History of music

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani does not follow a linear chronology. He begins the history of music in its middle, the nineteenth century, contrasting Schubert's lyricism with Beethoven's drama, which he says Wagner synthesises in the infinite melody1. To measure modernity, he draws on the major breaks, from the Notre-Dame school to Monteverdi, Haydn, Wagner, Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. From these he draws two senses of the modern: making the unheard-of heard, or making forgotten archaisms resound2. He sees tonality as a recent exception on a modal planet. Its very rapid evolution, from Monteverdi until its dissolution, would be linked to the fate of individual freedom3. He ties the alternation between happy and melancholy music to historical periods, from 1848 to the postwar years4. He also connects the awakening of nationalities to the national schools and to Bartók's research into folk music. Finally, he links the vogue for the baroque and 1950s rock through their regular metre54.

1. 1Musicosophie 1. Schubert et les maîtres chanteurs3 Dec 2020
2. 2Musicosophie 3. Qu'appelle-t-on une musique moderne?3 Dec 2020
3. 3Musicosophie 11. Musiques modales et tonales24 Jan 2021
4. 4Musicosophie 8. Bonheur et malheur en musique11 Jan 2021
5. 5Musicosophie 4. Les ghettos sonores3 Dec 2020

Introduction produced automatically from the 6 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.