The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52754   Message #813092
Posted By: IanC
28-Oct-02 - 09:33 AM
Thread Name: Quiz: History of Music, Dance and Drama
Subject: RE: Quiz: History of Music, Dance and Drama
OK, this one looks like it's died before it finished. For completeness, here's the rest of my notes on the unfinished sections.

100-200 - TRUE. The Goths claimed to have settled in Poland during the 2nd Century AD because of population pressure in their homeland somewhere farther North (probably Scandinavia). They sang their songs to the accompaniment of a "Cithara", an instrument with a body composed of a flat or delicately arched back and soundboard joined by ribs. The cithara is the direct ancestor of the guitar. The Goths invaded Italy on numerous occasions during the 3rd Century, no doubt bringing their songs with them. More information here including the information that "In earliest times they sang of the deeds of their ancestors in strains of song accompanied by the cithara; chanting of Eterpamara, Hanala, Fritigern, Vidigoia and others whose fame among them is great; such heroes as admiring antiquity scarce proclaims its own to be.".

300-400 - FALSE. It's a Indian text. Bharata's Natya Sastra (4th Century AD) contains several chapters on music. This is probably the first work that clearly elaborated the octave and divided it into 22 keys. More information about Indian music history here.

400-500 - TRUE. Attila the Hun (circa 406-53), king of the Huns (circa 433-53) One of the most feared and notorious barbarians
of all time, Attila is believed to have been of distant Mongol stock. He ravaged much of the European continent during
the 5th century AD, and was apparently as great a menace to the Teutonic tribespeople as he was to the Romans. Of the huns, one local observer wrote "When attacked, they will sometimes engage in regular battle. Then, going into the fight in order of columns, they fill the air with varied and discordant cries. " Attila himself, according to the observation of a Gothic historian, looked rather like Sid Vicious "a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of a nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form. He had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he inspired...."
700-800 - FALSE. The earliest harps of this kind in Britain are depicted on pictish stones in Scotland from the 8th Century. There is no evidence of harps in Wales before the Norman Conquest. English manuscripts depict the harp from the 10th Century and the earliest Irish depiction is circa 1100 ad. This site gives a set of dated illustrations.

900-1000 - TRUE. The earliest fragments from the casting of a church bell in England is from circa 900 see this site and handbells were commonplace before 1066, being played at Edward the Confessor's funeral, as illustrated on The Bayeux Tapestry. See this site for an illustration.

1300-1400 - FALSE. The bagpipes appear to have become popular in Mediaeval England (and probably Ireland, Scotland and Wales) around 1100, ultimately from Asia Minor. Though itinerant musicians were occasionally blamed for the spread of the Black Death, town dwellers seem to have blamed anything and everything including Flemish weavers and The Jews. Bagpipes have never been banned in any part of The British Isles, contrary to some peoples' widely held expectations, though a Nestorian Synod in 576 did forbid the use of tambourines and castanets during funerals for the whole Christian church.

1400-1500 - FALSE. Many of the dances in Playford's First Edition are said to have arisen in the middle of the 15th Century, but this is not one of them. The tune of "Sellenger's Round" later called "The Beginning of The World" appears in a number of lute books of the 16th Century and may well have originated in the 15th. The tune was, however, taking by Playford from the music of William Byrd (1609) and appears, with an associated dance, in Playford's first edition of 1651.

1900-2000 - FALSE. Whilst tap dancing was refined, particularly for film making,during the first half of the 20th Century, it is much older. Tap basically originated from European clog and step dancing. Between the 1600's and the 1800's, tap evolved slowly from other dances like the jig, step dances, and religious African step dances ('Juba"). When you blend all of these dances together you come out with the "American Tap Dance". A very brief summary here. Quote of the week comes from my research on this. On this site it says The word "Clog" comes from the Gaelic and means "time". Had me laughing so much I nearly fell off my chair


Thanks, all who contributed.

:-)
Ian