Download Medieval Music Period

Medieval Music Period
The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This
era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in approximately the middle of the
fifteenth century. Establishing the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the Renaissance
is admittedly arbitrary; 1410 is used here.
Overview
Styles and trends
The only medieval music which can be studied is that which was written, and survived. Since
creating musical manuscripts was very expensive, due to the expense of parchment, and the
huge amount of time necessary for a scribe to copy it all down, only wealthy institutions were
able to create manuscripts which have survived to the present time. These institutions
generally included the church and church institutions, such as monasteries; some secular music,
as well as sacred music, was also preserved by these institutions. These surviving manuscripts
do not reflect much of the popular music of the time. At the start of the era, the notated music is
presumed to be monophonic and homorhythmic with what appears to be a unison sung text and
no notated instrumental support. Earlier medieval notation had no way to specify rhythm,
although neumatic notations gave clear phrasing ideas, and somewhat later notations indicated
rhythmic modes.
The simplicity of chant, with unison voice and natural declamation, is most common. The
notation of polyphony develops, and the assumption is that formalized polyphonic practices
first arose in this period. Harmony, in consonant intervals of perfect fifths, unisons, octaves,
(and later, perfect fourths) begins to be notated. Rhythmic notation allows for complex
interactions between multiple vocal lines in a repeatable fashion. The use of multiple texts and
the notation of instrumental accompaniment developed by the end of the era.
Instruments
Instruments used to perform medieval music still exist, though in different forms. The flute
was once made of wood rather than silver or other metal, and could be made as a side-blown or
end-blown instrument. The recorder, on the other hand, has more or less retained its past form.
The gemshorn is similar to the recorder in having finger holes on its front, though it is really a
member of the ocarina family. One of the flute's predecessors, the pan flute, was popular in
medieval times, and is possibly of Hellenic origin. This instrument's pipes were made of wood,
and were graduated in length to produce different pitches.
Medieval music uses many plucked string instruments, such as lute, mandora, gittern and
psaltery. The dulcimers, similar in structure to the psaltery and zither, were originally plucked,
but became struck in the 14th century, after the arrival of the new technology that made metal
strings possible.
The bowed lyra of the Byzantine Empire was the first recorded European bowed string
instrument. The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih of the 9th century (d. 911) cited the
Byzantine lyra, in his lexicographical discussion of instruments as a bowed instrument
equivalent to the Arab rabāb and typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the urghun
(organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and the salandj (probably a bagpipe). The
hurdy-gurdy was (and still is) a mechanical violin using a rosined wooden wheel attached to a
crank to "bow" its strings. Instruments without sound boxes such as the Jew's harp were also
popular in the time. Early versions of the organ, fiddle (or vielle), and trombone (called the
sackbut) existed as well.
Genres
In this era, music was both sacred and secular, although almost no early secular music has
survived, and since notation was a relatively late development, reconstruction of this music,
especially before the 12th century, is currently a matter of conjecture (see authentic
performance).
Theory and notation
During the Medieval period the foundation was laid for the notational and theoretical practices
that would shape western music into what it is today. The most obvious of these is the
development of a comprehensive notational system, however the theoretical advances,
particularly in regards to rhythm and polyphony, are equally important to the development of
western music.
Notation
The earliest Medieval music did not have any kind of notational system. The tunes were
primarily monophonic and transmitted by oral tradition. However, the need for some sort of
notation became evident in the sacred chant tradition. As the Christian liturgy became more
complex and varied, difficulties of memorization increased for the performer. Also, as Rome
tried to centralize the various liturgies and establish the Roman rite as the primary tradition
the need to transmit these chant ideas across vast distances effectively was equally glaring. The
first step to fix this problem came with the introduction of various signs written above the
chant texts, called neumes. The origin of neumes is unclear and subject to some debate, however,
most scholars agree that their closest ancestors are the classic Greek and Roman grammatical
signs that indicated important points of declamation by recording the rise and fall of the voice.
The two basic signs of the classical grammarians were the actus, /, indicating a raising of the
voice, and the gravis, \, indicating a lowering. These eventually evolved into the basic symbols
for neumatic notation, the virga (or "rod") which indicates a higher note and still looked like the
acutus from which it came; and the punctum (or "dot") which indicates a lower note and, as the
name suggests, reduced the gravis symbol to a point. This kind of notation seems to have
developed no earlier than the eighth century, but by the ninth it was firmly established as the
primary method of musical notation. The basic notation of the virga and the punctum remained
the symbols for individual notes, but other neumes soon developed which showed several notes
joined together. These new neumes—called ligatures—are essentially combinations of the two
original signs. It should be noted that this basic neumatic notation could only specify the
number of notes and whether they moved up or down. There was no way to indicate exact
pitch, any rhythm, or even the starting note. These limitations are further indication that the
neumes were developed as tools to support the practice of oral tradition, rather than to supplant
it. However, even though it started as a mere memory aid, the worth of having more specific
notation soon became evident.
The next development in musical notation was "heighted neumes", in which neumes were
carefully placed at different heights in relation to each other. This allowed the neumes to give a
rough indication of the size of a given interval as well as the direction. This quickly led to one
or two lines, each representing a particular note, being placed on the music with all of the
neumes relating back to them. At first, these lines had no particular meaning and instead had a
letter placed at the beginning indicating which note was represented. However, the lines
indicating middle C and the F a fifth below slowly became most common. Having been at first
merely scratched on the parchment, the lines now were drawn in two different colored inks:
usually red for F, and yellow or green for C. This was the beginning of the musical staff as we
know it today. The completion of the four-line staff is usually credited to Guido d’ Arezzo (c.
1000-1050), one of the most important musical theorists of the Middle Ages. It should be noted
that while older sources attribute the development of the staff to Guido, some modern scholars
suggest that he acted more as a codifier of a system that was already being developed. Either
way, this new notation allowed a singer to learn pieces completely unknown to him in a much
shorter amount of time. However, even though chant notation had progressed in many ways,
one fundamental problem remained: rhythm. The neumatic notational system, even in its fully
developed state, did not clearly define any kind of rhythm for the singing of notes.
Music theory
The music theory of the Medieval period saw several advances over previous practice both in
regards to tonal material, texture, and rhythm. Concerning rhythm, this period had several
dramatic changes in both its conception and notation. During the early Medieval period there
was no method to notate rhythm, and thus the rhythmical practice of this early music is subject
to heated debate among scholars. The first kind of written rhythmic system developed during
the 13th century and was based around a series of modes. This rhythmic plan was codified by
the music theorist Johannes de Garlandia, author of the De mensurabili musica (c.1250), the
treatise which defined and most completely elucidated these rhythmic modes. In his treatise
Johannes de Garlandia describes six species of mode, or six different ways in which longs and
breves can be arranged. Each mode establishes a rhythmic pattern in beats (or tempora) within a
common unit of three tempora (a perfectio) that is repeated again and again. Furthermore,
notation without text is based on chains of ligatures (the characteristic notations by which
groups of notes are bound to on another). The rhythmic mode can generally be determined by
the patterns of ligatures used. Once a rhythmic mode had been assigned to a melodic line, there
was generally little deviation from that mode, although rhythmic adjustments could be
indicated by changes in the expected pattern of ligatures, even to the extent of changing to
another rhythmic mode. The next step forward concerning rhythm came from the German
theorist Franco of Cologne. In his treatise Ars Cantus Mensurabilis ("The Art of Mensurable
Music"), written around 1280, he describes a system of notation in which differently shaped
notes have entirely different rhythmic values. This is a striking change from the earlier system
of de Garlandia. Whereas before the length of the individual note could only be gathered from
the mode itself, this new inverted relationship made the mode dependent upon—and
determined by—the individual notes or figurae that have incontrovertible durational values, an
innovation which had a massive impact on the subsequent history of European music. Most of
the surviving notated music of the 13th century uses the rhythmic modes as defined by
Garlandia. The step in the evolution of rhythm came after the turn of the 13th century with the
development of the Ars Nova style.
The theorist who is most well recognized in regards to this new style is Philippe de Vitry,
famous for writing the Ars Nova ("New Art") treatise around 1322. This treatise on music gave
its name to the style of this entire era. Furthermore, his contributions to the notation of rhythm
made possible the free and rhythmically complex music of the next hundred years. In some
ways the modern system of rhythmic notation began with Vitry, who completely broke free
from the older idea of the rhythmic modes. The notational predecessors of modern time meters
also originate in the Ars Nova. This new style was clearly built upon the work of Franco of
Cologne. In Franco's system, the relationship between a breve and a semibreves (that is, half
breves) was equivalent to that between a breve and a long: and, since for him modus was always
perfect (grouped in threes), the tempus or beat was also inherently perfect and therefore
contained three semibreves. Sometimes the context of the mode would require a group of only
two semibreves, however, these two semibreves would always be one of normal length and one
of double length, thereby taking the same space of time, and thus preserving the perfect
subdivision of the tempus. This ternary division held for all note values. In contrast, the Ars
Nova period introduced two important changes: the first was an even smaller subdivision of
notes (semibreves, could now be divided into minim), and the second was the development of
"mensuration." By the time of Ars Nova, the perfect division of the tempus was not the only
option as duple divisions became more accepted. For Vitry the breve could be divided, for an
entire composition, or section of one, into groups of two or three smaller semibreves. This way,
the tempus (the term that came to denote the division of the breve) could be either "perfect,"
(Tempus perfectus) with ternary subdivision, or "imperfect,"(Tempus imperfectus) with binary
subdivision. In a similar fashion, the semibreve's division (termed prolation) could be divided
into three minima (prolatio perfectus or major prolation) or two minima (prolatio imperfectus or
minor prolation) and, at the higher level, the longs division (called modus) could be three or two
breves (modus perfectus or perfect mode, or modus imperfectus or imperfect mode respectively).
Vitry took this a step further by indicating the proper division of a given piece at the beginning
through the use of a "mensuration sign," equivalent to our modern "time signature. Tempus
perfectus was indicated by a circle, while tempus imperfectus was denoted by a half-circle (our
current "C" as a stand-in for the 4/4 time signature is actually a holdover from this practice,
not an abbreviation for "common time", as popularly believed). It should be noted that while
many of these innovations are ascribed to Vitry, and somewhat present in the Ars Nova treatise,
it was a contemporary—and personal acquaintance—of de Vitry, named Johannes de Muris
(Jehan des Mars) who offered the most comprehensive and systematic treatment of the new
mensural innovations of the Ars Nova (for a brief explanation of the mensural notation in
general, see the article Renaissance music). Many scholars, citing a lack of positive attributory
evidence, now consider "Vitry's" treatise to be anonymous, but this does not diminish its
importance for the history of rhythmic notation. However, this makes the first definitely
identifiable scholar to accept and explain the mensural system to be de Muris, who can be said
to have done for it what Garlandia did for the rhythmic modes.
For the duration of the medieval period, most music would be composed primarily in perfect
tempus, with special effects created by sections of imperfect tempus; there is a great current
controversy among musicologists as to whether such sections were performed with a breve of
equal length or whether it changed, and if so, at what proportion. This Ars Nova style remained
the primary rhythmical system until the highly syncopated works of the Ars subtilior at the end
of the 14th century. This sub-genera pushed the rhythmic freedom provided by Ars Nova to its
limits, with some compositions having different voices written in different tempus signatures
simultaneously. The rhythmic complexity that was realized in this music is comparable to that
in the 20th century.
Of equal importance to the overall history of western music theory were the textural changes
that came with the advent of polyphony. This practice shaped western music into the
harmonically-dominated music that we know today. The first accounts of this textual
development were found in two anonymous yet widely-circulated treatises on music, the Musica
and the Scolica enchiriadis. These texts are dated to sometime within the last half of the ninth
century. The treatises describe a technique that seemed already to be well established in
practice. This early polyphony is based on three simple and three compound intervals. The first
group is comprised of fourths, fifths, and octaves; while the second group has octave-plusfourths, octave-plus-fifths, and double octaves. This new practice is given the name organum by
the author of the treatises. Organum can further be classified depending on the time period in
which it was written. The early organum as described in the enchiriadis can be termed "strict
organum" Strict organum can, in turn, be subdivided into two types: diapente (organum at the
interval of a fifth) and diatesseron (organum at the interval of a fourth). However, both of these
kinds of strict organum had problems with the musical rules of the time. If either of them
paralleled an original chant for too long (depending on the mode) a tritone would result. This
problem was somewhat overcome with the use of a second type of organum. This second style of
organum was called "free organum". Its distinguishing factor is that the parts did not have to
move only in parallel motion, but could also move in oblique, or contrary motion. This made it
much easier to avoid the dreaded tritone The final style of organum that developed was known
as "melismatic organum", which was a rather dramatic departure from the rest of the polyphonic
music up to this point. This new style was not note against note, but was rather one sustained
line accompanied by a florid melismatic line. This final kind of organum was also incorporated
by the most famous polyphonic composer of this time—Léonin. He united this style with
measured discant passages, which used the rhythmic modes to create the pinnacle of organum
composition. It should be noted that this final stage of organum is sometimes referred to as
Notre Dame school of polyphony, since that was where Léonin (and his student Pérotin) were
stationed. Furthermore, this kind of polyphony influenced all subsequent styles, with the later
polyphonic genera of motets starting as a trope of existing Notre Dame organums.
Another important element of Medieval music theory was the unique tonal system by which
pitches were arranged and understood. During the Middle Ages, this systematic arrangement
of a series of whole steps and half steps, what we now call a scale, was known as a mode. The
modal system worked like the scales of today, insomuch that it provided the rules and material
for melodic writing. The eight church modes are: Dorian, Hypodorian, Phrygian, Hypophrygian,
Lydian, Hypolydian, Mixolydian, and Hypomixolydian. Much of the information concerning these
modes, as well as the practical application of them, was codified in the 11th century by the
theorist Johannes Afflighemensis. In his work he describes three defining elements to each
mode. The finalis, the reciting tone, and the range. The finalis is the tone that serves as the focal
point for the mode. It is also almost always used as the final tone (hence the name). The
reciting tone (sometimes referred to as the tenor or confinalis) is the tone that serves as the
primary focal point in the melody (particularly internally). It is generally also the tone most
often repeated in the piece, and finally the range (or ambitus) is the maximum proscribed tones
for a given mode. The eight modes can be further divided into four categories based on their
final (finalis). Medieval theorists called these pairs maneriae and labeled them according to the
Greek ordinal numbers. Those modes that have d, e, f, and g as their final are put into the
groups protus, deuterus, tritus, and tetrardus respectively. These can then be divided further based
on whether the mode is "authentic" or "plagal." These distinctions deal with the range of the
mode in relation to the final. The authentic modes have a range that is about an octave (one
tone above or below is allowed) and start on the final, whereas the plagal modes, while still
covering about an octave, start a perfect fourth below the authentic. Another interesting aspect
of the modal system is the universal allowance for altering B to Bb no matter what the mode.
The inclusion of this tone has several uses, but one that seems particularly common is in order
to avoid melodic difficulties caused, once again, by the tritone.
These ecclesiastical modes, although they have Greek names, have little relationship to the
modes as set out by Greek theorists. Rather, most of the terminology seems to be a
misappropriation on the part of the medieval theorists. Although the church modes have no
relation to the ancient Greek modes, the overabundance of Greek terminology does point to an
interesting possible origin in the liturgical melodies of the Byzantine tradition. This system is
called oktoechos and is also divided into eight categories, called echoi.
For specific medieval music theorists, see also: Isidore of Seville, Aurelian of Réôme, Odo of
Cluny, Guido of Arezzo, Hermannus Contractus, Johannes Cotto (Johannes Afflighemensis),
Johannes de Muris, Franco of Cologne, Johannes de Garlandia (Johannes Gallicus), Anonymous
IV, Marchetto da Padova (Marchettus of Padua), Jacques of Liège, Johannes de Grocheo,
Petrus de Cruce (Pierre de la Croix), and Philippe de Vitry.
Early medieval music (before 1150)
Early chant traditions
Chant (or plainsong) is a monophonic sacred form which represents the earliest known music of
the Christian church. The Jewish Synagogue tradition of singing psalms was a strong influence
on Christian chanting.
Chant developed separately in several European centres. Although the most important were
Rome, Hispania, Gaul, Milan, and Ireland, there were others as well. These chants were all
developed to support the regional liturgies used when celebrating the Mass there. Each area
developed its own chants and rules for celebration. In Spain, Mozarabic chant was used and
shows the influence of North African music. The Mozarabic liturgy even survived through
Muslim rule, though this was an isolated strand and this music was later suppressed in an
attempt to enforce conformity on the entire liturgy. In Milan, Ambrosian chant, named after St.
Ambrose, was the standard, while Beneventan chant developed around Benevento, another
Italian liturgical center. Gallican chant was used in Gaul, and Celtic chant in Ireland and Great
Britain.
Around 1011 AD, the Roman Catholic Church wanted to standardize the Mass and chant. At
this time, Rome was the religious centre of western Europe, and Paris was the political centre.
The standardization effort consisted mainly of combining these two (Roman and Gallican)
regional liturgies. This body of chant became known as Gregorian Chant. By the 12th and 13th
centuries, Gregorian chant had superseded all the other Western chant traditions, with the
exception of the Ambrosian chant in Milan and the Mozarabic chant in a few specially
designated Spanish chapels.
Early polyphony: organum
Around the end of the ninth century, singers in monasteries such as St. Gall in Switzerland
began experimenting with adding another part to the chant, generally a voice in parallel
motion, singing mostly in perfect fourths or fifths above the original tune. This development is
called organum and represents the beginnings of harmony and, ultimately, of counterpoint.
Over the next several centuries, organum developed in several ways.
The most significant of these developments was the creation of "florid organum" around 1100,
sometimes known as the school of St. Martial (named after a monastery in south-central
France, which contains the best-preserved manuscript of this repertory). In "florid organum"
the original tune would be sung in long notes while an accompanying voice would sing many
notes to each one of the original, often in a highly elaborate fashion, all the while emphasizing
the perfect consonances (fourths, fifths and octaves), as in the earlier organa. Later
developments of organum occurred in England, where the interval of the third was particularly
favoured, and where organa were likely improvised against an existing chant melody, and at
Notre Dame in Paris, which was to be the centre of musical creative activity throughout the
thirteenth century.
Much of the music from the early medieval period is anonymous. Some of the names may have
been poets and lyric writers, and the tunes for which they wrote words may have been
composed by others. Attribution of monophonic music of the medieval period is not always
reliable. Surviving manuscripts from this period include the Musica Enchiriadis, Codex
Calixtinus of Santiago de Compostela, and the Winchester Troper.
For information about specific composers or poets writing during the early medieval period, see
Pope Gregory I, St. Godric, Hildegard of Bingen, Hucbald, Notker Balbulus, Odo of Arezzo,
Odo of Cluny, and Tutilo.
Liturgical drama
Another musical tradition of Europe originating during the early Middle Ages was the
liturgical drama. In its original form, it may represent a survival of Roman drama with
Christian stories - mainly the Gospel, the Passion, and the lives of the saints - grafted on. Every
part of Europe had some sort of tradition of musical or semi-musical drama in the Middle Ages,
involving acting, speaking, singing and instrumental accompaniment in some combination.
These dramas were probably performed by travelling actors and musicians. Many have been
preserved sufficiently to allow modern reconstruction and performance (for example the Play of
Daniel, which has been recently recorded).
Goliards
The Goliards were itinerant poet-musicians of Europe from the tenth to the middle of the
thirteenth century. Most were scholars or ecclesiastics, and they wrote and sang in Latin.
Although many of the poems have survived, very little of the music has. They were possibly
influential — even decisively so — on the troubadour-trouvère tradition which was to follow.
Most of their poetry is secular and, while some of the songs celebrate religious ideals, others
are frankly profane, dealing with drunkenness, debauchery and lechery.
High medieval music (1150-1300)
Ars antiqua
The flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony from around 1150 to 1250 corresponded
to the equally impressive achievements in Gothic architecture: indeed the centre of activity was
at the cathedral of Notre Dame itself. Sometimes the music of this period is called the Parisian
school, or Parisian organum, and represents the beginning of what is conventionally known as
Ars antiqua. This was the period in which rhythmic notation first appeared in western music,
mainly a context-based method of rhythmic notation known as the rhythmic modes.
This was also the period in which concepts of formal structure developed which were attentive
to proportion, texture, and architectural effect. Composers of the period alternated florid and
discant organum (more note-against-note, as opposed to the succession of many-note melismas
against long-held notes found in the florid type), and created several new musical forms:
clausulae, which were melismatic sections of organa extracted and fitted with new words and
further musical elaboration; conductus, which was a song for one or more voices to be sung
rhythmically, most likely in a procession of some sort; and tropes, which were additions of new
words and sometimes new music to sections of older chants. All of these genres save one were
based upon chant; that is, one of the voices, (usually three, though sometimes four) nearly
always the lowest (the tenor at this point) sang a chant melody, though with freely composed
note-lengths, over which the other voices sang organum. The exception to this method was the
conductus, a two-voice composition that was freely composed in its entirety.
The motet, one of the most important musical forms of the high Middle Ages and Renaissance,
developed initially during the Notre Dame period out of the clausula, especially the form using
multiple voices as elaborated by Pérotin, who paved the way for this particularly by replacing
many of his predecessor (as canon of the cathedral) Léonin's lengthy florid clausulae with
substitutes in a discant style. Gradually, there came to be entire books of these substitutes,
available to be fitted in and out of the various chants. Since, in fact, there were more than can
possibly have been used in context, it is probable that the clausulae came to be performed
independently, either in other parts of the mass, or in private devotions. The clausulae, thus
practised, became the motet when troped with non-liturgical words, and were further
developed into a form of great elaboration, sophistication and subtlety in the fourteenth
century, the period of Ars nova.
Surviving manuscripts from this era include the Codex Montpellier, Codex Bamberg, and El
Codex musical de Las Huelgas.
Composers of this time include Léonin, Pérotin, W. de Wycombe, Adam de St. Victor, and
Petrus de Cruce (Pierre de la Croix). Petrus is credited with the innovation of writing more
than three semibreves to fit the length of a breve. Coming before the innovation of imperfect
tempus, this practice inaugurated the era of what are now called "Petronian" motets. These late
13th-century works are in three to four parts and have multiple texts sung simultaneously.
Originally, the tenor line (from the Latin [[tenere]], "to hold") held a preexisting liturgical
chant line in the original Latin, while the text of the one, two, or even three voices above, called
the voces organales, provided commentary on the liturgical subject either in Latin or in the
vernacular French. The rhythmic values of the voces organales decreased as the parts multiplied,
with the duplum (the part above the tenor) having smaller rhythmic values than the tenor, the
triplum (the line above the duplum) having smaller rhythmic values than the duplum, and so on.
As time went by, the texts of the voces organales became increasingly secular in nature and had
less and less overt connection to the liturgical text in the tenor line.
The Petronian motet is a highly complex genre, given its mixture of several semibreve breves
with rhythmic modes and sometimes (with increasing frequency) substitution of secular songs
for chant in the tenor. Indeed, ever-increasing rhythmic complexity would be a fundamental
characteristic of the 14th century, though music in France, Italy, and England would take quite
different paths during that time.
Troubadours and trouvères
The music of the troubadours and trouvères was a vernacular tradition of monophonic secular
song, probably accompanied by instruments, sung by professional, occasionally itinerant,
musicians who were as skilled as poets as they were singers and instrumentalists. The language
of the troubadours was Occitan (also known as the langue d'oc, or Provençal); the language of
the trouvères was Old French (also known as langue d'oil). The period of the troubadours
corresponded to the flowering of cultural life in Provence which lasted through the twelfth
century and into the first decade of the thirteenth. Typical subjects of troubadour song were
war, chivalry and courtly love. The period of the troubadours wound down after the
Albigensian Crusade, the fierce campaign by Pope Innocent III to eliminate the Cathar heresy
(and northern barons' desire to appropriate the wealth of the south). Surviving troubadours
went either to Spain, northern Italy or northern France (where the trouvère tradition lived on),
where their skills and techniques contributed to the later developments of secular musical
culture in those places.
The music of the trouvères was similar to that of the troubadours, but was able to survive into
the thirteenth century unaffected by the Albigensian Crusade. Most of the more than two
thousand surviving trouvère songs include music, and show a sophistication as great as that of
the poetry it accompanies.
The Minnesinger tradition was the Germanic counterpart to the activity of the troubadours
and trouvères to the west. Unfortunately, few sources survive from the time; the sources of
Minnesang are mostly from two or three centuries after the peak of the movement, leading to
some controversy over their accuracy. Among the Minnesingers with surviving music are
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walther von der Vogelweide, and Niedhart von Reuenthal.
Troubadours with surviving melodies
Aimeric de
Belenoi
Aimeric de
Peguilhan
Albertet de
Sestaro
Arnaut Daniel
Arnaut de
Maruoill
Beatritz de Dia
Berenguier de
Palazol
Bernart de
Ventadorn
Bertran de Born
Blacasset
Cadenet
Daude de
Pradas
Folquet de
Marselha
Gaucelm Faidit
Gui d'Ussel
Guilhem
Ademar
Guilhem
Augier Novella
Guilhem
Magret
Guilhem de
Saint Leidier
Guiraut de
Bornelh
Guiraut
d'Espanha
Guiraut
Riquier
Jaufre Rudel
Jordan Bonel
Marcabru
Monge de
Montaudon
Peire
d'Alvernhe
Peire Cardenal
Peire Raimon
de Tolosa
Peire Vidal
Peirol
Perdigon
Pistoleta
Pons d'Ortaffa
Pons de
Capduoill
Raimbaut
d'Aurenga
Raimbaut de
Vaqueiras
Raimon Jordan
Raimon de
Miraval
Rigaut de
Berbezilh
Uc Brunet
Uc de Saint
Circ
William IX of
Aquitaine
Composers of the high and late medieval era
Late medieval music (1300-1400)
France: Ars nova
The beginning of the Ars nova is one of the few clean chronological divisions in medieval music,
since it corresponds to the publication of the Roman de Fauvel, a huge compilation of poetry and
music, in 1310 and 1314. The Roman de Fauvel is a satire on abuses in the medieval church, and
is filled with medieval motets, lais, rondeaux and other new secular forms. While most of the
music is anonymous, it contains several pieces by Philippe de Vitry, one of the first composers
of the isorhythmic motet, a development which distinguishes the fourteenth century. The
isorhythmic motet was perfected by Guillaume de Machaut, the finest composer of the time.
During the Ars nova era, secular music acquired a polyphonic sophistication formerly found
only in sacred music, a development not surprising considering the secular character of the
early Renaissance (and it should be noted that while this music is typically considered to be
"medieval", the social forces that produced it were responsible for the beginning of the literary
and artistic Renaissance in Italy—the distinction between Middle Ages and Renaissance is a
blurry one, especially considering arts as different as music and painting). The term "Ars nova"
(new art, or new technique) was coined by Philippe de Vitry in his treatise of that name
(probably written in 1322), in order to distinguish the practice from the music of the
immediately preceding age.
The dominant secular genre of the Ars Nova was the chanson, as it would continue to be in
France for another two centuries. These chansons were composed in musical forms
corresponding to the poetry they set, which were in the so-called formes fixes of rondeau, ballade,
and virelai. These forms significantly affected the development of musical structure in ways that
are felt even today; for example, the ouvert-clos rhyme-scheme shared by all three demanded a
musical realization which contributed directly to the modern notion of antecedent and
consequent phrases. It was in this period, too, in which began the long tradition of setting the
mass ordinary. This tradition started around mid-century with isolated or paired settings of
Kyries, Glorias, etc., but Machaut composed what is thought to be the first complete mass
conceived as one composition. The sound world of Ars Nova music is very much one of linear
primacy and rhythmic complexity. "Resting" intervals are the fifth and octave, with thirds and
sixths considered dissonances. Leaps of more than a sixth in individual voices are not
uncommon, leading to speculation of instrumental participation at least in secular performance.
Surviving French manuscripts include the Ivrea Codex and the Apt Codex.
Italy: Trecento
Most of the music of Ars nova was French in origin; however, the term is often loosely applied
to all of the music of the fourteenth century, especially to include the secular music in Italy.
There this period was often referred to as Trecento.
Italian music has always, it seems, been known for its lyrical or melodic character, and this goes
back to the 14th century in many respects. Italian secular music of this time (what little
surviving liturgical music there is, is similar to the French except for somewhat different
notation) featured what has been called the cantalina style, with a florid top voice supported by
two (or even one; a fair amount of Italian Trecento music is for only two voices) that are more
regular and slower moving. This type of texture remained a feature of Italian music in the
popular 15th and 16th century secular genres as well, and was an important influence on the
eventual development of the trio texture that revolutionized music in the 17th.
There were three main forms for secular works in the Trecento. One was the madrigal, not the
same as that of 150-250 years later, but with a verse/refrain-like form. Three-line stanzas, each
with different words, alternated with a two-line ritornello, with the same text at each
appearance. Perhaps we can see the seeds of the subsequent late-Renaissance and Baroque
ritornello in this device; it too returns again and again, recognizable each time, in contrast with
its surrounding disparate sections. Another form, the caccia ("chase,") was written for two
voices in a canon at the unison. Sometimes, this form also featured a ritornello, which was
occasionally also in a canonic style. Usually, the name of this genre provided a double meaning,
since the texts of caccia were primarily about hunts and related outdoor activities, or at least
action-filled scenes. The third main form was the ballata, which was roughly equivalent to the
French virelai.
Surviving Italian manuscripts include the Squarcialupi Codex and the Rossi Codex.
For information about specific Italian composers writing in the late medieval era, see Francesco
Landini, Gherardello da Firenze, Andrea da Firenze, Lorenzo da Firenze, Paolo da Firenze
(Paolo Tenorista), Giovanni da Firenze (aka Giovanni da Cascia), Bartolino da Padova, Jacopo
da Bologna, Donato da Cascia, Lorenzo Masini, Niccolò da Perugia, and Maestro Piero.
Germany: Geisslerlieder
The Geisslerlieder were the songs of wandering bands of flagellants, who sought to appease the
wrath of an angry God by penitential music accompanied by mortification of their bodies.
There were two separate periods of activity of Geisslerlied: one around the middle of the
thirteenth century, from which, unfortunately, no music survives (although numerous lyrics
do); and another from 1349, for which both words and music survive intact due to the attention
of a single priest who wrote about the movement and recorded its music. This second period
corresponds to the spread of the Black Death in Europe, and documents one of the most terrible
events in European history. Both periods of Geisslerlied activity were mainly in Germany.
There was also French-influenced polyphony written in German areas at this time, but it was
somewhat less sophisticated than its models. In fairness to the mostly anonymous composers of
this repertoire, however, most of the surviving manuscripts seem to have been copied with
extreme incompetence, and are filled with errors that make a truly thorough evaluation of the
music's quality impossible.
Mannerism and Ars subtilior
As often seen at the end of any musical era, the end of the medieval era is marked by a highly
manneristic style known as Ars subtilior. In some ways, this was an attempt to meld the French
and Italian styles. This music was highly stylized, with a rhythmic complexity that was not
matched until the 20th century. In fact, not only was the rhythmic complexity of this repertoire
largely unmatched for five and a half centuries, with extreme syncopations, mensural trickery,
and even examples of augenmusik (such as a chanson by Baude Cordier written out in
manuscript in the shape of a heart), but also its melodic material was quite complex as well,
particularly in its interaction with the rhythmic structures. Already discussed under Ars Nova
has been the practice of isorhythm, which continued to develop through late-century and in fact
did not achieve its highest degree of sophistication until early in the 15th century. Instead of
using isorhythmic techniques in one or two voices, or trading them among voices, some works
came to feature a pervading isorhythmic texture which rivals the integral serialism of the 20th
century in its systematic ordering of rhythmic and tonal elements. The term "mannerism" was
applied by later scholars, as it often is, in response to an impression of sophistication being
practised for its own sake, a malady which some authors have felt infected the Ars subtilior.
One of the most important extant sources of Ars Subtilior chansons is the Chantilly Codex.
For information about specific composers writing music in Ars subtilior style, see Anthonello de
Caserta, Philippus de Caserta (aka Philipoctus de Caserta), Johannes Ciconia, Matteo da
Perugia, Lorenzo da Firenze, Grimace, Jacob Senleches, and Baude Cordier.
Transitioning to the Renaissance
Demarcating the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the Renaissance, with regards to
the composition of music, is problematic. While the music of the fourteenth century is fairly
obviously medieval in conception, the music of the early fifteenth century is often conceived as
belonging to a transitional period, not only retaining some of the ideals of the end of the
Middle Ages (such as a type of polyphonic writing in which the parts differ widely from each
other in character, as each has its specific textural function), but also showing some of the
characteristic traits of the Renaissance (such as the international style developing through the
diffusion of Franco-Flemish musicians throughout Europe, and in terms of texture an
increasing equality of parts). The Renaissance began early in Italy, but musical innovation
there lagged far behind that of France and England; the Renaissance came late to England, but
musical innovation there was ahead of continental Europe.
Music historians do not agree on when the Renaissance era began, but most historians agree
that England was still a medieval society in the early fifteenth century (see a discussion of
periodization issues of the Middle Ages). While there is no consensus, 1400 is a useful marker,
because it was around that time that the Renaissance came into full swing in Italy.
The increasing reliance on the interval of the third as a consonance is one of the most
pronounced features of transition into the Renaissance. Polyphony, in use since the 12th
century, became increasingly elaborate with highly independent voices throughout the 14th
century. With John Dunstable and other English composers, partly through the local technique
of faburden (an improvisatory process in which a chant melody and a written part
predominantly in parallel sixths above it are ornamented by one sung in perfect fourths below
the latter, and which later took hold on the continent as "fauxbordon"), the interval of the third
emerges as an important musical development; because of this Contenance Angloise ("English
countenance"), English composers' music is often regarded as the first to sound less truly
bizarre to modern, unschooled audiences. English stylistic tendencies in this regard had come
to fruition and began to influence continental composers as early as the 1420s, as can be seen in
works of the young Dufay, among others. While the Hundred Years' War continued, English
nobles, armies, their chapels and retinues, and therefore some of their composers, travelled in
France and performed their music there; it must also of course be remembered that the English
controlled portions of northern France at this time.
English manuscripts include the Worcester fragments, the Old St. Andrews Music Book, the
Old Hall Manuscript, and Egerton Manuscript.
For information about specific composers who are considered transitional between the medieval
and the Renaissance, see Roy Henry, Arnold de Lantins, Leonel Power, John Dunstaple,
Guillaume Dufay, and Gilles Binchois.