1. MUH 3211 - Music History I “Plainchant and Secular Monophony”
11/21/2018
Chapter 1
“Plainchant and Secular Monophony”
DAY 6 (18 Sep 17)

2. Plainchant Also: just “Chant” or “Gregorian Chant” Defined:
- one line melody (one or more singers)
- NO accompaniment/2nd or additional lines
Five elements
- Liturgical Function
- Relationship of Words and Music
- Mode
- Melodic Structure
- Rhythm

3. Liturgical Function Determines much of a chant’s sound, etc.
Two broad classes of services
Office (from officium = “duty”) - fixed daily series of 8 services (prayers, etc.) - monastery/nunnery – private devotions - Rule of St. Benedict defines these
Mass - daily public service (prayers, singing - Eucharist (re-enacts Christ’s sacrifice)

4. Ordinary vs. Proper
Based in Liturgical Calendar - Advent through Easter, then Pentecost
Feasts celebrated in order/assigned days - specific prayers, readings, hymns, etc.
Certain unique elements used on specific days - cannot be sung/said on any other day - PROPER
Unchanging elements not tied to specific days - Framework of mass/office - ORDINARY

5. Order of the Mass Music
Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus/Benedictus Agnus Dei Ite, missa est
Introit Gradual Offertory Communion
Ordinary
Proper

6. Words and Music How many notes for each syllable?
Syllabic (one note to each syllable) - “Victimae Paschali Laudes” - “Credo”
Melismatic (multiple notes for a syllable) - “Kyrie” - “Alleluia”
Neumatic (short melismas, 2-4 notes)

7. Mode Patterns of ½ and whole steps, e.g., similar to scales
Based on species of fifths and fourths (locate ½ step)
“Final” (home note)
Arranged in pairs (share the same final)
Names from Ancient Greek modes (but not pitches)

8. Medieval Pitches Hexachord - 6-note “scales”
Form the Gamut - all 20 pitches used
Solmization syllables - Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La
Mi-Fa = ½ step
Musica ficta - “false notes” (to move ½ step)
“Guidonian Hand”

9. Performance of Chant
Melodic structure based in limited patterns of pitches, w/ preference to stepwise motion
Range (ambitus) general limited to one octave
Shape of melody often an arch: - rises from starting pitch - holds around “reciting tone” - falls back to home note (“cadere” = to fall)
Rhythm (not indicated in notation) - free flowing, but follows text

10. Christmas Mass (chants)
Introit: “Puer Natus Est Nobis” (proper)
“Kyrie eleison” (ordinary)
“Gloria” (in excelsis Deo) (ordinary)
Gradual: “Viderunt omnes” (proper)
“Credo” (ordinary)
Offertory: “Tui sunt caeli” (proper)
“Sanctus” and “Benedictus” (ordinary)
“Agnus dei” (ordinary)
Communion: “Viderunt omnes” (proper)
“Ite, misa est” (ordinary)

11. Later Developments (10th c & beyond)
More chants composed (new saints, etc.)
Tropes / practice of “Troping” - additions to chants (music, words, both) - elaboration / commentary (glossing)
Possibly done simply to expand the music
Liturgical Drama – playlet based on Bible - “Quem quaeritis?” (“Whom do you seek?”)

12. Liturgical Drama “Quem Quaeritis?” (start 1:25)

13. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
MUH Music History I
11/21/2018
Hildegard of Bingen ( )
Nun – Rupertsburg
Writer, composer, philosopher, polymath (1st permitted by Pope)
“Scivias” (“know the way”) – from her visions
Ordo Virtutum – drama - evil (devil shouts) vs. good (the virtues sing) - Scene 4: “Quae es, aut unde venis?”
DAY 6 (18 Sep 17)

14. Secular Music
Who? What?
Jongleurs – itinerant entertainers (minstrel, etc.)
Goliards – traveling clergy
Latin poetry, satires
Carmina Burana

15. France (courts)
Troubadours (south: langue d’oc – Occitan) texts (about 10% w/ music)
Trouvères (north: medieval French) texts (most w/ music)
trouver = “to find” (invent) - writers/composers & performers
Songs of “Courtly Love” (code of chivalry)
Strophic
Monophonic (?) or accompanied (??)