MUSIC HISTORY TIME PERIODS
• MIDDLE AGES
• (450 fall of Rome – 1450 printing
press invented)
•
•
RENAISSANCE (1450 – 1600 Birth of Opera)
• BAROQUE (1600 – 1750 death of BACH)
• CLASSICAL ( 1750 – 1820 death of Beethoven)
ROMANTIC (1820 – 1900 start of 20th cen. Industrial rev)
• 20th CENTURY to 1945 (end of WWII)
• 1945 to PRESENT
• THE MIDDLE AGES
• 2 types of music
• Church & Secular
• little of manuscript survives & has no
tempos dynamics or instrument names
• singers & instruments in paintings and
literary descriptions but not certain
exactly how
• Gregorian Chant
• for 1000 years official Roman Catholic Church
music
• Monophonic in LATIN sung to enhance parts
of religious services
• NAMED after POPE Gregory I (the great) who
reorganized liturgy 590-604
• Gregorian Chant
• most melodies are fix and NOT to
be changed but written around
later
• at first were handed down orally
but after over 1000 chants
notated to ensure uniformity
• TWO types of services for chants
• MASS – formal religious right
(Last Supper)
• THE OFFICE –everyday type pray
& worship
• CHURCH MODES
• scales of the middle ages &
renaissance
• CHURCH Modes vs. Major &
Minor Scales
• Whole steps and half steps
• Monks were some main musicians
because could read/educated (men)
• Church frowned on instruments because
associated with pagan rites.
• Pipe Organ only allow at special feast /
occasions
• long syllables with altered notes
(small range)
• FREE TIME (no indicators in
manuscript most likely
improvised or based off of
soloist)
• LISTENING JOURNAL
• Alleluia: ANONYMOUS
• form ABA
• soloist & choir in unison
•
•
•
•
•
Hildegard of Bingen (bing –N) (1098-1179)
German nun
Abbess (a title of a mystic) of Rupertsberg
writer in Rupertsberg, Germany
1st woman composer whose large number
or works survive
• LISTENING JOURNAL
• O successors: Hildegard of Bingen
• drone - constant note or notes under music
• 1 to 4 notes per syllable / wider pitch range /
wider leaps in pitch / motion towards climax
• form is ABC
• Secular Music
• instruments used but mostly improvised
based around common folk melodies
• 1st large body of notated melodies in the 12th
& 13th century by French
• Troubadours & Trouveres
• Troubadours & Trouveres =
• nobles , dukes, ect..
• acts of chivalry written done about the
• CRUSADES
• LOVE
• DANCE SONGS
• SPINNING SONGS
• Troubadours & Trouveres
• vs.
• Minstrels
• Royalty vs. Scrubs
• MINSTRELS
• were lower class performers in castles,
taverns, on the street.
• Served as THE NEWS to common people
• Played fiddles, harps, lutes.
• LISTENING JOURNAL (ESTAMPIE)
• Estampie = earliest example of instrumental
music
• melody with most likely improvised
accompaniment (1650 Melodies of this
survive)
• drone has been added to imitate most likely
simple dance accompaniment
• In TRIPLE METER
• Organum (dev of Polyphony)
• 700-900 monks add second improvised
note to chant
• usually the 5th (power chords)
• duplicated chant
• Organum (dev of Polyphony)
• duplicated chant
• parallel motion
• 1st type of harmony
• note against note
• Organum (dev of Polyphony)
• 900A.D.-1200A.D. second line becomes
more independent to create true
polyphonic
• contrary motion
• its own melodic curve
• 1100A.D. no more note against note
restriction (dif melodically &
rhythmically)
• SCHOOL OF NOTRE DAME
• (Measured Rhythm)
• PARIS 1150 University of PARIS –
cathedral of Notre Dame
• SCHOOL OF NOTRE DAME
• (Measured Rhythm)
• successive choir masters LEONIN
& PEROTIN used measured
st
rhythm for 1 time
st
• 1 composers of NAME
• SCHOOL OF NOTRE DAME
• (Measured Rhythm)
• 1st to subdivide the music into 3
beats in honor of the Trinity
• early medieval music considers triad
sound of today harsh and not used
but late medieval comes closer
• ARS NOVA (new art in France)
• 14th century
• The Hundred Years War - France &
England (1337-1453)
• The Plague
• Weakening Feudal System
• ARS NOVA (new art in France)
• literary & music became more
secular
• wrote polyphonic music not based
on chants
• 2 beat became popular
• syncopation popular
• new attitude
• ARS NOVA (new art in France)
• this end of middle ages music in
France & Italy known as ARS NOVA
• MACHAUT = best known of ARS
NOVA Composers
• 1300-1377 born Champagne , France
• Both Musician & Poet
• MACHAUT = best known of ARS
NOVA Composers
• spent many years in serve to royal
families
• traveled to many courts and on
military campaigns
• MACHAUT = best known of ARS
NOVA Composers
• he made many copies of music &
poetry & presented them all over
Europe to nobles
• (reason his music survives)
• LISTENING JOURNAL (PUIS QU’EN UOBLI :
MACHAUT) Farewell to Joy
• completely original piece
• Fell in love late in life at age 60 with young
noblewomen
• age difference too much
• relationship ended in disappointment
• he immortalized their love in great narrative
poem & 9 musical comps
• CONT……….
• LISTENING JOURNAL (PUIS QU’EN UOBLI :
MACHAUT) Farewell to Joy
• piece is a Rondeau has poetic refrain in lyric
• music uses only two different lines AB
• 3 beat
• lead melody (lyric)
• 2nd part accompaniment in low pitch
• (no text to 2nd part but sung on our recording)
• LISTENING JOURNAL (Agnus Dei from Norte
Dame Mass : MACHAUT)
• based on chant melodies
• Norte Dame MASS
• part of ordinary mass
• 5 sung prayers that remain the same day to
day
• composers over the years change slightly their
interpretation
• LISTENING JOURNAL (Agnus Dei from Norte
Dame Mass : MACHAUT)
• Agnus Dei – a prayer for mercy and peace
(last sung prayer of mass ordinary)
• 4 voice parts / 3 beat / harmonies have
dissonance / hollow sounds / and true full
triads
• form ABA’ / lyric is A A A’ / division sections
3 (trinity reference) / music to appeal to
mind and ear in this era