Unit 1: Medieval Music 500 A.D. – 1400 A.D. ( 6 th -15 th Centuries)
Timeline Preview Guido of Arezzo ( ) Hildegard von Bingen ( ) The Black Death ( ) King Richard I (The Lionheart) ( ) and the Crusades Perotinus the Great ( ) The Hundred Years War ( ) Guillaume de Machaut ( )
How are these related?? Hercules Dux Ferrariae – c The Sound of Music – 1965: _detailpage
Guido of Arezzo
The Guidonian Hand… The Origin of Solfege (note “syllables”)
Why a hand? Lack of resources: Sheep were too valued to be used for parchment (wool clothes, milk, cheese, meat > paper) Copies were incredibly hard to make Same group of singers for every church service = lots to learn! Lack of ability: Not everyone could read, even if they had parchment. Music was not notated in any standard way = Easier to teach!
Even now – Curwen/Kodaly Method
Even now – what you know! Wavin’ Flag, Party Rock, Never Say Never Starts with MINOR solfege, chorus shifts to MAJOR solfege Just find DO – “home base!”