IESO de Miguel Esteban / Departamento de MĂşsica
UNIT 1 Music in the Middle Ages 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 General characteristics: 2 SACRED MUSIC 3. SECULAR MUSIC 4. POLYPHONY 5. MUSIC PRINTING 6. VOCAL SECTION 7. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND MAIN CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MIDDLE AGE 8 DANCE MUSIC 9. COMPOSERS
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1. INTRODUCTION (800-1400CE) The Medieval Era is the longest and most remote period of musical history. It is important to note that this musical era consists of almost a thousand years worth of music. For most of the middle ages, the Church was the focal point of social life, learning, and the arts. Saint Gregory, who was pope from 590 - 640 C.E., is said to have organized a huge repertoire of chants that developed during the first centuries of the Christian church. Thus the term of "Gregorian Chant" came about.
During the Middle Ages, there were three classes of people. The first class was the nobility: kings, princes, and wealthy landowners. They owned land and from these people came our legends of knights in shining armour. The second class consisted of the clergy: priests who worked in the church and monks who lived in monasteries. The rest of the people, poor farmers and peasants, made up the third class. The average peasant lived to be 30 years of age and ate little more than black bread and turnips. The first great centres of music were in the churches.
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1.1 General characteristics: - Early Medieval music notation did not look like the notation that is used in present day music. The earliest signs of a notational system notational system for music used neumes. For a long time, musical notation consisted of the pitch or note that was to be sung. Other musical notation, such as rhythm didn't
begin until the 12th or 13th centuries. - Gregorian Chant is monophonic, having one melodic line without an accompaniment. It is said to be very serene, with pure shapes of melody. It is not known who wrote the melodies of the Gregorian Chant. Similar to folk melodies, it probably changed over time as it was passed down through generations. - Toward the latter part of the Middle Ages, music consisted of two or more melodic lines that were heard simultaneously, called polyphony This appeared around the 1200s. Polyphony was more difficult to compose than the monophonic chant, because a composer had to combine multiple melodic lines in a way that would be pleasing to the listener. Most of the Medieval polyphonic music was anonymous, as the names of composers were never written down. However, there are a few exceptions, as some composers had works so important that their names were preserved along with their music. - Although little of it has been preserved, secular song was important to the medieval era.. Secular song was monophonic and stylistically more diversified than plain song. It was stronger, and utilized regular rhythms, and had short rhythmic patterns. It was generally modal but favored major (Ionian) and minor (Aeolian) modes.
2 SACRED MUSIC
In the Middle Ages, the church was very important in the lives of the people. In turn, the music of the church was very important and from approximately 350 to 1100 CE, Medieval music was created mostly in the monasteries. This means that composers were mostly monks and priests associated with the Catholic Church. These monks and priests believed that their talents were gifts from God and any work they
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composed was meant to glorify God. It is because of this that most music up to 1100 is provided by anonymous sources, meaning sources without specific names attached to them.
Sacred music was called plainsong, and it consisted of a single unaccompanied melody with words in the Latin language. The melody of plainsong was simple so the words would be easily understood by others. The words were usually part of the Roman Catholic mass. The majority of the music of the time is now known as Gregorian Chant, named after Pope Gregory I (590604), who organized the plainsong chants into a specific order and had them published and communicated to churches throughout Europe and the Roman Empire.
3. SECULAR MUSIC A secular musical tradition, simpler than the organum used by the church, existed outside the church. This was the monophonic music of itinerant musicians, the minstrels. Minstrels were also known as jongleurs and their successors, the troubadours and trouvères in France, and minnesingers in Germany. The minstrels travelled from castle to castle singing songs, telling stories and performing tricks. Like plainsong, secular songs were simple and only had one melody. They were usually faster than sacred songs and used the common language instead of Latin. Minstrels gradually formed guilds and became more respected members of the growing middle class. Stringed or percussion instruments often accompanied the minstrels' songs. Both sacred and secular music used a wide variety of instruments, including such string devices as the lyre and psaltery and the medieval fiddle, or vielle. Keyboard instruments included the organ. Percussion instruments included small drums and small bells.
4. POLYPHONY Prior to this time, all music consisted of a single, unaccompanied melody (monophony). However, composers tried putting one or more melodies together with none being more important than the other. This is known as polyphony. Polyphony gave composers a more expanded musical world , and they soon became more creative. Sumer is icumen in, a piece written around 1300, is similar to a round like Row, row your boat.
5. MUSIC PRINTING
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Since the printing press had not yet been invented, if a piece of music was to be retained , it would have to be copied out by monks, diligently writing out music for church services. Sometimes the music was written out in a very ornamented fashion. Around 1025, Guido d'Arezzo developed a system of pitch notation using lines and spaces. Until this time, only two lines had been used. Guido expanded this system to four lines, and initiated the idea of ledger lines by adding lines above or below these lines as needed. He used square notes called NEUMES. This system eliminated any uncertainty of pitch, which had existed until this time. Guido also developed a system of clefs, which became the basis for our clef system: bass clef, treble clef. Another important contribution was his treatise on polyphonic music. This was important as it led to the development of polyphony by Leonin and Perotin.
6. VOCAL SECTION During the Medieval Era, there were many forms of vocal music. They were very simplistic in nature. MAIN FORMS a)Plainsong One of the most common vocal forms of the time was called plainchant, the Gregorian chant, or plainsong. It is known that this form of vocal music was the main root of polyphony during both the Medieval era and in the Renaissance era. b) Secular Song While little secular song had been preserved to date, it was still a very important musical form during the Medieval era. It was very similar to plainsong in that it had single note notation, had no accompaniment, and was written in the monophonic style. The difference between secular song and plainsong was its meter. It was mostly written in triple meter. Additionally, it also dealt with a wider range of subjects than the very religious plainsong. Furthermore, secular song had clear phrase and sectional structure, was written in most vernacular languages instead of the Latin(-only plainsong), and used shorter and more regular rhythms. c) Polyphony One of the greatest musical achievements in the history of music occurred during the Medieval era. This was the coming of polyphony. Polyphony is two or more vocal parts, each with its own individual melodic importance within a work. The earliest known polyphony occurred in secular music of the 8th century. However, from the 9th to the 13th centuries, polyphony grew in style and popularity and evolved into church music, which was based on plainsong.
ARS ANTIQUA Ars Antiqua is the time period between the mid 1100s to the end of the 1200s. This phrase means "The Old Art." This was a time during the Medieval Era when polyphony developed even further.
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Notre Dame Organum The Notre Dame organum developed shortly after the year 1150. In this form of polyphony, there were two parts sung by solo voices, alternating with sections of plainsong sung by a choir. Appearing for the first time was dicant style. This style had sections in which the tenor part contained shorter and measured notes.
Polyphonic Conductus The polyphonic conductus was in wide usage during the beginning half of the 13th century. The tenor part of this musical form was composed, instead of borrowed from plainsong, as it was in organum. Additionally, the parts moved together rhythmically, and the piece was written for two to four parts. The polyphonic conductus was composed in non-liturgical or secular form. Motet Around the year 1250, the motet became the main polyphonic form. It started to replace organum and conductus. A motet consisted of specific musical guidelines. A plainsong was sung by the tenor voice, and above it, two other parts were sung in faster moving notes. It was written in either sacred or secular style (in Latin or in vernacular) and usually was played in triple meter with clashes of dissonant intervals. Anothers forms in Ars Antiqua: Hocket Rota Rondellus ARS NOVA The Ars Nova, or "The New Art," took place during the end of the Medieval era while foreshadowing some of the Renaissance trends that were to ome.
Madrigal Written in two vocal parts, this musical form was the first polyphonic form to appear in Italy. The madrigal had each stanza written in duple time and ended with a ritornello section in triple meter.
(Another forms, secular forms‌. Caccia Ballata)
7. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND MAIN CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MIDDLE AGE Although very little instrumental music has been left intact from the composers of the time period, it is a well known fact that instruments were used throughout the Medieval era. Click here to view some musical instruments
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Bowed Instruments The most important of the bowed instruments were the vielles. They were the precursors of the Renaissance viol family. Another bowed instrument used during the medieval times was the rebec, which was a pear shaped instrument. Later in the time period the tromba marina appeared. It was long in shape and usually had one string. Sometimes it had two strings that were tuned in unison. Plucked Strings The most important plucked string instrument was the lute. It had an angled neck and a pear shaped body. The psaltery, a flat sounding board was another instrument similar to that of the zither. Wind Instruments During this time period recorders, various kinds of trumpets, and horns were in use. The shawm, which was a double reed instrument, was also used. Organs In the Medieval era, portative organs or organetto were used. They were small and were able to be moved around. The positive organ was a very important instrument of the time period. It was the first organ for which polyphonic music was composed. It was of medium size and could not be moved. During the 1300s larger organs started to appear usually in the churches of Europe. Some of them had up to 2,500 or more pipes. Percussion Instruments Drums came in many different shapes and sizes and were used mainly for military and dance purposes. Kettledrums, also called nakers, were used in pairs during this time period. In addition, a cylidrical drum, known as the tabor, was used. Many kinds of bells and cymbals were also used during the Medieval era.
During the Middle Ages, composers were not all that concerned with how their written music was performed. They gave little notice to what instrument(s) would play a piece and never indicated particular instruments within their scores. It is believed that there were basically five ways in which instruments were employed during this period in music history.
1. Vocal polyphony was occassionally played entirely by instruments 2. Instruments were used to double one or more vocal parts 3. Textless parts in polyphonic music were probably intended to be played by instruments 4. Music clearly intended for instrumental performance was mainly dance music and a few instrumental motets and conductus 5. They may have been substituted for voices in one or more parts with texts
8 DANCE MUSIC Almost every single one of the preserved dance forms were written in monophonic style. Folk or court dance music was made up on the spot or played from memory. The principal dance form of the 1400s was the estampie. This dance form had many repeated sections and was almost always played triple time. Some other famous dances were the danse royale and the Italian saltarello and istanpitta from the 1500s. The ductia was also a
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popular dance that was written in three or four sections. The finale of a dance work was named a rotta, rotte, or rota, and involved a change of meter involved.
9. COMPOSERS
Conon de Bethune La Comtessa Beatritz de Dia Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) Adam de la Halle Leonin (Leoninus) (c.1163-1201) Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) Perotin (Perotinus Magnus) (c.1160-1220) Wizlau von Rugen Hans Sachs Bernart de Ventadorn Maria de Ventadorn (1165-1221) Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361)
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