, how do we know what music sounded like before it was written down? Surely it’s like asking what Neanderthal poetry was like. Pretty much in some cases.

    That hasn’t stopped people from trying, though. There have been healthy attempts by musicologists and musicians to create speculative reconstructions. This involves more than just pulling random ideas out of their… [ahem] heads. Rather, it’s based on at least a modicum of evidence. Through the work of archaeologists we have the remains of a few musical instruments and depictions of them in art. Literature and verse provide scholars with some clues to rhythmic content. We also have a body of international folk music that provides a convoluted thread to the past. This is vanishing as a living tradition thanks in part to communication technology and the cultural ascendency of the west.

    Here’s a small selection of thought provoking musical speculations.

    The first takes us back to the late third millennium BC, over four thousand years ago. The lyrics of this work are supplied by the Sumerians in the form of the opening lines of “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, an amazing piece of literature with some portions similar to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. In Peter Pringle’s performance he accompanies himself on a long-neck, three-string, Sumerian lute known as a "gish-gu-di”. His singing style and the melody’s construction take their cue from traditional forms of middle-eastern music.



    The short documentary embedded below is well worth 15 minutes of your time. It explains the reasoning and evidence behind the recreation of a concert of music dating from the works of Homer through to Classic Greek music of the second century BC. The performers range from professional musicians to passionate academics.



    Next time: Gregorian Chant. Dating from the Dark Ages, this is some of the earliest music of which we can say, with greater confidence, can be performed today mostly as it was originally.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2021
  4. Arnold_J_Rimmer

    Arnold_J_Rimmer Probationary member

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    Gregorian Chant Part 1
    An Origin Story


    This is not Gregorian chant:



    Just thought I’d chuck that in there because I like Monty Python. If it isn’t Gregorian Chant, though, what is it and what makes it different from Gregorian chant?

    In order to separate the fake from the real, we need to know what the genuine article looks like. To be true Gregorian Chant, the music must have all the following qualities:

    1. This is an instrument free zone (Unaccompanied [1] )
    2. All of the participants sing the same notes at the same time (Unison or Monophonic)
    3. The text is always in Latin or Greek, but mostly Latin
    4. It’s historically accepted by the western church (now known as the Catholic Church) as universally suitable for worship (Liturgical)

    Chant in the Christian Church is a tradition that developed long before a method of writing it down had been worked out. It was well and truly alive in fourth century AD and, arguably, even before the inception of Christianity. It mightn’t have been notated, but it was still faithfully passed on orally. This is analogous to specially trained members of pre-literate societies passing on their stories, traditions and genealogies by recitation, and training others to take their place.

    Another characteristic of chant is that it was fit for function. Originally the congregation participated in the singing of chant. These were untrained people, so simple was good. Over time specially instructed singers were added to the mix of worship; soloists and choirs that were often made up of monks, clerics and, in some settings, nuns. They had the skill to provide more elaborate melodies in appropriate places as suggested by the text they were singing. Here we move from simple syllabic chant (one note per syllable) to melismatic chant that contained long stretches of notes sung one after another, drawing out the vowels of a single syllable. You’ll often find this on words like “alleluia” and “amen”. If there were a floridity-continuum, a third category called "neumatic" could also be added, in between syllabic and melismatic.

    Not all liturgical chant was Gregorian, though. As you’d expect in the days before mass communication there was regional variation. Many diverse cultures were Christianised in the early Middle Ages and we can see traces of their own musical styles creeping into their church music. In Britain there was Celtic chant, Ambrosian chant in parts of Italy, Roman chant in another, Gallic chant in France and Mozarabic in parts of Spain. Gregorian chant was primarily the child of two of these: Roman and Gallic.

    Thus we enter the world of Charlemagne and his Father, Pepin the Short [2], in the eighth century AD. Pepin had all the powers of a King, but not the actual title. In order to change de facto into de jure he needed the support of the Pope, which he gained. When Charlemagne comes along it just so happens that the Pope crowns him the first Holy Roman Emperor, incidentally triggering a thousand years of western-European bloodshed and infighting. These political advantages weren’t merely a couple of friendly dotards shaking hands. There was an element of ingratiation and “you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours”.

    After hearing a mass conducted in the Roman way Pepin says to the church leaders, “OK boys. I like this. This is how we’re doing things from now on”. There was some resistance, but the King had his way and we have the imposition of a new hymn book (only minus the book and, pedantically, the hymns). That said, Gallic chant also had its contribution. It filled in the gaps missing from the Roman rite, giving the monks something to chant the whole year round. No doubt there were slight modifications made to the Roman melodies as the Frankish singers filtered these new sounds through culturally-old ears.

    Here’s an example of well-recorded authentic Gregorian Chant, simply performed by professionals:



    The metaphorical-midwife turns to Charlemagne and hands him a sedate baby boy (no barbarian screaming here) and asks “What will you call him?” “Hmm”, the Emperor and his entourage ponder. “What’s a good Popish sounding name? Adeodatus? Hilarius? No? Gregory then.” Welcome to the world, Gregorian Chant.

    With a couple of exceptions, Gregorian chant hasn’t changed much since the time of Charlemagne. It was adopted by the church in Rome and spread, replacing other local chant for official liturgical use in almost every western-Europe location. While it fell out of favour and widespread use with the advent of more interesting, entertaining music, there was a revival in the early twentieth century. The Catholic church encouraged it, and encourages it, as a suitable form of worship: A living tradition.

    There’s a nineties group called Enigma that blended Gregorian Chant with chill electronic beats in their song “Sadeness” (no, it’s not a typo). I doubt that they realised they were blending a politically-influenced blend of two traditions that were, themselves, a blend of older styles.

    Oh yes. This all started with Monty Python and their search for the Holy Grail. What is it that those masochistic monks are singing if not Gregorian chant? Those with keen ears will notice that it’s not strictly in unison pitch-wise: It’s not monophonic. Some are singing the bass notes, others higher (a fifth above, for the musically literate) and others higher still (an octave). This is called “organum” and is a topic for another day.


    [1] Insert your own joke about unaccompanied minors. I’m too lazy to think of one.

    [2] No Napoleon complex here. He just kept his hair nice and tidy as opposed to the typically long flowing locks of other monarchs of the time. If a similar title were applied to Marv, I wonder what it would be? Marv the …...?
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  5. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    Hey man, I think your jokes are cheesy, but as a slightly trained musician i dig these posts. Very interesting.
     
  6. Arnold_J_Rimmer

    Arnold_J_Rimmer Probationary member

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    I have two licences to tell bad jokes. They come in the form of my children's birth certificates and I'm merely adding to the much-maligned corpus of Dad jokes.

    Seriously, though, thanks for the encouragement. Do you still play?
     
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  7. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    I wish I could. Living in 800sqft presents serious impediments to a sorted percussion well. I picked up bass stringed instruments for a bit but that presents a similar set of challenges. I'm happy to tap along to songs with a pair of VF SD-1s on my knees. Tho, completely rocking out is quite painful.
     
  8. Arnold_J_Rimmer

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    Detour – Bob Ross for Monks & Headbangers

    Scale /skeɪl/ noun - A device of torture often used by piano teachers to destroy a child’s love of music and their parent’s sanity.

    If you’ve ever learned a musical instrument you might be familiar with scales. These are basically a limited set of notes that start low, move step by step up an octave and then back down again. Apart from being an instrument of torture they happen to be the building blocks of almost every song you have every heard.

    Growing up I thought there were basically only two sorts of scales: major and minor with major sounding “happy” and minor sounding “sad”. I was taught this by my music teachers in much the same way you were taught that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. However, it’s rubbish. Absolute bollox.

    For those of you who aren’t musicians, let me explain what a scale is. Most music has a home. If I played a well-known tune to you but finished at the second last note, you could almost certainly sing the final one. This final pitch is usually the home (“tonic” for music nerds). Let’s give this pitch an arbitrary name, like “C”. Simply put, here are the steps a musical biologist would take to dissect a melody to work out which scale it was based on.

    1. Write down the name of the “home” note (this is used to describe the “key”)
    2. Isolate all the unique pitches in the song. “D” might appear 20 times and “E” 12 times, but we’d only count each one once.
    3. Put these pitches in order from highest to lowest, beginning with your home note and ending with your home note, but an octave higher.

    Voila! Easy, no?

    Well, no. While some scales are remarkably simple, others are remarkably complex. There are five note scales (pentatonic), whole tone scales, microtonal scales (scales that you can’t play on the piano because you’d need to extract sound from the cracks between the keys) ragas etc. As an aside, wanna hear something weird and cool? Check out King Gizzard and The Wizard Lizard playing their flying microtonal banana. Anyway, scales provide the limited colour palette you use to paint a tune.

    Are you familiar with Bob Ross and “The Joy of Painting”? At the start of each show he provides a list of the colours he’ll be using (and selling to his devotees). These are limited and strongly influence the intended feel of the finished artwork. Lots of yellow and reds in an autumnal scene. More blues and whites in a winter landscape. The same is true of music. Of all the many, many possible pitches song writers only choose to use a handful at a time. Far from being restrictive, this helps impart a “feel” to a piece.

    [​IMG]

    For those of you who have been following along, Gregorian Chant used a very limited range of notes (or so theorists of the time would have you believe), but more “scales” than the “major” and “minor” system I was indoctrinated into. These scales were called “modes” and, originally, musical theorists only recognised eight of them. I’m going to pare this back to four, each of which had a name borrowed from ancient Greek musical theory: The dorian mode, phrygian mode, lydian mode and mixolydian mode.

    There’s much more that could be said about modes, but our purpose here isn’t analysis, merely enjoyment and a bit of infotainment. It’s enough to know that modes formed (most of) the colour palette of Gregorian chant and helps to form its character and “feel”. If you have any questions about scales and modes, though, feel free to ask. I’m not the only one here with a background in music, so others are welcome to chime in with answers and comments.

    Let’s stop making words about music and actually do some listening. Here are three pieces by modernish musicians who have stretched their arms back in time to the Dark Ages, returning with modal influences. There’s something about their character that helps them seem otherworldy, belonging to another place or time. This is partly thanks to the use of a “mode”.

    1. The Dorian mode - Miles Davis – “So What”



    2. The Phrygian mode – Pink Floyd “Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun”



    3. The Lydian mode – Fleetwood Mac – “Dreams”

     
  9. Arnold_J_Rimmer

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  10. GuySmiley'sMonkey

    GuySmiley'sMonkey Almost "Made"

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    Can this please be resurrected for those of us who love early music (paging @nithhoggr ) and music history in general? Anyone else willing to contribute?
     
  11. Erroneous

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    Just make it happen man. Put in the effort to contribute what you can and anyone who is digging the vibe will contribute.
     
  12. GuySmiley'sMonkey

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    In response to overwhelming popular and public apathy (LOL), I'm proud to continue the good work begun in "De-Snobbifying 1,000 Years of Music": Infotainment for music nerds that doesn't take itself too seriously. Guaranteed to be more enjoyable than sawing off your own leg with a rusty pocket knife and more cultured than at least two tubs of yogurt!

    The picture we have of music in the middle ages is skewed, heavily weighted in favour of singing monks and other professional church musicians. Why? Two words: Musical literacy.

    In the space of a few hundred years music went from an ephemeral art form that left little trace, to a discipline that dragged a paper trail the length, breadth and longevity of a roman road. In the next couple of posts we'll investigate this change, considering the origins and evolution of musical notation, for better and for worse.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2022
  13. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    Hello, Moats,

    Art thou returning permanently, or...
     
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  14. GuySmiley'sMonkey

    GuySmiley'sMonkey Almost "Made"

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    Yep. I typed up a few well-meant paragraphs in response to this, but thought better of it. I'd just like to say I'm sorry for what's gone before and to thank SBAF in general for the advice and welcome I've received over the past few weeks.

    Over and out!
     
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  15. Erroneous

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    OIC
     
  16. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    Don't know about anybody else, but I don't carry the past around with me much. As far as I am concerned, you are welcome, but then you always were by me.
     
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