The Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages

• If art holdsor at least used to holda mirror up
  to life, music too reflects the
• society that gave it birth. But societies
  change, and, as they do, their musical
• image also changes. While we cannot hope to view
  the music of the Middle Ages
• with the eyes of its contemporaries, we can at
  least refrain from judging it by the
• position and function of music in our own
  society. We must forget glitteringbut
• not necessarily goldennew opera houses, famous
  composers conducting their
• own works around the world, impresarios touting
  their great musical artists,?
• festivals proliferating so rapidly that the
  vacationing traveler can avoid them only
• with the greatest difficulty. We must forget
  radio, television, the phonograph,
• high fidelity, and stereophonic sound. We must
  forget, in short, almost every
• aspect of twentieth-century commercialism that
  has turned music into big business
• and made it an inescapable phenomenon that
  sometimes brings more pain than
• pleasure to weary ears in a noisy world. Music
  in the Middle Ages was neither as
• spectacular as this nor as pervasive. Yet it was
  central to the religious, social, and
• intellectual life of the times.

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Ch 11 The History of the Middle Ages

• Collapse of the Roman Empire in 5th century
• Middle ages spans nearly 1,000 years
• Marks the beginning of the organization of music
  for Western Civilization
• Early Christian church and state intertwined
• Constantine
• Christian religion strengthened, emulate empire
• After collapse, Christian church only institution
• By 600, entire area Christian
• Majority of surviving and flourishing music
• Sacred Christian

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Culture of the Middle Ages

• First 500 years Dark Ages
• Little artistic or educational activity
• Christian church dominant institution in charge
  of learning and cultivating arts
• 1000-1450 revival in learning
• Secular music and writing more popular
• Church power declines, power of cities and courts
  increases

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Summary

• History of music in medieval Europe linked to
  history of Christian church
• Majority of music surviving is sacred.
• Majority of musical developments occur in church.
• Patronage from church.
• Schools were part of the church.
• Religious services highly musical.
• Notation in church led to preservation.

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12. Sacred Music in the Middle Ages

• Over 1000 yrs of Christian music is unaccompanied
  singing
• Church fathers condemned instrumental music,
  elaborate singing, and large choruses
• Music did not exist for enjoyment but to remind
  one of divine beauty.

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12. Sacred Music in the Middle Ages

• Liturgy
• Body of the churchs sacred music
• Its order of religious ceremonies and prayers
• Plainchant
• Monophonic
• Free-flowing to support Latin text
• Nonmetric
• Oral transmission
• Gregorian chant Pope Gregory the Great codified
  and disseminated Roman chant throughout Western
  Europe.

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Classes of chant

• Syllabic one to two notes per syllable of text.
• Neumatic five to six group of notes sung to a
  single syllable of text.
• Melismatic many notes sung to one syllable of
  text.

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Plainchant

• Notation
• Originally oral transmission
• Helped in dissemination
• Neumes symbols representing pitches and rhythmic
  value
• Modes scale patterns utilized in plainchant
• Similar to major and minor scales, but 8 diff.
  types
• Dont contain pull/tension of tonic
• Diverse number allows for more nuances in chant

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The Roman Catholic Church Services

• Offices various prayers and small-scale rituals
  performed daily
• Mass commemoration of the last supper and
  reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ
• A daily reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ
• The most common liturgical ritual
• Parts of the Mass
• Proper many prayers and chants and will use
  certain ones depending on the feast or day.
• Ordinary fixed Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus,
  Agnus Dei, Ite Missa Est

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The Mass

• The Mass was the focal point of medieval
  religious life. For the illiterate populace, it
  was their main source of instruction, where they
  were told what to believe and how to live. It
  was up to the church to present those fundamental
  truths in a way that would engage and inspire,
  gripping not only the mind but also the heart.

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The Music of Hildegard of Bingen (10981179)

• 1150 founded convent in Rupertsberg, Germany
• Known for miracles and prophecies
• Philosopher scientific medical writings
• Poet
• Three collections of visions and prophecies in
  manuscript (Scivias)
• Composed religious poetry with music
• Morality play (Liturgical Drama)
• The Play of the Virtues (Ordo virtutum)

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Characteristics of Hildegards Music

• Brilliant imagery
• Creative, non-liturgical language
• Wider Ranges
• Non-liturgical texts
• Expressive melodies reflective of text
• Disjunt or dissonant melodies to depict devil
• Conjunct or consonant melodies to depict Mary

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Hildegard Alleluia, O virga mediatrix (Listening
Guide)

• From the Mass Proper
• Proper to feasts of the Virgin Mary
• Ternary form (A-B-A)
• Responsorial
• Monophonic
• Conjunct melody with few leaps
• Free, nonmetric rhythm
• Neumatic

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The Rise of Polyphony The Notre Dame School

• Polyphony combination of two or more
  independent/different melodic lines sounding
  simultaneously.
• Emerged in 9th century, came to full fruition in
  12th and 13th centuries in Paris
• Paris, France became powerhouse, gradually
  assuming cultural and intellectual leadership of
  Western Europe because of
• Growth and prosperity of the cities
• Increasing power and prestige of French kings
• Expansion of cathedral schools, Univ. of Paris

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The Rise of Polyphony The Notre Dame School

• Cathedral of Notre Dame
• Organum term for polyphony at the time
• Tenor
• Léonin
• Pérotin
• Rhythmic Modes

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Notre Dame School Organum Gaude Maria virgo
(Listening Guide)

• Text praises Blessed Virgin
• Two-voice organum in the style of Pérotin
• Both voices sing same text
• Second added melody is melismatic
• Original melody is older chant, slowed down

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The Early Medieval Motet

• New text for second melody in organum
• New genre motet
• mot is French for word
• Polytextual
• Different texts in each voice
• Sometimes different languages (Latin French)
• Motets are sacred or secular
• Can have instrumental accompaniment
• A chant is the basis for motets
• Additions are deviations from liturgy

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13. Secular Music in the Middle Ages

• The accidents of history have made it seem that
  music remained for
• centuries the exclusive property of the Church.
  It is highly improbable,
• however, that song and dance played no part in
  secular amusements at all
• levels of society. Unfortunately, information
  about these amusements
• before A.D. 1000 is scanty indeed, and whatever
  music there was has
• vanished almost without a trace. Not until the
  rebirth of European
• civilization in the eleventh century did
  conditions become favorable for the
• development and preservation of secular songs.
  Even then, scribes often copied
• the poetry without the music or used a notation
  that cannot now be read. But we
• do begin to have tangible evidence that the
  secular spirit, as well as the religious,
• stimulated the creation of poetry and song. From
  this time on, the influence of
• that secular spirit on the development of music
  will be enormous. Its most
• immediate effect will be the additional insight
  we have into the pains, pleasures,
• and vices of medieval man, so vividly recorded in
  the lyric poetry of the Middle
• Ages.

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13. Secular Music in the Middle Ages

• Courts center of musical life beginning mid-12th
  century
• Church power declines
• Rulers show power by showing off their musicians
• Musicians Entertainers
• Goliards traveling, educated men sing poems
• Jongleurs/Minstrels jack-of-all-trades,
  jugglers, uneducated, lower class, performed
  other peoples songs
• Troubadours (French) traveled and performed for
  aristocracy upper class created poetry and
  music
• Minnesingers Germanys Troubadours

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Late Middle Ages, Secular Performers

• Strophic poetry
• Refrains
• Topics love, politics, morals, war songs,
  chivalry, unrequited love
• Center of medieval court life entertainment

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Guillaume de Machaut (c. 13001377)

• French composer
• Premier composer of Ars nova
• Beginning of 14th century
• Turn to new art, more complex beautiful
• Practicing musician, composer, and prolific poet
  who worked for church king
• Composed Masses, Motets, and Polyphonic Secular
  Songs

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Machaut Puis quen oubli (Listening Guide)

• Three-voice chanson
• Text rondeau form
• Pain of unrequited love
• Low melodic range (depths of despair)
• Rhythmic complexity
• Syncopation
• Metric shifting between duple triple