The Early Christian Church and Secular Song

the early christian church and secular song

the early Christian church: musical thought

roman music:

• lyric poetry often song
• music part of most public ceremonies
• greek architecture, music, and philosophy imported into rome

roman empire decline:

• Christian church gained influence
• church fathers interpret bible, set down principles
  • similar to ancient greeks
  • beautiful things exist to remind us of divine and perfect beauty, not to inspire self-centered enjoyment or seduce our senses
• Christian church became the main and often only unifying force and channel of culture in europe
• church took over rome's mission of civilizing and unifying the peoples under its sway
• music was used to influence the people

transmission of greek music theory:

• martianus capella described the seven liberal arts - verbal arts (trivium), mathematical disciplines (quadrivium - included music because its mathematical relationships seemed to explain the universe)
• boethius was the most revered authority on music in the middle ages
• de institutione musica treats music as a science of numbers
• borrowed lots from greek sources

the early Christian church: musical practice

greek legacy:

• greek music was a heavy influence for the first two or three centuries but church leaders rejected their idea of cultivating music purely for enjoyment - wanted to wean converts away from anything associated with their pagan past
• early church leaders saw music as servant of religions
• Christian music became unaccompanied singing

Judaic heritage:

• some elements of Christian observances derive from Jewish traditions
  • chanting and singing of scripture and psalms
• both traditions relied on vocal music in worship services
• strophic devotional songs/hymns began to emerge as the early church spread
• strophic form - music repeats and melody stays the same with changing text

eastern and western churches:

• 395 ce - eastern and western empires split, followed by eastern and western churches
• western church - Catholic, ruled from rome
• eastern church - orthodox, byzantine, blend of cultures
• western churches in italy, france and germany developed chants; most local versions of chants disappeared or were absorbed into the single uniform practice under the authority of the roman Catholic church
  • constantinople
  • western church became increasingly romanized
• monks preserved chants by learning to sing and notate them - gregorian chants

key facts

• music consisted of a single melodic line
• vocal melody was intimately linked with the rhythm and meter of words
• musical performances were memorized or improvised
• philosophers believed music was both an orderly system interlocked with nature and a force in human thought and conduct
• a scientifically based acoustical theory was in the making
• scales were built up from tetrachords
• musical terminology was well developed

medieval song

goliard songs:

• oldest written secular songs, latin texts
• goliards - poets and composers who were students or clerics and exalted a libertine lifestyle
• celebrate wine, women, satire
• music does not survive in precise notation
• early manifestation of literacy

jongleurs:

• sung by jongleurs (minstrels)
  • traveled from village to village entertaining
  • social outtcasts, denide protection of the law
• troubadours and trobairitz were poet-composers who flourished in france
  • created and sang their own songs - mainly about love but covered other topics too
  • very well thought of, unlike jongleurs
  • most songs were about their social lives and complaint songs about their love lives
  • basically the influencers of the medieval era
  • composition was competitive, oral tradition
  • troubadours - southern france
  • trouveres - northern france
• variety and ingenuity
• refrain is a line or two of poetry that returns with its own music from one stanza to another, each stanza sung to the same melody
• narrow range

minnesinger:

• modeled after the troubadours
• sang about love in an abstract and religious way
• tunes were more tightly organized, used bar (aab) form
• songs about spring, dawn, crusade songs
• cantigas de santa maria - collection of songs honouring the Virgin Mary