historical analysis

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some more good questions from a class of dr. murray's, when studying the historical aspects of music:

Context

1. for what specific purpose was it composed?
2. was the work commissioned by someone?
3. if so, by whom and for what purpose?
4. what type of audience was it intended for?
5. is this work representative of a generic type?
6. in composing the work was the composer restricted by any conditions beyone his/her control (such as liturgical conditions)?

1. who was the composer?
2. how old was he when he composed the work?
3. what were his principle places of employment?
4. who were his teachers?
5. did he have important  pupils?
6. what instrument/s did he play?
7. what were the circumstances of his life during the composition.

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Sources

notated music is preserved for us in either parts or score format.  all music before about the middle of the fifteenth century was preserved in manuscript (handwritten) parts.  after about 1450,chant was published in printed format, and by 1501 polyphonic music was also available in print. 

somecollections of music:  the english collection of madrigals entitled 'the triumphs of oriana,'  or the early seventeenth century anthology of roman catholic organ music ' fiori musicale' (flowers of music).  some collections (such as the last one mentioned) are entirely the work of one composer (girolamo frescobaldi).  the montpellier codex includes hundreds of thirteenth century motets (all anonymous) and is found today in the city of montpellier, france.  occasionally, a manuscript source is named for a previous owner.  the squarcialupi codex is a manuscript collection of italian secular music that bears the name of antionio squarcialupi, an organist who at one time owned the manuscript.

besides printed music, there are treatises. philippe de vitry's ars nova explains the notation of duple meter.  there's an anonymous treaty (musica enchiradis), and also teaching manuals explaining how to play instruments.  one important one in this category is couperin's ' l' art de toucher le clavecin'  which was used to teach children of the court   
harpsichord.

other types of source documents include anything from a period that provides info on music or music making such as newspapers, diaries, letters, journals, wills, testaments, estate inventories, payroll lists, etc. 

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Genre

this simply means category or type of composition. 

instrumental single movemetn:
symphonic tone  poem
concert overture
french and italian overture
essay
tombeau
ricercar
canzona
fugue
invention
passaccaglia and chaconne
toccata
chorale based comps
prelude
rondo
fantasia
variations
character pieces for keyboard:
impromptu, bagatelle, moment musical, ballade, scherzo, nocturne, intermezzo, capriccio, prelude
dances
etude
transcriptions
dances

just a few.  anyway, dr. murray makes a point of separating genre from form with this statement:  "often, even serious writers on music use the term 'form' when they really mean 'genre.'  thus, you may read in program notes or reviews 'the symphony is a form cultivated especially by mahler.'  however, precisely speaking, form is something quite different.  form is the structural principle used in a piece of music.

some potential sources of structure include:
melody
harmony
texture
sound

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Style

this marks a particular combination of features that marks something distinctive and at the same time a part of a group.  1. establish what is special about an individual composition  2. at the same time determine which features are common to other works of the time/period.   


Text

this is where poets come in.  of course, as pianists, we don't worry about this quite so much - but lyrics of oscar hammerstein that were written to be set to music by richard rogers   or gilbert for sullivan - helps us understand how music can follow speech patterns.  the twentieth century composer charles ives even used newspaper articles as  a text for one of his songs. 

from the perspective of dr. murray, text translations that force the words of the second language into a rhythm scheme as employed in the original text are almost never satisfactory.  they are referrred to as 'singer's translations.' 

well, that's all folks.  any questions?  *attempting to relearn my previous classwork.