Middle Ages: 450-1450
Dark Ages: 450 to 1000
disintegration of Roman Empire
Romanesque: 1000 to 1150
Romanesque churches and monasteries
Gothic: 1150 to 1250
Gothic Cathedrals
founding of Universities
Society
Nobility: mostly illiterate
fortified castles
Peasantry: illiterate
subject to feudal overlords
bound to the soil
Clergy: literate
Roman Catholic Church
Monasteries held a monopoly on learning
Music in the Middle Ages
Monasteries held a monopoly on learning
Most important musicians were priests
Women did not sing in church, but did sing in convent
Characteristics of Chant
Sacred Latin text
sung a cappella, without accompaniment
monophonic texture: unison
Rhythm is unmeasured
Melody has a narrow range and moves by step
Terminology
Rhythm: The ordered flow of music through time.
beat: The regular recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time
meter: The organization of beats into groups
Melody: The tune
pitch: The relative highness or lowness of a sound.
Gregorian Chant: Source
Mostly unknown composers, Jewish temple rites and oral tradition
Pope Gregory the Great
Reorganized the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.
Listening:
Alleluia: Vidimus stéllum
Sacred Latin text
monophonic texture
mode: an eight-note scale which is neither major nor minor
step-wise melody with a narrow range
ABA Form
Hildegard of Bingen
Abbess of Rupertsberg, Germany
Noble Birth
Raised by Benedictine Nuns
Listening:
O successores by Hildegard of Bingen
- Words came in a vision
- Two drones played on a fiddle
- drone
one or more long, sustained tones accompanying a melody.
- fiddle
medieval bowed string instrument
Wider skips in the melody, wider range
To be sung by nuns in the convent
Secular Music (12th & 13th centuries)
Troubadours (S. France)
Trouvères (N. France)
Noble birth
Included men and women
Subject matter: Love songs, Crusade songs, Dances, and Spinning songs
Listening: Estampie
Rebec & Pipe
Rebec
Pipe
The Development of Polyphony: Organum
Polyphony: Simultaneous performance of two or more independent melodic lines
Organum: Medieval music that consists of Gregorian Chant and one or more additional lines.
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris
Leonin added second, faster, voice above the plainchant
Lead to measured rhythm
Perotin added third voice above Leonin’s
Listening:
Alleluia
Melody in lowest voice
Lead to four parts:
Soprano - superious or highest
Alto - altus or high
Tenor - held voice, chant melody
Bass - bassus or lower, added in 14th century
The Ars Nova in France - 1300s
The Hundred Years War
Bubonic Plague
Weakening of the feudal system
Weakening of the Church
The rise of secular music
Papal court at Avigon was mostly secular
More precise rhythmic notation
secular themes including drinking songs, hunting songs, bird calls, dog barks
Not based on Gregorian Chant
Guillaume de Machaut
b. Champagne, France
priest
worked for Nobility
love songs
Canon over France
Cathedral at Rheims
Notre Dame Mass
Puis qu’en oubli
"Since I am forgotten by you"
Love poem
3 parts - melody
2 accompany
Notre Dame Mass
by Machaut
- Greatest composition of the 14th Century
- First full setting of mass ordinary:
- Ordinary: the texts remain the same from day to day throughout most of the year
- Proper: the texts change from day to day
Mass Ordinary
Kyrie: prayer for Mercy
Gloria: hymn praising God
Credo: Creed or statement of faith
Sanctus: hymn praising God
Agnus Dei: prayer for Mercy
Listening:
Notre Dame Mass
cantus firmus in the tenor
cantus firmus, pre-existing melody, usually chant
ABA form