History of music
Greek written history extends far back into Ancient Greece, and was a major part of ancient Greek theater. In ancient Greece, mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara.
Music was an important part of education in ancient Greece, and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created a flowering of development; Greek music theory included the Greek musical modes, eventually became the basis for Western religious music and classical music. Later, influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire changed Greek music.
The connection of the music environment of Greece with that of the European Renaissance can be traced mainly in Crete until 1669, where its vivid urban music benefited from the creative assimilation with the venetian culture. The most important musical figure of Crete was Fragiskos Leondaritis (Francesco Leondariti or Londariti), organist and composer of sacred and secular music. Another key-figure of that era was Ieronimos o Tragodistis (Hieronymus the Chanter), a Cypriot student of Gios. Zarlino, who flourished around 1571 and, among others, proposed a system that enabled medieval Byzantine chant to correspont to the current contrapuntal practices via the cantus firmus paraphrase. In the 18th century art music was mainly cultivated in Ionian Islands, where from 1733 opera became the most distinctive music genre. This dynamic had as a consequence in 19th century, composers like Nikolaos Mantzaros (Niccolo Calichiopulo Manzaro, 1795 - 1872), Spyridon Xyndas (1812 - 1896), Pavlos Karrer (Paolo Carrer, 1829-1896) and Spyros Samaras (1861 - 1917) to revitalize Greek art music. Instrumental music was also cultivated in 19th century by composers, such as Dionysios Rodotheatos from Ithaca and Dimitris Lialios from Patras, both of them adopting the -with the broader sense-wagnerian novelties in the style and aesthetics. In the first decade of 20th century, the social and historical conditions enabled the revisiting of nationalism in music by the composers of the so-called 'National School'. The prevailing current for 'national music' was that of Manolis Kalomiris, which eventually became wider accepted compared to that of Georgios Lambelet. 'National School' succeeded in concentrating under its aesthetic 'credo' composer with different backgrounds, such as Marios Varvoglis, Petros Petrides, Dimetrios Levidis, Aimilios Riadis or Antiohos Evagellatos. On the other hand, modernism made also its appearance with Nikos Skalkottas, a student of Arn. Schoenberg, being the most notable (and at the same time, neglected) representative. Dimitris Mitropoulos also contributed to the music literature of Greek modernism before committing himself to conducting. After the Second World War modernism began to prevail, with considerable difficulty, mainly because of the social and political conditions of the postwar period in Greece, as well as the dominance of the 'National School'. However, composers like Mihalis Adamis, Thodoros Antoniou, Iannis Xenakis, Y.A. Papaioannou and Janni Christou succeeded in giving new perspectives to such aesthetic ways. In the maintime, a strong current of populism related to the political conditions especially after 1949, as well as to the brief change of taste of the urban class and the initiation of the touristic enterprise in 1960s, enabled the gradual promotion of the popular song as the prevalent form, which the last decades has regretably become synonymous to 'Greek music', as a whole.
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Samples
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Pachelbel's Canon Pachelbel's Canon in D major is built on ground bass, a common method in the Baroque period. "Hallelujah" from Messiah The "Hallelujah" Chorus from Georg Frideric Handel's Messiah is an example of Baroque vocal music. - Problems playing the files? See media help.
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Sources
- ^ The origins of music Nils Lennart Wallin, Steven Brown, Björn MerkerISBN 0262731436
- ^ World Music: The Basics By Nidel Nidel, Richard O. Nidel (page 219)
- ^ World History: Societies of the Past By Charles Kahn (page 98)
- ^ World History: Societies of the Past By Charles Kahn (page 11)
- ^ World Music: The Basics By Nidel Nidel, Richard O. Nidel (page 10)
- ^ The Music of India By Jamila Massey, Reginald Massey (page 13)
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Further Reading
- Lee, Yuan-Yuan and Shen, Sinyan. (1999). Chinese Musical Instruments (Chinese Music Monograph Series). Chinese Music Society of North America Press. ISBN 1-880464039
- Shen, Sinyan (1987), Acoustics of Ancient Chinese Bells, Scientific American, 256, 94.
- Merker, Brown, Steven, eds. (2000). The Origins of Music. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23206-5.
- Reese, Gustave (1954). Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-09530-4.
- Bangayan, Phil, Bonet, Giselle and Ghosemajumder, Shuman (2002) Digital Music Distribution (History of the Recorded Music Industry), MIT Sloan School of Management.
- Hoppin, Richard H. (1978). Medieval Music. New York, W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-09090-6.
- Schwartz, Elliot and Godfrey, Daniel (1993). Music Since 1945. United States, Simon & Schuster Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-873040-2
- Kilmer, Crocker, Brown, Sounds from Silence, 1976, Bit Enki, Berkeley, Calif., LCC 76-16729.
- Helmholtz, Sensations of Tone Dover.
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External links
- The Dictionary of the History of Ideas see Music and Science, Music as a Demonic Art, Music as a Divine Art
- Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments
- Essentials of Music Classical Music eras, composers, glossary from Sony Music Entertainment
- Glossary of Musical Instruments & Styles and Quotes from OddMusic.com
- Historic American Sheet Music
- Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection popular American music, 1780-1960
- Musical History from the Smithsonian Institution, Encyclopedia Smithsonian
- Music History Resources at GeoCities.com
- Music History Time Lines from the Schuylkill Haven Elementary Center Music
- The Music History Webring
- The New Baroque and Renaissance Music Website at GeoCities.com
- National Music Museum from the University of South Dakota
- Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments from the University of Edinburgh
- Tim Gracyk's Phonographs and Old Records
- U.S. popular music timeline
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