The "middle ages" is comprised of ~1K years of European history, from the fall of the Roman empire (5th century CE) to the age of Columbus

Music and The Church

• The Christian church cultivated and directed pretty much all arts

• Many composers were priests, clerics, monks, etc.

• Popular musicians were minstrels and jongleurs, but we don't know much about them, because they didn't preserve/write down their music

• Church music was largely singing or chanting, because in this form it could still convey religious messages

• The liturgy was a large collection of worship/service instructions for every single day of the year, fixed around the life and death of Christ, his mother, Saints

• Catholic music was known as plainchant, plainsong, or often Gregorian chant, which is unaccompanied and monophonic (called Gregorian after Gregory 1 (pope), who is credited for organizing all basic chants w/ divine aid)

• Plainchants do come in many genres, some center around just I pitch, others have very complicated melodies

• All plainchants are nonmetrical, and lack a beat- they also aren't in major/minor modes, they have their own medieval modes, with Greek names as they trace back that far (ancient Greece)

  • Dorian mode: focal point is D

  • Phrygian mode: focal point is E

  • Lydian mode: focal point is F

  • Mixolydian mode: focal point is G

• The reciting tone (pitch at which the text is sung) is repeated over and over except for small, formulaic variations at the beginning & end of phrases

• The antiphon is a simple genre w/ an elaborate melody, antiphons are usually “workday little pieces"

Anonymous (c. 9th century), Plainchant Antiphon. "In Paradisum"

• Sung in the liturgy for the dead in procession on the from the church to the graveyard, likely repeating many times

• In the Mixolydian (G) mode, also has melismas (groups of notes on one syllable)

• Cadences lines 4 and 5, melodic high point in line 5

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Plainchant Sequence, ""Columbia aspexit”

• First great female composer was the Catholic St. Hildegard, who wrote plainchant melodies, a famous book of religious visions, natural sci. & medicine books, and biographies. (she also has her own liturgy)

• This piece is in honor of St. Maximinus (now forgotten)

• Late-medieval plainchant genre called the sequence, which is elaborate w/ a series of short tunes sung 2x w/ variation (AA’BB'CC' form)

• Mixolydian mode, with increasing melismas

• Includes an instrumental drone, a continuous 2 note chord

Music at Court

• The "Age of Chivalry" (12th & 13th centuries) had court songs!!

• The "poet- composers" (who also performed) of these songs were called troubadours (includes females) in South France, trouveres in the North, and minnesingers (minne=ideal/chivalric love) in Germany - some were even knights/royalty.

• Sometimes these poet-composers only did the words, and jongleurs composed the music (they sometimes also played the music)

• A poetic type was the alba, "the ‘dawn song’ of a knight's loyal companion who has kept watch all night and now warns him to leave his lady’s bed before the castle awakes"

Beinart de Ventadorn (c. 1135-1194), Troubadour Song, "La dousa votz"

• One of the most important, influential, and fine troubadour poets was Bernart

• Troubadour songs set stanzas to the same melody- this is strophic form (often each individual stanza is in aa’b form)

• Mixolydian mode

• In Provençal, the language of troubadours (elements of Old French & Spanish)

Same big category, other points

• Estampies were 1-line pieces with same/similar phrases repeated in several forms, w/ "lively insistent rhythms" in triple meter- these are some of the only surviving instrumental dances from court (trouvere)

• When it comes down to it, we don't know how it really sounded, we just have the scores, and sometimes we can find, repair, and use instruments of the time (tempo & solo/tutti were also not written at all)

Evolution of Polyphony

• Organum was the earliest type of polyphony, first ~900, first surviving notation from ~1000. Has a traditional plainchant melody w/ another melody that is sung simultaneously with the same words

• Highly developed organum at the Notre Dame (composers include Master Leonin & Perotin)

Timeline of Development (Earlier to Later)

• Counterpoint (added melody) sung note to note (same interval between throughout) to the chant melody- this was parallel organum.

• Counterpoint became more independent, one melody goes up, other goes down, etc.

• Counterpoint gained melismas, becoming richer. chant notes were slow and duller

• 2 counterpoints added to chant- sounded better, harder to create.

Poistin (c. 1300), Organum, "Alleluia. Diffusa est gratia

• Lengthy chant for Mass worshipping the Virgin Mary

• "Alleluia" section is the most important part, then comes organum.

• Entire piece is outlined

Later Medieval Polyphony

• Polyphony became less church-related after 1200

• Motet is a genre w/ an underlying repeated Gregorian Chant excerpt, and two more layered voices each w/ separate lyrics!

Anonymous (late 13th century), Round, "Sumer Is Ieumen In”

• Canon/round w/ a longer melody

• Speaks about the arrival of Summer in Middle English

• 4 voices carrying the tune, 2 below repeat a phrase over and over. In one recording, one voice sings main melody, then 2, then 4.

• Actually in the major mode, written after 1250

Elements of the Time

• Ars nova was a "new" art/technique that began to be spoken of after 1300, and it began to further motet development

• The organum of Notre Dame composers is ars antigua (ancient)

• The 14th century was riddled w/ issues, such as the Bubonic plague (“Black Death") and religious unrest. Tradition became to fade.

• Isorhythm is an intricate structural technique in motets- it means "equal rhythm", but pitches are always different.

• Leading composers of isorhythm included Phillippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaunt (both political churchmen)

Guillaume de Machaunt (c-1300-1377), Chanson, "Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient”

• Chanson (“song” in French), or a song without Gregorian chant and with ars nova polyphony, with 4 voices

• Nonimitative polyphony, top line sung & others vocal/instrumental, long melismas

• Long w/ long stanzas (~2 min. each) in aa'b form w/ strong cadences and ends of sections

• “Lively flowing set of intertwining melodies"

• Words of written poem kind of lost in the melismas

Global Perspectives

• Parallels are found between different cultures (their music), often caused by influences from 1 to another, always w/ modification & blending

• In many cultures, there are religious chants.

Islam: the Qur'an

• Dominant religion is around 50 nations (N Africa, SE Asia, elsewhere)

• Prophet Muhammad's "revelations "are in Arabic in the Qur'an

• Qur'anic recitation is reading, not singing/music

• Monophonic, nonmetric, no instruments

“ya sin"

• Chapter of the Qur'an “recited in times of adversity, illness, and death"

• Phrases are lines of text, pauses between

• Starting low tonic, explores, centers around a higher pitch

The Azan

• Islamic chant genre (not Qur'an based)- singing of the adhan/azan

• Call to worship by mu'adhdhin/muezzin (singer) 5 times daily

• Delivered from a mosque's tower (minaret), later in the mosque, now broadcasted

Hawai'ian Chant

• Polynesia has hawai'ian prayer songs called mele pule, sung to bring images of gods to life

• Monophonic, monotonal, basically nonmetrical

• Vibrato used on long syllables (called i'i).

Navajo

• Songs are for healing, hunting, social rituals, & spiritual relations mostly monophonic, but w/ drums/rattles

• Genre called hoʻzho'ni" (related to beautiful/holy). (ex. is K'adnikini'ya' ("I'm Leaving"), which is sung to purify soldiers that saw enemy ghosts)

• Meter is relatively pronounced, organized around 1 prominent tone, other melodic features

• Often uses "vocables," or syllables like "tra-la-la"