The Middle Ages: People, Pieces, and Publications

Haec Dies

An elaborate chant from the gradual of the Mass of Easter, based on psalm 118:1,24, with a monophonic texture and performed by soloist and chorus.

Hildegard von Bingen

A Benedictine abbess and mystic of the early 1100s who wrote poetry and music, including the morality play and chant with an incredible range.

Ordo Virtutum

A morality play on the virtues, consisting of 82 monophonic melodies, in which the only male character (the devil) is unable to sing.

Pope Gregory I (540-604)

The one who oversaw the expansion of schools to train singers in the performance of sacred repertoire (schola cantorum). He also organized and codified the chant, leading to a uniform liturgical service.

Dies Irae

A chant from the Mass for the dead which is attributed to Thomas of Celano (ca 1250).

Ut queant laxis

Hymn to St. John the Baptist which Guido of Arezzo used to create solfège.

Musica Enchiriadis (“music handbook“)

An anonymous 9th-century treatise containing the earliest examples of notated polyphony in Western art music, written for theorists (as singers couldn’t yet read it), and which includes parallel organum, with the new melodic lines added above or below the original chant.

Léonin (1150-1201)

The first composer of polyphony known to us by name. He was active in Paris in the late 12th century, and produced two-part organ, using organal and discant style, and employing rhythmic modes. He wrote Magnus Liber Organi (Great Book of Organum).

Pérotin (1175-1225)

A composer of the Notre Dame school in the 13th century who expanded polyphonic technique by composing three- and four-part polyphony. He composed “substitute clausulae” to replace sections within organa originally composed by Léonin.

Bamberg Codex

A manuscript containing 2 treatises on music theory and a collection of 13th century polyphonic works. It is an important source for understanding the style of notation developing at this time.

O mitissima/Virgo/Haec Dies

A 13th-century anonymous work from the Bamberg Codex that is a polyphonic, polytextual motet containing 3 voices (top= triplum, middle= duplum/motetus, bottom= tenor/cantus firmus).

The tenor contains a chant fragment made into an ostinato rhythm, while the triplum and duplum share the same range, the rhythmic activity (effecting triple meter), and both have syllabic and neumatic lines. The primary intervals are perfect fourths, fifths, and octaves.

Ce fut en mai

A lilting and jolly-sounding monophonic chanson of the mid-13th century, with touching and poignant text written in old French by, as well as musically composed by, Moniot d’Arras (a trouvère).

It contains 5 verses in strophic form, with 12 short lines to each verse, following an interval verse structure of AABB (with open then closed endings), a rhyme scheme of AAB AAB CCB CCB, and which reaches the melodic range of a 9th.

Moniot d’Arras (ca 1213-1239)

A monk who lived and worked at the Abbey of St. Vaast in France, who is among the last composers of the trouvèretradition, writing both sacred and secular music. His monophonic secular songs used modal melodies, and would likely have been performed with an improvised accompaniment.

Chansonnier du Roy (“Songbook of the King”)

An anonymous 13th-century French manuscript containing some of the earliest examples of notated music, including troubadour and trouvère songs as well as eight monophonic dances (including Royal Estampie No. 4).

Royal Estampie No. 4

A dance found in the Chansonnier du Roy consisting only of a single-line melody in notated form, but which likely would have had an improvised accompaniment, written in sectional form with open and closed cadences (to allow musicians to repeat or conclude sections, with repeats often embellished), with the suggestion of Dorian mode, and containing a relatively narrow melodic range.

Ars nova (1322)

A treatise written by Philippe de Vitry, the bishop of Meaux, in the 14th century, which defines the musical language of the time, including the perfection of pitch notation and a greater sophistication of rhythm notation (developments which allowed music to be notated more clearly than ever before).

Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361)

The French bishop of Meaux, the composer and poet who wrote the Ars nova, who deliberately struck out in new musical directions. His motets demonstrate innovations in rhythmic notation, such as the “imperfect” division of notes into 2 equal units (instead of the “perfect” 3), as well as new techniques and compositional devices, such as the use of isorhythm.

Kyrie, from Messe de Nostre Dame

The first movement of the Mass Ordinary of the Mass of Our Lady composed by Guillaume de Machaut around 1350 (the single composer allowing for a unified and cohesive, yet creative, musical design to be given to music that had formerly been seen as purely functional), among the longest extant works from the Middle Ages.

This is also the first work to introduce the contratenor, a voice overlapping the tenor and creating a counterpoint with it (and forever-after become a part of the standard 4 voices in sacred vocal music).

Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377)

The most celebrated poet and most significant composer of the ars nova style, contributing to both sacred and secular music (working for princes, kings, and the Church). His musical style employs a greater variety of intervals as well as highly sophisticated contrapuntal techniques, and also demonstrates 14th-century rhythmic complexity through the use of syncopation, hockets, and isorhythm.

His works were often longer and more complex than those of the ars antiqua. His sacred music includes the first complete setting of the Mass Ordinary, and his secular works include monophonic and polyphonic chansons (the monophonic representing the continuation of the trouvère tradition), as well as his own poetry (which use the fixed poetic forms of rondeau, ballade, and virelai).