1. Music: An Appreciation 9th-10th Edition by Roger Kamien
Part II
The Middle Ages

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

3. The Middle Ages A thousand years of European history
Early - A time of migrations, diseases & wars
Black Death (1350)
Late - A period of cultural growth
- Churches & monasteries; universities;
- Crusades to recover the Holy City from the Muslims
3 Main Social Classes
Nobility sheltered in fortified castles; knights in armor;
amused themselves with hunting, feasting & tournaments
Peasants vast majority of population; lived miserably;
subject to feudal overlords
Clergy Roman Catholic church exerted power;
monks held a virtual monopoly on learning

4. Ch. 1: Music in the Middle Ages
Church dominates musical activity
Ch. 1: Music in the Middle Ages
Most musicians were priests
Women were not allowed to sing in church
Only sacred music was notated
Music primarily vocal and sacred
Instruments not used in church (organs and bells added after 1000)
Music manuscripts did not indicate tempo, dynamics or rhythm

5. Ch. 2: Gregorian Chant Was official music of Roman Catholic Church
Monophonic melody set to Latin text and sung without accompaniment.
Improvisational.
Melodies tend to move by steps in a narrow range
Flexible rhythm without meter and beat
Named after Pope Gregory I (r )
Originally no music notation system
Notation developed over several centuries

6. Ch. 2: Gregorian Chant (contin.)
The Church Modes
Different half and whole steps than modern scales
Derived from Greek modes which are named after Greek cities:
Phrygian
Dorian
Lydian
Myxolydian
And more…

7. Listening Alleluia: Vidimus stellam (We Have Seen His Star)
Early Gregorian Chant
Monophonic texture
Ternary form: A B A

8. Listening O successores (You successors) Chant Hildegard of Bingen
Originally written without accompaniment
This recording includes a drone—long, sustained notes
Note extended range of melody
Written for nuns by a nun (to be sung in convent)

9. Ch. 3: Secular Music in the Middle Ages (music outside the church)
French Nobles who were poet-musicians:
Troubadours (southern France) and
Trouveres (northern France)
They wrote poems/songs for court use
Performed by jongleurs (minstrels)
Topics: courtly love, Crusades, dancing, spinning songs
Secular songs have sense of rhythm
Instrumental dances

10. 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

11. Estampie (13th Century) Medieval dance music Strong beat (for dancing)
Usually in triple meter and fast beat
Notated as chant: only a single melody line
Performers probably improvised accompaniment
Listening example

12. 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…

13. Medieval instruments (partial list)
Harp
KrumHorn
Lute
Cornett
Psaltery (plucked string instrument)
Sackbut (early trombone)
Serpent
Shawm (early double reed woodwind)
Hurdy- Gurdy
Drum
Fiddle
Rebec (bowed string instrument)
Pipe (wind instrument) or Recorder
Viol

14. Harp

15. Krumhorn

16. Lute

17. Muted Cornett

18. Psaltery

19. Sacbut

20. Serpent

21. Shawm

22. Hurdy-Gurdy

23. Drum or Tambor

24. Recorder

25. Viol

26. Ch. 4: The Development of Polyphony: Organum
Between a 2nd line added to chant
Additional part initially improvised, not written
Paralleled chant line at a different pitch
added line grew more independent
Contrary motion, then separate melodic curve
c note-against-note motion abandoned
2 lines w/ individual rhythmic and melodic content
New part, in top voice, moved faster than the chant line

27. There were two schools of music during the Middle Ages
Ars Antiqua
&
Ars Nova

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

30. Representative Ars Antiqua Composers
Leonin ( )
Perotin (early 13th century)
Hildegard von Bingen ( )
Anonymous (?)

31. 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.

32. School of Notre Dame
Paris: Intellectual and artistic capital in Europe (1150)
Leonin and Perotin
Choirmasters
First known composers
They developed the Measured Rhythm
Measured Rhythm
New rhythmic notation
Chant notation had only indicated pitch, not rhythm
Medieval thought was that interval of 3rd dissonant
Modern chords built of 3rds, considered consonant
Cantus Firmus
Chant used for polyphony

33. 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.

34. Ch. 5: Fourteenth-Century Music: The “New Art” In Italy and France
The new type of music was called Ars nova
as opposed to Ars Antiqua (old art of the )
Composers wrote music not based on chant
Borrowed secular melodies to put in sacred music
New music notation system had developed
New system allowed for better rhythmic notation
Beats could be subdivided into 2 as well as 3

35. Representative Ars Nova Composers
Guillaume de Machaut ( )
Francesco Landini ( )
Anonymous (?)

36. Guillaume de Machaut Mid- to late 14th Century composer (1300-1377)
He was a priest and a famous poet
Master of counterpoint
Though a priest, spent most of life working at court
Wrote both sacred and secular music
Mostly love songs
Created the first Ordinary for the Catholic Mass
Best known for his “Notre Dame Mass”

37. Mass Ordinary Contains texts that remain the same throughout the year
5 parts:
Kyrie (Greek text)
Gloria
Credo Latin Text
Sanctus
Agnus Dei

38. Francesco Landini Leading Italian composer Blind , organist and poet
Songs about nature, love, politics, morality
Ballata
Italian poetic and musical form
Example: “Ecco La Primavera”

39. Examples of Ars Nova Music
Music from this period was the first to add stems to the nuemes, thereby creating our modern system of notation.

41. Listening Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass by Guillaume de Machaut
14th Century, part of mass ordinary
Polyphonic—4 voices (parts)
Ternary form: A B A (form results from the text)
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem