Presentation for Chapter 14

1. THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
EDITION
by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
THIRD EDITION
Lecture Slides

2. Chapter 14
Symbols & Puzzles: Machaut & The
Medieval Mind

3. Guido d’Arezzo(995-1050)
• First “music theorist”
• Made fixed pitch relationships
possible
• Solfege syllables for scale
patterns
– do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do
– Patricia Gray Website
– http://www.patriciagray.net/Mu
sichtmls/Flash/guido.html

5. The Development of Polyphony
• The first harmony was
organum: singers sang
same melody, but at
different intervals

6. The Development of Polyphony:
Organum
• Polyphony
– Combination of two melodic lines
– Appeared sometime between 700 & 900
– 11th
century notation indicates other pitches
added to melody
• Take line of chant, add additional parallel line a
fourth or fifth below

7. The Development of Polyphony
• Second line eventually became
more independent around 1100,
when chant and added melody
were no longer restricted to note
against note style
• Development of music related to
development of musical notation
system
• Neumes-signs written above
words to indicate direction of
pitch movements

8. The School of Notre Dame
• Leonin(1169-1201)
– Composer at Notre Dame
– Began to give chant longer note values, composed more active
line above
 Perotin(1198-1236)
 Followed same practice, added 3rd
& 4th
line
 First known composer to write
music with more than 2 voices

9. Early Organum
• Leonin
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Gq5B3M4jRtQ&list=PLD2FA7A1A4352F58A&ind
ex=5
• Perotin
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EJxRDhejtwo&index=6&list=PLD2FA7A1A4352F
58A

10. The School of Notre Dame
• Name given to these composers & their followers
• Made use of measured rhythm, with definite time
values & defined meter
• First time in history-notation indicated precise
rhythm as well as pitch
• Sounds hollow because of accepted intervals
– 8ve, 4th
, 5th
- consonant, 3rd
dissonant but found
in secular music

11. Alleluia vidimus stellam(We Have Seen His
Star)
• Based on Gregorian alleluia melody, referred to as a cantus
firmus(fixed melody)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJjQioFfmjQ

12. Middle Ages: Secular Musicians of
the Period
• Minstrels: professional poet-musicians who
traveled the countryside
– Their music was the “news” of the day: gossip, recent
events, legends.
– They were the original “vaudeville” performers.
– They performed a variety of acts: juggling, magic,
acrobatics.
– They were itinerant and didn’t write their songs down.
– They were outcasts in society.

13. Middle Ages: Secular Musicians of
the Period
• Troubadours: about the 12th century,
these knights of the Provence of Southern
France performed songs about love, the
beauty of women, honor, and the
Crusades.
• Trouvères: about the 12th and 13th
centuries, noblemen from the courts of
Northern France composed songs related
to love and chivalry in their own French
dialect.

14. Middle Ages: Secular Musicians of
the Period
• Minnesingers: German knights who composed and sang
their own songs about the approach of dawn (“watchers’”
songs), and the beauty of nature and of women
• Meistersingers: c. 14th
-16th centuries, middle class
performers who built on tradition of Minnesingers
– Formed guilds (the first musical unions)
– Developed rules for songwriting
– Tested composers for knowledge of rules before
admitting them to the guild

15. Medieval
Instruments

16. The Enjoyment of Music, Essential Listening Edition, Third E
Copyright © 2017, W. W. Norton & Com

17. 14th
Century Music: The Ars Nova (New Art) in
France
• Ars nova
– 1322 Treastise by Philippe de Vitry
including acceptance of division of
beat
– Literary works became more about
sensuality than virtue
– Secular music more important than
sacred
• New system of music notation evolved
– Composers could specify any rhythm
pattern
– Beats divided into 2s as well as 3s
– Syncopation appears
– Polyphony not based on chant,
drinking songs, etc.

18. Guillaume de Machaut(1304-1377)
• Single most important
figure in French Ars Nova
• Priest-studied theology &
took holy orders
• Served as court musician
for royal families; King of
Bohemia, royal family of
France
• Important church official in
Reims

19. The Enjoyment of Music, Essential Listening Edition, Third E
Copyright © 2017, W. W. Norton & Com

20. Guillaume de Machaut
• Most important works
– Secular songs
– Inspired by relationship
with Peronne
d’Armentieres which
ended in disappointment
– Decline of church reflects
works-mainly love songs
for one or two voices &
instrumental
accompaniment

21. Puis qu’en obli
(Since I am forgotten by you)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0yi2MMtIimY&index=7&list=PLD2FA7A1A4
352F58A
Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer
(I Can All Too Well Compare My Lady)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NeHilF0RsOM

22. Notre Dame Mass-Agnus Dei (Mid-14th
Century)
• First polyphonic treatment
of mass ordinary by known
composer
• Written for four voices
• Some parts probably
performed and/or doubled
on instruments
• Performance practice of
piece unknown
• When & why mass was
written unknown

23. Notre Dame Mass-“Agnus Dei”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=bHRAYbgdxew&list=PLD2FA7A1A4352F58A
&index=8

24. Ma fin est mon commencement
(My end is my beginning)
• Chanson
• French love poem (rondeau)
• Palindromes
• Balance & Symmetry
• AB form
– ABaAabAB

25. The Enjoyment of Music, Essential Listening Edition, Third E
Copyright © 2017, W. W. Norton & Com

26. Ma fin est mon commencement
(My end is my beginning)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=dcfPr4IN2MM&index=23&list=PLxgWBmUi9
H8Icnj3ta-855SwJZK2HaO4G

27. The Enjoyment of Music, Essential Listening Edition, Third E
Copyright © 2017, W. W. Norton & Com

28. The Enjoyment of Music, Essential Listening Edition, Third E
Copyright © 2017, W. W. Norton & Com

29. by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
Lecture Slides
THIRD EDITION
THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING EDITION
http://wwnorton.com/web/enjoyess2