Medieval Music Flashcards
Mass Ordinary
- Kyrie (Greek, not latin)
- Gloria
- Credo
- Sanctus
- Agnus Dei
Plainchant or Gregorian Chant
- Music of Christian Church
- First extensive repertory of music preserved in European sources
Mass Proper
- Introit
- Gradual
- Alleluia
- Offertory
- Communion
600 AD
- Pope Gregory coined term “Gregorian”
- Professional musicians existed (mostly Priests)
800 AD
- Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor because he got rid of invading tribal groups (Lombards)
- Pope and Charlemagne wanted to unify the Church, so they used music to unify (Mass)
- Music as statecraft (music used towards political ends)
Non-diastematic Chant Notation
- “Guidelines” for those who already know the chant
- no specific pitch, just shape of lines
Post-diastematic Chant Notation
- a few lines (specific pitches, usually C)
Guido of Arezzo (c. 990)
- added lines to create a staff
- created syllables for sight singing
Guido of Arezzo Staff Notation
- 4 lines
- C or F clef
- neumes
- ligature
- read bottom to top, left to right
Hexachord
natural hexachord C-A
hard hexachord G-E
soft hexachord F-D with a Bb(no tritones allowed)
Performance Style
- direct (unison)
- antiphonal (two choirs)
- responsorial (solo question, choir answer)
Text Setting
- syllabic (one note per syllable)
- neumatic (something in between, one or two notes per syllable)
- melismatic (one syllable has many moving notes)
Modes
Dorian - Hypodorian
Phrygian - Hypophrygian
Lydian - Hypolydian
Mixolydian - Hypomixolydian
“Hypo” mode begins a fourth below the authentic mode, but still end on authentic note
Rise of Polyphony
- No meter in Gregorian Chant (free rhythm)
- Crowding around a large choir book created a sense of unity
- Began to embellish(due to repetition) which gave rise to polyphony
Organum
- early polyphony
- perfect fourths and fifths (not thirds because of the close relationship with mathematics in this time)
- not written out, expected to improvise
Scholasticism
- reliance on authority
- Bible
- words of Saints
Melismatic Chant
- early 12th century
- drone chant on the bottom (word “tenor” came from word meaning “to hold”)
- moving embellished chant on top
- still in free rhythm (made more polyphony hard)
Rhythmic Modes
- all in groups of 3 for the Holy Trinity
- first rhythmic notation system
- descriptive notation vs today’s prescriptive notation
Rhythmic Modes 1, 2, 5
1 quarter eighth - trochaic (group of three followed by groups of two)
2 eighth quarter - iambic (groups of two followed by group of three)
5
Phillip de Vitry
- Ars Nova
- composer who contributed to the new way of writing music, specifically in rhythm refinement
- duple time, which goes against the theory of triple time for the Holy Trinity
Phillip de Vitry Ars Nova Notation System (white mensural notation)
- breve (big square note, which can be divided into time)
- Semibreve (diamond note, which divides using prolation)
- minims (diamond note with stem)- 9/8 circle with a dot (perfect - perfect)
- 3/4 circle with no dot (perfect - imperfect)
- 6/8 half circle with dot (imperfect - perfect)
- 2/4 half circle with no dot (imperfect - imperfect)
Machaut
- musician and poet, but was a secretary as a profession (music was not a good profession)
- set a whole Mass Ordinary as a unit for the first time
- Trouvere song: - Ma fin est mon commencement
Music in the 12th to 14th Century
- rise of notation of rhythm for polyphony
- refinement of notation
- fascinated with rhythm and isorhythm
- especially in France they were interested in “secret structure” even though Pope condemned the Ars Nova
- setting of the Mass Ordinary
Patriarchal Society
- Women were excluded from singing in church(too enticing)
- Only position of power women had was in a convent or nunnery
- if women couldn’t be married or didn’t have a dowry, were sent to nunnery by family
- building up riches for their family in the life to come
- Women’s role in life was to marry and have children (heir)
- Single sex communities (rare coed in separate buildings)
Hildegard
- had a vocation
- lived to be 60-70 years old
- wanted to go to the nunnery and form her own convent
- wasn’t allowed
- protested by not moving or eating for days
- was granted permission
- wrote prose and music
- visionary writings
- scientific writings
- hymns
- sacred drama
- Ordo virtutum(acted out by nuns)
Secular Music
- wasn’t written down in large quantities until the 12th century
- written in vernacular
- everyday language
Troubadour/Trobairitz
(male/female) secular music
- langue d'oc -> troubadour (attached to a court) - langue d'oil -> trouvere (less attached to a court) - likely men who came back from crusades - brought back traditions from the countries they were in - can be about war, but usually romance (unrequited or unattainable)
Formes Fixes
Troubadour Music (rhyme in text determines poetic form)
- rondeau (ABaAabAB)
- stress of music and text don't align
- complex rhythms
- text not meant to be understood in singing
- virel ai (=Italian bollata) (AbbaA)
- stress of music and text align
- simpler rhythms
- text can be understood in singing
- hemiola (for lively swing)
- 3rds and 6ths, fewer 4ths and 5ths ("sweet" sounding)
- ballade
Beatriz de Dia
(Trobairitz)
- “A chantar” (early 13th century)
- instrumental accompaniment or interludes
- vernacular
- creativity
- written like Gregorian chant, but sounds nothing like it
- embellishment and droning
Landini
(trouvere)
- blind organist
Instrumental Music
“haut” (loud)/outside “bas” (soft)/inside
- trumpet - recorder
- shawm (oboe) - lute
- curtal (bassoon) - rebec
- sackbut (trombone) - vielle
- percussion - harp
- bagpipes - psaltery (zither)
Jongleur
- Music was the lowest profession
- Name for musicians that sounds like “Juggler”, showing the similarity in respect for musicians and street performers
Earliest Instrumental Music
music was for dancing
- group (round) dances
- couple dances
Heterophony - all playing the same line, but all playing it slightly differently
