Music of the Middle Ages

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Music of the Middle Ages

• From Gregorian Chant to the Renaissance

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There were two schools of music during the
Middle Ages

• Ars Antiqua - 1100-1300
• Ars Nova - 1300 - 1450

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Ars Antiqua began in Paris at the Cathedral de
Notre Dame
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Representative Ars Antiqua Composers

• Leonin (1163-1190)
• Perotin (early 13th century)
• Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
• Anonymous (?)

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What is Ars Antiqua?

• Literally means old art
• Stemmed directly from Gregorian Chant
• This style of music can be characterized as
  adding hollow sounding harmonies(perfect 4ths
  5ths) to existing chants.
  
• This type of music is called organum.
• Originally, one voice would be added above the
  existing chant. The chant would be sung very
  slowly - it was called the cantus firmus.

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Early Polyphony

• Polyphony means more than one pitch played at the
  same time - what we typically call harmony.
  
• The first type of polyphony was called parallel
  organum. Here the cantus firmus and the higher
  harmony mirrored each other.
  
• Eventually composers like Leonin and his student
  Perotin began adding a third and fourth part
  above the cantus firmus, and moved away from the
  eerie sounding parallel organum.

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Parallel Organum
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Meanwhile, in Germany

• Hildegard von Bingen, who herself was a nun with
  reported mystical powers, began composing music
  different from the Notre Dame school.
  
• Von Bingen wrote music that sounded wildly
  different than plainchant, which some attributed
  to her lack of musical training. Her melodies,
  even today, seem contemporary.

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What kind of music was happening outside of the
church?

• Secular music, or popular music, has existed
  throughout history, especially during the Middle
  Ages.
  
• Secular music of the Middle Ages was the first to
  be written down on paper and preserved. Today,
  performances of secular music is possible using
  these surviving pieces of music.

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Troubadours

• Troubadours were French musicians who traveled
  across Europe during the 12th and 13th
  centuries.
  
• They sang mostly love songs.
• They accompanied their love songs with
  instruments, unlike the church.

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Adam de la Halle (1237-1286)

• The most famous troubadour ever
• Wrote the first ever musical theater piece Le Jeu
  de Robin et Marion
  
• Inventor of the Motet
• Motet - a piece of music where two or more
  different verses are fit together simultaneously,
  without regard to harmony
  

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Medieval Instruments

• Instruments in early secular music were used to
  accompany songs.
  
• Musicians usually improvised the simple
  accompaniments.
  
• While the accompaniments were melodically simple,
  they were rhythmically lively.
  
• Lets take a look at the many different
  instruments used in these accompaniments

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Harp
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Krumhorn
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Lute
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Muted Cornett
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Psaltery
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Sacbut
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Serpent
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Shawm
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Hurdy-Gurdy
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Drum or Tambor
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Recorder
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Viol
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Ars Nova

• 14th 15th century France
• The invention of modern notation
• The creation of the Ordinary of the Catholic
  Mass
  
• The popularity of the motet

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Representative Ars Nova Composers

• Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
• Francesco Landini (1325-1397)
• Anonymous (?)

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Guillaume de Machaut

• A poet a musician
• Created the first Ordinary for the Catholic Mass
• Created many of the musical forms of today
  (rondos and ballades)
  
• Master of counterpoint

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Examples of Ars Nova Music
Music from this period was the first to add stems
to the nuemes, thereby creating our modern system
of notation.
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This piece is called Sumer is icumen in and is
the oldest surviving round.
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Conclusions

• Most Medieval composers wrote mainly for the
  church and remained anonymous.
  
• These early composers did not take the art of
  composition seriously. It was more a necessary
  function, or duty.
  
• Most secular musicians had day jobs. Full time
  musicians were poor.
  
• While music itself was held in high regard, those
  who made it were not. This is very different
  today.