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A New Hero!

Church music = “learned,” art music

Polyphony

Possibly the single most important development in Western Music!

Really?! HOW?!

It led to the practice of more precise notation, including rhythm

It led to the use of regular meters

Only so much you can do with monophony!

Progression from oral tradition and improvisation to being an art of “composing” where one has to carefully plan, preserve and recreate

No more anonymous creations, as “composers” began to be recognized

—Learned musicians took the time to master the art of writing extended musical works

Organum

But music was everywhere:

A popular repertory of songs and dances that reflected every aspect of medieval life grew alongside

The Earliest Polyphonic Music

Began as improvised practice, a way to "magnify," or "amplify" the chant

  • Singing second line above or below chant at interval of fourth or fifth
  • Additional resonance provided by doubling the chant
  • Then, the organum at octave—either below or above (Total of 4 lines, 2 of which same)

Eventually developed into formal practice called "ORGANUM"

First written organum from c. 1025

Tenor ("tenere" = “to hold”):

Rhythmic mode: a fixed pattern of long and short notes that is repeated or varied, sung over...

a fixed melody (Gregorian chant) in extremely long notes (augmentation)

First treatises on organum from c. 850

Guido d’Arezzo: treatise c. 1030 best known

Limitations:

  • Has to be fairly simple
  • Only one person per part
  • No rhythmic notation

Notre Dame School

Important composers:

True polyphony created at Notre Dame in Paris (12th & 13th C.)

Notated rythm and pitch

Léonin:

First known composer of polyphony

Pérotin:

Léonin's successor

  • Increased number of voices in polyphonic works to three, then four
  • Known primarily as poet
  • Compiled "Magnus liber organi" (Great Book of Organum)
  • Responsible for rhythmicizing chant lines
  • Assigned certain combinations of notes certain rhythmic patterns (called "rhythmic modes""
  • Based on Latin poetry

Motet

Derived from French word for “word” - “mot”

Started by putting different words (new text) to top voices of three-voice organum

  • Troubadours/trovairitz (Provence)
  • Trouvéres (northern France)
  • Minnesingers (Germany)

—Different social class from minstrels:

  • Nobles of minor rank, usually, sometimes even royalty

Sometimes top two voices have different texts:

  • French
  • Latin
  • or one of each

* Chant retains original words

Wandering minstrels = jongleurs/jongleuresses

Actor-singers on the fringe of society

—“Finders,” “inventors” = composers

  • Musicians who served at courts
  • Wrote poetry, sang, played instrument, provided witty conversation
  • Part of courtly culture, from meals to ceremonies
  • Traveled from court to court
  • Mostly monophonic
  • Perhaps accompanied by improvised instrumental accompaniment

Songs on variety of topics:

  • Sacred/devotional
  • Drinking, gambling, politics, sex, wars, etc.
  • Idealized love for unattainable person
  • Usually strophic: number of verses, no refrain

Typical representative of the courtly troubadour

Valor

Honor

Humble origin as the son of a “poor knight” from Provence (southern France)

Courtship through secret gifts, poems, songs

Joins his patron in Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, writes a famous epic describing it, and probably killed there

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (c.1155-1207)

Nobility of character

Court musicians:

Troubadours/trobaritzes - Provence

  • Southern France
  • Different language, culture from North
  • Trouvères - N. France
  • Minnesingers - Germany

Late-13th-century estampie (troubadour dance song)

  • Set to a strophic poem
  • Instrumental portion performed on rebec, pipe, guitar, nakers, hand drum
  • Middle Eastern influence evident in the work
  • Improvisation
  • Instruments

Usually unattainable, unrequited, and (especially!) unconsummated :-(

Devotion to an ideal

Knighted for saving the life of his patron in battle

Enters the service of the marquis of Montferrat (northern Italy)

Affection for "perfect woman/man"

New developments in rhythm, meter, harmony, and counterpoint

Ars antiqua (old art)

=

Ars nova (new art)

Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377)

Movement beginning in 14th-century France

This means:

One of the outstanding composers of Western music!

Chanson - “song,” in French

One or both lower voices for instruments?

Form: rondeau

AB a A ab AB

refrain 1st 1/2 of verse 1st 1/2 of refrain verse refrain

Born near Rheims, in Champagne

  • Not just a musician
  • A courtier, a diplomat, and a cleric: One of the significant persons in all of Europe
  • Motets, chansons, polyphonic Mass Ordinary: Displaying near perfection of technique and form
  • Fixed text forms: rondeau, ballade, virelai

Common types of instrumental music

Keyboard instruments

"Loud" instruments

"Soft" instruments

Central role in sacred/art music reserved for vocal music

Instrumental music mostly improvised

Categorized by their use (indoor or outdoor)

Organs: several types

Large ones with a team of people to pump bellows, and more group of people to operate the sliders that open and close pipes

Portative and Positive: smaller organs with keyboards and a few ranks of pipes

Shawm: an ancestor of oboe with a loud, nasal tone

Slide Trumpet: developed into the early trombone called sackbut

Tabor: large cylindrical drum

Nakers: small drums played in pairs

Families of instruments as now: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and keyboard

In addition, SOFT (bas) or indoor, and LOUD (haut) or outdoor

http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrumt.html

Recorder: end-blown instrument with a breathy tone

Lute: plucked string instrument with a rounded back (Middle Eastern origin)

Harp and Psaltery: from biblical times

Rebec (also Middle Eastern) and Vielle: bowed string instruments like violin family

Saltarello: a lively, Italian “jumping” dance

Estampie: stately French dance

Basic, simple dance tunes were improvised and embellished with melodic decorations

Accompanied by percussions, and possibly with a drone, a sustained single note

Still more importance given to vocal music, but scope and importance growing in 14th century

Supporting role in vocal music, but instrumental arrangements became popular

True importance in dance music, where rhythm is so important

Rarely written down, since it was considered less important

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