Wk 1 - Introduction

Question 1

In music, word for silence

Answer 1

tacet

Question 2

Julian Dodd’s thoughts on whether John Cage’s 4’33” is music

Answer 2

it is a piece of performance art rather than a work of music and an example of conceptual art

Question 3

6 different musical objects

Answer 3

• recording
• performance/show
• accompaniment (e.g. to dance, film/TV)
• background (in shops, restaurants)
• ceremonial (religious, political, military, football?)
• informal (lullaby, whistling, singing, practising)

Question 4

when and where was the first notated music

Answer 4

Syria, c14th B.C.
Hurrian hymns - inscribed on clay tablets

earliest known song to be recorded in writing

Question 5

4 points of music in ancient greece

Answer 5

• poetry was originally sung (chanted)
• Music as divine/magical (e.g. Orpheus)
• Music as theorised by philosophers
• important ceremonial function

Question 6

history of western music (3 points)

Answer 6

• close association with religion until 17th century before more secular music came about - breaking away from church
• first instruments as imitators of human voice
• Composers became famous, then performers

Question 7

how has the music experiences changed

Answer 7

now have recordings to capture live experience.

Adorno’s ‘regression of hearing’ as a result - don’t need to focus intently if there’s a recording
- rewind culture, can just replay things

audiences demand precision as they know the words (particularly pop and opera)

Question 8

evidence of music being a universal language

Answer 8

Fritz et al (2019) found remote African people able to identify emotion in Western music (classical)

Storr: Western music has rather colonised the world (through movies/record industry/mass media)

Question 9

what is Musicking (Small, 1998, 1999)

Answer 9

the act of performance and any participation in it
(performing, listening, rehearsing, composing, dancing)

purpose is primarily communication

Question 10

John Cage’s purpose of 4’33”

Answer 10

wanted people to hear ambient sounds to make us aware of unscripted sound

Question 11

SAQ - Does Dodd’s argument hold up in relation to Small’s concept of ‘musicking’?
What about the nightingale?

Answer 11

No - Small says musicking is anything to do with music so technically there’s composer, performers and listeners

Question 12

What are the most notable changes in the experience of music between the 17th and 20th centuries?

Answer 12

• change from just voices to recordings and big concerts etc
• changed relationship with audiences through regression of hearing

Question 13

How do you understand the concept of ‘musicking’, and how would you distinguish it from ‘music’ per se?

Answer 13

Explain Small (1999) and how it encompassing everything to do with music - ritualistic relationships

composer, performance, listeners - bind together in John Cage’s 4’33”

distinguishing it from music - musicking focuses on all participation as opposed to actual music from vocals/instruments

Question 14

explain importance of RITUAL

Answer 14

this ritual defines relationships between the composer, performers and listeners

bound together by this ritual

music can exist without one but always fundamentally a PERFORMANCE

Question 15

when was the first concert hall in london

Answer 15

1678

Question 16

who was one of the first well know performers in the history of western music

Answer 16

Bach