1 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Unit 1: Middle Ages Index: 1. Religious vocal Music: Gregorian Chant 2. Secular vocal music: troubadours and trouveres. 3. Spanish Medieval music 4. The birth of polyphony Página 1
2 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Basic vocabulary Courtly Love: amor cortés. Crowds: multitud. Crusades: cruzadas. Dreary: deprimente. Fairs: ferias. Feudal lords: señores feudales. Huge: grande. Hunger: hambruna. Jongleurs: juglares. Knights: caballeros. Mass: misa. Middle Ages: Edad Media. Muddy: embarrado. Neumes: neumas. Religious worship: culto religioso. Square notation: notación cuadrada. Storytelling: narración. Strengthening: fortalecimiento. Theocentrism: teocentrismo. Wedding: boda. Página 2
3 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Medieval music was an integral part of everyday life for the people of that time period. Music of the Middle Ages was especially popular during times of celebration and festivities in convents and cathedrals as well as castles and palaces. 1. Religious vocal Music: Gregorian Chant Religious music in the Middle Ages began to grow long before the emperor Constantine granted freedom of religious worship for Christians in the year 313. Since then, Christianism began to expand and organize its liturgy, in which singing was an essential element. The main driving force of this task expansion and unification of the liturgy was Pope Gregory the Great (590-604). Considered by tradition as the creator of the Christian singing, he actually did not invent it. He encouraged its organization as a way of strengthening the feeling of Christian unity. Gregorian chant is a form of monophonic religious music in Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and the hours of Office. This vast repertoire of chants is the oldest music known. In the beginning the chants were learnt by the viva voce method. Later, in the 10th century, the first written repertoire appeared. The earliest notation used symbols called neumes: symbols that approximately reflect the pitch and duration of sound and whose writing derived from the movement of the hand when conducting the singing. By the 13th century, the neumes of Gregorian chant were usually written in square notation on a four-line staff with a clef. Página 3
4 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Neumas and square notation Gregorian chant is, of course, vocal music. The relationship between text and music can be "syllabic" if there s one syllable per sound; "neumatic" if there s a group of notes per syllable and melismatic if there are five or six notes per syllable to over sixty in the largest melismas. Syllabic chant: Neumatic chant: Melismatic chant: Página 4
5 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Chant is written in Latin and was normally sung in unison without instruments (a capella) so its texture is monophonic. There isn t a beat or regular metric accent which doesn t mean absence of rhythm: the text determines the accent while the melody determines the phrasing. Remember Religious text written in Latin. Monophonic texture. There isn t a beat or regular metric accent. Vocal music without instruments. Anonymous composers. 2. Secular vocal music: troubadours and trouveres Secular vocal music was developed at the same time as religious music under the protection of feudal lords. Troubadour is the generic term for poets and minstrels who flourished in southern France and in Northern Italy from the 11th through the 13th centuries. Called trouveres in northern France and meistersingers in Germany, these artists converted storytelling into an art, and often entertained huge crowds at fairs, weddings and other medieval celebrations. Normally they used new musical instruments, brought back to Western Europe from the Crusades, and their songs were written in the vernacular languages of each area. It is a type of vocal music with monophonic texture, with instrumental accompaniment and, due to its popular character, its rhythm is more marked. Página 5
6 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Medieval times often evoke images of knights battling on muddy fields, dark and dreary castles, hunger and wars but these Dark Ages also saw the birth of a romantic movement. French lords were poets and musicians and they wrote epic love poems about Courtly Love. Jongleurs were professional singers who performed these compositions from town to town. 3. Spanish Medieval music One of the jewels of the Spanish secular medieval music is a huge collection of the Cantigas of Alfonso the X The Wise (1221-1284). It s known that the King wasn t the only organizer of the collection however he was the composer of some of them. There are many pictures where we can find a lot of information about the daily life of the medieval society, the mix of the three cultures and the instruments. A cantiga is a poetry and musical composition about the miracles of Mother Mary. Even though the texts are religious we consider these compositions secular music. The musical form alternates between stanzas and the chorus. Only instruments were used in secular music in the Middle Ages. The main string instruments were lute, harp and viola. In the woodwind we find the recorders, chirimías (like a oboe), bagpipes and trumpets. The percussion family was enormous and had a lot of variety. Página 6
7 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO 4. The birth of polyphony In the late 9 th century, polyphony (different melodic lines at the same time) appeared in Western Music. This fact marked the posterior development of music, and probably appeared spontaneously with the desire of decorating and enriching the Gregorian chant. Primitive polyphony (9 th 12 th centuries) Polyphony is built by improvising upon the base of Gregorian chant. The main forms of primitive polyphony are: Organum: it is the oldest and most rudimentary. It appeared in th late 9 th century and consisted of adding a parallel voice of 4 th or 5 th below the Gregorian chant. The original Gregorian melody receives the name vox principalis, and the one that is added, vox organalis. In the melismatic organum, the Gregorian melody is developed in long values over wich the vox organalis sings long melismas. Ars antique (12 th 13 th centuries) The evolution of musical notation made the development of more complex polyphonic forms easier. Music abandoned the Gregorian free rhythm and began Página 7
8 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO to measure it due to the need of synchronizing the different voices of the polyphony. In order to measure the durations of sound, musicians had to resort to the old Greek rhythm by using their main metrical feet. The most important musical centre of this period was the so called Notre Dame School in Paris. And its main composers were Leonin (1150 1180) and Perotin (1183 1238). New polyphonic forms appeared, like the motet, with several voices that move in different rhythms singing different texts. Ars Nova (14 th century) Polyphony started liberating itself from the Gregorian chant in order to find a type of music closer to humanity, typical of an era that underwent the birth of urban societies and grew apart from medieval theocentrism. Secular music became increasingly important, making room for polyphonic forms of songs like the canon, the ballad and the chanson. The most important composers were Philippe de Vitry (1291 1361), Guillaume de Machaut (1300 1377) and Francesco Landini (1335 1397). Página 8
9 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO World music: Arabic Music The category of Arabic music includes music from North Africa to Iran, on to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, etc. The music differs quite a bit between one country and the next, but Egypt always provides a good reference for Arabic music. In Spain we can hear reminisces of Arabic music even today thanks to flamenco music. Today, Arabic music has acquired different influences from western music, like the instrumentation (violins, saxophones, and electric instruments like the electric guitar and the synthesizer.) The main characteristics of Arabic music are: -Heterophony: The term used to describe music that has two very similar melodies that share many of the same notes, but one melody ornaments the other. This is a special shadow melody. -Improvisation: Improvisation is always present in the creation of each piece. The beauty of the performance of improvisation consists of the improvised embellishments. -Ornamentation: is an element based on the Arabic sound. Without ornamentation, the compositions lose their characteristic sound, or sense. Arabic music is based on styles of melody and rhythm. Melodic pattern: Arabic music uses a different scale than we do. In their scales, they use very small intervals, like quarter steps (as opposed to half steps). This is one of the most important characteristics of Arabic music. Página 9
10 Proyecto Bilingüe 2º ESO Rhythmic Pattern: The same rhythmical pattern is used during the performance, but different instruments ornament the pattern. However, the basic pattern can always be identified easily. Curiosities Arabs entered Spain around the 7 th century and stayed for 8 centuries, until 1492. During these centuries, the Muslims lived together with the Christians and Jews. We call this time Spain of the three cultures. The music of this mixture is called andalusí music. Página 10