History of Music
It can be argued that the vanguard of development has always been reflected in the arts of a culture. It is the poets, the dreamers and artists who are the architects of the future; the ones who 'build the world they want to live in, the ones who dream out loud'1. Music is an elaborate art form, tempered by the emotions of those who create it and as such the dreams, creations and inventions are partly the products - or at least artifacts - of the world around them. As such, the social, economic and technological changes in society reflect themselves in the arts of the time also. The common question "Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?" when inspected proves rhetorical: they are parallel mirrors which reflect each other.W.H. Auden best expressed this when he said, "A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become." Tracing the course of musical development through history shows how closely music (of all the art forms) in particular represents the time in which it was written. The "immediacy" Auden speaks of is evidenced in music's ability to associate itself with a specific point in time or event and always remind the listener of that time or place. It is impos
Music as a whole has had a gradual evolution throughout history. The tie between Man's search for the unknown, quest for Truth and longing for spiritual fulfillment and the Arts is undeniable. Reactionary, or 'pro-actionary' music ties us tight to places or events both in our lives and in those of others. While architecture and artifacts can give us clues to what society was like in the past (Roman ruins tell us much about life two thousand years ago), it is only the music that can communicate what our predecessors were thinking or feeling. It is the poets, the dreamers and artists of old who were the architects of their future, which allow us to glimpse our past. And it has been said, to know where one is going, you must know where you came from. The later fourteenth century was a period during which the French style dominated musical style throughout Europe. It was modified to reflect local tastes in Italy and England, but the French roots of the inspiration remained prominent for many years. However, Italian composers continued to develop a more personal style, combining French Ars Nova concepts with Italian styles. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, traveling entertainers, known as troubadours performed music and sand songs of chivalry and adventures (rescuing damsels in distress from dragons, and so on) and helped spread nonreligious (secular) music. In France these entertainers were either vagrant musicians who performed their songs and poetry in order to make a living, or young aristocrats who performed and sang for their own enjoyment. The content of these songs often portrayed a hero and celebrated his strength or wisdom in battle or on a quest. Many manuscripts of this music have been successfully recovered.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2505
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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