Medieval/Middle Ages
450-1450
Fall of the Roman Empire
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Death (Short Life Span)
War
Illiteracy
No entertainment
Living in fear
Historical Events
• Construction of Notre Dame begins:
c. 1096
• Mechanical clocks introduced: 1163
• St. Francis founds the Franciscan
order: 1209
• Magna Carta: 1215
• Dante’s Divine Comedy written: 1307
• Hundred Years’ War between France
and England: 1327-1453
• The Black Death: 1347-50
• Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales written:
1386
Gregorian Chant
4 lines staff
No time signature
Trying to control chaos/music unifies
In Latin
900-1000: People wrote in prayer
books to remind starting of the
music
• Monophonic texture
• Scared Non-Lithurgical Drama
• “Deum verum”
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Notre-Dame de Paris
• People experimenting with
decorating chants
• Notre-Dame School- Leonin
and Perotin create organum
(1100)
• Rhythm notation (compound)
• New musical forms
• Addition of voices
Organum
• Two or more voices singing different notes
• Could be florid: long held note against a more decorated moving part
above
• Could be a descant: both voices moving at the same time
• Perfect intervals: consonant
Guidonian Hand
Guido of Arezzo created it around 1000
Used to teach music
Helped memorize chants
Began the idea of solmization based
upon the syllables ut re mi fa sol la
(known as hexachord)
• Monks learned the pattern of singing
chants using solmization
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Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Abbess: in charge of woman’s monastery
Early physician
Wrote practical/philosophy
Musician: morality play (sacred nonliturgical)
• “Ave generosa”
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Motet (c. 1250)
• From the word “mots” (French for
“words”)
• Could be sacred or secular
• Polyphonic
• Upper voices: could have vernacular
texts
• Tenor (Lower voice): could be played on
an instrument
• Upper voices: could have different but
related texts
• Could use two different languages
Troubadours and Trouveres
• Troubadours: South of France
• Language: Occitan
• Trouveres: North of France
• Language: Old French
• Poet-composers
• Either aristocrats (dukes, princes, etc.) or highly regarded servants
of aristocrats
Music by Troubadours and Trouveres
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Secular: not used for spiritual purposes
Monophonic texture music but can be accompanied by an instrument
Written in the vernacular: common language
Preserved in manuscript collections called chansonniers
Dealt with courtly love
Bernart de Ventadorn (c. 1130?-c. 1200)
One of the most famous troubadours
Son of a baker
First patron: Viscount Eble of Ventadorn
Bernart had to flee Ventadorn after falling
in love with Marguerite, Eble’s wife
• Eventually, became poet in the employ of
Eleanor of Aquitaine; followed her to
England when Eleanor became wife of
Henry II
• Bernart in love with Eleanor??
• “Can vei la lauzeta”
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Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204)
• Wife of King Louis VII of France
• Had two daughters with him
• Marriage was eventually annulled
• Remarried: Henry of England
• Had several children, including
King Richard I and King John of
England
Ars Nova (1310s-1370s)
• Meaning New art or new technique
• Initiated by Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361)
• Rhythm Notation innovations
• Duple division of note values
• Subdivision of note values
• Beginning of time signature
• Style
• Isorhythms: repeating patterns in the tenor
• Musica Fieta (False): accidentals outside of the “Guidonian” hand
• Musica Recta (Correct): allowed only notes in the “Guidonian” hand
Guillaume Machaut (1300-1377)
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Poet/Musician
Leading composer of Ars Nova
Born in NE France to a middle-class family
Cleric: took “Holy Orders”
Poems: love
Secular songs
Sacred music
Cycle mass
Motets
Wrote “La Messe de Nostre Dame” (“Mass of Our Lady”):
Ordinary setting
Ars Subtilior (End of 14th Century)
• Meaning “Subtle” or “Refined” art
• Flourished in the South of France and Italy
• Music
• Used complex rhythmic notation
• Use of “coloration” (red notes) to show changes
in the subdivision of the beat
• Indepence of the parts
Italian Trecento Music (1300s-1420)
• Music in Italy in the 14th century
• Trecento meaning “Three Hundred”
• Secular and Scared Music
Francesco Landini (c.1325-1397)
• Leading composer of the Italian Trecento
• Blinded by smallpox as a child
• Focused on music from the point onwards
• Mastered many instruments
• Esteemed performer, composer, poet
• Especially regarded for his skill on the
“orgenetto” (small organ)
• Involved in organ building
• “Ecco la primavera”
String Instruments
Top (left to right): Harp, Rebec, Citole
Bottom (left to right): Organistrum, Vielle (Fiddle), Lute
Prototype Keyboard/Hybrid String Instruments
Organ: Positive
Psaltery
Organ:
Portative
Prototype Woodwind Instruments
Recorder
Pipe & Tabor
Transverse Flute
Shawm
Prototype Brass Instruments
Trumpet
Oliphant
Charter Horn
Percussion Instruments
Timbrel
Cymbals
Triangle
Feudal System
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