Katherine Bobbett Analysis

Katherine Bobbett: Let us start with the earliest person of interest here today. Plato, how would you define music? Plato: I believe music to be a powerful art form. Music can change how a human behaves. Music and our laws are one. My belief is that if you need to change a citizen’s behavior, than what one should do is change the music around that citizen.

Katherine: To what music should you change the original music too?

Plato: The music everyone citizen should listen to should be of high quality. I believe the Dorian mode fulfills the requirement. The Dorian mode is relaxed and organized and therefore, any music using it, is upright music.

Hildegard van Bingen: I must say, I do not know where you get that notion. Unless the music is from

Katherine: Can you elaborate Sister Hildegard?

Hildegard: I have lived most of my life using music as a means of worship and a way to honor the saint’s important to my convent. Often, when I write, it is the spirit who gave the knowledge of what to write. The spirit often leads me to write outside of the norms. The antiphons are more melismatic than what is considered normal. I also believe, and I suppose the spirit does as well, that is is important to have colorful and descriptive text to the music. I take no credit for music, all of it was a gift to me from the spirit. But, you asked what Plato thought music was. Let me give you a better definition, music as a beautiful and spiritual act.

Josquin: I have to say, I understand both sides of this. For me, music is an emotional expression of the text. In my time, I was one of the first to make sure I understood the words in a sacred text before I set them to music. I did this so the music could better reflect what the words were saying. Music can make you feel things, as Plato states. However, it is also the text that is important as Sister Hildegard says.

Katherine: Quite

I to have been in service to a church, so much of my music reflects this. However, while my music has been influenced by the church, I have not let it constrain me. In my time, I was considered to be a master of various musical techniques. One such technique was incorporating a cadence at the beginning of each new imitation. When I used this technique it always pleased my listener. It gave them a sense of both completion and anticipation of the new imitation. Some did call me a conservative composer. I never had the voices leap more than an octave and I never used augmented or diminished intervals. I never saw the need to. I understand music to be a means to expression and worship. I do not understand the need to be flowery and excessive. Rather, restraint is key when composing.

Monteverdi: This is not a sentiment I held while composing. Music is a thing to be creative with. Not a thing to cage.

Palestrina: I know. I have had ample time to study your works since I have been in Purgatory.

Monteverdi: Really! Anyway, I liked to look to the past as well as the future in music. I love the idea of furthering our understand of music and our ways of composing music. However, one