Western Music Rep - Midterm

I. Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome

• History of Western Music: Begins with ancient civilizations in Greece and Rome.

  • Limited surviving works: Only about forty-five Greek songs and hymns.

  • Sources coincide with writings, images (paintings, sculptures), and artifacts.

  • Music was integral to religious ceremonies, popular entertainment, and dramatic performances

  • Greek music theory was passed onto to Romans, forming the foundation of Western Music Theory

  • Cultured individuals were educated in music.

• Greek Mythology and Music: Music had divine origins.

  • Gods and demigods were considered music inventors/practitioners.

  • Apollo, Amphion, and Orpheus: Gods associated with music's magical powers

  • Music could heal sickness, purify the body and mind, and perform miracles.

• Extant Greek Music: Primarily monophonic.

  • Often embellished with instruments, resulting in heterophony.

  • Almost entirely improvised.

  • Intimately linked to poetry, in fact, they were essentially synonymous with each other

• Philosophical Views: Philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, explored music's influence on ethics and education.

  • The belief was that gymnastics disciplines the body, but music disciplines the mind

  • Plato endorsed Dorian and Phrygian modes for fostering temperance and courage, while excluding others.

  • Aristotle believed music could be used for both enjoyment and education and that negative emotions could be purged through music and drama.

  • Both disapproved of changing established musical conventions, as lawlessness in art could lead to anarchy.

  • Pythagorean view: music is governed by mathematical laws, as humanity was kept in harmony by numerical relationships. Music was viewed as inseparable from numbers, which was the key to the universe

• Harmonic Elements: Laid the foundation for modern musical concepts.

  • Intervals combined into scales.

  • Consonant intervals: 4th, 5th, and octave.

  • Tetrachord: principal building block of scale.

  • Genera of tetrachords: diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic.

•  Harmonia: Unification of parts into an orderly whole'; encompassed the structure of society and the universe.

• Theory of imitation: music that imitates ethos arouses the same ethos in the listener

• Harmonic elements in Ancient Rome: took musical culture from Greece, having lyric poetry often sung, music as part of most public ceremonies, grandiose music festivals, and more. When the economy declined in the 3rd and 4th centuries, so did the use of music.

• Transmission of Greek music theory

  • Martianus Capella's The Marriage of Mercury and Philology described the seven liberal arts in the early 5th century. Rehashed the same concepts that Pythagoras had come up with.

  • Boethius (ca. 480–ca. 524) was the most revered music authority in the Middle Ages.

    • Die institutione musica (The Fundamentals of Music) was widely copied and cited for the next thousand years.

  • Music was seen as the science of numbers, where numerical ratios and proportions determined intervals, consonances, scales, and tuning.

  • Division of liberal arts included the trivium (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and harmonics/music).

• Early Christian Church: Musical Practice

  • Christian communities incorporated features of Greek music.

  • Mass commemorates the Last Supper, imitating the Passover meal.

  • Singing psalms was assigned to certain days.

  • Psalms and hymns were the earliest recorded musical activity of Jesus and his followers.

  • Texts remained more stable than melodies.

• Chant Dialects: Regional differences produced distinct liturgies.

  • Melodies for singing sacred texts in Latin: chant.

    • Examples: Gallican, Beneventan, Old Roman, Visigothic (Mozarabic), Ambrosian.

  • Local chant dialects disappeared over time or were absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church.

• Gregorian Chant: A repertory of melodies.

  • In the 9th century, Frankish monks and nuns copied manuscripts.

  • Thousands of chant melodies survive.

• Music from the Ancient World (Summary):

  • Single melodic line.

  • Vocal melody linked with the rhythm and meter of words.

  •  Performances memorized or improvised.

  • Philosophers viewed music as an orderly system.

  • Scientifically based acoustical theory in the making.

  • Scales were built on tetrachords.

  • Well-developed musical terminology. Note: *The Church Fathers held to Plato's principle that beautiful things exist to remind us of divine beauty, thus music was a servant of religion.

II. Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages

• Western Christian Chant and Liturgy:

  • Plainchant: Melody projects sacred words. Its shape is linked to the verbal

    message.

  • Liturgy: Sacred worship with texts and rites to glorify God.

  • Church Calendar: Yearly cycle of Bible readings. Weekly cycle of Psalms. Feast days.

  • Two main services: the Office and the Mass.

• Divine Office:

  • Communal reading of psalms. Liturgy codified in Rule of St. Benedict (ca. 530).

  • Series of eight services at specified times.

  • All 150 psalms sung each week.

• Mass:

  • Most important service of Catholic Church.

  • Ordinary of the Mass: Invariable portions. (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei).

  • Proper of the Mass: Items that vary according to the liturgical calendar. (Introit, Collects, Epistle, Gradual, Alleluia, Gospel, Offertory, Communion).

•  Notation of Chant:

  • Invented to standardize chant melodies in the late 8th-9th centuries (Legend of Saint Gregory)

  • Western and northern Europe converted to Christianity (5th to 9th centuries).

  • Official “Gregorian” chant established in the Frankish empire.

• Genres and Forms of Chant:

  • Classification by texts: Biblical or nonbiblical, prose or poetry.

  • Manner of performance: Antiphonal (alternating choirs), responsorial (choir responds to a soloist), or direct (one choir).

  • Musical style: Syllabic (one note per syllable), melismatic (many notes per syllable), pneumatic (2-7 notes per syllable).

• Recitation Formulas: Simple melodic outlines for many texts.

• Text Setting: Straightforward or ornate. Prominent syllables have higher notes/melismas. Florid chants have long melismas on weak syllables. Reflect Latin pronunciation.

• Melodic Structure: Phrases correspond with text; most phrases resemble arches.

• Chant Forms:

  • Psalm tone: Melodies for singing psalms.

  • Strophic: Same melody for several stanzas, e.g., hymns.

  • Free form: May be completely original.

• Chants of the Office:

  • Psalm tones: Formulas for chanting psalms.

  • Sung to tone matching mode of antiphon.

  • Antiphonal psalmody: Half-verses alternate between choirs (Decani + Cantorus).

  • Antiphons: Verse/sentence with its own melody.

• Later Developments of the Chant:

  • Chants of Mass Ordinary: Simple syllabic melodies sung by congregation.

  • Choir took over by 9th century, creating ornate melodies.

  • Antiphons composed for additional feasts.

  • Tropes: Expanded existing chant. (New text to fit melisma, textless melody, new text+melody).

  • Liturgical drama: Plays on holy days near the altar, originating in troping.

  • Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179): renowned visionary, mystic, and composer of sacred monophony. (Wrote both melodies and verse, rare.).

  • Church Modes: modal system; developed gradually. Primary means to classify chants. Eight modes identified by number.

• Medieval Music Theory and Practice:

  • Solmization: Facilitated sight-singing by setting syllables to remember whole tones and semitones. (Introduced by Guido of Arezzo).

  • Guidonian Hand: Visual aid to locate pitches.

  • Stages of notation: Neumes placed above text, evolving to horizontal lines.

● Medieval Song:

• Goliard songs: Oldest written secular songs, Latin texts. (Wine, women, satire).

• Jongleurs, minstrels: Sang secular songs, traveled alone or in small groups and were in service to particular lords.

• Troubadours and trouvères: French poet-composers. (Refrain important and had three types: alba, canso, and tenso).

• Fine amour: "Refined love"; formal, idealized love.

• Minnesinger: German knightly poet-musician. (Modeled after troubadours).

III. Polyphony Through the Thirteenth Century

• Prelude (1050–1300): Economic growth and cultural revival.

  • Ancient Greek writings translated into Latin, universities founded, large

    Romanesque churches built.

  • Reconciliation of classical Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine.

  • Development of polyphonic music. (Heightened grandeur of chant).

  • Written polyphony introduced counterpoint, harmony, notation, and composition as distinct from performance.

• Early Organum (9th-11th Centuries): Described in Musica enchiriadis (an anonymous treatise)

  • Parallel organum: Chant melody in principal voice; organal voice moves in parallel.

  • Oblique organum: Adjustments made to avoid tritones and included dissonance into chants.

  • Contrary and oblique motion predominated in 11th century and had more independent voice lines.

• Twelfth-Century Organum:

  • Aquitainian organum: Free and florid.

  • Organum duplum: Lower voice (tenor) sustains long notes. Also known as organum purum

  • Discantus style: Note-against-note movement.

• Notation: Score notation developed, requiring rhythmic notation.

• Notre Dame Polyphony (Late 12th and Early 13th Century):

  • Parisian polyphony - even more ornate style.

  • Associated with Cathedral of Notre Dame.

  • Leonin (fl. 1150s–ca. 1201): Priest and poet-musician.

  • Perotin (fl. 1200–1230): Trained as singer under Leoninus.

  • Magnus Liber Organi: Compilation attributed to Leoninus.

  • Viderunt omnes by Leonin: Gradual for Christmas Day.

  • Perotin “the Great”: Organum duplum, triplum, quadruplum.

  • Viderunt omnes (1198): 4-voice organum.

• The Motet: New genre, early thirteenth century.

  • From the French mot (“word”).

  • Latin or French words added to upper (discant) voice.

  • Borrowed chant material in tenor (cantus firmus).

  • Some motets intended for nonliturgical use.

  • Motet Versatility: Became independent of church, tenor lost liturgical link.

  • Composers reworked motets, added voices, or created from scratch.

  • De ma dame vient/Dieus, comment porroie/Omnes by Ada

IV. French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century

• Prelude: The 14th century experienced turmoil, but also secularism and advances in the arts. Science separated from religion and there was a growth in literacy and the vernacular.

• Ars Nova: (New Art/Method) Treatise from the early 1320s. Attributed to Philippe de Vitry.

  • New genre: Polyphonic art song.

  • Motet topics became more political and structurally complex, using isorhythm.

  • Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini were important composers.

• Roman de Fauvel: Narrative poem satirizing political corruption.

• Isorhythmic Motets: Defines French musical style for the first half of the 14th century. De Vitry’s are the earliest example.

  • Tenors laid out in segments of identical rhythm.

  •  Talea: Repeating rhythmic unit.

  • Color: Recurring segment of melody.

• Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300–1377):

  • Leading composer and poet of French Ars Nova.

  • Compiled his complete works.

  • Major works include Messe de Nostre Dame and Formes Fixes.

    • Mass: Polyphonic setting of Mass Ordinary.

    • Movements linked by style, recurring motives, and isorhythm.

  • Love songs continued the trouvère tradition; wrote monophonic pieces in standard poetic forms (formes fixes).

• Italian Trecento Music: from "mille trecento," Italian for 1300

  • 14th-century Italy: Collection of city-states.

  • Secular polyphonic songs composed and sung as entertainment for wealthy

    patrons.

  • Secular forms: Madrigal, caccia, and ballata.

  • Fourteenth-century madrigal: Idyllic, pastoral, satirical, or love poems set for two or three voices.

  • Ballata: Became popular later than madrigal.

  • Francesco Landini (ca. 1325–1397): Foremost Italian musician of the Trecento, leading composer of ballate. *Landini's style: Sweetness of harmonies, graceful vocal melodies, and the Landini cadence.

• Ars Subtilior: ("The subtle art") Late fourteenth-century polyphonic songs. Formes fixes (social dances), elevated styles matched in the manuscripts, and rhythmic complexity.

V. England, France, and Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century

• Prelude: Strong English presence in France after victories in the Hundred Years' War.

  • English nobility brought musicians, spreading English musical style.

  • Duchy of Burgundy served as a pathway for importing English music.

  • Court chapels employed composers, singers, and instrumentalists.

  • Cosmopolitan style of Burgundian composers due to the presence of many foreign musicians.

• English Music and Its Influence:

  • English carols featured successions of simultaneous 3rds and 6ths, often in parallel motion.

  • John Dunstable (ca. 1390–1453): Leading English composer, wrote in all polyphonic genres.

    • Motets were historically his most important works.

  • Renaissance music theory: New emphasis on 3rds and 6ths challenged music theorists.

• Music in Burgundian Lands:

  • Guillaume Du Fay and Binchois were the foremost Burgundian composers - Du Fay esteemed for sacred music, Binchois for chansons.

    • Binchois and the Burgundian chanson followed the form of the rondeau.

  • Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1397–1474): Most famous composer of his time.

    • His sacred music included fauxbourdon technique - A musical technique that uses three voices to create a homophonic texture

  •  Masses commissioned for specific occasions.

  • Cyclic masses initially derived from liturgical association and compositional procedure.

  • Tenor of a polyphonic chanson used for cantus firmus.

    • Du Fay's Missa Se la face ay pale (1450s) was the first complete mass to use a secular tune for cantus firmus.

  • Four basic types of polyphonic compositions: Secular chansons with French texts, Motets, Magnificats and hymn settings for the daily Offices, and Settings of the Mass Ordinary

VI. Music of Franco-Flemish Composers, 1450–1520

• Northern Composers - The Generation after Du Fay:

  • Jean de Ockeghem (ca. 1420–1497): Celebrated as a singer, composer, and teacher.

    • Ockeghem masses feature four voices of similar character, independent melodic lines, and an extended bass range.

    • Canon (Latin for “rule”): Compositional technique where voices derived from a single notated voice.

    • Naming masses without a cantus firmus: titles from mode, derived from the first note, a motto mass, or a structural feature

• The Next Generation: Josquin and His Contemporaries:

  • Jacob Obrecht (1457/8–1505), Henricus Isaac (ca. 1450–1517), and Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450–1521) were eminent Franco-Flemish composers.

  • Henricus Isaac: is most well known for his Lied/Lieder

  • Odhecaton - first printed anthology of chansons, works dating 1470-1500.

  • Josquin des Prez: Regarded as the greatest composer of his time, and the first composer in the history of Western music to not have been forgotten after his death

    • Josquin’s chansons abandoned formes fixes and used strophic texts and polyphonic texture.

    • Josquin's motets were sacred compositions with attention to expressive details.

    • Masses: Included cantus-firmus masses.

      • Paraphrase mass: Missa Pange lingua (based on a plainchant hymn)

    • Parody (or imitation) mass: Missa Malheur me bat (mass based on existing polyphonic work)

VII. Secular Song and National Styles in the Sixteenth Century

• The Rise of National Styles - Italy and Spain:

  • Frottola (for Italian courts) and lauda (semi-public religious gatherings) were entertainment forms in Italy.

    • Villanella - three voices, lively homophonic strophic pieces

    • Canzonetta (little song) and balleto (little dance)

  • Villancico was the most important form of secular polyphonic song in Renaissance Spain.

  • *Juan del Encina (1468–1529): Leading composer of villancicos.

• The Italian Madrigal:

  • Dominated secular music in the sixteenth century.

  • Madrigal texts: Artful and elevated poetry.

  • Renewed appreciation for Pretrach, “the father of humanism”

  • Madrigals were used for social settings as opposed to performance

  • Composers aimed to match the artfulness of poetry and convey images and emotions.

  • Jacques Arcadelt (ca. 1507–1568): Composed early madrigals.

  • Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643): Made crucial stylistic transitions in madrigal composition.

• The Rise of National Styles: France and England:

  • New type of chansons developed in France with light, fast, rhythmic qualities.

  • Claudin de Sermisy (ca. 1490–1562): Composed typical lighthearted chansons.

  • Italian culture brought the madrigal to England.

  • Thomas Morley (1557/8–1602) and Thomas Weelkes (ca. 1575–1623): Leading English madrigalists.

VIII. The Rise of Instrumental Music

• Dance Music: Musicians improvised or played from memory.

  • Functional music accompanied dancers; stylized music for solo lute or keyboard.

• Settings of Existing Melodies: Instrumental music sometimes incorporated existing melodies.

  • Chant settings and organ masses: Short segments of chant for organists to alternate with the choir.

• Variations:

  • Independent instrumental pieces.

  • Combined change with repetition.

• Lute Music: Lute was the most popular household instrument in the sixteenth century. The earliest printed music were variations for lute on dance tunes.

• English Virginalists:

  • Keyboard composers named after their instrument (the virginal).

  • William Byrd (ca. 1540–1623): Most important keyboard composer in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

• Abstract Instrumental Works:

  • Independent of dance.

  • Developed from improvisation and were not based on existing melodies.

  • Variety of names: toccata, prelude, fantasia, ricercare.

• Canzona:

  • Italian genre.

  • Ensemble canzonas: Idea of divided choirs applied to instrumental works.

  • Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1555–1612): Composed ensemble canzonas. The king of the antiphonal or double ensemble composition of his time

IX. Sacred Music in the Era of the Reformation

• The Music of the Reformation in Germany:

  • Martin Luther influenced church music; one of the first proponents of doing church in the language and not just Latin. Believed in the educational and ethical power of music.

  • Lutheran Church music: Retained much of Catholic liturgy.

  • Chorale: text and tune. Simple, metrical tunes and rhyming verses. Lutheran church music grows out of the chorale.

  • Polyphonic chorale settings: Lied technique and chorale motets.

• Reformation Church Music outside Germany:

  • Jean Calvin led the Protestant Reformation outside of Germany (Switzerland).

  • Church of England: Blend of Catholic and Protestant elements.

  • Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505–1585): Reflected religious upheavals in his career and influenced English church music.

• The Counter-Reformation:

  • Council of Trent (1545 to 1563): Addressed music in the Catholic Church.

  • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6–1594): Commissioned to revise official chant books, known as “The Prince of Music”.

  • Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611): Illustrious composer of sacred music.

  • Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594): Synthesized achievements of an epoch.

  • William Byrd: Most important English composer since Dunstable.