Here Comes Treble: A Touch Of Musical History - Part One
In a magically enticing weave of poetry and prose, Isabel Bradley presents a brief and engaging history of music.
This is the first of three articles. The second in the series will appear in Open Writing next Wednesday, and the third on Wednesday, Sept 26. Do watch out for them.
The word madrigal was first used during the 13th Century to describe a secular, unaccompanied vocal composition for two or three voices in simple harmony. During the 19th Century, composers borrowed the definitions of earlier forms of music, using them as titles for instrumental works such Philippe Gaubert’s ‘Madrigal’ for flute and piano: (It is suggested that, where pieces of music are mentioned, listening to them will provide added pleasure.)
Madrigal
Inspired by Philippe Gaubert’s ‘Madrigal’
Listen now –
A story in music I’ll tell:
A magical tale,
told
by the spirits of composers
ancient and modern.
They sing in our hearts,
And through us they bring
A message to you from the past.
Melody and harmony
And,
Here and there,
A little dissension –
To add to the tension!
So open your souls,
Let the sounds pour in –
Join me today,
Let the musical saga
Begin!
“Sound is an ordinary, natural phenomenon; music, on the other hand, is the result of man’s conscious development of sound into an art and a science.” All music is based on “rhythm, tonality, dynamics and timbre”. (All quotations are from The Book of Music, by ‘many contributors’, edited by “G.R.”, published in 1977.)
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary:
‘Rhythm’ is ‘the aspect of musical composition concerned with periodical accent and the duration of notes’ – in other words, counting.
‘Tonality’ is defined as ‘the relationship between the various musical tones or sounds…’ – in other words, the higher and lower sounds.
‘Dynamics’ are ‘the varying degrees of volume in a piece of music’ – the louds and softs and everything in-between.
Lastly, ‘timbre’ (a French word) can be defined as ‘the distinctive – or identifying – sound of a particular musical voice or instrument’.
“…there is hardly a period in history or a race of people on Earth which cannot boast some sort of musical tradition…” although “the weight of interest for most music-lovers … is … centred in European art music.” (Once again, from The Book of Music)
Primitive cultures all used musical instruments, probably starting with the voice wavering away from speech, first into chanting and then into singing. This may have been suggested by people hearing with delight the simple songs of birds, and trying to imitate them – and finding that the human voice can do so much more than that of a bird! Stringed instruments may have grown out of the twanging of an arrow leaving the bow; percussion instruments, such as pot-drums, originated perhaps in the accidental banging of earthenware containers; early wind instruments possibly began with someone idly blowing into a hollow stick.
Music is created by vibrations – strings being plucked or having a bow drawn across them, vellum being banged upon, or a column of air within a tube set to vibrating.
The pitch of an instrument – how deep or high it sounds, depends on the length of string or tube: the longer it is, the deeper the sound it produces.
This ’touch of history’ concentrates on the growth of European art music – what the general public would refer to as ‘classical’, or ‘serious’ music; though it is not all classical, neither is it all serious!
Our story begins with the pan-pipes in Ancient Greece – an instrument which is still played. Mythology tells the tale of how the first pan-pipes came to exist. Claude Debussy, a French Impressionist composer at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, wrote a piece for solo flute, which tells the tale in music. It is called ‘Syrinx’:
Syrinx and Pan
Inspired by Claude Debussy’s ‘Syrinx’
In the spring-time of our world,
In sunshine pure and golden,
There lolled the satyr,
Pan,
Beside a stream
Upon the greenest, softest bank.
He sat and dreamed alone…
Nearby, the wood-nymph,
Syrinx,
Unaware of horned and hoofed half-man,
Sang her song of joy.
Pan heard her silver sounds,
Sat up,
Shook pointed ears,
Yawned
And stretched,
Put cloven foot upon the ground.
All unaware,
Sweet Syrinx went her dainty way.
Half-beast, half-man,
Pan
Followed.
Spying his shadowed form
Stalking through leafy glade,
Poor wood-nymph, trembling and afraid,
Ran –
She ran from Pan,
Who followed, fleet of foot,
Stretched out his hand –
He almost had her –
“Save me, dear gods of the river,”
she cried in despair.
And,
As Pan’s hand clasped her waist,
She vanished.
He held,
In her place,
A handful of reeds…
Poor Pan,
Poor lonely half-beast half-man,
In his grief
Snapped the reeds,
And bound the pieces together.
Sad and sweet,
On silvery pipes,
His heartbroken sobs
Echo
Through misty, mysterious time.
All of the ancient peoples - Greeks, Romans and Jews among many others – used song and chanting, with the accompaniment of various instruments to enhance their religious ceremonies and secular plays. Poet-musicians, over many centuries, became wondering troubadours and minstrels, carrying the news of the day across Europe in the form of poetry and song. Royal courts used music and song to emphasise the pomp and circumstance of state occasions. The Church used chanting and pipe organs in its ceremonies, and to this day, Gregorian chants are well-known and still used by monks and nuns.
During the periods of Mediaeval and Renaissance Europe, the foundations of the music we listen to today were laid: polyphony, where two or more tunes interweave, grew in popularity. While slaughtering the infidel and running amok through Europe and the Middle East, the Crusaders heard Turkish martial music and returned home with the rhythm of the march to add to the mixture.
There we shall leave our miniature musical history until next time... “Here comes Treble!”
To Be Continued
By Isabel Bradley © copyright reserved
