The history and evolution of classical music
From the beginning the music was studied from the artistic and aesthetic panorama in ancient Greece. As a history, we know that calling the musical notes used the letters of the alphabet, this studied in the various treaties. As for the instruments, the zitara, lyre, harp, etc. Later in Rome I would not occupy the same consideration that in Greece had to music, although it is true, once filtered to the West by Romanization, to a large extent of ancient knowledge and began the dissemination of the various studies and hypotheses previously extended bythe Greeks. However, there was no real participation in terms of progress on their written representation .
In the first centuries of the Middle Ages, there is no record of creation regarding innovation in this regard representative of music, in this way, we find that from the inventiveness of the Gregorian repertoire, which has been assigned to San Gregorio El Magno untilA first half of the eleventh century in which an initial musical writing system will be strengthened, using as a basis a succession of lines that would be known as a tetragram, which, using some changes would result in what we know today as a pentagram.
We must bear in mind that the Church had adopted this artistic expression for its form of cult, being highly developed in this period. This would go hand in hand with a growth and development of the Roman rite throughout the European West, being a proposal of unity under the command of Gregory VII, thus replacing local rites such as mozarabes in the peninsula and even performsA text proposal that would serve to be sung.
Likewise, the musicians located in the period of the High Middle Ages were not able to execute a correct form intended for parameters such as the duration of the sounds, being fundamental to retain the synchronization of the melodies. In this way as we see, it would be an exercise based on oral tradition and linked with the capacity to retention of memory, accommodating the well -known pneumas spelling. In this way, graphic signs would be used instead of letters of the Greek alphabet as a starting point in ecclesiastical music. Assuming that in the creation of the Gregorian repertoire, these sacred songs had set with this representation model.
So, this transfer could only be made based on its existence, but without having carried out a prior notation systematization. Gustave points out that: "It is extremely unlikely to transmit the church’s musical repertoire in such a faithful and as widely diffusion way as they obviously did, only through oral tradition" .
The study of this method lasted several decades, since a method that was represented in writing was not known, so the appeal of memory remained vital, being that, in the liturgical song they would need to learn the necessary methods,Because the sacred melodies could not be modified. As for the inconveniences already indicated by altitude and durability of loudity, and even with time and rhythmic measurement through separate notes, in pneumas notation. Also, we must add the diversity granted by each region which was using its own methods and solutions that were proposed. To some extent, it was located on the syllables of the text some signs that hinted at the air of the melody, in this way the singers could be helped, this was appropriate from the accent of the language, in this way we would have a scale in which Virga would correspondto a higher and punctum sound at a lower one . In this way the indications in terms of sound and intonation refers to the fact that it only represented voice modulations. Therefore, in the ninth century, Hucbaldo a monk of Sant Amand, expressed the inconveniences of the representation in pneumas and thus suggests a return to the old Greek alphabetical notation . Already entered in the 10th century, there is more concern about solving the problem of setting the height and intervals of the sounds, since, not being represented on lines made it difficult to interpret.
Blessed Hermannus Contractus is the author of an experiment regarding the correct fixation of sounds. I would use letters to represent the intervals of the melodic series such as, for example: e = unison-, s = semitone, t = tone, etc. This procedure revealed the height of the sound, but even, there was still an inconvenience, and that is, if a mistake was committed, it would end up affecting everything that would come next.
The framework established by the Greeks and the same Boecio in reference to the use of alphabet’s leres to represent the sound ascent, this seemed somewhat abstract and complex when conceiving a musical writing. For this reason, it is that San Isidoro manifested in previous centuries that music could not be conceived through writing . Towards the 11th century Guido de Arezzo releases a system in which it used four lines, being a system that allowed to remember the exact intonation of the notes. Thus, with the objective that future generations can know and learn music using these tone and semitone intervals of the diatonic scale. What I would do then is, through the initial syllables of the hemistichs from the first stanza of the anthem of San Juan Bautista that had been performed by Pablo Deacon. Once the melody was learned, which began with the note do -ut-, it rose by joint degrees -re, mi, fa, sun, and served to fix in memory the intonation of that hexacordo or to move toother.
Music as the main element is the rhythm, but in the monodic song, a stable pattern of duration was not supported as a free rhythm, so, it could not move towards a polyphonic interpretation. By joining several voices, they forced everyone to sing when it was appropriate. So it did not allow another type of rhythm than the dimensioning. Then, a hardness in construction was required and from there they began to accommodate some representation regulations that defined the exact duration of the sounds so that its realization is simultaneous based on the creation of the works.It was then that, in the thirteenth century, with all the theories previously studied, these problems would be understood and solutions would be raised, this would be shaped by Franco de Colonia, who through his work Ars Cantus Mensurabilis would use solutions to the polyphonic works. Then, due to the interest of simultaneity in polyphony, execution should be solved. With an idea that, through the visual structure of the note, this can send one’s duration, rhythmic value and even its melodic value. In this way I would refer to what would be the description for polyphony. In this way, synthesizing previous techniques and theories, Franco de Colonia, performs a whole compilation of all his time achievements, is the same case with the tetragram which Guido de Azzo had developed Azzzo made in the eleventh century. In this way it is affirmed that, with the study of both authors and their extraction of the theoretical and practical knowledge of Western Europe music, a musical writing system that did not depend on memorization for the first time.
So, to represent the notes in the score, it was essential to understand the management of the composition rules. From this moment, in which the sounds in the pentagram were determined and manifested precisely using figures, a new period in the history of music would begin, as in its antecedent had been fixed for the history of the language, giving wayto a new stage where music will increase its expression.
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