Ch. 7 The New Practice

Chapter 7 The New Practice A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-1 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Searching For The Secrets of Ancient Greek Music Difficult to recover music of classical antiquity Ancient Greek musical notation was poorly understood Debate on ancient Greek scales, instruments, manner of singing, and manner of combining poetry and music in drama A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-2 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Searching For The Secrets of Ancient Greek Music Composers increasingly embraced these ideas: 1. Music should be driven by the word 2. The affect of a text – its predominant emotion – should be heightened by expressive musical devices A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-3 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Composers and theorists advocated a transparent polyphonic style clearly projecting the text A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-4 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Searching For The Secrets of Ancient Greek Music The Florentine Camerata c. 1573–1587 Group of poets, musicians, and noblemen Debated ways to recreate the style of singing used by ancient Greeks in their drama A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-5 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Seconda Prattica Rhythms of music should be modeled on the rhythms of speech - at times flowing - at times halting - with points of punctuation - with cadences of varying strength A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-6 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Works placed a solo vocal line above an instrumental line Supporting instrumental line was known as the basso continuo – “continuous bass” Basso continuo provided harmonic framework for the solo voice above it A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-7 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Seconda Prattica Instrumentation of basso continuo was flexible and rarely specified At a minimum, consisted of a chordal instrument, such as harpsichord, organ, lute A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-8 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Seconda Prattica Basso continuo ensemble – Ideally, would combine a sustaining bass instrument with one or more chordal instruments to support the solo Bass line was often reinforced with low-range instrument, such as bass viol or bassoon A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-9 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Seconda Prattica Basso continuo allowed for projection of sung text through a single voice Solo singing resulted in new genre of opera – sung drama – in which individual singers assume role of individual characters A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-10 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Seconda Prattica Monody – combination of solo voice and basso continuo – emerged by 1630s Lies between song and speech Singers projected text in a style that is both lyrical and declamatory, measured and rhythmically fluid A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-11 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Seconda Prattica Music in the Baroque Era: A Stylistic Overview Emergence of basso continuo Coexistence of old and new styles Shift from modal to tonal writing Intervallic to chordal harmony A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-12 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Music in the Baroque Era: A Stylistic Overview Greater rhythmic freedom Increased virtuosity Differentiation between vocal and instrumental styles A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-13 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Music in the Baroque Era: A Stylistic Overview Importance of instruments and instrumental music Program music Cultivation of contrasting timbres Emergence of national styles A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 7-14 © 2014 Education, Inc. By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458