midterm

liturgy

the customary order of worship for a religious group

standardizing the liturgy and music

• a single dialect (Latin) and liturgical practice that is led by Rome

• this standardization led to:

  • Liturgy: Mass

  • Music: Music notation and Gregorian Chant

gregorian chant (plain chant)

• monophonic sacred singing in Latin

• legend attributes the repertory of chant to Pope Gregory I, but there is no evidence that he played any role in composing or standardizing the chant

monophony

• a single melody line without any harmonic accompaniment or other melodic lines

• monophonic music can be sung by one or more people, just as long as there is only one melody line

jubal vs pythagoras conflict

• there is a conflict between Greek reason and Judeo Christian faith

• Jubal → music is a divine gift revealed to humanity within the biblical timeline

• Pythagoras → discovered mathematical ratios behind musical harmony

hellenism

• the influence of greek culture on the roman empire

• during the first century BC, the roman empire took control of israel

• greek culture had great influence over Jews and the early years of Christianity

  • ex, Sadducees worked closely with Greek rulers and welcomed Greek influence

  • Saul changed his name to Paul to connect with Gentiles

father tertullian

• founder of western theology

• early Christian philosopher and theologian

• first writer to use the term “trinity”

• tertullian refused to accept Pythagoras as the father of music

early music theorists

• most early theorists, including Boethius, favor Pythagoras

• “jubal appears as a Hebraic interloper among the Hellenes”

• because Boethius was so revered, many other philosophers will just follow his lead

the abrupt shift in favor of jubal

• in the 13th century, several theorists led the way for an abrupt shift in favor of Jubal

  • Aegidius amorensis

aegidius’ 3 points for Jubal

1. jubal’s half-brother Tubalcain is a blacksmith

2. aegidius doesn’t wish to exclude Pythagoras, but rather establish his priority in time

3. the observation of nature has importance in musical discovery

universal history

• an important medieval concept that embraces all aspects of the past and connects it chronologically

• this thought accepts the entire past (biblical and pagan) as history

• medieval christian historians accepted pagan gods as historical figures made possible by euhemerism

euhemerism

the thought that Greek gods were real people that were deified after their exploits

mass

the most important service in the Roman Catholic Church that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus

purpose of the liturgy

• role of the church was to teach the congregation of church doctrine

• the liturgy was to reinforce these lessons in way that is standard

church calendar

• every year the church commemorates each event or saint with a feast day celebrated on days

• this yearly cycle is the church calendar

parts of the mass

• proper - part of the mass that varies day by day

• ordinary - part of the mass that doesn’t change, although the melodies do

3 sstles of text setting

1. syllabic

2. neumatic

3. melismatic

syllabic

every syllable has a single note

neumatic

1-6 notes per syllable (generally one neume per syllable)

melismatic

long melodic passages on a single syllable → give emphases to a word

women in the church

• women were silenced in the church and were not allowed to be priests

• however, women could hold leadership positions in convents

• convent life revolved around singing Office services and attending mass

• in convents, women had access to education

hildegard of bingen

• abbess in her own convent and wrote sacred music

• there are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages

• her largest work is the Ordo virtutum (“the virtues”), which is a sacred music drama with 82 songs

the office (the liturgy of the hours)

• the series of 8 services throughout the day and night where Christians prayed and sang songs

• particularly important in monasteries and convents

• services include matins (early morning), lauds (morning), and vespers (evening prayers)

music of the office

• antiphon

• responsories

• hymns

• canticles

• prayers

antiphon

chant sung before and after the pasalm

responsories

musical responses to the Bible reading

canticles

poetic passages from parts of the Bible other than the Psalms

psalmody

• the singing of psalms

• part of both the Mass and the Office

• during the Mass it became the Introit and Communion

3 types of Gregorian Chant

1. responsorial

2. antiphonal

3. direct

responsorial chant

soloist alternates with the choir/congregation

antiphonal chant

two groups of the choir/congregation alternate

direct chant

without alternation

melodic shape in Gregorian Chant

• the creators of chant made no attempt to express emotions or depict images, as in later opera or song, but their melodies reflect the shape of the text

• most phrases resemble an arch, wich parallels the way Latin is spoken

• melismas are often placed on important words

  • st augustine regarded long melismas an expression of joy beyond words

trope

expanding existing chants to link a chant more closely to the occasion

tropes can be expanded in 3 ways

1. new words and music before the chant or before each phrase of the chant

2. new melodies

3. new text to existing melodies

secular life and music

• outside of the church, very few read music

• secular music existed, but not much is known about it

• there were instruments used for dance music and song accompaniment in secular music

latin

• began to die out shortly after the fall of Rome

• local dialects began to develop which would become the romantic languages

• although Latin was no longer anyone’s native tongue by the High Middle Ages, music was still written in the language

• this would become a problem because outside of the educated church and legal leaders, most of the medieval society was illiterate

• the society’s illiteracy would be a problem because the music in the vernacular was not saved

4 concepts that distinguish Western music

1. counterpoint

2. harmony

3. notation

4. composition

harmony

the regulation of simultaneous sounds

notation

music being written down and regulated

composition

written music as distinct from spontaneous performance

early polyphony

began as a manner of performance and developed into a written tradition

musica enchiriadis and scolica enchiriadis

• anonymous music treatise that includes instruction in the throy and practice of church music

• contains the first technical discussion of modal theory based on final, reciting tone, and range

• the first surviving display of how to perform polyphony

  • explains what intervals are most consonant

  • not treated as innovation but as something already established

organum

• two or more voices improvised/unwritten singing at a 5^th/4^th below the given melody

  • principal voice: original chant melody

  • organal voice: the 5^th/4^th below

3 types of organum

1. parallel organum

2. mixed parallel organum

3. note against note organum

parallel organum

• two voices moving in parallel motion

• parallel 5ths

mixed parallel organum

• parallel 4ths

• avoiding tritons

note-against-note organum

melody now in lower voices

tenor

the lower voice that holds the principal melody

charlemagne

• roman emperor coronated in 800 who tried to continue the tradition of the Roman past (fall of Western Roman Empire was 476 AD)

• he and his son Louis the Pious focused on making their churches and courts the center for intellectual and cultural life

france

after charlemagne and Louis’ death, their empire was divided. the western part of the empire became France

aquitanian polyphony

• in France, church composers developed a new and more orante type of polyphony

• the secondary voice (upper-voice) is now written, not improvised, and is not as reliant on the primary voice (tenor)

notre dame cathedral

• made major developments in polyphony and rhythmic modes

• features the first liturgical polyphony to be composed and performed from the notation in church

• two important composers:

  • leonin

  • perotin

magnus liber organi (13th century)

• the great book of organum

• treatise by “anonymous iv” which summarizes the organum styles of the Notre Dame school in Paris

rhythmic mode

• instead of using note shapes ot show relative durations, they used note groups (ligatures) to indicate rhythm

• 2 types of notes

  • long: long notes

  • breve: short notes

• notes are always grouped in threes

• first written evidence is in the Magnus liber organi by Anonymous iv

• part of the Mass

leonin (12th century)

• the first known composer of polyphonic organum

• also the first composer to utilize rhythmic modes

• an excellent organista, or singer and composer of organum

• organum in his style will feature a drone-like tenor voice and an intricate secondary voice (duplum)

• wrote 2-part polyphonic liturgical works

perotin

• probably a student of Leonin

• created organum for three or four voices by stacking more voices on the tenor

  • quadruplum

  • triplum

  • duplum

  • tenor

counterpoint

the combination of multiple independent melody lines

polyphony prior to Leoonin

• liturgical polyphony was characterized by a wholesale anonymity

• Codex Calixtinus: a manuscript attributed to Pope Calixtus II that features a set of polyphonic pieces

• polyphony was anonymous because it was spontaneously created during the liturgy

codex calixtinus

a manuscript attributed to Pope Calixtus II that features a set of polyphonic pieces

typical medieval church composer

• ecclesiastic - in the service of the church

• composer had to be very familiar with th eliturgy within the church

• highly educated

john dunstable

astronomer & mathematician

what we know of leonin

• magister Leoninus was an optimus organista who wrote a great book of organum for the Mass and canonical hours until the time of Magister Perotinus

• Leonin’s music was composed in service of the liturgy in the Notre Dame cathedral

leonin was probably

• a man that was involved in intellectual life of the 12th century in Paris

• educated in the cathedral schools of Notre Dame

• served as a canon at Notre Dame

• a poet of sufficient important and was praised after his death for his Bible commentary

• creator of liturgical organum

the problem with Leonin

• there is no way we can prove that all the “Leonins” in these documents are the Leonin mentioned by anonymous iv

• there are other "Leonins” who have been documented that could not possibly have been the composer

cantus firmus

• new name for the tenor line starting in the 13^th century

• could be a new melody or an existing melody

motet

new genre which added newly written Latin words to the upper voices

influence of motets

• principal melody is in the cantus firmus

• can be sacred or secular, but typically sacred

the 14^th century

• europe was under much disruptiona nd turmoil due to famine, war, and plague

• hundred years’ war between France and England

• europeans used to view the church as supreme authority. now its authority is being questioned

views on the church

• William of Ockham (philosopher) argued that knowledge of nature and humanity should rest on the human experience of the senses rather than on reason and the church

• secular interests start to emerge

the ars nova

“the new art”

• the new French musical style where polyphony, secular music, and mensuration signs were invented or perfected

• 14th century

philippe de vitry

• french composer who is credited for writing the music treatise Ars nova notanda

• the earliest musical works that exemplifies the Ars Nova are his motets

rhythm in the ars nova

mensuration signs

• divisions of note values results in much grater rhythmic flexibility

• mensuration signs: symbols that are the “ancestors” of modern time signatures

• in ars nova notation, note shapess could indicate certain durations that remained unchanged by the notes around them

• units of time could be grouped in either 2 (imperfect) or 3 (perfect)

menuration sign

symbols that are the “ancestors” of modern time signatures

in ars nova notation, note shapes could indicate

certin durations that remained unchanged by the notes around them

isorhythm

a device in hich the tenor is laid out in segments of identical rhythm

in isorythmic motets

the tenor moves very slowly in comparison to the upper voices

2 rythmic elements in motet tenors

1. talea = the repeating rhythmic units

2. color = the recurring segment of melody

talea

the repeating rhythmic units

color

the recurring segment of melody

guillaume de machaut

1300-1377

• prolific composer of 14th century France and Ars Nova

• one of the first composers to compile his works and discuss his compositional methods

• compowed over 140 musical works

• wrote over 300 poems

Messe de Notre Dame

14th century

• one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the mass ordinary

• probably the first mass to be written by a single person

• written for performance at a Mass fo the Virgin Mary celebrated every Saturday at a cathedral in Reims

contratenor

• against the tenor

• in the same range as the tenor, usually

• added contrapuntally to the tenor

chanson

• polyphonic French songs

• the principal line is the cantus (upper line)

• 3 fixed forms (form fixes)

  • ballade

  • rondeau

  • virelai

3 fixed forms

1. ballade

2. rondeau

3. virelai

musical symmetry

• medieval composers held a fascination for achieving musical symmetry

• the ability to match rhythmic and melodic patterns with their retrograde demonstrated a composer’s knowledge of mensural notation and counterpointa s much as it tested his skill at canonic riddles

retrograde imitation

complements a forward moving line with an identical line stated in reverse

“the extra-auditory dimension of music was valued as highly as what was heard”

main idea of medieval musi c

magnus liber organi

features the earliest example of retrograde imitation on a two voice clausulae from the Christmas gradual viderunt omnes

dominus - nusmido

• the word “nusmido” gives a clue to the inspiration of the tenor’s melody

• straightfoward retrograde with no hidden riddles

• only the melody is reversed exactly, rhythm has changed

• new upper voice was composed to match the new tetrograde tenor line

garrit gallus - phillippe de vitry

• features a rhythmic retrograde: the same rhythm forwards and backwards

garrit gallus - devitry: retrograde is intentional because

• devitry, compositional master, breaks the rules in order to achieve symmetry

balsamus et munda cera by Guillaume DuFay

isorhythmic motet

• rhythmic retrograde is a repetition rather than a reversal of the sequence

Ma fin est mon commencement

Guillaume Machaut

• a rondeau (chanson formes fixes)

• retrograde canon

realization of Ma fin est mon commencement (my end is my beginning - machaut)

retrograde canon

1. tenor as normal

2. cantus is tenor backwards

3. B section of contra tenor is A section in retrograde

what is the point of numerology

• solving musical riddles is to musciallly unify with God and to understand him better

• religion, music, and science are not separate back in the middle ages

humanism

• the study of humanities, or things pertaining to human knowledge

• emphasized logic and metaphysics and its reliance on authority

• humanists emphasized the study of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy

• humanists had faith in the dignity of humans, in human reason, and in human capacity to undertsand reality thorugh our senses

• following artistotle, humanists considered music an essential part of education

court musicians

• royal courts are extended households of a monarchy

• 3 divisions of the courts a musician can work in:

  • chapel

  • chamber

  • public

3 division of courts a musician can work in

1. chapel

2. chamber

3. public

music patronage

• many rulers avidly supported art and music and hired talented composers and performers

• the medici family spported Guillame DuFay, Heinrich Isaac, Alexander Agricola, as musicians. Donatello and Michelangelo as artists

• the Sforza family supported Josquin Desprez and Leonardo da Vinci