The Traditions of Antiquity in the Music of the Renaissance and the Classical Era
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Abstract
The urge to create an image of the ideal world, basing oneself on the capabilities of reason, brings together three
significant periods in the history of art – Antiquity, the Renaissance and Classicism. The system of music theory first
to have been developed for these aims was that of the Ancient Hellenes. In their aspiration to understand the laws of
euphony they based their musical thinking upon the proportions of prime numbers, the highest objectivity of which made
it possible to liken music to the perfection of the sounding Cosmos and its smaller copy – man, the microcosm. Thereby,
the greatest achievement of Ancient Greek and Roman music (in its theory and practice) must be considered to be the
assertion of perfect consonances and diatonicism as the model sample of Harmony – whether cosmic, human or musical.
The formation of a qualitatively new musical theory during the period from the Renaissance to the 18th century was
aroused by theoretical aspirations toward the creation of the image of nature and the natural, i.e. affective human being.
Following the standards of imitation of Antiquity and nature established in the art and aesthetics of the Renaissance, the
thinkers and masters of music developed a new theoretical foundation, most notably, the equally tempered scale and
the teaching of the tertial structure of chords (the study of harmony). Similarly to the thinkers of Antiquity, they also
based themselves on mathematical natural laws; however, of the utmost significance in this case was their connection
to the natural sciences – namely, experiments in acoustics. As a result, the chief criterion for euphony for the music of
the Early Modern Times was expressed not only by numerical proportions, but, first of all, by the laws of acoustics and
the capabilities of human aural perception.
Keywords: music theory, Cosmos, consonance, interval of a third, Antiquity, Renaissance, Classicism.
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