ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF THE MUSICAL LENGUAGE OR MUSICAL NOTATION SYSTEM OF WESTERN MUSIC.

1. ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF THE MUSICAL LENGUAGE OR MUSICAL NOTATION SYSTEM OF WESTERN MUSIC. “HISTORY OF CLASSICAL MUSIC TRADITIONS” IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL.

2. PREHISTORY MUSIC. • The question of the origin of music is difficult to answer. • Explanations of the origin of music depend on how music is defined. • Somepeople suggest that the origin of the music was in natural sounds and rhythms. • If we assume that music is a form of intencional emotional manipulation, music as we know it was not possible until the onset intencionality. • Between 60.000 and 30.000 years ago, humans started creating art in the form of paintings on cave walls. • These new forms of behaviour reflect the emergence of intencionality. • It´s possible that the first musical instrument was the human voice and afterwards they used flute and percussion instrumental with stones and sticks.

3. PAINTINGS ON CAVE WALLS.

4. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

5. ANCIENT MUSIC. • The earliest form of the musical notation can be found in cuneiform tablet that was created at Iraq in about 2.000 B.C. • The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music. • The interpretation of this notation system is still controversial.

6. CUNEIFORM WRITING.

7. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL NOTATION. 1.Music was an important part of education and boys were studing music starting at age six. 2.Music was an importan part of cultural and social life in Ancient Greece.The music was used in entertaiments, celebration and spiritual ceremonies. 3.Music means for them: “Art of muse”. (In Greek mithology) and “art with divine origin”. 4.The “music” word had an extensive signification. It included: sounds, rtythms and dance.

8. The principal characteristics are: -It´s an alphabetical system. -The musical transmision was oral or verbally. -They made the scales using the four cords of the lyre. -They discovered the fundamentals intervals (octave,fourth and five) with the monochord. It was invented by Pythagoras. • The scales were descendent. • They had musical modes and a modal system. • They united two tetrachords and it formed an scale. • The music was monophonic. • They created the teleion system.

9. The diferent names of the scales were: • Dorian, lydian, locrian and prygian.

10. MONOCHORD

11. MEDIEVAL TIMES. • Byzantine music is vocal religious music based on the monodic modal singing of Ancient Greece. • Western Music History can be traced back to medieval times. • The Medieval Music starts with the introduction of chanting (later termed Gregoriant chant) into the Catholic church services.

12. NEUMES. • A form of notation in Europe began to develop in monasteries for Gregoriant chant, using symbols known as neumes.

13. NEUMES.

14. STAFF AND CLEFS • Staff was introduced, consisting originally an inexistent single horizontal line. • After it was painted with red colour. • Its name was “dry points line”. • But this was progresivelly extended until a system of four parallel horizontal lines, six and finally five lines were standardized. • They used the clefs. • After they used quadrat notation.

15. THE NAME OF THE NOTES. • Guido D,Arezzo (a benedictine monk) taugth the use of Solmization sylables based on a hymn to Saint John the Baptist. • He used the first syllable of each line: Ut, re , mi, fa, sol, la,si.

16. QUADRAT OR SQUARE NOTATION.

17. THE END. • TEACHER: AMALIA GIL HEAD.