SECULAR MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE
AGES
 Troubadours
and trouveres:
– First large body of secular songs
surviving
– Composed during 12th and 13th c.
 Best
known troubadour: Guillaume
IX, duke of Aquitain, southern France
 Best known trouvere: Chastelain de
Couci, northern France
 Age
of chivalry
 Knights,
Crusades,
songs about love
and fighting bravely
 Love
songs were usually performed
by court minstrels
– Notation lacks rhythm, but they were
probably performed with a regular
meter and clearly defined beat – differ
from Gregorian chant
– Why do you think?
 Southern
France, some women
troubadours (Beatriz de Dia)
 Wandering minstrels
– Music and acrobatics in
castles, taverns, town
squares
– Minstrels – no civil rights, lowest social
class
 Level
with prostitutes and slaves
 Important source of information
 Estampie
– a medieval dance, one
of the earliest surviving forms of
instrumental music
– single melodic line is notated
– No instrument specified
 Common
instruments were used:
– Rebec – bowed string instruments
– Pipe – tubular wind instrument
– Psaltery – plucked or struck string instrument
LISTENING TO ESTAMPIE
 Estampie
– Books pg. 90
POLYPHONY: ORGANUM
 Organum
– medieval music that
consists of a Gregorian chant and
one or more additional melodic lines
 Between 700-900, first steps taken
– Originally, a second melodic line was
improvised, usually just duplicating the
melody on a different pitch
– Two lines moved in parallel motion in
fourths or fifths
 Organum
– Between 900-1200: became truly
polyphonic
 More
melodic curve instead of parallel
motion
 Sometimes contrary motion
 C.
1100, second line became even more
independent when
the chant and the
added melody
differed rhythmically
 Bottom line usually
longer notes, top
line shorter
 School
Rhythm
of Notre Dame: Measured
– After 1150, Paris: center for polyphony
– 1163: Cathedral of Notre Dame
– Leonin and Perotin: two successive
choirmasters, first notable composers
known by name
 they
and followers are the school
 Used measured rhythm – time values, meter
 At
first, rhythm was all in threes –
representing the Holy Trinity
LISTENING FOR ORGANUM
 Alleluia:
– Perotin
Nativitas
YOUR TURN
 Homework:
Using the staff paper
provided, compose a two-part
organum.
– Start and end each voice on the same
pitch.
– Should have at least 8 notes in the
bottom voice,
– At least 18 notes in the top voice