Download 2. Middle Ages PPT

IB Music History
Ancient / Middle Ages / Medieval Music
Epigram
¡ The most basic definition of an epigram is a brief,
clever, and memorable statement
¡ This could inclue an elegy, a poem, or a song
¡ Epitaph of Seikilos
¡ The oldest surviving example of a complete musical
compositions
¡ Dated between 200 BC and 100 AD
¡ More info, pictures, and explanations here:
¡ http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/SongOfSei
kilos.htm
Time Period
¡ Approx. 450 – 1450 A.D.
¡ Middle Ages – in between the fall of Rome and
the start of the Renaissance
¡ The traditions of Western music can be traced
back to the social and religious developments
that took place in Europe during the Middle Ages
¡ Sacred music was prevalent as the early Catholic
church evolved into Europe’s strongest institution
¡ Feudalism separated society into a multi-leveled
structure – wealthy royalty to poor
2 Types of Music
¡Music from the Middle
Ages can be classified into
two types:
¡Sacred – music used by the
Roman Catholic church
¡Secular – music with no relation to
the church
1. Sacred music
Medieval Music
(Gregorian) Chant
¡ Secular music evolved from a form called chant
or plainsong
¡ Also called Gregorian Chants, named after Pope
Gregory I, who collected the chants
¡ They are the official pieces of the Catholic
church
Characteristics
¡ Chant is written in neumes – notes sung on a single
syllable (http://www.lphrc.org/Chant/)
¡ Melody: free-flowing, legato, moves up and down
by steps or small leaps, narrow range, conjunct,
melismatic – syllables are held out over multiple
notes
¡ Harmony: no harmony, monophonic, based on one
of the 8 church modes
¡ Rhythm: no precise rhythm, notes are held for a
duration of “short” or “long”
¡ Form: often ternary, with the cantor’s introductory
solo (incipit), the choir joining in, then concluding
with the cantor’s solo (often quieter or more
narrow)
Characteristics
¡ Texture: Monophonic
¡ Medium: tradtionally all-male choirs (monks).
Occasionally sung by all-women choirs in
convents.
¡ Context: used by the Church to aid prayers.
¡ Style: Medieval music, church music
¡ Vocal characteristics: all male, straight tone (no
vibrato), melismatic, Latin text
Composers of Gregorian
Chant
¡ Hildegard of Bingen (Germany, 1098-1179)
¡ The first woman composer with a significant output of
works
¡ Catholic nun
¡ Expressive chants and hymns
¡ Visionary/mystic who wrote on theology, politics,
medicine, and science
¡ Listening example: Ordo virtutum – sacred music
drama by Hildegard
¡ Listening example: O Successors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfCmHuz5oTk
¡ Most other composers were unknown since works
were given to the Church (glorify God)
The Roman Mass
A Grand Form of Sacred Music
The Roman Mass
¡ Mass “Ordinary”
¡ Five standard prayers of
the Mass that are used
every day
¡ Kyrie (*Greek*)
¡ Gloria
¡ Credo
¡ Sanctus
¡ Agnus Dei
¡ Mass “Proper”
¡ 15 prayers that change daily to
focus on a certain occasion in
the church calendar
¡ The most important church
festivals are Easter and
Christmas
¡ Examples include:
¡ Introit
¡ Gradual
¡ Alleluia
¡ Offertory
¡ Communion
The Roman Mass
¡ Mass “Ordinary”
¡ Mass “Proper”
¡ Same text, different pieces
of music
¡ Different text and melodies
¡ Ordinary chants are more
like composed melodies
¡ Derived from psalm-singing
¡ Frequent stepwise motion
and little recitation
¡ Feast days: Proper chants tend to
be older than the Ordinary chants
¡ Include passages of decorated
recitation, centering around a
single note with embellishing
gestures
The Roman Mass
¡ Mass “Ordinary”
¡ Five standard prayers of the Mass that are used every day
¡ Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei
¡ Short prayers (Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) were sung with
expressive melismas
¡ Longer prayers (Gloria, Credo) had to be sung in a
recitational style
¡ Listening example: Kyrie
¡ Mass “Proper”
¡ Added as needed by the calendar
¡ Listening example: Alleluia
Prayer Examples
¡ Kyrie
¡ Kyrie, eleison
Christe, eleison
Kyrie, eleison
¡ Credo
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem,
factorem cœli et terrae, v isibilium omnium et invisibilium.
Et in unum Dominum, J esum Christum,
Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula.
Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine, Deum v erum de Deo vero,
genitum non factum, c onsubstantialem Patri;;
per quem omnia facta sunt.
Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de c œlis.
Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato passus, et s epultus est,
et resurrexit tertia die, s ecundum Scripturas,
et ascendit in c ælum, s edet ad dexteram Patris.
Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, iudicare vivos et mortuos,
cuius regni non erit finis;;
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et v ivificantem,
qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.
Qui c um Patre et Filio simul adoratur et c onglorificatur:
qui locutus est per prophetas.
Et unam, s anctam, c atholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam.
Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum.
Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum,
et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.
Organum
Early Sacred Polyphony
Organum
¡ Around the year 1000, composers in
Europe began to experiment with
polyphony
¡ This bold step is perhaps the most
important occurrence in the history of
Western music
¡ Around 1200, a simple type of polyphony
called organum developed in France
Organum Development
¡ Composers experimented with the idea of
singing two melodic lines at the same time at
parallel intervals (usually at the fourth, fifth, or
octave)
¡ Over the next one hundred years, added melody
lines were no longer moving parallel, but contrary
to each other, sometimes even crossing
¡ Organum is a Gregorian chant to which
additional melodic lines are added
¡ Listening example: Alleluia in free organum p. 61
What is Organum?
¡ Long-held notes in the lower part with choppy,
faster-moving notes in the upper voice
¡ The lower voice is actually a chant melody sung
very slowly on long held notes called the cantus
firmus
¡ The upper voice is based on secular dance
rhythms and embellishes the resulting drone
¡ In organum, voices often sing extended
melismas to expressive the most important words
in a prayer
Composers of Organum
¡ Two main composers of organum:
¡ Léonin, director of the school of music at the Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris
¡ He was the first to use measured rhythm in his
compositions
¡ Pérotin, his pupil at the school
¡ He was the first to write three simultaneous, distinct
lines
Composers of Organum
¡ These two composers and their students are
referred to as the School of Notre Dame
¡ This style period of music is referred to as Ars
Antiqua (Old Art)
¡ Listening example: Léronin: Virderunt omnes
(organum duplum) p. 67 (organum duplum)
¡ Listening example: Pérotin: Viderunt omnes
(organum quadruplum) p. 83 (organum
quadruplum)
Ars Nova
¡ Around 1350, a new style of music called Ars Nova
(New Art) emerged
¡ Ars Nova includes both sacred and secular music,
though secular music gained importance during this
period.
¡ Ars Nova refers to the complex musical style of the
late Middle Ages
¡ Important characteristics of Ars Nova are:
¡ Development of polyphony
¡ Use of duple meter
¡ Syncopation
Motet
Early Sacred Polyphony
Early Motet
¡ The motet is a new genre that developed out of
organum
¡ Words were put onto each note of a melisma to
create a more syllabic and metrical style
¡ Medieval motets often had 3 or more voice
parts, often with completely different texts in
each voice part (or even different languages)
¡ The biggest different between a motet and a
mass is the TEXT – a motet is NOT based on a
mass text
Motet
¡ 3 ways to write a motet while reworking a
polyphonic piece
¡ Adding text to an existing discant clausula
¡ Writing a new duplum to an existing tenor
¡ Writing a new text for an existing motet
¡ Or: use a fragment of a chant to create a new
tenor and add one or more voices above
¡ This is not directly related to a discant clausula
¡ Motets led into the Renaissance madrigal
Early Motet
¡ Philippe de Vitry
¡ French composer (13th and 14th century)
¡ Best known for his motets
¡ Associated with Ars Nova treatise
¡ Listening example: Motet p. 121
Guillame de Machaut
¡ The most important French composer of the late
Middle Ages
¡ Most famous for his Mass Ordinary cycle
¡ Machaut composed dozens of secular love
songs, also in the style of the polyphonic "new
art."
¡ Machaut saw to it that his work was painstakingly
copied and artfully illustrated, the first known
example of a composer thus preserving his own
work for posterity.
Messe de Notre Dame
¡ Machaut was the first to create a polyphonic
setting of the Ordinary of the Catholic mass: Messe
de Notre Dame (“Mass to Our Lady”), a homage to
the Virgin Mary)
¡ This was the first time the five prayers of the Mass
Ordinary were musically set into a reusable
polyphonic composition
¡ The new style of the fourteenth century (Ars Nova)
can be heard in the Gloria in the mass
¡ This new polyphonic style caught on with
composers and paved the way for the flowering of
choral music in the Renaissance period
La Messe de Notre Dame
¡ Listening example: La Messe de Notre Dame: Kyrie
¡ Chant Kyries were often performed in antiphony with two halves
of a choir
¡ Polyphonic settings also used antiphony between soloists singing
the polyphony and the choir singing the original chant
Instruments
of the Medieval Period
Medieval Instruments
¡ Pipe and tabor
¡ Harp
¡ Shawm
¡ Psaltery
¡ Organ
¡ Citole
¡ Rebec
¡ Chime bells
¡ Fiddle
¡ Hurdy-gurdy
Most pictures and sounds taken
from: http://www.music.
iastate.edu/antiqua/
instrumt.html
¡ Percussion
¡ Other: recorders of various
sizes, the gentle Medieval
flute, straight Medieval
trumpet, long-necked lute,
bagpipes, and percussion
Pipe and tabor
¡ A pipe and a two-headed
drum, played by one person
Shawm
¡ A double-reed instrument
¡ Ancestor of the oboe
¡ Has an extremely brilliant,
penetrating tone
Organ (organetto)
¡ Not the church organ
¡ Few notes
¡ Small enough to be carried
around while playing
Rebec
¡ A slender, pear-shaped
instrument with a rather
“reedy” tone
¡ The number of strings varied
between one and five
Fiddle (Vielle)
¡ Shaped like a figure eight
¡ Slightly larger than the modern viola
¡ Flattish bridge
¡ Usually had five strings
¡ Listen and watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPKhBkLgFLk
Hurdy-gurdy
¡ A wheel turned by a handle
vibrated all the strings at once
¡ Sliders, pressed down by
fingers, could “stop” strings at
various points to give notes a
different pitch
Harp
¡ Smaller than a modern harp
¡ Far fewer strings than a
modern harp
Psaltery
¡ The strings were plucked by
quills
¡ A quill was held in each hand
Citole
¡ Its four brass strings were plucked, usually with a quill
¡ Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkqs7ivwyDE
Chime bells
¡ Graded in size and pitch
¡ Struck with beaters
Percussion
¡ Included cymbals, triangle,
tambourine, and various drums
2. Secular music
Medieval Music
Secular Music Intro
¡ Popular music, usually in the form of secular
songs, existed during the Middle Ages. This music
was not bound by the traditions of the Church,
nor was it even written down for the first time until
sometime after the tenth century
¡ Secular music was composed for entertainment
value – to dance, or to express love
¡ In general, secular musicians tended to be
untrained (sacred musicians were trained). This
shows a divide between the rich and the poor.
Secular Music
¡ Unlike sacred music, secular music had a
more clearly defined beat and its texture
was closer to homophony or polyphony
¡ Like sacred music, the texture was
primarily vocal, though it didn’t regard
instruments with as much suspicion as the
Church.
Songs
of the Middle Ages
Troubadours and Trouvères
¡ Much secular music during the Medieval Period was
written by troubadours and trouvères
¡ These were French nobles and they often wrote music to
gain prestige.
¡ The monophonic melodies were often rhythmically lively
¡ These pieces may have had added improvised
accompaniments
¡ The main subject of these songs is love – in all its joy and
pain
¡ Although secular music was undoubtedly played on
instruments during the Middle Ages, instrumental dance
music didn't come into its own until the later Renaissance
Listening Examples
¡ Canso (troubadour song) p. 43
¡ Unaccompanied
¡ Somewhat free rhythm
¡ Five 7-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme
¡ Minnelied p. 49
¡ German love song
¡ Accompanied
Jongleurs
¡ Jongleurs also composed and performed secular
music.
¡ Jongleurs were wandering minstrels that would
entertain towns with music, juggling, and drama.
¡ They had no civil rights but were important parts
of society since they spread news from town to
town.
¡ One form of music they played is the estampie.
An estampie is a fast dance in triple meter
Listening Examples
¡ Non sofre Santa Maria p. 51
¡ From Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of 400
songs (cantigas) in honour of the Virgin Mary,
collected by a King in Spain
¡ These songs have religious content, but were not
sung in church
¡ The song has two main ideas (similar to today’s
refrain and verse)
¡ The refrain was typically sung by chorus, and the
verses by a soloist
¡ Some verses are spoken, rather than sung, to
emphasize the main climax of the story
¡ These cantigas could be sung accompanied or
unaccompanied
Dances
of the Middle Ages
Dances
¡ Medieval Dances refers to pieces without singing
¡ Instrumentalists who played music for dancing
during the Middle Ages usually played from
memory or improvised
¡ As a result, very few dance melodies are written
down
Listening Example
¡ Estampie p. 55
¡ This piece comes from a collection of 8 “Royal
Estampies” found in France
¡ Estampie is a dance is fast triple meter
¡ It features a series of phrases, each played twice but
with a different ending each time
¡ The first time, the cadence sounds open
¡ The second time, the cadence sounds closed
The End
Medieval Music