Was there medicine before Bach ? Ummm , of course there was . Composers just did n’t put their names on their composition before , say the Renaissance — the biggest plot - auto-changer in chronicle as far as the art are concerned . The brilliant sun of the high Renaissance was beating down on pontifical Rome when Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , arguably the greatest of the wigging - wearers was penning masses for splendor - loving Holy Father .
Around him , artists were celebrating the triumph of the senses : sculptors were exploring the sensual contours of the human body . Painters were transforming their peasant mistresses into the Mother of God . Architects were block out the Gothic fount of the cities with gracious temples and colonnades , and philosophers were stargaze of Plato , that prince of pagan poet ( how ’s that for alliteration , eh ? ) .
In the midst of all these busy sensualists ostensibly re - creating the Graeco-Roman past , but in realism creating the forward-looking world , Palestrina was meddlesome put the finishing touches to the Gothic edifice of medieval music . So let ’s press pause there for a bit and rewind a bit to mediaeval time before we fare back to Mr. Palestrina , whose music was an super rarify intimacy by comparison . Like every other artistic production , it had developed slowly from meagre starting time . From the ritual grunt of earl man , it had evolved into an adjunct of the Hellenic drama .
From a strictly hard-nosed point of view , euphony flower at that consequence in the quaternary century when Ambrose , Bishop of Milan , decided to influence the singing for the services in his bishopric . The ambrosial chant — the first thoroughly recognizable ancestor of music as we know it today — is the lean and most solemn adaptation of the Greek modes , the antecedent of our modern scales . This somber singing can still be hear in sure Milanese church , but today we are more familiar with the elaboration of St. Ambrose ’s system know as the Gregorian chant , which pretty much superseded the old musical service at about the kickoff of the 17th C .
For 1,000 class , the euphony of the Church was rigidly melodic : that is , it chance upon its ends without the use of harmony as we conceive it today . The folk singer and minnesingers accept unquestioningly this strictly horizontal tradition of music , and lavished their imagination on the melody and words or else . So let ’s see the words now by finish this little post with a sample of Gregorian chant . I ’ve chosen " Ave Maria . "
[ Be certain to tune in next Wednesday for Part 3 ]
