The Future of Music: A Chaos Theory (part 2)

So.

Let us see if progressing through the different periods of European art music (“Classical European Music”) would yield any evidence for this entropic theory.  The history of European music is normally broken down into the following periods:

1. Medieval (500 -1400)
2. Renaissance (1400-1600)
3. Baroque (1600-1760 )
4. Classical (1750-1820)
5. Romantic (1815-1910)
6. Impressionist (1890-1940)

The music of these periods have characteristics unique enough to set them apart from the music of other periods, and, as we shall see, these defining characteristics became more and more experimental, chaotic, and disorderly over time.

The 1. Medieval (500-1400) period basically gave birth to Western music. During this time, earlier, cruder versions of instruments like the guitar (the “lute“), the trombone (the “sackbut“), the flute (made out of wood instead of metal e.g. the “pan flute“), and the violin (the fun-to-say “hurdy gurdy“) were prominently used to create music. Much of Medieval music, especially during the beginning of the era, was sacred music used in churches and monasteries. However, more important for our discussion was the fact that early medieval music was also largely homorhythmic and monophonic. In terms of music, this is about as orderly and anti-chaotic as you can get, for it says that a typical song or piece of music consisted of one melody with no harmony or accompaniment (monophonic), with each part moving in the same rhythm (homorhythmic). Think Gregorian chant… Towards the later Medieval period, regular harmonies began to be introduced, and our increase in entropy or disorderliness in Western music began. However, things are still pretty orderly, for the only prevalent harmonies in this late Medieval period were octaves, 5ths, and 4ths; harmonies that were considered “pure”, “stable” or “consonant” in relation to the melody.

Often grouped with the Medieval  period, the 2. Renaissance (1400-1600) period further developed the instruments used in the Medieval period; and by the end of Renaissance period the four basic categories for musical instruments that are still used today (brass, strings,woodwind, and percussion) had emerged. This is something that I would like for you to remember, that since the end of the Renaissance period no new types of musical instruments used to make popular music have emerged. Rather, instruments such as the piano, electric guitar, the drum set, and even the modern day kazoo are all just modernized versions of a type of instrument that already existed back in the Renaissance period or maybe even earlier. Sure, you could say that electronic keyboards like the one I am sitting next to right now can make sounds that a Renaissance musician would never have dreamed of hearing, yet the basic way in which you manipulate the instrument (via a “keyboard”) is not at all new. As we all saw in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Beethoven had absolutely no problem playing the three  double-tiered keyboards (even though he was too deaf to hear the 80’s music emanating from them in the beginning). So, holding on to that point, besides finalizing the array of popular musical instruments today, the Renaissance period also gave rise to the popular use of “polyphony,” which is the use of two or more independent melodic lines in a song. Also, the interval of a 3rd became accepted as a consonant interval (which was probably made by the same person who decided Pluto wasn’t a planet anymore…who has the authority to decide these things???).

After the Renaissance period came the 3. Baroque (1600-1760) period of music. During this time composers such as Bach, Handell, and Vivaldi really began to incorporate even more elaborate musical ornamentation, experiment with new playing techniques for the instruments already set down in the Renaissance period, and began to make changes in musical notation to better notate the new music. Tonality was in full swing, and the polyphony from the Renaissance era now became counterpoint. In fact, I would probably say that by the end of the Baroque period the true roots of the music we listen to today took shape  in terms of instruments used; how the instruments are played; how melodies, chords, and harmonies interrelate; and how music is notated. And people in instrumental bands rejoice! During this time it started to become all about the instruments. During this time people would actually listen to a group of instrumentalists without singing! Holy crap where did that go?!

Next came the 4. Classical Period (1750-1820) that contained some of our most famous early composers like Mozart good ole’ Ludwig Van. Now, the Classical period is a bit tricky to talk about when I’m trying to develop a theory that says our popular music is growing more and more unorganized, complex, and experimental because during this period there was actually a big push towards simplicity of form in all things such as music, art, and architecture. Known as “Classicism,” the Europeans tried to emulate Classical antiquity, especially the Greeks, and favored order, clearer divisions between parts, and simplicity. This simplicity was shown in the music with the rise of homophony

O Amadeus. You're so silly.

instead of polyphony, where one main melody was harmonized by underlying chords, rather than have 2 or more separate melodies. In other words, people were being retro. The past was cool. Does this put a hole in my theory? Nah. Just shows that the past was more structured and ordered, implying that the future becomes less structured and ordered. At least that’s the way I’m spinning this. Moving on…

The 5. Romantic period (1815-1910) more than made up for the apparent oxymoron that is the Classical period. Experimentation was abound in this time! Composers widely expanded previous “acceptable” forms of music like the “sonata” or the “minuet” and developed free-form songs like “nocturnes” and “fantasias.” The music suddenly was getting more chromatic, dissonant, and doing crazy stuff like switching in and out of different key signatures. Nowadays the use of resolving dissonance and the changing of key signatures, or modulation, are no big deal; but it was back then.

The experimental fervor of the Romantic period naturally flowed into the 6. Impressionist (1890-1940) period. Still the experimentation was taken a step further. Whereas the Romantic period still used the common major and minor scales predominantly, the Impressionist period started using uncommon scales like the whole-tone scale, and dissonance (like the dissonance found in the beginning of our Alice in Chains song from part 1) was even more common.

Well. This one is getting a little long. So I will bid you farewell for now. The next post will conclude this whole spiel, where we discuss the implications of what was just laid out and see what this may mean for the future. Until then, enjoy Beethoven rocking out on the electronic keyboards: