The Middle Ages (476-1450) pt. 1

Monophonic Texture

Music consisting of a single line of melody, with no harmony or accompaniment.

Polyphonic/contrapuntal Texture

Two or more independent melodic lines or voices heard simultaneously.

Modes

Scale patterns distinguished by their unique order of half steps and whole steps, which served as the source for melodies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and are generally referred to by their original Greek names.

Neumes

The earliest form of notation in Western art music, consisting of small notational symbols which originally indicated the direction of the melodic line, and later, in the shape is squares and diamonds positioned on a staff, represented specific pitches.

A cappella (“in the chapel”)

Vocal music without instrumental accompaniment, a characteristic feature of vocal music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

The Middle Ages

*476-1450

*monophonic and polyphonic textures

*the evolution of notation

*an expanded melodic range

*the structuring of rhythm

*music composed for both sacred and secular genres

Plainchant (“plainsong”)

Monophonic modal melodies with a realistically narrow melodic range, structured in unmeasured prose rhythm.

Gregorian chant

Sacred, liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church, generally with Latin text, and named after Pope Gregory the Great. Musically it is modal, monophonic melodies with unmeasured rhythm.

Syllabic text setting

One note for a single syllable of text, so the text can be clearly understood.

Neumatic text setting

Several notes (2-4) for a single syllable of text.

Responsorial singing

A method of performance where solo voice alternates with chorus.

Melismatic text setting

Many notes for a single syllable of text, the most elaborate and florid form of text seeing.

Mass

The most important service in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, consisting of texts that are variable according to the Church calendar (Proper) and texts that remain the same (Ordinary). This became an important genre especially in the Renaissance era.

Mass Proper

The changing, variable prayers of the Mass linked to the Church calendar, including Introit, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Offertory, and Communion.

Gradual

The fourth section of the Mass Proper, with texts based primarily on the Psalms (poetic texts from the Old Testament). The musical setting is generally melismatic and performed in a responsorial style.

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

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, and where 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.

Gregorian Chant origins

Evolving from the Hebrew chant tradition, this served as functional music in the Catholic Liturgy, originally passed down orally but became one of the earliest forms of notated music in the Western tradition. It was organized and codified during the papal reign of Pope Gregory the Great (590-604), and went on to be used as the basis of many new compositions during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Gregorian Chant features

Monophonic texture, modal, moves by step or narrow leap, sung in a relatively narrow range; has unmeasured rhythm, the melody following the natural inflections of the text and sung freely, and is based on Latin texts.

Dies Irae

Attributed to Thomas of Celano (ca 1250)

Ut queant laxis

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

Organum origins

Began as an improvised practice, evolving over several centuries. Thee first notated examples are found in the 9th century treatise “Musica Enchiriadis.” Composers at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris forgery developed it in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Organum features

One line contains the original chant (cantus firmus); initially parallel lines were added to these melodies, but later developments by the Notre Dame composers involved a wider variety of intervals, rhythms, and melodic motion in newly-composed upper parts.

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 includes parallel organum, with new melodic lines added above or below the original chant.

Notre Dame School

A common style represented by the collective work of groups with a common vision that results in significant developments and innovations. This group in the 12th and 13th centuries includes two leading composers Léonin and Pérotin.

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 distant 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.

Organum

Polyphony based on plainchant, explored and composed from the 9th-13th centuries. It is vocal music in which one or more new melodic lines are added to an existing Georgian current (cantus firmus) where early styles featured perfect intervals (4ths, 5ths, and 8ves), often with parallel motion between the voices; later styles featured more independent melodic parts and a greater variety of intervals.

Cantus firmus (“fixed song”)

Borrowed material, often from a Gregorian chant, which serves as a structural framework for a new polyphonic composition, with the borrowed material found in the lowest voice (tenor).

Tenor (“to hold”)

In a polyphonic composition from the Middle Ages, this is the voice that contains the cantus firmus.

Organal style

A style of organum in which the notes from the original chant are sung by the tenor in long note values (also called “sustained-note organum,” “organum purum,” or florid style).

Discant style

A style of free organum in which there is more rhythmic movement of the cantus firmus, sometimes featuring “note-against-note” movement between the voices.

Clausula

A self-contained, polyphonic section within discant-style organum that is often based on a single word or syllable and is highly melismatic (*it serves as a link to the development of the motet).

Rhythmic modes

An early step in the evolution of rhythmic notation developed by Notre-Dame composers in the late-12th to early-13th century, consisting of six basic rhythmic patterns (related to poetic meters used in Latin grammar) which provided rhythmic structure (thereby keeping two or more voices in rhythmic alignment when they were not moving note-against-note).

Motet (“word”)

A vocal composition with or without instrumental accompaniment, which can be sacred or secular and which flourished from the 13th-16th centuries. Refers to the addition of new texts to existing music.

Motet origins

An important stage in the development of polyphony where new texts were added to the upper voice of organum to make the awkward and textless lines easier to sing. Secular and sacred texts-even if in two different languages-were mixed. This created the suggestions of “double meanings,”

Motet features

Usually in 3 voices with the bottom the cantus firmus and the upper voices more rhythmically active (and, due to having the same range, often crossing parts), and features the primary harmonic intervals (P4, P5, and P8).

Polytextuality

A work where 2 or more texts are heard simultaneously (resulting in words becoming hard to distinguish), a characteristic feature of the 13th-century motet.

Troping (“a turn or change”)

The practice of embellishing chants by adding words and/or music to organum. The words added might serve to interpret or clarify the meaning of the original chant text and were often set to existing melismas within the original chant.

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.