Learning Objectives
- Relate the social, cultural, and political background during the Medieval period (500-1450) to the function of music during this time.
- Characterize the music of the early Christian church, i.e., Gregorian chant.
- Describe the difference between the Proper and the Ordinary of the Mass.
- Examine the influence of the Cathedral of Notre Dame as a center for organum in medieval music.
- Describe the differences between troubadours and trouvères in medieval secular music.
- Trace the rise of secular polyphonic chansons set to fixed text forms (rondeau, ballade, virelai) in the French Ars nova.
- Define and classify the instrumental music of the medieval period.
- Trace the four major developments that took place in Western music during the Middle Ages: the development of pitch and rhythmic notation; the transition from monophony to polyphony; the initial stages of regularly metered music; and the development of the motet and instrumental music.
Medieval Period (1150–1450)
Musical Innovations
One of the most important musical innovations of the medieval era was the development of notation. The invention of musical notation—which at first only indicated pitch, but later, also duration—allowed the creation and preservation of musical manuscripts, which, in turn, have made it possible for modern musicologists and theorists to have any semblance of certainty regarding early music performance practices.
Most of the music that survived from this period comes from educational centers that were often connected to the Roman Catholic Church in one way or another. It ought not to come as a surprise that most of the notated music from this period is religious in nature since the Church was the primary proprietor and custodian of all education.
Both sacred (religious) and secular (non-religious) music remained unmeasured (no steady beat or meter) and monophonic (single melodic line) until the 10th century, when music began featuring regular meter and two or more voice parts singing different melodic lines. It may strike us as odd that two voices singing together should be considered so extraordinary, but at the time, it was a very innovative concept to Western composers.
Independent, simultaneous melodies that moved in different melodic directions and at different speeds gave rise to polyphonic music. The development of polyphonic music took place mainly in northern France between the 12th and 14th centuries. The motet, a form of music that came into being during this time, was to become one of the most important polyphonic forms in the history of music.
In summary, the four major developments that took place in Western music during the medieval period were:
- The development of musical notation that indicates pitch and rhythm,
- the gradual change from monophony to polyphony
- the initial stages of regularly metered music, and
- the development of the motet.
Music Characteristics
The following chart compares and contrasts some of the characteristics of medieval sacred (church) and secular music.
Form
Medieval vocal music has the following characteristics:
- All vocal music was organized around the text, but word stress was often changed so the text fit the rhythm.
- Both sacred and secular forms were frequently organized in repeated two-phrases patterns.
- Songs often had many verses (strophes) and are therefore known as strophic.
- There was frequent use of imitation (for example, in canons or rounds).
Melody
- Melodies had limited range: usually never more than an octave.
- Secular music melodies were composed to express the mood and sentiment embodied in the text, whereas sacred music melodies served to propagate religious writings and instill Church dogma.
Rhythm
- Secular music used both triple and duple meter, whereas sacred music used mainly triple meter.
Harmony
- A second voice occasionally followed the main vocal line at the interval of a fourth or fifth below or above. This parallel movement of two voices at a fixed interval was called organum.
- A formal harmonic approach to vocal music had yet to be developed. It was not until much later that composers focused on the "vertical" aspect of music and harmonic concepts such as the three-note chord (triad), chord progressions, and the tonic key.
Texture
- Monophony was the primary texture, but some composers gradually began using polyphony in their music.
- Instruments were often used to double the voice parts.
Sacred Vocal Music
The preeminent form of sacred vocal music in the Middle Ages was Gregorian chant, a form of monophonic liturgical music that accompanied the celebration of mass. It is named after Pope Gregory I, Bishop of Rome from 590 to 604.
Liturgical drama involved the dramatization of scenes from the Christian Bible and made extensive use of Gregorian chant. For example, the story of the three Marys and the angel in front of Christ's tomb on Easter is depicted in Ordo Virtutum, by Hildegard von Bingen.
Composer: Hildegard von Bingen
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"Ordo virtutum: Procession"
We will look at medieval sacred vocal music in greater detail in the next class.
Musical Innovations
Secular Vocal Music
Troubadours typically composed songs about courtly love that, more often than not, praised women from afar by placing them on a pedestal. Depending on the form, these songs were called ballade, virelai, or rondeau.
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
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"Ballade 33: Le Voir Dit"
Composer: Anonymous
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"Quant ay Lomon Consirat"
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
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"Rondeau 17: Dis et Sept Cinq"
The ars nova ("new art") style, as opposed to the ars antiqua ("old art") style of the previous generation, featured a more elaborate and detailed rhythmic music notation.
Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377) was a poet and musician generally regarded as one of the leading French composers of the ars nova musical style of the fourteenth century. The vocal music in the examples that follow comes from one of the most extraordinary poems of the Middle Ages, Le Livre dou Voir Dit. It contains 9,094 lines of verse, arranged in rhyming couplets of eight syllables each. The poem tells the love story between the elderly Machaut and his very young admirer, Peronne. The difference in age was too great, however, and the idyll ended in disappointment. The work describes the letters and lyric poems they exchanged, some set to music by Machaut. The content of the poems provides a fairly good understanding of what it was like to be a composer in medieval times. Let's look at two of them set to a ballade and a rondeau (round). After that, we will look at two other vocal forms: the lai and, most importantly, the motet.
Ballade
"Ploures dames" is the first poem set to music that Machaut sends to Peronne, enclosed in a letter from the summer of 1362. The text takes the form of a will written on the poet's deathbed, in which he leaves his heart to the female object of his literary praise: "I am sending you a ballade about the sad state I've been in, and I ask that you learn the song, for it's not difficult and the music pleases me very much."
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
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"Ballade 32: Plourez dames"
Rondeau
In his October 9 letter from the same year, Machaut sends Peronne another poem set to a musical rondeau (round) and writes:
My very sweet heart, I've made the rondel where your name is, and I would have sent it to you by this messenger, but by my soul I've not yet heard it, and I'm not accustomed to part with things that I've made until I've heard them. And be certain that it's one of the best things I've made for seven years, in my opinion... And learn your rondel ("Dis et sept cinq") please, for I like it a lot.
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
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"Rondeau 17: Dis et Sept Cinq"
Lai
Lai is a variation of the virelai form. Machaut develops this composition through twelve stanzas, each with two or four statements of poetry and music. The "Lai de Bonne Esperence" (meaning "lai of good hope") is part of an allegorical episode in the story in which Machaut is taken hostage by the personification of Hope. He is released only on the condition that he must write a lai in her honor.
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
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"Lai 13: Le Lai de Bonne Esperance"
Composer: Pérotin
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"Sederunt Principes"
In early motets, the lyrics for the second (upper) voice paraphrased the chant (sung by the lower voice). As the form evolved, however, the upper voice began to sing lyrics using common language instead of religious vocabulary—in fact, it was often bawdy. Gradually, composers added a third and even a fourth voice part so that by the fourteenth century, the motet had increased in length and had become quite complicated both melodically and rhythmically. However, even with the increased number of melodic lines and texts, the range of voices remained narrow, and the chant was almost always retained in the lower voice.
Instrumental Music
Medieval music employs a wide variety of instruments, including the harp, the vielle (a precursor of the modern violin), the psaltery (a kind of zither played by striking or plucking its strings), lutes, horns, drums, trumpets, a variety of wind instruments, bells, and portable organs.
Instruments not only accompanied songs, but also played an important role in dance music. Many medieval dances consist of a slow moving section in duple meter followed by a faster section in triple meter.
- Secular music used both triple and duple meter, whereas sacred music used mainly triple meter.