Music of the Middle Ages
From Gregorian Chant to the
Renaissance
Copyright © 2005 - Frankel Consulting Services, Inc.
There were two schools of music
during the Middle Ages
Ars Antiqua - 1100-1300
&
Ars Nova - 1300 - 1450
Ars Antiqua began in Paris at the
Cathedral de Notre Dame
Representative Ars Antiqua
Composers
•
•
•
•
Leonin (1163-1190)
Perotin (early 13th century)
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Anonymous (?)
What is Ars Antiqua?
• Literally means “old art”
• Stemmed directly from Gregorian Chant
• This style of music can be characterized as adding hollow
sounding harmonies(perfect 4ths & 5ths) to existing chants.
• This type of music is called organum.
• Originally, one voice would be added above the existing
chant. The chant would be sung very slowly - it was called
the cantus firmus.
Early Polyphony
• Polyphony means more than one pitch
played at the same time - what we typically call
harmony.
• The first type of polyphony was called parallel
organum. Here the cantus firmus and the
higher harmony mirrored each other.
• Eventually composers like Leonin and his
student Perotin began adding a third and fourth
part above the cantus firmus, and moved away
from the eerie sounding parallel organum.
Parallel
Organum
Meanwhile, in Germany…
• Hildegard von Bingen, who herself was a nun
with reported mystical powers, began
composing music different from the Notre Dame
school.
• Von Bingen wrote music that sounded wildly
different than plainchant, which some attributed
to her lack of musical training. Her melodies,
even today, seem contemporary.
What kind of music was happening
outside of the church?
• Secular music, or popular music, has existed
throughout history, especially during the Middle
Ages.
• Secular music of the Middle Ages was the first
to be written down on paper and preserved.
Today, performances of secular music is
possible using these surviving pieces of music.
Troubadours
• Troubadours were French musicians who
traveled across Europe during the 12th
and 13th centuries.
• They sang mostly love songs.
• They accompanied their love songs with
instruments, unlike the church.
Adam de la Halle (12371286)
• The most famous troubadour ever
• Wrote the first ever musical theater piece Le Jeu
de Robin et Marion
• Inventor of the Motet
• Motet - a piece of music where two or more
different verses are fit together simultaneously,
without regard to harmony
Medieval Instruments
• Instruments in early secular music were used to
accompany songs.
• Musicians usually improvised the simple
accompaniments.
• While the accompaniments were melodically
simple, they were rhythmically lively.
• Let’s take a look at the many different
instruments used in these accompaniments…
Harp
Krumhorn
Lute
Muted Cornett
Psaltery
Sacbut
Serpent
Shawm
Hurdy-Gurdy
Drum or Tambor
Recorder
Viol
Ars Nova
• 14th & 15th century France
• The invention of modern notation
• The creation of the Ordinary of the
Catholic Mass
• The popularity of the motet
Representative Ars Nova
Composers
• Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
• Francesco Landini (1325-1397)
• Anonymous (?)
Guillaume de Machaut
• A poet & a musician
• Created the first Ordinary for the Catholic
Mass
• Created many of the musical forms of
today (rondos and ballades)
• Master of counterpoint
Examples of Ars Nova Music
Music from this
period was the first
to add stems to the
nuemes, thereby
creating our
modern system of
notation.
This piece is
called “Sumer is
icumen in” and is
the oldest
surviving round.
Conclusions
• Most Medieval composers wrote mainly for the church
and remained anonymous.
• These early composers did not take the art of
composition seriously. It was more a necessary
function, or duty.
• Most secular musicians had day jobs. Full time
musicians were poor.
• While music itself was held in high regard, those who
made it were not. This is very different today.