0:00:03 > 0:00:06MUSIC: Orchestration of "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga
0:00:16 > 0:00:17# Can't read my, can't read my... #
0:00:17 > 0:00:18Whatever music you're into,
0:00:18 > 0:00:24Monteverdi or Mantovani, Mozart or Motown, Machaut or mashup,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28the techniques it relies on didn't happen by accident.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Someone, somewhere thought of them first.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49These days, we take many - if not most - of the innovations
0:00:49 > 0:00:53laboriously worked out by our distant musical ancestors for granted.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56And it's a shock to project yourself back to a time
0:00:56 > 0:00:58when these techniques didn't exist.
0:00:58 > 0:00:59To take the example
0:00:59 > 0:01:03of one of the greatest leaps forward in music's whole history.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06If I want to write down an opera and get you to sing it,
0:01:06 > 0:01:10I don't have to stand there and whistle it to you and hope you'll remember all the tunes.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14I can write them down. But consider what it must have been like
0:01:14 > 0:01:17to sing in a Medieval abbey or cathedral in the days before
0:01:17 > 0:01:20anyone had puzzled out a workable method
0:01:20 > 0:01:23of being able to write music down.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26When a monk or nun sang plainchant in the centuries
0:01:26 > 0:01:30before about 800 AD, what they had in front of them was the text,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34in Latin, of what they were singing. Just the text.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37They had to memorise the melody. All this!
0:01:38 > 0:01:42This is one of the most spectacular feats of memory in the history
0:01:42 > 0:01:45of the human race. But it's also a bit mad.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49It might take ten years of daily repetition and practice
0:01:49 > 0:01:54to memorise the entire plainsong repertoire for the church year.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59So it was deemed highly desirable to find a way of reminding yourself
0:01:59 > 0:02:03what the tunes for any bit of text might be.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09This is a 3rd-century Christian hymn written in Ancient Greek.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12Above the words, tantalisingly,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15is a fledgling attempt at writing the tune down.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Alas, so far at least,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21no-one can agree on what exactly it's meant to sound like.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Hundreds of years went by until squiggles came along.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28That's not their real name, which is neumes,
0:02:28 > 0:02:30but squiggles are what they are.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36This is a page from the Winchester Troper,
0:02:36 > 0:02:41the oldest surviving manuscript of organum anywhere in the world.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44It's the painstaking work of Anglo-Saxon monks.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49What it shows is the Latin text that was intended to be sung,
0:02:49 > 0:02:54with squiggles above the words and in the margin.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56The idea of the squiggles was to give some indication of
0:02:56 > 0:03:01whether the note of the melody went up or down over any given syllable,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05so they're better than nothing. But the squiggles had a major flaw.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07They're essentially a way of jogging your memory
0:03:07 > 0:03:09of a tune you already know.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12They're rubbish at teaching you a new tune from scratch.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18That's because they're not very good at indicating just how high or low
0:03:18 > 0:03:21successive notes are supposed to be,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23like a map without longitude or latitude.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30The breakthrough came in around 1000 in the Italian city of Arezzo,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and it was the brainchild of a musical monk called Guido,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38known nowadays of Guido of Arezzo.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Guido's methods were simple and clear.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43First of all, he gave these squiggles, or neumes,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46a standardised, easy-to-read form.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50So each note had its own symbol, or blob.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54He then drew four straight lines onto which the notes,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56or blobs, would be placed.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02One of the lines he made red to give you a fixed bearing
0:04:02 > 0:04:06as against all other tunes, a bit like the musical equivalent
0:04:06 > 0:04:08of the equator, or the Greenwich Meridian.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10So wherever the note, or blob, is placed,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14represents its pitch position, that is, whether it's an A, B, or C.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16# La. #
0:04:16 > 0:04:18If the note goes up, the blob goes up.
0:04:18 > 0:04:19- HIGHER:- # La. #
0:04:19 > 0:04:24And if it goes down, the blob goes down, step by step.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29# Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole. #
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Before Guido, you'd think up a tune and then teach it to everyone
0:04:41 > 0:04:44you know, and hope they pass it on without mucking it up.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47After Guido, music could be fixed on a page
0:04:47 > 0:04:51and could be reproduced by someone who'd never heard the tune before.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54Guido's method has been refined over the years,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57by indicating the duration of notes, for example,
0:04:57 > 0:05:02but it's essentially the same system we still use to notate music today.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05# But every time she asks me Do I look OK?
0:05:05 > 0:05:08# I say
0:05:08 > 0:05:12# When I see your face
0:05:13 > 0:05:18# There's not a thing that I would change
0:05:18 > 0:05:21# Cos you're amazing
0:05:21 > 0:05:25# Just the way you are
0:05:25 > 0:05:29# And when you smile... #
0:05:29 > 0:05:32The ability to lay out multiple lines of melody
0:05:32 > 0:05:36on a kind of musical spreadsheet allowed composers to plot out
0:05:36 > 0:05:39far more complicated musical structures.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42This was to set music on a course towards greater
0:05:42 > 0:05:44and greater sophistication,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48all thanks to the bright idea of a monk from Arezzo.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56By 1400, musicians had at their fingertips
0:05:56 > 0:06:01a workable system of notation that could denote rhythm as well as melody,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05and a reasonably sophisticated grasp of polyphony -
0:06:05 > 0:06:08the interweaving and layering of voices on top of one-another.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11They also had a basic selection of instruments
0:06:11 > 0:06:13to complement the human voice.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17One final piece of the jigsaw still needed to click into position.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22In around 1400, harmony took a huge leap forward,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24a leap that was to change the way music sounded for ever.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27We still live with that change today.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32Before 1400, when composers layered notes on top of each other
0:06:32 > 0:06:36they only chose a very limited menu of possible note combinations.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38There was the basic octave.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44And there were two other note combinations, both of which
0:06:44 > 0:06:46Medieval musicians called perfect,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48because they were thought to be Godly.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51The perfect fourth.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53And the perfect fifth.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59And before 1400, that's more or less it.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06In this famous piece, for example, all the harmonies are sung
0:07:06 > 0:07:09either four or five notes apart from the basic melody line.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15# Gaudete, gaudete Christus est natus
0:07:15 > 0:07:21# Ex Maria Virgine, gaudete... #
0:07:21 > 0:07:25To our ears, accustomed to the subsequent 600 years of harmony,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28there's something missing, which makes the music sound bare
0:07:28 > 0:07:30and a little cold.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34# Tempus adest gratiae Hoc quod optabamus
0:07:34 > 0:07:38# Carmina laetitiae Devote reddamus
0:07:38 > 0:07:39DRUMS START
0:07:39 > 0:07:43# Gaudete, gaudete Christus est natus
0:07:43 > 0:07:48# Ex Maria Virgine, gaudete. #
0:07:49 > 0:07:51What's missing is a combination of notes that,
0:07:51 > 0:07:56before 1400, composers had virtually ignored.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59FEMALE CHORAL SINGING
0:08:06 > 0:08:09The man who did use this note combination set things up
0:08:09 > 0:08:12for what was to be a giant leap for harmony.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15He was an English composer called John Dunstaple.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24Dunstaple introduced the mighty but imperfect third.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29Why is the third imperfect?
0:08:29 > 0:08:33If you count just three notes up from your starting point, C,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37you arrive at E. Why isn't this third a perfect distance?
0:08:37 > 0:08:40The reason is that the third, unlike the fourth and fifth,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44has two different versions, what we'd call now a major version
0:08:44 > 0:08:47and a minor version. It is Mr Ambiguous.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51You can see just how ambiguous by counting further up the keyboard.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56If I count three notes from D, for example, I come to F,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59creating a minor third, ditto E to G.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05But F to A, like C to E, is a major third.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09The fact that the third can be either major or minor,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12depending on where you start counting from,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16might sound like only a slight technical difference, but it's not.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20The pivot between the major third and the minor third is the pivot
0:09:20 > 0:09:23upon which all western music balances.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Very broadly speaking, one is happy and one is sad,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36and harmony's using these thirds make the music richer, more subtle
0:09:36 > 0:09:37and more affecting.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41FEMALE CHORAL SINGING
0:09:53 > 0:09:56But allowing the leans-both-ways third into music
0:09:56 > 0:10:00had one other big by-product. Let's start with C again.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05We'll count up three steps and find ourselves at E, a major third.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Then if we carry on up another three steps to G,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10we've created a minor third.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14But what happens if we play all of these three notes together?
0:10:14 > 0:10:17All these three notes played together are called a triad,
0:10:17 > 0:10:21and triads are the bread and butter of all western music.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23PIANO PLAYS
0:10:29 > 0:10:33Here's a song you may recognise which is built on triads.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37# Morning has broken
0:10:37 > 0:10:41# Like the first morning
0:10:41 > 0:10:45# Blackbird has spoken
0:10:45 > 0:10:49# Like the first bird
0:10:50 > 0:10:54# Praise for the singing
0:10:54 > 0:10:58# Praise for the morning... #
0:10:58 > 0:11:0215th-century musicians discovered that triads had an important
0:11:02 > 0:11:05effect on each other when they were mixed together.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08It's to do with the constituent notes of the chords.
0:11:09 > 0:11:15The C major triad, for example, contains two of the same notes
0:11:15 > 0:11:19as the E minor triad, and is therefore closely related to it.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Similarly the E minor triad shares two of its notes with
0:11:22 > 0:11:26the G major triad, and they are closely related.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Mixing together chords that are closely related to each other
0:11:32 > 0:11:35creates a mood of harmonious smoothness,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37like melding adjacent colours in the spectrum.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Triads have another great benefit.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48They can also create the sense of home in a piece of music.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Let me demonstrate with a famous spiritual song
0:11:51 > 0:11:54from a few hundred years later - Amazing Grace.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56In the first phrase of the song,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59we start on one chord under the words "amazing grace".
0:11:59 > 0:12:03# Amazing grace. #
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Then we shift to another one on the word "sweet".
0:12:06 > 0:12:08# How sweet. #
0:12:08 > 0:12:09Then home again to where we started.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12# The sound. #
0:12:12 > 0:12:15That safe landing back to the chord we think of as home
0:12:15 > 0:12:18is called a cadence, or ending.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22# Amazing grace
0:12:22 > 0:12:25# How sweet the sound. #
0:12:25 > 0:12:29Everything feels right about that little journey of chords.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32We felt good returning to where we started, at the end of the phrase.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36In the second phrase, we go on another short chord journey.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41# That saved a wretch like me. #
0:12:41 > 0:12:44And we have another little cadence by moving to a new chord
0:12:44 > 0:12:47on the word "me".
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Again, this journey feels logical and satisfying,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52we're being led from one place to another.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56# I once was lost
0:12:56 > 0:13:00# But now I'm found
0:13:00 > 0:13:06# Was blind but now I see. #
0:13:08 > 0:13:12You can quite clearly hear that there's nothing haphazard
0:13:12 > 0:13:15about the choice of chords under the tune, it's meant to be.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19What's at work here is a logic in the chords. They're obeying
0:13:19 > 0:13:23strict laws like the laws of gravity, or the orbit of planets,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27whereby some chords exert more power and influence than others.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Discovering the power of triads
0:13:33 > 0:13:35was like discovering a chemical reaction.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Composers immediately sensed that something massive
0:13:38 > 0:13:40and transformative had happened.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46From now on, the basic chord - the triad,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49one, three, five - was king.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59By 1600, after centuries of painstaking experiment
0:13:59 > 0:14:02on the part of often anonymous musicians,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06the musical toolbox we still use today was taking shape.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Music had become a rich mix of sacred and secular,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11instrumental and vocal.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13But one thing music rarely did
0:14:13 > 0:14:17was express complex, let alone conflicting, emotions.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19The next stage on music's journey
0:14:19 > 0:14:22was for a composer who could use dissonance -
0:14:22 > 0:14:24deliberate clashes of notes and chords
0:14:24 > 0:14:26to conjure up subtle emotions.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30What's more, almost anything you'd hear around 1600
0:14:30 > 0:14:32was on a relatively small scale.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35The time was ripe for someone, somewhere,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38to start creating long, substantial forms
0:14:38 > 0:14:42that would last a whole evening and leave audiences cheering for more.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Which is exactly what happened.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Opera was born.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50The man of the moment, one of the ten most influential
0:14:50 > 0:14:54composers of all time, was Claudio Monteverdi.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58In his hands, opera went from zero to hero.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02DRAMATIC INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:15:12 > 0:15:15In opera, music is at the service of the drama, and
0:15:15 > 0:15:20so it needs to be able to express complex, even conflicting, emotions.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Luckily, Monteverdi had already spent years
0:15:22 > 0:15:24trying to do exactly that
0:15:24 > 0:15:29with his sophisticated passion-filled madrigals.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33To do so, he had begun to recalibrate harmony.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35Let's look at just one of his madrigals,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38which put cats among pigeons, even in his own time.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41It's from the Fifth Book Of Madrigals of 1605,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44and it's called O Mirtillo, Mirtill'Anima Mia,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Oh, Myrtle, Myrtle, My Soul. Listen to this bit.
0:15:48 > 0:15:56# Che chiami crudelissima
0:15:56 > 0:16:00# Amarilli. #
0:16:00 > 0:16:03It's obvious Monteverdi is dipping in and out of
0:16:03 > 0:16:06all kinds of chords that don't seem comfortably related to each other.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10He wants you to feel surprised or intrigued, especially if it enhances
0:16:10 > 0:16:13the words of the poem. So on these words,
0:16:13 > 0:16:15"Che chiami crudelissima, Amarilli,"
0:16:15 > 0:16:18"The one you call cruellest, Amaryllis,"
0:16:18 > 0:16:21he creates a series of deliberate clashes of chord,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23called a dissonance, or suspension.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26# Come sta il cor di questa... #
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Instead of sticking to chords that had close affinities with
0:16:29 > 0:16:33each other, he deliberately mixed up unrelated chords
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and exploited the strange, disorientating sounds this produced.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41VOCALS OVERLAP # Che chiami
0:16:41 > 0:16:48# Crudelissima
0:16:48 > 0:16:50# Amarilli... #
0:16:50 > 0:16:54It was music that could manipulate our emotions that Monteverdi
0:16:54 > 0:16:58brought into opera. He also introduced another ingredient,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02a dramatic aural effect that had been invented in Venice,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05then one of the world's richest and most powerful city-states.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Its huge, cavernous basilica, St Mark's, employed some of the
0:17:09 > 0:17:14best musicians in Europe, including, for a time, Monteverdi himself.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17On top of all this, the building served as a kind of musical
0:17:17 > 0:17:20and acoustical laboratory.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24An uncle-and-nephew team called Gabrieli had developed
0:17:24 > 0:17:28a kind of precursor of surround sound at St Mark's,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31achieved by placing groups of singers
0:17:31 > 0:17:33and instrumentalists in different parts of the building
0:17:33 > 0:17:36and having them sing or play alternately.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41The technical term for the technique is polychoral, many choirs.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45MUSIC ALTERNATES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
0:17:55 > 0:17:58Monteverdi knew and admired this polychoral style
0:17:58 > 0:18:01and thought it would work alongside his intimate,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04emotionally-charged madrigal style when he came to writing opera.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08Monteverdi didn't invent opera,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12a Florentine composer called Peri did, in 1597.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16But Monteverdi did write the first good opera, Orfeo,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19which premiered in Mantua in 1607.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22He was aiming for maximum emotional effect,
0:18:22 > 0:18:27maximum narrative clarity, maximum impact, even shock, and wasn't
0:18:27 > 0:18:31going to obey anyone's rules about what he could or could not do.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36FEMALE OPERATIC SINGING
0:18:42 > 0:18:46What's more, Monteverdi invented a new combination of instruments
0:18:46 > 0:18:48never before gathered together.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52He borrowed old and new styles, he used choral music,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55he told the stories through characters
0:18:55 > 0:18:57directly expressing themselves to the audience.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Almost everything about Orfeo was then a novelty.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04It was loud, it was long and it was modern.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09And let's not forget how liberating it all must have been,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12because, as musical techniques had been developing,
0:19:12 > 0:19:17century by century, so too had the ability to express more complex,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20subtle and unexpected emotions along the way.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Monteverdi was using music plus.
0:19:36 > 0:19:42Throughout the 17th century, composers and musicians had become fascinated - even obsessed -
0:19:42 > 0:19:45with what we'd now call chord progressions.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48They discovered that some chords have a kind of magnetic attraction
0:19:48 > 0:19:51to other chords, but there was a problem.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53The tuning systems in place at the time
0:19:53 > 0:19:56meant that you could only modulate - move from one key to another -
0:19:56 > 0:19:59within a very limited palate of chords,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02without creating horrible, out-of-tune sounds.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05But in around 1700, a compromise was reached -
0:20:05 > 0:20:09a tuning system that allowed you to jump around
0:20:09 > 0:20:12from one chord to any other at your heart's content.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16It could be, in fact, the single most important development
0:20:16 > 0:20:17in all western music.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20It was called Equal Temperament, and this is how it worked.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24On a modern, equal tempered keyboard I can play in any,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28or all of the available 12 key families to my heart's content,
0:20:28 > 0:20:29so I can play this...
0:20:29 > 0:20:33HE PLAYS "Ain't Misbehavin'" by Fats Waller
0:20:33 > 0:20:36..in the key that Fats Waller played it in the 1930s, E flat,
0:20:36 > 0:20:37or in the key of G.
0:20:41 > 0:20:42Or C.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Or, for that matter, F#.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Moving from key family to key family like that
0:20:54 > 0:20:57- the posh name is modulation - on one instrument
0:20:57 > 0:20:59is what Equal Temperament made possible.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02It also made it possible for lots of different instruments
0:21:02 > 0:21:04to play in tune with each other,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07which, believe it or not, they couldn't easily do before.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10So it's worth finding out how this happened.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Looking again at our piano layout, we see that if we find the note C,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18for example, it occurs eight times from bottom to top of the keyboard.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26We also notice that there are 12 other notes between each of the Cs.
0:21:30 > 0:21:31This is the thing.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36As it happens, in western music there are in fact at least 19
0:21:36 > 0:21:40sub-divisions between one C and another, not 12.
0:21:40 > 0:21:41This is what they sound like.
0:21:47 > 0:21:48For some instruments,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51playing all these squashed-together notes wasn't an issue.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Cellos, say, are flexible, because you can change a note
0:21:58 > 0:22:02by sliding your finger by tiny degrees along the string.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11But instruments like the trumpet and piano can't play them,
0:22:11 > 0:22:16because their mechanical valves, buttons, tabs and keys are fixed.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23It's like the difference between this swannee whistle,
0:22:23 > 0:22:24with its flexible pitch...
0:22:29 > 0:22:32..and this recorder, with its fixed pitch.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40What Equal Temperament did was effectively to abolish
0:22:40 > 0:22:44seven of the 19 sub-divisions, and create a standardised 12
0:22:44 > 0:22:47that would swallow up the other little notes.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50So what used to be the two separate notes, F# and G flat,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55became one all-purpose note that accommodated both.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57B#, even though it still gets written out in music,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01got gobbled up as a separate entity by the note C, and so on.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07In their natural state, the notes of the octave are not evenly spaced.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09What Equal Temperament did
0:23:09 > 0:23:13was to equalise the distance between notes.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Thanks to this compromise, you could now jump from chord to chord
0:23:16 > 0:23:17as often as you liked.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34The new system of tempering, or tuning, worked.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39Indeed, it was JS Bach himself who, in around 1722,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42presented the most conclusive evidence that it worked.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46He composed two books of pieces to be played in all the new
0:23:46 > 0:23:5012 standardised keys, both major and minor.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54He even called the books The Well-Tempered Clavier, or keyboard.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16What followed Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier were 300 years in which
0:24:16 > 0:24:20instruments and our ears were calibrated to Equal Temperament.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30One reason the traditional music of say, Indonesia, sounds exotic
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and mysterious to western ears,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34is because it uses a different system of tuning.
0:24:38 > 0:24:39Traditional music apart, though,
0:24:39 > 0:24:43Equal Temperament has now been adopted all over the globe.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48It's hard to exaggerate the importance of the arrival
0:24:48 > 0:24:50and triumph of Equal Temperament
0:24:50 > 0:24:53as a standard across the industrialised world.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Like the adoption of the Greenwich Meridian, which made everyone
0:24:56 > 0:24:59perceive the map and their place in the world differently,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Equal Temperament altered the mindset
0:25:01 > 0:25:03of everyone who enjoyed music.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07The modern population of the world now hears all music
0:25:07 > 0:25:11through the filter, some would say distortion, of Equal Temperament.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16Everyone alive now has a different idea of what sounds "in tune",
0:25:16 > 0:25:20or "off key", to everyone alive in, say, 1600,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24before Equal Temperament became the norm.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Around 1700 came the invention of a wondrous instrument
0:25:31 > 0:25:34that was to become the emperor and empress of music
0:25:34 > 0:25:36over the next few centuries.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38What we now call the piano
0:25:38 > 0:25:41was invented by a Florentine instrument-builder
0:25:41 > 0:25:43called Bartolomeo Cristofor.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45The unique selling point of the new instrument,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48making it different from all the previous harpsichords,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51clavichords, spinets and virginals that went before it,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54was its ability to play soft and loud,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57or in Italian, piano e il forte.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04The harpsichord plucked its strings, and so no matter what pressure
0:26:04 > 0:26:09you exerted on the keys, the notes always came out the same volume.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Cristofori's invention, instead of plucking the strings,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23tapped them with a gentle hammer, tipped with deer skin,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27and the harder you hit the key, the harder the hammer hit the string,
0:26:27 > 0:26:31resulting potentially in different levels of volume for every note.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37A friend of JS Bach's, Gottfried Silbermann, began
0:26:37 > 0:26:41manufacturing pianos, and although Bach played on a few prototypes
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and even advised on their design, he didn't seem that impressed.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54Ironically, it was Bach's son, Johann Christian, living in London,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57who was to become the champion of the new instrument,
0:26:57 > 0:27:0030 or so years later.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06Thus paving the way for the young Mozart
0:27:06 > 0:27:09and others to follow his lead.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16By the time this early piano piece was written,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20believe it or not, the music of Johann Christian's father, the great
0:27:20 > 0:27:25Johann Sebastian Bach, had already started to fall out of favour.
0:27:30 > 0:27:36For 100 years after his death, in 1750, Bach was a forgotten,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38unperformed composer,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42until Mendelssohn drew attention to his genius in the 19th century.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44If Bach had written operas rather than church music,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46it might have been a different story.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48Opera composers have always been accorded more respect
0:27:48 > 0:27:51and fame than church composers.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55Luckily for his great contemporary, Handel, opera was his thing,
0:27:55 > 0:27:56at least to start with.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Handel and Bach were born just 80 miles
0:28:01 > 0:28:05and four weeks apart in 1685, but never met.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Whilst Bach stayed firmly rooted his whole life in his native
0:28:09 > 0:28:13North Germany, Handel was more the adventurer and entrepreneur.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18In his long career, he took full advantage of the many technical
0:28:18 > 0:28:21and stylistic advances in music
0:28:21 > 0:28:24that swept across Europe in the early 1700s.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28And there's one other big thing that had changed by 1750.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31The arrival of you, the audience.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46And you, we, made a massive difference to the future of music.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Before the arrival of a paying public, with its own preferences
0:28:50 > 0:28:56and appetites, music had depended on the whims of cardinals or princes.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Now, commercial opera houses and concert halls
0:29:03 > 0:29:07opened their doors to anyone who had the price of a ticket.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16It was this new and fickle audience that Handel quickly learnt to serve.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Though he spent some of his youth in Italy, Handel wrote
0:29:24 > 0:29:30most of his masterpieces after moving to London in 1710.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35MUSIC: Giulio Cesare in Egitto - Aria - Al Lampo Dell'armi
0:29:40 > 0:29:42Handel had two reasons for coming to London.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45One was that his former boss in Germany had become
0:29:45 > 0:29:48King George I, in 1714.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53The King and his successor, George II,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56commissioned music for royal pageants from Handel,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59including still famous works, like Zadok The Priest,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03the Water Music and Music For The Royal Fireworks.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06Handel also settled in London because it was
0:30:06 > 0:30:11already on its way to becoming the biggest and richest city in Europe.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15The rapidly rising middle class had money to spend on music,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17and for a while, they were swept up
0:30:17 > 0:30:20in a Europe-wide craze for Italian opera.
0:30:20 > 0:30:25The use today of Italian terms like aria, libretto, prima donna
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and diva began at that time.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37Handel wrote 39 operas, in Italian, for the London stage.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45In London, though, the Italian opera boom was short lived.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Its death knell was sounded by a home-grown work,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55The Beggar's Opera, produced in 1728.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59The black musical comedy of Polly Peachum, Jenny Diver
0:30:59 > 0:31:03and MacHeath, and the underworld of Soho, was a full-on
0:31:03 > 0:31:07parody of the posh folks' mania for Italian opera.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16It was a huge, long-running success.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19It didn't do Handel any favours, though.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22His earnestly serious Italian-style operas
0:31:22 > 0:31:25now seemed out of sync with the public mood.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Casting around for something else to do, he found an unlikely,
0:31:34 > 0:31:38unwitting ally in the shape of the Pope.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41As well as banning women from singing in church,
0:31:41 > 0:31:44the Vatican in the early 17th century had from time to time
0:31:44 > 0:31:48forbidden opera, which the Pope thought was too damned rude.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52The result was the rise of the oratorio, a kind of opera
0:31:52 > 0:31:57that didn't have costumes, or women, or lewd plots, or comedy or scenery.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59The singers didn't have to act anything out,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02they just stood there and sang.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04Oratorios were originally performed in church,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and they drew their subject matter from the Old Testament.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09And no-one could object to that.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11So when Handel's luck with opera ran out,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15he turned to English language oratorio instead.
0:32:15 > 0:32:16It was an inspired move.
0:32:18 > 0:32:25# Jehovah crown'd with glory bright... #
0:32:28 > 0:32:32Handel's first ever oratorio in English, Esther,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34was performed in 1732.
0:32:34 > 0:32:40It was put on, not in a church, but in a West End theatre.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Handel wrote 16 more oratorios,
0:32:42 > 0:32:48nearly all based on stories from the Old Testament, all seen in theatres.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52In these works, Handel took elements from Italian operas,
0:32:52 > 0:32:57oratorios and concertos, added in the Lutheran Church music style
0:32:57 > 0:33:01and grafted them on to the local English choral tradition,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05aiming to seduce an audience eager for musical excitement.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09He succeeded triumphantly. Hallelujah.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:33:13 > 0:33:16# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:33:16 > 0:33:18# Hallelujah
0:33:18 > 0:33:22# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:33:22 > 0:33:24# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:33:24 > 0:33:27# Hallelujah
0:33:27 > 0:33:34# For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
0:33:34 > 0:33:36# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:33:36 > 0:33:39# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:33:39 > 0:33:45# For the lord God omnipotent reigneth... #
0:33:45 > 0:33:49Handel brilliantly brought together, in a wholly accessible way,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52all the musical idioms of the previous 50 years.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57Dramatic and stirring choruses, full-on crowd pleasers, moving and
0:33:57 > 0:34:01tuneful solos borrowed from a style that opera had made popular, and an
0:34:01 > 0:34:06orchestral bedrock owing a debt of gratitude, once again, to Vivaldi.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11# And He shall reign for ever and ever... #
0:34:12 > 0:34:16What's more, Handel's oratorios were richly allegorical stories
0:34:16 > 0:34:19with plenty of emotional impact, but without
0:34:19 > 0:34:24the need for histrionic over-acting, to embarrass the English.
0:34:24 > 0:34:31# King of kings for ever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah... #
0:34:31 > 0:34:35And what an audience thought was now important, Handel's oratorios,
0:34:35 > 0:34:37though based on religious stories,
0:34:37 > 0:34:39were essentially commercial productions,
0:34:39 > 0:34:44mounted in theatres, not churches, aimed at a paying public.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47Unlike the St Matthew or St John Passions of Bach,
0:34:47 > 0:34:48which were aimed at a congregation who
0:34:48 > 0:34:52would have attended church anyway, Handel was trying deliberately
0:34:52 > 0:34:57to court public taste, which he did, with bells on.
0:34:57 > 0:35:04# And lord of lords for ever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah
0:35:04 > 0:35:10# King of kings... #
0:35:10 > 0:35:14There was one other key and topical element in Handel's close
0:35:14 > 0:35:17relationship with his audience - patriotism.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22His 45 years in London coincided with Britain's rise to
0:35:22 > 0:35:26the status of world power, and her growing wealth and military
0:35:26 > 0:35:30success found their celebration in Handel's patriotic choruses,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33in which God and King were more or less
0:35:33 > 0:35:35interchangeable objects of praise.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40# King of kings and lord of lords
0:35:40 > 0:35:46# King of kings and lord of lords
0:35:46 > 0:35:52# And He shall reign for ever and ever
0:35:52 > 0:35:54# For ever and ever
0:35:54 > 0:35:56# For ever and ever
0:35:56 > 0:35:59# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:35:59 > 0:36:01# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:36:01 > 0:36:13# Halle-lu-jah. #
0:36:16 > 0:36:21Music showed it could become the collective voice of nationhood.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23This, for good and for ill,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26has been an important function of music ever since.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Handel donated all the earnings from his Messiah
0:36:31 > 0:36:34and most of his considerable estate to an orphanage,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37The Foundling Hospital, gestures which give us
0:36:37 > 0:36:41a clue as to the quality that enriches every note of his music -
0:36:41 > 0:36:43compassion.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48One of his final oratorios, Solomon,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51contains towards its end an aria for the Queen of Sheba.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55Now, she is bidding farewell to her lover King Solomon,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59whom she'll never see again as he returns to Jerusalem.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03The aria, Will The Sun Forget To Streak, is no hysterical
0:37:03 > 0:37:07outburst of operatic tragedy, nor is it a plaint of sentimental,
0:37:07 > 0:37:09self-indulgent misery,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12it's the voice of rueful acceptance, as if the
0:37:12 > 0:37:17centuries have melted away, and left us with a simple, humane message.
0:37:17 > 0:37:18Time doesn't stand still,
0:37:18 > 0:37:22so cherish every moment of joy and beauty with gratitude.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25The Queen of Sheba knew she would never encounter
0:37:25 > 0:37:27a man of Solomon's wisdom again.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31It's debatable whether music has every surpassed the creative
0:37:31 > 0:37:34ingenuity and spiritual candour of the masterpieces
0:37:34 > 0:37:37of Bach and Handel either.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09The second half of the 18th century saw the arrival on the musical scene
0:39:09 > 0:39:12of one of the most important forms of music - the symphony.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14The pioneer of the form
0:39:14 > 0:39:17was a little-known Czech composer, Johann Stamitz.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20But it was Joseph Haydn, the Father of the Symphony,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24who taught other musicians how to take a simple tune
0:39:24 > 0:39:27and develop it into 30 or 40 minutes worth of music,
0:39:27 > 0:39:29simply by playing around with it.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32The symphony would be nowhere without this skilful moulding
0:39:32 > 0:39:36of little musical ideas into a much larger structure.
0:39:41 > 0:39:42Haydn was so adept
0:39:42 > 0:39:45at this sculpting of a tune from small beginnings
0:39:45 > 0:39:47that the younger Mozart and Beethoven
0:39:47 > 0:39:49simply copied his technique.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58This was the point of a symphony.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02It was like an essay, or an exceptionally long doodle.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05A song could be just a nice tune, plain and simple.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08An opera was a series of songs, linked with a plot,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11but symphonies were supposed to be explorations,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14a journey to find out what would happen
0:40:14 > 0:40:17if you took a few tunes and mucked about with them.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20For sure, a symphony is a peculiar thing -
0:40:20 > 0:40:2360 musicians simultaneously interpreting instructions
0:40:23 > 0:40:26given them by one person with no narrative,
0:40:26 > 0:40:28no plot and no literal meaning.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31Nor is it generally a description of anything.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35Just four loosely-related, seven- or eight-minute sections
0:40:35 > 0:40:38of meandering music at slightly different speeds,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41strung together for the thought-provoking fun of it.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46The odd thing about the symphony at this point in history
0:40:46 > 0:40:48is that it doesn't have any direct parallels
0:40:48 > 0:40:51in any other artistic field.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54It's abstract, more than 120 years
0:40:54 > 0:40:57before the concept became fashionable in visual art.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07Mozart, then, when he came to write his own symphonies,
0:41:07 > 0:41:12beginning at the age of eight, simply adopted Haydn's model.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14But there was one crucial difference
0:41:14 > 0:41:16between the two composers -
0:41:16 > 0:41:20Mozart was a born, unstoppable tune writer.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28No-one who's ever lived has bettered Mozart in this respect.
0:41:28 > 0:41:29It's like he couldn't help it.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Tunes flooded out of him, seemingly at will.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36And that was important, because Mozart,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39unlike, say, Bach 50 years earlier,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42was mostly writing for a paying public.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46If they didn't like his music, he'd starve.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Ravishing melodies weren't a bad way to gain the public's heart,
0:41:50 > 0:41:51then as now.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55MUSIC: "21st Piano Concerto"
0:42:04 > 0:42:07MUSIC: "The Marriage Of Figaro"
0:42:11 > 0:42:14MUSIC: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
0:42:14 > 0:42:18It pains me to say it, but if you can remember a tune,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20it's probably by Mozart.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23If you can't, it's probably by Haydn.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27To get a feel for the satisfyingly perfect proportions
0:42:27 > 0:42:29of a Mozart tune, let's look at just one,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32the song Dove Sono from his opera, the Marriage of Figaro.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36This song, or aria, is about a woman's distress
0:42:36 > 0:42:39that the happiness and romance of the early days of her marriage
0:42:39 > 0:42:41seemed to have faded, if not entirely disappeared.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11It starts with a disarmingly simple five notes.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Really this mini-phrase is just a decorative version of one note,
0:43:18 > 0:43:20- this note, C. - HE PLAYS A C
0:43:20 > 0:43:23To complement this opening statement around the note C,
0:43:23 > 0:43:26it's followed by another, a little higher, on the note E.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31So we have two well-balanced phrases,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34which now feel like they need an answer of some kind.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37The next phrase is the same length as the first three put together
0:43:37 > 0:43:39and though it starts with the same rhythm,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42it goes off on its own little voyage before coming to a sort of rest.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Then the first part of the tune is repeated.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58You wouldn't expect a composer as skilled as Mozart
0:43:58 > 0:44:01to repeat the second part exactly as it was before though,
0:44:01 > 0:44:05and sure enough his second section, having established itself...
0:44:08 > 0:44:10..begins a gradual ascent up the musical ladder,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14as the lyrics describe her husband's lying lips.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22Then it subsides again and rounds off.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30This is just the first 40 seconds of the aria,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34which has been famous for 200 years, so it must be extremely memorable.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38And I don't believe that's just random success.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Genius though Mozart undoubtedly was,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44nevertheless he also relied on the established tricks of the trade.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47There are some formulas at work in classic tunes, and one of them
0:45:47 > 0:45:50is to construct your melody around an important chord.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52In Mozart's time, as now,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56one chord was more powerful than all others, the one that belongs
0:45:56 > 0:45:59to the home key family at any given point in the music.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03So in the key family of C, it's the major chord of C,
0:46:03 > 0:46:08and the constituent notes in that chord are C...E...and G.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Remember I said that the opening phrase of Dove Sono
0:46:13 > 0:46:16was basically an embellishment of one note, C...
0:46:19 > 0:46:22..and that the second bit of the phrase did the same for E.
0:46:24 > 0:46:25Well, blow me down with a feather,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28if the third phrase doesn't begin on G.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Dove Sono, like countless famous and memorable tunes
0:46:34 > 0:46:38is shaped from the notes of the king chord, C-E-G.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47But something else emerges in Mozart beyond the sublime melodies,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49something that's more surprising.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Mozart lived in the decorously polite aristocratic world
0:47:05 > 0:47:10of imperial Vienna, a world he never wholeheartedly embraced.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Which makes his operatic visions of heaven and hell,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17the spiritual and the carnal, weirdly unexpected.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22When, in Mozart's music, we glimpse life's darker side,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25or sense loneliness or insecurity,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28it's as if a veil has momentarily slipped.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31Later composers, especially Beethoven and Berlioz,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34do little else than expose their internal turmoil
0:47:34 > 0:47:38all over the music, like they're in a modern-day self-help group
0:47:38 > 0:47:41of composers with personality disorders.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43Mozart's emotional honesty, on the other hand,
0:47:43 > 0:47:46is disguised beneath the decorum and poise
0:47:46 > 0:47:48required of an 18th century artisan.
0:48:24 > 0:48:30We know that the 1770s and '80s were dirty, unhealthy, dangerous
0:48:30 > 0:48:33and grim, for anyone but the most privileged.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38But it wouldn't occur to Mozart to reproduce that misery.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Like the portraits Gainsborough and Reynolds painted
0:48:42 > 0:48:44during Mozart's lifetime,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48his music says, "I'll do my best to make this beautiful
0:48:48 > 0:48:51"because that's what life can be at its best."
0:48:51 > 0:48:56Painter and composer alike would have wanted to ennoble humanity.
0:48:56 > 0:48:57They succeeded.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15Mozart's dignified compassion in the face of life's challenge
0:49:15 > 0:49:18makes his music compelling, even when it's tranquil.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21We've responded to this distant Austrian's voice
0:49:21 > 0:49:24across the years and the continents so spontaneously
0:49:24 > 0:49:27because his music seems so uncluttered,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30without cynicism or intellectual pretension.
0:49:30 > 0:49:38ALL: # Soave sia il vento
0:49:38 > 0:49:46# Tranquilla sia l'onda
0:49:46 > 0:49:54# Ed ogni elemento
0:49:54 > 0:50:02# Benigno risponda
0:50:02 > 0:50:08# Ai nostri desir
0:50:10 > 0:50:18# Soave sia il vento
0:50:18 > 0:50:26# Tranquilla sia l'onda... #
0:50:26 > 0:50:28Though he spent several bad-tempered years
0:50:28 > 0:50:30as an employee of an archbishop,
0:50:30 > 0:50:33for the last ten years of his career,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Mozart became what we'd call self-employed.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39A bit of public performing, some teaching,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42writing on commission to rich patrons,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46composing for the theatre and producing dance music.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50After Mozart, the freelance, portfolio career became the norm.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54Instead of rich employers, composers had to court popularity
0:50:54 > 0:50:57wherever they could with a range of potential clients
0:50:57 > 0:51:00and had to deal, for better or worse,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03with a new, bourgeois audience.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Mozart and Haydn are the composers in history who represent
0:51:06 > 0:51:11the moment of change from paid servant to freelance composer.
0:51:16 > 0:51:17In the hands of composers
0:51:17 > 0:51:20like Haydn, Mozart and the young Beethoven,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23the symphony had tended to be pure music.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25Symphonies may have had nicknames,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28but in general they weren't about anything
0:51:28 > 0:51:30except the pure pleasure of taking a few tunes
0:51:30 > 0:51:32and experimenting with them.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34In the 1800s, that changed.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Beethoven's 6th Symphony, The Pastoral,
0:51:37 > 0:51:41kicked off a new movement in music sometimes called Romanticism.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45Music now began to be about something else,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47and particularly about nature,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51which became used as a metaphor for the composer's inner feelings.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54Nowhere is this tendency better demonstrated than in
0:51:54 > 0:51:58the heartbreakingly beautiful love-songs of Franz Schubert.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Schubert wrote over 600 songs
0:52:01 > 0:52:05before his death in 1828, aged only 31.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11Amongst them are three outstanding song cycles.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13Had they been written in the 1960s,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16these song cycles would have been released as concept albums.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20If these songs for solo voice and piano
0:52:20 > 0:52:24and the thousands of others that gushed out of composers
0:52:24 > 0:52:26in the first half of the 19th century
0:52:26 > 0:52:28seemed to us to be rather immature or naive
0:52:28 > 0:52:30in their treatment of love,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33it's because these song writers were young.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35Their emotional development, aged 25,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38was probably equivalent to a modern-day school leaver.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41These men lived at the same time as Jane Austen,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45but, compared to her sophistication and emotional intelligence,
0:52:45 > 0:52:46they're like teenagers.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51You can't escape the fact that the study of the first half
0:52:51 > 0:52:55of the 19th century in music is the study of young men
0:52:55 > 0:52:58with little or no idea how to relate to women.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04A poignant example is Abendstern, or Evening Star,
0:53:04 > 0:53:06composed when Schubert was pining
0:53:06 > 0:53:09for an 18-year-old piano pupil of his.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14Class, wealth, social norms and her indifference divided them.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19The song treats with great sensitivity
0:53:19 > 0:53:22the pain and loneliness of unfulfilled love.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Schubert's songs were meant to sound like upmarket folk songs,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14immediately memorable, lyrically easily-understandable
0:55:14 > 0:55:17and relatively predictable in shape.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19In a sense, Schubert is the inventor
0:55:19 > 0:55:22of the three-minute voice and piano song,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25a form that is thoroughly alive today.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29# I heard
0:55:29 > 0:55:33# That you settled down
0:55:33 > 0:55:37# That you found a girl
0:55:37 > 0:55:43# And you're married now
0:55:43 > 0:55:49# I heard that your dreams came true
0:55:49 > 0:55:53# Guess she gave you things
0:55:53 > 0:55:57# I didn't give to you... #
0:55:57 > 0:56:01The distance in form, intention, mood and expression
0:56:01 > 0:56:04between Schubert's songs for voice and piano
0:56:04 > 0:56:09and those of say, Adele, is remarkably small.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13# Or hide from the light... #
0:56:13 > 0:56:17The only thing that would shock Schubert about this song
0:56:17 > 0:56:21is the fact a young woman is the song's creator, not its object.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24# I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded... #
0:56:24 > 0:56:28Schubert's songs and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony had set
0:56:28 > 0:56:32the template for using nature as a metaphor for human emotion.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37But they also sowed the seeds of another movement,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40that of painting a picture in sound.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42This became enormously fashionable
0:56:42 > 0:56:46and produced a whole wave of composer-painters.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48And no-one evoked a picture in sound
0:56:48 > 0:56:50better than Felix Mendelssohn.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10In this irresistibly enjoyable overture,
0:57:10 > 0:57:14A Midsummer Night's Dream, still popular 200 years later,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17it isn't difficult to imagine the dancing fairies,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20the mischief of Puck and the playful confusion
0:57:20 > 0:57:22of lovers lost in the forest.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Mendelssohn could whip up a musical miniature of a play, a poem,
0:57:35 > 0:57:37a painting, a person or a place.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43A famous example is the Overture to Fingal's Cave,
0:57:43 > 0:57:45written after a trip Mendelssohn took
0:57:45 > 0:57:48to the craggy shores of the Hebrides in 1829.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58There are two strong themes in this piece.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01The first illustrates the tranquillity of the cave
0:58:01 > 0:58:05and the stillness and calm of the vast, open space.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07The other depicts the rolling waves
0:58:07 > 0:58:09and the strength and the power of the sea.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd