Music History I Ch. 1 HW
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Southern Illinois University, Carbondale *
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357A
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Arts Humanities
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by EarlMuleMaster1026
Imogen Perry
MUS 357
Dr. Scroggins
08/31/23
1.
Describe the role of music in ancient Greek society. How would you characterize Greek attitudes about music? What aspects of Greek musical thought have influenced Western history?
Music played a very important role in ancient Greek society. In theater, the chorus
of singers commented on the action of the drama and dance was one of the elements of the play. Many philosophers wrote about music, specifically its ethical qualities and what
its role should be in society. In Plato’s Republic
, his teacher Socrates wanted to ban most musical scales because he thought that rhythm and harmony could find their way into the soul and take hold of it. The power of music has always unsettled those who sought to control human emotions for religious, political, or cultural reasons. But in the same breath, it was praised for its healing and spiritual properties. These kinds of debates still take place today. Greek musical thought gave us measurable parts of music such as intervals and rhythms. At this time, music was studied in a mathematical form.
2.
What topics are addressed in Boethus’s De institutione musica
? How does this work reflect ancient Greek and Medieval understandings of music? Boethius addressed topics such as abstract musica, best described as harmony. He had two main ideas from the Greeks: musica mirrored the essential harmony of the cosmos, and it therefore had a decisive influence on human health and behavior.
3.
What political circumstances led to the adoption of Roman chant in the Frankish kingdom? Why was the chant attributed to Pope Gregory?
On Christmas Day 800, the “Holy Roman Empire” began when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as secular ruler. This led to a resurgence of learning and creativity known as the Carolingian Renaissance. One of the facets of cultural rebirth in this time was the importing of Roman chant. The main reason why it needed to be imported was so
the Carolingians could centralize authority. When the Roman pope was established, it became necessary to unify all religious services to make them more accessible to the people. Pope Gregory is at the center of a legend. As it goes, the pope, while dictating to a scribe his commentary on parts of the Bible, would pause for a long time. The scribe became perplexed because he could not see him as they would be separated by a screen. He decided to peep through and when he did he saw a dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit) hovering around the head of Pope Gregory, who only resumed dictating when the dove would move away. He thought it was the Holy Spirit giving Pope Gregory these words and melodies directly. 4.
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5.
What do the earliest notations show about a chant melody, and what knowledge must the singer have in order to use the notation?
Chant notation evolved from neumes. These neumes went along with the contour of the melody and the syllables for each neume. Earliest neumes were usually added to texts or books that didn’t have any other help. The singer had to have already known the melody of the piece since everything was meant to be memorized.
6.
Explain the contributions of Guido of Arezzo to music theory and pedagogy, including solmization, the hexachord, and his theory of organum. Guido of Arezzo created a system of heightened neumes. With these neumes he created a hexachord, and gave a syllable name to each pitch. This is the earliest form of solmization. He also created the Guidonian hand, which was a mnemonic device where pitches would be mapped out onto the joints of the hand so a singer could simply reference it to map out pitches in a piece. Guido of Arezzo also came up with the Theory of Organum, stating that lines of music should move in the same direction. This may as well have been the real beginnings of music theory as we know it.
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