Music: An Appreciation, Brief
7th Edition
by Roger Kamien
Part II
The Middle Ages and
Renaissance
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Time Line
• Middle Ages (450-1450)
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Rome sacked by Vandals—455
Beowulf—c. 700
First Crusade—1066
Black Death—1347-52
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales – 1387-1400
Joan of Arc executed by English—1431
Time Line
• Renaissance (1450-1600)
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Guttenberg Bible—1456
Columbus reaches America—1492
Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa—c. 1503
Michelangelo: David—1504
Raphael: School of Athens—1505
Martin Luther’s 95 theses—1517
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet—1596
The Renaissance
Rebirth of human creativity
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Time of exploration & adventure
Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and
Ferdinand Magellan
Age of curiosity & individualism
Leonardo da Vinci
Intellectual Movement – Humanism
Captivated by ancient Greece & Roman cultures
Visual arts depicted realism w/ linear perspective and illusion of
space & depth
Catholic Church far less powerful
Education a status symbol for the aristocracy & upper middle class
The Middle Ages
A thousand years of European history
• Early - a time of migrations, upheavals & wars
Later – a period of cultural growth
Romanesque churches & monasteries; Gothic cathedrals;
Crusades to recover the Holy City from the Muslims
• Class Distinctions
Nobility sheltered in fortified castles; knights in armor;
amused themselves with hunting, feasting & tournaments
Peasants vast majority of population; lived miserably;
subject to feudal overlords
Clergy Roman Catholic church exerted power;
monks held a virtual monopoly on learning
Ch. 1 - Music in the Middle Ages
• Church was the center of musical life
- Important musicians were priests
- Women were not allowed to sing in church,
but did make music in convents
- Only sacred music was notated
• Music primarily vocal and sacred
- Instruments not used in church
- Few medieval instruments have survived
- Music manuscripts did not indicate tempo,
dynamics or rhythm
Gregorian Chant
• Official music of the Roman Catholic church
• No longer common since 2nd Vatican Council (1962-1965)
• Represents the voice of the church rather than an individual
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Monophonic melody set to Latin text
Melodies tend to move by steps in a narrow range
Flexible rhythm - without meter and sense of beat
Named for Pope Gregory I (r. 590-604)
Later the melodies were notated
• Notation developed over several centuries
The Church Modes
• Basic scales made of different whole & half-step
patterns
Listening
Alleluia: Vidimus stellam
(We Have Seen His Star)
Vocal Music Guide: p. 66
Basic Set, CD 1:63 Brief Set, CD 1:47
Gregorian Chant
Monophonic texture
Ternary form: A B A
Listening
O successores (You successors)
Hildegard of Bingen
Vocal Music Guide: p. 69
Basic Set, CD 1:66 Brief Set, CD 1:50
Chant
Originally written without accompaniment
This recording includes a drone—long,
sustained notes
Note extended range of melody
Written for nuns by a nun (sung in a convent)
Secular Music in the Middle Ages
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Composed by French nobles who were
poet-musicians
Troubadours (southern France)
Trouvères (northern France)
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Performed by jongleurs (traveling minstrels)
Song topics: love, Crusades, dancing,
spinning songs
Instrumental dances
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Listening - Estampie
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Medieval dance music
Strong beat (for dancing)
Single melody line is notated
Performers improvised instrumental
accompaniment
• Basic Set, CD 1:67
• Brief Set, CD 1:51
The Development of Polyphony: Organum
• Between 700-900 a 2nd melody line added to chant
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Additional part initially improvised, not written
Paralleled chant line at a different pitch
• 900-1200 added line grew more independent
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Developed its own melodic curve (no longer parallel)
c. 1100 note-against-note motion abandoned
• 2 lines w/ individual rhythmic and melodic content
• New part, in top voice, moved faster than the chant line
School of Notre Dame (Paris): Measured Rhythm
• Leonin & Perotin developed notation of precise rhythms
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Chant notation had only indicated pitch
• Medieval theorists considered interval of 3rd as dissonant
• Modern chords built of 3rds, considered consonant
Fourteenth-Century Music:
The “New Art” in Italy and France
• Secular music more important than sacred
• Changes in musical style – known as new art
ars nova (Latin)
• New music notation system evolved
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Beats could be subdivided into 2 as well as 3
Syncopation became important rhythmic practice
Listening
Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous
(Since I am forgotten by you; around 1363)
by Guillaume de Machaut
Basic Set: CD 1: 72, Brief Set: 1:52
Vocal Music Guide: p. 74
Vocal Melody accompanied by two lower parts
Syncopation
Listening
Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass by
Guillaume de Machaut
Vocal Music Guide: p. 76
Basic Set, CD 1:73 Brief Set, CD 1:53
Polyphonic; triple meter; syncopation
Ternary form: A B A (form results from the text)
Ch. 2 - Music in the Renaissance
• Invention of printing widened the circulation of music
• Musicians worked in churches, courts, & towns
• Church remained an important patron of music
• Church choirs grew in size (all male)
• Musical activity shifted to the courts
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Town musicians played for civic processions, weddings
Musicians enjoyed higher status & pay
Composers sought credit for their work
Italy became leading music center
Characteristics of Renaissance Music
Words and Music
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Vocal music more important than instrumental
Word painting
Wide range of emotion w/o extreme contrasts
Texture
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Polyphonic
Imitation among the voices
Sounds fuller; expanded pitch range; consonant chords are favored w/ use of
triads
Rhythm and Melody
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Rhythm a gentle flow rather than sharply defined beat
Melodic line has greater rhythmic independence
Melody usually moves along a scale w/ few large leaps
Sacred Music in the Renaissance
Motet – Josquin Desprez
• Short polyphonic choral work
• Latin text usually overlaid with vernacular text
Mass – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Polyphonic choral composition of the Catholic church
• Made up of 5 sections:
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Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Listening
Ave Maria…virgo serena
Josquin Desprez
Vocal Music Guide: p. 80
Basic Set, CD 1:76 Brief Set, CD 1:56
Four voice motet
Polyphonic imitation
Overlapping voice parts
Listening
Kyrie from Pope Marcellus Mass
by Palestrina (1525 – 1594)
Vocal Music Guide: p. 83
Basic Set CD 1:79 Brief Set 1:59
Rich polyphonic texture – 6 voices
Vocal imitation
Spirit of Gregorian chant
Palestrina’s work became the model for mass composers
Secular Music in the Renaissance
Vocal Music
Music was an important leisure activity
People were expected to play a musical instrument and read notation
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Madrigal
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for several solo voices set to a short poem, usually about love
Combined homophonic & polyphonic textures
Word painting & unusual harmonies
Renaissance Lute Song
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Song for solo voice and lute (plucked string instrument)
Popular instrument in the Renaissance home
Homophonic texture
Lute accompanies the vocal melody
Listening
As Vesta was Descending (1601)
by Thomas Weelkes
Vocal Music Guide: p. 84
Basic Set, CD 1:82 Brief Set, CD 1:62
Madrigal
Note text painting:
Pitches rise on “ascending”
Pitches fall on “descending”
“Running down”
“Two by two,” “three by three,” “all alone”
Listening
Flow My Tears (about 1600)
by John Dowland (1563 – 1626)
Vocal Music Guide: p. 86
Basic Set, CD 1:83 Brief Set, CD 1:63
Very popular Lute Song
(Recorded by rock star, Sting)
Expression of melancholy - descending four-note
pattern
Three brief musical sections: A B C
Instrumental Music
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Still subordinate to vocal music
Instrumentalists accompanied voices
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More music written specifically for instruments
Instrumental music intended for dancing
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Harpsichord, organ, or lute
Pavane or passamezzo in duple meter
Galliard in triple meter
Distinguished between loud & soft instruments
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Outdoor (loud): trumpet, shawm
Indoor (soft): lute, recorder