Chapter 1 The Origin of Music and Music in Ancient Times
It is impossible to find out when human society began to have music. But from ancient times to the present, there are no distinctions between national boundaries and races in music. The so-called musical instruments are tools for playing music. As mentioned before, the origin of music is "singing" with vocal cords as musical instruments, but with the development of wisdom, humans began to use tools. Not only singing with the voice, but also drilling holes in the pipe or stretching the strings to play music as a game, this gave rise to musical instruments.
1. The origin legend of stringed instruments: Mercury is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. It is said that when he was walking along the Nile River, his feet touched something and it made a beautiful sound. When he picked it up and looked at it, he found that it was the sound made by a dry tendon attached to the inside of an empty turtle shell. Mercury was inspired to invent stringed instruments. Although later generations have verified that there were string instruments before Mercury, it may have been inspired by this.
2. The legend of the origin of wind instruments: Ancient Chinese history records that in the Huangdi era five thousand years ago, there was a musician named Ling Lun who went into the Kunhua Mountains in the west to collect bamboo for flutes. At that time, there happened to be five phoenixes flying in the sky, and he made laws according to their sounds. Although this story cannot be completely believed, it can be regarded as a mysterious legend about the origin of wind instruments.
3. Ancient Chinese Music: The first emperor of China, the Yellow Emperor, was the famous king who created the calendar and writing five thousand years ago. At that time, in addition to the aforementioned Ling Lun, there was also a musician named "Fuxi". It is said that Fuxi had the head of a human and the body of a snake. He was conceived in his mother's womb for twelve years. He played a harp with fifty strings. Because the tone was too sad, Huang Di cut off half of the harp and changed it to twenty-five strings.
In addition, in the legend of the Yellow Emperor's era, there is a musician named Shen Nong, who taught people farming and discovered medicine. It is said that he was born with the head of an ox and the body of a human body. He created the banjo, which is natural if one imagines that music at that time used the pentatonic scale.
It is said that there are no less than 300 books on ancient Chinese music. Confucius lived about 2,500 years ago. He was a musician and wrote many essays about music. He once formally learned the piano, played it to comfort himself in times of sorrow and joy, and taught it to his disciples. It is said that he had 3,000 disciples, 72 of whom were proficient in the six arts. What Confucius taught can be called "poetry, calligraphy, etiquette, and music." "Li" refers to the order of yin and yang in heaven and earth, and "joy" refers to achieving harmony. In other words, in his philosophy, morality and music are on equal footing, and he strives to use music to improve moral character. Confucius loved the guqin very much and could compose music by himself. Comments on music can also be found in the Analects of Confucius.
On the other hand, most of the court music in ancient China was dance music, that is, the integration of poetry, dance and music, which is completely different from today's dance.
4. Ancient music of Egypt and Arabia: Egyptian civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The carvings on the stone walls of the pyramid, which served as ancient tombs of the emperors, show the grand occasion of music playing and the procession of musical performers. The carvings include harp-like string instruments played with fingers, as well as various flute-like instruments.
Instrumental music in areas such as Arabia is also quite developed. Since ancient times, a special scale divided into seventeen tone names within an octave has been used.
5. Ancient Greek Music: The origin of Greek music is also shrouded in a veil of myth. The god Apollo is in charge of music, and there are nine Muses (Muses) under him. Music is called Music or Musik. Among Greek musical instruments, there are V-shaped double-pipe flutes called Auros and Lyra. The hurdy-gurdy, and the guitar-like stringed instrument called the kithara, were imported from Egypt or Arabia.
6. The emergence of pure temperament: In the sixth century BC, the great ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras used a single-stringed instrument called the Monochord. First of all, Explain the pure law theory.
This is based on the length of the string, using one to two as the complete octave and two to three as the complete fifth, and all the intervals used at that time were calculated.
Chapter 2 Medieval Music
1. Christianity and Medieval Music: In Europe during the Middle Ages, the church had more powerful ruling power than the state or other social groups. At that time, all kinds of learning and art, including philosophy, served the church, and medieval music achieved unusual development due to Christianity. In church music, he created the form of polyphony and completed counterpoint. Music scores were originally printed for use by the church for mass. The rise of keyboard instruments and their teaching methods cannot occur without the church. From the entire theory of music to notation, as well as chorus and ensemble, most of them are the legacy of the medieval church. Although most of the contents of today's symphonies and operas are secular, it cannot be said that they have nothing to do with the medieval church.
Church music probably initially adopted the form transmitted from the Jewish kingdom intact, that is, singing hymns and reciting the Bible. It can be imagined that it was purely vocal music. Religious music has always been dominated by vocal music, because vocal music has lyrics. In contrast, instrumental music developed primarily as secular music.
2. Romanesque music: The term "Romanesque" mainly comes from the architectural terms of that era. Romanesque music is one of the greatest monumental relics in the history of world art. This kind of music has neither harmony nor accompaniment. It is characterized by the form of unison singing, which produces a solemn sense of harmony through the echo of the church patio. Its simple and elegant religious feelings are completely consistent with the Roman style church architecture.
Romanesque music was one of the important musical forms in this period of the Middle Ages. Its representative is Gregorian Chant, which is typical Catholic music. During the long Middle Ages, the most important role in music was Gregorian chant, which was pure single-melody singing. In Gregorian Psalm, there are four ecclesiastical modes and their modifications: Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, Lydian mode, and mixed Lydian mode. In the 16th century, the Ionian mode and the Eleatic mode appeared, thus forming today's major and minor scales. In the time of Gregory I, a school for teaching psalms called the "Singarium" had been established in Rome, which can be regarded as one of the earliest music schools in the world.
The Psalms of Ambrosius (340-397) collected songs sung in the church, formulated four church modal scales composed of seven notes for church music, and also created The form of duet singing, etc. In the psalms, the relationship between lyrics and language momentum, pitch and rhythm is solved in an extremely ideal form. They express religious feelings very naturally and perfectly, and can be regarded as the musical art up to this era. summary.
Chapter 3 Music of the Renaissance
1. Gothic style and Renaissance: From the middle and late thirteenth century to the fourteenth century, European society entered the Renaissance period, and Northern Europe Gothic style art emerged, and the Gothic style is most evident in architecture. In music, the Gothic style has never been clearly defined as a form representing an era, but the polyphonic form that began with the Organum shows quite clearly the characteristics of the Gothic style. Among the many motets of the twelfth century, in addition to the fixed melodies of solemn Gregorian chants, there were also dance melodies and love song melodies, with different words and time signatures, all sung together. form.
2. Renaissance and Music: The Renaissance in music is slightly later than other literary and artistic forms such as literature and fine arts. A representative composer can first be cited as Francescl Landino (1325(?)-1397). He adopted the bold technique of singing three different lyrics at the same time, leaving many Madrigals and Ballades. Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) completed the four-part technique.
The polyphonic technique of Organum also led to the completion of the counterpoint theory with Bach as its culmination.
From the end of the eleventh century to the end of the thirteenth century, the Crusades took place in Europe. This historical event had a huge impact on the cultural exchanges between the East and the West. The most significant expression in music was the emergence of troubadours, troubadours, lyric singers and other figures. The content of the poems sung included love songs, narrative poetry stories, Hymns to nature and religious or moral content, etc. As a musical instrument, a small accordion like a harp or an instrument from the viol family is used.
Chapter 4 Music of the Baroque Era
1. Baroque style: From a chronological point of view, the music from the end of the 16th century to 1750, called baroque music. At the end of the 16th century, the first opera in the history of music was performed in Florence, Italy. This was also the heyday of the "Venice School" centered on Giovanni Gabrieli (1557(?)-1612). 1750 was the year when the counterpoint master Johann Sebastian Bach died. Counterpoint music, which represents the peak of Baroque, can be considered to have ended with Bach's death.
The word Baroque originally meant irregularly shaped pearls. It was originally used in architecture to indicate an art form. The art of the Renaissance was based on the formal beauty of Greece and Rome. For it, the Baroque style was a brand-new form of expression and the premise of the later Rococo art.
European music in the Baroque era was represented by Germany, Italy, France and other countries. During this period, music art achieved unprecedented rapid development.
2. German music in the Baroque era: German music in the Baroque era can be said to be represented by Schütz, Bach and Handel. If the polyphonic music since the Middle Ages is compared to a pyramid, then their music is the top of the tower. They have absorbed the new music of Italy since the Renaissance and opened up a new path.
Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672) was born exactly one hundred years before Bach and Handel. At the age of 24, he went to Italy to study under Giovanni Giovanni, the master of the Venetian school of music. Gabrieli, 1557-1612). After he returned to Germany, he published his first German opera "Daphne" and also composed many Passions. Schütz's style had an important influence on the creation of two later Baroque music masters, Bach and Handel.
The musical works of Handel and Bach shine in the history of music, both in terms of integrating traditional music and following new trends of thought. Handel's works, mostly opera and oratorio music, also contain strong vocal elements in the instrumental works, which are obviously influenced by Italy; Bach's music also contains strong instrumental elements in the vocal works, which is It heralded the arrival of the future era of classicism.
3. Italian music in the Baroque era: Opera, a great art form, was born in the "cradle of music" - Italy, the ancient European civilization. The ancient city of Florence had many great artists and a group of nobles who were interested in ancient Greek art. These nobles were determined to give Greek drama new life. They began to compose music for ancient Greek stories and put on costumes to perform them. The whole story was sung by a chorus. This was undoubtedly the prototype of opera. Later, after development, each character in the story was sung by a singer, and between the chorus programs, male and female singers performed as solo singers. Lines will be half-sung, half-spoken when the character's words are spoken softly. This kind of singing is almost like a hymn: it is called a recitative. And strong emotions are expressed with real melodies called arias. Soon arias began to be used to show off the beautiful voice of the singer.
At that time, whether an opera was performed in Italy or in England or Germany, its arias were always sung in Italian and its recitative parts in that country's language.
In Italian Baroque music, string music can be compared with early opera. String instruments such as violin, viola, cello and double bass are still indispensable instruments in orchestras and are also extremely important chamber music and solo instruments. In Italy during the Baroque era, string music was combined with opera and developed as an ancient overture. The overture of an opera must be composed of three parts: a fast beginning, a slow middle part, and a fast end. This form later became the basic form of concertos and symphonies. At that time, the ancient overtures and concertos were mainly composed of string instruments. Italy during this period was rich in violinists, such as Giuseppe Torelli (1650-1708), Arcagello Corelli (1653-1713), T. Antonio Vitali (1665-1735), Vivaldi Antonio Vivaldi (1675-1743), Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), etc. are all musicians earlier than Bach. They are all famous violin players and composers of violin music. In addition, there are numerous Italian violin makers, such as Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari, who are all from Cremona in the Alps region of northern Italy. Their carefully crafted violins are still used today. He is also active on the stage, showing unprecedented artistic charm.
4. French music in the Baroque era: In France during this period, with Paris as the center and the residences of princes and nobles in various places as the background, opera and clavichord music were extremely popular. French opera at that time, separated from the tradition of Italian opera and grew independently, can be said to be close to the form of dance drama.
During the Baroque era, France’s most representative opera composer was Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687). His operas were concise and clear, with beautiful melodies and strong dance elements. Characteristics, the content is also relatively profound, and a large number of spicy and humorous techniques are used.
At the same time as opera, clavichord music became popular. The harpsichord is an instrument that is often decorated with decorations that represent Baroque culture. It and the harpsichord are the predecessors of today's pianos. The most famous masters in this regard are Francois Couperin (1668-1733) and J.P. Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). Many of their works are suites composed for clavichord. Many of these pieces are still widely performed on modern pianos. Rameau's Introduction to Harmony, published in 1722, is the earliest theoretical work on harmony in the history of music.
Chapter 5 Classical Music
1. Classicism in Music: The germ of classicism occurred in Italy during the Baroque era. Later, due to the emergence of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in Vienna, classical music was formed. Therefore, the "Classical School" in music actually refers to the "Viennese Classical School". Classical art first occurred in the field of literature and art. It aimed to restore the classical art of Greece and Rome, focused on formal symmetry and harmony, and mainly focused on the pursuit of objective beauty.
2. Early Classical Music School: The new music with the main theme that emerged in Italy after the Renaissance, with the background of aristocratic society, flourished in various parts of Germany and Austria. In its early days, there were three main music schools. : The first school is the Berlin School of music centered on Carl F. Bach, the second son of the music master Bach; the second school is centered on Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) of the Mannheim School. The third school is the early Viennese school centered on Wagenzal and Meng.
In classical music, although opera is also an important part, on the whole, the characteristic of classical music lies in instrumental music, especially music in the form of sonatas and symphonies. The chamber music and symphony of the Mannheim School not only had an impact on the Vienna School, but also had a direct impact on the young Beethoven in Bonn.
The sonata form is a very representative form in classical music. That is, there is a contrast between the first and second themes in the presentation part, the development part appears in the middle, and then the recapitulation part where the two themes are repeated. The Mannheim School already had this form quite complete at that time. It was also the Mannheim school that added the minuet movement to the symphony form. In their symphony orchestration, the woodwind instruments also used double pipe arrangements. Mozart added the clarinet to his symphonies and learned it after hearing their orchestra perform in Mannheim.
3. Vienna Classical Music School: The Vienna Classical Music School, represented by the "Father of Symphony" Haydn, the "Musical Genius" Mozart and the "Music Saint" Beethoven, has established an immortal monument in the history of music. monument. The main characteristics of this music school are to reflect the universal ideological requirements of mankind, pursue the concept of beauty, emphasize the elegance of style, and give people an optimistic and enterprising spirit.