Atton Rand & miscellaneous names (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
suitably_heroic) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2024-02-07 08:14 am
suitably_heroic) wrote in fandomhigh2024-02-07 08:14 am
Entry tags:
Music, Wednesday
Anyone who came into class today would find themselves greeting by low chanting.
“Music is a part of many religious traditions,” Atton began, “And I’m not going to pretend I know all of them on this planet, let alone in the multiverse. But as far as the history of music by the ruling demographic of this country goes, Gregorian chant is a pretty good place to start. It was one of a number of types of chants performed by sects of the Christian religion during the eighth century, but as per usual politics got involved and declared it The Only Hot New Thing We’re Allowing On Our Block. Specifically, a guy named Charlemagne, who took over most of the European continent around the same time.”
He shrugged. “Music and politics: they go together like one really terrible, disgusting thing and one really nice, good thing,” he said. “Either way, after that, the tradition spread and it became the foundation of modern western music.”
"And you haven't even heard Sith opera yet," Lana said cheerfully. "The politics of that are terrible."
Atton glanced towards Lana. ”Now, it’s a really particular kind of sound,” he said. “We call it ‘monophonic’ - that means nobody tries to harmonize, it’s just people singing the same note in unison.”
"There are no instruments, either," Lana added. "Only voices. And often, especially in later chants, one syllable can contain a lot of different notes in sequence. Then there are some forms that are called 'responsorial'. That is, one singer sings a verse, and the rest of them respond with a refrain. Not that it's likely to make much sense to most of us, since the traditional ones here are in Latin, which is a language that's almost entirely scholarly these days. As is the musical form, honestly; it's mostly confined to religious orders and choirs. Not that modern musicians haven't had a bit of fun with it."
She smiled. "So why don't we? We've got any number of songs for you to listen to, and you can work with those or create your own, and let's try to add something to it, make it our own."
“Music is a part of many religious traditions,” Atton began, “And I’m not going to pretend I know all of them on this planet, let alone in the multiverse. But as far as the history of music by the ruling demographic of this country goes, Gregorian chant is a pretty good place to start. It was one of a number of types of chants performed by sects of the Christian religion during the eighth century, but as per usual politics got involved and declared it The Only Hot New Thing We’re Allowing On Our Block. Specifically, a guy named Charlemagne, who took over most of the European continent around the same time.”
He shrugged. “Music and politics: they go together like one really terrible, disgusting thing and one really nice, good thing,” he said. “Either way, after that, the tradition spread and it became the foundation of modern western music.”
"And you haven't even heard Sith opera yet," Lana said cheerfully. "The politics of that are terrible."
Atton glanced towards Lana. ”Now, it’s a really particular kind of sound,” he said. “We call it ‘monophonic’ - that means nobody tries to harmonize, it’s just people singing the same note in unison.”
"There are no instruments, either," Lana added. "Only voices. And often, especially in later chants, one syllable can contain a lot of different notes in sequence. Then there are some forms that are called 'responsorial'. That is, one singer sings a verse, and the rest of them respond with a refrain. Not that it's likely to make much sense to most of us, since the traditional ones here are in Latin, which is a language that's almost entirely scholarly these days. As is the musical form, honestly; it's mostly confined to religious orders and choirs. Not that modern musicians haven't had a bit of fun with it."
She smiled. "So why don't we? We've got any number of songs for you to listen to, and you can work with those or create your own, and let's try to add something to it, make it our own."