One of the hardest parts of learning music history
(and I suppose art and other histories as well) is
that though styles change over time, the changes
happen extremely scattered with little uniformity.
Thus students tend to believe that a more "advanced"
sounding piece was composed later than a "simpler"
sounding one, when the opposite is also extremely
likely to be true. One of the biggest recurring problems
for learning style in Early Music, for instance, is
that the most commonly studied pieces in English
Renaissance style are being composed at the same time
or after the Italians created new techniques of
recitative,
basso continuo, and other markers
of the Baroque.
This Timeline + Map, developed by myself and
Natasha Skowronski (MIT '10) allows viewers to see
what pieces were being composed at the same time
or in close geographical spans of each other.
Each piece (taken from a mix of my syllabus and
Craig Wright's
Music in Western Civilization)
has a thirty second excerpt online while a few have
associated YouTube videos. (Students in the class
can hear whole pieces). Click the image below
to investigate further.
Hi Myke, I've passed this along to my students (who are currently studying MedRen). I think it's a really helpful tool and admit that seeing the pieces in juxtaposition really provides new perspective on how they fit both together and chronologically. This is a great project!
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant, Michael. I am a big fan of teaching with a time line and maps, and you have masterfully put both together! I love it! Such a brilliant teaching tool.
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