MUSIC OF THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

700 - 1400
DIES IRAE Gregorian Chant –
• The Second Wrath;
• The second coming of Christ; or
• The Judgement Day
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• Western music composed in the Middle Ages is called
Medieval music.
• Medieval Era started from the fall of the Roman Empire
in the 5th century and ended in the early 15th century.
• CHANT also known as PLAIN SONG, is a monophonic
sacred from used as the earliest music of the Christian
church.
• The ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH tried to standardize
the Mass and chant by combining the GALLICAN AND
ROMAN regional liturgies
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• ROME was the religious center of Western Europe, and
PARIS was the political center.
• The setting consisted mainly of a body of chants known
as GREGORIAN CHANT.
• MUSIC was SACRED and SECULAR in the MEDIEVAL
PERIOD.
• Early Medieval period was known as LITURGICAL
GENRE by way of monophonic GREGORIAN CHANT.
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• During the HIGH MEDIEVAL ERA, polyphonic genres
started to develop. This form development is often
linked with the ARS NOVA in later 13th century and early
14th century.
• MONOPHONIC plainchant was changed to
HETEROPHONIC. This change was the earliest
innovation made. An example of this is the
“ORGANUM” which expanded from plainchant
(monophonic) melody to polyphonic caused by the use
of accompanying line, sung at a fixed interval.
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• ORGANUM is the addition of a voice in parallel motion,
singing mostly in perfect fourths of fifths above the original
tune to the chant. It represents the start of harmony, and
of counterpoint.
• PLUCKED STRING INSTRUMENTS such as gittern, lute,
mandore, and psaltery were used for medieval music.
• IMPORTANT MEDIEVAL MUSIC THEORY ELEMENT
o UNIQUE TONAL SYSTEM where pitches were arranged and
understood. A systematic arrangement of a series of whole steps and
half steps known as MODE before, and which is now called a SCALE.
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• 8 Church Modes: Dorian, Hypodorian, Hypolydian, Hypomixolydian,
Hypophrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, and Phrygian.
• The three (3) defining elements to each mode are the:
• FINALIS – the reciting tone, and the range; It is the tone that serves as the focal point for the
mode. It is also almost used as the final tone as the name implies
• RECITING TONE – also called CONFINALIS, is referred to as the tenor. The tone that serves as
the primary focal point in the melody is generally also the tone most often repeated in the piece.
• RANGE – also called AMBITUS, is the most proscribed tones for a given mode.
• The most important of these developments was the creation of FLORID ORGANUM,
where the original tune is sung in long notes while an accompanying voice sings
many notes to each of the original. These are often elaborate fashion, emphasizing
the perfect resonances fourths, fifths, and octaves. Later, the interval of the third was
preferred. ORGANA were likely improvised instead of an existing chant melody.
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• GREGORIAN CHANT
• It is the main practice of Western plainchant
• It is a form of monophonic sacred song without accompaniment of the Western Roman Catholic
Church.
• Stories credit Pope St. Gregory the Great for introducing Gregorian Chant, however, scholars say
that it was created from a later Carolingian synthesis of Gallican chant and Roman chant.
• They were formed initially into four, then eight, and finally twelve modes.
• They can be sung using six-note patterns called HEXACHORDS.
• Gregorian melodies are traditionally written using NEUMES (an early form of musical notation
from which the modern four-line and five-line staff developed.
• Multi-voice elaborations of Gregorian chant, known as ORGANUM, were an early stage in the
development of Western polyphony.
• Before, they were sung by men’s and boy’s choir in churches. Also sung by women and men or
religious orders in their chapels. It is the music of the ROMAN RITE, performed in the Mass and
became the official music of the CHRISTIAN LITURGY. The Roman Catholic Church still officially
considers it the music most suitable for worship.
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• LITURGICAL DRAMA is a European musical tradition in the early Middle Ages. In
its original form, it shows Roman drama with Christian stories such as the Gospel,
the Passion, and the lives of the saints-grafted on. They were believed to be
performed by traveling actors and musicians.
• GOLIARDS were traveling poet-musicians of Europe from 10th to mid 13th century.
They were mostly scholars and clergymen, who wrote and sang in Latin. They were
believed to have influenced the troubadour-trouvere tradition which followed. Their
poetry is mostly secular, although some of the songs celebrate religious ideas, some
dealt with dishonesty, drunkenness and are frankly profane.
• During the HIGH MEDIEVAL PERIOD, the center of activity was at the cathedral of
Notre Dame itself. Music of this period is at time called PARISIAN ORGANUM which
represents the start of ARS ANTIQUA. In this period, rhythmic notation first
appeared in Western music. This context-based method of rhythmic notation was
known as RHYTHMIC MODES
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• TROUBADOUR MUSIC
• The term TROUBADOUR refers to man since it sounds masculine, and female
troubadours are referred to as TROBAIRITZ.
• TROUBADOURS compose and perform Old Occitan lyric poetry in the Middle
Ages, (1100 – 1350).
• Troubadour tradition started in Occitania, late 11th century. According to Dante
Alighieri, “troubadour lyric is a musical, poetical, and rhetorical fiction.”
• THEMES of troubadour songs are centered on chivalry and courtly love. Majority
of these songs were standard, intellectual, and metaphysical. HUMOROUS and
RUDE SATIRES characterizes many of their songs. Their songs can be classified
into THREE STYLES: TROBAR CLUS or close, TROBAR LEU which means light,
and TROBAR RIC which is rich. Among the may genres, the most famous is the
CANSO.
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• TROUBADOUR MUSIC
• The troubadours and trouveres music was a dialect tradition of monophonic
secular song. Their songs may be accompanied by instruments, sung by
professional occasionally traveling musicians who were skilled as poets as they
were singers and instrumentalist.
• Troubadours use OCCITAN OR PROVENCAL language, while trouveres use
OLD FRENCH.
• The period of the troubadours corresponded to the flowering of cultural life in
Provence which lasted through the 12th century and into the first decade of the
13th century.
• TYPICAL SUBJECTS of troubadour song were chivalry, courtly love, and war.
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• TROUBADOUR MUSIC
• The PORTUGUESE JOAO SOARES DE PAIVA, the troubadours of the
movement, and not the Occitan troubadours who are often in courts nearby Leon
and Castile, wrote almost entirely cantigas.
• CANTARES or TROVAS, songs compiled as songbooks from probably around the
mid-13th century.
• GALICIAN-PORTUGUESE CANTIGAS can be grouped into THREE BASIC
GENRES:
(1) CANTIGAS DE AMIGO or female-voice love poetry;
(2) CANTIGAS DE AMOR or male-voiced love poetry
(3) CANTIGAS D’ESCARNIO E DE MALDIZER or poetry of insult and mockery