Chapter 2: Secular and Cathedral Music in the High Middle Ages I. Introduction A. Categorization allows us to better understand concepts in music history, but at a cost. We tend to set up binarisms, which can be problematic. With the development of notation, a certain rigidity surrounded how later generations performed the notated music (which had previously been transmitted by ear). B. Similarly, we must be careful how we distinguish sacred and secular music. Chapter 1 dealt primarily with sacred music, influenced by the fact that initially only sacred music was available for observation. Chapter 2 turns to secular music. II. Troubadours and Trouvères A.Troubadours 1. From around the eleventh century, the area of modern France known as Aquitaine enjoyed relative independence, under the powerful counts of Poitou. The affluence of this court yielded an appreciation for the arts. a. The first European vernacular poet whose work survives was William IX (7th count of Poitiers and 9th duke of Aquitaine). b. The tradition of these poets is known as the troubadour, after the Provencal word for poet. c. The troubadour tradition was a top down, as those of the highest social ranks were the main participants. Their poetry celebrated feudal ideals. d. Different types of troubadour verse dealt with various aspects of the feudal system, including songs of alliance, knightly decorum, exploits, challenges, and death. 2. Courtly love lay at the heart of the troubadour tradition. a. The canso was a song about love. b. Courtly love songs celebrated the same high ideals as other types of songs. c. The lady about whom a poet wrote usually outranked him, making her theoretically unattainable. d. Courtly love was generally more about veneration than physical love. e. The poetic style matches the lofty ideals of courtly love, as demonstrated in Can vei la lauzeta mover. 1) Song by Bernart de Ventadorn (d. ca. 1200), whose patron was Eleanor of Aquitaine 2) Strophic, all stanzas have same rhyme scheme 3) The imagery is high for the woman (who is high ranking) and low for the singer (who was a commoner). B. Performance and Oral Culture 1. We do not know the rhythm of troubadour songs, but most likely the loftier style of the troubadour songs approximated that of contemporary chant. 2. Some troubadour songs matched a lower-class style; these were not based on chant style.
a. Pastorela is one such genre. b. L'autrier jost una sebissa by Marcabru is an example. c. Marcabru was at the court of William IX. 3. Joglars were low-class professional entertainers; today we would consider them minstrels. Some minstrels were able to move up the social ladder and became troubadours. 4. Troubadour songs were written down in books called chansonniers at about the time the tradition died out. 5. Some women wrote courtly songs, including the Comtessa de Dia. a. Four poems of hers survive, but only A chantar m er de so gu en no volria has music. b. A chantar has a structure that resembles music of a slightly later period in which there are two endings for the verses (first and second endings, called ouvert and clos in thirteenth-century manuscripts). 6. The story of Arnaut Daniel suggests that the composition of troubadour songs was an oral practice. C. Music for Elites: Trobar Clus 1. Musical debates constitute another genre of troubadour poetry: the tenso. The tenso often involved a sort of jesting between two poets, who discussed finer points of issues in feudal culture. a. A popular theme for these pieces was the virtues of highly elaborate, layered poetry whose meaning was understood only by those who knew how to read such poetry. This poetry is trobar clus closed poetry (not open to interpretation by the general public). b. The tenso concerning the value of trobar clus (and its opposite, trobar leu) is translated on p. 52. c. Many troubadours used both types of poetry. d. The debate between high and low art continues to this day. 2. Trouvères imitated the Provençal lyrics in the thirteenth century. a. The Provençal style lasted about 200 years. The style spread in various directions in the early thirteenth century. b. The earliest imitators were the trouvères. c. Richard I ( the Lionheart ), son of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wrote poetry. Anthology I-13 is the only one of his poems that survives with music. It is in French. 3. Subtle differences mark the trouvère repertory as distinct from that of the troubadours. a. Narrative genres form more of the repertory for the trouvères. b. One of these is the lai, whose narrative stanzas reflect northern tendencies (as seen in the romances and chansons de geste). c. Chrétien de Troyes (of Arthurian legend fame) wrote such works. 4. New genres that resemble elements of folk music also were popular in thirteenth-century France. a. The chanson de toile reflected a woman s point of view (regardless of the singer s gender). Each stanza ended with a refrain. b. Refrains to songs circulated as stand-alone pieces. c. Trobar clus were not a primary part of the trouvère repertory.
III. Formalized Song A. Adam de la Halle and the Formes Fixes 1. Arras and Paris a. In the mid-thirteenth-century, French music and literary activities shifted from the castle (e.g., Richard I) to the town. b. Musicians organized along the lines of the crafts guilds in both places. c. Arras had a Brotherhood of Minstrels and Townspeople which fostered musico-poetic interests. d. Moniot d Arras (d. 1239), a member of this group, wrote the most famous pastourelle: Ce fut en mai. 1) This piece tells us that vieles (fiddles) could accompany dances. 2) See Ex. 2-2 for a transcription. The structure is AA1 BB1, with open and closed cadences. e. Jehan Bretel (d. 1272), also a member of the Brotherhood, was a master of the trouvère s equivalent to the tenso, the jeu-parti. f. Bretel often debated Adam de la Halle (d. ca. 1307), the most famous of this group today. B. Adam de la Halle was educated at university in Paris, and his music reflects this training. 1. He is the only trouvère known to have written polyphony. Some of it is noteagainst-note style, but some pieces are motets (see below). 2. A chansonnier survives that includes only his works a testament to his reputation. 3. Adam wrote a difficult type of music polyphony -in a relatively folksy genre, the rondel (rondeau). The name could reflect a dance that accompanied it, as well as the fact that the form includes a refrain that returns throughout: AB a A ab AB. See Ex. 2-3. 4. Another of these fixed forms (formes fixes) is the ballade, which resembles the rondeau without the refrains (capital letters in the model): aab. 5. Yet another example of a fixed form is the virelai, which repeats one of the melody of a non-repeating strain: B aab B. Because we usually begin forms with A, this is usually written A bba A. 6. Adam s most famous work is a play about Robin and Marion, written while he was in Italy. It includes sixteen monophonic songs (with dancing) and duets. C. Geographical Diffusion 1. Troubadour and trouvère influence extended to several European countries. a. Cantigas were the Spanish equivalent of the canso (a courtly song in the vernacular). b. Thirteenth-century Italy saw a different type of musician in that popular (secular) melodies were fitted with religious texts for lauda spirituale. In the next century, this became known as ballata (and had the same form as the virelai). c. In Germany, the trouvère influence can be seen in the songs of the Minnesingers. Minne translates to courtly love, and singer is the same. They sang lieder, the German word for songs, and courtly love songs were therefore Minnelieder. The most famous of these was Walther von der Vogelweide (d. ca. 1230).
1) Minnesingers sang in three main genres: Leich (similar to the lai); Lied (related to the canso or chanson courtoise); and Spruch (literally saying, a debatetype genre). 2) Minnelieder as an art gradually became part of a folk tradition. This move can be first seen in the works of Neidhardt von Reuenthal (d. ca. 1250), whose pieces became part of an oral tradition, collected as folk songs by the German Romantics. 3) Wagner s opera Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg highlights the songs of later generations (fourteenth seventeenth), whose masterpieces (Meisterstück) were crafted songs. These were in bar form: AAB. Hans Sachs, a real person, is the leader of Wagner s Meistersingers. D. A Note on Instruments 1. Illustrations in manuscripts such as those that contain cantigas include detailed pictures of music making at court. They are so precise that scholars believe some may depict actual people. On the other hand, as a work of art, they may also be a way of showing what instruments existed, and do not necessarily mean these instruments played together. a. Because most Medieval songs are monophonic does not mean that instruments were not used to accompany them. b. Evidence suggests that certain instruments were used to accompany specific types of pieces, depending on genre and social connotations. The more lofty the genre, the more likely it was performed by solo voice (alone). 2. With the lowering of social standing of trouvère song, more instruments came to be used in performances. a. Moniot d Arras s Ce fut en mai specifically describes a fiddler playing for dancing. 3. The most elaborate dance form was the estampie, which resembled the lai or sequence with its pairs of strains (and open and closed cadences). a. The earliest surviving estampies date from the mid-thirteenth-century and are found in the Manuscrit du roi. 4. Most Medieval instrumental music seems to have occurred in a solo context ensembles are very rarely encountered. 5. Unfortunately, much information about instrumental performance has not been preserved. IV. Polyphony A. Polyphony in Aquitanian Monastic Centers 1. Limoges, in Aquitaine, was the site of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Martial, a major center for Latin poetry (versus). 2. Similarities existed between the Provencal poetry and the Latin versus, and some Provencal words appear in versus. 3. An important type of organum developed at St. Martial, found in nine twelfthcentury manuscripts. a. The notation in these sources indicates pitch, but not rhythm, suggesting that music was composed orally (not by writing it down). b. Rhythm is necessary for polyphony keeping the parts together.
c. In St. Martial organum, one voice moves slightly, while the upper voice decorates it freely. 1) This format is opposite what we examined earlier: The top voice was the original (Gregorian) melody. 2) The bottom voice in St. Martial organum seems to hold the notes; it is assigned. It became known as the tenor, from the Latin tenere ( to hold ). Later traditions called this the cantus firmus fixed tune. 3) Ex. 2-9, Jubilemus exultemus demonstrates these characteristics. In reality, this is a new kind of trope, as the florid voice is a melismatic commentary on the original chant. 4) Some of these pieces are neume-against-neume, which suggests simultaneous composition. (See Ex. 2-7.) Some notes are written as if joined together. These are known as ligatures. 4. Another important source of early twelfth-century polyphony is the Codex Calixtinus. a. The music therein was for a cathedral, not a monastery. b. A comparison of the Kyrie Cunctipotens genitor in the Codex Caliixtinus and another twelfth-century source illustrates how it is possible that different versions of essentially the same piece might have finally been codified over time. c. The example shows early approaches to dissonance and consonance resolution, what we know as the rules for counterpoint. B. The Cathedral-University Complex 1. The most technically elaborate polyphony developed in Paris, which was the intellectual capital of Europe at this time. 2. The growth of the city of Paris brought about a shift from monasteries to cathedrals as centers of learning. If Paris was the intellectual capital, its cathedral Notre Dame de Paris was the center of learning. 3. The University of Paris was the first great northern university. (Only that in Bologna preceded it.) It is now known as the Sorbonne. 4. The cathedral represents Gothic style. 5. The clergy of cathedrals was organized according to canon law. Some of the terms used to designate various parts of the university today are residuals from the twelfth century. 6. The music of Notre Dame is known as the Notre Dame School and dates from the thirteenth century. a. Most of the music survives in three relatively small service books from Paris and one in Britain. The size of the manuscripts suggests that the music was performed from memory. b. These sources are so famous that they are known simply as F, W1, W2, and Ma (copied for use in Toledo, Spain). c. The repertory in the four main manuscripts evinces a sophisticated and technically proficient handling of polyphonic composition that matches the expectations of a great university community. d. The texture includes three- and four-voice settings. Four voices is an amazing compositional feat at this time and is reserved for a few special occasions.
e. Notre Dame organum exploits both note-against-note styles and florid organum. In the latter, the tenor sometimes lasts a minute or more, producing an effect that sounds like a drone. f. The rhythm of Notre Dame organum is notated, as well as the pitch. g. The copyists attempted to provide polyphonic music for the entire calendar of feast days. C. Piecing the Evidence Together 1. The music manuscripts from Notre Dame do not name the composers. 2. Around 1270 or 1280, an English student in Paris wrote a treatise that describes music at Notre Dame (De mensuris et discantu). Because of circumstances involving the publication of this text in 1864, the writer is known as Anonym[o]us IV. a. In these lecture notes, Anon. IV tells us that the best maker of organum (organista) is Leoninus magister (Master Leonin). Leonin made a great book of organum: Magnus liber organi. b. Anon. IV also reports that Perotinus magnus (the great Perotin) was the best composer or discant (discantor) even better than Leonin. c. Perotin inserted clausulae into Leonin s works. 3. Little or no biographical information survives to confirm Anon. IV s reports on Leonin and Perotin, but they are the first in a long tradition of famous and father of s in the history of music. D. Measured Music 1. Notre Dame polyphony had essentially two note values: nota longa and nota brevis. 2. Rhythmic organization followed classical poetry, following meters such as iambic and trochaic. 3. Anthology 1-18 (Viderunt omnes) illustrates two-part Notre Dame organum. a. The chant appears in the lower voice. b. The organal voice has substantial melismas, such as forty-plus notes to the first chant pitch. c. Some sections allow the tenor to move more frequently, almost noteagainst-note. E. Organum with Another Voice 1. With the addition of more voices, rhythms had to be notated in strict modal rhythm. 2. Triplum and quadruplum parts often moved at the same pace as the duplum. 3. A maximum level of dissonance is treated with special care, placed near the cadences. Resolution of dissonance is made by step. As such, it is the beginning of tonal harmony in that individual parts must conform to overall harmonic function. 4. Perotin s Viderunt omnes uses hocket, or hoquetus. 5. De mensurabili musica by Johannes de Garlandia explains the six poetic/music meters (often called the rhythmic modes) and organizes them in three symmetrical pairs.
F. Conductus and Notre Dame 1. Conductus was another type of polyphony found in the Notre Dame school. a. What we call conductus, we previously called versus. b. It is not based on pre-existing chant. c. The texture is homorhythmic with a syllabically set text. G. The Motet: Music for an Intellectual and Political Elite 1. Grocheio, a university lecturer in Paris, wrote the Ars musicae, which is a main source about music in Paris ca. 1300. a. This treatise is noteworthy because it talks more about practical music than abstract. b. Grocheio associates specific types of music for various types of people. 2. Perhaps most importantly, Grocheio describes a new genre that will become very important: the Motet. a. Motets had a texted duplum, which is what the word mot (French for word ) implies. b. Early motets relate to and are connected with clausula. c. Different parts had different texts, which we describe as polytextual. H. Franconian Notation 1. Early motets, like conductus, demanded a more precise manner of notating rhythm. 2. Mensural notation, developed at Notre Dame, specifies rhythm by specific shapes. 3. In the Ars cantus mensurabilis, Franco of Cologne describes mensural notation. a. He defines the possibilities for the existing note values (long and breve). b. He subdivides the breve into semibreves. 4. A contrafactum is new text set to pre-existing music. 5. The motet was a hybrid of the court tradition of the trouveres (in that it was a courtly literary text) and the ecclesiastical tradition of Notre Dame polyphony (in that it is related to clausula and contains chant). I. A New Trobar Clus? 1. Motets became increasingly elaborate throughout the thirteenth century. 2. Composers delighted in textual play seemingly simple texts that include hidden meanings. a. This type of music was not for everyone but rather for the new elite who aspired to connect themselves to an older, established aristocracy. 3. The Montpellier Codex contains 300+ motets. a. On parole/a Paris/FRESE NOUVELE exemplifies the suggestive, veiled, educated texts employed by composers of late-thirteenth-century motets. J. The Petronian Motet
1. One of the later sections of the Montpellier Codex includes more complex notation than seen in previous parts. 2. The theorist Petrus de Cruce used even faster note values than seen in the Franconian notation, as demonstrated in the example Aucun/Lonc tans/annun. a. Looking at the triplum, Petrus delineates the breve units with dots that function like modern bar lines. 3. With these changes, the connection to poetic meters is severed and the rhythmic modes fall out of use.