Ancient Greece is widely-known to be a very important influence in the foundation of western civilization. The classical Greek culture influenced the Roman empire, which spread its culture across much of Europe, from which we drew much of our culture.
Music was very important to the Ancient Greeks, as it was present in all of their religious ceremonies and staged dramas; however, the idea of theory and structure in music was not quite developed as it is today. The great Greek philosopher Pythagoras was one of the first to study harmonics and the function of overtones. But whereas we study these things to better understand the formulas for producing pleasing music, the Ancient Greeks saw this as a philosophical description of how the universe was constructed. They believed that, like harmonics in music, everything in the universe was vibrating in harmony. The Greeks had certain modes that were meant to be used for specific emotions. These modes used whole-steps, half-steps, and even quarter-steps to differentiate between tones.
Iannis Xenakis was born on the 29 of May, 1922. Being of Greek decent, he was very much influenced by Greek folk melodies. But he was also influenced by his past studies. He had studied mathematics and before composing, first worked as an architect in Paris. Xenakis liked to use mathematics to write music, and pioneered the use of mathematical models to do so. This process gives some of his music a very atonal, strange sound, making it sometimes difficult to comprehend and listen to. Without any tonal center, any sense of structure and continuity is all built on musical dramaturgy with the the use of brilliant dynamics
His solo piano piece, Evryali [1973], is a very good example of just this. It is also part of our listening exam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWYpLdYoJSc
Good work! Could you fix the link so it works as a hyperlink?
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