Music History I

1
Music History I

• Lecture Notes 8

2
Mass for Easter Sunday

• This polyphonic setting probably by Léonin
• From the Gradual Haec dies (Ex. 2, f., p. 4)
• The organum setting part of Magnus liber organi
• The MS reproduction on p. 67 where does the Haec
  dies melody begin?
• Fourth system at illuminated letter H
• Chant melody and duplum compared
• Elaborate melody moving rapidly above chant
  recurrent rhythmic patterns 3rds, 4ths and 5ths

3
More on Example 10

• Use of rhythmic modes Mode 1 and Mode 6
• Features of the duplum (the added melody)
• vocal in style
• mostly stepwise (conjunct) motion
• general range a ninth overall range a tenth
• long, extended melodic line
• modal
• overall contour starts high, moves gradually
  downward, finally ending on same note as at the
  beginning

4
Ex. 10 2 more observations

• A responsorial chant
• Haec dies is designed that way from the
  beginning to alternate soloist and chorus
• Free organum/measured organum
• Haec dies is free in all sections except on the
  word Domino and on the words in saeculum

5
Example 14 a 13th C. motet

• Tenor melody
• Ambitus (range) a fifth
• Overall shape rise and fall of each phrase
• Upper voices overlap the tenor
• Triplum passing tone at m. 4
• Both upper voices (m. 8 middle voice (m. 12)
• Newly composed tenor very unusual

6
Emergence of Polyphony

• This very important development marks the
  beginning of a long history of multipartite music
  by composers up to our day.
• The earliest sources of notated polyphony date
  from the 9th century.
• The Musica enchiriadis (Musical Handbook)
  contains the earliest known reference to
  polyphony.

7
Organum

• A polyphonic work consisting of a chant melody
  and at least one added voice
• Examples in HMWC parallel organum in 5ths
  parallel organum in four parts two-part organum
  in contrary motion
• John Cotton the theorist 12th century writer on
  the importance of contrary motion added voices
  should be independent of the borrowed melody

8
Organum (continued)

• Important cadences in music of the 12th century
  resolved to 5ths, 8ves, and unisons.
• Ex. 9, p. 19 (HMWC anthology) is melismatic
  because there are multiple notes over the chant
  melody.
• The lower voice is called the tenor from the
  Latin tenere (to hold)

9
Two Centers for Music

• Abbey of St. Martial
• A center for the production and collection of
  medieval chant
• Cathedral of Notre Dame
• The corner stone was laid in 1163
• Became one of the most productive centers for
  the composition and preservation of church music

10
The Rhythmic Modes

• 12th century composers inspired by poetry

11
Léonin the Mentor

• Perotin, the student, added a third (sometimes a
  fourth) voice to the tenor in his compositions

12
Clausula

• Can be seen as a form of glossing
• Definition Clausulae are brief polyphonic
  sections of discant organum interpolated into a
  larger existing work.
• The clausula is not an independent piece to be
  performed on its own.
• Performers were often free to substitute any
  clausula desired or in any combination

13
Development of the Motet

• When a new text was added to the duplum of an
  existing clausula and performed as a separate
  work outside the church, the result was the
  motet.
• The Montpellier Codex contains 336 works of
  music, most of which are motets a collection of
  layers of parchment that date from the 1270s to
  the early 14th century

14
The Motet in Production and Performance

• Reached a high level of popularity around the
  year 1230
• Johannes de Grocheo maintained that motets should
  be performed in the presence of learned persons

15
Conductus

• From one to four voices
• Texts taken from freely composed poems
• Not based on any borrowed material
• May be monophonic or polyphonic
• In polyphonic versions all voices move in
  generally the same rhythm
• Note-against-note writing a distinctive feature
• From conducere (to escort)
• Coda Structural section at the end of some
  compositions comes from the Latin word cauda
  (tail)

16
Mensural Notation

• The need for a more precise system for rhythmic
  variety was the driving force behind the gradual
  transition from the more restrictive rhythmic
  modes
• The system was based on principles set down by
  Franco of Cologne (Franconian Notation)
• Franco divided the Long and the Breve based on
  the rule that perfect related to the Holy Trinity
  (triple) duple divisions were imperfect
• Petrus de Cruce carried the system further
  through a greater subdivision of the breve
  (Petronian Notation)