Part II

The Middle Ages

Time-Line

• Middle Ages (450-1450)• Rome sacked by Vandals—455• Beowolf—c. 700• First Crusade—1066• Black Death—1347-52• Joan of Arc executed by English—1431

The Middle Ages• Period of wars and mass migration

• Strong class distinctions• Nobility: castles, knights in armor, feasting• Peasantry: lived in huts, serfs—part of land• Clergy: ruled everyone, only monks literate

• Architecture• Early: Romanesque

• Visual Arts• Stressed iconic/symbolic, not realism

• Late Middle Ages saw technological progress

• Late: Gothic

Ch. 1: Music in the Middle Ages

• Church dominates musical activity• Most musicians were priests

• Music primarily vocal and sacred• Instruments not used in church

• Women did not sing in mixed church settings

Ch. 2: Gregorian Chant

• Was official music of Roman Catholic Church• No longer common since 2nd Vatican Council

• Monophonic melody set to Latin text• Flexible rhythm without meter and beat• Named for Pope Gregory I (r. 590-604)• Originally no music notation system

• Notation developed over several centuries (see p. 66)

The Church Modes• Different ½ and whole steps than modern scales

Listening

Alleluia: Vidimus stellam(We Have Seen His Star)Vocal Music Guide: p. 86

Early Gregorian Chant

Monophonic

Ternary form: A B A

ListeningO successores (You successors)

Hildegard of BingenVocal Music Guide: p. 88Basic Set, CD 1:66 Brief Set, CD 1:50

ChantOriginally written without accompanimentThis recording includes a drone—long, sustained notes

Note extended range of melodyWritten for nuns by a nun (to be sung in convent)

Ch. 3: Secular Music in the Middle Ages

Troubadours (southern France) and Trouveres (northern France) Nobles wrote poems/songs for court use Performed by jongleurs (minstrels)

Topics: courtly love, Crusades, dancing

Estampie

Medieval dance music Strong beat (for dancing) Notated as chant: only a single melody line Performers probably improvised accompaniment

• Listening example—Basic Set, CD 1:67

Brief Set, CD 1:51

Ch. 4: The Development of Polyphony: Organum• Between 700-900 a 2nd line added to chant

• Additional part initially improvised, not written

• Paralleled chant line at a different pitch • 900-1200 added line grew more independent

• Contrary motion, then separate melodic curve • c. 1100 note-against-note motion abandoned

• 2 lines w/ individual rhythmic and melodic content• New part, in top voice, moved faster than the chant line

School of Notre Dame: Measured Rhythm • Parisian composers developed a rhythmic notation

• Chant notation had only indicated pitch, not rhythm• Notre Dame’s choirmasters Leonin & Perotin were leaders

• Medieval thought was that interval of 3rd dissonant• Modern chords built of 3rds, considered consonant

• Composers wrote music not based on chant• Borrowed secular melodies to put in sacred music

Ch. 5: Fourteenth-Century Music: The “New Art” In Italy and France

• New music notation system had developed

Guillaume de Machaut

• Also famous as a poet• Though a priest, spent most of life working at court

• Wrote both sacred and secular music

• New system allowed for better rhythmic notation• Syncopation, now possible, became common

• The new type of music was called ars nova

• Mid- to late 14th Century composer (1300-1377)

• Best known for his Notre Dame Mass

ListeningAgnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass

by Guillaume de MachautVocal Music Guide: p. 99Basic Set, CD 1:71 Brief Set, CD 1:53

14th Century, part of mass ordinaryPolyphonic—4 voices (parts)Ternary form: A B A (form results from the text)

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobisAgnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobisAgnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem