Music Wise

1. Stuff done this week: - Read Munrow (1986), Lejeune (2009), Burkholder et al. (2014) and Mathews (2007) and found out more about the pipe and tabor and the lute. - Mandolin lessons have started again (every friday evening). I'm learning a Canadian tune called "Galope De Malbaye" - Wrote a Sixteen bar blues for mandolin called the Hang Man's Swing. - Listened to a selection of Medieval instruments (Lejeune, 2009). - Studied some more on  The Harvard Referencing System - Studied arpeggio's over G, C, D, F chord progressions. 2. Listening done this week: - Hildegard von Bingen - Listening on repeat to  Hildegard Von Bingen - Ave Maria, O Auctrix Vite ... Jeees, just easily the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Ave Maria, O Auctrix Vite The poem - a moving tribute to Mary - is written in Latin and translates to this: Behold, Mary, you who increase life, who rebuilds the path, You who confused death and wore down the serpent, T

1. Stuff done this week: - Stared reading Chapter 2 (Medieval Music) of  A History of Western Music  and made notes (notebook) - Listened to a selection of Medieval instruments (Lejeune, 2009). - Studied this guide on The Harvard Referencing System - Played mandolin at Strowis, a youth Hostel. Check the footage below:

1. Stuff done this week: - Read Chapter 1 (Music in Antiquity) of  A History of Western Music  and made notes (notebook) - Read the first three chapters of  Learning to Read Music - Went to the library and borrowed several books on Medieval music and musical instruments. Also borrowed a CD collection called  A Guide to Period Instruments - Watched this online  lecture  on Abbess Hildegard von Bingen by Revd Prof June Boyce-Tillman. - Read the  translated text of Ordo Virtutum  and listened to a rendition. - Started a blog on Historical periods of music that I researched, published notes on the Medieval period and 4 musical instruments. - Installed Sibelius on my laptop. - Did the online introductory course on studying with OCA. - Ordered more books from the OCA recommended reading list. They still need to arrive by mail. - Had a gig at Trianon, Nijmegen on Friday. It was just rather flacid. I was really, really tired and on my last legs. This resulted in many mistakes, wrong

Stuff done this week: - Mostly started reading about the Medieval music period. Notes and sources are listed at the bottom of this page. - Started on research point 2, which requires me to select three composers and write short biographical notes on them and listen to examples of their work. - Interesting link I found that I need to check out:  https://historiesofemotion.com/2015/06/09/arousing-sluggish-souls-hildegard-of-bingen-and-the-ordo-virtutum/ ____________________________________________________ What I learned: Here my notes. Religious music in the Medieval period Medieval music was predominantly religious music and it had a liturgical function. The church music of the early Middle Ages - before the advent of polyphony around the 9th century - is referred to as  plain chant  (Knight, 2012). It is thought to have emerged around 100 A.D. and was, in fact, the only type of music allowed in the early Christian churches. It involved chanting, only using the wor

Stuff done this week: - Went to the library and borrowed several books on Medieval music and musical instruments. - Read the course material and started on my first assignment. Through my research I should try to find dates for each of the main historical periods of music. These are: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Twentieth Century. ____________________________________________________ What I learned: I am hesitant to use Wikipedia as a source, for it is a source that is constantly liable to be updated. So I found some sources in the library. Sources are listed at the bottom of this page, using the Harvard referencing system. The coming period I shall try to find more sources. 1. Music History A history of Western Art Music can be approached in several ways I suppose. But the most conventional way is to describe it in sets of defining time periods. From literature, we identify five (or even six) principal periods: 1. Middle Ages (500 - 1500) This refer