Really, really old stuff

1
The History of Music

• Really, really old stuff

2
In the beginning

• Music was very simple
• Beating on sticks and rocks, some chants, etc.
• So, fast forward to when real music start taking
  place

3
Enter the Middle Ages

• Medieval music is the beginning of historical
  music records
• Records of musical influence go back to the 10th
  and 11th century (long time ago)
• Music was very simple, and was centered around
  the church

4
What makes it Medieval?

• Most of the music was vocal in origin, more often
  than not it was not written down
• Simple music, kinda boring revolved around a
  tonic pitch in only eight accepted modes
• Monophonic texture
• Instruments would only show up in secular music

5
Notation of the time

• Looked nothing like modern notation
• Notated using neumes Greek word meaning sign
• Early neumes were just marks above the words, no
  staff at all
• Relative height of neumes showed the pitch of the
  singer

6
Notation of the time

• Eventually, it became more sophisticated
• Random marks turned in to square shapes
• A four-line staff was adopted, using new neumes
  to show definite pitch
• A simple clef was used to show location of F or C
  in the staff

7
Notation of the time

• Used only eight scale modes, based off of four
  Authentic Modes
• Authentic modes Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and
  Mixolydian
• But what about the other four? Take a mode, shift
  it down four notes, then add the prefix Hypo

8
Notation of the time

• Melodies varied between melismatic, syllabic, or
  neumatic
• Melismatic a bunch of notes between each
  syllable
• Syllabic a note per syllable
• Neumatic somewhere in the middle

9
Good Ol Church Music

• Music was used in service to God
• Eight times a day, monks would have to sing and
  pray ritualistically
• Called Hours of the Divine Office, essentially
  sacred times of the day
• Prayers, scripture readings, and singing of
  psalms and hymns all used

10
Good Ol Church Music

• Mass became the most important part of church
  ceremony
• Contained a much larger use of singing, prayer,
  and worship than other ceremonies
• Mass contained five parts, all set to music,
  every time
• Kyrie eleison, Gloria in exceisis Deo, Credo in
  unom Deum, Sanctus Benedictus, and Agnus Dei
• Parts of the mass were sung using Gregorian chant

11
Non-Church Music

• Called Secular music
• Born from poetry and music developing in Southern
  France
• People developing this style called Troubadours
• Like all inspiration in life, troubadours
  developed their poetry and music from their love
  for women
• Songs were sung in devotion to their women,
  vowing and promising to do anything to make them
  happy
• Makes you wonder what happened over time, huh?

12
Non-Church Music

• The songs were constructed using the same Church
  modes
• They used a triple (3/4 or 6/8) meter
• They stayed monophonic for a while
• A lute or harp might accompany, though
• Northern France had its own group, called
  trouveres
• This group did pretty much the same stuff
• Over 2000 poems and 1700 melodies have been found

13
Then, in both, a change started

• The birth of polyphony
• Started in the church, with organum (a fancy word
  for polyphony)
• Still simple, another voice duplicated the main
  chant, just at a higher/lower pitch
• As long as the message of the text was not lost,
  the church didnt care, and let it slide

14
Then, in both, a change started

• France, once again, advanced things
• They took a line from the chant, and held it
  longer
• This new line called tenor at first (from Latin
  tenere to hold)
• Another line added, this time putting a bunch of
  notes in the syllables (remember melismatic)
• Called duplum
• Over time, this line became more important

15
More and more changes

• Then, after a while, even these changes werent
  enough
• The tenor part started to speed up, matching the
  duplum
• More development happened, with church songs not
  based on Gregorian chant forming (conductus)
• New words were added to top parts, commenting on
  the main chant line
• Then, finally, from this development, the motet
  was born

16
Motet Exciting

• Motet was based on the tenor part from a chant
• Each line in the motet, though, was independent
• They all had their own lyrics, and their own
  rhythmic pattern
• As the 14th century came around, lines in the
  motet were both secular and sacred working
  together
• Music was finally for aesthetics as well as
  worship

17
14th Century A change in the world

• Pope John XXII didnt like the new music
• He issued orders to stop it, explaining that it
  was too elaborate and took away from worship
• No one listened.
• The church lost power over time, and people liked
  the music
• This shift was called ars nova

18
Ars Nova

• Means new art
• Referred to the new changes in music in the time,
  but also indirectly referred to the changes in
  society
• Meter went from triple (tempus perfectum) to
  duple
• Isorhythm (a rhythmic motive) introduced itself
• Music as a whole became much more popular
• Even the Ordinary Mass shifted to adopt the new
  art
• But enough about France

19
Now, off to a much better country

• ITALY!
• The people of Italy saw art as the solution to a
  confusing world, and loved it very much
• Everyone in Italy played and sang, filling every
  day with leisure and love
• Three poetic styles came in to being in Italy
• Madrigal, caccia, and ballata

20
Ah, Italy

• Madrigal was poetic form all about love and the
  beauty of nature, for two or three voices
• Upper voices provided the melody over the slow
  lower voice
• Caccia had two upper voices enter separately
  singing the same melody in exact imitation, with
  the same lower voice
• Ballata was a more elaborate poetic form, having
  an AbbaA patter, beginning and ending the same way