Transcript Music of the Middle Ages From Gregorian Chant to the Renaissance Time-Line • Middle Ages (450-1450) • Rome sacked by Vandals—455 • Beowolf—c.

Music of the Middle Ages
From Gregorian Chant to the
Renaissance
Time-Line
• Middle Ages (450-1450)
• Rome sacked by Vandals—455
• Beowolf—c. 700
• First Crusade—1066
• Black Death—1347-52
• Joan of Arc executed by English—1431
The Middle Ages
• Period of wars and mass migration
• Strong class distinctions
• Nobility: castles, knights in armor, feasting
• Peasantry: lived in huts, serfs—part of land
• Clergy: ruled everyone, only monks literate
• Architecture
• Early: Romanesque
• Late: Gothic
• Visual Arts
• Stressed iconic/symbolic, not realism
• Late Middle Ages saw technological progress
CHANT
an astonishing collection of
melodies
a vast body of work reflecting
individual composition, communal
refinement, and
collective memory
CHANT
Mark, Ch 16. c. 900
CHANT
MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
• REPETITION?
NO
• TEMPO? well . . . DEBATABLE
• METER? NO
• TEXTURE? MONOPHONIC
ORIGINS OF CHANT
We do not know when it was first sung, how it
was first composed, where or by whom.
(Pope Gregory I (d. 604) was not the composer!)
Three periods of evolution
• 'Gregorian' strictly speaking c. 700-850
some 500-600 pieces established
• Carolingian 850-1000
• Medieval 1000-1300
All of it commonly called: chant, Gregorian chant,
plainchant, plainsong
now a collection of some 3,000 pieces
NEUMES
In the beginning was the word, but how do I
remember all those tunes?
Neumes – notational signs for
single tones and groups of
notes; about 20 symbols used
from NEUMES to NOTES (almost)
930 AD
930
11th c.
GUIDO d’ AREZZO
Around 1000, defines THE STAFF
C
and names the 6 notes
ut re mi fa sol la
1250 – rhythmic notation
Franco proposes system of dots and stems that
give relative durations to notes
Black note heads = long
White = short
(to the tune of “I got rhythm”)
I got rhythm,
I got pitches.
In 1250,
who can notate anything more?
Anchor Dates
1000
- Musical STAFF used for
- CHANT in the
- EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD in
- MONASTERIES
1066 - BATTLE OF HASTINGS depicted in the
- BAYEUX TAPESTRY
which we associate with
- FEUDALISM
1150
GOTHIC
ARCHITECTURE
After 1300
ARS NOVA
There were two schools of music
during the Middle Ages
Ars Antiqua - 1100-1300
&
Ars Nova - 1300 - 1450
Ars Antiqua and ARS NOVA
• Ars Antiqua (old art)
• ARS NOVA (new art, new technique)
- declared c. 1316 by composer Philippe de Vitry
- based on new techniques of notating rhythm
which ALLOWED DUPLE SUBDIVISION
OF THE BEAT
- greatly favored complexity, often hidden
• leading Ars Nova composer is Machaut . . .
Ars Antiqua began in Paris at the
Cathedral de Notre Dame
Notre Dame Cathedral
begun in 1163
Representative Ars Antiqua
Composers
•
•
•
•
Leonin (1163-1190)
Perotin (early 13th century)
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Anonymous (?)
What is Ars Antiqua?
• Literally means “old art”
• Stemmed directly from Gregorian Chant
• This style of music can be characterized as adding hollow
sounding harmonies(perfect 4ths & 5ths) to existing chants.
• This type of music is called organum.
• Originally, one voice would be added above the existing
chant. The chant would be sung very slowly - it was called
the cantus firmus.
Early Polyphony
• Polyphony means more than one pitch
played at the same time - what we typically call
harmony.
• The first type of polyphony was called parallel
organum. Here the cantus firmus and the
higher harmony mirrored each other.
• 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.
Parallel
Organum
Meanwhile, in Germany…
• Hildegard von Bingen, who herself was a nun
with reported mystical powers, began
composing music different from the Notre Dame
school.
• Von Bingen wrote music that sounded wildly
different than plainchant, which some attributed
to her lack of musical training. Her melodies,
even today, seem contemporary.
Hildegard
of Bingen
1098-1179
Abbess, scholar,
visionary, poet,
musician, healer,
spiritual leader
One of the earliest
“named”
composers in the
European tradition
What kind of music was happening
outside of the church?
• Secular music, or popular music, has existed
throughout history, especially during the Middle
Ages.
• Secular music of the Middle Ages was the first
to be written down on paper and preserved.
Today, performances of secular music is
possible using these surviving pieces of music.
Troubadours
• Troubadours were French musicians who
traveled across Europe during the 12th
and 13th centuries.
• They sang mostly love songs.
• They accompanied their love songs with
instruments, unlike the church.
Adam de la Halle (12371286)
• The most famous troubadour ever
• Wrote the first ever musical theater piece Le Jeu
de Robin et Marion
• Inventor of the Motet
• Motet - a piece of music where two or more
different verses are fit together simultaneously,
without regard to harmony
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
Lute
Muted Cornett
Psaltery
Sacbut
Serpent
Shawm
Hurdy-Gurdy
Drum or Tambor
Recorder
Viol
Ars Antiqua and ARS NOVA
• Ars Antiqua (old art)
• ARS NOVA (new art, new technique)
- declared c. 1316 by composer Philippe de Vitry
- based on new techniques of notating rhythm
which ALLOWED DUPLE SUBDIVISION
OF THE BEAT
- greatly favored complexity, often hidden
• leading Ars Nova composer is Machaut . . .
Ars Nova
• 14th & 15th century France
• The invention of modern notation
• The creation of the Ordinary of the
Catholic Mass
• The popularity of the motet
Representative Ars Nova
Composers
• Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
• Francesco Landini (1325-1397)
• Anonymous (?)
Guillaume de Machaut
• A poet & a musician
• Created the first Ordinary for the Catholic
Mass
• Created many of the musical forms of
today (rondos and ballades)
• Master of counterpoint
Guillaume de MACHAUT
(to the tune of the Beatles’ “Michelle”)
Machaut, you know,
Wrote motets and songs so long ago,
Guillaume Machaut
Examples of Ars Nova Music
Music from this
period was the first
to add stems to the
nuemes, thereby
creating our
modern system of
notation.
This piece is
called “Sumer is
icumen in” and is
the oldest
surviving round.
PLAGUE – 1350s
1/3 OF THE POPULATION OF EUROPE DEAD
certainly raises the going pay rate for labor!
stimulus for coming Renaissance?
The Great Schism(s)
• East/West churches split 1054
• Western church, multiple Popes
simultaneously, 1378-1417
• General weakening of the authority
of the Church in civil affairs
FEUDALISM E/W Schism
Battle of
CHARLEMAGNE Hastings
Culture of The Book
Decline of Church as
political power
PLAGUE,
SCHISM
PERSPECTIVE
dematerialization continues
(GIOTTO)
ROMANESQUE
GOTHIC (1150)
1066
800
CHANT
standardized
1000
1100
1250
Rhythmic RHYTHM
STAFF
modes NOTATION
improvised organum
MONASTERIES
Perotin
Viderunt
Hildegard Omnes
1200
1400
ARS
NOVA
1300
UNIVERSITY
& CATHEDRAL
Conclusions
• Most Medieval composers wrote mainly for the church
and remained anonymous.
• These early composers did not take the art of
composition seriously. It was more a necessary
function, or duty.
• Most secular musicians had day jobs. Full time
musicians were poor.
• While music itself was held in high regard, those who
made it were not. This is very different today.
SUMMARY – Late Medieval &
Gothic
• ARCHITECTURE – arches get the point;
buttresses fly & glass is stained – emphasis on
VERTICAL
• ART – dematerialized human figures moving
towards realistic pictoral space
• MUSIC – POLYPHONY; rhythmic notation; Ars Nova
• IDEAS – life is bad, humans worse, God is great
• EVENTS – plague, weakening of Church authority