Atonal Music28 January 2010
This week, let us focus on the break-up of tonality, initiated in the late nineteenth century and clearly confirmed during the early twentieth century. With several articles about atonal, dodecaphonic music and serial music I want to make a few preliminary remarks before discovering the universe of a key figure in the postwar music world: Pierre Boulez.
The little story of musical notation 4/427 March 2009
In the previous parts of our little story of musical notation we have mainly been focusing on note pitches. But what about the evolution of rhythmic notation?
The little story of musical notation 3/424 February 2009
In the second part of the little story of musical notation, we have seen appear neumes and have discovered that musical notation at this time corresponded more to an aide-mémoire than to a vector of propagation. In the XIth century, a new fact has considerably enrich musical writing: in order to make their work easier, [...]
The little story of musical notation 2/42 December 2008
During the first episode of this little story of musical notation, we were mainly focused on Greeks. Following this tradition, the western medieval musical notation was first alphabetic. Octaves were labeled in uppercase and lowercase letters: The uppercase letter (A) indicated the first octave, the lowercase letter (a) the second one, the doubled lowercase letter [...]
The little story of musical notation 1/417 October 2008
I’ve always been interested in musical notation and its evolution. I’ve so decided to share this center of interest with you and write this little story of the musical notation in five parts.
For several thousand years, music was mostly handed down verbally without leaving a written trace. Regardless, since the origin of writing, it is [...]