Medieval Music Overview

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Guido, Hildegard and Friends

Step 1

• Use the resources below as well as those of your own choosing to answer the following questions 

1. Provide approximate dates for the Middle Ages punctuated with notable world/historical events In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages (or Medieval period) lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. 

2. Describe various characteristics that distinguish sacred music from secular music during the Middle Ages 

The only main difference between sacred and secular is their purpose, sacred being for religious purposes and secular being for entertainment and traveling performers. 

3. Describe the 5 parts of the Ordinary of the Mass (latin names for each section and their basic translations) The Kyrie means the lord, Gloria is glory, Credo is belief, Sanctus is holy, and Agnus Dei means the lamb of god. 

4. Distinguish between syllabic, neumatic and melismatic chant style. Syllabic chant style is essentially one note per syllable of the text. Neumatic chant style is short melismas (2-4 notes) on each syllable, and melismatic chant style is multiple notes/melismas per syllable. 

5. Provide a few nuggets of trivia regarding the history of Guido D'Arezzo. Guido D'Arezzo was a medieval music theorist whose principles served as a foundation for modern Western musical notation.The fundamentals of the new method consisted in the construction by thirds of a system of four lines, or staff, and the use of letters as clefs. The red F-line and the yellow C-line were already in use, but Guido added a black line between the F and the C and another black line above the C.No longer was it necessary to learn melodies by rote, and Guido declared that his system reduced the 10 years normally required to become an ecclesiastical singer to a year.

6. Provide a few nuggets of trivia regarding the Guidonian Hand.

The Guidonian Hand was a way to teach medieval music singers his hexachord, or six-note scales. Arezzo, who had also devised the modern musical notation system, had noticed that singers struggled to remember the various Gregorian chants that the monastic orders performed in the monasteries. To help their memorization, Guido decided to take the first syllable in each line of the well known hymn Ut Queant Laxis, and created a hexachord, or six note scale, that singers familiar with the hymn already knew: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la.  The hand, shown above, was a map of the musical notes in this hexachord system, with each note associated with a particular joint.

7. Explain the various features of this Cool Resource This cool resource is an interactive tour of the guidonian hand technique, and allows you to click on a certain arrangement of notes and see how it relates to the hand chart. 

8. Describe your observations regarding the use of this Guidonian Hand Demonstration. The guidonian hand demonstration was a way for early music learners to learn the notes of a song without having a written form. By singing a chant and pointing to the various areas of the hand, students were able to learn more efficiently. As the demonstration progressed, the method was then moved horizontally to be written in staff form. 

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To what extent does pitch vary throughout this Gregorian Chant?

 The pitch does not vary very much throughout the piece. Though there are a lot of melismas, the range is not very significant. 

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Describe similarities and differences between the Gregorian Chant above and the music of Hildegard

 In the hildegard, there is a lot more variation of pitch than the gregorian chant. The hildegard also has a stringed instrument, a flute, and background voices that creates a homophonic texture. The hildegard is in more of a "major" medieval mode where the gregorian chant is droning and ominous. 

Step 4

How do changes in pitch reflect changes in mood in this organum by Leoninus

Since there is an overlying drone underneath the melody, when the melody changes pitch, it changes the interval from major/minor, giving different tonal emotions when the pitch is changed. 

Step 5

Describe musical elements in terms of what is represented and what is not in this example by Guillaume de Machaut

(Musical Elements; Pitch, Rhythm, Dynamics, Tempo, Texture, Timbre, Form, Purpose, Harmony, Melody, Expression, Mood, Language, Style, etc.)

This song is polyphonic as there is the vocal main theme over the main theme of the plucked strings. The rhythm is more complex than older medieval music, and has an uplifting tone with its faster tempo and bouncy feeling. The way the singer ebs and flows with her melismas keeps the piece moving. 

In Search of Summer and The Holy Grail

Step 1

Provide a brief description of this Neume Notation; observations, patterns, etc.

This source shows you how to interpret different styles of writing music, and compares written form from 9th-10th centuries, 11th to 13th centuries, to modern day. When we look at the earliest forms, many notations were written almost as pictures/scribbles in lines or curved forms. When we travel to the 11th-13th century, the notations start to look more familiar, with the box forms coming into fruition. 

Describe differences between Medieval Notation Neumes & Modern Notation Notes in terms of shapes, lines and colors

In the two different notation forms of "sumer is icumin in", the older version has notes that are in a square shape with bar lines and staffs being red. They did not have measures yet and barlines and meters were not invented, so everything transcribed was based on the textual phrases. 

Demonstrate 3 Chant Styles using the template found in this Neume Project (On Paper)

 

 

 

Step 2

Provide a brief narrative on Sumer is a Cumin In; history, trivia, manuscript, significance, text, etc.

 This song is one of the oldest transcribed songs in history, at almost 800 years old. It was porbably written in Oxford in 1260. The song actually contains the oldest record of the word "fart. Academics are unsure whether the English lyrics constitute an innocent description of nature responding to the coming spring, or a bawdy ditty about adultery (apparently the cuckoo is the key here). 

English translation

 

Summer has come in,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow blooms
And the wood springs anew,
Sing, cuckoo!
The ewe bleats after the lamb
The cow lows after the calf.
The bullock stirs, the goat farts,
Merrily sing, Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo;
Don't ever you stop now,
Ground (sung by two lowest voices)
Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo.
Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now!

Step 3

Use this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to answer the following questions:

Is this an example of a sacred Gregorian Chant or a secular Estampie? Gregorian chant. 

What is the language of this text? This is in latin 

Is the texture monophonic, heterophonic, homophonic or polyphonic? It is monophonic

Bonus trivia; Describe the Church Mode and use of Organum. The gregorian mode is also known as the church mode, which is any one of eight scalar arrangements of whole and half tones, derived by medieval theorists, most likely from early Christian vocal convention. Organum is the earliest form of polyphony based on existing plainchant. 

 

HONORS TRACK