Music of the Middle Ages

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Music of the Middle Ages

• From Gregorian Chant to the Renaissance

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Time-Line

• Middle Ages (450-1450)
• Rome sacked by Vandals455
• Beowolfc. 700
• First Crusade1066
• Black Death1347-52
• Joan of Arc executed by English1431

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The Middle Ages

• Period of wars and mass migration

• Strong class distinctions

• Nobility castles, knights in armor, feasting
• Peasantry lived in huts, serfspart 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

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CHANT
an astonishing collection of melodies a vast
body of work reflecting individual composition,
communal refinement, and collective memory
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CHANT
Mark, Ch 16. c. 900
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CHANT

• MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

• REPETITION?
• TEMPO?
• METER?
• TEXTURE?

NO
well . . . DEBATABLE
NO
MONOPHONIC
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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

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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
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from NEUMES to NOTES (almost)
930
930 AD
11th c.
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GUIDO d AREZZO
Around 1000, defines THE STAFF Cand names
the 6 notes ut re mi fa sol la
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1250 rhythmic notation
Franco proposes system of dots and stems that
give relative durations to notes
Black note heads long White short
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(to the tune of I got rhythm)
I got rhythm, I got pitches. In 1250, who can
notate anything more?
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Anchor Dates
1000

• Musical STAFF used for
• CHANT in the
• EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD in
• MONASTERIES

1066
1150
After 1300
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There were two schools of music during the
Middle Ages

• Ars Antiqua - 1100-1300
• Ars Nova - 1300 - 1450

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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 . . .

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Ars Antiqua began in Paris at the Cathedral de
Notre Dame
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Notre Dame Cathedral
begun in 1163
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Representative Ars Antiqua Composers

• Leonin (1163-1190)
• Perotin (early 13th century)
• Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
• Anonymous (?)

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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.

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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.

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Parallel Organum
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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.

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Hildegard of Bingen1098-1179
Abbess, scholar, visionary, poet, musician,
healer, spiritual leader
One of the earliest named composers in the
European tradition
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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.

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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.

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Adam de la Halle (1237-1286)

• 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

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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.
• Lets take a look at the many different
  instruments used in these accompaniments

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Harp
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Krumhorn
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Lute
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Muted Cornett
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Psaltery
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Sacbut
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Serpent
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Shawm
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Hurdy-Gurdy
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Drum or Tambor
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Recorder
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Viol
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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 . . .

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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

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Representative Ars Nova Composers

• Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
• Francesco Landini (1325-1397)
• Anonymous (?)

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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

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Guillaume de MACHAUT
(to the tune of the Beatles Michelle)
Machaut, you know, Wrote motets and songs so long
ago, Guillaume Machaut
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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.
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This piece is called Sumer is icumen in and is
the oldest surviving round.
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PLAGUE 1350s
1/3 OF THE POPULATION OF EUROPE DEAD certainly
raises the going pay rate for labor! stimulus for
coming Renaissance?
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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

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E/W Schism
Decline of Church aspolitical power
FEUDALISM
Battle ofHastings
CHARLEMAGNE
PLAGUE, SCHISM
Culture of The Book
PERSPECTIVE(GIOTTO)
dematerialization continues
ROMANESQUE
GOTHIC (1150)
1066
800
1100
1400
1000
1250
CHANTstandardized
RHYTHMNOTATION
Rhythmicmodes
STAFF
ARS NOVA1300
improvised organum
PerotinVideruntOmnes1200
Hildegard
UNIVERSITY CATHEDRAL
MONASTERIES
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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.

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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