Teachers' Guide

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL MUSIC When was the medieval period? The period of European history between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance around the 15th century is referred to as the Middle Ages, or as the medieval period. These terms are perhaps somewhat unfortunate, because they suggest that somehow this stretch over ten centuries was only something between two more significant epochs; today historians recognize the sophistication and interest of the Middle Ages in its own terms. How was medieval music notated? The first music which has come down to us in a notated form dates from the ninth century. The notation has no staff indicating pitch, nor any discernible indications of rhythm. It consists only of the words, above which are written signs called neumes which seem to indicate a rise or fall in the musical line. A decisive advance is made when some scribes wrote a horizontal line to represent the pitch ƒ, and grouped the neumes about this line. By the eleventh century a four-line staff was in use, and gradually the modern staff as we know it evolved. The notation of rhythm took longer to develop, and for much of the late Middle Ages a system was used which was unlike that of today. Our system, using quarter notes, half notes, etc. developed only in the late 15th century, at the end of the Middle Ages. Medieval scribes often took great pride in the look of their music on the page, and many medieval manuscripts are extremely beautifully inscribed and decorated. Sometimes even the music itself is arranged to create a picture. How do we know what medieval music sounded like? Modern performers of medieval music depend on many sources to determine how medieval music might have sounded. The notated music is of course the starting point, but as noted above, especially in the area of rhythm, there are sometimes a number of ways of interpreting the notation. Paintings, book illuminations, sculpture and stained glass help give an idea of instruments used, and in what combinations. Account books sometimes record the number of musicians employed; court chronicles often describe music played at important occasions. For the singer of medieval music, the meaning and pronunciation of the text can be difficult issues. Most musicians rely on the work of linguists who try to determine how, for example, Old French or Early English sounded. In this work, linguists look at old dictionaries, read early poetry to see which words were meant to rhyme, even read travellers’ accounts to find out what certain languages sounded like. There are very few instruments which survive from the Middle Ages. Modern instrument builders study pictures, and occasionally early designs, when they make modern copies of medieval instruments. Sometimes there are modern folk instruments which seem to be little changed from the medieval period, and can help suggest methods of construction. What instruments were used in medieval music? The bulk of the music in the Middle Ages was written for the church, and for much of the period the only instruments used in churches were the organ and bells. Even secular song was frequently performed with voices only. Visual sources however show that medieval Europe had representatives of all the main instrumental groups. Bowed strings: The late Middle Ages had two distinct types, the vielle and the rebec. The vielle, an old French name for fiddle, came in a variety of shapes, some waisted and some oval, and was played either on the shoulder like a violin, or between the legs like a cello. It had four or five animal-gut strings (usually sheep) and in some models it was common to play more than one string at a time. The rebec, derived from an Arabic instrument known as the rebab, was pear-shaped with a round back and three gut strings. (See cover picture, instrument on the left.) Both the vielle and rebec were played with an arched bow which had much less hair than modern bows. Plucked strings: The most diverse group of medieval instruments is that of plucked strings. The lute appeared in Europe in the second half of the thirteenth century, arriving from the Middle East. It was used primarily to play single lines of music, rather than chords. It was played with a plectrum made out of a feather quill; nowadays most plectra are made out of plastic. The medieval lute and its name were derived from the oud, or al’ud, the name of the instrument still played in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. (see cover picture, instrument on the right.) It was also played with a plectrum. The saz, which originated in Turkey, has a small body, a long neck with as many as seventeen frets, and three pairs of wire strings. Other instruments in this family include the harp (like a modern harp only much smaller); the lyre, which derived from the lyre of classical antiquity; the psaltery (a sounding box of wood, surmounted by wire strings stretched from one side to the other) played with a plectrum, and its cousin, the dulcimer which was struck with small wooden hammers. Wind instruments: Of the various wind instruments played during the Middle Ages, the recorder and flute were two of the softest. The flute is known more precisely as the transverse flute, because the sound is produced by blowing across the mouth hole. Medieval flutes were made entirely of wood, usually with six finger-holes. Recorders are end-blown into a beak-shaped mouthpiece. These too were made of wood. Louder instruments included the shawm (precursor of the oboe), the bagpipes and trumpets. Brass instruments were used primarily for military and ceremonial purposes. Percussion: A variety of percussion instruments existed in the Middle Ages, including frame drums, tambourine, darbuka and double-headed drums, these last being used for mostly military purposes. A special kind of instrument is the hurdy-gurdy, which was known in the Middle Ages as a symphony or organistrum. It appears in carvings and illustrations as early as the 10th century, and was basically a mechanized fiddle, with a drone produced by the turning of a wheel against the strings and with keys that made it possible to play a melody on another string. How did music develop in the Middle Ages? From the end of the Roman Empire until well into the 16th century, the most pervasive influence on European musical ideals lay in the huge repertoire of melody used in the liturgies of the Christian Church. This kind of melody is called plainchant or plainsong – “plain” because in its pure form it is monophonic: it consists of a single melodic line. When other lines are added to the main melody, so that the singers are not all singing the same notes at the same time and the musical texture becomes more complex, the music is polyphonic: it consists of two or more musical lines being performed simultaneously. At various times there had been several different styles of plainchant in use; in the later Middle Ages, Western Europe was dominated by the style we know as Gregorian chant. Church musicians have always embellished the music of the services, but beginning in the ninth century we have written evidence of the practice of singing two distinct parts when performing plainchant. From then on, one stream of medieval music history is the story of increasing polyphonic complexity. This development occurred first in the churches, and then was applied to secular music-making as well. At the same time, throughout the medieval period monophonic music continues to be written. New plainchant was written for the church, but perhaps the liveliest repertoire of monophonic music is secular. In 12th-century France, singer-songwriters known as troubadours (in the south of France) and trouveres (in the north) wrote lyrics and melodies which were performed in courtly surroundings, sometimes as solos, sometimes accompanied by instruments. The most common theme of the songs deals with the feelings of love, and the conduct of a love affair, in which the beloved is unattainable. These ideas are known as the ideal of courtly love. The words troubadour and trouvere come from the Latin meaning “one who finds,” and in effect mean a composer. The trouveres and troubadours found imitators in Germany known as minnesänger, while in Spain and Portugal a rich tradition of monophonic songs called cantigas developed in praise of the Virgin Mary. How can I learn more about medieval music? The best way to learn about medieval music (like any music) is to listen to it and to try playing and singing some. One of the first modern groups to pay serious attention to medieval music was the Early Music Consort of London led by David Munrow and their collection Music of the Gothic Era is still a classic, and has been recently re-released on CD. The group Sequentia has done excellent work especially in the monophonic repertoires, as has The Dufay Collective. The Toronto Consort has a CD of music by and about women from the Middle Ages and Renaissance entitled Full Well She Sang. Editions of medieval music are a little harder to come by. The best way to find a particular repertoire is to start by looking up, for example, trouvere, or cantiga, in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which can be found in a good library. At the end of every article is a list which will direct you to editions of music and books related to that subject. Many of those editions and books can be found in the Toronto Reference Library and the Faculty of Music Library at the University of Toronto.

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