Medieval Music: Gregorian Chant to Notre Dame Polyphony | Music Appreciation

Monophonic texture: a single melodic line, no harmony or accompaniment
Text in Latin; used in Catholic worship (masses, offices)
Free-flowing rhythm with no fixed meter; performance decisions may introduce aural flexibility rather than strict time
Based on church modes (scales that are neither major nor minor)
Standardized throughout Western Europe in theory; local chant traditions existed for regional saints
Practice: typically a cappella; no instruments by default
Office context: there are 8 offices per day, each designed to sing through the psalms weekly; chant supports liturgical prayer

Abbess, visionary and mystic; wrote on theology, science, botany, poetry, and music
First woman composer with a large number of surviving works; 77 songs preserved
Chant discussed: sacred Latin text, monophonic; some performances include a drone in practice
Notable biographical points: founded a convent at age 54; had political and ecclesiastical connections

Sacred Latin chant; monophonic by design
Text often references Christian symbols (e.g., lion and lamb)
In performance, drone may be added; chant is primarily liturgical but also performed outside strict services
General melodic characteristics: clear syllabic/melismatic features discussed in class (melismatic = many notes per syllable; syllabic = one note per syllable)

Organum: early polyphony adding a second melodic line to a given chant
Early organum featured parallel motion; over time the added line gained melodic independence
Cantus firmus: the foundational chant used as the basis for additional lines
Notre Dame school (Paris): Leonin (two voices) and Perotin (three or four voices)
Notre Dame polyphony typically uses the cantus firmus with 1–3 added voices; voices move with more independence
Notation and rhythm: rhythmic patterns based on triple division; meters often multiples of 3 (reflecting theological symbolism of the Trinity and notation constraints)
Consonance and dissonance: strict rules; dissonances avoided on strong beats or at the beginning/end of phrases

Consonant intervals emphasized (e.g., fourth, fifth, octave)
Rhythmic independence grows while respecting chant’s framework
Polyphony used for high holidays or mid-chant embellishment, not necessarily throughout every liturgical moment
Performance practice: voices may be in measured rhythm; not all parts of a chant are polyphonic

Cantus firmus = a pre-existing chant used as the basis for new polyphonic lines
Early Notre Dame polyphony often featured note-for-note technique, then moving toward more independent lines
Texture evolves from simple two-voice to multiple voices with measured rhythms
Notre Dame polyphony laid groundwork for later Western polyphony; relationship between chant and added voices defined the era

Melismatic vs. syllabic: many notes per syllable vs. one note per syllable
Drone: sustained pitch or pitches used to color texture (not typical of plainchant, more common in polyphonic settings)
Monophony vs. polyphony: single line vs. multiple independent lines
Cantus firmus role: foundation for constructing polyphonic textures
Triple-based rhythm: early notation favors divisions of 3; tied to liturgical and symbolic reasons