Medieval Era: 400-1475 AD
Sacred Music
The Basics:
 Stepwise
 Small note range
 Uses chromatic notes
Rhythm:
 Notes mostly same value
 No notated rhythms or time signatures
Harmony:
 Mostly monophonic (one instrument or voice part only).
 If music is polyphonic (multiple lines of music being sung/played at once) then
the chords are often dissonant (ugly, contradicting sounds).
 Mostly vocal music, very few instruments used.
Gregorian Chant (plainsong)
 Named in honor of Pope Gregory (590-604)
o Decided when chants should and could be sung during the year
o He was not a musician and wrote few, if any, chants.
 Chants are unaccompanied vocal music with religious Latin text
 Composed for use in churches or monasteries
 Does not use rhythms of time signatures
 Unison singing alternating between solo and choral singing.
Early Music notation (writing):
 Neumes began in 10th Century (early notation that often stood for 2-4 notes)
 Eventually one staff line was created and used.
Organum:
 Earliest type of polyphonic music (multiple lines of music at once)
 Started out at as one voice singing around a soloist
 Eventually become multiple, independent lines moving freely to create full
harmonies and more complex music.
Medieval Era: 400-1475 AD
Secular (non-religious) Music
Troubadours (1100-1200):
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Poets and musicians active in France
Wrote mostly love songs
Used instruments for accompaniment to voice
Very rarely wrote their music down
Performed by and for all classes of society
Countess of Dia was a famous composer in this group.
Touveres and Minnesingers:
 Another group of poets and musicians, active in France and Germany
 Mixed traditions of the Troubadours and scared (religious) music
Instrumental Music:
 Used primarily to accompany dancing.
 2 groups of instruments:
o Hauts- loud instruments like the early trombone and trumpet (sackbut and
cornetto) and drums.
o Bas- soft instruments like flute, recorder, harp and lute
Famous Medieval Composers
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
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One of the few known chant composers
77 chants attributed back to her
Founded a Convent near Bingen, Germany
Very intelligent and imaginative, before her time.
Famous piece: “O Greenest Branch”
Medieval Era: 400-1475 AD
Leonin (1150-1201)
 Lived and worked in France at Notre Dame in Paris.
 Composed organum
 Created Notre Dame organum- chants sung in long tones while an upper voice
moves quickly.
 Used at church special services (Christmas, Easter, etc.)
 Most famous composition “Viderunt omnes”
Perotin (dates unknown, late 12th-early 13th Century):
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Also lived and worked at Notre Dame composing organum
Taught by Leonin and expanded his ideas/techniques.
Wrote 3-4 part music instead of only 2 part.
Famous composition “Alleluia Nativitas”
Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
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Most important composer of Medieval music!
Author, composer, religious leader.
Composed religious and secular music, monophonic and polyphonic
Wrote “Mass of our Lady”, the Mass of Notre Dame
o Most famous composition from Medieval era
o Composed in Reims, France in 1360.
o Used in any mass honoring virgin Mary.
o Extrodinary for its time, all movements were in 4 part harmony.
Guillaume Dufay (1397-1470):
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Ordained priest, worked in churches and courts
Wrote religious and secular music
Employed for a time by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy
Composed “Lament of the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople”
Written to mourn the loss of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453