BBC Howard Goodall's Story of Music 1of6 The Age of Discovery
Why Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange recommends it
Music Stack Exchange answerers point people to it when asked about the origins of Western harmony and for a documentary on medieval and Renaissance music.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2013 to 2021.
What it is
The first episode of Howard Goodall's six-part BBC series on the history of Western music, covering early developments from ancient times through the medieval era, including the rise of notation and harmony. Goodall, a British composer and broadcaster, presents it with performed examples. This upload is by the channel Double.Vanille.
What people said
Recommends Old John · 2015-11 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Are there any documentaries on the subject of Medieval and/or Renaissance western music and its practice?”
Here is an example of a documentary which is readily available, depending on where in the world you are located, and which appears to have some relevance to what you want: BBC Howard Goodall's Story of Music [this video] If you want to hear some examles, there is a whole playlist of short performances here, which gives you a lot of names, but no discussion: History of Western Music [LINK] and here: A Brief History of the Western Musical Thought [LINK] You might also be interested in some of the (free) courses offered by Coursera. For example: Western Music History through Performance [LINK] You might need to register with the site to get access to this, and probably only week one of the course is
Recommends Aaron · 2021-05 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Why did it take a millennium to use harmony/polyphony (900 AD) when Pythagoras discovered perfect fourth and fifth around 500 BC?”
The primary focus of Goodall's "Story of Music" is the development of Western classical music — specifically, Western-style harmony. In this regard, he attempts to draw a continuum illustrating that development. What he is not saying, is that perfect fourths and fifths weren't used in music before 900 CE. He's saying that in the history of written music, we're only aware of their development as harmonic intervals (in the Western sense of "harmony") beginning around 900 CE. And yet, we've absolutely no idea what the music of these ancient societies actually sounded like. Because they couldn't write their music down, it has disappeared completely. ( Episode 1: 5:03 – 5:13 [this video] ) This doesn'
Cites Anthony · 2013-12 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Are odd time signatures perceived as execution errors by layman people?”
Define layman. A non musician? I don't think it would make a lot of difference if the listener were a musician or not. Except that the musician is more likely to have listened irregular meters before. A person who's never (rarely ever) heard odd meters or heavily syncopated music? Yes he would perceive it as mistake. Personally, I do remember hearing those things as mistakes when I was younger. Ever heard of Behold the Arctopus ? Me and my friends used to make fun of their music because it was so chaotic and irregular. But after listening to it a few times (out of curiosity) it doesn't even bother me anymore. Try it yourself, listen to this [LINK] for a few minutes, then listen to it tomorro