Gregorian Chant and The Beginnings of Polyphony: from Ars Antigua to Ars Nova

1. Gregorian Chant andThe Beginnings of Polyphony: from Ars Antigua to Ars Nova

2. Gregorian Chant • The religious music of the Roman Catholic • Church was borrowed from: • Byzantium (now Istanbul) contributed hymns (songs of praise). • Ambrosian Chant (Milan) contributed antiphonal singing. • Gallican chant (France); • Mozarabic chant (Spain). • Pope Gregory the Great (6th Century) is said to have been responsible for unifying this chant into a body of Christian music which would be used throughout the Christian empire for over a thousand years. • The standardization of the chant and the shift from improvisation to composedmusic required the development of musical notation. • Source: History of Western Music, Miller and Cockrell Icon of Blessed Virgin Mary Byzantine

3. Characteristics of Gregorian Chant • Monophonic • Modal • A cappella • Non-metric (uses free/flexible prose rhythms) • Melodically conjunct • Limited range • Sung in Latin • Written in neumatic notation • Gregorian chant remains among the most spiritually moving and profound music in western culture. An idea of its pure, floating melody can be heard in the following musical example. • Source: History of Western Music, Miller & Cockrell

4. Gregorian Chant:Introit: Puer natus est nobis The main function of chant is to enhance the meaning of the church liturgy. This chant is from the mass for Christmas Day. The melodies of these Gregorian Chants were the main melodic sources for much of the music written during the next thousand years. (Cantus Firmus) Nave of Chartres Cathedral

5. Notre Dame and the Ars Antiqua:Organum Sometime during the ninth century, Church composers began experimenting with the idea of having two melodic lines sung simultaneously at parallel intervals, usually at the fourth, fifth, or octave. The resulting hollow-sounding music was called organum. By the eleventh century, two or even three melodic lines were no longer moving in parallel motion, but contrary to each other, sometimes even crossing. The original chant melody was sung very slowly on long held notes called the tenor (from the Latin tenere, meaning to hold), and the added melodies were woven around and embellished the tenor. Music History 102

6. Organum (c.1100) Alleluia Justus ut Palma(2:31) The strict organum (vocal harmony part) here is composed in parallel and contrary motion, mainly using the intervals of the 4th, 5th, and octave. The composer had discovered that moving from a sixth to an octave or from a third to a unison was an effective device. This piece demonstrates the origins of harmony and polyphony (more than one musical line played at the same time.) North Trancept Rose Window, Chartres Cathedral

7. Ars Antigua This music thrived at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and much later became known as the Ars Antiqua, or the "old art." The two composers at Notre Dame especially known for composing in this style are Léonin (fl. ca. 1163-1190), who composed organum for two voices, or motets, and his successor Pérotin (fl. Early 13th century), whose organum included three and even four voices. Pérotin's music is an excellent example of this very early form of polyphony (music for two or more simultaneously sounding voices), as can be heard in his setting of Sederunt principes. Notre Dame 1163- 1250

8. Organum Duplum Leonin: viderunt omnes (1163-1190) This excerpt demonstrates how plainchant settings were embellished in the 12th c. by one of the first ascribed composers. An elongated form of the plainchant melody (the ‘tenor’) can be heard in the notes of the lower part. This emphasis on two dimensions in music can be compared with the flat painting style of Giotto. GIOTTO, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310.

9. Secular Song: The Troubadours Jeu de Robin et de Marion(1284) by Adam de la Halle (2:31) Images of Robin Hood through the Ages This is a monophonic song with simple instrumental accompaniment: a drone and a melody doubled by lute and flute. Yet it is sung in French, the vernacular of the people not the prevailing Latin of sacred music. Its rhythms are varied. It celebrates the cult and code of chivalric love. (Boyden 144) The song comes from a secular musical play and was composed by Adam de la Halle, the last of the famous French wandering troubadours.

10. Secular Song by Gillaume Machaut (ca. 1300-1377) Rondeau: Rose, liz, printemps, verdure This secular song uses the triple meter of the dance from which it is derived. The four vocal parts here are melodically and rhythmically independent. There is greater use here of the intervals of the 3rd and 6th (previously the 4th and 5th dominated) which gives the piece a sweeter, more harmonious and ‘modern’ sound. Machaut, the preeminent composer of the day, wrote both secular and sacred music and was also well known for his masses and motets. LIMBOURG BROTHERS detail from Novemebr, from Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413-1416.

11. Ars Nova Mass: Agnus Dei: (2:48) by Gillaume de Machaut (c.1360) This is a four-part polyphonic setting of the Agnus Dei from Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame. It is one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the mass. Note the more varied melodies and rhythms incorporated from secular dances. This piece features ‘isorhythmic structures’, long repeated rhythmic patterns (or talea) that had their origins in Indian classical music (an indication of burgeoning international trade). Jamb Figures 1150-70 Chartres Cathedral