Music of the Middle Ages 500 1450

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Lecture 5

• Music of the Middle Ages 500 - 1450

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Music of the Middle Ages 500 - 1450

• SACRED MUSIC
• GREGORIAN CHANT
• Monophonic song with Latin text
• Syllabic
• Neumatic
• Melismatic
• Neumes
• Modes
• Scale patterns

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Music of the Middle Ages 500 - 1450

• Sacred Music
• The Mass - The most solemn ritual of the Roman
  Catholic Church
• Proper - liturgy that changes for each
  celebration
• Ordinary - liturgy that remains the same for each
  celebration
• Music - each section of the mass has chants
  associated with them

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Music of the Middle Ages 500 - 1450

• Sacred Music
• The Music of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
• Alleluia, O virga mediatrix
• Alleluia from the Proper of the Mass
• Poem in honor of the Virgin Mary
• Monophonic texture
• Responsorial form
• melismatic and neumatic style

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Music of the Middle AgesHildegard of Bingen
Alleluia, O virga mediatrixListening

• Melody - conjunct
• Rhythm - nonmetric
• Harmony - NA
• Texture - Monophony- Responsorial solo/chorus
• Form - chorus verse chorus
• Expression - NA
• Instrumentation - voices

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Music of the Middle Ages 500 - 1450

• Sacred Music - The Rise of Polyphony
• The Notre Dame School (c. 1175)
• Organum
• Earliest genre in polyphonic texture
• A new voice (melody) added over a preexisting
  Gregorian chant
• Leonin and Perotin
• Required development of rhythm and meter
• Notation

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Music of the Middle Ages Gothic Era

• Sacred Music - The Rise of Polyphony
• The Notre Dame School (c. 1200)
• Organum
• Gaude Maria virgo - Perotin?
• 3 voiced
• Based on chant melody
• Upper voices are called Countermelody

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Music of the Middle AgesGaude Maria
virgoListening

• Melody - conjunct
• Rhythm - triple meter (long short short pattern)
  
• Harmony - modal w/open chords at cadences
• Texture - Polyphony
• Form - binary - Shifting from organum to chant
  (AB)
• Expression - NA
• Instrumentation - 2 voices instrument?

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Music of the Middle Ages

• Sacred Music - The Rise of Polyphony
• The Medieval Motet (late 13th Century)
• Multi-voiced organum with new texts added to
  upper voices
• Polytextual - may be in French as well as Latin
  and often concerning differing subjects!

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Music of the Middle Ages 500 - 1450

• Secular Music
• Minstrelsy (12th and 13th Centuries)
• Minstrels - class of itinerant musicians and
  entertainers who traveled from town to town
• Upper class poet/musicians
• Troubadours - Southern France
• Trouveres - Northern France
• Monophonic songs in vernacular
• Texts usually about idealized love

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Music of the Middle Ages Late Middle Ages

• Secular Music - French Ars Nova - 14th Century
• Chanson - polyphonic songs in vernacular (French)
• Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377)
• Puis quen oubli
• 3 voiced polyphonic texture
• Fixed forms
• rondeau, ballade, virelai

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Music of the Middle AgesGuillaume de Machaut
Puis quen oubliListening

• Melody - conjunct
• Rhythm - triple meter
• Harmony - minor modality w/open chords at
  cadences
• Texture - 3 voiced Polyphony
• Form - fixed form rondeau verse/chorus (refrain)
• Expression - slow tempo
• Instrumentation - 3 mens voices

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Music of the Middle Ages Late Middle Ages

• Secular Music - Instrumental Music
• Royal Estampie
• (14th century)

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Reading Assignment

• chapters 14 - 16