Chapter 15: Tradition/Individuality in Medieval Chant+

Plainchant: Music of the Church

  • Music in medieval Europe = big element of spiritual power through voice

  • single line melody (monophonic in texture)

  • the starting point of artistic creativity in western music

  • free flowing unmeasured vocal line (avoids wide leaps)

  • the music of the early christians church called plainchant (chant) features monophonic non-metric melodies set in one of the church modes or scales

  • credits Pope Gregory the Great — who codified these melodies (known today as Gregorian Chant)

  • influence of middle eastern music

  • the term liturgy = set order of religious services and structure of each service

  • Gregorian melodies = more than 3000

  • chant melodies fall into 3 classes

    1. syllabic = one note for each syllable of text

    2. nematic = 2-4 notes for each syllable of text

    3. melismatic = Many notes for each syllable of text (descended from improvisations in middle eastern music)

    • based on how many notes are set to each syllable of text

Modes in middle ages

  • modes = scale or sequence of notes

  • served as the basis for European music

Middle Ages: The two types of Sacred services

  • daily offices = cycle of daily services, at certain times (roman catholic)

  • mass (central service of roman catholic)

    • Type 1: Proper = texts of mass vary day to day (depending on whats being celebrated)

    • Type 2: Ordinary = texts of mass stay the same always

    • until the middle of the 20th cent, most of mass text was in Latin

Gregorian Kyrie

  • Kyrie = first musical section of the ordinary of mass

  • construction is three fold (3 repetitions)

    • 3 for the Trinity — represents perfect unity

  • melody moves freely in waves (range is narrow but grows as the piece continues)

  • Can be sung:

    • a capella (voices alone)

    • antiphonal (alternate between groups of singers)

Influences in the Early Christian Church

  • early christian kept some familiar judaic traditions

    • borrowed use of congregational prayer

    • linked by the old testament book of psalms

    • responsorial singing (roots in ancient jewish practice)

  • psalm texts adopted in services of Protestant movement during the reformation (calvinist church)

  • music of early church was sung, rather than accompanied by instruments

    • Christians associated instruments with secular life (did not serve religion)

    • Organ first to be accepted for Christian Worship

  • influence from the East, Church of Byzantinum

    • devotional hymns

Life and Music in the Medieval Monastery

  • religious communities (monasteries) fostered the extensive development of worship music, starting in the middle ages

  • church life was disciplined

    • each day had its own ritual and own order of prayers

Hildegard of Bingen

  • writing and preserving knowledge

  • set many of her own texts to music

  • 1150 founded a monastery in Rupert stag, near Bingen, in Germany

  • had reported miracles an prophecies that made her famous in Europe

  • canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI

  • the expressive music of Hildegard of Bingen shows the tension between an individual creative response to divine inspiration and community expectations of worship

Islamic Chant

  • intoned speech/prayers

  • 7 invocations in recited prayer

  • islam views other kinds of Music “haram”

  • Repetitive structure of the text and Tajweed

  • free rhapsodic delivery, gives faithful opportunity

  • must beautify the Quran with daily devotion

  • call to prayer = Adhan (done 5 times a day)

    • from Prophet Muhammad

  • with the Quran

    • governed by oral traditions (tajweed)