CMNS 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Minstrel, Griot, Juggling
11 Dec 2016
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CMNS 321 LECTURE #2 SEPT 14,2016
The History of Popular Music: Birth of an industry
- Popular before death or after
- Popular muscle celeb
3 Historical Moments
1) Mideival period (400-1400)
2) The feudal/ Aristocratic Period (1400-1800)
3) The bourgeois/ capitalist period (1800-)
Mideival Period
• Jongleur/ wondering minstrel
• => musician, juggler, story-teller, magician, acrocrat, he
• private homes/ events
• certain song/ memorized music
• social outsiders, nomads, condemned by church
• first reporters o the oe, ouity to ouity, lear stories, gies stories to
societies
• the griot (like jongleur)
• travelling cultural historians, news distributors, political propagandists, entertainers
• men or women, trained by family member, friend, referring to grandparents, historical
lineage
• oral or aural(ear)
• praise singers, more accepting
• church members suspy of jongleur
Feudal/ Aristocratic period (1400-1800) Rise of the court minstrel
• jongleur => court minstrel, nomad => domestic servant
• belonged to aristocrat that they served, played on command, sing/praises of lord
• no freedom (able to play whenever in past)
• had no stories b/c stuck in same spot, had to sell himself to a single social class
• (Attali)
• Mozart (1756-1791)
• Stormy relationship with master, emancipated in 1781
• Conflict b/t musicians + aristocracy is considered a declaration of war b/t the new
bourgeois world + old aristocratic regime
• Music so good, belongs to a market, on bottom of pyramid (realises he can be outside
the court with his music)
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