The document provides an overview of the beginnings of Western music, including ancient Greek and Roman music as well as medieval and Renaissance periods. It discusses the earliest known musical composition, the Song of Seikilos from ancient Greece. Gregorian chant is described as the dominant sacred music of the Middle Ages, influenced by the Christian church. Secular music such as troubadour songs also existed. The Renaissance saw the rise of secular forms like the madrigal and mass as prominent composers including Palestrina, Morley, and Weelkes emerged.

1. THE BEGINNINGS OF
WESTERN MUSIC
Unit 1

2. LETS WARM UP
Seikilos
Translation:
While you live, be happy
Don’t suffer at all:
Because life is short
and times demands its
toll ( time leads to death)

3. SONG OF SEIKILOS
• Also know as seikilos epitaph
• Th oldest preserved complete musical composition in
the word
• Found engraved on a tombstone near Aydin, turkey in
1883
• The song is ancient Greek and is thought to be written
by a man named seikilos for his wife euterpe

4. THE BEGINNING OF WESTERN MUSIC
• It was used in religious and secular activities such
as:
Worship
Wedding
Funerals
Festivals
Theatrical performance
Athletic games
Painting
Sculptures

5. MUSIC OF ANCIENT GREEK
• Among the ancient civilizations, the Greeks left behind the most
substantial amount of surviving evidence about their music.
• Records of their music were found in their literary, philosophical,
and scientific writings.
• Visual images of music being played and musicians at the time
were found on potteries and relief sculptures.
• There were also some musical instruments and notations that
have been recovered and preserved!

6. ANCIENT GREEK THOUGHTS AND
WRITINGS 'ON MUSIC
• The musical theories, concepts, and practices of the
Western culture were deeply rooted from Greeks.
• The mathematical ratios of the basic musical as octave,
filth, and fourth were founded on the theory of
Pythagoras a Greek philosopher and mathematician.
• The use of musical scale built from tetrachord and
modes; and musical terms such as harmony, rhythm,
lyric, hymn are all from Greek origin.

7. LETS KEEP IN MIND
• hymn - is a religious song or poem in praise or honor of God or
gods.
• tetrachord - is a set of four notes.
• Mode - is the sequence of tones like scales, each having a
unique pattern.
• Scale - is a series of notes arranged from lowest to highest to
denote the pitches of a mode or a key.
• Meter - is the groupings of pulses or beats into regular, recurring
patterns.

8. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•aulos was a musical wind
instrument with a body
consisting of a circular pipe
with finger holes cut down on
its length and furnished with a
mouth piece. Aulos

9. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•This instrument was
made from reed, cane,
ivory, and sometimes
metal and usually comes
as two auloi jointed
together at the
mouthpiece to create a
richer sound.
Aulos

10. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•It was used in the worship of
Dionysus, the Greek god of
fertility and wine. It was also
used to accompany the
singing of poems in festivals
and performance of
tragedies in theaters Aulos

11. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•The lyre and its
larger version, the
kithara, Were
stringed musical
instruments
resembling a harp.
lyre

12. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•Their parts consisted of
a crossbar and a
tailpiece where seven
Strings of equal length
stretched in between,
framed Dy two upright
arms or horns. lyre

13. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•it was linked to the cult of
Apollo, the Greek god of light,
learning, and the arts. E Was
used to accompany rituals,
dancing, singing, and
recitation of epic poetry both
in public and private
gatherings.
lyre

14. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•was a traditional pot-like drum
instrument usually made from
clay or metal, and covered with
animal skin at the sides.
• It was often used as an
accompaniment to traditional
Greek folk songs.
toubeleki

15. ANCIENT GREEK MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
• was a string instrument that has a
flat front decorated with pearls.
• the instrument was played with a
plectrum, a thin flat piece of plastic
or shell which is usually used to pick
the strings of the instrument.
• The bouzouki produces a sharp
metallic sound. bouzouki

16. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MUSIC
OF ANCIENT GREECE
•The music of ancient Greece was mainly
monophonic, a style of musical composition
consisting of a single voice or melodic line without
harmonic accompaniment.
•The melody and rhythm were basically linked to
the rhythm and meter of the lyrics. The melodies
were also heavily ornamented and performers
would improvise around it.

17. MUSIC OF ANCIENT ROME
•The music established by the Greeks
continued to exist in ancient Rome.
• The Romans embraced the music of the
Greeks but made some modifications
according to their preferences and social
needs.

18. MUSIC OF ANCIENT ROME
• Music was heard during religious rituals such as funerals
and used at sacrifices to ward oft evil influences.
• Music in the Roman Empire also flourished in theatrical
performances, athletic games, and other secular
activities but it did not leave significant contributions to
the music theory as there are no surviving Roman
musical any s literary works adapted to music during the
empires supremacy.

19. ANCIENT ROMAN MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
•Roman counterpart of the
Greek aulos, was used for
religious ceremonies,
military parades, and the
staging of tragedies and
comedies.
Tibia

20. ANCIENT ROMAN MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
a long straight trumpet
with detachable funnel-
shaped mouthpiece,
were also used for
religious ceremonies
and military signals.
tuba

21. ANCIENT ROMAN MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT
a large G-shaped circular
horn, and its smaller
version, the buccina. Both
of these were used as
accompaniments for
public events and
entertainments
cornu

22. SACRED MUSIC IN MIDDLE AGES

23. INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH
• Music of the Middle Ages, also known as Medieval
music, flourished from 400 to 1450.
• It was also the period when the Christian Church
became heavily involved in secular society in the
Western world, attaining enormous influence in their
politics, culture, and the arts.
• As a result of its influence, music in this era was
mainly sacred or religious and performed for church
purposes.

24. INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH
•Thus it is not surprising that notable musicians
from this period were priests or laypersons
serving the church.
•Medieval church music, most pieces of which
are still preserved, are traditionally considered
by music historians as the foundation of what is
now known as classical music. mars

25. GREGORIAN CHANT
• Gregorian chant, the best-known type of a plainchant or
plainsong religious music during the Medieval period.
• It is sung in unison without accompaniment and without
meter.
• The music of the Gregorian chant was rhythmically free-
flowing and monophonic in texture.
• The chant was named after Pope Gregory 1 (540-604)
who was credited to have collected and established the
chants in the church services during his reign.

26. GREGORIAN CHANT
• Its melodies were set to sacred n texts meant to enhance the
church services. The text settings of the Chants syllabic,
neumatic, and melismatic.
• syllabic when there is a singe o Sung melodiously to one
syllable;
• neumatic when there is a combination of two or four notes
per syllable;
• melismatic when there is a blending of at least five or more
notes (melisma) per syllable.

27. SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS
DURING THE PERIOD
Advent of Notation
• in ancient times, chants were usually learned by ear
and memorization, and passed on orally. But in order
to disseminate and duplicate their correct
performance, musicians started developing and
writing notation, adding to it signs called neumes.
• A neume is a musical symbol which designates one to
four notes to a single syllable.

28. SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS
DURING THE PERIOD
•Arezzo was credited for devising a system of
writing music on several parallel horizontal lines
representing a fixed pitch, which evolved into
what is now called the staff or staves.

29. SOLMIZATION
• the act, practice, or system of using syllables to
denote the tones of a musical scale.

30. ORGANUM
• a plainchant melody with at least one
added voice to enhance the harmony

31. LETS KEEP IN MIND
• Plainsong or plain chant - a body chant or
monophonic and rhythmically unmeasured style in
liturgical services of the western church.
• Texture – a musical element that focuses on the
number of melodic lines sounded together in a piece
of music
• Part writing – the composition of parts
consideration of harmony and counterpoint

32. SECULAR MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

33. SECULAR MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE
AGES
•Included love songs, political satire,
dances, and dramatical works, but also
moral subjects, even religious but just not
for church use.
•Performed in castles, courts, taverns and
other entertainment places

34. SECULAR MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE
AGES
A HUGE NUMBER OF
SECULAR MUSIC WAS
HEARD FROM AND
SPREAD BY THE
TRAVELING MUSICIANS.
SOME SECULAR MUSIC
WAS PLAYED TO
ACCOMPANY DANCES
SUCH AS ESTAMPIE.

35. MUSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
• Troubadours – they are the nobles and poet musicians
of southern and northern France.
• Goliards – wandering students and clerics satirizing the
church
• Jongleurs – nomadic entertainers who performed tricks
and acrobats
• Minnesingers - German musicians to the nobility. The
songs of this musicians talks about love, politics,
crusade, and simple everyday life.

36. MAIN INSTRUMENTS OF MIDDLE
AGES
VIELLE
BAGPIPE REBEC

37. COMPOSERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
•a German Benedictine nun,
poet, and visionary,
canonized as a saint in 2012.
•She wrote music for the
liturgy in the form of hymns,
antiphons, and sequences.
Hildegard of Bingen
(1098-1179)

38. COMPOSERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
•two choirmasters in the
Cathedral of Notre Dame
known for their
overelaborate style of
organum.
• Their music had very clear
meter and they started to
notate rhythms.
Leonin and Perotin
(c. 1200-1300),

39. COMPOSERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
•a French priest and poet.
His well-known
composition is the "Messe
de Notre Dame" or "Notre
Dame Mass," considered as
the earliest polyphonic
setting of the Mass.
Guillame De Machaut
(c. 1300-1377),

40. COMPOSERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
• the most notable trouveres in the thirteenth
century was Adam de la Halle (c. 1250-1306).
• He was known to write both monophonic and
polyphonic music.
• His most famous work is the Jeu de Robin et
Marion or The Play of Robin and Marion, a pastoral
play about a knight's courting of a shepherdess.
• He brought together popular songs, instrumental
melodies, and dances in the piece. The piece is
considered to be the first opera and the earliest
French dramatic work.
ADAM DE LA HALLE

41. RENAISSANCE PERIOD

42. RENAISSANCE PERIOD
•During this period, secular music became
equally significant to sacred music
•Composers started using word painting in which
music represent the meaning of the words or
lyrics
•The two leading musical forms of church music
were the motet and mass
•The most prominent secular music was the
madrigal.

43. MOTET AND MASS
• The two leading musical forms of church music in the Renaissance
were the motet and the mass.
• Both are vocal works set to sacred Latin texts.
• The mass, which has unchangeable portions called the mass ordinary,
is usually set to music.
• Parts of the Mass generally set to music are the "Kyrie," "Gloria,"
"Credo," "Sanctus," and "Agnus Dei."
• The motet, on the other hand, uses text other than the ordinary of
the Mass.

44. THE FOLLOWING ARE PARTS OF THE MASS
GENERALLY SET TO MUSIC WITH THEIR
CORRESPONDING FIRST LINE IN ENGLISH.
“Kyrie “ “Lord have mercy”
“Gloria” “Glory to god in the
highest”
“Credo” “Creed”
“Sanctus” “Holy”
“Agnus dei” “Lamb of god”

45. MADRIGAL
•Originated in Italy, madrigals are nonreligious
polyphonic and homophonic vocal work usually
about love set in various languages.
• Famous madrigals of the Renaissance were
written in Italian and English texts.
•English madrigals are known to be comical and
simple compared to their Italian counterpart.

46. NOTABLE COMPOSERS IN
RENAISSANCE PERIOD
• was an Italian composer who served both as
choirmaster and organist at St. Peter's
Basilica in Rome.
• He is known for writing motets and over a
hundred masses, of which the most famous
is the "Missa Papae Marcelli" or "Pope
Marcellus Mass.“
• His works, particularly his masses, are
admired for their interweaving melodies
that create charismatic harmonies.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
(c. 1525-1594)

47. NOTABLE COMPOSERS IN
RENAISSANCE PERIOD
• an organist, composer, and music publisher,
regarded as the chief English expounder of the
Italian madrigal tradition.
• He wrote his compositions in two distinct styles that
can be divided chronologically: his initial works
resonate the English style which were broadly and
heavily polyphonic; while his later works manifest
the Italian madrigal style which were known for his
use of unconstraint, informal melodies and textural
clarity.
• Among his popular madrigals are "Fire, Fire, My
Heart" and "Now is the Month of Maying."
Thomas Morley
(1557-1602),

48. NOTABLE COMPOSERS IN
RENAISSANCE PERIOD
• Weelkes was noted for his use of word
painting and chromaticism.
• His madrigals are known for their lively
rhythms, imagery, and expressiveness
and are said to have stronger links to
the English musical tradition.
• Both Morley and Weelkes are known
for madrigals that speak about the joys
and sorrows of romantic love.
Thomas Weelkes
(1576-1623).

49. PERFORMANCE TASK
• Form groups of five people and select one of these
songs to perform in front of the class on the next
meeting.
• Seikilos
• Ube caritas
• Green sleeves (traditional English folk song)
• Fire fire my heart – Thomas Morley