Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
7th Edition
by Roger Kamien
Part II
The Middle Ages and
Renaissance
• Guttenberg Bible—1456
• Columbus reaches America—1492
• Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa—c. 1503
• Michelangelo: David—1504
• Raphael: School of Athens—1505
• Martin Luther’s 95 theses—1517
• Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet—1596
The Renaissance
Rebirth of human creativity
Time of exploration & adventure
Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and
Ferdinand Magellan
Age of curiosity & individualism
Leonardo da Vinci
Intellectual Movement – Humanism
Captivated by ancient Greece & Roman cultures
Visual arts depicted realism w/ linear perspective and illusion of
space & depth
Catholic Church far less powerful
Education a status symbol for the aristocracy & upper middle class
The Middle Ages
A thousand years of European history
Gregorian Chant
Monophonic texture
Ternary form: A B A
Listening
O successores (You successors)
Hildegard of Bingen
Vocal Music Guide: p. 69
Basic Set, CD 1:66 Brief Set, CD 1:50
Chant
Originally written without accompaniment
This recording includes a drone—long,
sustained notes
Note extended range of melody
Written for nuns by a nun (sung in a convent)
Secular Music in the Middle Ages
Composed by French nobles who were
poet-musicians
Troubadours (southern France)
Trouvères (northern France)
Performed by jongleurs (traveling minstrels)
Song topics: love, Crusades, dancing,
spinning songs
Instrumental dances
Listening - Estampie
Medieval dance music
Strong beat (for dancing)
Single melody line is notated
Performers improvised instrumental
accompaniment
• Basic Set, CD 1:67
• Brief Set, CD 1:51
The Development of Polyphony: Organum
• Between 700-900 a 2nd melody line added to chant
• Additional part initially improvised, not written
• Paralleled chant line at a different pitch
• 900-1200 added line grew more independent
• Developed its own melodic curve (no longer parallel)
• c. 1100 note-against-note motion abandoned
• 2 lines w/ individual rhythmic and melodic content
• New part, in top voice, moved faster than the chant line
Madrigal
Note text painting:
Pitches rise on “ascending”
Pitches fall on “descending”
“Running down”
“Two by two,” “three by three,” “all alone”
Listening
Flow My Tears (about 1600)
by John Dowland (1563 – 1626)
Vocal Music Guide: p. 86
Basic Set, CD 1:83 Brief Set, CD 1:63