Music Wise

1. Stuff done this week I am still struggling to stick to my regimen. I have requested extra time of from work, so I can spend more time on studying. I now have a part time day on monday and wednesday for managing my study and duty as a father. 2. Listening done this week Canciones de trovadoes occitanos. 3. What I learned Below are my music history notes from reading Burkholder et al. (2014): Song and Dance Music to 1300 By the 9th century 3 successors to the Roman Empire emerged: The Byzantine Empire (comprised of Asia Minor and S.E. Europe) The Arab world (a mighty empire extending form Pakistan, through the Middle East to Northern Africa and Spain) Western Europe (the poorest, most fragmented and weakest of the three) In 800 Charlemagne was coronated in Rome as Emperor. European culture owes much to all three empires. Charlemagne promoted learning and artistic achievement, improved education, by promoting primary schools in monasteries and spon

1. Stuff done this week Found a good book on the history of music by W. Steffelaar (2007). I made notes on both this text and Burkholder et al. (2014). 2. Listening done this week I listened to some examples of Anglo Saxon chant again. Now that I have read some chapters on Medieval Music, I would like to verify if I can identify the style elements I read about in these examples. Chant in Honour of Anglo Saxon Saints by the Magnificat ensemble , responsorial and antiphonal chant, chant over a period ranging from 6th to 11th century. These chants are from before the advent of Ars Antiqua (1150) .The chants are all performed in monophony, all voices - male and female - sing the same melody. This is in accordance with how we believe the music would have been performed, though the mix of male and female voices would have been unusual in Medieval times. The songs are in plagal mode, the melodies ascending and descending around the dominant in small intervallic steps.

1. Stuff done this week I read chapters on Medieval music from Burkholder et al. (2014). For mandolin parctice, I practiced tremolo. This is a fundamental skill on the instrument, and a characteristic part of the sound of the mandolin in almost every kind of music that people play on the instrument. You hear it in "The Godfather" (Italian style) and you hear it in "Kentucky Waltz" (bluegrass style). Something I should be practicing much more; a sweet, smooth tremolo is rather pleasant to listen to. Also it is the only way to sustain notes on this instrument, for it does not have a great sustain. 2. Listening done this week Listened to a lot of tunes from Bradlee Scott's Postmodern Jukebox . Usually I dislike cover songs "in the style of..". We have had enough bluegrass versions of acdc songs and it is becoming a cheap trick to get a laugh from audiences. Scott Bradlee to some extent does this too, but there are some incredible gems. The