I chose Alapan from Sitar, Sarode and Tabla. While listening to this song the musical element that stood out the most was harmony. Harmony is the sound of two or more pitches occurring at the same time. The harmony in this song seems very consonant. The harmony isn’t harsh at all, it just flows together. Timbre is also an element that came to mind when listening to this song. I couldn’t tell exactly what instrument was being used. However, the instruments being used all stood apart from each other. They gave the song a unique sound, especially the keyboard sounding instrument.

The second song I listened to was Kyrie from The Pope Marcellus Mass. This song just like the other one has a consonant harmony. The voices meshed together easily and didn’t sound abrupt. Another element I observed was the texture, this is the way music is fitted together. This element was harder to pick out. It required more analysis of the song. I had to listen to the song and find the layers of the voices. After listening to the song I heard the biophony. At one point in the song, the biophony was very easy to hear. The two different lines were heard but gave off the same melody.

I chose the two pieces: Kyrie(monophonic) and Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass, and while listening to both pieces I made sure to have the musical elements in mind. I did have some expectations for both, for example that the monophonic piece wouldn’t have Some that came up during the monophonic Kyrie piece was that the texture was a monophony(a single musical line with accompaniment). This was because there was the same lyrical line with no instruments for support, and “Even though many voices or instruments might be involved, as long as all are sounding the exact same line, the texture is monophonic.” The Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass, started off with a single voice, then others started joining in at different times, all singing the same line(showing that it was a polyphony texture), with a consonant harmony as it sounded pleasing to the ear when the lower pitched voices combined with the higher pitched ones. The single melody was picked out right in the beginning, low (perhaps piano) to a forte or fortissimo, letting me know what to expect in the coming parts, as the line was sung by multiple people.

For the two songs, my thought process for both was I would essentially go into them blind. I wouldn’t research them about their history or anything, I would go by my first impression, which was that they were going to be without instrumentals and that the music is most suited for church mass. When I started listening to each piece, I jotted down a list of notes to come back to as I wrote my response. The basics of which was how I felt about each piece, which musical elements I could pick out, and simple definitions, making sure to refer back to either the textbook or my worksheet for notes on particularities.

Three musical elements that stood out to me while listening to these examples were melody, harmony, and texture. Melody is known as a unit of pitches sounded in succession (one after another). Harmony is the sounding of two or more pitches at the same time. Texture refers to how different musical parts fit together. The two listening examples that stood out to me were, Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Missa cum Jubilo: Kyrie by Anonymous. 

Once I listened to, Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass by Giovanni, the first element I thought of was the harmony between the high pitched voices accompanied by the lower-pitched voices in the background. While closely listening to the voices that correlate with each other we get a sense of a type of consonant, which includes men and women singing. Consonant refers to the pleasing sound of two or more pitches. Giovanni uses a single melody accompanied by the range of pitches used at the same time. The melody provides a scale that forms the basis of melody gaps between pitches known as the major (bright) and minor (dark). Finding the texture in this piece wasn’t easy. After closely listening, I came to the conclusion that it must be a polyphony because of the different lines being sung simultaneously. This musical piece is sung in a church and if we listen closely we are able to hear the echo of the voices within the church. 

Listening to the second musical piece, Missa cum Jubilo: Kyrie by Anonymous is also a song that would be sung at a church. The composer of this piece includes men with low pitched voices harmonizing together the type of melody they are providing. The range of the pitches throughout most of the song repeats and it includes conjunct and disjunct distances. This piece gives off mysterious and dark feelings. The harmony between these voices is very dissonant. Its texture is a type of monophony because it involves men singing the same type of musical line over and over again. 

The Romantic Period, 1830’s to the 1900’s, was a period in time where many artists really went out of their comfort zone and experimented with different instruments that we still play today. There were a lot of dramatic contrasts in sounds. The thing that excites me about this period is there were a lot of instruments invented that we have updated and still use today. For example the saxophone was invented during the Romantic period.

A historical event that occurred during the Romantic period was industrialization, and the American civil war. There were a lot of new inventions , such as new instruments and even new genres of music.

The composer I chose from this period was Franz Liszt. He was a Hungarian composer, pianist, organist, etc in the Romantic period. The piece is chose was Liebestraum No.3. In the beginning of the song, it started off very slow and peaceful, then towards the middle, the piano started to get more intense. Then towards the end of the song it gets slow again. I really like this piece as it’s like riding a rollercoaster throughout the whole song.

The Classical Period was an era of great enlightenment from 1730-1820 and generally thought of when you think about olden music. This time intrigues me because of how golden that time was, everything was developing, it was surely a time of great prosperity with different inventions and great figures. There were different laws passed, organized government, and overall exponential growth towards political, social and economic aspects of the age. I happen to be really interested in classical music in general because it is what I was told to learn when I started playing the piano. It really stems from classical music, to get better, classical music was the way to go.

The textbook describes the music to be an “international” style that originated from German and Italian tastes. Music as a whole was growing in popularity going into public performances and expanding into symphonies and other new instrumental types. However, there were always three main composers that were well known throughout the classical era: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

I chose Beethoven because he’s background is pretty unique and his music is grand. As one of the greatest composers during that era, he went completely deaf, but he had to experience that gradually as he aged. However, he still managed to create amazing pieces like the Symphony No.5 with its many different tones from the feeling of urgency to a slow comeuppance which could have originated from his fear of going deaf. His music does sound like what I expected, it sounds “classical”, there is no other way to put it. For me, I have only known it to be classical, so there wasn’t a certain expectation of listening to music.

“The Medieval Period (or Middle Ages) refers to European history from the 5th-century collapse of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance (ca. 1430)” as stated in the textbook. During this type period, this music was used in a more “Church” type of setting. Obviously when you hear church, you think of calm music because that is a place for God. Well, that is the type of music it was!

One thing I noticed was that the music had multiple voices and they all were singing at about the same pace. Neither of them had sudden changes or paces that were suddenly fast. They all had the same voice and softness as they all went along with the next to create that relieving type of feeling. The music started off as being a single vocal line music, but around 850, “scribes began to write down the texts and melodies in manuscripts.” Later, these same single vocal lines turned into more as new original ideas and melody lines were added. That was known as polyphony which was “The practice of writing several independent melodies that sound at the same time.” Polyphonic music expanded greatly during the Renaissance period. 

Many artists during the Medieval Period were Hildegard von Bingen, Leonin, Perotin, and Guillaume de Machaut. They were known as troubadours. This word usually refers to poets, composers and musicians. Instruments, such as the vielle, harp, psaltery, flute, shawm, bagpipe, and drums were all used during the Middle Ages. I felt like all these instruments were nicely put together and no type of way was it overused to make a rough or annoying sound. 

The question that I had was if Arabic music still uses these types of beats and sounds? I was curious about this because I have listened to one of two arabic music and it sounded like it had a similar background beat. Also, I was curious to know if these beats are still used in cartoons? It sounds like a background sound that can still be used in cartoons at the beginning right before a character is about to speak. I don’t want to necessarily call them beats because it didn’t have any sharp sounds or sounds that are fast in my ears, instead it gave more of a calming effect. This music definitely is very peaceful and it brings back thoughts of the times with kings and queens living in a mansion and how in disney movies, when the kings and queens are called for a gathering. The music sounds very friendly and gives a very happy and positive feeling.  It seems like a very soothing type of music. Also, I would like to further know why this music closely sounds like the music during the renaissance period? I am not sure if this is only for me or if others can relate to it as well. I believe that during this time many events occurred such as the Treaty of Verdun which was when there was a division of the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms among the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, who was the sons of Charlemagne. This happened during 843 AD during the middle ages. Another event during this period was The Great Famine which was during 1315-1317 AD and known as a mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1849.

This is definitely not the type of music I listen to, but after listening to “Medieval music – Troubadour love song by Gaucelm Faidit ”, I noticed his voice sounds amazingly deep and mellifluous. Also, I listened to Medieval Dragon Music – Dragon Cliffs and the beats and instruments played reminded me of the sounds of games that I now play. I feel like this type of music is still played, but just goes unnoticed because they try to advance it and change it up, but the beauty of the music that was played before is still used now.

The Classical Period

This period if often referred to as the Enlightenment it ranged from 1730-1820’s. It is a combination of styles influenced by Germany and Italy. During this time lots of social change was occurring due to the Industrial revolution. This gave many middle class people the opportunity to enjoy the arts that they didn’t have access to before due to the lack of income. The addition of instruments in this era created they different layers of a musical piece. During this time period composers focused on a Thematic development which meant a greater use of different types of melodies and rhythm’s

A famous composer of this musical time period is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756– 1791), Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K. composed in (1772) is an example of “Salzburg symphonies”. During this piece the listener can hear different types of instruments that are being played at the same time at different ranges which is further showing an example of the thematic development.

The Renaissance Period was a time of rebirth. This period was drastically different from the medieval period, in which not much progress in science was made. This renaissance period renewed interest in Roman and Greek music. In addition, as the Church was one of the biggest organizations in Europe during the time, much of the music that has been preserved is Church music. Most of the music preserved is also just vocal, as people of the time didn’t write down instrumental parts as they believed that it should just be improvised. One important event that happened during this period was the Protestant Reformation, a protest of the Church in which Martin Luther and others were fighting against the sale of indulgences, which allowed rich people to basically buy away their sins.
One of the most famous composers of this period was William Dufay. He composed a melody known as the cantus firmus. This was when he placed another melody in a tenor line. He used both secular and sacred melodies, but the church eventually banned the use of secular melodies, due to Protestant reformation.