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 ' ''