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MEDIEVAL AND GOTHIC ERAS
Study Guide
The only type of music we know much about is the sacred music for the Church, which was written down
and preserved in monasteries. At first only marks, called neumes, indicated the direction of the
sounds. But later (around the year 1000) a system of square notes on a four-line staff was created and
music notation began.
Worship in the Christian church grew out of Judaism. It assumed many of the Jewish religious practices
such as daily prayer hours and the singing of psalms.
Church music, called Gregorian chant, was compiled and codified about the sixth century under a directive
from Pope Gregory. Particular chants were assigned to certain days in the church calendar.
The most important type of worship in the Roman Catholic Church is the Mass. It consists of two different
types of prayers, the Proper and the Ordinary. The chants for the Proper change according to the
church calendar. The parts of the Ordinary are sung or spoken at every Mass. They are the Kyrie
(Lord have mercy), Gloria (Glory to God in the highest), Credo (I believe in God the Father…),
Sanctus (Holy, holy, holy), and Agnus Dei (O Lamb of God). The Ordinary is what composers set to
music.
A Requiem is a Roman Catholic funeral Mass. It includes the “Dies irae” chant instead of the Credo.
Gregorian chant differs from the music most people are familiar with. Chant is:
 monophonic (only a single line of music)
 sung a cappella (without accompaniment)
 sung in Latin
 sung by men
 nonmetrical; it does not have a strong beat, but is gentle and free flowing
 often sung with one syllable sustained for many notes
 modal; does not use the familiar major/minor keys
 conjunct (a smooth, stepwise melody) and has a narrow range
 intended for worship; it projects an attitude of reverence
 is either syllabic chant, only one note per syllable of text, or melismatic chant, many
notes per one syllable of text
 leitmotifs, little phrases or melodies, although they cannot be proved, exist in chant
such as the figure fa-mi used for “despair”; fa-la-sol used for “joy;” and fa-mi-sol-la
used as a reminder of the despair of the Cross (fa-mi) and for the joy of the
Resurrection (sol-la).
 Numerous chants were written with three sections honoring the Trinity.
Fixed pitch relationships became possible as a result of a chant written by Guido d’Arezzo, 995-1050. He
wrote a 7 phrase chant, where each phrase began a step higher than the preceding one. The first
syllable of each phrase began with do – re – mi - fa – sol – la – ti. This is the system we know today
as solfege.
A number of musical morality plays were created in the Middle Ages. Their main purpose was to educate
the audience about Christian beliefs.
Hildegard of Bingen was an important composer of these plays. She was born in 1098, the tenth child of
a noble family. As the tenth child, at the age of 8, she was given to the Church as a tithe. She was
given to a small convent near Bingen along the Rhine. She was a theologian, a healer, a naturalist, a
poet, and a musician. She considered herself an instrument of Gad, who spoke to her through visions.
She wrote books on herbal medicines, and books about her visions. At the age of 60, she began to
travel and preach and speak throughout Germany. She died in September of 1179 at the age of 81.
Secular music was often performed by musicians and entertainers who traveled from place to place. Much
of this music was in rhythmic modes, which are patterns like those used to designate metrical patterns
in poetry—iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and so on.
The earliest polyphony – from the Greek meaning “many sounded”, called organum, was developed at the
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. It consisted of parallel lines of Gregorian chant a fourth or fifth apart.
Later a third and fourth line were added and the parts become more independent.
The Gothic motet was a complicated vocal work that developed in France. It was built around a phrase of
chant called the cantus firmus, which was sung in long notes in Latin. This lower principal part sung
by the tenor – which comes from the Latin word tenere “to hold”. Other melodies were added above
the cantus firmus in French or Italian, and their texts could be love songs or something else unrelated
to the words of the cantus firmus. Complicated rhythmic or melodic schemes were worked into the
music. The Gothic motet disappeared by the end of the Gothic period.
There is very little written instrumental music from the Medieval period.
RENAISSANCE
The word Renaissance means “rebirth.” During this time there was a renewed interest in the culture of
ancient Greece and Rome. An attitude of humanism prevailed, with its interest in the arts. Emphasis
was on human relationships and interactions rather than the Divine-human relationship of the Medieval
and Gothic ages. Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of the “Renaissance man.”
The Renaissance was the age of great explorers like Balboa and Magellan, advances in science and
literature, and the invention of the printing press by Gutenburg. Numerous “academies” were
founded, where noblemen could go to discuss the Greek and Roman classics and the implications for
the arts that these classics had on the time.
Depth and Perspective began to crop up in art. Likewise, music began to develop more depth, texture,
and tonal color.
The motet was one of two main forms of vocal music developed during the Renaissance. A motet:
 is a sacred work
 is sung in Latin
 has a sacred text - all voices sang the same words
 has a polyphonic texture, with one voice part following another
 introduces new phrases of text in imitation, so the words could be more clearly heard
 is written for small choirs of about eight or so singers; only men and boys sang in
church during this time.
 is usually for four voice parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. The bass voice was very
important because its introduction around 1450 provided a solid tonal foundation to the
music.
 does not have a strong feeling of meter or beat; the original editions of motets did not
have any bar lines
 is sung a cappella today, but during the Renaissance the voice parts were sometimes
doubled by instruments. The term a cappella literally means “for the chapel”
The madrigal was the best-known type of secular vocal music composed during the Renaissance.
Madrigals are similar to motets is several ways. Madrigals are:
 written for small groups
 usually polyphonic, although some portions of them are chordal
 sung a cappella
 melodic, with smooth, singable vocal lines
 embodied imitative counterpoint
But a madrigal is different from a motet in other ways. A madrigal:
 is secular
 is sung in vernacular languages (English, Italian, etc.), not Latin
 was originally sung at courtly gatherings and meetings of learned societies
 is performed by both men and women
 has texts that are often about love
 uses word painting to project particular words in the music, i.e. the notes sung to the
word “ascending” would be an ascending line of music
 has metrical rhythm
 is performed at a faster tempo
A four note, descending pattern was known as the Renaissance lament. It was used in madrigals, most
notably by Claudio Monteverdi, i.e., “Lamento de la Nymphe (The Nymph’s Lament).” He also
incorporated his own madrigals in the opera “L’Orfeo,” which premiered at the Venice opera house in
1607. In doing so, the audience would notice the familiar madrigal and therefore be more engaged with
the opera performance. Monteverdi instilled so much emotion into his madrigals, opera was the next
step. Opera was the new medium which grew from madrigals.
The French version of a madrigal was called a chanson. In England, this art form flourished with
composers such as William Byrd, Thomas Morley, and Thomas Weelkes. A dance-type madrigal, the
balletto, a forerunner of the ballad, was particularly favored in England.
Instrumental music was less common but became more important throughout the Renaissance.
Instrumental versions of madrigals were often performed, and in the sixteenth century works of music
were published with the indication that they could either be played or sung. Groups called consorts or
instrument families developed. Consorts included soprano, alto, tenor, and bass shawms – a double
reed instrument, viols – a violin type instrument, or recorders. Some groups were organized by the
terms haut, meaning high or loud; and bas, meaning low or soft. Haut consorts were ideal for playing
in ceremonies or festivities outside, as they could be heard. These consorts would have included
trumpets, shawms, sackbuts, as well as percussion. Bas consort would include such instruments as
lutes and recorders.
Another type of secular song was the ayre. Unlike a madrigal, the emphasis was in the top line with a lute
or viol playing the lower parts. It was also usually sung as a solo. The French equivalent was the air
de cour, or “courtly air.” The Italian equivalent was the aria.
The most popular instrument was the lute with its pear-shaped body, bent neck, and many strings.
Instruments were often used for dance music. Harpsichords were developed even further during this
era. Italian harpsichord makers led the field by making lighter cases, as the Flemish ones were heavy,
and added more voices by the addition of more strings and another manual or keyboard. At this time,
harpsichords were variable in pitch and could be tuned to match the pitch of a lute. In England, the
harpsichord was known as virginals, where the strings are parallel to the keyboard.
The pavane, galliard, and passamezzo were popular dances during the Renaissance.
The Reformation began in 1517, as Martin Luther realized that ordinary people’s involvement in religion
would deepen if they became involved in worship. Under the auspices of the Catholic Church, the
people would sit and passively listen to the chants, in Latin, most of which they could not understand.
Luther established a repertory of hymns or chorales, some of which were well known songs; others he
wrote himself which would allow the ordinary people to participate in worship. Other grievances
towards the Catholic Church were over its wealth, opulence, abuse, and corruption.
The Counter-Reformation was launched in the 1540s by the Catholic Church in response to the
Reformation. This was sort of an “in house cleaning,” trying to rid itself of the corruption and
malpractices. This included the Church taking secular songs and changing the lyrics making them
sacred, hoping to encourage the ordinary people into coming back to the Catholic Church.
COMPOSERS AND MUSIC
Hildegard of Bingen – “O Vis Aeternitatis” from Canticles of Ecstacy, c. 1170
Guillaume de Machaut – “Kyrie” from “Messe de Notre Dame,” c. 1365
Francesco Landini - “Ecco la Primavera,” c. 1370
Josquin Des Prez – “Adieu mes amours,” c. 1500, played by two shawms and two sackbuts (Haut consort)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – “Sicut Cervus,” c. 1560, Renaissance motet
Thomas Weelkes – “As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending,” c. 1600, English madrigal
John Farmer – “Fair Phyllis I Saw,” c. 1595, English madrigal
Claudio Monteverdi – “Si ch’io vorrei morire (How I would like to die),” c. 1600 Italian madrigal
Claudio Monteverdi – “Lamento de la Nymphe (The Nymph’s Lament),” c. 1600, 3 movement madrigal
*Andrew Lloyd Weber – “Gethsemane,” 1970, uses “lament” figure from Renaissance.*
Claudio Monteverdi – “L’Orfeo,” 1607, incorporates madrigals into the opera chorus.
Claudio Monteverdi – “Vespers of 1610 (Blessed Mother), opening movement same as “L’Orfeo” overture.