Copy of MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

INTRODUCTION

- From the Decline of the Roman Empire in the 5th century until the 15th century

- Feudal Society:

. Kings: give large land grants to Upper Lords called fiefs, give protection, receives money, military service, and advice

. Upper Lords: give land grants to Lesser Lords, give protection, receives money, military service

. Lesser Lords: Give land grants to knights, receives money, military service

. Knights: Give land to peasants/serfs, receives crops, labor

. Peasant/Serfs: Receives land to farm, pays with labor, crops

- Catholic Church: Backbone of the medieval life. Around it and monasteries, they were centers to copy and keep the ancient culture.

ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL BACKGROUND

MEDIEVAL MOVEMENTS

. Romanesque art: solid, austere and dark buildings, round-headed arches, scarce height as a expression of a society that tends to isolation and contemplation. Monastery.

. Gothic art: wish of elevation and light with pointed arches, thinner walls and higher buildings with wide hollows and stained glass windows. Cathedral.

MUSIC

. Liberal art, inside the Cuadrivium.

. Taught in churches, monasteries, cathedrals and universities

. Religious music to solemnize the mass and praise to God. Gregorian Chant with a unifying role in all the Christian places.

. Secular music performed in palaces, castles, squares by troubadours, minstrels...

GREGORIAN CHANT

- Musical chant destined for the liturgy (Mass and the hours of Office). Generalized chant in the temples.

- The Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) compiled the organization of these chants to strengthen the Christian unity.

- Characteristics: in Latin, monodic, a capella, collective, anonymous, religious text, free rhythm (determined by the the expressions and accentuation of the text), reduced melodic range without big steps).

- Purpose: reinforce the prayer by singing and heighten the word of God

Other characteristics

-Styles of singing:

.Syllabic: one note per syllable

. Neumatic: two or three notes per syllable

.Melismatic: more than three notes per syllable

- Modal scales derived form the Greek modes, four authentic (of higher register) and four plagal (of lower register)

Neumatic notation

- Musical system of writing of this Chant. At the beginning, it was transmitted by oral means.

- Neumes: symbols derived from the movement of the hand when conducting the singing, written above or below the text. They indicate the melodic line and help monks to remember the singing. Then, they'll evolve until an exact expression of the pitches thanks to the reference lines and clefs,

up to the present square

notation.

Guido de Arezzo

He is regarded as the inventor of the modern musical notation (staff notation) and the use of "ut-re-mi-fa- sol-la" solmization taken from the initial syllables of each of the first six half-lines of the first stanza of the hymn "Ut queant laxis".

Guido is credited with the invention of the Guidonian hand, a widely used mnemonic system where note names are mapped to parts of the human hand.

SECULAR MUSIC

Developed under the protection of feudal lords.

Written in vernacular language, the songs deal with "courtly love" and the knightly spirit of the heroes from the crusades, parodies, honor, loyalty.

Characteristics: monodic texture, instrumental accompaniment, individual chant, known author, marked rhythm.

Performed in popular parties and as accompaniment of Court dances.

PERFORMERS

Troubadours

- Poet-musicians, generally of noble birth, who appeared in the South of France (11th). They write about courteous love (the mentioned topics before). They write language of Òc but in the North of the country it's replaced by language of Oil .

- Minnesängers: they are the equivalent in Germany.

- Their songs are collected in luxuriously decorated song books,

- Famous troubadours: Adam de la Halle ("Le jeu de robin et marion"), Martín Códax ("Cantigas de Amigo"), Rimbaut de Vaquieras.

- In Spain, this kind of music is represented by "Cantigas de Santa María of Alfonso X The Wise"

"Cantigas de Santa María"

- Written by Alfonso X the Wise, King of Castilla y León

- Poet and musician, he got together wises, Jewish and Muslim people also Christians in his Court, giving a big cultural impulse

- This play is composed by 417 songs written in Galician-Portuguese about miracles and praises to the Virgin

- There are very valuable miniatures in the codex they are kept

Jongleurs, minstrels and goliards.

Jongleurs and minstrels: They are mere performers. They play instruments, sing, tell news and stories, entertain people. Also they do magic trucks, train animals, acrobatic shows. With

less social consideration

than troubadours but less than

minstrels (instrumental

performers). Both of them were

traveling musicians who went over castles and villages.

Goliards: They were students and vagabond friars that performed satirical, political or religious critique, and carnal love songs. Their songs are gathered in a 13th century

song book called

"Carmina Burana".

THE BEGINNING OF THE POLYPHONY

At the end of the 9th century, the polyphony (different melodies at the same time) was born in Western Music. It started in Notre Dame School, but it spread rapidly. Forms of polyphony:

. Organum: this most rudimentary form consisted of adding a parallel voice of 4th or 5th (vox organalis) bellow the Gregorian Chant (vox principalis). A third voice could be added by doubling the organalis an octave higher. It's called parallel organum.

. Discantus: organum whose melodies move by opposite motion.

. Melismatic Organum: There are several notes in the vox organalis sung over a single sustained held note in the vox principalis (tenor). Long values bellow long melismas (several shorter values)

ARS ANTIQUA (12TH-13TH CENTURIES)

The evolution of the musical notation favored the development of more complex polyphony. Also, the measured durations appeared in order to synchronize the different melodic lines, using the old Greek rhythm by using their main metrical feet.

The most important musical center was "Notre Dame School", and its main composers were Leonin

and Perotin.

New musical forms:

- Conductus: all its melodies are totally

original (not Gregorian)

- Motet: its different voices move in different

rhythms and texts, also different languages and topics (mixing secular and religious contents)

- Spanish samples: "Códice Calixtino", in Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrims guide with songs, dances and descriptions of the road.

- "Códice de las Huelgas", manuscript in the monastery with the same name.

ARS NOVA (14TH CENTURY)

- The term was coined by Philippe de Vitry to differentiate new techniques of composition and notation in relation to the ones from "Ars Antiqua".

- The music, releases from the Gregorian Chant, is closer to mankind, typical or an era that underwent the appearance of urban societies and was distancing from medieval theocentrism. Secular music achieved little by little more importance, with forms such as the canon, the ballad and the chanson.

- Mensural notation was born, in which specific values were designed for each sound.

- Composers: Philippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut ("Notre Dame Mass" and Francesco Landiny.

- Spanish sample: "Llibre Vermell", in Monserrat Monastery, with plays to entertain pilgrims, songs and dances.

MEDIEVAL INSTRUMENTS

. Great variety of instruments

. Instrumental improvisation

.Functions: to accompany songs and the performance of dances and processions

String instruments:

harp, lyre, psaltery, qanun, lute, viola,

hurdy gurdy

Wind instruments: horn, trumpet, dulzaina,

chirimia, flutes, bagpipes,

organ

Percussion instruments: hand drums, rattle drums, cymbals, triangle, bells rattles

"Viderunt Omnes",

Perotin

"Stella splendens"

Adam de la Halle

MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Rimbaut de Vaqueiras

"Kalenda Maya"

"Bache, Bene Venies",

Carmina Burana

Think in a chess set