Exhibit 4
Post your answer to the following in the Baroque Era Discussion Forum by going
to the Discussion Board and creating a new thread. You must reply to at least
two of your peers' postings for full discussion credit. Your participation grade in
this discussion board forum is not based on the length or number of your
postings, but rather on the quality of your postings. If your reply is a simple "I
agree with you, Jim.", then you are not participating in a meaningful way. Follow
up on the comment with why or how you agree with Jim. Give your argument(s)
or position(s) some context and justification.
In the online Baroque Era lecture, I asserted that music developed from
monophony (one unison sound), to polyphony (many sounds = many melodies),
to homophony (like sounds = melody/harmony). The Renaissance Era is fraught
with polyphony – many melodies coexisting. Then, during the Baroque Era, we
discover the stacking of thirds (i.e.: C E G) to get the modern day major chord.
However, our first attempts at chords are primitive, as is audible in the music of
the Baroque Era where the harmony is in the form of the ubiquitous basso
continuo. The continuo, while it is boring in its droning presence, is a necessary
step as composers made the transition from 4+ simultaneous melodies
(polyphony) to today's music with 1 melody and harmonic structures underneath.
Project forward 100 years to 2100 AD – what is today's major/minor tonal system
a step towards? What is after melody and harmony or major and minor?
Selected Student Responses:
“Music is a direct reflection of the sociological direction that a particular culture is taking. To
successfully arrive at a definitive answer as to where music will be in 2100 AD would take a legion of
musical analysis and fortune tellers. We know that all music has basic texture. Music texture is that
blend of melody and harmony. As society becomes more technically sophisticated, so shall music
become more technically apt at producing unique scales and tone. This hypothesis on the evolution
of the scales would serve to understanding the tonal behaviors of music in 2100AD. Music no matter
at any given time is only music if it is pleasant and or meaningful to the listeners’ ears otherwise it is
just so much noise.”
-“ I agree that it is almost impossible to foretell where music will be in 2100AD, but just by
looking at some of the technological advancements being made it certainly would be interesting to
find out. We had a discussion in my music appreciation class about how there are more and more
cases of music being composed by computers, not just influenced by but composed by computers. I
find that very intriguing. So, if we have enough technologic advancements today that a computer
could write classical music then the advancements by 2100AD are probably way over our head.”
-“Computers are a fantastic tool, they can accomplish so much. HOWEVER, they have no
heart or soul...and it with heart and soul that music truly becomes compassionate.”
“To understand music and its evolution or advancement, you have to understand where and what
time period the music was created in. Which society and thoughts came in to play when creating it.
From basic ancient music with percussive instruments that produced not much more than one
melodic line to what seems to be the thought of the future which should hold some sort of extremely
complicated and sophisticated polyphonic voices according to some, but we can only begin to see
what music will be like just as the same ability to tell what types of global, societal, national, cultural,
and any other changes will happen. Meaning our ability is limited and far from clear. One thing that
we can be sure of is that Music will continue to provide support for humanity in the way it continues to
today. Nonetheless, I don't believe theory can evolve much further, but who knows we are always
looking for the next big thing, but like culture I believe only new styles and instruments can advance
to what we have today, into the next NEW thing.”
-“I definitely agree that theory will probably not evolve much further. I mean, what is theory
anyways? How can you really sit down and analyze what was going on in some virtuosic composer's
mind more than a hundred years ago? Most composers write the feeling they are trying to convey to
the listeners. Whether it be happiness, sadness, anger or love. I agree that new styles will be
explored and new instruments will be developed. And like you said, who knows what will be going on
in the world and in different cultures, because that will also have an effect on the music. “