A MINIHISTORY OF MUSIC 4th Edition By the faculty of the Music History Department of The Juilliard School Edited by L. Michael Griffel, Department Chairperson Fred Fehleisen, Assistant Editor © Copyright The Juilliard School July 2015 THE MIDDLE AGES (500-1400) Text by John J. H. Muller; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen The Middle Ages (or Medieval period) spans many centuries, from the fall of the Roman Empire in A.D. 476 to the beginning of the Renaissance, around 1400. The Roman Catholic Church filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of Rome, and provided stability in a politically fragmented Europe. Although often viewed as the Dark Ages, the Medieval period gave rise to the great Gothic cathedrals and also the earliest universities. As a style period in music history, the Middle Ages is longer than all the others combined, and a number of momentous developments took place that greatly affected later music. At the start, there was no form of notation, but over time, a method was developed that could precisely indicate pitch and rhythm. Music of the early Middle Ages was anonymous. Gradually, however, actual composers emerged, some of whom had great renown in their day. As a matter of fact, the whole concept of composition as a deliberate, artistic act was evolving during this period. Basic to the study of the music of the Middle Ages are three related components: liturgy, chant, and modes. Liturgy refers to the organization of the Roman Catholic services. One of these services is the Mass, a form of public worship. The sections of the Mass whose texts remain the same throughout the year are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei; together these five sections constitute the Ordinary of the Mass. Also very important is a series of monastic services known as the Offices (or Hours). Chant is the music used in the celebration of these services, and it represents the first large repertoire of Western music. Many later developments in music were based on chant. Often referred to as Gregorian (although the term is a misnomer), the most striking feature of chant is its monophonic (single-line) texture (Gregorian Chant: Veni Sancti Spiritus). There is great variety to the thousands of melodies. Some follow a simple recitation formula, with one note per syllable of text (syllabic), while others are highly florid, with many notes per syllable (melismatic). Medieval theorists grouped the melodies into different modes, such as Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian. These are similar to our major and minor scales, but with different arrangements of whole and half steps. There was also a body of monophonic secular love songs during the Middle Ages. These songs were cultivated by poet-composers known as troubadours and trouvères, working in what is now modern-day France. In the 9th century, we find the earliest clear references to polyphony, a development that had vast implications for the future of Western music. The early forms of sacred polyphony are called organum. At first, a chant melody was essentially mirrored by a new part at a consonant interval, creating parallel movement. Over the next three centuries, the handling of the added part became much freer, leading to the climax of organum in the Notre Dame School, during the late 12th and 13th centuries. Leonin and Perotin, two composers of organum active at the cathedral in Paris, are among the first identifiable composers of Western music (Perotin, Sederunt principes). In their organa, several styles of writing were employed, including the creation of an elaborate new part against the chant melody. Organum also served as a springboard for an important new genre, the motet (from the French “mot,” meaning “word”). The motet went through a series of developments during this time (13th-century motet: Amours mi font souffrir). 1 Initially, texts were added to certain sections of the organum; later, these sections were detached from their original context and became separate compositions. The 14th century was marked by a number of calamitous events: the Black Death, the 100 Years’ War between England and France, and a serious crisis within the church. It was an age of greater secularization, and the music reflects this outlook. In France, the period is known as the Ars Nova, a term referring to new rhythmic practices. The greatest composer of the time was Guillaume de Machaut. Although he made a famous setting of the Mass (Messe de Nostre Dame, Agnus Dei), the bulk of his output consists of polyphonic love songs, collectively known as the formes fixes (Rondeau: Ma fin est mon commencement). Composers such as Francesco Landini created a similar body of love songs in Italian. The motet continued to attract composers. The earliest stages of notation were the neumes, signs placed over the text, indicating the general direction of a chant. Thus, the neumes were a memory aid for someone who already knew the melody. In the 11th century, neumes were placed on the newly developed staff, and by the late 13th century, rhythm could be notated as well. The ability to preserve music in this way was a significant development. Although this notation cannot be read today without specialized study, our modern-day note shapes and concept of meter signs are derived from those used in the Middle Ages. 2 THE RENAISSANCE (1400-1600) Text by Martin Verdrager; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen Within the period of the Renaissance (a French term meaning “rebirth”), Europe experienced a shift in understanding its cultural inheritance with the reintroduction of the writings of Ancient Greek scholars. With the Fall of Constantinople in the 15th century, Byzantine scholars brought these writings into Western Europe. After reading the ancient texts and appreciating their content from a non-Christian perspective, European scholars encouraged greater learning and propelled an intellectual class to think of themselves as Humanists. Their new understanding of the Ancient Greeks’ rationalism, observation of the world, and dependence on history and literature guided them to become a group of polymath writers and philosophers that we now term “Renaissance men.” During the European Renaissance, advances were made in several fields of art. Artists began to use oils as a medium for their paint, and painters developed techniques of perspective that gave imagery a much more realistic look. The invention of the printing press and movable type around 1450 spread humanist and religious teachings to a previously unimagined number of readers of Latin and vernacular languages. The Protestant Reformation prompted theological, ideological, and political positions that challenged the central authority of the Catholic Church. The suggestions of principle that started with Martin Luther in 1517 spread rapidly, and encouraged other objectors to move against the rule of Rome. A split arose between Protestant groups (Lutheran, Calvinist, and English) of the north, and Catholics of the south. Eventually a reaction by the Catholic hierarchy known as the Counter-Reformation in the late 16th century provoked major wars of religion in the next century. Aligned with this background, composers and musicians worked in churches and courts. They enhanced sacred liturgy with lofty Masses, and they exalted saints, celebrated feast days of the church year, noted noble births and marriages, and memorialized the dead with motets. They entertained with secular songs about love, war, the beauty of the earth, and the deeds of their employers in chansons and madrigals throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. The most influential composers of the 15th century were born and trained in Franco-Flemish lands. Three generations of distinguished composers can be identified: those of (1) Dufay and Binchois, (2) Busnois and Ockeghem, and (3) Josquin and Obrecht. Many of the genres and techniques of the late Middle Ages were brought into the early 15th century: complete settings of the Ordinary of the Mass (Dufay, Missa: L’Homme armé, “Kyrie”), motets for State ceremonies (Dufay, Nuper rosarum flores), polyphonic chansons in the formes fixes and with texts on courtly love, derived from the Medieval trouvères. Because of their prowess as composers and singers, Franco-Flemish composers were employed at the major cathedrals, courts, and homes of church and secular royalty, working in Italian, German, Flemish, and French-speaking areas through the middle of the 16th century. Among the most important genres of Renaissance music were the Mass Ordinary, motet (a devotional sacred work) (Victoria, O Magnum mysterium), Italian madrigal, French chanson, English madrigal, and English lute song. The motet retained importance throughout the 16th century and beyond as a mainstay of the Catholic liturgical repertoire. 3 By the opening of the 16th century, the Franco-Flemish style of imitative counterpoint became tantamount to an international European style, and the invention of a method for printing music around the turn of the 16th century enabled composers such as Josquin (Missa Pange lingua, Kyrie) to gain a wide reputation. Wherever the Franco– Flemish composers served in Continental Europe, they found indigenous music of interest. Many, such as Giaches de Wert (Madrigal: Or si rallegri il cielo / Let Heaven Rejoice), used their skills to help develop local genres into important new repertoires. The secular Italian madrigal and simplified homophonic French chanson were venerated internationally. The Italian madrigal had great popularity in England, where large repertoires of English-versed madrigals and lute songs prevailed later in the era of Queen Elizabeth I. In the mid-16th century, Italian composers began to supplant the Franco-Flemish. Italians such as Festa, Palestrina (Missa Papae Marcelli, Kyrie), Gesualdo, Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, and Marenzio became the last generation of great composers of the European Renaissance style. The Italians kept many of the structural elements of the French composers while incorporating some new techniques and harmonic practices of the madrigal into Masses and motets.