Antiquity & The Middle Ages

Antiquity refers to the ancient past, especially civilizations before the Middle Ages. Music has been around for hundreds of years before the middle ages. We can assets this from primitive cave drawings, stories from the Bible, and Egyptian hieroglyphs that all depict music to have been part of life at the time.

Early Musical Traditions

Chinese Music

Ancient Chinese music can be traced back at least 4000 years. Much of it was played using a pentatonic or 5 note scale. It was often played on plucked string instruments such as the ch’in, which is part of the zither family.

Egyptian Music

In Ancient Egypt, music played a part in almost every aspect of life. Musicians, many of whom were women, were second in status only to royalty. The lute, lyre, and harp were popular instruments in Egypt.

Hebrew Music

The Hebrew people associated music with religion. There are many references in the Old Testament to music, dancing, and musical instruments. The only ancient Hebrew instrument still used today is the shofar, or ram’s horn.

Greek Music

The English word “music” comes from the Greek word mousike. The most popular instruments of Greece were the kithara (Greek for lyre) & the aulos. Music was played at festivals & plays, and music contests took place at the Olympic games.

Roman Music

Roman music is based on the music of Greece. Given the war-like history of the Romans, music was used mostly for military& entertainment purpose. As well as using drums, the Romans made the first brass trumpets & horns.

The Middle Ages

**Western Music during the Middle Ages were traced back from social and religious developments form Europe.

The Middle Ages, also known as the Medieval Period, were from around 400-1400 A.D.

The most prevalent type of music of this period was sacred music.

There were 3 types of people during this period: 1) the First Class, rich landowners called Nobility. 2) The Second class, the clergy, priests, monks working in faith. 3) The third class of poor farmers known as peasants.

Sacred Music is music composed by the church and was called Plainsong. Plainsong consisted of a single melody with Latin words and were part of the Roman Catholic Liturgy and Church services like mass. It was written by monks of four line staves using square notes called neumes. The most well-known form of plainsong is called Gregorian Chant in honor of Pope Gregory the First. The Gregorian chant is a monophonic Christian Plainchant. Monophonic is comprised of a single melody without any harmonic support or accompaniment.

Organum is polyphonic music. Polyphonic music is music for 2 or more simultaneously sounding music.

Secular music is non-religious music not bound by the traditions of the church, so it was redirected rom religious matters. Sacred music however, focuses on religious perspectives. During the 12th & 13th century, a popular French band called the Trouveres and Troubadours flourished across Europe. They played secular music in monophonic.

Guillaume de Machaut was a poet and composer in the court of John Duke of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia around 1323. Machaut is best remembered for being the first composer to create a polyphonic setting in the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass. The Ordinary are parts of the liturgy that do not change. Machaut was the first composer in western music history to recognize his achievements and made it so his work was noted for generations.