Music of the Middle Ages

1. Music of the Middle Ages From Gregorian Chant to the Renaissance

2. 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

3. The Middle Ages • Strong class distinctions • Period of wars and mass migration • Nobility: castles, knights in armor, feasting • Peasantry: lived in huts, serfs—part of land • Clergy: ruled everyone, only monks literate • Architecture • Early: Romanesque • Late: Gothic • Visual Arts • Stressed iconic/symbolic, not realism • Late Middle Ages saw technological progress

4. CHANT an astonishing collection of melodies a vast body of work reflecting individual composition, communal refinement, and collective memory

5. CHANT Mark, Ch 16. c. 900

6. CHANT • REPETITION? • TEMPO? • METER? • TEXTURE? NO well . . . DEBATABLE MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS NO MONOPHONIC

7. ORIGINS OF CHANT We do not know when it was first sung, how it was first composed, where or by whom. (Pope Gregory I (d. 604) was not the composer!) • Three periods of evolution • 'Gregorian' strictly speaking c. 700-850 some 500-600 pieces established • Carolingian 850-1000 • Medieval 1000-1300 • All of it commonly called: chant, Gregorian chant, plainchant, plainsong now a collection of some 3,000 pieces

8. NEUMES In the beginning was the word, but how do I remember all those tunes? Neumes – notational signs for single tones and groups of notes; about 20 symbols used

9. from NEUMES to NOTES (almost) 930 930 AD 11th c.

10. GUIDO d’ AREZZO Around 1000, defines THE STAFF Cand names the 6 notes ut re mi fa sol la

11. 1250 – rhythmic notation Franco proposes system of dots and stems that give relative durations to notes Black note heads = long White = short

12. (to the tune of “I got rhythm”) I got rhythm, I got pitches. In 1250, who can notate anything more?

13. BATTLE OF HASTINGS depicted in the • BAYEUX TAPESTRY which we associate with • FEUDALISM GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE ARS NOVA Anchor Dates 1000 • Musical STAFF used for • CHANT in the • EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD in • MONASTERIES 1066 1150 After 1300

16. There were two schools of music during the Middle Ages Ars Antiqua - 1100-1300 & Ars Nova - 1300 - 1450

17. Ars Antiqua and ARS NOVA • Ars Antiqua (old art) • ARS NOVA (new art, new technique) - declared c. 1316 by composer Philippe de Vitry - based on new techniques of notating rhythm which ALLOWED DUPLE SUBDIVISION OF THE BEAT - greatly favored complexity, often hidden • leading Ars Nova composer is Machaut . . .

18. Ars Antiqua began in Paris at the Cathedral de Notre Dame

20. Notre Dame Cathedral begun in 1163

21. Representative Ars Antiqua Composers • Leonin (1163-1190) • Perotin (early 13th century) • Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) • Anonymous (?)

22. What is Ars Antiqua? • Literally means “old art” • Stemmed directly from Gregorian Chant • This style of music can be characterized as adding hollow sounding harmonies(perfect 4ths & 5ths) to existing chants. • This type of music is called organum. • Originally, one voice would be added above the existing chant. The chant would be sung very slowly - it was called the cantus firmus.

23. Early Polyphony • Polyphony means more than one pitch played at the same time - what we typically call harmony. • The first type of polyphony was called parallel organum. Here the cantus firmus and the higher harmony mirrored each other. • Eventually composers like Leonin and his student Perotin began adding a third and fourth part above the cantus firmus, and moved away from the eerie sounding parallel organum.

24. Parallel Organum

25. Meanwhile, in Germany… • Hildegard von Bingen, who herself was a nun with reported mystical powers, began composing music different from the Notre Dame school. • Von Bingen wrote music that sounded wildly different than plainchant, which some attributed to her lack of musical training. Her melodies, even today, seem contemporary.

26. Hildegard of Bingen1098-1179 Abbess, scholar, visionary, poet, musician, healer, spiritual leader One of the earliest “named” composers in the European tradition

28. What kind of music was happening outside of the church? • Secular music, or popular music, has existed throughout history, especially during the Middle Ages. • Secular music of the Middle Ages was the first to be written down on paper and preserved. Today, performances of secular music is possible using these surviving pieces of music.

29. Troubadours • Troubadours were French musicians who traveled across Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. • They sang mostly love songs. • They accompanied their love songs with instruments, unlike the church.

33. Adam de la Halle (1237-1286) • The most famous troubadour ever • Wrote the first ever musical theater piece Le Jeu de Robin et Marion • Inventor of the Motet • Motet - a piece of music where two or more different verses are fit together simultaneously, without regard to harmony

34. Medieval Instruments • Instruments in early secular music were used to accompany songs. • Musicians usually improvised the simple accompaniments. • While the accompaniments were melodically simple, they were rhythmically lively. • Let’s take a look at the many different instruments used in these accompaniments…

35. Harp

36. Krumhorn

37. Lute

38. Muted Cornett

39. Psaltery

40. Sacbut

41. Serpent

42. Shawm

43. Hurdy-Gurdy

44. Drum or Tambor

45. Recorder

46. Viol

47. Ars Antiqua and ARS NOVA • Ars Antiqua (old art) • ARS NOVA (new art, new technique) - declared c. 1316 by composer Philippe de Vitry - based on new techniques of notating rhythm which ALLOWED DUPLE SUBDIVISION OF THE BEAT - greatly favored complexity, often hidden • leading Ars Nova composer is Machaut . . .

48. Ars Nova • 14th & 15th century France • The invention of modern notation • The creation of the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass • The popularity of the motet

49. Representative Ars Nova Composers • Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) • Francesco Landini (1325-1397) • Anonymous (?)