This is great. Never got the opportunity to learn more about this era of music when I was in conservatory. I've got a feeling that this type of polyphony had been used in European folk music way before it got introduced into the church and got notated. Possibly it even goes back to grecoroman music, seeing the use of fourths fifths and seconds, which have good ratios in Pythagorean tuning
Excellent! I like the clarity of the explanations and the way you started and ended the subject, so I encourage you to create similar videos like this one, good luck!
Years ago, I lived with a soprano. She was part of an elite polyphonic group. The leader was very talented. I used to ask him to explain the progression from plainchant to high Renaissance polyphony. As I was not a professional musician, it was assumed I was a lower form of life and couldn't possibly understand. Thanks to you and my copy of Reese, I am slowly comprehending the rationale behind my instinctive ( but still amateur) love of this form of music. Thank you.
Jan, hello and thanks so much for your comment! One thing that I have started to feel about learning over the years is that its actually BEST when you're sort of in the in-between zone that you describe. We tend to think of learning as being goal-oriented, as if we want to arrive at some place of knowing. But as soon as we do it's over-we're bored, or we have to start learning something else. These days, now that I'm trying to write books and work on bigger projects, there's an aspect of "surfing" to it, where my job is to basically catch the inspiration and try to ride it and produce some stuff as I go and hope I can stay on the "wave" long enough to complete a book or article or video or whatever. Frankly I haven't figured it out yet... but this is reminding me that maybe that's exactly where I want to be! In terms of renaissance polyphony specifically, I have always had really similar feelings to what you describe, and I think in some sense this has something to do with the subject: it's almost the kind of subject you can't see if you direct your foveas at it, and you instead can only sense it in your peripheral vision when you look away. BUT at the same time, it's natural to "think" you understand something better than you do, if for instance you're leading a group that sings the material. You might ACTUALLY understand it really well, but in my experience, whenever I think I understand something about historical music stuff, once I look up some resources to confirm what I think I know, I realize it's way more complicated than I thought it was. So, I guess I'm saying that being "instinctive" and an "amateur" is, in my view, exactly where you want to be. Thanks for watching and for reaching out!
Thanks a lot! You may have been one of the first people to have watched it who weren't forced to do so. But I totally enjoyed making it so I'm really glad it pleased you as well.
thanksssss
This is great. Never got the opportunity to learn more about this era of music when I was in conservatory. I've got a feeling that this type of polyphony had been used in European folk music way before it got introduced into the church and got notated. Possibly it even goes back to grecoroman music, seeing the use of fourths fifths and seconds, which have good ratios in Pythagorean tuning
Thank you for uploading!
Excellent! I like the clarity of the explanations and the way you started and ended the subject, so I encourage you to create similar videos like this one, good luck!
Years ago, I lived with a soprano. She was part of an elite polyphonic group. The leader was very talented. I used to ask him to explain the progression from plainchant to high Renaissance polyphony. As I was not a professional musician, it was assumed I was a lower form of life and couldn't possibly understand. Thanks to you and my copy of Reese, I am slowly comprehending the rationale behind my instinctive ( but still amateur) love of this form of music. Thank you.
Jan, hello and thanks so much for your comment! One thing that I have started to feel about learning over the years is that its actually BEST when you're sort of in the in-between zone that you describe. We tend to think of learning as being goal-oriented, as if we want to arrive at some place of knowing. But as soon as we do it's over-we're bored, or we have to start learning something else. These days, now that I'm trying to write books and work on bigger projects, there's an aspect of "surfing" to it, where my job is to basically catch the inspiration and try to ride it and produce some stuff as I go and hope I can stay on the "wave" long enough to complete a book or article or video or whatever. Frankly I haven't figured it out yet... but this is reminding me that maybe that's exactly where I want to be!
In terms of renaissance polyphony specifically, I have always had really similar feelings to what you describe, and I think in some sense this has something to do with the subject: it's almost the kind of subject you can't see if you direct your foveas at it, and you instead can only sense it in your peripheral vision when you look away. BUT at the same time, it's natural to "think" you understand something better than you do, if for instance you're leading a group that sings the material. You might ACTUALLY understand it really well, but in my experience, whenever I think I understand something about historical music stuff, once I look up some resources to confirm what I think I know, I realize it's way more complicated than I thought it was. So, I guess I'm saying that being "instinctive" and an "amateur" is, in my view, exactly where you want to be. Thanks for watching and for reaching out!
This is fantastic David, learning much from this. Keep it up!
Thanks a lot! You may have been one of the first people to have watched it who weren't forced to do so. But I totally enjoyed making it so I'm really glad it pleased you as well.