Middle Ages Declarative Knowledge

Comparison between Middle Ages and Renaissance

Middle Ages Renaissance Long, asymmetrical Shorter, balanced Melody Texted melodies often melismatic Texted melodies often syllabic Smoother, more regular Rhythm Restless and active Often tied to rhythm or words Based on triads Based on fifths and octaves Dissonance less harsh, usually on weak Harmony Unexpected, pungent beats dissonances More adventurous in late Renaissance in portraying emotions Often a cappella or purely Voices and instruments mixed instrumental Sound Bright colors, freely mixed Softer tone colors, ensembles of similar instruments (consorts) Monophonic and polyphonic Mostly polyphonic Texture Non-imitative Often imitative Often based on cantus firmus or Some isorhythm, but usually based on isorhythm text or dance forms Form Vocal refrain forms (virelay, Through-composed vocal pieces rondeau) (madrigal and motet)

Sacred Music of the Middle Ages

I. Liturgy: Set Structure of Christian Church Service 1. Pope Gregory the Great (r. 590–604) codified church music 2. Gregorian chant (plainchant, plainsong) 1. vocal monophony, nonmetric, sung in Latin, conjunct melody 2. over 3,000 melodies anonymously composed 3. text settings: syllabic, neumatic, melismatic 4. early chant: handed down through oral tradition 5. notated by neumes: square notes on four-line staff 6. modes: precede major and minor scales II. The Mass: Reenactment of the Sacrifice of Christ 1. Most solemn ritual of the Catholic church 1. Proper: variable portions 2. Ordinary: fixed portions 3. offices: not part of the Mass, worship in monasteries

http://ibscrewed4music.blogspot.com/ III. A Gregorian Melody: Kyrie 1. Kyrie: first in the Ordinary 1. Greek prayer in three parts 2. often sung antiphonally 2. Listening Guide 2: Gregorian Chant, Kyrie (10th century) 1. conjunct, nonmetric, monophonic, a cappella 2. Three phrases, each sung three times: represents the trinity IV. Life in the Medieval Cloister 1. Life devoted to the Catholic church 1. religious seclusion devoted to prayer, scholarship 2. available to men and women V. The Music of Hildegard of Bingen 1. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) 1. poet and prophet 2. daughter of a noble couple 3. given to the church as a tithe 4. music resembles Gregorian chant 2. Listening Guide 3: Hildegard of Bingen, Alleluia, O virga mediatrix (Alleluia, O mediating branch),(late 12th century) 1. A cappella choir and soloist 2. Mass Proper: plainchant celebrating the Virgin Mary 3. expressive leaps of a fifth: “holy womb,” “flower,” and “chastity” VI. The Rise of Polyphony 1. Polyphony: combination of two or more simultaneous musical lines 1. regular meters 2. requires more exact notational system 3. composer derived from Latin componere,” to put together” 2. Organum: earliest polyphony, 12th and 13th centuries 1. second voice added to plainchant 2. Léonin (fl. 1150–c. 1201): composer at Cathedral of Notre Dame 1. compiled Great Book of Organum (Magnus liber organi) 3. Pérotin (fl. c. 1200): Léonin’s successor 1. expanded organum to three, four, or more voices 3. Listening Guide 4: Notre Dame School, Gaude Maria virgo (Rejoice Mary, virgin) (Early 13th century) 1. probably composed by Pérotin 2. prayer in praise of the Virgin Mary 3. three-part polyphony, alternates with monophonic chant 4. upper two voices melismatic, in rhythmic mode 1. rhythmic mode: fixed pattern of long and short notes 5. third voice sustained below

http://ibscrewed4music.blogspot.com/ VII. The Early Medieval Motet 1. Texts added to upper voices of organum 1. motet: mot is French for “word” 2. sacred and secular texts combined PIECES: Hildegard of Bingen, Alleluia, O virga mediatrix Notre Dame School, Gaude Maria virgo

Secular Music of the Middle Ages

I. Medieval Minstrels 1. Minstrels 1. wandering actor-singers 2. versatile entertainers 2. Troubadours and trouvères 1. French poet-musicians 2. court musicians 3. members of aristocracy and royalty 4. poems: chivalry, unrequited love, political and war songs, Crusades 5. Minnesingers: German counterpart II. A Troubadour Chanson 1. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (c. 1155–1207) 1. courtly troubadour for marquis of Montferrat 2. Listening Guide 5: Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Kalenda Maya (The First of May) (late 12th century) 1. estampie: troubadour dance song 2. six-stophe poem in Provençal 1. love song to Beatrice, Marquise of Montferrat 2. return of spring; courtly love 3. instrumental accompaniment: guitar, rebec, nakers 4. strophic: same melody for each stanza 3. Listening Guide 6: Anonymous, Sumer is icumen in (Summer is come) (c. 1250) 1. six-voice, a cappella round 2. two voices repeat bass pattern 3. upper voices: two-voice, then four-voice round 1. long-short-long-short rhythmic pattern 4. Middle English text III. The French Ars nova 1. New musical style, early 14th-century France, then Italy

http://ibscrewed4music.blogspot.com/ 1. significant developments in rhythm, meter, harmony, counterpoint, and notation 2. more refined and complex than Ars antiqua (old art) 3. secular themes 2. A Chanson by Machaut: Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) 1. foremost composer-poet; also cleric 2. worked at French courts 3. sacred and secular compositions 1. favored chanson: courtly love poems 2. poetic forms: rondeau, ballade, and virelai 3. Listening Guide 7: Machaut, Puis qu’en oubli (Since I am forgotten) (mid-14th century) 1. three-voice, a cappella polyphonic chanson 2. low range: male voices 3. slow, syncopated rhythm 4. text: rondeau by Machaut IV. Early Instrumental Music 1. Instruments supported vocal music 1. accompanied singers 2. instrumental arrangements of vocal works 3. prominent in dance music: rhythm 2. Music improvised: not notated 3. Some instruments originated in Middle East 4. Soft (bas), indoor instruments 1. recorder, pipe, lute, harp, psaltery, hammered dulcimer, rebec, vielle 5. Loud (haut), outdoor instruments 1. tournaments, processions 2. shawm, sackbut 6. Other instruments 1. crumhorn, cornetto 2. percussion: tabor, nakers 7. Organs 1. church organs 1. performer; second person to pump bellows 2. small organs: portative and positive

PIECES: Anonymous, Sumer is icumen in Machaut, Puis qu'en oubli

http://ibscrewed4music.blogspot.com/ IB Time Band 4 (1550 - 1700)  Preface: The Middle Ages o Gregorian Chant [ex: Haec Dies PMG “Gregorian Chant #16/NS Vol I p1] o Troping around: Parallel organum / free organum / melismatic organum: o [ex: Alleluia Justus ut palma NRAWM CD1#30/no score] o Perotin, Leonin (The Notre Dame School) o [ Perontin, Sederunt - Gradual for St. Steven’s Day NRAWM CD1#42- 44/PMG NAWM Vol I p 56] o Motet: tenor (chant streched out) + duplum + triplum o Secular songs and dances-monophonic: troubadours (s.Fr) and trouveres (n.Fr) - aristocratic poet/musicians o [Adam de la Halle Robins m’aime NRAWM CD1#20/PMG NAWM Vol I p 36] o Ars Nova (1300) Guillaume de Machaut (French c1300-c1377) more flexible rhythm, more polyphonic, fuller harmony. o [Mass: Agnus Dei NRAWM CD1#56/PMG NAWM vol 1 p 82] o Style:  Form imitation, homo rhythm, cantus firmus, text-dominated forms  Melody relatively conjunct, contrapuntal lines, word painting  Tone Color families or consorts of instruments, blend  Harmony interval of the third; firmly regulated treatment of dissonance  Rhythm smooth regular flow, or restless. Dance music strongly metrical, but in general complex interlocking phrases without emphasis on meter. Syncopation. o Genres:  mass - settings of the mass ordinary; this is where composers showed off their virtousity. . [Palestrina: Pope Marcellus Mass, Credo NRAWM CD 1#14-18/ PMG NAWM vol 1 p 200/listening guide in PMG MFOT p 155]  motet - polyphonic vocal work set to a sacred Latin text. More opportunity for experimentation in expressing different texts.[Josquin: Tu solus, qui facis mirabilia NRAWM CD2 # 23-26 / PMG NAWM p 111]  chanson - Fr. for song. Our meaning here: French secular polyphonic song of the 14 - 16 centuries. [ Claude Le Jeune (c1600): Revecy venir du printans NRAWM CD2#61-69/no score]  madrigal - secular polyphonic vocal work for 4 to 6 voices; imitative sections contrast with chordal ones; intimately tied to the text, with word painting evident; avoids fixed form. Sung at upper middle class social gatherings. Began in Italy and moved to England.[Italian: Willaert, Aspro core e selvaggio e cruda voglia, NRAWM CD2#42-46/PMG NAWM vol 1 p 242] [English: Farmer, Fair Phyllis PMG Quink English Madridgals#12/NS vol 1 p75] o Instruments:  crumhorn - capped double reed instrument with soft but very reedy tone.

http://ibscrewed4music.blogspot.com/  cornett - instrument made of wood or ivory, with a cup shaped mouthpiece.  lute - fretted, plucked string instrument with bent neck; strings tuned in pairs.  sackbut - a mellow, softer precursor of the modern trombone.  rackett - low pitched double reed instrument; coiled lengthy tube in a small box.  recorder - wooden, just like the plastic one you played in grade school.  shawm - harsh loud precursor of the oboe.  viol - bowed stringed instrument with a fretted neck; six strings tuned a fourth apart w/a major third in the middle. (A d g b e’ a’). Held upright in front of player. o Vocabulary  ayre - air, or song - a type of English madrigal. Often printed in three directions so performers could sit around a table.  a cappella - the ideal of Renaissance vocal music. Unaccompanied.  academy - a “learned society” for the purpose of furthering the arts, literature, or science.  ballett - like a madrigal but dance-like, strophic, homophonic and with falala refrain.  cantus firmus (Medieval) - chant or chant fragment on which polyphony is based.  consort - different pitched family of like instruments.  chorale - Protestant hymn; tunes frequently used as cantus firmi.  canzona - instrumental counterpart of the chanson.  cori spezzati - divided choirs; often associated with the widely seperated choir lofts of St. Marks in Venice. Gabrieli was the master of the polychoral motet.  fauxbourdon - Dufay compositional technique for 3 voices using the interval of a 6th; creating basically 1st inversion triads.  frottola - Italian secular precersor of the Madrigal. Lighter.  lied - here, German polyphonic song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.  pedal point - sustained note in the bass, over which harmonies move.  pavane - galliard - commonly paired Renaissance dance set. Pavane = slow duple/galliard = fast triple  ricercar - basically an instrumental motet.  word painting (or tone painting) - intimate link between text and music, sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious. “As Vesta Was Descending” forms a descending line melodically.

http://ibscrewed4music.blogspot.com/