I'll have to listen to some with my son. One of my goals as a father has been to expose him to as much music from around the world and throughout time as I can, this sounds right up my alley.
I hosted a map site for a while using openstreetmap. You start with the world, and you think you see everything, then you zoom in and start to see countries. Then you zoom in and start to see provinces. Then you zoom in and start to see cities. Then you zoom in and start to see streets. Then you zoom in and start to see buildings. And you can't keep zooming but there's stories in every building, every room, in corners of your own home you have no idea are even happening, and fractally microscopic worlds we can't even see could have someone spend their entire lives studying one particle, and it exists everywhere.
I feel the same way as I learn about things I didn't even know existed to know about. Like the two forms of classical music in India, and now a new little piece of its musical history.
I hosted a map site for a while using openstreetmap. You start with the world, and you think you see everything, then you zoom in and start to see countries. Then you zoom in and start to see provinces. Then you zoom in and start to see cities. Then you zoom in and start to see streets. Then you zoom in and start to see buildings. And you can't keep zooming but there's stories in every building, every room, in corners of your own home you have no idea are even happening, and fractally microscopic worlds we can't even see could have someone spend their entire lives studying one particle, and it exists everywhere.
I feel the same way as I learn about things I didn't even know existed to know about. Like the two forms of classical music in India, and now a new little piece of its musical history.
He's 2. He really likes music with a strong beat, so on one hand big band music but on the other indigenous music like powwow music.
(sorry, now I'm just geeking out about being a dad for a moment)
There's a neat pair of books called "The Male Brain" and "The Female Brain" that goes though neurological development from inside the womb until somewhat after puberty, and they really opened my eyes to the fact that the brain is a self-wiring device that relies on stimulus to figure out the parts of itself that will be important, and the earlier the stimulus the more the effects because the brain is slowly letting the parts of it.
I started counting to him and singing the alphabet on the day he was born, and as I watched him over the time I took off for pat leave (a few months) I'd try to pick out all kinds of different music, starting with different playlists of current music, then moving into stuff that's not so modern including many different types of classical music from around the world or ancient music. Not going to lie, I didn't like all of it, but the point isn't to make him me, it's to expose him to lots of stuff so he's been acclimated and exposed to many things. I think the 2 forms of indian classical music are somewhat of an acquired taste, but whenever I listen to them it reminds me of the silverchair song petrol and chlorine which is one of my favorite songs from them.
There's also some music from african tribes that was interesting in how much it reminded me of early american rock and roll.
(sorry, now I'm just geeking out about being a dad for a moment)
There's a neat pair of books called "The Male Brain" and "The Female Brain" that goes though neurological development from inside the womb until somewhat after puberty, and they really opened my eyes to the fact that the brain is a self-wiring device that relies on stimulus to figure out the parts of itself that will be important, and the earlier the stimulus the more the effects because the brain is slowly letting the parts of it.
I started counting to him and singing the alphabet on the day he was born, and as I watched him over the time I took off for pat leave (a few months) I'd try to pick out all kinds of different music, starting with different playlists of current music, then moving into stuff that's not so modern including many different types of classical music from around the world or ancient music. Not going to lie, I didn't like all of it, but the point isn't to make him me, it's to expose him to lots of stuff so he's been acclimated and exposed to many things. I think the 2 forms of indian classical music are somewhat of an acquired taste, but whenever I listen to them it reminds me of the silverchair song petrol and chlorine which is one of my favorite songs from them.
There's also some music from african tribes that was interesting in how much it reminded me of early american rock and roll.
I thought it was interesting that after the fairly complex music of greece and the roman empire, the west's records of music seem to basically start with a single voice gregorian chanting and then build from there into more and more complex music, but I always have to remember "history is written by those who write history" so it's likely that folk music might tell a different story if we had a bunch of it. Regardless of whether the narrative is accurate, it's pretty incredible.
What you're talking about as the focus is something interesting in many different types of music. To a hardened western ear like mine, some stuff like Japanese court music almost doesn't sound like music as we'd consider it today but it's clear the musicians are highly practiced and skilled at their art. One of the reasons to be exposed to a lot of different music early so you have an ear for it.
What you're talking about as the focus is something interesting in many different types of music. To a hardened western ear like mine, some stuff like Japanese court music almost doesn't sound like music as we'd consider it today but it's clear the musicians are highly practiced and skilled at their art. One of the reasons to be exposed to a lot of different music early so you have an ear for it.
I've found reconstructions such as the attached, and while it's far from modern, it's significantly more complex and sophisticated than Gregorian chanting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWZ6WMw4aas
here's a blog post about Greek music:
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/a-100-accurate-reconstruction-of-ancient-greek-music
As I recall, a number of Greek philosophers knew about harmony and wrote about it and even metaphorically integrated the concept into other areas of thinking including Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle. It stands to reason that their music would integrate it as well. Pythagoras not only noticed that harmony sounded nice, but tried to understand the concept mathematically as well (at least according to legend)
Once the period dominated by Gregorian chants ended (which was a stylistic choice since the point was to focus on the message of piety rather than the complexity of the music), multi-voice choir music immediately started using harmony again (assuming the previous roman and greek music used it, which I do believe it did, at least based on writings and reconstructions)
Eventually multi-voice choir music was supplemented with instrumentals, and while the structure is considerably simpler than later works it's still much more complex than the original Gregorian chants.
As I mentioned before though, this appearance of progression after a period of major decline may be a consequence of who was writing things down at the time, and there may have been much more complex music immediately following the fall of the roman empire and nobody had thought to write it down in part thanks to a drop in literacy that follows the collapses of an empire like that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWZ6WMw4aas
here's a blog post about Greek music:
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/a-100-accurate-reconstruction-of-ancient-greek-music
As I recall, a number of Greek philosophers knew about harmony and wrote about it and even metaphorically integrated the concept into other areas of thinking including Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle. It stands to reason that their music would integrate it as well. Pythagoras not only noticed that harmony sounded nice, but tried to understand the concept mathematically as well (at least according to legend)
Once the period dominated by Gregorian chants ended (which was a stylistic choice since the point was to focus on the message of piety rather than the complexity of the music), multi-voice choir music immediately started using harmony again (assuming the previous roman and greek music used it, which I do believe it did, at least based on writings and reconstructions)
Eventually multi-voice choir music was supplemented with instrumentals, and while the structure is considerably simpler than later works it's still much more complex than the original Gregorian chants.
As I mentioned before though, this appearance of progression after a period of major decline may be a consequence of who was writing things down at the time, and there may have been much more complex music immediately following the fall of the roman empire and nobody had thought to write it down in part thanks to a drop in literacy that follows the collapses of an empire like that.
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