Essay on Music in The Middle Ages

The music shaped society during the 1900s, helping in the development of society’s social history. Music and society are highly influenced by one another. Music both inspires and motivates people to do what they feel is right. When we realize how they correspond with each other, it brings others together, for example, “On February 9, 1964, an estimated 70 million Americans tuned into the Ed Sullivan show”(Wong, 39), all different kinds of people in America came together to watch what was called “The Beatlemania”, which featured The Beatles. The Beatles inspired other music artists to push the way they play music in a new way. The more music being played, the more media it would receive, which would bring in more profits. Music is in every culture, such as, Christians who sued music as a praise to Christ, to thank him and worship his holiness. It is widely varied between all times, places and cultures. People express their emotions and ideas through their music. Music expresses people’s emotions, concerns, and feelings about situations like, the Civil Rights Movement.

It comprises recurring pulses and accents that create identifiable patterns. Also, without rhythm there is only the rise and falling of tones (119). The song is the same measure repeated over and over in slightly different ways. There are two characteristics that tend to change throughout this song, tempo and the dynamics. Tempo is the rate of speed of the composition (120). The song begins in the tempo Lento, slow, and begins picking up speed and rising to andante, moderate, tempo. Dynamics is the degrees of loudness and softness in the music (177). In this particular song the tempo and dynamics build off each other. When one changes the other changes with it, creating layers to the sound you hear and making each note pleasing to the

1. How is the history of European and Arabic cultural contact reveal through musical characteristics in places such as Spain and Bulgaria?

1.     Gregorian chant consists of a single-lined melody and is monophonic in texture. This piece also consists of these basic structures as well as not having any harmory or counterpoint. This piece performed by U of I faculty member Steven Rickards, is sung a cappella.

After listening to Machaut, the music has wavelike melodies containing long melismas. The listener should hear three voices. Ma fin est mon commencement is a polyphonic chanson, which was heavily favored. Machauts work presents the listener with an enigmatic text as well as a musical structure that involves retrograde movement. Ma fin est mon commencement features two sections, A and B, and palindromes in voices. Each voice is distinct, as they do not imitate one another. The two sections, A and B, repeat, AbaAabAB. The harmony can be described as consonant with open, hollow cadences.

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

The Medieval period began in 500 A.D. and ended in 1450 A.D. During this time in particular, the Catholic Church had significant influence on how music was used and created. Sacred music, for example, was most prevalent because of this. Due to the religious nature of this period, music in the church had to adhere to very specific regulations, some of which included prayers such as plainchants or Gregorian chants. A single melody without harmony, or one musical part sung together in unison, is called a Monophonic melody, which was sung primarily by monks. Some time later, around 900 A.D., the using of two melodic lines was permitted by the church, this music was called organum. A low, continuous note called a drone, was sung at the same time as the main melody. The two melodies were often moving in contrasting motion to each other. By the Late-Medieval period, 1100 A.D., the music of the church had shifted from monophonic to more polyphonic, often two or more varying parts.

This piece begins with a pickup by the flute, who leads the A melody into the first section. After 8 bars, the strings and harp enter (0:27) while the flute starts to repeat the beginning of the A melody. However, three bars into this repetition, the melody changes, though the instrumentation does not (0:35). The flute slowly inches towards the peak of its melodic shape until it reaches it at (0:48). The flute then fades out as the strings flesh out the rest of the 8-bars.

It is opened by a sustained major seventh chord on the tonic (C major) to establish a misty morning scene. The oboe continues to introduce a bird-like pattern followed by a triple meter slow string melody with drones richly harmonising in the cellos and basses. This rhythm; crotchet, minim, crotchet minim, is widely used in Delius’s works. There are passing tones which creates discordance at times when played against the harmonic roots. The strings flutter on the final held note and then the clarinet plays the traditional cuckoo call. Throughout the middle section which is based around the Norwegian folk song, “In Ola Valley” this cuckoo call is reintroduced several times. The strings play a small looping pattern before the end of the managing to create simple yet rich new harmonies. A major chord dies away to silence. This ending is also similar to Lark Ascending as both pieces fade away into

Harmony: Consonance *Josquin avoids dissonance to achieve a character of serenity and devotion. *Most phrases and sections of the piece center around the same keynote (tonic) - only one section differs (“Ave praeclara omnibus” - near the end of the piece).

the piece begins with him talking with him picking the guitar in the background and then he starts to sing. The tempo of the piece starts of Andante and then by the end of the piece is Vivace as he sings each verse faster and faster music. Which when picking cotton, the faster they sang, the faster they picked the cotton. The piece is monophonic as both the guitar and vocal are used for the same melody. The form of the piece is in thirty-two-bar form. this helps to portray the message of the piece as it has a repetitive structure which makes it very catchy and as such could be called an “ear worm” as it is very easily stuck in the audience’s head and can be easily hummed

3. Medieval and Renaissance culture varied in many ways, aside from the differing music. In the Medieval age (the time between the 5th and 15th century), the church controlled many things, not only music. The church was in charge of education, the church also dominated politics. People very much feared God. Whereas in the Renaissance (15th and 17th century) the state ruled over the church. People in the Renaissance believed that God wasn’t some fearsome being, instead they believed more in logical and practical thinking.

Music has played a vital role in human culture and evidence based on archaeological sites can date it back to prehistoric times. It can be traced through almost all civilizations in one form or another. As time has progressed so has the music and the influences it has on people. Music is an important part of popular culture throughout the world, but it is especially popular in the United States. The music industry here is, and has been, a multi-million dollar business that continues to play an important role in American popular culture. This is also a art form and business that is forever changing as the times and more importantly, technology changes. Technology has changed the way music is made as well as how it is produced,

It is no doubt that music has played a vital role in our society. Everything from loud, head-banging concerts to religious ceremonies have utilized the medium of music because of its awe-inspiring qualities. Music is basically the control of sound. We can control this sound by varying the pitch, tempo, octaves, dynamics and so on. There are thousands of ways that we can use music and to shape it to how we want to hear it. But how much has music influenced the way we think today? Why is it so popular?

The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music.