Download Middle Ages (450 – 1450)

Middle Ages (450 – 1450)
The Middle Ages begins with the disintegration of the Roman Empire around 450 A.D. (a
time of migrations, upheavals, and wars) and ends around 1450, when a growth of culture
occurs.
Feudalism:
Clergy (church)
Peasantry (Serfs or the poor people that lived off the land)
Nobility (Rich that were born into high-ranking families)
Gregorian Chant: Pope Gregory the Great organized the writing of chant (plainchant)
around the year 600 A.D. It was set to a sacred (holy) Latin text.
Instrumental Music: Introduced to the church, then banned for a time because the church
wanted to wean the converts to Christianity away from everything
associated with their pagan (worldly) past. The organ was the
dominant instrument when it was allowed in the church service.
Secular Music: The first written secular (worldly) songs were written during the 12th and
13th centuries by French nobles called the Troubadours (South) and
Trouveres (North). These were poet-musicians that sang primarily love
songs during the age of chivalry. The estampie, a medieval dance, is
one of the earliest surviving forms of instrumental secular music.
Notre Dame School: After 1150, Paris, the intellectual and artistic capital of Europe,
became the center of polyphonic music. Two successive
choirmasters (choir directors) Leonin, who began the school
and Perotin, who devoted much time to revising and shortening
Leonin’s works, are among the first notable composers known
by name. They were the first to use measured rhythm. For the
first time in history, notation (written music) indicated precise
rhythms as well as pitches. At first, all music was limited to
only certain rhythmic patterns, and the beats had to be subdivided
into threes, the symbol of Trinity. These symbols were known as
neaumes (notes). The music was also limited to two voices, sung
at either intervals of a perfect forth or perfect fifth. Perotin’s
successors used up to four voices at the same time including a
variety of intervals. New words were sometimes added to the
upper voices. Out of this, a new composition called the motet was
formed. In this form, the chant melody, the bass voice, becomes
the basis on which everything else is based. New texts and even
different languages make up the two tenor voices. At the end of
the 13th century, the motet became freer in structure. Upper lines
were barrowed from secular songs as well as chant. Music was
beginning to be written and performed for aesthetic considerations
and was less directly related to worship.
Mass: By the year 1000, the church had a set pattern of services. They included psalms,
prayers, and scripture readings. Some services like Easter, Pentecost, and
Christmas were celebrated with even more ornate services. The heart of the
church rite (service) was the Mass, based on the Last Supper. It consisted of two
texts: the Ordinary and the Proper. The Ordinary text is always the same. The
Proper has different texts for each appropriate day (ex. Christmas and Easter).
Proper
Ordinary
1. Introit
2. Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy)
3. Gloria in excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the highest)
4. Gradual
5. Alleluia
6. Credo in unum Deum (One God)
7. Offeratory
8. Sanctus; Benidictus
9. Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)
10. Communion
Definitions
1. Gregorian Chant: the liturgical chant of the Roman Catholic Church, started by Pope
Gregory the Great.
2. Polyphony: music that combines two or more lines (melodies).
3. Monophony: music consisting of a single line (melody) without accompaniment.
4. Homophony: one voice with accompaniment.
5. Accompaniment: music that is behind a melody or soloist; background music.
6. Drone: one or more long, sustained tones accompanying a melody.
7. Sacred: “Holy”
8. Secular: “Worldly”
9. Ars Antiqua: “Old Art” from 1150 – 1300.
10. Ars Nova: “New Art” from 1300 – 1450.
11. Rhythm: the pattern of movement in time.
12. Melody: an ordered succession of pitches.
13. Mass: the most important service of the Roman Rite, derived from a ritual
commemoration of the Last Supper.
14. Estampie: a medieval instrumental dance.
15. Motet: Polyphonic vocal composition, most often based on a sacred text. They could
be written on different texts that offered new possibilities for word-music
relationship.
Composers
Hildegard de Bingen (1098 – 1179)
German composer; one of the most creative and many-sided personalities of Middle
Ages; was very active in religious and diplomatic affairs; the first women composer from
whom a large number of works have survived.
Leonin and Perotin (discussed in Notre Dame School section)
Guillaume De Machaut (1300 – 1377)
French composer, musician, poet, and priest; he presented beautifully decorated copies of
his music to noble patrons of courts. The decline of the church during his lifetime made
him a very popular. Most famous work: Notre Dame Mass
Francesco Landini (1325 – 1397)
The most celebrated Italian composer of the 14th century; a famous organist and poet;
wrote strictly secular music, dealing with nature, love, morality, and politics; blind from
childhood smallpox
Listening
1. Alleluia: Nativitas
Composer: Perotin
Type: Chant
2. Estampie
Composer: Anonymous
Type: secular instrumental dance