Posted by Gelato at 10:23am Sep 6 '08I don't have that much time to put up music before the tropical storm knocks out my power, but I did find a couple of videos to put up, so I'll go ahead and put one of them up now. I will do my best to give background information for all of the classical music videos that I put up.
So, as far as Western Music is concerned, the history of music as we think of it started with the Ancient Greeks and Romans. They came up with music theories that became much of the foundation for Western Music. Remember Pythagoras, the mathematician? Well, he discovered that if one divided a string into two equal parts, the half-string would sound an octave higher than the whole string. This led to theories like the system of overtones and other physics-related theories. He also postulated that the same laws governing music apply throughout the cosmos, as well as in the human soul. Boethius had some similar ideas; he wrote "Harmony of the Spheres," which dealt with the three types of music: music of the cosmos, music of the self, and musica instrumentalis, which is what we consider to be music today.
The Greeks and Romans also believed in the Doctrine of Ethos, which stated that music was extremely influential to the psyche and development of a person, and therefore all Greek citizens were supposed to listen to only certain kinds of music, for fear of directing a citizen on a detrimental path. Plato believed that a balanced education needed the right amounts of gymnastics (to discipline the body) versus music (to discipline the mind), and that nonadherence to musical conventions of the time led to anarchy in society. Aristotle agreed with Plato about the need for balance, believing that music imitated the states of the soul and also aroused those passions.
Therefore, there were rules on how music should be composed. The best meter to use was a three-beat meter--also known as Tempus perfectum, the perfect meter. The Greeks and Romans also originated the first modes: Dorian, Phrygian (also known as Greek Dorian), Lydian, and Mixolydian. Plato recommended the Dorian and Phrygian modes for temperance and courage.
Unfortunately, though we have a whole system of Western Music based on Greco-Roman theories, only 45 songs have survived from that period. Here is one of them, called the "Epitaph of Seikilos":
So, as far as Western Music is concerned, the history of music as we think of it started with the Ancient Greeks and Romans. They came up with music theories that became much of the foundation for Western Music. Remember Pythagoras, the mathematician? Well, he discovered that if one divided a string into two equal parts, the half-string would sound an octave higher than the whole string. This led to theories like the system of overtones and other physics-related theories. He also postulated that the same laws governing music apply throughout the cosmos, as well as in the human soul. Boethius had some similar ideas; he wrote "Harmony of the Spheres," which dealt with the three types of music: music of the cosmos, music of the self, and musica instrumentalis, which is what we consider to be music today.
The Greeks and Romans also believed in the Doctrine of Ethos, which stated that music was extremely influential to the psyche and development of a person, and therefore all Greek citizens were supposed to listen to only certain kinds of music, for fear of directing a citizen on a detrimental path. Plato believed that a balanced education needed the right amounts of gymnastics (to discipline the body) versus music (to discipline the mind), and that nonadherence to musical conventions of the time led to anarchy in society. Aristotle agreed with Plato about the need for balance, believing that music imitated the states of the soul and also aroused those passions.
Therefore, there were rules on how music should be composed. The best meter to use was a three-beat meter--also known as Tempus perfectum, the perfect meter. The Greeks and Romans also originated the first modes: Dorian, Phrygian (also known as Greek Dorian), Lydian, and Mixolydian. Plato recommended the Dorian and Phrygian modes for temperance and courage.
Unfortunately, though we have a whole system of Western Music based on Greco-Roman theories, only 45 songs have survived from that period. Here is one of them, called the "Epitaph of Seikilos":