Download Medieval Music Influential People

Medieval Music
Influential People
Part One – Early Sacred (Church) Music
Early Medieval Composers
Romanos the Melodist (c.490-c.556) – one of the earliest
acknowledged composers. It is said that he wrote over 1000 hymns
while working at the Hagia Sophia (great church of Constantinople)
during the Byzantine Empire. Roughly 60-80 are still available today.
Saint Yared (505-571) – Legendary Ethiopian church musician who
‘invented’ music and notation principles for the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church.
Saint Kassia (810-865) – Byzantine hymnographer (one who composes
and organizes hymns). She is one of the first important female
musicians. Her hymns can easily be interpreted by today’s scholars
and are still included in the music of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Saint Yared
Romanos the Melodist
Saint Kassia
Saint Kassia
Here is a performance of Saint Kassia’s Apostate Tyranno
Early Medieval Composers
Notker the Stammerer (c.840-912) – Benedictine Monk in Switzerland.
He wrote Liber hymnorum , a series of sequences (poems set to music)
for use in church services. One of the earliest collections of church
music.
Odo of Arezzo (late 10th century) – Wrote a book of plainchants that
include some of the earliest writing about church modes.
Ademar de Chabannes (c.988-1034) – French monk who wrote mass
music for Saint-Martial church in Limoges, France. Some of his music
has been recently recorded by the New York Ensemble for Early Music.
Wipo of Burgundy (c.955-c.1048) – a priest and writer, wrote Victimae
paschali laudes – an Easter sequence (poem to music) that is still in
use today.
Hermann of Reichenau (1013-1054) – born with either cerebral palsy or
spina bifida and had difficulty walking & talking. His parents put him in
a Benedictine monastery at 7 years old. He grew up there and wrote
Alma Redemptoris Mater (a prayer that composers have set to music)
and the hymn Salve Regina which is still in use today.
Wipo of Burgundy
Here is a performance of Victimae paschali laudes (Christians to
the Paschal Victims).
Early Medieval Composers
Guido of Arezzo (991-1033) – Benedictine monk and music theorist.
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Regarded as the father of modern notation.
Constantly devising ways to teach singers traditional Gregorian chant.
Developed early solfege system (do-re-mi, etc) based on the first six notes
of the hymn Ut queant laxis.
Developed the Guidoian Hand – a visual music learning system that linked
note names to parts of the hand.
Invited to Rome by Pope John XIX to demonstrate his various teaching
techniques to the priests and singers there.
Guido’s house in Arezzo.
Honorary plaque with solfege.
Early Medieval Composers
Saint Goderic (c.1065-1170) – English hermit & merchant. He wrote 4
hymns in English that are the earliest English music manuscripts to
survive.
Saint Goderic
Manuscript of 4 hymns.
Saint Goderic
Here is a performance of two of the four English hymns by St
Goderic – Criste and Saint Marie
Medieval Composers
Adam of Saint Victor (d.1146) – prolific composer of Latin hymns and
sequences. Many of his compositions were discovered and published
over the years, the latest in the Bibliothèque Nationale, a listing of all
French publications.
Peter Abelard (1079-1142) – French philosopher & composer. Wrote a
completely original hymn book in 1130 – the earliest known sacred
music that is not plainchant. One melody from this collection, O quanta
qualia has survived.
Albert of Paris (1146-1177) – French composer and cantor (music
leader). He is credited with creating the first known piece of European
music for three voices. Worked at the Notre Dame Cathedral along with
the Medieval master Leonin (more on him next week).
Peter Abelard
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France
Medieval Composers
Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
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German writer, composer, philosopher.
Recognized as one of the earliest European women composers.
Most famous work is Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), believed to be the
earliest surviving ‘morality play.’
Wrote several liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle known as
Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (wow.. that’s a big title!)
The majority of her music is plainchant – (one melodic line)
Songs are left to rhythmic interpretation – only general pitches are notated.
Claimed to receive visions from heaven as inspiration for composing.
Her music has underwent a recent revival, due to the study of women in the
Medieval period.
Hildegard in a music room.
Hildegard receiving a vision
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen
Here is a performance of Hildegard of Bingen’s setting of Kyrie
Elesion (Lord Have Mercy).
Next presentation – Part 2
More influential composers, musicians,
etc. of the Middle Ages.