History of the music: Music of rhe middle ages

UNIT 2. MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES

1. HISTORICAL CONTEXT (from 5th to 15th century)

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) a new social, political and cultural order

organizes Europe and the Christian Church takes the power that the Roman Empire has left.

The Medieval society is basically rural and organized by the feudalism system, a very strict

social division:

Bellatores: the nobility (kings, knights…), they keep the military order, have

properties and privileges.

Oratores: the Church, they preserve the culture heritage. At that time several

monasteries were built as places where manuscripts and books were copied

and translated.

Laboratores: the rest/majority of the society, the workers (peasants). They

have no access to properties or culture.

The Church and Nobility are landowners and have political and social power: they judge and

execute their laws with no opposition.

As Middle Ages lasted for almost 1.000 years, it is a time that includes different periods of

stability, change and turbulences (wars, famines, diseases…). From the 13th century on, the

agriculture and the trade are developed, the first cities and universities appear and a new

social class arises: the bourgeoisie.

2. MUSIC

During the Middle Ages the music was clearly divided between Religious (sacred) and Non

religious (secular) music. The most important contributions of this musical period are:

- Polyphonic music.

- Written music.

2.1 Religious music

2

Gregorian Chant: Named after the Pope Gregory (6th Century), Gregorian Chant was

a liturgical form of music based on a repertory of chants for the principal Christian

religious ceremonies. It was characterized by:

- Monodic chant: a single melodic line sung by the monks as one single voice.

- Sung a cappella: vocal music.

- Exclusively religious themes.

- Sung in Latin.

- Free rhythm.

Religious music was basically a cappella because instruments were considered tools of the

devil. Anyway, from the 13th century on, they began to use the organ.

2.2 Non-religious music (Secular/popular music)

Troubadours, Joglars and Goliards

Secular music mixed music and dance, it was performed for the village and feudal

lords. The language used was vernacular (leaving the Latin for religious services) and

the rhythm came from poetry.

Troubadours: poets and musicians mainly from noble origin, often educated and

trained by the church. Troubadours were well received in castles and palaces where

their performances were rewarded with clothes, horses and gold. Sometimes they sang

their own compositions but often hired other artists to play them.

The central theme of the troubadour art was the chivalric love (devotion to an

unattainable lady) but there were other issues like war (crusades) and chivalry. Their

poems were accompanied by instruments that simply doubled the voice.

The troubadour art appears at the end of the 11th century in Provence, when Europe

began to enjoy a time of peace, and its expansion reached Germany, Italy, Galicia and

Catalonia. The first known troubadour was Guillaume IX, Duke of Aquitaine. One of the

most famous Catalan troubadours was Guillem de Berguedà.

Joglars/bards: writers, actors and musicians who went around from village to village

entertaining people during fairs or special events. A single joglar could become a

travelling circus, they sing and play many instruments, dance, improvise songs, do

acrobatics and tame animals.

They were usually condemned by the church as from its point of view joglars lived an

immoral life. Some joglars were hired by troubadours to accompanied them playing

instruments. This is how troubadour songs were later popularized by joglars in streets

and squares.

Goliards: clergymen who had left the religious life and devoted themselves to living as

joglars, with the advantage of enjoying a much higher cultural level. They sang in Latin

and vernacular with instrumental accompaniments and their repertoire was varied.

Instruments

Joglars and troubadours used them as an accompaniment for their music and dance.

- Strings: Harp, Fiddle, Rebec, Lute (llaüt)…

- Winds: flute, trumpet, bagpipe…

- Percussion: drum, tambourine, cymbal…

3. BIRTH OF POLYPHONY (Ars Antiqua)

Polyphony was the great musical contribution of the Middle Ages. It began with sacred music

but soon was present in the secular genre. Polyphony is based on the interpretation of two or

more melodic lines simultaneously.

Types of polyphony a cappella:

- Organum (9th century): two voices singing, one of them being a Gregorian melody and the other one following at a constant distance of 4th or 5th. Always in parallel.

- Discantus (11th century): two voices, but no longer parallel, when one of them goes high the other goes low. The main melody remains Gregorian.

- Motet (13th century): three voices singing different texts, with different rhythms and sometimes in different languages.

- Canon (14th century): the voices sing one after the other, chasing each other with the same melody.

4. WRITTEN MUSIC

The rise of polyphony contributed to the development of the modern system of music notation.

Musicians had to be able to read and perform several different parts simultaneously, hence the

need for a precise system of pitch and rhythmic notation. The eleventh-century Benedictine

monk Guido d´Arezzo (995-1033) created the modern musical notation.

Some examples:

- The Red Book of Montserrat (14th century) contains the narration of miracles, treatises

on geography, astronomy dedicated to the Virgin in Latin and old Catalan. They are

written for one, two and three voices that were sung and danced by the pilgrims inside

the monastery of Montserrat but also in the streets.

- Carmina Burana (13th century): a manuscript from Germany, most of it made of works

in latin from the goliards.

- Cántigas de Santa María (13th century): a manuscript with more than 400 monodic

tunes dedicated to the Virgin, written in Galician, some of them by Alfonso X The Wise,

king of Castile and Leon.