Course Sample for Our Music Throughout History Homeschool Course

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Music Throughout History
Jessica West

Introduction

We are going back in time for thirty-six lessons. We are going to explore different eras and the music that made up that period. We will be studying famous composers and composers you’ve probably never heard of. We are also going to be studying hymn writers and how music in America has changed and developed over time. We will tie it all together and talk about how you can compose your own original musical composition. A list of (possibly) new words will be provided to help you understand the lessons.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com note: Parents should closely monitor children’s use of YouTube and Wikipedia if you navigate away from the videos and articles cited in these lessons. We also recommend viewing the videos on a full screen setting in order to minimize your students’ exposure to potentially offensive ads and inappropriate comments beside or beneath the video.

Lesson 1: Medieval Era (c. AD 500–1400)

Definitions:

• Plainsong –chants used in Western Church liturgies
• Liturgical – used in public worship; customary observances
• Monophonic – with a single melodic line; no additional parts or chords
• Polyphonic – two or more parts, each with its own melody
• Notation – use of symbols to represent musical notes
• Organum – a single sustained line of music working in conjunction with other rapidly moving parts
• Neumatic – two to six notes per syllable
• Melismatic – each syllable has six or more notes connected to it
• Pitch – quality of sound based on vibration that creates it; how high or low a note is
• Rhythm – timing of the notes
• Secular – having no religious basis
• Troubadours – itinerant poet-musicians from southern France
• Trouvères – itinerant poet-musicians from northern France
• Itinerant – traveling from place to place
• Solfège – singing exercise using sol-fa syllables (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti)
• Motet – sacred music that is usually polyphonic and unaccompanied
• Counterpoint – as harmony lines up with the melody, counterpoint is opposite the melody
• Madrigal – secular song comprised of complex polyphony that is unaccompanied

We will begin our discussion with the medieval period, which begins with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476. The only music that has survived before the 800s is plainsong. This is also called plainchant. The music was mostly liturgical and used in the Western Church, which at that time, was the Catholic Church.) The Catholic Church was the only church until the Reformation in the 1500s.) Chanting of the medieval era was given the name Gregorian chant after Pope Gregory I.