Linkage between high-art music and social classes explained

It would have been such a shame to loose this thread:

Just fooling around here. It's raw, but you never know, I might be onto something. It could be a thesis for somebody:

Dark ages (up to about 1350)
-- composers: Catholic clergy
-- performers: monks
-- patron: Catholic church
-- audience: Catholics
-- representative music form: The Mass

Renaissance period (1350 to 1550)
-- composers: servant-class professionals and their aristocrat pupils
-- performers: royal and aristocratic amateurs and their servants
-- patron: same as performers
-- audience: same as performers
-- representative music form: dances and fantasia-like pieces

Baroque period (1550 to 1750)
-- composers: servant-class professionals
-- performers: the composer and his hirelings
-- patrons: aristocracy
-- audience: aristocracy
-- representative music form: concerto and concerto grosso

Classical, including Romantic and all that (1750 to 1950)
-- composers: independent, with patron or teaching job
-- performers: professional orchestras and ensembles
-- patrons: aristocracy and bourgoisie
-- audience: same as patron
-- representative music form: symphony and other sonata-form works

Era of mass entertainment (1950 to present)
-- composers: whoever
-- performers: whoever
-- patrons: capitalists
-- audience: the masses
-- representative music form: same as folk music

Someone voted.

This is progress.

All we need now is a tie-breaker.

coulda simplified even more by jus typing - "FEUDALIZM ... PROTOCAPITALIZM ... CAPITALIZM and ASSOCIATED CULTRAL PRODUCTZION/DISTRIBUSIONZ" but i guess yor tryin 2 edacate our Bolivian cyber guestz, whumpowza

Eck, 1950 to present doesnt factor in any of tha umphousand numr of countries where not just any captlist can releaz any music by any one. and you dont factor in the change towards self distribution in the internet age.

DO YOR HOMWERK, snij kappa


*user waxes anutha buster like a Guam candle, wot*

Excellent points (although I'm not sure whether or not that's a tie-breaker ).

The fully written masters theses would have to, of course, define such terms as "high-art," which here refers to western-European music and it's derivatives--the world of the present-day Eurovision Song Contest (no longer hoity-toity in the era of mass entertainment).

I'd say the pinhedz model works through the 20th century, but it will be interesting to see whether or not self-distribution and self-promotion will take music away from the music mogols. I think much will remain the same, but perhaps some the following tweaks are in order:

Era of mass entertainment (1950 to present)
-- composers: whoever
-- performers: whoever
-- patrons: capitalists, currently under siege by the internet, file sharing and self distro
-- audience: the masses
-- representative music form: same as folk music (or whatever niche an indie self-distributor might select or create for his-or-herself for fun but no profit--with exceptions like Yanni).

The people have spoken. Two out of three ATU voters agree that the pinhed is on to something here. So let's see if we can flesh out this thesis.

Starting from the dark ages, Gregorian chant spread across Europe very quickly during the reign of Charlemagne--a man who occupies a spot in all of our family trees (this is true, even if it seems suspect).

The oldest existing notated music dates from around the year 930. Here is an example of early notated music--which is to say high-art music:

Gregorian chant originated in monasteries, so it was monks and priests performing it, and they were all working for God, no less.

The first significant composer in the polyphonic organum style (which is a high-falutin term for the latest thing in high-art music) was Léonin, who worked at Notre Dame Cathedral in the 12th century.

Léonin's work was continued by Pérotin--the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antigua style. Ars Antigua was the latest thing in the 13th century--but they didn't call it antigua at the time.

The Church had a monopoly on just about everything back then, including music, so anybody that wanted to hear high-art music just had to go to church, and the church would provide the music and the performers (and they already took your money for it, didn't they? )

Any questions or comments?

In our next lesson, we will move from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.

Worlds collide said George Pal to his bride.

.

Is it time for us to move from the dark ages into the enlightenment of The Renaissance?

This means we must discuss the transition from the ARS ANTIQUA to the ARS NOVA. This transition, of course, occurred during the life of the great composer Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377).

Back in those days, the French still had some ability to pronounce words without lip-laziness, so the name was pronounced "Gwi-laum de Ma-shout."

Who wants to start?

Can you imagine that the artists of any period would ever call their time "Ars Antiqua?" That would be ridiculous.

It's about as stupid as calling your era "Ars Nova," or "Modernism."

I miss Ars Futura so much...

It would be pinheded to talk about harmonic intervals, so I won't talk about how the Ars Nova composers considered 5ths and octaves to be "perfect," while the 3rds and 6ths that we like so much nowadays were considered "unstable." So a 6th would usually resolve to a 5th and then to an octave, which would be "perfect."

Definitely not gonna talk about that.

Nowadays Ars Nova music doesn't sound very consonant, but that's because we moved on to Ars Futura (although even that is now a thing of the past ).

Here's an example of Guillaume de Machaut:

Pinzego Landolini has evidently already figured out that the pinhed is about to discuss the great composer and theorist Francesco Landini.

Of course--what could be more logical.

But first we must take a look at Guillaume de Machaut's affiliations and financial backers.

Was he a "peoples' artist?" Not hardly--he worked for a succession of high rollers (moving from one to another as war and the Black Death did them in):

-- John I, King of France

-- John's daughter Bonne

-- Bonne's son Jean de Berry

-- Charles V, Duke of Normandy

Still, since he was working for mortals instead of God (Pope Benedict suggested that he not work for God), you could say that hi-art music had moved down a notch on the social scale.

And now--just for Pinzego Landolini--here is a piece by Francesco Landini (sometimes called "The Italian Guillaume de Machaut"):

pinhedz wrote:Pinzego Landolini has evidently already figured out that the pinhed is about to discuss the great composer and theorist Francesco Landini.

Of course--what could be more logical. :geek:

Of course I knew. I AM You!

Oops--I meant to post that under my pinhedz identity.

Let's try that again:

Of course--I AM YOU.

Back to France--here's is a work by Philippe de Vitry, who was one of the pinhedz that worked out the modern system of musical notation (at least I think it was him--although it might have been Landini ):

Phillipe de Vitry, I might add, worked for Charles IV, Philippe VI and Jean II.

What is a Landini cadence? I figured you'd ask, even though I already said we are not going to discuss it .

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/landini.html

Machaut came along at the start of the Renaissance, but my favorite renaissance composer came closer to the end (because he played more 3rds and 6th)--Josquin des Prez (c. 1455--1521).

The employers were still royal:

-- The Duke of Anjou in Aix-en-Provence

-- Several Italian Mafia families including the Sforzas and the Borgias

-- King Louis XII of France

-- Duke Ercole I of Ferrara

He wrote fun tunes for parties:






But also some church music, sung by Japanese anime characters:




But his very best tune--while pretending to be religious--accuses God of screwing up big time (after all, Josquin's famiy was burned alive in a church, and the Black Plaque wiped out about 2/3 of the population):



In te Domine speravi
Per trovar pietà in eterno,
Ma in un tristo e oscuro inferno
Fui, et frustra laboravi.

Rotto e al vento ogni speranza,
Veggio il ciel voltarmi in pianto,
Suspir, lachrime me avanza
Del mio tristo sperar tanto.

Fui ferito, se non quanto
Tribulando ad te clamavi.
In te Domine speravi.

In Thee O Lord did I hope
To find pity for ever.
But in a sad and dark hell
I was, and suffered in vain.

Broken and thrown to the wind is all hope.
I have seen heaven turn me to weeping.
Only sighs and tears remain
To me of my sad, strong hope.

I was wounded, but in my sorrow
I called upon Thee.
In Thee O Lord did I hope.

Here's a lively renaissance tune about Dolce amoroso, but it also has great picks of several of the mafia families of the period: