Download MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

450 – 1450 A.D.
• What comes to mind when you
hear the term(s) "middle ages" or
"dark ages"? Write down some
sort of answer...
• Can you name any important
stories, people, art or even
legends from this time period?
• Can you think of any specific
music or even general types of
music from this time period?
• “Oh, great…old, boring stuff…why
are we studying dead-guy music from
more than 1,000 years ago?”
• Though every culture around the
world has had music, only from
Western Europe do we have written
records that can be translated into
sound reliably. It is likely that every
song you have ever heard is
descended from this tradition.
• In addition, the background harmonies of
the Western music tradition are literally
embedded in the fundamental functioning
of the physical universe. Any object that
can be made to vibrate sets up a series of
overtones in the air, and the first harmonies
(stacks of vibrations) formed by those waves
are major and minor chords…the same
types that we hear in our music. This helps
explain the appeal of Western music in
even non-Western culture…it “seems” to
speak to humans on a basic level beyond
words
GOALS
•The goal of this section is
to become acquainted
with the history and
characteristics of early
Western (European) music
and how the society of
the time shaped the
development of that
music.
Terms
• Roman Empire
• Feudalism
– Nobility,
Peasantry, Clergy
• Crusades
• Black Death
• Magna Carta
• Plainchant
• Gregorian Chant
• Oral tradition
• Notation
• Sacred
• Secular
Troubadors
Mass
Hildegard
of Bingen
Machaut
Ars Antiqua
Ars Nova
“Nothing exists without music,
for the universe itself is said to
have been framed by a kind of
harmony of sounds, and the
heaven itself revolves
under the tone of that harmony.”
—Isidore of Seville
The writer Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400), as
depicted in a famous manuscript of his epic
Canterbury Tales (c. 1410).
Middle Ages
• Around 450 the Roman Empire
began to disintegrate.
• This was the beginning of the
“dark ages”.
• Life was hard and full of
migrations, upheavals, and wars.
• In the later Middle Ages
churches and monasteries were
constructed, towns grew,
universities were founded.
• What was the Roman
Empire?
• Name something in our
society/modern world that
comes to us from the Roman
Empire.
Digital Roman Empire map
• The Circus maximus was the largest
arena ever constructed in the
ancient world (and still one of the
largest in history). After its last
expansion, it could hold between
150,000-250,000 spectators of various
events.
• Now name some aspects of our
society that come to us from
Rome.
• Explain how an understanding of
history might help you
understand our modern world
better.
• Since our class is about music,
why haven't we yet discussed
any Roman music?
• For that matter, why haven't we
discussed music in this time yet?
• Major events across the world had
impacts on every aspect of society,
including music.
• 600’s—Rise of Islam leading to
conquest of most of the
Mediterranean and Spain.
• 1100’s-1300’s—Crusades, a series of
wars fought between Christian and
Muslim armies for control of the Holy
Land. Warriors returning to Europe
brought back new foods,
philosophical ideas, music
and…disease!!
THE BLACK DEATH
1347—1350’s
The Black Death (actually the bubonic
plague) is believed to have wiped out
between 30-50% of the population of Europe.
It is believed to have been carried by fleas
who lived on rats that were brought to Italy in
1347 on merchant ships. The loss of so many
left a labor shortage that led to workers
demanding more wages, riots, etc.
• This was a time of three social
classes organized in a system
known as feudalism:
• NOBILITY
• PEASANTRY
• CLERGY
NOBILITY
• Nobles were
sheltered within
castles surrounded
by moats. They
owned the land.
• The men were
often knights
during war time.
• In peace time,
they amused
themselves with
hunting, feasting,
and tournaments.
Peasants
• Peasants – the majority of people
– lived miserably in one-room
huts.
• Many were serfs, bound to the
soil and subject to feudal
overlords. They worked the land.
• Homes were damp and cold.
The entire family shared two
rooms.
• For protection, there were no
windows.
Clergy
• The clergy worked for the Catholic
Church and were among the few
people of the time who could read
and write.
• The church was the center of all life,
including music
• Musicians were priests and worked for
the church.
• An important occupation in
monasteries was liturgical singing.
• Women were not allowed to sing in
the church.
Romanesque
800-1100 AD
Gothic
1100-1400 AD
Cathedrals
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption
A Gothic cathedral in Covington, Kentucky. It has what is
considered the largest stained glass window in the world.
Early Music
• Most of our records of early music
comes to us from the traditions of the
Catholic Church. Music of the
Church was considered “sacred”
• The earliest forms of music were
chants used in worship services (from
just after the time of Christ to about
600 AD)
• These were known as “plainchant”
and—though all were sung in Latin—
there were minor differences from
region to region
Music in the Middle Ages
• Most medieval music was vocal.
• The church frowned on instruments.
• Around 1100, however, instruments
were used increasingly in church.
• The organ was most prominent.
• At first it was primitive and could only
be played by hitting it with your fist.
• It was so loud that it could be heard
for miles around.
Organ
Organ
from
the
900s.
Gregorian Chant
• Pope Gregory I (540-604 AD) decided to
create a compilation of the music of the
church, so he ordered a gathering of all of
the plainchants in a compendium (legend
said that all of the chants were dictated to
him by a dove sent from heaven). They
were known afterwards as “Gregorian
Chant”
.
Gregorian Chant
Characteristics
• Sung in Latin
• It is a single line (no harmony). This makes Gregorian
Chant “monophonic” texture.
• It has flexible rhythm, without meter, and little sense
of beat. Free-flowing rhythm gives the chant a
floating, improvisational feeling.
• The effect is otherworldly, or calm.
• “Dies Irae” –Day of Wrath--from a Mass for the Dead
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsn9LWh230k
• The melodies moved by step.
• At first, the melodies were passed on by oral tradition
(learning directly by listening), but as the numbers of
chants grew to the thousands, systems of notation
(writing down music) were invented and eventually
became standardized.
• The earliest manuscripts (written chants) were from
the 800s.
• Chants eventually became standardized in use and
intent, with many serving as regular parts of church
services.
• These musical church services became the earliest
form of the Catholic Mass
The composers
of Gregorian
Chant remain
almost
completely
unknown, but
one of the few
we do know,
and one of the
earliest female
composers is…
• Hildegard of Bingen
•
In addition to being a nun, a writer of spiritual literature, a writer of
Gregorian Chant and eventually an abbess, Hildegard was also
considered by many in her time to be a prophet. Her music was
radically different than other chant forms, often expression much
more passion than most officials of the Church were comfortable
hearing (though her passions were all for the love of duty to the
Church and God) her music often resembles the sounds of
modern movie scores, with haunting sounds…
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yXJ0MDTI4Q
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
•In 1150 founded convent in
Germany
•Known for miracles and
prophecies
•Works include collections of
visions and prophecies, music,
and scientific writing.
Secular Music
• Besides Gregorian chant in the church,
there was much music outside of the
church, too.
• The first secular (not of the church) music
that has survived in notation was composed
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
by wandering French musicians called
troubadours.
• Many of the songs they sang have been
preserved because nobles had clerics write
them down.
• Some 1,650 melodies have been preserved.
Medieval Instruments
• Instruments in early secular music were used to
accompany songs.
• Musicians usually improvised the simple
accompaniments.
• While the accompaniments were melodically
simple, they were rhythmically lively.
• Let’s take a look at the many different
instruments used in these accompaniments…
Harp
Krumhorn
Krumhorn
Lute
Lute
Muted Cornett
Cornett
Psaltery
Psaltery
Sacbut
Sackbut
Serpent
Serpent
Shawm
Shawm
Hurdy-Gurdy
Hurdy gurdy
Drum or Tambor
Recorder
Recorder
Viol
Viol
• During the Middle Ages, wandering
minstrels performed music and
acrobatics in castles, and towns.
• They had no civil rights and were on
the lowest social level. It was a tough
life.
• Without newspapers, the music of the
minstrels was an important source of
information.
• But sometime around 700 – 900 AD monks began to
add a second melodic line to Gregorian chant.
• At the beginning, it was usually improvised…possibly
even added by accident by monks who simply
could not sing in tune with others!!
• Listeners at that time must have been surprised!
• This early form of harmony was known as “Organum”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngCRm7uLirA
• Developments in notation and changing
practices in the use and purposes of
Gregorian Chants led to divisions in the
writing and performing of these works.
• The older style (or “old art”) became known
as the “Ars Antiqua”—the antique art. It
flourished from about 1100-1300 AD and
included early harmony in the form of
“Organum”.
• The more progressive style became known
as the “Ars Nova”—the new art. This style
became widespread in about 1300 and
continued to be used for centuries (both
styles are now sung in many monasteries).
Polyphonic Music
• Polyphonic music has more than one
sound, but they are equal in
importance.
• Using precise rhythms, this was the first
time in music history that notation
indicated precise rhythms as well as
pitches.
• Soon music had more than two
voices. Music with three parts began
to develop, although the range was
still small and hollow sounding.
Early Polyphony
• The first type of polyphony was called parallel
organum. Here the cantus firmus (the original
chant) and the higher harmony mirrored each
other.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3sTpHVfcf0
• Eventually composers like Leonin and his
student Perotin began adding a third and fourth
part above the cantus firmus, and moved away
from the eerie sounding parallel organum.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhqWgfGK1
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Fourteenth Century
• Secular music became more
important in the lives of the people in
the 1300s.
• This was due to many factors
including the Hundred Years’ War, the
black plague, the weakening of the
feudal system, and the fighting of the
Popes in the Catholic church…and
secular music was just not as
depressing!!
Guillaume de Machaut
• Guillaume de Machaut was a priest,
but spent most of his life working with
the noble families of France.
• Machaut travelled to many courts
and presented beautifully decorated
copies of his music to the nobles.
• Because of this, his music has survived
for us to enjoy today.
• This piece you are about to hear (The
Agnus Dei) is possibly the finest
composition known from the Middle
Ages.
Agnus Dei
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEV4
2RKf6E
• This piece is from a Mass, which is a sacred
piece of music.
• It is written in four voices, some of which are
doubled by instruments.
• The Agnus Dei is a prayer for mercy and
peace and is solemn and elaborate.
• It is in triple meter.
• This piece is based on Gregorian Chant, but
you can hear how much this idea has
developed.
Agnus Dei
• Like the chant it is based on, it has
three sections.
• The form for this piece is: A B A
• In Machaut’s time, music was meant
to appeal to the mind – as well as to
the ear!
• Although this sounds so different to us
today, it is pleasing to our ears.
Notre Dame
• The Big Takeaway…
• The fall of Rome was horrible, but it
also led to the growth of many
different cultures as populations
rebounded and grew in knowledge
as well as numbers.
• Music reflects these trends as it grows
from simple worship music to
creations of power, subtlety, beauty,
and pure entertainment.