1. Music: An Appreciation 10th Edition by Roger Kamien
Part II
The Middle Ages
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education

2. Time Line Middle Ages (450-1450) Rome sacked by Vandals—455
Beowulf—c. 700
First Crusade—1066
Black Death—
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales –
Joan of Arc executed by English—1431

3. The Middle Ages A thousand years of European history
Early - a time of migrations, upheavals & wars
Later – a period of cultural growth
Romanesque churches & monasteries; Gothic cathedrals;
Crusades to recover the Holy City from the Muslims
Class Distinctions
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 was the center of musical life
- Important musicians were priests
- Women were not allowed to sing in church,
but did make music in convents
- Only sacred music was notated
Music primarily vocal and sacred
Instruments not used in church
Few medieval instruments have survived
Music manuscripts did not indicate tempo, dynamics or rhythm

5. Ch. 2 - Gregorian Chant The Church Modes
Official music of the Roman Catholic church
No longer common since 2nd Vatican Council ( )
Represents the voice of the church rather than an individual
Monophonic melody set to Latin text
Melodies tend to move by steps in a narrow range
Flexible rhythm - without meter and sense of beat
Named for Pope Gregory I (r )
Later the melodies were notated
Notation developed over several centuries
The Church Modes
Basic scales made of different whole & half-step patterns

6. Listening Alleluia: Vidimus stellam Gregorian Chant Monophonic texture
(We Have Seen His Star)
Vocal Music Guide: p. 76
Basic Set, CD 1:63 Brief Set, CD 1:47
Gregorian Chant
Monophonic texture
Ternary form: A B A

7. Listening O successores (You successors) Chant
Hildegard of Bingen
Vocal Music Guide: p. 79
Basic Set, CD 1:66 Brief Set, CD 1:50
Chant
Originally written without accompaniment
This recording includes a drone—long, sustained notes
Note extended range of melody
Written for nuns by a nun (sung in a convent)

8. Ch. 3 – Secular Music in the Middle Ages
Composed by French nobles who were poet-musicians
Troubadours (southern France)
Trouvères (northern France)
Performed by jongleurs (traveling minstrels)
Song topics: love, Crusades, dancing,
spinning songs
Instrumental dances

9. Listening - Estampie Medieval dance music Strong beat (for dancing)
Single melody line is notated
Performers improvised instrumental accompaniment
Basic Set, CD 1:67
Brief Set, CD 1:51

10. Ch. 4 – The Development of Polyphony: Organum
Between a 2nd melody line added to chant
Additional part initially improvised, not written
Paralleled chant line at a different pitch
added line grew more independent
Developed its own melodic curve (no longer parallel)
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
School of Notre Dame (Paris): Measured Rhythm
Leonin & Perotin developed notation of precise rhythms
Chant notation had only indicated pitch
Medieval theorists considered interval of 3rd as dissonant
Modern chords built of 3rds, considered consonant

11. Listening Alleluia: Nativitas (The Birth; 1200?) by Perotin
CD 1: 68
Organum in three voices
Cantus firmus
Note: clearly defined meter

12. Ch. 5 - Fourteenth-Century Music: The “New Art” in Italy and France
Secular music more important than sacred
Changes in musical style – known as new art
ars nova (Latin)
New music notation system evolved
Beats could be subdivided into 2 as well as 3
Syncopation became important rhythmic practice

13. Listening Ecco la primavera (Spring has come; Fourteenth Century)
by Francesco Landini
Basic Set, CD 1:69
Vocal Music Guide: p. 85
Syncopation
Ballata

14. Listening Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous
(Since I am forgotten by you; around 1363)
by Guillaume de Machaut
Basic Set: CD 1: 72, Brief Set: 1:52
Vocal Music Guide: p. 86
Vocal Melody accompanied by two lower parts
Syncopation

15. Listening Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass by Guillaume de Machaut
Basic Set, CD 1:73; Brief Set, CD 1:53
Vocal Music Guide: p. 88
Polyphonic; triple meter; syncopation
Ternary form: A B A (form results from the text)