History of Music and Dance

8/8/2019 History of Music and Dance

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Fernanda Porragas

Jessica Selem

Isabel Gutierrez

Mariana Moreno



y The Medieval Era (800 - 1400 C.E.)

y The Medieval Era is the longest and most remote period of musicalhistory. For most of the middle ages, the Church was the focal point ofsocial life, learning, and the arts. Saint Gregory, who was pope from 590 -640 C.E., is said to have organized a huge repetoire of chants thatdeveloped during the first centuries of the Christian church. Thus the termof "Gregorian Chant" came about.

y Gregorian Chant is monophonic , having one melodic line without anaccompaniment. It is said to be very serene, with pure shapes of melody.

y Toward the latter part of the Middle Ages, music consisted of two or moremelodic lines that were heard simultaneously, called polyphony Thisappeared around the 1200s. Polyphony was more difficult to compose thanthe monophonic chant, because a composer had to combine multiplemelodic lines in a way that would be pleasing to the listener.

y Secular song was monophonic and stylistically more diversified than plainsong. It was stronger, and utilized regular rhythms, and had short rhythmicpatterns.



y The Renaissance Period (1400 - 1600 C.E.)

y

The Renaissance era encompasses Western music history from 1400 to thebegining of the 1600·s. During this time, artists and musicians produced

works that displayed more artistic freedom and individualism. With the

new printing techniques, music and musical ideas were able to be preserved

and distributed to the people.

y The distinctive musical sounds of the Renaissance era were comprised of

a smooth, imitative, polyphonic style, as seen in the music of Byrd,Palestrina, and Lassus. While sacred music remained of great importance,

secular music was starting to become increasingly common. Therefore, the

polyphonic style was not only used in sacred music, but also in secular

madrigals . The repertoire of instrumental music also began to grow

considerably. New instruments were invented, including two keyboard

instruments called the clavichord and virginal.y Renaissance polyphony was harmonious when compared with the

Medieval style. Imitation was a method that composers used to make

elaborate music more coherent and to give the listener a sense of

arrangement. Imitation, where one melodic line shares, or "imitates," the

same musical theme as a previous melodic line became an important

polyphonic technique.



y The Baroque Era (1600-1750 C.E.)

y When compared with its predecessors, Baroque music can be seen as being highlyornate, lavishly texturized, and intense. The music of this time period wascharacterized by rich counterpoint and a highly decorated melodic line. The music ofthis period has a number of defining characteristics including the use of the basso

continuo and the belief in the doctrine of the affections. The doctrine of affectionsallowed composers to express emotions and feelings in their compositions. Anotherdistinguishing characteristic of the Baroque era was the emphasis on contrast ofvolume, texture, and pace in the music. Similar to composers during the Renaissance,composers during this period felt that the art of counterpoint was essential to theirartistry. Two extremely strict forms of imitative polyphony, cannons and fugues ,were very popular at the time of the Baroque era.

y It is also important to note that opera and the orchestra were both conceived duringthe Baroque era as well. Around 1600, opera came about because Italianintellectuals wanted to recapture the spirit of ancient Greek drama in which musicplayed a key role. Claudio Monteverdi·s Orfeo (1607), was the first great opera.

y In addition, during the Baroque period composers began exploring music's abilityto express the human spirirt and to depict natural phenomena. Vivaldi's The FourSeasons was the most famous set of concertos that typified this.



y The Classical Era (1750-1820 C.E.)

y

Classical music placed a greater stress on clarity with regard to melodicexpression and instrumental color. The orchestra gained more color andflexibility as clarinets, flutes, oboes, and bassoons became permanent

members of the orchestra. The classical style was dominated byhomophony , which consisted of a single melodic line and anaccompaniment.

y The most important of these forms was the sonata which was ininstrumental music. This form continued to change and evolve throughoutthe classical period.

y The early 1700s reflected a musical style known as Rococo. This style servedas a transition from the Baroque to the Classical Era. Rococo, whichdeveloped in France, is actually an art term that described a new art stylewhich was both a light and embellished. As classical music evolved,distinctive characteristics developed.

y The melodies of the Classical era were more compact and diatonic.Harmony was less structured. It used the tonic, dominant, and subdominantchords.

y The four major composers of the Classical era were Haydn, Mozart, Gluck,and Beethoven. These composers wrote extensively for vocal andinstrumental mediums.

y



y The Romantic Era (1850 - 1920 C.E.)

y the Romantic allowed artistic freedom, experimentation, and creativity.

The music of this time period was very expressive, and melody became

the dominant feature. While new instruments were constantly being

added to the orchestra, composers also tried to get new or different

sounds out of the instruments already in use.

y One of the new forms was the symphonic poem, which was an orchestral

work that portrayed a story or had some kind of literary or artistic

background to it.

y art song , which was a vocal musical work with tremendous emphasis

placed on the text or the symbolical meanings of words within the text.

y During the Romantic period, the virtuoso began to be focused.

Exceptionally gifted performers - pianists, violinists, and singers --

became enormously popular.



y The Modern/20th Century Era (1900 - Present)

y While some of the early 20th century music can be seen as

extensions of the late Romantic style, much of 20th century music

can be seen as a rebellion. Composers did not look to build onwhat was standard but again created music freely and used

sounds that went against the current grain. Twentieth century

music can be described as being more refined, vague in form,

delicate, and having a mysterious atmosphere.

y Composers utilized folk songs to enriched their music. Jazz andpopular musical styles influenced composers from both the United

States and Europe.

y In 20th century musical styles traditional forms and structures

were broken up and recreated or composed using non-Westernmusical techniques and abstract ideas. Most recently, the use of

computer technology has affected the world of music making.

Some ways in which computers currently alter the face of the

music world are by manipulating the performance of instruments

in real time.



y In European culture, one of the earliest records of dancing is by

Homer, whose "Iliad"; describes chorea

y The early Greeks made the art of dancing into a system, expressive

of all the different passions.

y The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, ranked dancing with poetry, and

said that certain dancers, with rhythm applied to gesture, couldexpress manners, passions, and actions.



y Pre-history of dancey Throughout history, people have danced

as part of religious rituals and social

celebrations. It is traceable through manyprehistoric documents. A brief outline

might include folk, social, ballroom,

religious, and experimental dance forms.



y 16th and 17th centuries: court dance

y Ballet rose out of the new philosophies and modes of

thought which were the basis of the Enlightenment.

y It was during the late 1500s that the court ballet came

into its own as a movement art, funded entirely by the

French monarchy for the purpose of extolling its own

greatness. The ballet were basically exercises in self-

exaltation by the French Court.



y 18th and 19th centuries: from court dancing toRomanticism

y By the 1700s ballet had migrated from the French

court to the Paris Opera. This ultimately resultedin costuming and choreography that was muchmore liberating to the dancer, and conducive to afuller use of the expressive capacity of the body.

y

The era of Romanticism in the early 1800s, withballets that focussed more on the emotions, thefantasy and the spiritual worlds, heralded thebeginning of true pointe-work.

y It was during this period that the ascending star of

the ballerina quite eclipsed the presence of thepoor male dancer, who was in many cases reducedto the status of a moving statue, present only inorder to lift the ballerina.



y Early 20th century: from ballet to contemporarydance

y Since the Ballets Russes began revolutionising ballet inthe early 20th century, there have been continued

attempts to break the mould of classical ballet.y It was during the explosion of new thinking and

exploration in the early 20th century that danceartists began to appreciate the qualities of theindividual, the necessities of ritual and religion, the

primitive, the expressive and the emotional.y Most of the early 20th century modern

choreographers and dancers saw ballet in the mostnegative light. Isadora Duncan thought it most ugly,nothing more than meaningless gymnastics.

y The twentieth century was indeed a period ofbreaking away from everything that ballet stood for.It was a time of unprecedented creative growth, fordancers and choreographers. It was also a time ofshock, surprise and broadening of minds for thepublic.



y Late 20th century: growth of contemporary dance

y Post modernism veered towards simplicity, thebeauty of small things, the beauty of untrainedbodies, and unsophisticated movement.Unfortunately lack of costumes, stories and outertrappings do not a good dance show make, and itwas not long before sets, shock value re-entered

the vocabulary of modern choreographers.y By the 1980s dance had come full circle and

modern dance was clearly still a highly technicaland political vehicle for many practitioners.Existing alongside classical ballet, the two art-forms were by now living peacefully next door toone another with little of the rivalry andantipathy of previous eras.

History of Music and Dance

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