“About the tenth century, musicians tried the crude experiment,[11] called Organum, of making two groups of singers move in parallel fifths . But during the 13th and 14th centuries a method was worked out by which the introductory tune was made to generate its own subsequent tissue. It was found that a body of singers could announce a melody of a certain type and that, after they had proceeded so far, a second set of singers could repeat the opening melodic phrase—and so likewise often a third and a fourth set—and that all the voices could be made to blend together in a fairly harmonious whole.[12] A piece of music of this systematic structure is called a Round because the singers take up the melody in rotation and at regular rhythmic periods.[13] The earliest specimen of a Round is the famous one Sumer is icumen in circa 1225 (see Supplement of musical Examples No. 1), which shows to what a high point of perfection—considering those early days—musicians had brought their art. For, at any rate, by these systematic, imitative repetitions they had secured the first requisite of all music, coherence.” Excerpt From: Walter Raymond Spalding. “Music: An Art and a Language.”
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 10:32:18 +0000
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