1 The Enjoyment of Music 9th Shorter Edition

The Enjoyment of Music
9 th Shorter Edition
Module Two: Medieval
and Renaissance Music
11. The Culture of the Middle Ages
• Spans nearly 1,000 years
400 – 600 Early Christian Period
600 – 850 Early Middle Ages
850 – 1150 Romanesque Period
1150 – 1300 Ars Antiqua Period
1300 – 1450 Ars Nova Period
• Early Christian church and state were centers
of powers
• Most patronage (sponsorship) came from the
Catholic church
• Most surviving music is sacred
12. Sacred Music in the Middle Ages
The Catholic Mass
• Liturgy: set order of early church services
• Gregorian chant – Plainchant – Plainsong
– Early church music
– Monophonic texture
– Syllabic text setting
– Melismatic text setting
– Latin text
• Early notation: Neumes suggested the
contours of the melody but not durations
• Scale patterns used are church modes
• Two divisions:
– Proper: texts change according to the day
– Ordinary: texts are the same for every Mass
• Forms of music:
– Responsorial: soloist alternates with chorus
– Antiphonal: alternating singing by two
separate groups
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Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)
Hildegard: Alleluia, O virga
mediatrix (Listening Guide)
• 1150 founded a convent in Rupertsberg, Germany
• Known for miracles and prophecies
• Three collections of visions and prophecies
in manuscript
• Composed religious poetry with music
• From the Proper of the Mass
• Proper to the feast of the Virgin Mary
• Ternary form (A-B-A)
• Responsorial
• Monophonic texture
• Conjunct melody with few leaps
• Free, nonmetric rhythm
• Neumatic notation
The Rise of Polyphony:
The Notre Dame School
Notre Dame School Organum:
Gaude Maria virgo (Listening Guide)
• Early Polyphony emerged at the Cathedral of
Notre Dame in Paris
• Polyphony evolved toward the end of the
Romanesque period (c. 850–1150)
• Polyphony necessitated the use of notated
rhythm and pitch
• Organum: earliest polyphonic music
• Léonin: earliest known composer of the Notre
Dame School
• Pérotin: Léonin’s successor, added two and
three melodies to chant
• Text praises Virgin Mary
• Two-voice organum in the style of Pérotin
• Both voices sing same text
• Second added melody is melismatic
• Original melody is a Gregorian chant,
in slow sustained rhythm
• Vox principalis (original chant)
• Vox organalis (new melody)
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The Early Medieval Motet
13. Secular Music in the Middle Ages
• New text was added to second melody
(vox organalis part) in melismatic organum
• Created new genre: Motet
• Many three-voice motets have different texts
(polytextual)
• Can be sacred or secular
• Can have an instrumental accompaniment
• A Gregorian chant is the basis for motets; the
other voices are composed around the chant
• Medieval Minstrels
• Secular music in courts
• Aristocratic artists
– France: Troubadours, Trouvères
– Germany: Minnesingers
• Secular music in cities
• Wandering minstrels: Goliards, Jongleurs
• Idealized love and chivalry
• Secular songs sung monophonically, with
improvised accompaniment
Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377)
Machaut: Puis qu’en oubli
(Listening Guide)
• French composer
• Premier composer of Ars Nova (1300-1450)
• Double career as cleric (sacred) and courtier
(secular)
• Poet and composer
• Composed motets, chansons, and polyphonic
Mass settings
• Three-voice chanson (song)
• Text: rondeau form (fixed form)
• Pain of unrequited love
• Low melodic range (depths of despair)
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Early Instrumental Music
14. The Renaissance Spirit
Music in Renaissance Society
• Central role in art music reserved for vocal
music
• Instrumental music mostly improvised
• Soft (bas) or loud (haut) instruments
• Instruments categorized by their use (indoor
or outdoor)
• Shift from sacred to secular style
• Renaissance musicians worked in churches,
cities, and courts or in the trades of instrument
building, printing, and music publishing
• Merchant class become new music patrons
• Emergence of amateur musicians in cultivated
middle and upper classes
Renaissance Musical Style
15. Renaissance Sacred Music
The Early Renaissance Mass
• Regarded as golden age of a cappella
(unaccompanied) singing
• Polyphony based on concept of continuous imitation
(motives are exchanged between melodic lines)
• Expressive device of word painting favored in
secular music
• Composers sometimes used cantus firmus (fixed
melody) as the basis for new works
• Large choral works often sung by professional
singers in church setting
• Composers focused their polyphonic Mass
settings on the Ordinary of the Mass
– Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei
• Mass sung in Latin, not vernacular (language
of the country)
• Early polyphonic settings of the Mass were
based on fragments of Gregorian chant
• Requiem Mass: Mass for the dead sung at
funerals and memorial services
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The Motet in the Renaissance
Josquin des Prez and the Motet
• Renaissance motet had a single Latin text
• Popularity of Marian motets (Virgin Mary)
• Written for 3, 4, or more voices
• Sometimes based on a Cantus firmus (original
Gregorian chant)
• Josquin des Prez
• Called Josquin (1450–1521)
• Franco-Flemish composer
• Italian music career
• Patrons (Italy)
– Milan: Cardinal Ascanio Sforza
– Ferrara: Ercole d’Este
– Rome: Papal Choir member
• Composed sacred and secular music
Josquin: Ave Maria . . . virgo
serena (Listening Guide)
The Late Renaissance Mass
• Renaissance motet
• Explores combinations of voices and textures
• Begins with a quotation of Gregorian chant
• Majority of work is newly composed
• Contrasting imitative vs. homorhythmic sections
• Homorhythmic: all voices move together
rhythmically
• Protestant revolt lead by Martin Luther (1483–1546)
• Counter-Reformation (1530s–1590s)
• Council of Trent concerns:
– Corruption of chant by embellishment
– Use of certain instruments
– Incorporation of popular music in Masses
– Secularism of music
– Irreverent attitude of church musicians
• Council recommended a pure vocal style that
respected the integrity of the sacred texts
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Palestrina and the
Pope Marcellus Mass
Palestrina: Pope Marcellus Mass,
Gloria (Listening Guide)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Called Palestrina (1525–1594)
• Italian composer, organist, and choirmaster
• Member Sistine Chapel Choir (Pope Julius III)
• Composed mostly sacred music
• Satisfied the new strict music demands of
the Council of Trent
• Probably performed a cappella
• Written for six voice parts
• Opens with a monophonic intonation
• Choral sections are polyphonic
• Text is clear and audible
16. Renaissance Secular Music
Music in Court and City Life
The Chanson
• Professional musicians entertained in courts
and civic functions
• Merchant class amateurs played and sang
at home
• Most popular instruments: lute, organ,
harpsichord, and clavichord
• Main genres: chanson and madrigal
• Developed in Burgundy and France during
the 15th century
• Usually for 3 or 4 voices
• Set to courtly love poems
• Freer poetic structures
• Culminating figure: Roland de Lassus
(c.1532-1494)
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Instrumental Dance Music
The Italian Madrigal
• Period of growth in instrumental music
• Published music was readily available
• Instrumentation was unspecified
• The occasion dictated the ensemble
(indoor or outdoor)
• Dances were often vocal works that were
played instead of sung
• Chief form of Renaissance secular music
• Text: short poem of lyric or reflective nature
• Music: sets text expressively
• Instruments could double or substitute
for some of the voices
• Three periods of the madrigal:
– First period (c. 1525–1550)
– Second period (c. 1550–1580)
– Third period (c. 1580–1620)
Farmer and The English Madrigal
Farmer: Fair Phyllis
(Listening Guide)
• Composers in England further developed
the Italian madrigal
• English madrigals were often simpler and
lighter in style than Italian madrigals
• John Farmer (1570–1601)
– Active in 1590s in Dublin
– Organist and master of
choirboys at Christ Church
• Cheerful mood
• Sectional repetitions
• Contrapuntal imitation
• Contrasting textures
– Homorhythmic
– Polyphonic
• World painting (“Up and down…”)
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Medieval and Renaissance Music
Transition I: From
Renaissance to Baroque
• Polychoral Music in Venice
• St. Mark’s Basilica
• Choirmasters and organists
• Byzantine architecture
– Polychoral music
– Antiphonal performance
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