Transcript Music in the middle ages (450-1450)

Dates:
450-1000
1000-1300
Music:
Earliest notated Gregorian Chant
Manuscripts (c. 900)
Troubadours and trouveres
(c. 1100-1300)
Hildegard of Bingen,
O successores (c. 1150)
School of Notre Dame
(began c. 1170)
Dates
450-1000
1000-1300
Historical and Cultural Events
Sack of Rome by Vandals (455)
Reign of Pope Gregory I
(590- 604)
Charlemagne crowned Holy
Roman emperor (800)
Norman Conquest (1066)
First Crusade (1096-1099)
Magna Carta signed (1215)
Dates:
450-1000
1000-1300
Arts and Letters
Beowolf ( c. 700)
Book of Kells (c. 800)
Beginning of the Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris
(1163)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologica ( 1273)
Dates
1300- 1450
Music
Guillaume de Machuat
Notre Dame Mass (c. 1350)
Historical and Cultural Events
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)
Black Death (1347-1352)
Joan of Arc executed by the
English (1431)
Dates
1300-1450
Arts and Letters
Dante, The Divine Comedy
( 1321)
Boccaccio, Decameron (1351)
Chaucer, The Canterbury
Tales (1387-1400)
Page from Peterborough Psalter
 During
the Middle Ages, the church grew in
prominence and social importance. Especially
during the Dark Ages, the church became the
center of education and music.
 Children
could receive music education in schools
associated with churches and cathedrals.
 Most
of the music from the Middle Ages was vocal,
but a variety of musical instruments were used as
accompaniment.
 However, very few manuscripts specify which
instruments to use.
 The
organ was the prominent instrument used in
churches.
 At first, it was very primitive and the keys were
operated by heavy blows of the fist. It was so loud
that it could be heard for miles.
 Gregorian
chant consists of melody set to sacred
Latin texts and sung without accompaniment.
 The chant is monophonic in texture.
 This means that there is only one musical line to
listen to.
 Gregorian
chant is calm and has an otherworldy
quality. It represents the voice of the church.
 It is very free in rhythm and has very little sense of
the beat. Also, the notes are all close together.
 Gregorian
chant is named after Pope Gregory I
(The Great), who reorganized the Catholic liturgy
during his time as Pope.
 Most of the melodies that we recognize as
Gregorian chant were created between 600 and
1300.
 Alleluia:
Vidimus Stellam
A
Solo, opening -
Alleluia
Choir many tones- ia
on ia.
Halleljah
jah.
 Alleluia:
Vidimus Stellam
B
 Choir:
Vidimus stellam ejus in Oriente
et venimus cum muneribus adorare
Dominun.
 English: We have seen His star in the east
and are come with gifts to worship
the Lord.
 Alleluia:
Vidimus Stellam
A
Choir opening
Phrase with
many tones
on ia.
Alleluia.
Hallelujah
 Hildegard
of Bingen
(1098-1179)
 Known
as the first female
composer.
 -She wrote both the
text and music of her songs.
A
drone consisits of one or more long,
sustained tones accompanying a
melody.
 Hildegard of Bingen: O successores
Low Register O successores fortissimi leonis
inter templum et altaredominantes in ministratione eius
English: You successors of the mightest lion
between the temple and the altaryou the masters of his household-
 Hildegard
of Bingen: O successores
Melody rise
sicut angeli sonant in laudimus
and falls
et sicut adsunt populis in
adiutorio,
vos estis inter illos,
qui haec faciunt,
semper curam habentes
English: as the angels sound forth praises
and are here to help the nations,
you are among those
who accomplish this
forever showing your care
 Hildegard
of Bingen: O successores
Climax on in officio agni.
Officio, long
descent on
agni.
English: in the service of the lamb.
 Secular
Music in the Middle Ages
 Despite the prominence of Gregorian chant, there
was music written outside the church.
 The first large body of songs notated was
composed during the 12th and 13th centuries by
French nobles called troubadours and trouveres.
 However,
this notation has no indication of rhythm
of meter.
 It is very likely that many had a regular meter and
clearly defined beat, which is completely different
from the free, nonmetrical rhythm of Gregorian
chant.
 Estampie
(13th century) – a medieval dance, is one
of the earliest surviving forms of instrumental music.
 In this recording, the melody is played on a rebec (
a bowed string instrument) and a pipe
( a tubular wind instrument).
 Since the minstrals probably improvised modest
accompaniments to dance tunes, the performers
have added a drone- two repeated notes on a fifth
interval, played on a psaltery (a plucked or struck
string instrument).
 Since
the minstrals probably improvised
modest accompaniments to dance
tunes, the performers have added a
drone- two repeated notes on a fifth
interval, played on a psaltery (a plucked
or struck string instrument).
 The
Development of Polyphony
 Polyphony- performance of two or more melodic
lines of equal interest.
 Organum- Medieval music that consists of
Gregorian chant and one or more additional
melodic lines.
 School
of Notre Dame: Measured Rhythm
After 1150, Paris- the intellectual and artistic capital of
Europe- became the center of polyphonic music.
 The Notre Dame Cathedral became the place for
music. The two most successful choirmasters of
Notre Dame were Leonin and Petrotin.
 Guillaume
de Machuat (1300-1377)- a French
composer, musician and a poet. He studied
theology and spent much of his life in the service of
various royal families. Notre Dame Mass is one of
the best known compositions of the fourteenth
century.
 Machuat’s
Notre Dame Mass, one of the finest
compositions known from the Middle Ages.
 Also, this is of great historical importance
because it is the first polyphonic treatment of
the mass ordinary by a known composer.
 The mass ordinary consists of texts that remain
the same from day to day throughout the day.
 The five sung prayers of the ordinary are the
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
 Since the 14th century, these five texts have
been set to polyphonic music and have been
the text for some of the finest choral works in all
of history.
 The
mass ordinary consists of texts
that remain the same from day to
day throughout the day.
 The five sung prayers of the
ordinary are the Kyrie, Gloria,
Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
 Since the 14th century, these five
texts have been set to
polyphonic music and have
been the text for some of the
finest choral works in all of history.
 Machaut,
Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass
A
Agnus Dei peccata mundi :
miserere nobis.
B Agnus Dei peccata mundi :
miserere nobis.
A
Agnus Dei peccata mundi:
dona nobis pacem.
 Machaut,
Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass
A
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of
the world have mercy on us.
B Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of
the world have mercy on us.
A
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of
the world, grant us peace.