Transcript Music of the Middle Ages - London High School Band

Music of the Middle Ages
450-1450
Monophonic Music
• Single voice music
• Plain song
• Gregorian Chant
Polyphonic Music
• More than one melody voice
• Introduced in the later Medieval Ages
• Liturgical
• Secular
Melismatic Music
• Music sung using one syllable over various
ranges
• Melismatic example
Gregorian Chant
• Early plainsong usually sung by monks in the
church
• Standardized after the fall of the roman
Empire by Pope Gregory
• Sacred Music
Secular Music
• Music sung or played for non-sacred
gatherings
• Troubadours/Minstrels –traveling musicians
Liturgical Music
• Music written for and performed in a church
setting, usually accompanying the church
mass order
• “Related to the Church”
Hildegard von Bingen
• 1098-1179
• As the 10th child in her family she was
dedicated to the church
• Wrote primarily for the female voice
• Wrote an encyclopedia of herbal medicines
• Claimed to have mystical powers and that God
spoke to her. Highly sought after by men in
matters of the church and state.
Guillame De Machut
• 1300-1377
• Known as an “ARS Nova” composer and poet
respected in France, Italy, and Spain
• Wrote polyphonic music for BOTH secular and
liturgical settings
• “Messe de Nostre Dame”
• Influenced the works of Geoffrey Chaucer,
author of the “Canterbury Tales”
John Dunstable
• 1390-1453
• Most of his compositions were sacred in
nature
• Unified the church mass by basing the mass
on the same plainsong
• Considered the musician who transitioned the
medieval era into the renaissance
• Noted astronomer and mathematician
Guillame Dufay
• 1400-1474
• Inaugurated the Renaissance era of music
• Considered the most cosmopolitan of
composers
• Was in the employ of 2 Papal Choirs; Pope
Martin V and Pope Eugene IV