Music in the Middle Ages

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MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES
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GREGORIAN CHANT
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• The Christian Church in the Middle Ages
  disapproved the use of music as simple
  entertainment because they thought it would bring
  to the memory of the Christians the past pagan
  world (musical instruments and dancing were very
  important among Greeks and Romans).

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• The main purpose of religious music in the Middle
  Ages was to teach people (who were mostly
  illiterate) the ideas of the Catholic Church,
  through chants just like painting and sculpture
  represented scenes of Christs and the Virgin
  Marys lives, the Apostles, the Final Judgment,
  etcetera.

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The Adoration of the Magi

• This painting represents the moment of Christs
  birth so that the common people could see with
  their very eyes what really happened (this kind
  of paintings were exhibited in the churches).

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• Thus in the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great
  unified and recompiled all music the monasteries
  had produced and established a series of
  conditions under which all Christian churches
  would sing in the same way. Thanks to this
  initiative, the sense of Christian unity and
  identity was promoted throughout Europe, and this
  chant became the official singing of the Catholic
  Church named Gregorian in his honour.

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• Singing schools were created, called scholae
  cantorum, the most prominent in Rome, to preserve
  and transmit these chants nevertheless, music
  teaching had been treated almost only
  theoretically until this time (included in
  science studies) because music performance was
  considered suspicious of being sinful and lacking
  intellectual interest (as a body exercise opposed
  to the soul).

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NOTATION

• In the beggining, singing was transmitted by oral
  tradition (by imitation and vocal instructions),
  it was not written down. The first signs used to
  indicate different notes were known as NEUMS,
  written over the texts without any staff lines
  and depending on their position (higher or lower)
  to represent the notes. Later on, one, two and
  finally four lines were employed, and neums were
  transformed into square-shaped symbols SQUARE
  NOTATION.

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Neums
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Neums over one line
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Square notation
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Characteristics of Gregorian chant

• Latin
• Monophony just one melody.
• A capella no instrumental accompaniment.
• Rhythm dependent on the text.
• Types of chant
• - Syllabic one note per syllable.
• - Melismatic more than three notes per syllable.

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The upper example corresponds to a syllabic
style, and the lower one to a melismatic (more
than fifty notes in the syllable cé-
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Text comentary

• Music as an element in worship, filling a
  necessary place in the ritual, has to be
  correctly sung. A mistake in the music of
  worship, like a mistake in word, gesture or
  movement, was held to have invalidated the
  celebration which had therefore to be repeated.
  For this reason music had to be taught and its
  correct forms memorised methods of notation had
  to be devised and developed to asist the
  musicians memory, so that the history of the
  development of western notation is a history of
  the attempts of ecclesiastical musicians to
  ensure the accuracy of the rite, from Henry
  Raynors A Social History of Music.

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Text comentary (questions)

• Why do you think it is so important not to commit
  mistakes during the religious celebrations?
• Is the music in religious ceremonies a kind of
  concert so that people enjoy it?
• Is the music in the Christian faith a sign of
  Gods creation harmony?
• Why did the Church create a system of musical
  writing? How did it influence the accuracy of the
  singing? (Think on whether it is easier and more
  precise to recite a book by heart or by reading.
  There were more than three thousand songs in this
  style).
• When did the first musical signs appear?

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Auditions

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vS-PRXkKUIg0
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vKphky63gK5I
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vEf8jnS2P5QU
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vhf1RetSQ7HE
• Distinguish which of these auditions are
  interpreted in a syllabic style and which in a
  melismatic one. Does the soloist in the fourth
  audition sing a somewhat more elaborated chant?
• Specify whether the beat is constant or not.
• Reflect on why Latin is the language used in
  Gregorian chant.

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PROFANE MUSIC
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• Although the Church disapproved of the use of
  music outside the religious sphere, popular songs
  and dances have always existed amongst the
  population. In the early Middle Ages, the most
  common theme were the heroic deeds in battle of
  the nobility.

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• The JOGLARS, called minstrels in English, were a
  type of travelling singer-musician who were the
  first to popularise profane music in this period.
  They made their living by staging shows using
  conjuring tricks, acrobatics and maybe trained
  animals, at castles and in villages, and played
  their own songs or those of other composers on a
  variety of instruments. The Church had in such a
  low steem this type of music that they even
  refused to give the joglars their last sacraments
  when they were about to die.

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• As the society changed through the centuries,
  cities grew and so commerce, and consecuently
  values and forms became more refined, and the
  place of women in a less warlike environment
  improved (courtly love became the main theme in
  music).

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• The 12th century brought the rise in the south of
  France of the TROUBADOUR MOVEMENT, which helped
  to lend a certain dignity to profane music. The
  troubadours were a sort of singer-songwriter, as
  they composed their lyrics (poetry) and set music
  to it. They were cultured and even belonged to
  the nobility (on the contrary, joglars were
  musicians and actors from poor families who added
  in this time to their repertory the love songs
  composed by troubadours).

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• The music performed by troubadours has a clear
  and measured rhythm in contrast with the rhythm
  of Gregorian chant. These songs were written in
  romance languages (French, German, etc.), not in
  Latin.

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• The troubadours in Germany were called
  Minnesingers. Of note in Spain is Alfonso X the
  Wise (1221-1284), the king who promoted the arts
  and sciences during his reign. Alfonsos most
  outstanding work is the collection known as the
  Cantigas de Santa María, of which more than 400
  have been preserved.

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Text commentary

• Jaufre Rudel was the Prince of Blaye and a
  troubadour of the earlymid 12th century, who
  probably died during the Second Crusade. He is
  noted for developing the theme of "love from
  afar in his songs.
• According to his legendary vida, or fictionalised
  biography, he was inspired to go on Crusade upon
  hearing from returning pilgrims of the beauty of
  Countess Hodierna of Tripoli, and that she was
  his amor de lonh, his far-off love. The legend
  claims that he fell sick on the journey and was
  brought ashore in Tripoli a dying man. Countess
  Hodierna is said to have come down from her
  castle on hearing the news, and Rudel died in her
  arms. From Wikipedia, Jaufre Rudel.

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Text commentary

• Marcabru was a troubadour from Gascony and was
  the son of a poor woman named Marcabruna.
• Marcabru was abandoned at a rich man's door, and
  no one knew his origin. He learned to make poetry
  from Cercamon. He became famous, and the lords of
  Gascony, about whom he had said many bad things,
  eventually put him to death.
• Forty-five poems are attributed to Marcabru,
  learned, often difficult, sometimes obscene,
  critical of the morality of lords and ladies. He
  experimented with the pastorela, which he uses to
  point out the futility of lust. One tells of how
  a man's attempt to seduce a woman whose husband
  was at the Crusades is firmly rebuffed. Among his
  patrons were probably, Alfonso VII of León.
  Marcabru may have travelled to Spain in the
  entourage of the Count of Toulouse, in the 1130s.
  In the 1140s he was a propagandist for the
  Reconquista and in one famous poem he called
  Spain a lavador (washer) where knights could go
  to have their souls cleansed fighting the
  infidel. From Wikipedia, Marcabru.

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Text commentary (questions)

• What main themes do the texts speak about?
• Which historic events do the texts cite? Speak
  very briefly about them.
• What is a pastorela?
• Look for information about courtly love.

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Text commentary (second task)

• Invent the biography of a troubadour.

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Auditions

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vKhlCtF7JJ6Q
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vk-gTUUgZCQo
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vI9gzaauL67s
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?v5Zah4VWPiNE
• Do you think this music is monophonic (Gregorian
  chant only one melody) or polyphonic? Compare
  with the following audition from the Renaissance
  
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vJY2rLfhJLmY
• Are they written in a rhythmic metre, one in
  which you can mark out the beat?
• Write down the family of the instruments that
  accompany the voice.
• Mark one or two differences you find with the
  auditions of Gregorian chant.

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Project

• Elaborate a Power Point presentation about
  medieval musical instruments, classifying them
  according to the instrumental families string,
  wind (wood and brass) and percussion.

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Birth of polyphony
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• As the monasteries recruited very young boys from
  the villages, those gifted with a specially
  beautiful voice, to enlarge the schola with
  future good singers, the practice of singing
  evolved very slowly towards a polyphonic concept
  as the children have a higher voice, and
  sometimes had to improvise some notes because of
  difficulties to sing the same notes than men.

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Periods

• Ars Antiqua 12th and 13th centuries.
• Ars Nova 14th century.

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Ars Antiqua

• This school of music was centered in Paris.
• The most relevant composers were Leonin
  (diminutive of Leo), and Perotin (diminutive of
  Peter). They were the first composers of
  religious music to trascend anonimity (that is a
  sign of extraordinary prestige).
• Listen to that audition to have a notion about
  how this music sounded
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vaySwfcRaOZM

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Ars Nova

• During the 14th century, society began a slow
  progression towards the secular. As the middle
  class (merchants and artisans) flourished, the
  popularity of the Church began to decline, given
  that new earthly interests aroused in consecuence
  (how to make more economical profit).For this
  reason, secular music became more important than
  religious music. Nevertheless the Church still
  retained very much power in society.
• The most representative composer of the period
  was Guillaume de Machaut.
• Listen to that auditions
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vhLxwycS-m7c
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vY47JdUI_PhE
• (See how different, as religious music, this
  second audition sounds from
• Gregorian chant).

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Text commentary

• The extent of the new styles progression is
  indicated by the bull Docta sanctorum, by Pope
  John XXII, issued in 1323
• The voices incesantly to and fro, intoxicating
  rather than soothing the ear, while singers
  themselves try to convey the emotion of the music
  by their gestures. The consecuence of all this is
  that devotion, the true aim of all worship, is
  neglected. Therefore we hasten to forbid these
  methods, or rather to drive them more effectively
  out of the house of God. From Henry Raynors A
  Social History of Music.

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Text comentary (questions)

• Why do you think the Pope John XXII was contrary
  to the use of this type of music in Church?
• Do you think he was succesful in his prohibition?
  Why?
• Is it common that the old and the new generations
  dislike each others music? Why do you think that
  happens?
• Is the conservation of the earlier music a value
  as a token of respect to the past?