Back to AtD. Music of the Spheres-- Not

[Paul Mackin]

On 7/25/2012 7:16 PM, Phillip Greenlief wrote:
> Thanks, Philip.  Good, thorough explanation.
>>
>> Maybe you could comment on something else. if, in the Medieval 
>> Lydian,  the #4 was often avoided  even though proper to the mode  
>> (the devil thing of the AtD passage),  does this mean that the 
>> unsharped 4 would also have to be avoided in order to keep the 
>> composition from dropping out of the mode.  In other words, what's 
>> the without which nothing to qualify for Lydian?
>>
>> P
>>
>
> thanks, paul.
>
> let me begin by clarifying that when i say this note was "banned", i'm 
> talking about church music in europe ... as most of you probably know, 
> the central focus of composers before the baroque period was composing 
> music for church services .. sure, there were lots of pithy little 
> madrigals and fanfares for the royal courts, but most euro composers 
> like frescobaldi, lasso, josquin, and the rest were mainly focused on 
> writng mass and motets ... for the church.
>
> but india, japan, and many other countries? different scales, 
> diiferent systems of organizing tonal material, different cultural 
> aesthetics.
>
> in other words, outside of europe this particular note (the tritone, 
> or #4, b5) was used in abundance ...
>
> back to your question, if you "unsharp" the 4, then you are left with 
> a major scale ... which was used frequently.
>
> a lot of the medeival composers were using something that today is 
> termed "modal counterpoint)" ... so these modes were in use and gave 
> flavor to the music.
>
> the truth is, we speculate quite a lot when we discuss this. musica 
> ficta is the first known "textbook" on tonal harmony, and that text 
> doesn't arrive until the end of the rennaissance, beginning of the 
> baroque period. even early music specialists (must) admit that they 
> are interpreting scores from medeival and rennaissance composers. this 
> is especially true when you talk about the music of ancient greece ... 
> you see recordings of ancient greek compositions, but what you don't 
> really see is a statement from the performers admitting that they are 
> guessing what these ancient texts (scores) really mean.

Thanks, Phillip.  Fascinating subject.

P

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