Music: An Appreciation
10th Edition
by Roger Kamien
Part II
The Middle Ages
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Time Line
• Middle Ages (450-1450)
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Rome sacked by Vandals—455
Beowulf—c. 700
First Crusade—1066
Black Death—1347-52
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales – 1387-1400
Joan of Arc executed by English—1431
The Middle Ages
A thousand years of European history
• Early - a time of migrations, upheavals & wars
Later – a period of cultural growth
Romanesque churches & monasteries; Gothic cathedrals;
Crusades to recover the Holy City from the Muslims
• Class Distinctions
Nobility sheltered in fortified castles; knights in armor;
amused themselves with hunting, feasting & tournaments
Peasants vast majority of population; lived miserably;
subject to feudal overlords
• Clergy Roman Catholic church exerted power;
monks held a virtual monopoly on learning
Ch. 1 - Music in the Middle Ages
• Church was the center of musical life
- Important musicians were priests
- Women were not allowed to sing in church,
but did make music in convents
- Only sacred music was notated
• Music primarily vocal and sacred
- Instruments not used in church
- Few medieval instruments have survived
- Music manuscripts did not indicate tempo,
dynamics or rhythm
Ch. 2 - Gregorian Chant
• Official music of the Roman Catholic church
• No longer common since 2nd Vatican Council (1962-1965)
• Represents the voice of the church rather than an individual
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Monophonic melody set to Latin text
Melodies tend to move by steps in a narrow range
Flexible rhythm - without meter and sense of beat
Named for Pope Gregory I (r. 590-604)
Later the melodies were notated
• Notation developed over several centuries
The Church Modes
• Basic scales made of different whole & half-step
patterns
Listening
Alleluia: Vidimus stellam
(We Have Seen His Star)
Vocal Music Guide: p. 76
Basic Set, CD 1:63 Brief Set, CD 1:47
Gregorian Chant
Monophonic texture
Ternary form: A B A
Listening
O successores (You successors)
Hildegard of Bingen
Vocal Music Guide: p. 79
Basic Set, CD 1:66 Brief Set, CD 1:50
Chant
Originally written without accompaniment
This recording includes a drone—long,
sustained notes
Note extended range of melody
Written for nuns by a nun (sung in a convent)
Ch. 3 –
Secular Music in the Middle Ages
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Composed by French nobles who were
poet-musicians
Troubadours (southern France)
Trouvères (northern France)
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Performed by jongleurs (traveling minstrels)
Song topics: love, Crusades, dancing,
spinning songs
Instrumental dances
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Listening - Estampie
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Medieval dance music
Strong beat (for dancing)
Single melody line is notated
Performers improvised instrumental
accompaniment
• Basic Set, CD 1:67
• Brief Set, CD 1:51
Ch. 4 –
The Development of Polyphony: Organum
• Between 700-900 a 2nd melody line added to chant
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Additional part initially improvised, not written
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Paralleled chant line at a different pitch
• 900-1200 added line grew more independent
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Developed its own melodic curve (no longer parallel)
c. 1100 note-against-note motion abandoned
• 2 lines w/ individual rhythmic and melodic content
• New part, in top voice, moved faster than the chant line
School of Notre Dame (Paris): Measured Rhythm
• Leonin & Perotin developed notation of precise rhythms
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Chant notation had only indicated pitch
• Medieval theorists considered interval of 3rd as dissonant
• Modern chords built of 3rds, considered consonant
Listening
Alleluia: Nativitas (The Birth; 1200?)
by Perotin
CD 1: 68
Organum in three voices
Cantus firmus
Note: clearly defined meter
Ch. 5 - Fourteenth-Century Music:
The “New Art” in Italy and France
• Secular music more important than sacred
• Changes in musical style – known as new art
ars nova (Latin)
• New music notation system evolved
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Beats could be subdivided into 2 as well as 3
Syncopation became important rhythmic practice
Listening
Ecco la primavera (Spring has come;
Fourteenth Century)
by Francesco Landini
Basic Set, CD 1:69
Vocal Music Guide: p. 85
Syncopation
Ballata
Listening
Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous
(Since I am forgotten by you; around 1363)
by Guillaume de Machaut
Basic Set: CD 1: 72, Brief Set: 1:52
Vocal Music Guide: p. 86
Vocal Melody accompanied by two lower parts
Syncopation
Listening
Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass by
Guillaume de Machaut
Basic Set, CD 1:73; Brief Set, CD 1:53
Vocal Music Guide: p. 88
Polyphonic; triple meter; syncopation
Ternary form: A B A (form results from the text)