2. Music of Greek and Rome provided
foundation for music of later
ages
• very few documented works exist.
• Most documents of music were destroyed
during the fall of the Roman Empire (c.476)
3. Dark Ages (c.500-1000)
Ascent and
Development
Secular music
learned by oral
transmission
Sacred music
preserved earliest
examples of notated
music
4. Late Middle Ages
(c. 1000-1450)
(c. 1000-1450)
developed cathedrals & universities
many great literary works shaped language:
Chanson do Roland (1100) Divine Comedy (1307) Canterbury
Tales (1386)
Crusades (c. 200 years)
males dominated: idealized the figure of the fearless warrior
status of women was raised by universal cult of Mary (mother of
Christ)
promoted concepts of chivalry and adornment by knights.
women and love become popular topics in poetry and song
5. Church & State
2 centers of power
2 centers of power
STATE: newly developed
governments led by a king
CHARLEMANGNE (742-814)
emperor of the Franks
developed modern
government
encouraged education
6. Roman Catholic Church
PATRONAGE: church is largest patron of
music
men/women preserved & performed music
monastaries develop
code of conduct
monophonic PLAINCHANT or “Gregorian
chant” dominates
7. Gregorian Chant
Named after Pope Gregory
the Great (540-604)
Single line (monophonic)
Latin text
Functional music for LITURGY (church
services)
Uses MODES for melodies (special scales)
Notated by NEUMES (asc./dec. symbols)
8. 3 types of Chant
syllabic: 1 note per syllable
neumatic: small groups of notes (2-6)
per syllable
melismatic: long groups of notes for
each syllable
Chant dominated until REFORM movement of
Council of Trent (1545-1563)
9. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-
1179)
•nun, playwright, poet,
musician, naturalist,
pharmacologist,
visionary
•wrote 77 chants
•many songs praise
Virgin Mary
•composed Alleluia: o
virga mediatrix
10. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH SERVICES
Daily Offices: series of services throughout the day
Mass
most solemn ritual of church
Reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ
Latin texts
Proper: texts that varied from day to day
Ordinary: texts remained the same
Cloister - men and women served the church which
was a heavy daily work schedule
11. Rise of Polyphony
Organum - earliest form of polyphony
developed by Notre Dame Cathedral composers
added interval of 4th or 5th to
existing chant (new ideas founded on
old)
Fixed melody (called tenor) upper
part freely composed above
Rhythmic modes (patterns)
Motet - added new text to highly melismatic organum
12. Secular music
Mostly instrumental dance music
Triple meter, binary forms
embellishments are added upon repeats
Vocal music
Minstrels: versatile traveling entertainers, lower class
Troubadours and Trouvères: French poet-musicians, court
musicians and members of aristocracy, songs about chivalry,
unrequited love, political and war songs
Minnesingers: German counterpart to Troubadours
