SAT阅读备考材料整理.pdf

SAT 阅读备考材料整理 A Brief History of Western Music Western music is generally broken down into six periods. Eac of t ese periods ave certain c aracteristics w ic ave s aped it and remained wit it t roug out its duration. However, lesser c aracteristics may c ange wit in any given period, and so you ave works w ic fall into, say, t e early Romantic period as opposed to t e late Romantic. T e Medieval Period (400-1400) Prior to about 900, nearly all t e music we ave any record of is a simple, one line structure called a plainc ant. T is was made up of one melodic line sung in unison by everybody. More complex music existed, but as it was secular and not sacred, we ave very few, if any, written accounts of it. Gradually, over t e next 500 years, people began to expand on t is simple structure by adding voices. At first, t ese voices sung a fixed interval1 above or below t e original line. T is was called an organum. At some point, someone got t e idea of aving two different lines moving at t e same time but not aving a fixed interval. Usually t e ig er of t ese lines would be fairly florid, w ile t e lower was a slower, pre-existing plainc ant2. By 1300, t ree and four voice compositions were being written. T ese works are referred to as polyp onic (many voices), to distinguis t em from t e monop ony (single voice) of t e simple plainc ant. T e Renaissance (1400-1600) By 1400 or s ortly t ereafter, several composers were writing polyp ony in a slig tly different way. Instead of using a slower bottom voice and faster upper voices, t ey made all voices equal in r yt mic variety. And instead of using four different c ants, t ey used a single c ant w ic was stated in eac of t e voices, upon t eir entrance, and t e developed differently from one voice to t e