Music History I

1
Music History I

• Lecture Notes 6

2
The Medieval Era

• Spans a millennium
• Fall of the Roman Empire (476 CE to the early
  15th C.)
• Medieval means between the ages
• Time frame for the Middle Ages in HMWC?

3
After the Fall

• Decline in political stability
• Commerce interrupted
• Decrease in population
• Infrastructure fell apart
• Loss of systems of learning
• Delay in development of engineering skills
• Loss of libraries through fire and pillage
• Few capable of reading ancient Greek
• Little contact between Eastern/Western scholars

4
Monastic Communities

• Repositories of learning
• Preservation of MSS

5
Charlemagne

• Crowned by Pope Leo III
• His title Sovereign of the Roman Empire
• When Christmas Day, 800
• Where Rome
• His empire divided end of 9th century
• In three parts Kingdom of France, Kingdom of
  Italy, East Frankish Kingdom
• Carolingian Empire (map on p. 23 of HMWC)

6
Musical Notation

• Earliest notation of plainchant and polyphony
  dates from ca. 850 - 900

7
In Machauts Day

• Papal seat moved from Rome to Avignon
• Roman de Fauvel
• Ars Nova by Philippe de Vitry
• Francesco Landini, a contemporary composer
• Hundred Years War (begins in 1337)
• Black Death in Europe (1348 1350)

8
Neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire

• Voltaire

9
Post Empire Arts

• Gained strength as the various governing entities
  (duchies, principalities, kingdoms) employed
  artists (musicians, painters, poets)

10
Magnus liber organi

• Musica mundana
• Musica humana
• Musica instrumentalis

11
The Year 1000

• Advancements
• Technology
• Architecture
• Education
• The arts
• Products horizontal loom, magnetic compass,
  windmills (12th C), lots of paper (13th C)
• Notable event reclamation of Holy Land from
  Muslim rule Jerusalem captured in First Crusade
  of 1095

12
100 Years War

• France and England

13
Architectural StyleGothic vs. Romanesque

• Emphasis on size, height, light, as opposed to
  low, compact buildings

14
The Thinkers

• Beginning in the 12th century, scholarship
  shifted from the church to the university
• Proponents of scholasticism truth can be reached
  by a combination of reason and faith

15
Medieval Era Musical Practices

• Difficult to reconstruct
• Undue emphasis on theory over performance
• Ancient system of notation lost
• Sung dramas not preserved
• Writings fell into obscurity until 9th C

16
Two Sides of Music

• Musicians who understand their art, the
  conoscienti of the 12th century
• Persons who play music with the necessary
  understanding
• Conclusion the two scenes offer a pictorial
  proof of the concept of theory over practice

17
Three Types of Musicians

• Performers
• Composers
• Adjudicators

18
Jewish Roots in Christian Worship

• Prayer
• Hymn singing
• Recitation or singing of psalms and other
  passages of scripture
• Celebration of communion has Jewish roots in
  Passover
• The Mass is related to the Jewish feast of
  Passover by reenactment of the Last Supper

19
Singing in the Early Church

• In which Psalm did you find a reference to
  singing?

20
New Testament References to Singing

• Colossians 316
• Luke 146 55 (The Magnificat)
• Mark 1412 26 and Matthew 2630 (The Lords
  Supper)
• I Corinthians 1415
• Ephesians 519
• James 513
• Revelation 59 10

21
Basil and Augustine on music in the liturgy of
the church

• St. Basil music enhances the words
• Augustine can be a distraction

22
The 4 Roman Rites

• Roman
• Ambrosian
• Gallican
• Mozarabic

23
Early Chant

• Based on signs known as neumes
• Notation on a full staff appears in the 13th C
• Singers determined pitches by the general contour
  or shape of the figures (neumes)
• A single-line staff is used in the example at the
  bottom of p. 33 in HMWC
• Chant melodies passed down accurately by the
  monks and celebrants who sang them often enough
  to fix them firmly in memory

24
The Divine Office

• Matins at night
• Lauds at dawn
• Prime 6 a.m.
• Terce 9 a.m.
• Sext noon
• None 3 p.m.
• Vespers sunset
• Compline before bedtime

25
The Mass

• Ordinary Always the same
• Proper changes made according to the church
  calendar
• The five musical sections of the Ordinary
• Kyrie
• Gloria
• Credo
• Sanctus
• Agnus Dei

26
The Liturgical Year

• Advent (4th Sunday before Christmas)
• Christmas (December 25 plus 12 days)
• Epiphany (Jan. 6 Magi beginning of Lent)
• Lent (Ash Wednesday 40 days before Easter to
  Maundy Thursday Holy Week)
• Easter (First Sunday of first full moon on or
  after March 21 Eastertide for 40 days ending
  with Ascension)
• Pentecost (50 days after Easter until Advent
  descent of the Holy Spirit on Christs disciples)

27
Three Chant Styles

• Syllabic
• Neumatic
• Melismatic

28
The Example on Page 39

• And the pitches are?

29
More on Chant Melodies

• Responsorial chorus alternates with soloist
• Antiphon precedes and follows the psalm
• Medieval modes the final is the first (lowest)
  tone in the authentic and the fourth tone in the
  plagal
• Intervals in addition to stepwise motion 3rds,
  4ths, 5ths

30
The Hexachord

• The solmization syllables Ut, re, mi,
  fa, sol, la

31
The Gamut Visual Aid

• The Guidonian Hand
• (See p. 45 of HMWC)

32
Plainchant Repertory

• A core repertory established for the entire
  liturgical year by the end of the 9th century

33
Trope

• A trope is a musical or textual addition to an
  existing chant

34
Cunctipotens Genitor Deus

• In the Kyrie on page 48 of HMWC, the following
  intervals occur
• Thirds 13
• Fourths 1
• Fifths 2

35
Hildegard von Bingen

• First woman to receive explicit permission from a
  pope to write on theology
• Persuaded church officials to allow music in the
  Divine Office through a letter giving emphasis to
  the praise of God through song
• The original decree imposed because she allowed
  someone who had been excommunicated to be buried
  on the grounds of the convent

36
Troubadours and Trouvères

• Prolific poet/musicians of southern France and
  northern France, respectively

37
Strophic Form

• A design where all stanzas of text are set to the
  same music.