Enjoyment of Music, Ess. Listening Ed. 4th Ed Chapter 12 Style & Function of Music in Society

1. CHAPTER 12
Style and Function of Music in
Society
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2. Musical Styles & Periods
• Music-adjectival form of
“Muse”
• Association with
astronomy, mathematics
• “Music of the Spheres”

3. The Nine Muses
• Daughters of Zeus
• Calliope Epic Poetry
• Clio History
• Uterpe Lyric Poetry
• Thalia Comedy, Pastoral Poetry
• Melopomene Tragedy
• Terpsichore Dancing
• Erato Love Poetry
• Polyhymnia Sacred Song
• Urania Astronomy

4. Musical Styles & Periods
• Style of music not confined to particular place or
time
• Named for historical period it is most associated
with
• Dates are approximate
• Technical factors, i.e.-system of notation, unknown
tuning of instruments, lack of recording-slowed
music’s development more so than art or literature

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Music serves different functions in different societies, Part 1
I. Music serves different functions in different societies
A. Genres: categories of repertoire
1. sacred music: religious purposes
2. secular music: outside religious context, entertainment
B. Genre vs. form
1. genre: suggests character and function (e.g., song, symphony)
2. form: internal structure of a work
3. medium: genre implies specific group that performs a work
4. title: indicates genre and key
a. cataloguing systems (e.g., opus number)
b. titles may be descriptive

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Music serves different functions in different societies, Part 2
C. Oral transmission: music preservation without written notation
1. ethnomusicologists study music in cultural context
D. Listening Guides focus: Western art music, “classical”
1. music of European and Euro-American society
2. notated, cultivated
3. vernacular music: “popular,” “traditional,” traditions in their own right

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Music serves different functions in different societies, Part 3

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Music serves different functions in different societies, Part 4

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Music serves different functions in different societies, Part 5

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The Concept of Style, Part 1
II. The Concept of Style
A. Style: distinctive features of any artwork
1. individualized treatment of musical elements
a. indicates creator’s personal manner of expression
2. Western music: melody-oriented with underlying harmonies
3. music of other cultures
a. abased on different musical systems

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The Concept of Style, Part 2

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Musical Styles in History

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The Concept of Style, Part 3
B. Musical Styles in History
1. historical periods: distinct stylistic characteristics
a. style of a period: total language of all its artists
b. political, economic, religious, and philosophical forces
C. Generally accepted style periods:
1. Middle Ages (400–1450)
a. Early Christian (400–600)
b. Gregorian chant (600–850)
c. Development of polyphony (850–1150)

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The Concept of Style, Part 4
2. Renaissance (1450–1600)
3. Baroque (1600–1750)
4. Classical (1750–1825)
5. Romantic (1820–1900), overlaps with Classical
6. Post-Romantic and Impressionist (1890–1915), overlaps with
Romantic
7. Twentieth century and beyond (1900–present), overlaps with
Post-Romantic and Impressionistic

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What to Listen For, Part 1
III. What to Listen For
A. Listening Guides, “What to Listen For” labels
1. enhanced listening: listen several times, focus on specific elements
2. listening practice: Trepak, by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
a. melody: short phrases, descending sequences, staccato notes
b. rhythm/meter: dancelike, duple meter
c. tempo: molto vivace, accelerando at end
d. dynamics: sudden changes from forte to piano, and sforzandos
e. instruments/timbre: violins play melody, strings and woodwinds take over
f. form: ternary (A-B-A)
g. harmony: B section travels away from tonic key, second A section returns to
tonic
h. texture: A section, homophonic texture; B section, contrapuntal activity
i. late Romantic: wide-ranging dynamics and tempos, large orchestra

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What to Listen For, Part 2

17. AETN: Humanities Through the Arts
The Age-Old Search for Meaning

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Credits
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of Music in Society”
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