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You're very welcome!

Thank you! 😊

Thank you!

Thank you so much! You are very kind.

Thank you!

Thank you!

My pleasure! Thanks for watching.

The pleasure is all mine! Thank you for your kind words.

You're very welcome!

Thank you very much Valerie! Best wishes to you from America.

Thank you Martina! The book is Music An Appreciation (BRIEF edition) by Roger Kamien. When I recorded all of these, they were still on the 9th Brief edition, Since that time, they have gone to the 10th Brief edition, but the content is pretty much identical. Just the page numbers and a few other little details (like pictures) have changed.

www.amazon.com/Music-Appreciation-Brief-Roger-Kamien/dp/1259870545

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Very kind of you! Glad you enjoy them.

I've been teaching general music appreciation classes like this (and also music history courses for music majors) for 25 years. I am also a general history enthusiast, especially of the late Medieval/early Renaissance, so I think I am reasonably well qualified to talk about this era. I am not a PhD music historian, nor an early music specialist. As you note, I am a pianist, and the piano wasn't invented until c. 1700. Please understand that I am teaching a 100-level Intro to Music for first semester freshmen at broad-access State University. If I were to lecture in the purplish, florid flights of verbiage in which you indulge, I would leave my audience/students in the metaphysical dust. I have to keep things a little more down-to-earth. I am mindful of the transcendent quality of medieval art, the juxtaposition of sacred (Latin) and secular/profane (vernacular) texts in Medieval/Renaissance chansons, etc. But I also find it hard to believe that *all* of these Troubadours (and their later imitators) happened to be sincerely, madly in love with the Great Lady of the House. Some of them no doubt were, but for most, that was likely a pose--the style, the conventions, the expectations of the genre and society within which they worked.

Also, I don't see what "American Capitalism" and "cash" have to do with it, since obviously neither America nor capitalism was really a thing yet, and it was an agrarian rather than a cash-based economy. However, the reasons one might flatter a person of higher status than oneself had been around for a very long time, even in the 11th century, and many of them continue to this day. The culture of chivalry and courtly love of the late medieval was indeed all about "flattery, social climbing, winning fame and fortune". This is why, once the printing press was invented, instruction guides such as The Book of the Courtier by Castiglione became so popular. These were the "How to succeed in business"-type books of their day. And just as how to succeed in business might sometimes have more to do with what you wear, how you present yourself, which meals and drinks you order when out with clients or colleagues, your golf game, etc., social advancement for those in proximity to power was all about how you dress, how you speak, being able to dance and sing well, compose poetry, etc. The idea is to mold yourself into the kind of person a powerful person would want to have around, in his entourage--without, of course, excelling at anything so much that you show him up. Just like, you want to be a good enough golfer to make your boss respect you and get satisfaction out of beating you, but not so good that you embarrass him. But nor do you want to make him feel like you're letting him win! It's a fine line to tread, and it's all about keeping oneself in proximity to power.

@@dr.curtinmusi1015 I stand by my original comment, and note that it does not at all conflict with anything you point out, but see that you still don't get what I am saying. I already agreed that the Power story that you are focused on exists and existed. My issue was that your focus on this aspect of the music's history leaves out the main reason it was written and is still performed, and that this reductive, materialist point of view ignores and sidelines the most interesting part of the history of the music's creation and does not inspire an interaction with it on a profound level, but rather piles it up as yet another object that we might note got someone a job or a plate of food. Consider this analogy: I want to be able to write poetry that gets written down to inspire future generations, and I want to be able to spend my time in contemplation of reality on a transcendental (poetic) level. I want to communicate the dimensions of existence that I have been able to ponder because the practice of embodying them makes my life worth living. In order to do this I need someone to pay for me. This someone may or may not be able to comprehend the locations I traverse and record in my art. So I cleverly scheme and play a societal game that results in me getting a commission, a bed to sleep in, a position in court, a papal appointment, etc. The position, the bed, the plate of food, the medal of honor, etc, afford me the luxury of making poetry. The space of making poetry, of interacting with reality in a transcendental fashion is the reason I live and the thing I would like future human beings to share with me - for me it contains God. That is exponentially more interesting, more soul-feeding, more awe-striking that saying "here are these cool poems I used to get some food and lodging, maybe if you write something that a rich person thinks is cool, you could get a bed to sleep in!". I find it sad that your experience with students is that they find your materialist framing more interesting. I have been working with students and professionals inside the world of music for 35 years, and have found the opposite is true. In the US one still has to play all kind of tricks, scratch all kinds of backs, master all that games that you describe, but this is merely the way you get to be able to interact with a complex, transcendental text that is coupled with a harmonic language that feeds your existence and inspires you and others to be alive.

@@RR-sq8oc It's hard to read someone's mind/heart/motivations from a distance of 800 years. But if, around the year 1100 or so, you were maybe the second or third son of a semi-impoverished nobleman, or a cathedral school dropout, able to read and write and sing and play an instrument, but not do much else of a practical nature (farming, shoemaking, etc.) because you were not of that class, you might find a niche in this rigid society--and a way of keeping a roof over your head--by working as a troubadour/jongleur. The autobiographies ("vidas") many of them left behind often describe exactly this kind of thing. You may even go so far as to write songs praising the beauty of the lady of the house, claiming to be in love with her, because it is flattering and charming. No doubt, they had artistic motivations, but they had more practical ones as well. I guess I am assuming it as a "given" that artists create art for more than purely materialistic or worldy reasons. It doesn't necessarily need emphasizing or explaining. What *may* need explaining is why *these* particular artists, in this particular time/place created, the kind of work that they did. And I find it hard to believe that so many troubadours and jongleurs really, coincidentally, happened to be hopelessly in love with their Lordship's wife. It was an expected part of the style, an affect. Similarly--does any grownup believe that all of those pop songs about love from c. 1950 onward really reflect the true experience of the singer/songwriter? Surely some of them do, but mostly they are just conforming to a style, giving their teenage audience what it expects, because that's what has brought them success. What you are laying out seems to me a very Romanticized view of the self-conception of the artist, one that emerged around 200 years ago and has lingered to the present day. It is not by any means the only self-conception possible. At the risk of oversimplification, take two composers, Haydn and Beethoven. Hadyn was born into a time when about the best a composer could hope for was to serve on the staff of some powerful nobleman (or church) and provide him/it with a service, not that much different from the master gardener or head chef. He was a skilled craftsman, creating works of beauty meant to give pleasure. No doubt, Haydn appreciated the beauty and power of music better than anyone, but he didn't see himself as a man set apart, a heroic figure, one with some special channel to the transcendent mysteries of existence, etc. Until his semi-retirement in the 1790s, he spent the bulk of his career composing the type of works, in the type of style, his patron demanded--and he was happy to do so. I think he might be surprised that his works are still performed today (since old music wasn't generally re-played during his own lifetime). Move ahead just a generation or two, and you have Beethoven, Haydn's sometime student, who *did* see himself as a man apart, ennobled not by his birth but by his genius, unwilling to serve as some nobleman's servant; determined to channel the transcendent mysteries etc. In his late works, unafraid to be misunderstood and unappreciated, because they were written not for his own time but for future generations. Our modern-day conception of the artist is much more of the Beethoven mold than the Haydn mold. Both were great artists, but they didn't conceive of their jobs as artists in the same way. I think it is worthwhile to try to understand an artist (or any historical figure) as they saw themselves, rather than just put them into some bin in our own heads with the label "artist.".

@@dr.curtinmusi1015 I think our metaphors are perhaps not helping with communication here. My description of a poet getting a job, while not intending to describe the job of an "artist" was taken by you understandably as doing so. If I used the word artist, I can't find it - I am aware that this is not part of what a troubadour would ascribe to. Also, I don't think your description of the life of Haydn in the 1790s is much use to a discussion of life in the 1100s, so let's maybe return to the actual material and time. Again, I agree that troubadours were needing jobs and ingratiating themselves like we all do all the time. Again, I find this something I might leave out of the discussion of music and what it is really about, whereas you seem to believe it is what is really is about. 'No doubt they had artistic motivations, but they had practical ones as well' maybe illustrates what I was always trying to say. You choose to leave out what you are choosing to anachronistically call 'artistic' motivations - funny that you accuse me of this when it is you who does it, whereas I am pointing out the spiritual nature of music and music making as the center of what it is all about. Music of this period it seems to me is a catalyst for communication with the unseen world, and the addition of words makes it an even more complex tool. The ego of 'the artist' is not part of this moment, the hours of work that the poet musician had to do to get a rich person to feed him and pay for the writing down of the notes and text is not the center of why the music was made, it is rather this ineffable moment of transcendence. I personally do not believe that the Dame was a human being, not the Lady of the house, not a girlfriend, not a far away beloved, but rather a stand in for the God who does not need to notice you, but who you should acknowledge and praise as the source of all pleasure and all pain, enduring them equally in full subservient appreciation. Maybe use that metaphor to contemplate how a poor musician was using his voice to praise the hard work he had to go about to get the honor of singing/playing and eating in the world he inhabited.

That's an excellent question which I am not really that well prepared to answer, being more of a pianist (DMA) than a music historian (PhD). But my guess is that most of what you want to know is sadly unknowable, for the exactly the reasons that I state at 6' 10" (the lack of written-down notes). Absent this, there might be something to be deduced from the sources you described, but I think it would be mostly conjecture rather than deduction.

You got it!

Thank you so much! Glad you like it.

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it.

How kind of you! Thank you.

Dr. Curtin MUSI101 :)

Absolutely right. Much better in the original language, IMO. The context (staging and music) help fill in the meaning.

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.

Thank you so very much! You are very kind.

In the time of Josquin, pretty much everyone else was "the other guy." ;)

F plus. Listen to the damn lecture and try again.

F minus for language

How kind of you! Thank you very much. You just made my day. I'm so glad you are enjoying it. You're welcome from Pennsylvania USA!

@@dr.curtinmusi1015 You're welcome! Would you mind telling me where you teach? I will apply to many american music universities next year as a Piano freshman and I might be interested in applying to yours for Fall 2022. Also, will there be other lectures that cover the later eras? I'd love to hear you talk about post-romantic and 20th century music.

@@yahyamhirsi I teach at Lock Haven University in PA. But unfortunately they no longer have a music major program there, so I would not recommend it for you. But I have a good friend, Christopher Guzman, who is an excellent pianist and teacher who teaches at Penn State University. I would recommend him highly. Also if you want to ask about other schools, I will tell you whatever I might know about them. My lectures don't get into the later eras because the semester is too short, and I simply don't have time to get to them. Maybe I will add more someday. If I do, I will let you know.

@@dr.curtinmusi1015 Thank you so much! That's very helpful! I just looked it up and added it to the list of the universities that I will be applying to. I will also try to reach Prof. Guzman! YES! I would really appreciate more recommandations from you. We (me and my fiancé who is a violinist) made a mistake last year by applying to only one university. Even though we passed our auditions and both received scholarships, the remaining amount was still too much to raise. Therefore, we need to apply to more universities to raise the chances of receiveing a good scholarship this time. You can e-mail me at ymhirsi@gmail.com , and please feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Thanks for the support!

@@yahyamhirsi OK Yahya, my email is dcurtin@lockhaven.edu. If you don't hear from me first go ahead and send me an email. I will mention something to Prof. Guzman so that he knows what's going on when he hears from you. There is an excellent violin professor there named Max Zorin, my son is a violinist and studied with him. In case you fiancee is interested. He is world-class, both he and Prof. Guzman.

Thank you! :)

Thanks Carol! It is definitely low-tech ;)

@@dr.curtinmusi1015 But still very interesting!

Thank you!

author is Roger Kamien, title is Music An Appreciation, 9th Brief edition

Roger Kamien, "Music an Appreciation", brief edition. Sorry for the late reply!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching.

Thank you!