Transcript Document

Music in the Middle Ages (4501450)
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“Dark Ages”
Social classes
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Nobility
Peasantry
Clergy
Influence of Roman Catholic Church
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Learning centered in monasteries
Music in the Middle Ages (4501450)
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Center of musical life – cathedrals
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Musicians in the church
 priests
 monks
 boys in church-associated schools
 nuns
Primarily vocal music used
Instruments
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used for accompaniment
considered inappropriate for church
after ca. 1100 – increased use in church
Gregorian Chant
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Official music of Roman Catholic Church
in the Middle Ages
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melody set to sacred Latin texts
unaccompanied
monophonic
calm, otherworldly quality
voice of the church
flexible rhythm, without meter, little sense of
beat
Gregorian Chant
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Named after Pope Gregory I (the Great)
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reigned A.D. 590-604
Composed over many centuries
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A.D. 600-1300 – several thousand melodies known
today
originally passed along by oral tradition
notated as number of chants grew
most composers completely unknown
church modes
Listening Examples
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Kyrie from Mass IX (“Orbis Factor”)
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notated in the Liber Usualis
monophonic
ternary form
Listening Examples
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O Successores
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Hildegard of Bingen
 1098-1179
 Abbess of Rupertsburg
drone
foreshadows word painting
Secular Music in the Middle Ages
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12th and 13th century French nobles
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troubadours – South
trouvères – North
composed songs of love, Crusades, dance, spinning
melodies notated w/o rhythm
performed with a regular meter
Listening Example
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Estampie – unknown composer
 triple meter with fast, strong beat
 Instrumentation: rebec, pipe, psaltery
The Development of Polyphony
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Organum
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chant with one or more additional melodic
lines
ca. 700-900 – improvised at strict intervals
of fifth or fourth; not notated
ca. 900-1200 – organum becomes
polyphonic
not in strict parallel motion
 ca. 1100 – rhythmic differences begin to occur
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low voice – chant in very long notes
upper voice – organum line in shorter notes
The Development of Polyphony
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School of Notre Dame
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Composers: Leonin, Perotin, & followers
centered in Cathedral of Notre Dame
developed measured rhythm
 definite time values / clearly defined meter
 limited rhythms (subdivided in three)
Listening example
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Alleluya. Pascha nostrum immolatus est – Leonin
 cantus firmus
 examples of measured and unmeasured rhythm
14th Century Music in Italy & France
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Historical background
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Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
Bubonic plague (ca. 1350) kills ¼ of Europe
Weakening feudal system / Rivaling popes
Secular music takes precedence
Ars nova (“new art”)
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new system of rhythmic notation (almost any
rhythm) / use of syncopation
polyphonic music not based on chant being
composed
Ars Nova Composers
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Francesco Landini (?-1397, Italy)
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Background
 blind from childhood
 organist, poet, scholar, invented new string
instument
 exclusively secular subjects for his music
Ecco la primavera
 ballata written for two voices
 instrumental accompaniment added (sackbut,
shawm, drum)
 Form: Intro (AB) – ABBAA [ternary]
Ars Nova Composers
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Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377,
France)
 Background
 court official for various royal families
 at age 60, fell in love with 19-year-old
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exchanged letters & poems
age difference ended relationship
writes narrative poem to immortalize their love
 Le Livre Dou Voir Dit (The Book of the True
Poem)
Listening Examples - Machaut
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Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous (Since I am forgotten
by you, ca. 1363)
 also contained in Voir Dit
 “farewell to joy”
 vocal melody with two accompanying parts with
exceptionally low range (performed by two solo
voices)
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Notre Dame Mass
 first complete polyphonic treatment of mass
ordinary
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Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei
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ternary form, triple meter, based on chant