Just for Laughs

Hello Everyone:

This is a follow-up to the Dark Ages post. These clips are just for fun.

Monty Python: This is a clip making fun of plainchant.





And this is just plain tacky. I watched the entire clip waiting for the punchline, and it never happened. These people are serious. I have sat through a lot of pretty horrific stuff (30 minutes of radio static passed off as "modern music", 3 hours of romantic piano without a stretch break), but this one might just take the cake. Enjoy!

The Fall of Rome, The Church, and Music In the Dark Ages

Historians think that music continued in a similar style to the Epitaph of Seikilos throughout the time of the Roman Empire.

After years of decline, the Western portion of the Roman Empire (Europe), fell in 476 AD when the Visigoths defeated Romulus Augustulus, the last of the Western Roman Emperors. Note: The Eastern Empire, with its capital in Constantinople, survived until 1453 AD.

The time period from the fall of Rome until about 800 AD is referred to as the Dark Ages. During this time, much of the knowledge of the Ancient Greeks and Romans was lost in Europe. The officials of the Roman Catholic Church were the only large group of educated people in Europe. They kept some of the knowledge of the Greeks and Romans, including music, alive.

The style of music used in church services during the dark ages is known as plainchant. Plainchant continued to be refined and developed slowly throughout the dark ages and well into the Middle Ages (circa 1100 to 1453 AD). Plainchant is still sung today be religious orders. We will study plainchant and the role of the dark age church in greater detail during class. For now, listen to the examples below, and answer the following questions in your blog responses:

1. Is this music monophonic?

2. What language do you think they are singing in?

3. Have you ever been to a service at a church or synagogue that used plainchant? If so, tell us about it in few sentences.

4. In what grade did you study the dark ages in history/social studies class?

5. Does this music sound religious or spiritual to you? (Yes or No) Why?

More Ancient Greek Music

The following posts are extra examples of music in Ancient Greece. They are not homework.

Extra #1: Lament

The Oldest Known Western Music

Western music as we understand it today, began in Ancient Greece. There is much evidence supporting the idea that music was important throughout Ancient Europe, but it is only in the ruins of Ancient Greece that we find fully notated examples that we can recreate and study. Written accounts and opinions of music in Ancient Greece can be found in the works of Plato (d. circa 347 BC), Aristotle (d. circa 322 BC), and Pythagoras (d. circa 490 BC) among others. Unfortunately, melodies were not notated prior to the first century AD. As a result, much of what we know about Ancient Greek music is in the form of theory rather than practice (the figured out the math of intonation, scales, etc.). What we can perform and listen to is comparatively modern: Approximately as much time passed between the death of the Plato and the earliest examples of notated music as has passed between the voyages of Columbus and the present day. Keep the limitations of our knowledge in mind as we explore this music. Posted here are two versions of the Epitaph of Seikilos, the oldest surviving and fully-notated example of ancient Greek music still in existence. View each, consider the facts below, and answer the questions in a single comment post. Note: The second example is a link to a youtube video.

Here are the facts:

1. It is for solo voice with lyre accompaniment, other instruments are added at the musician's discretion.

2. It is monophonic.

3. It is an epitaph.

4. It was written in the 1st century AD.

5. It is entitled Epitaph of Seikilos.

6. The Ancient Greeks laid the foundation (scales, theory, etc.) that all subsequent Western music is based upon. This is why such simple songs as these are an important part of the greater music history picture.

Each of you answer the following questions in your comment posting:

1. What does the term "monophonic" mean?

2. What is a lyre?

3. What is an epitaph?

4. What does the fact that the ONLY known preserved piece of Ancient Greek music is an epitaph tell us about the place of music in our culture?

5. Name some historically significant events that occurred in the first century AD.

6. The lyrics are in the second example (youtube link). Re-write them in your own words.








Click This Link for Second Version.