My Journal

By Hyperion Knight.

Lesson 1:

He played Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy beautifully as an intro.

Great art of any kind is one that stands the test of time. So it's not just a subjective thing (beauty is not just in the eye of beholder), thus called classics.

But classical area = Greek & Roman civilizations from 8th century BC to 8th century AD.

In music, Classical period = era of Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven. Western art music, eruption of musical geniuses in the Baroque era after Medieval & Renaissance Europe.

Goldberg Variations, Aria by JSB played.

Distinct from other culture's music by scales.

Played: Greensleeves, Traditional English Folk Song, attributed by Queen Elizabeth I to her father Henry VIII [thought Wikipedia denied this attribution, but recognized how some have tried to do so].

Why Baroque artists aren't well known in music, which lagged behind other arts by millennia. From Pythagoras' mathematical understanding of music, thus became a branch of science to how to properly tune a keyboard scale took 2 thousand years (mix of superstition, taste changes, need for advanced mathematics, need for writing music down). White notes were easy to figure out but the black notes on the keyboard were struggled to understand for centuries.

Played Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen to demonstrate octaves (2:1 ratio).

Played Blackbird by John Lennon & Paul McCartney to demonstrate perfect 5th (3:2 ratio).

Bridal Chorus by Richard Wagner to demonstrate perfect 4th.

Major thirds (5:4 ratio)

Pythagoras worshipped numbers. We get all 7 white notes just by playing only perfect 5ths (circle of fifths) start at F.

Played Heart and Soul by Hoagy Carmichael to demonstrate playing only 7 white notes.

But if we keep on extending the circle of fifths, we end with black notes, but also E# (which looks like F natural) and B# (which looks like natural C natural). Advanced math needed because E# is not really F natural and B# is not really C natural because the intervals of different ratios do not sync up with each other and thus not able to have a piano that has all notes in tune with each other. Knight made reference of this to Godel's incompleteness Theorems. So Pythagoras couldn't access all 12 notes (chromatic scale).

Thus, from the discovery of music as a mathematical science, first thousand years was superstitious, because Pythagoras treated irrational numbers as not divinely sanctioned, the black notes, being irrationals, were being avoided.

Then after fall of Rome, Christians were more tolerant with such "irrational" matters. But it wasn't until Charles the Great (Charlemagne), 8th century AD, who united Europe which then became the Holy Roman Empire, couldn't stand various noteless singing of churches, that along with his father Pepin the Short, that they began a project to make the monks chant (i.e. Gregorian chants = plainchants = modal music[vs. tonal music]) the same notes in aiding the process of unifying Europe. Hildegard of Bingen is praised by Knight as musical genius for such music. Guido of Arezzo (c.990-1050) created sheet music.

Then with written music, monks started harmonizing (organum = like an organ instrument) in 4ths and 5ths. Played Czardas Macabre by Franz Liszt to demonstrate this gothic effect.

Monks in Britain were criticized for harmonizing in thirds: "not singing but howling in 3rds". But 3rds are most beautiful to harmonize. Played Chopin's Minute Waltz to demonstrate that you can harmonize anything in 3rds.

Then because of the 3rds, the musical community was forced to tempered all out of tune notes equally. "Out of tune" because they are not of pure ratios such as 4ths or 5ths.

Arezzo also invented musical clefs to indicate where middle C is for different instruments, voice ranges. Then sharps (due to treble clef treatment of C & G scales) & flats (due to bass clef treatment of C & F scales) needed to be introduced to have the same scales for each note. Then modal music shifted to tonal music. Scales also evolved as Gregorian modes changed into major and minor keys. But not without much struggle/battles.

Sir Isaac Newton sided with Pythagoras, preferring 7 pure white notes and thus invented 7th color for rainbow: indigo. Kepler also on team Pythagoras: The music of the Spheres in Kepler's "The Harmony o the World" (scales dedicated for each planet's elliptical orbit).

However, the real deal began with Florentine lute player, Vincenzo Galilei (screenshot of his music shown: Contropunto 1 meaning counterpoint 1) and his famous son Galileo Galilei, created the first nonlinear mathematical equation in history because abstract math just simply wasn't enough, as real world phenomena such as change over time was needed. Knight: "the modern science of physics resulted in part from trying to properly tune a scale on an ancestor of the guitar". Vincenzo then started creating pieces in all 24 well-tempered keys: all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in major and minor scales. This sets the stage for the tsunami of the Baroque period.

JSB planted his well known "The Well-Tempered Clavier" = the well-tuned keyboard: 12 Preludes and 12 Fugues, for all 12 keys. Knight played JSB's Preludes and Fugues for C Major, C minor, C-Sharp major, C# minor, D Minor.

Knight: "Bach's fugues are the highest form of counterpoint, which had already reached dizzying heights of complexity in the Renaissance" Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, Kyrie orchestrated as demonstration. Knight praised Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521) as genius for contrapuntal polyphony (i.e. his Ave Maria). Palestrina's conservative polyphony for the counter-reformation, in anointing new popes.

JSB's Mass in B Minor was orchestrated but not quite explained yet as to the detail of its genius in harmonic structures and tonal center.

Italian has remained the language of music because of Venice and Florence (i.e. adagio, cresc, etc.. Venice preceded Florence in music. But Florence invented Opera (plural of opus = work), as Vincenzo Galilei discovered that ancient Greek dramas actually sang their words in theater which was why it was popular then.

First true Baroque masterpiece, 1607, by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), in his opera "L'Orfeo" about Orpheus rescuing his love, Eurydice in the underworld. L'Orfeo: Toccata by Monteverdi orchestrated.

Knight: "The Baroque period was a godchild of the Renaissance."

Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D Minor by JSB played to demonstrate the full force of Baroque period.