counterpoint (earliest):

Counterpoint began in the late 9th century with organum, in a plainchant melody, called the vox principalis or principle voice combined with a second part, thevox organalis or organal voice, singing the same melody in parallel fourths or fifths beneath it.  In the 11th century, the organal voice began to claim more individuality.  We see in Guido of Arezzo’s Micrologus it begins to include both parallel motion & oblique and contrary motion, although still only as a compliment to the principle voice.  In the 12th century, the melodic lines finally began to become more individualized by the use of different rhythms. The principal voice became the lower voice, which was emphasized and prolonged and called the tenor.  Over the next 300 years, the rhythmic contrasts between voices increased in complexity.  Around 1200, Pérotin began to write 3 & 4 part music using superimposed rhythmic patterns.  The voices were differentiated by different rhythmic patterns & different phrase lengths.  In the 13th century these contrasts were extended in the motet.  In the 14th century, the upper voice was sometimes displaced by a beat or more, providing even more independence.  Late 14th century, very complex counterpoint compositions used complicated syncopations & different meters.  

 

18th century orchestral writing:

It was during the Baroque period (1600-1750) that orchestras & orchestral music emerged.  At this time orchestras were much smaller, more like ensembles for mixed instruments. They had no standardised size, but rather reflected regional variations.  They originated in France where Lully added the newly re-designed oboe & flutes to his "The twenty-four violins of the King".  Many of Bach's orchestras were small, with an ensemble of up to 18 players. Large scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome (35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, growing to 150 for special occasions).  As well as violins & woodwinds, the baroque orchestra contained basso continuo instruments such as the theorbo, lute, harpsichord and pipe organ.  The zize of the orchestra grew throughout the 18th century and the giants of 18th century Faustian music, Bach (1685- 1750), Haydn (1732-1809), Mozart (1756-91) and Beethoven (1770- 1827) gave birth to the symphony form, written specifically for the orchestra.

 

secular:

of or relating to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal; not pertaining to or connected with religion (as opposed to sacred)

 

archaic relief: * see Endnote <A>

this sculpture falls into 3 classes.  Stele: many 6th-century gravestones were tall narrow slabs, carved (or merely painted) with a single figure, standing & in profile; most common in Attica, often  surmounted by a small compact statue of a sitting sphinx or later by a palmette.  Changes came soon after the middle of the century when, as anatomical skill and taste improved, monsters and animals were abandoned.  A 2nd class of relief includes the square carved metope tablets of Doric temples and treasuries as well as some grave reliefs.  A group of 2 or 3 figures is usual; if only 1 figure, it is posed to spread sideways, like the single figures of vase painting inside Archaic cups.  Finally we see long reliefs, the friezes of Ionic architecture (or the bases of statues); here fields scenes of action are common. Composition and poses for relief follow what we see in vase painting

 

Corinthian painting on clay:  

Proto-Corinthian style, Greek pottery style that flourished at Corinth during the Oriental period (725- 600 BC); this pottery, most of which is miniature in size, was the first to be decorated in the black-figure painting technique: figure silhouettes drawn in black and filled in with incised details.  The principal motifs mirror Middle Eastern styles, are animals in procession and human figures, sometimes in mythical scenes. The small aryballos (scent or oil bottle) is an especially common shape.

 

Attic fresco: * see Endnote <B>

The Greeks seem to have valued painting above even sculpture; by the Hellenistic period the informed appreciation & practice of painting were part of the gentlemanly education. The ekphrasis was a literary form consisting of a description of a work of art; we have a large body of literature on Greek painting and painters, with further additions in Latin, though none by the artists themselves. Unfortunately virtually none of the works of art have survived.

 

Polycletus:

See chapter I, page 27, Chapter III page 112, Chapter V, page 177

 

Phidias:

See Chapter I page 23, Chapter VI page 207

 

plates:

Spengler is referring to the square metopes used on Doric temples

 

seated figures of Miletus: * see Endnote <C>

The Ionian city of Miletus was famed for a large sanctuary sacred to Apollo.  To approach it visitors would follow the Sacred Way to Didyma, about 17 km long.  Along this route were ritual way stations & statues of male & female members of the Branchidae family (the priest who tended to the temple) as well as animal figures.  Some of these statues date to the 6th century BC.

 

archaic clay-painting:

the Archaic period in Apollonian culture (early 8th to late 5th Century BC) saw the birth of the Orientalizing period, led by Corinth.  The previous stick-figures of the geometric pottery become fleshed out amid motifs that replaced the geometric patterns.  It gave Greek art ornamental motifs & an interest in animals and monsters.  We see a shift from the prevailing Geometric style to a different style with Eastern-inspired motifs.  This new style reflected increased cultural interchange in the Aegean world.  In Attic pottery, the distinctive Orientalizing style known as "proto-Attic" was marked by floral and animal motifs; it was the first time discernibly Greek religious and mythological themes were represented in vase painting.  The bodies of men and animals were depicted in silhouette, with heads drawn in outline; women were drawn completely in outline. At the other important center of this period, Corinth, the orientalizing influence started earlier, though the tendency there was to produce smaller, highly detailed vases in the "proto-Corinthian" style that prefigured the black-figure technique.

 

Myron:

480–440 BC, Greek sculptor, born in Eleutherae (town between Attica & Bocotia) worked in Athens; older contemporary of sculptors Phidias and Polyclitus, considered one of the most versatile & innovative of all Attic sculptors.  He combined a mastery of movement with a gift for harmonious composition.  Working in bronze, best known for his many studies of athletes in action; 2 of his works survive as marble copies made in Roman times:  the group of Athena and Marsyas (originally on the Acropolis, Athens) and the Discobolus (“Discus Thrower”).  Both dated 450 BC, Myron has captured that crucial moment of rest, where one motion has just been completed & another is about to begin.  The Discobolus has just completed his backswing prior to hurling the discus.