May 18, 2012, Friday

       A big thank you to all my readers
       for the wonderful comments I am
       receiving !!!!
       It is the best way to encourage!!!
       Evi Martyn
       Scroll down to read: "THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC"   
       *** If you wish to send your comments, please, go to
                               Evi Martyn guest book.

             

May 14, 2012

                           Continuing on the subject: " THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC "

                                      THE PERIODS OF MUSIC

1.    Prehistoric:

       At the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century
      B.C. we have the beginning of the GREEK TRAGEDY . This
      period marks an enormous ERA of great poets of COMEDY
      and TRAGEDY   ( 555-440 B.C.)

     Unfortunately, for the music in Ancient Greek Tragedy we do
     not have  saved works.  However, the Ancient Greek Tragedy
     has undoubtedly impressed many composers of Western Euro-
     pe, who wrote notable OPERAS based on Greek DRAMA.
                                        Some examples:
                 17th century / Claudio Monteverdi ( Italian composer)
                                         Opera: L'ORFEO which is regularly
                                                                         performed today
                 
                 18th  century / Christoph Gluck ( German composer)
                                         Opera:  ORFEO and EURIDICE

                 19th  century / Richard Wagner ( German composer)
                                          adopted Greek Drama in his operas.

                 20th  century / Richard Strauss  ( German composer)
                                          Opera: ELEKTRA based on Greek
                                                                           drama.

2.     ANCIENT MUSIC:     (2000-1200 A.D.)
                                  
        Byzantine Music: /  Music of the Byzantine Empire
        composed to Greek texts, as ceremonial, festival or religious
        church music.
        The Byzantine Music remains the oldest genre of extant
        music where the names of the composers are known. It is
        a very important Musical ERA particularly for the Othodox
        Christian Church, which has adopted the"Byzantine Chant"
        as part of its LITURGY.

 3.     Renaissance  1685-1757
             Baroque     1685-1750
                  Classical   1756-1791
                       Romantic  1833-1897
                            Post Romantic  1860-1911
                                 Impressionistic  1862-1918
                                     Twentieth Century  1891-1953

4.     The twelve tone Music:   (Arnold Schonberg, Igor Stravinski
                                                   Scott Bradley)

5.     Neoclassicism : ( Stravinski, Sergei Prokofieff, 
                                      Paul Hindemith ( my teacher) ***
       
        Futurism:  ( Filippo Tomasso, Luigi Ruscolo, etc.)  

6.     Electronic Music:  This music was developed post WW2 
                                        when magnetic tapes became 
                                        available for creating various sounds
                                        and then manipulating them in some 
                                        way.

7.     Jazz-influenced
        Classical composition:  ( Leonard Benrstein, 
                                                  Aron Copland, 
                                                  George Gershwin
                                                  Darius Milhaud
                                                  Maurice Ravel)      
*** Paul Hindemith and his wife Maria Landes Hindemith were my 
       teachers at the Hochschule fur Musik , in Munich Germany
       during my studies there. Fantastic teachers!!!!!                                        

                                                                                           Article by:  EVI MARTYN
                                                                                concert pianist
                                                               Hellenic Culture Advocate 

                          This segment concluded our subject   THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC.
                          We hope we gave you a concise illustration in short of the fantastic ART called
                                                                            '' ' MUSIC ' ''    

May 13, 2012  ( mothers day )
                                      I dedicate this article to my mother, who stood by me all those
                                      long and arduous years I was studying to be a musician.
                                                             Thank you mother!!


We continue on the subject  " THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC "  with what we feel is most
important to discuss, and that is " Old Instrumentation " .

We will present to our readers some of the findings of contemporary excavations and
what they brought to light.               
                                                                                              Article by :  EVI MARTYN
                                                                                                                   concert pianist

                                           OLD   INSTRUMENTATION

Old instruments date all the way back to the end of the ICE AGE.
We find wooden round  flutes with 3 or 5 holes.

One sound whistles made of reindeer bones are found in caves and rocks mixed with pictures of archers.

These findings are more prevalent in MESOPOTAMIA around
7.000 B.C. 

                        Findings in ancient Greece

The oldest Greek musical Instrument was found near the lake KASTORIA around 5.800 B.C.,  It is a flute --------
This flute was made of a large bone of a bird and produces
more than one sound ( musical note)   However!!

The oldest known bone flute is 25 thousand years old and it was found in the Slovanian cave DIVJE BABE in 1995.

In my article " The Origins of Music " dated  May 6,  I have posted a VIDEO  from my
lecture regarding this subject, Please, go to that date and click on the VIDEO to see
the display of OLD INSTRUMENTS  on the power point. Scroll down to find the date.
                   Greek, Egyptian, Middle Eastern, Russian, Roman, Chinese.
                                     
                                                                                                        Evi Martyn
                                                                 Hellenic Culture Advocate
To be continued:

The next segment will be dedicated to the PERIODS OF MUSIC.

May 12, 2012


PART TWO 
Subject:  " The Origins of Music"

        The Philosophy of Music,  a historical analysis

                    Credit goes to the Greek philosopher
                                    PYTHAGORAS
                                                         Article by: Evi Martyn

It is highly probable that the Greek initiates gained their knowledge of the philosophic and therapeutic aspects of Music from the Egyptians, who, in turn,
considered HERMES the founder of the Art.
According to one legend, this God constructed the first Lyre by stretching strings
across the concavity of a turtle shell.  Both Isis and Osiris were patrons of music and
poetry.  PLATO , declared that songs and poetry had existed in Egypt for  at least
ten thousand years.

The Lyre was regarded as the secred symbol of the human constitution, the body of
the instrument representing the physical form, the strings the nerves, and the musician the spirit.

While the early Chinese, Hindus, Persians, Egyptians, Israelites, and Greeks employed both vocal and instrumental music in their religious ceremonies, it was
PYTHAGORAS who raised the art to its true dignity by demonstrating its mathematical foundation.  Although he himself was not a musician, he is now generally credited with the diatonic SCALE.  ( check the 1996 discussion on Harmonics, Music, Pythagoras and the Universe from the Alexandria City,
            Ray Tomes, Andrew Green, Joseph Milne).
       *******************************************************************************************

The subject  Music is vast and I will continue with a PART THREE , where we will discuss
the Evolution of Music, Periods of Music, Instrumentation, vocal music etc.
Meanwhile, those of you who didn't see the VIDEO on" THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC"
please, click on:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL5gZjhqW74 from my lecture
May 15, 2011 and enjoy.
.

                                                                                        Evi Martyn : concert pianist
                                                                                          Hellenic Culture Advocate

May 6, 2012

                        THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC
                                                    Article by:  Evi Martyn


What would this world be without music??  Have you ever thought about it?
Why music is so important in the lives of people, in every culture, every nation, every corner
of the planet?? 
These are questions that often occupy the thoughts of so many of us!!

I will never forget the question that was put to me in one of my concert tours, when after my
performance, as I was receiving people in the artist's room, a lady came up to me with this:

It was in South America, in Buenos Ayres, when this strange lady who had attended my
concert came to greet me and said to me in loud clear voice:
           "  Ms. Martyn, what would this world be without music?? "

It made me think a lot. To us, musicians , music is a way of life, and we never think of the
tremendous impact that it has on others!!!  But the fact is that music , in so many ways ,
touches our soul, our spirit, and inspires us to create , innovate, and even dream, if you will,
and go on in life, it is the spice of life!!!

                                                MUSIC--ETYMOLOGY

The word music comes from the Greek "mousike" . It is ultimately derived from  "mousa"
the Greek word for " Muse".
In ancient Greece the word mousike was used to mean any of the Arts or sciences governed by the Muses.  Later in Rome mousike embrassed poetry as well as instrument oriented Music.
In the European middle ages was part of the mathematical quadrivium, arithmetics, geometry, astronomy, and musica.

                                                DEFINITION OF MUSE

In Greek mythology, poetry and literature Muses are the goddesses that inspire the creation of literature and the Arts. They were considered the source of knowledge, in poetic lyrics and myths. It leterally means " art" or " poetry".  The expression  " to carry a mousa" means
to excell in arts.
The muses are nine and I will give their names for the sake of the readers:
                               1.   Clio 
                               2.   Euterpe
                               3.   Thalia
                               4.   Calliope
                               5.   Polyhymnia
                               6.   Melpomene
                               7.   Erato
                               8.   Urania
                               9.   Terpsichore
From History we learn that there is a tenth Muse , Sappho of Lesbos, who was given the
compliment of being the tenth Muse by the great philosopher PLATO.

                                               ORIGINS  OF  MUSIC   

Music has a long and complex history.  It may predate language ( and certainly predates the written word) and is found in every known culture, past and present, varying wildly between  TIMES and PLACES.   
                         
                                 "  Music History "  is the distinct subfield of musicology and
                                     history which studies the History  of Music Theory."
The origin of Music is a part of human evolutionary history. In some cultures Music tries to
immitate natural sounds.
In some prehistoric cultures the primary function of Music was a defense, help to forget FEAR!, war cries, and military songs are used to raise confidence and to intimidate the
opponents.
Other examples are  Vocal gestural communications between a mother and infants, strengthen the bond between mother and the baby and help the infant to acquire LANGUAGE..

There is a lot to say , Music is a VAST subject, and today we are only discussing the Origins of Music.
To nelp you appreciate the subject I have posted my VIDEO on May 5, 2012 from a recent
lecture where you can see and hear a lot more.

   Click on :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL5bZjhqW74  to view  the lecture.

In a future article I will continue the OLD INSTRUMENTATION,  PERIODS  OF MUSIC
and many more interesting things that make the ART immortal.
                                                       
                                                                                               Evi Martyn
                                                                                               concert pianist,
                                                                                               Hellenic Culture Advocate

               " THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC "
                           By:  EVI MARTYN- concert pianist, lecturer, author
     
                                            An  Introduction                


For those who didn't see the VIDEO we posted on May 3, 2012 regarding my
lecture on the ORIGINS OF MUSIC, I strongly recommend you take a look at it.

It is a very concise  illustration of the beginning of musical sounds and development of the Musical Art that again has its origins in the eternal ancient
Greece.

The subject is vast and I am going to give only a brief illustration of the main
characters who discovered and created the early musical sounds and later deve-
loped the Muscical Art into a real science that has the undefeated and everlasting value through the Eons ( ages).

I would like, however, to preface my article about the ORIGINS OF MUSIC
with a very famous quote by the great Greek philosopher  PLATO, that has
impressed me so, as to carry it in all my programs of concerts I gave around the world.  Here is PLATO'S quote about Music:
                       
           " A MAN WHO HAS MUSIC IN HIS SOUL WILL BE MOST IN LOVE
              WITH THE LOVELIEST."
                                                                          PLATO
                                                                    From his "Republic" 

Please, stay in touch, my article will follow shortly.
                                                                           EVI  MARTYN



















                                                                                                                                                          






  


















                                                                                                                                                                      



































      

Thursday, May 3, 2012

         We are happy to announce that soon we will publish an
         article regarding  " THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC " authored
         by our Evi Martyn, that illustrates clearly the cradle of
         music being ancient Greece.

         As a prelude we are posting a VIDEO from her lecture on
         May 15, 2011, in Southern California where Ms. Martyn
         is expounding with fantastic details about the early years
         and the creation of musical sounds in the eternal ancient
         Greece                                                                                        Please, click on:
                       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL5bZjhqW74
         Enjoy.