Prehistoric music is the name given to all music produced in preliterate cultures. Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites. The term is commonly used to refer to the music in Europe before the development of writing.
Prehistoric music is the name given to all music produced in preliterate cultures. Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites. The term is commonly used to refer to the music in Europe before the development of writing.
Prehistoric music is the name given to all music produced in preliterate cultures. Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites. The term is commonly used to refer to the music in Europe before the development of writing.
History of music organisation, which is still used in Arabic review of ancient drawings on vases and walls,
music.[7] etc., and ancient writings (such as in Aristotle,
Prehistoric eras and antiquity Problems, Book XIX.12) which described musical techniques of the time, indicate polyphony. One pipe in the aulos pairs (double The development of music among humans flutes) likely served as a drone or "keynote," must have taken place against the backdrop of while the other played melodic passages. Prehistoric music natural sounds such as birdsong and the Instruments, such as the seven holed flute and sounds other animals use to communicate.[citation various types of stringed instruments have been needed] Prehistoric music is the name which is Prehistoric music, once more commonly called recovered from the Indus valley civilization given to all music produced in preliterate primitive music, is the name given to all music archaeological sites.[2] cultures.[citation needed][4]Ancient music can only be produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), imagined by scholars, based on findings from a beginning somewhere in very late geological range of paleolithic sites, such as bones in history. Traditional Native American and Indian classical music (marga) can be found which lateral holes have been pierced: these Australian Aboriginal music could be called from the scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the are usually identified as flutes,[5] blown at one prehistoric, but the term is commonly used to Vedas. Samaveda, one of the four vedas end like the Japanese shakuhachi. The earliest refer to the music in Europe before the describes music at length. The history of written records of musical expression are to be development of writing there. It is more musical development in Iran [Persia] Persian found in the Samaveda of India and in 4,000 common to call the "prehistoric" music of non- music, dates back to the prehistoric era. The year old cuneiform from Ur.[citation needed] European continents – especially that which still great legendary king, Jamshid, is credited with Instruments, such as the seven-holed flute and survives – folk, indigenous, or traditional music. the invention of music. Music in Iran can be various types of stringed instruments have been traced back to the days of the Elamite Empire recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization (2,500-644 B.C). Fragmentary documents from Ancient music archaeological sites.[6] various periods of the country's history establish that the ancient Persians possessed an The prehistoric era is considered to have ended elaborate musical culture. The Sassanian India has one of the oldest musical traditions in with the development of writing, and with it, by period (A.D. 226-651), in particular, has left us the world—references to Indian classical music definition, prehistoric music. "Ancient music" is ample evidence pointing to the existence of a (marga) can be found in the ancient scriptures the name given to the music that followed. The lively musical life in Persia. The names of some of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. The traditional "oldest known song" was written in cuneiform, important musicians such as Barbod, Nakissa music of China has a history stretching for dating to 4,000 years ago from Ur. It was and Ramtin, and titles of some of their works around three thousand years. Music was an deciphered by Prof. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer have survived. important part of cultural and social life in (University of Calif. at Berkeley), and was Ancient Greece: mixed-gender choruses demonstrated to be composed in harmonies of performed for entertainment, celebration and The term Early music era may also refer to thirds, like ancient gymel (Kilmer, Crocker, spiritual ceremonies; musicians and singers had contemporary but traditional or folk music, Brown, Sounds from Silence, 1976, Bit Enki, a prominent role in ancient Greek theater In the including Asian music, Persian music, music of Berkeley, Calif., LCC 76-16729), and also was 9th century, the Arab scholar al-Farabi wrote a India, Jewish music, Greek music, Roman written using a Pythagorean tuning of the book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir music, the music of Mesopotamia, the music of diatonic scale. ("Great Book of Music"). He played and Egypt, and Muslim music. invented a variety of musical instruments and Double pipes, such as used by the ancient devised the Arab tone system of pitch Early Music Greeks, and ancient bagpipes, as well as a Early music is a general term used to describe • Form is the structure of a particular • Structure includes: motive, subphrase, music in the European classical tradition from piece, how its parts are put together to phrase, phrase group, period, section, after the fall of the Roman Empire, in 476 CE, make the whole. exposition, repetition, variation, until the end of the Baroque era in the middle of development, and other formal units, the 18th century. Music within this enormous textural continuity (ibid). span of time was extremely diverse, However, a more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, • Texture is the interaction of temporal encompassing multiple cultural traditions within intensity, and duration. (Owen 2000:6) and pitch elements. It includes: a wide geographic area; many of the cultural homophony, polyphony, heterophony, groups out of which medieval Europe and simultaneity. (ibid) developed already had musical traditions, about • Pitch is the perception of the frequency which little is known. What unified these • Style is defined by how the above of the sound experienced, and is cultures in the Middle Ages was the Roman elements are used. It is what perceived as how "low" or "high" a Catholic Church, and its music served as the distinguishes an individual composer sound is, and may be further described focal point for musical development for the first or group, period, genre, region, or as definite pitch or indefinite pitch. It thousand years of this period. Very little non- manner of performance (ibid). includes: melody, harmony, tonality, Christian music from this period survived, due tessitura, and tuning or temperament • Aesthetics is another element that to its suppression by the Church and the (ibid). many do not know. This is how the absence of music notation; however, folk music • Timbre is the quality of a sound, music affects you emotionaly. For of modern Europe probably has roots at least example: an upbeat tune may make determined by the fundamental and its as far back as the Middle Ages. you joyful, while a slow violin song spectra: overtones or harmonics and may make you feel lonely, cold, and envelope, and varies between voices depressed. and types and kinds of musical ELEMENTS OF MUSIC instruments, which are tools used to produce sound. It includes: tone color four properties of musical sounds and articulation (ibid). The traditional musicological or European- • Intensity, or dynamics, is how loud or Pitch, timbre, duration, volume. influenced aspects of music often listed are quiet a sound is and includes how those elements given primacy in European- stressed a sound is or articulation. Kinds of music influenced classical music: melody, harmony, • Duration is the temporal aspect of rhythm, tone color, and form. Rap is a fast singing rhyming kind of music. It is music; time. It includes: pulse, beat, the latest kind of music. rhythm, rhythmic density, meter, tempo • Melody is a succession of notes heard (ibid). as some sort of unit. • Harmony is the relationship between These aspects combine to create secondary two or more simultaneous pitches or aspects including form or structure, texture, and pitch simultaneities. style. Other commonly included aspects include the spatial location or the movement in space of What is DRAMA? • Rhythm is the variation of the Drama comes from Greek words meaning "to sounds, gesture, and dance. Silence is also accentuation of sounds over time. do" or "to act." A play is a story acted out. It often considered an aspect of music, if it is • Tone color is timbre, see list below. considered to exist. shows people going through some eventful period in their lives, seriously or humorously. lovers are always united. Farce is comedy at its distinction between major and minor characters The speech and action of a play recreate the broadest. Much fun and horseplay enliven the is one of degree, as the character of Horatio flow of human life. A play comes fully to life only action. The comedy of manners, or artificial might illustrate. on the stage. On the stage it combines many comedy, is subtle, witty, and often mocking. arts those of the author, director, actor, Sentimental comedy mixes sentimental emotion designer, and others. Dramatic performance with its humor. Melodrama has a plot filled with involves an intricate process of rehearsal based pathos and menacing threats by a villain, but it upon imagery inherent in the dramatic text. A does include comic relief and has a happy playwright first invents a drama out of mental ending. It depends upon physical action rather Plot imagery. The dramatic text presents the drama than upon character probing. Tragic or comic, as a range of verbal imagery. The language of the action of the play comes from conflict of by: Eduardo M. Tajonera Jr. drama can range between great extremes: on characters how the stage people react to each the one hand, an intensely theatrical and other. These reactions make the play. The interest generated by the plot varies for ritualistic manner; and on the other, an almost different kinds of plays. (See fiction elements on exact reproduction of real life. A dramatic plot for more information regarding plot.) The monologue is a type of lyrical poem or narrative Elements of Drama plot is usually structured with acts and scenes. piece that has a person speaking to a select listener and revealing his character in a by: Christina Sheryl L. Sianghio dramatic situation. Open conflict plays: rely on the suspense of a struggle in which the hero, through perhaps Character fight against all odds, is not doomed. Dramatic Classification of Dramatic Plays thesis: foreshadowing, in the form of ominous In a strict sense, plays are classified as being Most simply a character is one of the persons hints or symbolic incidents, conditions the either tragedies or comedies. The broad who appears in the play, one of the dramatis audience to expect certain logical difference between the two is in the ending. personae (literally, the persons of the play). In developments. Coincidence: sudden reversal of Comedies end happily. Tragedies end on an another sense of the term, the treatment of the fortune plays depict climatic ironies or unhappy note. The tragedy acts as a purge. It character is the basic part of the playwright's misunderstandings. Dramatic irony: the arouses our pity for the stricken one and our work. Conventions of the period and the fulfillment of a plan, action, or expectation in a terror that we ourselves may be struck down. As author's personal vision will affect the treatment surprising way, often opposite of what was the play closes we are washed clean of these of character. intended. emotions and we feel better for the experience. A classical tragedy tells of a high and noble Most plays contain major characters and minor Theme person who falls because of a "tragic flaw," a characters. The delineation and development of weakness in his own character. A domestic major characters is essential to the play; the The plot has been called the body of a play and tragedy concerns the lives of ordinary people conflict between Hamlet and Claudius depends the theme has been called its soul. Most plays brought low by circumstances beyond their upon the character of each. A minor character have a conflict of some kind between control. Domestic tragedy may be realistic like Marcellus serves a specific function, to individuals, between man and society, man and seemingly true to life or naturalistic realistic and inform Hamlet of the appearance of his father's some superior force or man and h imself. The on the seamy side of life. A romantic comedy is ghost. Once, that is done, he can depart in events that this conflict provokes make up the a love story. The main characters are lovers; the peace, for we need not know what sort of plot. One of the first items of interest is the secondary characters are comic. In the end the person he is or what happens to him. The playwright\rquote s treatment of the plot and what them he would draw from it. The same Convention sequence and characterization through plots have been and will be used many times; it dialogue. is the treatment that supplies each effort with The means the playwright employs are originality or artistic worth. Shakespeare is said determined at least in part by dramatic to have borrowed all but one of his stories, but convention. Greek: Playwrights of this era often he presented them so much better than any of worked with familiar story material, legend the previous authors that he is not seriously about gods and famous families that the criticized for the borrowing. Th e treatment of audience was familiar with. Since the audience theme is equally varied. was familiar with certain aspects of these, the Genre playwrights used allusion rather than explicit exposition. In representing action, they often Emil Sylianteng relied on messengers to report off-stage action. Dialogue For interpretation the Greeks relied on the Genre is a term that describes works of CHORUS, a body of onlookers, usually citizens literature according to their shared thematic or or elders, whose comments on the play structural characteristics. The attempt to classify Dialogue provides the substance of a play. reflected reactions common to the community. Each word uttered by the character furthers the literature in this way was initiated by Aristotle in These plays were written in metered verse the Poetics, where he distinguishes tragedy, business of the play, contributes to its effect as arranged in elaborate stanzas. This required a whole. Therefore, a sense of DECORUM epic, and comedy and recognizes even more intense attention from the audience. English fundamental distinctions between drama, epic, must be established by the characters, ie., what Drama: Minor chara cters play an important role is said is appropriate to the role and situation of and lyric poetry. Classical genre theory, in providing information and guiding established by Aristotle and reinforced by a character. Also the exposition of the play often interpretation. The confidant, a friend or falls on the dialogue of the characters. Horace, is regulative and prescriptive, servant, listens to the complaints, plans and attempting to maintain rigid boundaries that Remember exposition establishes the reminiscences of a major character. Minor relationships, tensions or conflicts from which correspond to social differences. Thus, tragedy characters casually comment among and epic are concerned exclusively with the later plot developments derive. themselves on major characters and plot affairs of the nobility, comedy with the middle or development. Extended SOLILOQUY enables a lower classes. Any artificial picture of life must start from the major character to reveal his thoughts in much detail of actuality. An audience must be able to greater detail than in natural dialogue. ASIDES, recognize it; however changed; we want to remarks made to the audience but not heard by Modern literary criticism, on the other hand, check it against experience. Death for exampl those on the stage, are common. Realism: does not regard genres as dogmatic categories, e, is something we cannot know. In every man it Toward the end of the nineteenth century, but rather as aesthetic conventions that guide, is represented as an embodying some of our realistic depiction of everyday life entered the but are also led by, writers. The unstable nature feelings about it. So Death is partly humanized, genre of drama, whereas the characters may be of genres does not reduce their effectiveness as enough, anyway, for us to be able to explore unconventional and their thoughts turbulent and tools of critical inquiry, which attempts to what the dramatist thinks about it. fantasy-ridden. Contemporary: Experimentation discover universal attributes among individual seems to be the key word here. A NARRATOR works, and has, since classical times, evolved replaces the messenger, the chorus and the theories of the novel, ode, elegy, pastoral, confidant. FLASHBACKS often substitute for satire, and many other kinds of writing. narration. Many contemporary playwrights have abandoned recognizable setting, chronological Audience Manuel L. Ortiz Design motived; but that is because of individual inexpertness, not because of any failure to It is the act or chance of hearing; a reception by Francis Calangi recognize theoretically the necessity for a great person; the person to hear. adequate motivation. Theater Space Playhouse, script, actors, mise en scene, Theater can also be discussed in terms of the History of Drama audience are inseparable parts of the theatre. type of space in which it is produced. Stages The concept of drama put forward in this book and auditoriums have had distinctive forms in Ancient Drama insists that the audience have an indispensable every era and in different cultures. New theaters role to play. While Stanislavsky is right in saying today tend to be flexible and eclectic in design, The origins of Western drama can be traced to that 'spectator come to the theatre to hear the incorporating elements of several styles; they the celebratory music of 6th-century BC Attica, subtext. They can read the text at home; he is are known as multiple-use or multiple-form the Greek region centered on Athens. Although speaking as a man of the nineteenth century. theaters. accounts of this period are inadequate, it We do not go to the play merely to have the text appears that the poet Thespis developed a new interpreted and explained by the skills of the Conversions musical form in which he impersonated a single director and his actor. We do not go as in a character and engaged a chorus of singer- learning situation, but to share in a partnership dancers in dialogue. As the first composer and without which the players cannot work. In his Ma. Criselda De Leon soloist in this new form, which came to be Reflaxions sur l; art, valery believed that a known as tragedy, Thespis can be considered creator is one who makes other create': in art Conversions, closely examined, will be found to both the first dramatist and the first actor. Of the both the artist and the spectator actively fall into two classes: changes of volition, and hundreds of works produced by Greek tragic cooperate, and the value of the work is changes of sentiment. It was the former class playwrights, only 32 plays by the three major dependent on this reciprocity. If in the theatre that Dryden had in mind; and, with reference to innovators in this new art form survive. there is no interaction between stage and this class, the principle he indicates remains a Aeschylus created the possibility of developing audience, the play is dead, bad or non-existent: sound one. A change of resolve should never conflict between characters by introducing a the audience, like the customer, is always right. be due to mere lapse of time---to the necessity second actor into the format. His seven for bringing the curtain down and letting the surviving plays, three of which constitute the audience go home. It must always be rendered only extant trilogy are richly ambiguous inquiries plausible by some new fact or new motive; into the paradoxical relationship between some hitherto untried appeal to reason or humans and the cosmos, in which people are Stagecraft emotion. This rule, however, is too obvious to made answerable for their acts, yet recognize require enforcement. It was not quite that these acts are determined by the gods. Eduardo M. Tajonera Jr superfluous so long as the old convention of comedy endured. For a century and a half after Dryden's time, hard-hearted parents were apt to Back to Top The stage creates its effects in spite of, and in part because of, definite physical limitations. withdraw their opposition to their children's Setting and action tend to be suggestive rather "felicity" for no better reason than that the fifth than panoramic or colossal. Both setting and act was drawing to a close. But this formula is Medieval Drama action may be little more than hints for the practically obsolete. Changes of will, on the spectator to fill out. modern stage, are not always adequately Medieval drama, when it emerged hundreds of considered out of date, so that during the next touch with its origins and had no meaning for years later, was a new creation rather than a two centuries the works of England's greatest modern society other than as a form of rebirth, the drama of earlier times having had dramatist were never produced intact. Owing entertainment. Paralleling modern art almost no influence on it. The reason for this much to Moliere, the English comedy of movements, they turned to symbol, abstraction, creation came from a quarter that had manners was typically a witty, brittle satire of and ritual in an attempt to revitalize the theatre. traditionally opposed any form of theater: the current mores, especially of relations between Although realism continues to be dominant in Christian church. In the Easter service, and the sexes. Among its leading examples were contemporary theatre, television and film now later in the Christmas service, bits of chanted She Would if She Could (1668) and The Man of better serve its earlier functions. dialogue, called tropes, were interpolated into Mode (1676) by Sir George Etherege; The the liturgy. Priests, impersonating biblical Country Wife (1675) by William Wycherley; The Symbolist Drama figures, acted out minuscule scenes from the Way of the World (1700) by William Congreve; holiday stories. Eventually, these playlets grew and The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The more elaborate and abandoned the inside of the Beaux' Stratagem (1707) by George Farquhar. The Symbolist movement in France in the church for the church steps and the adjacent 1880s first adopted Wagner's ideas. The marketplace. Secular elements crept in as the Symbolists called for "detheatricalizing" the 19th Century Drama and The Romantic theatre, meaning stripping away all the artisan guilds took responsibility for these Rebellion performances; although the glorification of God technological and scenic encumbrances of the and the redemption of humanity remained prime 19th century and replacing them with a concerns, the celebration of local industry was In its purest form, Romanticism concentrated on spirituality that was to come from the text and not neglected. the spiritual, which would allow humankind to the acting. The texts were laden with symbolic transcend the limitations of the physical world imagery not easily construed-rather they were and body and find an ideal truth. Subject matter suggestive. The general mood of the plays was Previous Topic was drawn from nature and "natural man" (such slow and dream-like. The intention was to as the supposedly untouched Native American) evoke an unconscious response rather than an Back to Top intellectual one and to depict the nonrational The Modern Drama aspects of characters and events. The Symbolist plays of Maurice Maeterlinck of Belgium and Paul Claudel of France, popular in Restoration And 18th-Century Drama From the time of the Renaissance on, theatre the 1890s and early 20th century, are seldom seemed to be striving for total realism, or at performed today. Strong Symbolist elements least for the illusion of reality. As it reached that can be found, however, in the plays of Chekhov The theaters established in the wake of Charles goal in the late 19th century, a multifaceted, and the late works of Ibsen and Strindberg. II's return from exile in France and the antirealistic reaction erupted. Avant-garde Symbolist influences are also evident in the Restoration of the monarchy in England (1660) Precursors of Modern Theatre Many works of such later playwrights as the were intended primarily to serve the needs of a movements generally lumped together as the Americans Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee socially, politically, and aesthetically avant-garde, attempted to suggest alternatives Williams and the Englishman Harold Pinter, homogeneous class. At first they relied on the to the realistic drama and production. The propounder of "theatre of silence". Also pre-Civil War repertoire; before long, however, various theoreticians felt that Naturalism influenced by Wagner and the Symbolists were they felt called upon to bring these plays into presented only superficial and thus limited or the Swiss scenic theorist Adolphe Appia and line with their more "refined," French-influenced surface reality-that a greater truth or reality theEnglish designer Edward Henry Gordon sensibilities. The themes, language, and could be found in the spiritual or the Craig, whose turn-of-the-century innovations dramaturgy of Shakespeare's plays were now unconscious. Others felt that theatre had lost shaped much of 20th-century scenic and lighting design. They both reacted against the there, however, psychological realism seemed the purpose of expressing an idea or emotion, realistic painted settings of the day, proposing to be the goal, and nonrealistic scenic and releasing energy, or simply taking delight in the instead suggestive or abstract settings that dramatic devices were employed to achieve this movement itself. would create, through light and scenic end. The plays of Arthur Miller and Tennessee elements, more of a mood or feeling than an Williams, for instance, use memory scenes, Dance (from French danser, perhaps from illusion of a real place. In 1896 a Symbolist dream sequences, purely symbolic characters, Frankish) is an art form that generally refers to theatre in Paris produced Alfred Jarry's Ubu roi, projections, and the like. Even O'Neill's later movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to for its time a shocking, bizarre play. Modelled works-ostensibly realistic plays such as Long music,[1] used as a form of expression, social vaguely on Macbeth, the play depicts puppet- Day's Journey into Night (produced 1956)- interaction or presented in a spiritual or like characters in a world devoid of decency. incorporate poetic dialogue and a carefully performance setting. Dance is also used to The play is filled with scatological humor and orchestrated background of sounds to soften describe methods of non-verbal communication language. It was perhaps most significant for its the hard-edged realism. Scenery was almost (see body language) between humans or shock value and its destruction of virtually all- always suggestive rather than realistic. animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such contemporaneous theatrical norms and taboos. European drama was not much influenced by as a mating dance), motion in inanimate objects Ubu roi freed the theatre for exploration in any psychological realism but was more concerned (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain direction the author wished to go. It also served with plays of ideas, as evidenced in the works musical forms or genres. In sports, gymnastics, as the model and inspiration for future avant- of the Italian dramatist Luigi Pirandello, the figure skating and synchronized swimming are garde dramatic movements and the absurdist French playwrights Jean Anouilh and Jean dance disciplines while martial arts kata are drama of the 1950s. Giraudoux, and the Belgian playwright Michel often compared to dances. de Ghelderode. In England in the 1950s John Expressionist Drama Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) became a rallying point for the postwar "angry young Definitions of what constitutes dance are men"; a Vietnam trilogy of the early 1970s, by dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic The Expressionist movement was popular in the the American playwright David Rabe, expressed and moral constraints and range from functional 1910s and 1920s, largely in Germany. It the anger and frustration of many towards the movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso explored the more violent, grotesque aspects of war in Vietnam. Under he influence of Brecht, techniques such as ballet. Dance can be the human psyche, creating a nightmare world many postwar German playwrights wrote participatory, social or performed for an onstage. Scenographically, distortion and documentary dramas that, based on historical audience. It can also be ceremonial, exaggeration and a suggestive use of light and incidents, explored the moral obligations of competitive or erotic. Dance movements may shadow typify Expressionism. Stock types individuals to themselves and to society. An be without significance in themselves, such as replaced individualized characters or allegorical example is The Deputy (1963), by Rolf in ballet or European folk dance, or have a figures, much as in the morality plays, and plots Hochhuth, which deals with Pope Pius XII's gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in often revolved around the salvation of silence during World War II. many Asian dances. Dance can embody or humankind. express ideas, emotions or tell a story.
Contemporary Drama Dancing has evolved many styles.
Breakdancing and Krumping are related to the Dance hip hop culture. African dance is interpretive. Although pure Naturalism was never very popular after World War I, drama in a realist Ballet, Ballroom, Waltz, and Tango are classical style continued to dominate the commercial the movement of the body in a rhythmic way, styles of dance while Square and the Electric theatre, especially in the United States. Even usually to music and within a given space, for Slide are forms of step dances. Every dance, no matter what style, has Choreography is the art of creating dances. The something in common. It not only involves person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a flexibility and body movement, but also physics. dance is known as the choreographer. If the proper physics is not taken into consideration, injuries can and are likely to occur.