Date: 27 September 2006 01:00:42
A very interesting, and extremely informative, fourth session of How Music Works: we now have a two week break, to coincide with the school holidays.
We started off looking at the minor scale, which was preceded by a short, and entertaining, history of modes. In ancient Greece, it was thought that playing pieces in certain modes would invoke certain emotions -- for example the Phrygian mode was thought to inspire enthusiasm and the Mixolydian mode made you sad. Pieces written in the minor key are often sad: an effect that can be given with low and slow pieces. As an example, our teacher played Chopin's Funeral March at the same speed but in the major key: it did sound noticably less solemn.
This was followed by an overview of the Pythagorean comma and the solution the West found to this, Equal Temperament. The Chinese had been long aware of this, as they seem to have been with most things, and developed a different solution. I will say, although we only got a small overview, it was complicated enough for me -- physics and maths come into it: so it was good to have our break after it to recover! But it is very interesting, to me at least, as to how these things were discovered, and the fact that physics is so intertwined with music.
After the break we had a description, via words and pieces, of texture: looking at Monophony, Homophony, Polyphony and Homoryhythm. Pieces ranging from Happy Birthday to one of the Brandenburg Concertos to a song from Les Misérables to Passion Chorale (which became the hymn O Sacred Head, sore wounded) from the St Matthew Passion were played so that we could experience what all these terms meant in reality. We also got an interesting exercise where we attempted to listen to the different layers of a piece of music: it was hard going, as in polyphonic pieces a lot is happening, but it was rewarding to catch a glimpse, however small, of everything that is going on.
As has happened throughout this course, my mind simply boggles at the talent and the genius of composers who have made such wonderful works. And to be able to compose works with so many layers: amazing. Truly amazing.