Transcript Women, Music, Culture Chapter Two Medieval Liturgical Roots and

Medieval Liturgical Roots and
the Documentation of the
Western Canon
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Public-sphere
worship and
rituals included
music
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
In Orthodox
Judaism, women
were not allowed to
sing in the presence
of men
Women could not
officially sing
during the Christian
Mass until after 1900
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

“the voice of woman”; a belief in
Orthodox Judaism that women
must not sing in the presence of
men due to the potential to
distract men in prayer
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Music from publicsphere rituals was
preserved by the
Christian Church and
was studied in
educational settings
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Written music was
widely distributed.
For centuries, texts
were set in Latin
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

A writing room used for copying
manuscripts, writing, and
studying, usually in a convent or
monastery; associated with the
preservation of musical
manuscripts
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Women were usually banned from accessing formal
education. For centuries, most women in Western culture
could not read.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Hildegard
von Bingen
wrote a
significant
amount of
music, much
of which was
performed in
her convent
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
“singing school”; churchsponsored school for the
teaching of ecclesiastical chant
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Women studying in a Georgetown
Convent c. 1900
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.


Sacred genres remained important for
centuries
Some sacred genres eventually
functioned as concert pieces rather than
as liturgical works
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Ritual for public worship:
usually has a prescribed format
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Sacred music genres
such as the mass and
office became core
components of
musicological study
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Roman church liturgy; also a
musical genre or setting for
certain parts of this liturgy
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Liturgy of eight prayer services
in which psalms, readings, and
prayers are recited or sung at
specified hours
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

A monophonic, liturgical song;
sometimes referred to as
“Gregorian” chant or plainsong
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Music having a single melody
without accompaniment or
harmonizing parts, as in chant
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
•
Named in honor of Pope Gregory (r. 590604
– Administrative abilities
– Decrees about chant
– Not a musician
– Actual composers of chant generally
unknown
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
•
Definition
– Unaccompanied vocal music
– Sacred Latin text
– For religious services in Church and
Monastery
– Composed for fifteen centuries
• Composers generally anonymous
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
•
Musical Style
– Rhythm
• Meter and regular rhythms absent
• Meant to encourage pious reflection
– Monophonic
• Soloists can alternate with unison choir
• No instrumental accompaniment
– Syllabic and melismatic text setting
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Mass texts that remain the same
on most days of the year;
musical settings may change
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Mass texts that change according
to specific days of the church
calendar
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Type of chant sung before or
after the recitation of a psalm in
the Office; also associated with
psalmody in the Mass
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

A verse or set of verses used in
the Office; often performed with
soloist alternating with group
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.






German, Benedictine nun, poet, mystic artist,
scientist, and theologian
Tenth child—tithed to the church by her
parents
Lived in the Benedictine Monastery of
Disibodenberg
Rceived her education from the abbess Jutta of
Spanheim
1136 – became superior of the Monastery
Received many visions and revelations from
God
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
•
Extraordinary intellect and imagination
Advised popes and kings
– Founded a convent
– Renaissance woman
–
• Naturalist and pharmacologist
• Wrote scientific books, poetry, and a play
• Composer
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Major work by Hildegard
 Visions in poetry and music
 26 revelations
 Written in a divine command to
record her visions

© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Her music was different from her male
counterparts








Intense poems
Free verse (through composed)
Musical elaboration
Long lines
Word painting
Greater use of melismas
Greater range (2 -3 octaves)
Many of her texts addressed Virgin Mary, Saint
Ursula, and other women
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.

works in which new music is
used for each section, as opposed
to forms in which segments
recur
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.




Collection of chants in a cycle
Addressed the life-giving role of women
Innovation in composition
Free verse
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
allegorical drama in which the
characters personify abstractions,
such as vice, virtue, and charity
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.



Morality play
Medieval drama
Moral attributes are personified and dramatized:








Innocence
Humility
Obedience
Hope
Story of Anima (the soul) and its struggle to resist
evil
All part sung by women represent the Virtues
God – very unusual for this gender at this time
Devil – only male character, does not sing
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Restrictions on women’s
educational access and
liturgical participation
resulted in a
predominance of sacred
compositions by men, a
predominance that lasted
for centuries
Preservation of a canon
that restricted women
perpetuated the belief that
women “could not”
compose
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
The vast majority of published
sacred works by women date
from the latter half of the 20th
century.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.