He was the most famous composer of masses in Europe in the late 15^th century, only being rivaled by Josquin Desprez after his death. Jacob Obrecht, Dutch Composer of the Renaissance, only son of Willem Obrecht, a Gent city Trumpet player.

Not much is known about Obrecht. In fact his birth date isn’t totally accurate, believed to be 1457 or 58. Details of his early education are also sparse, but it is likely he learned to play the trumpet like his father, and learned the art of counter point and improvisation over a cantus firmus, which is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition which is often set apart by being played in long notes. Obrecht lived a relatively harsh life; twice he was caught in trouble for financial irregularities, more likely from careless bookkeeping. But at any rate, the man was smart and did know his music.

Obrecht mainly wrote sacred music, like all composers of the age: masses and motets, even a few secular chansons have survived. Stylistically, Obrecht is a fascinating example of the contrapuntal extravagance of the late 15^th century. As I said before, he mainly used the cantus firmus technique for his masses, but also used a large variety of constructive devices in transforming simple source material into multi-movement mass compositions. Sometimes even taking his source material and dividing it up into short phrases. Or he would also extract the component notes and order them by note value, long to short, constructing new melodic material from the re-ordered sequences of notes. Clearly to Obrecht, there could not be too much variety. As for the source for his material, he liked the popular chansons of the day.

Though he was renowned in his time (1457/58-1505) Obrecht had little influence on subsequent generations: basically he was a trend and simply went out of fashion. Even his own demise was a cause for bad luck. It was said he died during what should have been an appointment in Ferrara but became unemployed there and died in the outbreak of plague just before August 1^st, 1505.

    Greece, Land of the Gods. Usually when people think of Greece, they generally think of towering temples and colossal statues of ancient Greek Gods. But what of their Music? Not much is known about ancient Greek Music except for what was written down by the Philosophers and Scholars of the age, and even this data is sparse and ridden with gaps.

    Most information that the present day people know about Ancient Greece were made  by the discoveries of ancient artifacts and ruins, so there isn’t much general information. In fact, throughout history there were many attempts to completely eradicate the culture off the planet, most of their records, however, were protected and kept secret by the church. So what do we know? Classical Education was basically the study of Greek and Roman Arts, Philosophy, and government. Like Japan and Asia, Greece and Rome constantly fed off of each other gaining new ides, customs, and building from them. As for music, it was one of the least focused things during the time period. In fact, music wasn’t really used at all except during major ceremonies and gatherings.

     By 5^th Century B.C. music was finally just getting around through the form of study and musical contests at festivals. These contests are the equivalent of the modern trumpet players’ egotism and idea of “I am better than you, let me show you.” Basically it was a contest consisting of two people trying to out-do each other in small performances. Another fact, music was not really written down, it was mainly improvised from what a musician remembered from a piece, another concept shared with the Japanese music culture.

   Like with all subjects in science and art, the Philosophers of the age sought to understand music and its properties. The Philosophers believed that music was of a divine source that could heal ailments, purify the mind and body and cause miracles. They also thought that Mathematics intertwined with Music in the form of mathematical laws underling systems of musical intervals and mathematical bodies. This concept was called Music of the Spheres. Want it in English? Basically math and music went hand-in-hand. By using mathematical properties to govern over and with musical properties/theory, music was formed.

    But math was not the only thing that music bonded with. Pythagoras believed that Music was inseparable from all human thought, that the musical components corresponded with the Cosmos. With this way of thinking modes (an emotional connection to one’s soul/thought) and Pythagoras’s Overtone Series was created. Another Philosopher, Ethos, believed that because music was governed by math and the human body was governed by math, music must be able to control the body. When this theory was released to the public, people began to think that music held great power, and the Philosophers thought that this awesome power to control the body must be used responsibly. So the Greeks set a series of laws, to be more specific, a LOT of laws, to govern Music and its qualities.

     Ironic how music in Greece went from the bottom of the to-do list, to being one of the most powerful things in the culture. Once you think about it, this concept of music controlling the body still exists today. For instance, imagine you are listening to your favorite song, what happens? The average person would probably sing, tap their foot or become so emotionally charged that they would do crazy, even almost Dionysian in nature.

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Mr. Bowen, please excuse the bullets as xanga is retarded and won't use paragraph form without using this certain type of font. But if you need to see it in paragraph form, then I can print out a copy to give to you on Monday.             

Ancient Japan, a time of religous booms and an Honor System based life. During this time period, the "Land of the rising Sun" (called by it's natives the Nhonjin) was greatly influenced by other cultures and ideals, namely China. Music had a different meaning to the Nhonjin than what modern westreners and even early westreners would consider normal.

In a way, music during the Tokugawa or Edo period was mainly used to stimulate the mind and body to a more spiritual level. Or it was also used as a way of retribution or  way to enhance on hand experiances. For instance, the Shakuhachi Flute was used sometimes as a tool of meditation for buddhists and ronin samurai. On the other hand you have the Shamisen, a three stringed instrument which was used to pour out emotion rather than quiet and neutralize it. Mainly used in tea house preformances.

Each musician and insturment style has its own Guild, which is basically like a Social Organization. In a guild you would learn how to play your specified insturment and when you became good enough you were liscensed to play in public and/or teach the style that you learned. Each instrument/guild also use a select kind of pitches. No two groups are exactly alike in anyway.

Japanese pitch Style is another huge difference. Japanese tambre uses a broad range of unpitched sounds. A good example would be in the Shamisen. When the biggest or lowest string is struck a certain way it creates a sawari, or unpitched buzz, that is the main charictaristic of the instrument. Japanese rhythm is also based on a random-like basis. There isn't  really beat, just arrival point that sets the tempo.

Finally, Japan really didnt write music at all. Music was taught in the guild by ear, and you had to play it a specific way, no different than what you were taught. Unless of course you decided to create your own guild where your own ideas could run rampant. Also recording during these time periods was very scarce. Most anciant recordings are scratchy and terrible than some of the ones you hear in this present day age.

Japan today has been greatly influenced by the Western continents and countries. Karaoke is one of the biggest things of the present day in Japan and classical music is also making a gigantinc boom. But it is in this some what of a Second Westrenization that old traditons are being lost. The older society of Japan is still trying to keep up with the anciant traditons but the new age is working to mondernize Japan into a more techno and hip-hop kind of culture. The main goal of this is to live in a modern and American influenced world. Basically, you could almost say they are a bunch of poesers. But you could just as easily say that from these new, "borrowed" ideas, that greater, and even newer origanal ideas could emerge from Japan in the future.

Please excuse any spelling and grammatical errors you may find in this Summary, as Xanga spell check is not user friendly and does not function very well.      

This is my Site for Music Theory class.