Essay on "Music the Evolution Musical Notation -- Classical"

Essay 3 pages (1150 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Music

The Evolution Musical Notation -- Classical vs. Jazz Styles

Musical notation is one way that musical compositions can be passed from one generation of performers to the next generation of performers. Without any written musical notation at all, music would have to be learned by ear. This would mean that it would be impossible for someone from a different tradition or historical time to learn a musical composition, without hearing the song from someone to whom the music had 'passed down to,' through teaching. Musical notation makes musical training both more diverse as well as more practical.

Classical musical notation developed as written, precise and formalized style of notation. The composer gives instructions to the performers as to how the piece should sound and unfold. In contrast, the less precise and more skeletal framework of jazz notation reflects this musical tradition's improvisational style and origins. Rather than give directions to the musicians in a strict and formalized fashion, jazz notation acknowledges the fact that during a performance, the musicians may communicate with one another in a way that requires certain spontaneous derivations from the musical score to make the music come 'alive.' Derivations from the musical line are allowed, so long as the performers remain connected and still render the music as a coherent whole. Jazz musicians may know where they begin and end, but the journey to that end is often an open question.

Strictly adhered to, classical musical notation has certain obvious advantages. It enables the players to have a very directed plan of musical attack, which theoretically enables the musicians to always play according to the same melody and in the same harmony with greater ease than improvisation. Under the direction of a conductor, classical musicians are further directed how to render the various softness or loudness of the composition -- unity and smoothness is facilitated through this method. The usefulness of this unity of purpose was understood relatively quickly in the development of music. Although jazz notation's more improvisational style might seem to be closer to the 'natural' way that music is learned and played, musical notation has existed since ancient times. Today, standard notation includes a staff with notes, as well as information about pitch, rhythm, and other crucial aspects to render a performance with as much exactitude to the composer's original vision as possible. ("Musical notation," Wikipedia, 2006)

Jazz originated as a popular music form, a derivation of 'the blues,' and even farther back to the spontaneous "call and response" of the slave songs and their use of "improvisation as an essential part of the creative process; extensive use of slurs, moans, cries, and bends in both the vocal and instrumental performance." (Marsalis, 2001) Jazz was passed along, like music's oldest forms, in an aural tradition, as musicians learned by ear from other musicians, and developed their own jazz style. Gradually, however, there became a need to transcribe at least some of the jazz rhythms and notes down, but in a way that was still keeping with the music's origins and spirit. This was achieved through the use of fake books. Fake books utilized standard notation such as the treble and base clefs but contain key signatures only on the beginning stave, and the melodic line had letter notation for chord names and chord symbols written above the line. But new harmonies, variations in pitch, alternate instrumentation, and fluxuations in rhytmn were allowed. ("Musical notation," Wikipedia, 2006)

Fake… READ MORE

How to Reference "Music the Evolution Musical Notation -- Classical" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Numerology in Music Research Proposal

Numerology in Baroque and Classical Music

The idea that music is related to mathematics goes back to ancient times. In his Dialogues, Plato agreed with Pythagoras's assertion that harmonics and… read more

Research Proposal 7 pages (2281 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Approaches to Opera 1590-1650 Term Paper

Music

Battle of Styles: The Story of Opera 1590-1650

The Renaissance represented a flowering of Western European Civilization in all its aspects. As the name suggests, it was a "renascence,"… read more

Term Paper 8 pages (2989 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Formal and Tonal Analysis of Beethoven's Piano Sonata OP 110 Dissertation

Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 Op. 110: A critical analysis

The Prolific German composer and pianist, whose some thirty-two piano sonatas span a lifetime of achievement and professional success, managed… read more

Dissertation 22 pages (6061 words) Sources: 7 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Baroque Oratorio With an Emphasis on G. F. Handel Research Paper

Baroque Era and the Oratorio: Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn

The transition from the Renaissance period to what is commonly known as the Baroque period is marked by a retrenchment of… read more

Research Paper 18 pages (5544 words) Sources: 9 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Development of Pierre Schaeffer's Musique Concrete Term Paper

PIERRE SCHAEFFER'S MUSIQUE CONCRETE

Pierre Schaeffer succeeded far beyond his expectations in that he not only was able to conceal the object sources of his musical compositions from the listener… read more

Term Paper 25 pages (8641 words) Sources: 7 Style: APA Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>