c. 476-1450
THE MIDDLE AGES
Key Points in History
 Fall of the Roman Empire (476 C.E.)
 Charlemange crowned first Holy Roman
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Emperor (800)
Kublai Khan (1214-1294), emperor of China
Last Crusade to the Holy Land (1270)
Marco Polo to China (1271)
Dante wrote the Divine Comedy (1307)
Black Death begins (1347)
Key Points in History
 Geoffrey Chaucer gave us the Canterbury
Tales (1386)
 Joan of Arc is executed (1431)
Culture in the Middle Ages
 Early Christian Church and the state were centers
of power.
 Much of the surviving music from this Era is
religious because of the patronage of the church.
 The later Middle Ages saw the rise of cities,
cathedrals, and great works of both art and
literature.
 The ideals of knighthood and the devotion to the
Virgin Mary helped raise the status of women.
Liturgical Music
 The early music of the Christian Church was
shaped in part by Greek, Hebrew, and Syrian
influences.
 Eventually it became necessary to assemble
the ever-growing body of music into an
organized liturgy.
 The task took several generations, although
tradition credits Pope Gregory the Great with
codifying these melodies, known today as
Gregorian Chant.
Liturgical Music-Chant
 More than 3,000 melodies have survived,
most of which are anonymous.
 Its freely flowing vocal line follows the
inflections of the Latin text and is generally
free from regular accent.
 It avoids wide leaps, allowing its gentle
contours to create a kind of musical speech.
 It’s free from regular phrase structure and
maintains a continuous, smooth vocal line.
Liturgical Music-Chant
 Chant is classified by the way the notes are
set to the text:
 Syllabic- one note per syllable of text.
 Neumatic-2-3 notes sung to a syllable of text.
 Melismatic- many notes per syllable of text.
Liturgical Music-Chant
 Early chants were passed down orally.
 Early chant notation used neumes.
 These neumes suggested the contours of the
melody but not the rhythm.
 The various scale patterns used are called the
church modes.
The Mass
 Services in the Roman Catholic Church can be
divided into two categories: the daily offices,
and the Mass.
 The prayers that make up the Mass fall into
two categories:
 Proper-text changes according to the day.
 Ordinary-texts are the same for every Mass.
The Mass: Kyrie
 The Kyrie is the first item of the Ordinary.
 The text is a Greek prayer for mercy in a
three-part (ternary) form, consisting of nine
invocations to God.
 Three of “Kyrie eleison” (Lord, have mercy).
 Three of “Christe eleison” (Christ, have
mercy).
 Three of “Kyrie eleison” (Lord, have mercy).
The Mass:Kyrie
 The melody has three different musical
phrases (A B C) sung to the repeated text as
follows: A-A-A-B-B-B-C-C-C’
 The structure of the text and music is
symbolic: the number three evokes the
Trinity- the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. It is performed as a responsorial.
 This is the only part of the Mass sung in Greek
(Pope Gregory), the rest is in Latin.
Medieval Cloister
 Cloister is a place for religious seclusion.
 Cloisters were places of prayer, scholarship,
preaching, charity and healing.
 Cloisters allowed people to withdraw from a
secular society.
 There were monasteries for men.
 Convents for women.
Hildegard of Bingen 1098-1179
 1150 founded convent in Rupertsberg,
Germany.
 Known for miracles and prophecies.
 Recorded three collections of visions and
prophecies in manuscript.
 Composed religious poetry with music.
Hildegard of Bingen
 Characteristics of Hildegard’s poetry:
 Brilliant imagery
 Visionary language
 She composed and collected in a volume:
Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial
Revelations, for the liturgical church year.
Hildegard of Bingen
 The Play of Virtues (Ordo virtutum) was
Hildegard’s best known morality play.
 A Morality play is a drama meant to teach
virtues.
The Rise of Polyphony
 Early polyphony emerged at the Cathedral of
Notre Dame in Paris.
 Polyphony evolved toward the end of the
Romanesque period (c. 850-1150).
 Leonin was the earliest known composer of
the Notre Dame School.
 Perotin was Leonin’s successor, added two
and three melodies to chant.
The Rise of Polyphony
 Polyphony necessitated the use of notated
rhythm and pitch.
 Rhythm was chosen from a group of patterns
called rhythmic modes.
The Rise of Polyphony-Organum
 Earliest polyphonic music.
 Second melody added above or below the older
Gregorian melody.
 The second melody is added at an interval of a
4th or a 5th above or below pre-existing melody.
 The melodies would move in parallel, oblique, or
contrary motion.
 Oblique motion occurs when one part is
stationary (drone) while the other part moves.
The Early Medieval Motet
 A new genre emerged near the end of the
thirteenth century (motet).
 Composers wrote texts to the second melody
in organum.
 Many three-voice motets have different texts
(polytextual).
 Sometimes the languages were mixed in one
piece. Most commonly French and Latin.
The Early Medieval Motet
 Motets can either be Sacred or Secular.
 Motets can have an instrumental
accompaniment.
 A Gregorian chant is often the basis for a
motet.
 The other voices are composed around the
chant.
 Composers built the motet from the bottom
voice (tenor), up. The tenor held the preexisting tune.
Transition into Secular Music
 Secular music grew in a separate tradition from
sacred polyphony.
 The earliest secular songs that have been
preserved were set to Latin texts, which
suggests that they originated in university towns
rather than in small villages.
 Secular song texts focused on idealized love and
the values of chivalry (code of behavior).
 The religious wars (crusades) and medieval
explorations enabled the exchange of musical
instruments as well as theoretical ideas about
music with Middle Eastern and Far Eastern
cultures.
Medieval Minstrels
 Different classes of secular musicians
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emerged.
Wandering actor-singers lived on the fringe
of society (jongleurs).
Southern French high class musicians,
sometimes members of the royal family
(troubadours).
Northern French high class musicians
(trouveres).
German courtly musicians (minnesingers).
Medieval Minstrels
 The poems of the troubadours and trouveres
had diverse subjects.
 Poetry of secular songs often focused on
idealized love and chivalry.
 Secular songs were sung monophonically
with improvised instrumental
accompaniment.
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (c. 1155-1207)
and the Troubadour Tradition
 Southern French secular composer.
 Musician at the court of the Marquis of
Montferrat (northwest Italy).
 Knighted for his bravery in battle.
 Joined the fourth Crusade to the Holy Land.
 Most likely died in battle alongside his
patron.
The French Ars Nova
 The Ars Nova (new art) movement began in
14th century France and soon thereafter in
Italy.
 The music of the French Ars Nova is more
refined and complex than music of the Ars
Antiqua (old art) which it displaced.
 With this came new developments in rhythm,
meter, harmony, and counterpoint.
Guillaume de Machaut
(c. 1300-1377)
 Machaut was a poet and composer of the
French Ars Nova.
 Double career as cleric and courtier.
 Composed motets, chansons, and a
polyphonic Mass: Ordinary.
 Favored fixed text forms: rondeau, ballade,
virelai.
Early Instrumental Music
 The central role in art music was still reserved
for vocal music.
 Instruments played a supporting role in vocal
literature, doubling the vocal line or
accompanying the vocal line (improvisation).
 Instrumental music was performed by
ensembles divided by bas (soft) or haut (loud)
instruments.
 Instruments were also categorized by their
use (indoor or outdoor).
Medieval Organs
 Large organs required another person to
physically pump the bellows.
 Smaller organs (portative, positive) were
portable and easy to travel with.
 Some modern recordings today use period
instruments for authenticity of sound.