2.  The history of music in medieval Europe is very much intertwined with the history of the Christian Church  In the first millennium, most churches rejected the idea of listening to or creating music for the purpose of enjoyment - This supported the theories of Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle who believed such beautiful things such as music existed to remind us of “divine beauty”  Early church music was vocal, not instrumental because music without words cannot open one’s mind to the teachings of Christianity.  The repertoire or genre of music that the Roman Catholic Church practiced is referred to as “Gregorian Chant.”

3. Left side: Medieval notation from ca. 115o Right side: Renaissance notation (1450-1600)

4.  Few outside the church could read music, except the aristocrats and educated elites  The “Mass” was the most important service in the Roman Catholic Church and involved a great deal of choral singing -Proper of the Mass -Ordinary of the Mass  Piece: Mass for Christmas Day- Alleluia

5.  The Troubadours and the Trouvères  Produced the most significant body of vernacular song in the Middle Ages  Relied on the patronage from various castles and courts  Many of them were noble  Adam de la Halle  Jeu de Robin et de Marion, Robins m’aime, ca. 1284  Based on a lyric poem known as the “Pastourelle”  One of the last and most famous trouveres

6. Chant - The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ela- Z7HqqS8&feature=PlayList&p=0FC2F0DBF7572D49&i ndex=0&playnext=1 Halo Theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0mQk7JEVq4 Extra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q8yo9NcEoI

7. What is polyphony?  Polyphonic: music that contains multiple voice or harmonies  Monophonic: music with a single melodic voice, not harmonized  Before 1000 A.D all compositions were single line  By 1300 compositions increasingly became more polyphonic  This was a major turning point in Western Music Composed over 140 musical works, both polyphonic and monophonic Often set his music to his own poetry Was the first composer to compile his complete works This piece is: La Messe de Nostre Dame: Kyrie (ca. 1364) Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

8.  Composers sought to please the ear with beautiful sonorities and seemingly natural rather than contorted melodies and rhythms  Greater contrasts in music, between high and low, thin and full.  Guillaume Du Fay (c. 1397-1474)  Jean De Ockeghem (ca. 1420-1497)  Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450-1521)  Ottauiano Petrucci printed 3 books of Josquin’s masses  “the best of the composers of our time,” “father of musicians”  1958: Martin Luther proclaimed “Josquin is the master of the notes.”  Piece: Ave Maria... virgo serena- Motet (ca. 1484-85)

9. Lutheran Church  Plato and Aristotle  Whole congregation sings  German Mass Calvinist Church  Did not want to distract worshippers with Worldly pleasures Church Music in England  Hybrid of the above extremes Catholic Response to the music of the Reformation Era  The Council of Trent (1545 to 1563)  Statement of 1562: “Let the, keep away from the churches compositions in which there is an intermingling of the lascivious or impure, whether by instrument or by voice

10.  The 16 th century was characterized by the rise of amateur music making  Book of Courtier: 1528 Baldassare Castiglione’s book praises those who can sing and play from notation  The rise of more secular music including the Madrigal (eventually lead to opera) and some instrumental music (lute songs and dance music) Giovanni Pierlugi de Palestrina (1525/26- 1594)  Born near Rome  Wrote more masses than any other composer  Commissioned to revise the official chant books after the Council of Trent  Piece: Pope Marcellus Mass- Credo