The Middle Ages (476 CE-Early 15th

Century):

Church dominated intellectual and cultural life

Music was perceived as a means of serving God

Plainchant (aka Gregorian chant) consisted of monophonic, unaccompanied

melodies sung by a single voice/choir in unison

Polyphony became important for both sacred and secular music from the 10th

century onward

Scales are different than today and most instruments are not used now

Music for Sacred Spaces:

Era of great, gothic cathedrals, large buildings; meant to inspire and lift the eye

heavenward

Purpose of sacred music is to enhance texts being sung and inspire worshippers

with the beauty of their sound

All services of the church were provided with their appropriate melodies.

o Many services with the most important service being Mass

o Special efforts were made for the many chants of Mass

Hildegard von Bingen’s Play of Virtues (Ordo virtutum) combine plainchant with

new poetry to convey teachings to understand differences between good and evil

Music for Entertainment:

Medieval castles were symbols of the secular

Medieval Europe was divided into a series of kingdoms, duchies, and fiefdoms of

varied sizes ruled by a Lord who collected tax

Rulers competed for the best poets, dancers, and singers

Minstrels passed from town to town providing poetry, song, acrobatics, and

juggling

Troubadours, Trouvères, and Minnesingers sang and played songs about love,

heroism and pastoral life

Music was always featured at near every courtly gathering

Medieval secular music was sung to texts in the language of the people

Music for Dancing:

Dance was a highly significant social activity

Most dances were group activities (like present day line-dancing) and featured a

drummer providing a basic beat

Information Technology 1.0:

Until the 10th

century, music was transmitted orally, not in written form

Early plainchant manuscripts show symbols above texts indicating motion of the

pitch up/down

Making manuscripts were expensive: parchment was not readily available and ink

was expensive

Hildegard von Bingen and Play of Virtues

Morality play, dramatized allegory of good and evil

16 virtues; charity, obedience, humility, chastity, victory, etc.

Music exerts a powerful pull on the human spirit

o Hildegard noticed that Play of Virtues is powerful but could be even more

powerful with music

Music was perceived as a divine gift from heaven, so the devil in Play of Virtues

had no lines but shouted words

Hildegard builds on long tradition of liturgical plainchant

o Plainchant grew out of chants of Jewish services of worship, mainly the

melodic recitation of the psalms

Hildegard’s chant is similar to more florid types found in worship services

Clarity of Monophonic Texture

Monophonic texture allows performers to project text with great clarity

o The musicians towards the end added the sound of distant bells at the end

to emphasize the moment of dramatic triumph

Musicians probably added instruments to give variety to music’s timbre

Preserved music from the middle ages was monophonic and in the church, it

because known as plainchant because of the textural simplicity

Plainchant was well suited for performance in the large, resonant spaces of

medieval churches

Medieval Melody

Hildegard’s flowing melodies move primarily by step (conjunct) but the

occasional leaps (disjunct) provide variety and give text clear profiles

A sentence of text in plainchant almost always ends with a cadence

What makes plainchant sound otherworldly is the scales where melodies are

based

o Medieval composers had four additional modes (including major and

minor) each using a sequence of whole steps and half steps

Each scale (mode) was given its own Greek name

o Dorian (on D)

o Phrygian (on E)

o Lydian (on F)

o Mixolydian (on G)

o Aeolian (on A)

o Ionian (on C)

Projecting Words through Music

Two basic choices in setting words through music

o 1. Syllabic: one note per syllable, ensures words will be heard with

special clarity

o 2. Melismatic: a melisma is a syllable sung to many notes, providing

variety and emphasizing key words in a text

Free Rhythm

Two general approaches to how plainchant was performed; free or measured

o Free rhythm has individual notes lengthened or shortened according to the

length of the syllables in the words being sung

o Measured performances adhere to consistent meter

San Ildefonso Indians of New Mexico and Eagle Dance

Eagle dance is part of an ancient Native American rain ceremony and is always

accompanied by chant

Chant has been, and remains essential to sacred rituals throughout the world

Chant is predominant form of music in Native North American Indian culture

Where it hasn’t died from 19th

century wards with Euro-Americans, it survives on

reservations

Heard at powwows where Native Americans express their mutual bond and

identity

Eagle dance portrays life cycle of an eagle, creature regarded as the connecting

link between heaven and earth

Two men in eagle feathers dance movements imitating eagles turning, flapping

and swaying in the air

o The feathers aren’t allowed to touch the ground

Texture: Monophony

Eagle dance consists of one melodic line

Sung by male voices in unison

o Percussion instruments are perceived as singing the chant; sounds

punctuate the rhythm of the chant

Nearly all Native American music is monophonic and accompanied by percussion

Word-Music Relationships: Beyond Language

Songs are believed to have come from spirit world

Song is transmitted through a person who hears it in a dream or revelation and

teaches it to others

Native American chants make use of vocables – meaningless sung syllables, the

sound of which serves like a melodic instrument

Form: ABA

Each section has its own melody, built of smaller repeating units

Varied vocable at the end of each melody group creates contrast within each

section

Terraced Melody

Although A and B contrast in their rhythms and sung syllables, they are similar in

the overall downward contour of their melodies

Both descend the scale in terraced stages, eventually resolving a low tone

Francesco Landini: Behold, Spring

In Behold, Spring, we hear two voices singing independent and equally important

lines

It is a balata for two voices (balata means danced)

Landini’s setting captures the feeling of bodies in motion

Served as an organist at church in Florence and was renown as a poet

Believed to have written more than 150 secular songs, which represent 1/3 of all

Italian music survived from 14th

century

The Richness of Polyphonic Texture

Two or more voices of equal importance combine in a way that each voice retains

its own identity

Although our ears draw to upper line (because high pitches stand out more), the

lower line is just as melodious

Earliest polyphonic work was created in 8th

/9th

century by adding new lines above

or below the existing plainchant melodies

Some early works of polyphony were extraordinarily long and intricate but were

based on an existing liturgical melody

Perotin, wrote long and intricate works known as organum

o These used plainchant in long note values in the lowest voice, with faster-

moving voices layered above plainchant

Behold, Spring, is actually a new secular composition

Rhythm: The Pulse of Meter

Behold, Spring, is set around a steady pattern of triple meter (1-2-3|1-2-3 etc.)

The length of individual notes vary but music falls into consistent units of 3 beats

Units of Melody

Conjunct melodic lines were subdivided into smaller units, each ending with a

cadence

Cadences were used in second and fourth lines in each four-line strophe

Landini always cadences on unison (both voices sing exactly the same note)

At times, two voices move in same rhythmic pattern while other times the

rhythms diverge. They always coincide just before each cadence

Form: Turning Poetry into Music

Consists of three verses, known as strophes (or stanzas) with the first repeated at

the end

Form is ABAA

Once A is introduced, it can be repeated, varied, or contrasted though intro of new

idea

He used all of the above

Word-Music Relationships: Syllabic vs. Melismatic

Text is largely syllabic

Melismas used on line 3 of first strophe and in third line of second strophe

This creates a degree of variety

Guillaume de Machaut: “I Can All Too Well Compare My Lady”

Song gives voice to medieval art of courtly love

Pygmalion in text refers to mystic sculptor of antiquity who carved statue so

realistic he fell in love with it and it came to life

Love songs are as old as songs themselves

Three-Voice Texture

Song is for 3 voices and has 3 independent lines that are completely different

from one another

Uppermost voice is easiest to hear, it is the most rhythmically active and fluid

The lower voices move at slower speeds and sing longer (and fewer) notes

A Melody Punctuated by Cadences

There is a total of 5 cadences

Length is as little as 7 seconds to as much as 19 seconds

AAB Form:

Text consist of 4 sentences

Opening sentence is repeated for second sentence

Has same form as star-spangled banner

Alfonso el Sabio: Songs to the Virgin Mary (Cantigas de Santa Maria), no. 249, “He

Who Gladly Serves (Aquel que de volontade”

Drums and two wind instruments bring to life a work originally notated for only

one voice

Little amounts of music written for instruments survives from the middle ages but

composers and musicians rarely made sharp distinctions between vocal and

instrumental music

o Vocal lines were often performed on instruments if not enough singers

were available for performance

Alfonso el Sabio ruled the Kingdom of Castile and Leon on the Iberian peninsula

between 1252 and 1284

The cantigas is a collection of more than 400 songs preserved in several different

manuscripts

Timbre: The Sound of Double Reeds

The shawm is a double reed instrument because the player blows through the tiny

space between a pair of cane strips

Air resonates between a long, open-ended tubular base made of wood and

produces a reedy, slightly nasal sound

Closest modern day relative is the oboe

Form: Repetition and Contrast

The form of this piece arises out of two units (A and B)

They begin in a similar manner by B moves into a higher register

Passage on drums introduces two complete statements of the melody (ABA ABA)

The A section is repeated twice at the end

Three Kinds of Texture

1. Monophony: both instruments play the same notes together, in unison

2. Homophony: one instrument plays the melody, the other a drone bass – a long

note held underneath the melodic line. Effect is like a bagpipe also used in

medieval times

3. Heterophony: both instruments play same melody at same time but one of them

plays a more elaborate and embellished for of it. The lines are thus similar and at

the same time different

The Renaissance (ca. 1425-1600)

Renaissance is French word for rebirth (spirit of humanism was reborn)

Composers brought spirit of humanism to art by setting both sacred and secular

texts in ways that united words and music directly

Typical renaissance vocal composition featured a full, rich sound, intricate in both

texture and rhythm

Music for Catholics, Music for Protestants

Rift among Christians began in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed complaints on

doors of church in Wittenberg

He set in reformation that established Protestantism as a new branch of

Christianity. Church would then be divided as protestant and catholic

Music for Growing Markets

As kingdoms, duchies, and city-states expanded both in population and wealth,

the demand for music and arts became greater

Best composers and musicians demanded high salaries

“Renaissance Man” was someone who cultivated knowledge and experience in

the full range of arts and sciences

A New Sense of Individuality

Art was more personal and drama tended toward allegory

Playwrights like Shakespeare were writing dramas and comedies with flesh-and-

blood characters

Composers captured emotions in ways that seem far more personal

Information Technology 2.0

Invention of printing by metal type changed the way information could be

transmitted

Composers achieved international stardom because their works could now

circulate across the entire continent

Josquin des Prez: “The Cricket”

Has four voices and at times the music mimics the sound of a cricket

Texture: Polyphony in Four Voices

Soprano (highest range), alto (second highest range), tenor (second lowest range)

and bass (lowest range)

Polyphony is the norm for renaissance music in general

Composers took great pride in their skill at counterpoint

o Writing a new melody against an existing one then adding a third and

fourth and so on

Word-Music Relationships: Music Imitates the Text and Form

Top and bottom voices sing long notes, inner voices weave around each other in

the middle

ABA form

Thomas Weelkes: “Since Robin Hood”

Is a madrigal song, about dancing

Texture: Polyphony in Three Voices

No voice predominates and all three contribute equally

The move together in same rhythm to make the text easier to understand

Poetic Rhythm in Music

Most metrical poems stick to a single meter from the beginning to end BUT robin

hood shifts from one meter to another

Beginning pattern is iambic, then moves to trochaic, and anapestic

William Byrd: “Sing Joyfully”

Sacred work to be sung in church with text coming from book of psalms

Takes first for verses of psalm 81

Example of a cappella choral music

Texture: Polyphony in Six Voices

Technique used was imitative counterpoint

o Particular style of counterpoint where one voice introduces each new

theme and is answered by another voice

Only four voices enter in imitative counterpoint (imitation) with both soprano

voices entering together

Sectional Form

Music follows form of text

Each line gets own melodic idea and ends with a cadence

o Some cadences are elided where a new line of text and music begins

before the previous one has come to a complete stop

The Baroque Era (1600-1750)

Called “baroque” because of attention to the extravagant and even bizarre

qualities of the music and art

Polyphony made room for homophony where one voice was clearly more

important than others

o Led to the emergence of opera

Composers extended the expressive possibilities of solo singing into scared

music, creating oratorio; an un-staged opera on a sacred topic.

Homophony also brought the genre of concerto

Period of energy and motion, ornamentation and extremes and contrasts between

light and dark in paintings.

Architecture become ornate as did musical lines (ornamental flourishes and trills

[notes next to each other that are played in alternation very rapidly])

Baroque composers and performers were committed to representing the passions

through music. They could move their audiences by the artful portrayal of

emotion.

Projecting Cultural Power through Music

Nations splendor was measured in cultural terms as well as political and economic

terms. Arts were important means of projecting power and authority.

Rulers vied with one another to find and retain the best artists, poets, composers,

and musicians.

The Splendor of the Church

Arts served also to project the power of the church.

Churches spent large sums of money on lavish decoration that would both convey

the church’s authority and inspire religious fervor.

Churches invested small fortunes in their organs, and organ building enjoyed its

golden age in the Baroque era

o Johann Sebastian Bach made frequent trips to towns and cities around

central Germany to test the craftsmanship of newly installed instruments

Opera, Oratorio, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Earliest operas were performed in private theatres at the courts of the nobility and

royalty

First public opera houses opened in Venice in 1637 and by early 18th

century,

some theatres under control of monarchs began opening doors to paying

customers

Impresarios invested heavily in new productions and enormous sums to the

singers who could ensure the success of a new work

The oratorio was essentially identical to opera in its musical form, but it was

upstaged and the libretto was usually based on a scared subject

o Handel’s Messiah, moves audiences today as it did in 1742 when it was

first performed

Arson became a serious problem in the opera world for a time during the baroque

era

The Virtuoso

Baroque era was an age of opulence, and it extended to the world of sound.

Virtuoso singers and instrumentalists were coveted by rulers and the public alike.

o These musicians were expected to embellish parts written for them

Castrati, singers who were castrated as young boys so as to preserve high range of

their voices – were high in demand

The most successful castrati became the equivalent of millionaires, possessing

high range of a woman’s voice and the physical power of a man’s voice.

Claudio Monteverdi: Orpheus, selection from Act II (composed 1607)

Orpheus is one of the earliest operas

The scene presents the moment in which legendary poet and singer Orpheus

learns of the death of his wife, Eurydice; the chorus, following the conventions of

Greek drama

Opera was a drama sung from beginning to end, and the genre of opera has

remained devoted to its original purpose: to convey a story onstage through

characters who express their thoughts and emotions by singing

Orpheus is the most frequently performed of all early operas. Music was richly

varied, with elaborate songs and choruses for the singers and lively instrumental

music for the dancers

Homophonic Texture: One Character, One Voice

Homophony, a single principal voice with a subordinate accompaniment – is

essential in opera, for it allows one singer to represent a single character onstage.

Instruments accompanying the singer is called basso continuo (continuous bass)

o Basso continuo consists of two instruments: one that can sustain long

notes (bass, viol, cello, bassoon), and one that can play chords (lute or a

harpsichord).

Organ was one of the few instruments that alone could both sustain a sound and

play chords.

Homophonic texture made it easier for audiences to understand the text being

sung. A single singer carrying the melodic line, could articulate the words clearly

without competition from other voices

Homophonic texture, restored a greater sense of balance between text and music

Word-Music Relationships: Between Speech and Song

Selection opens with an extended “recitative” by Orpheus.

o “Recitative” derives from the same root word as recite and lies between

singing and speaking

Advantage of recitative over more conventional styles of singing is that it allows

the words to be projected with special clarity: melody is less important.

Texture is polyphonic because the chorus represents the reactions of the many

characters onstage who are witnessing the drama

Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Overture and Act 1, nos. 1-4; composed 1689

One of the first operas to be written in English

Story comes from Virgil’s Aeneid, which is about the aftermath of the Trojan war

and founding of Rome

Chief characters were:

o Dido, the queen of Carthage (soprano; the highest vocal range)

o Aeneas, a Trojan prince (baritone; the middle-low male voice)

o Belinda, Dido’s maidservant (soprano)

Form by the Numbers

1. Overture: an instrumental opening signaled to the audience that it was time to

leave the socializing and direct attention to the stage, where the singers would

soon appear. This form of overture is known as a French overture. There are two

characteristics

a. The slow long introduction features a consistent alternation between long

and short notes

b. The fast section begins with imitation among the voices: the same theme

introduced by different instruments of the orchestra in succession.

2. Scene and chorus: an aria, sung by Belinda to queen Dido. Aria is Italian for air

or melody and is used to describe any lyrical movement or piece for solo voice

3. Song: another aria, this one more elaborate. Dido sings her melody over an

ostinato pattern in the bass, a short array of nine notes repeated over and over.

This kind of pattern is known as ground bas or simply a ground.

4. Recitative: Belinda and Dido in dialogue, provided a way of delivering text

quickly and clearly in a singing style similar to speech. Accompaniment of basso

continuo

5. Chorus: in the manner of the chorus in an ancient Greek tragedy, the chorus

comments on what just happened on stage

Word-Music Relationships: Speaking, Expressing, Commenting

When Purcell’s characters talk to each other, he gives them something between

speech and song: the recitative. When they convey something of deep feeling, he

gives them lyrical arias in which they linger expressively over individual words.

Each unit of the opera is dominated by a single affect, or emotion.

Mbuti Pygmies: Marriage Celebration Song (1958)

In the marriage celebration song of the Mbuti Pygmies of central Africa, the

repetition of a single pattern of notes and rhythms throughout the entire song

provides a unifying structure above which a variety of melodies are presented

The Mbuti use ostinatos as the basis for complex musical structures involving

polyphony, interlocking rhythms and the alternation of voices to create a melody

The music of the Pygmies has found growing interest among western audiences

and has influenced pop, jazz and world beat genres

Texture: Layers upon Layers

Ostinato in this song is made of multiple layers that overlap and interlock in

intriguing ways with the most obvious textural layer being call and response

Beneath the call and response structure is two heterophonic lines stacked.

o Heterophony is simultaneous playing or singing of two or more versions

of a melody.

Heterophony is a basic way of creating harmonic support without using harmony

built from chords, giving a thicker texture to polyphony.

Two heterophonic lines are further layered by a hocket construction. Hocket is a

form of polyphony consisting of two or more rhythmically interlocking voices.

Form: A Call-and-Response Ostinato

Consists of four phrases; ABBB covering a total of 8 beats

o Essential melodic unit repeats over and over to create the ostinato while

the 5 basic lines remain consistent

Barbara Strozzi: Revenge (1651)

Song allows singer to display great vocal agility and makes effective use of

contrasting timbres.

Music requires small group of musicians: one singer, two violinists, and a basso

continuo consisting of the cello and lute

Decoration of the Melody

Singer adds extra notes to the notated melody line, decorating it more elaborately

as the piece progresses.

Music of the baroque era is like jazz music today: musicians embellish a basic

tune in a highly individual and often quote spontaneous manner.

Form: Contrast and Repetition

Alternate two contrasting melodies – first in duple meter, second in triple meter –

to create a large-scale structure.

Timbre: Contrast and Punctuation

Strozzi uses two violins to great effect punctuating the end of every line in the

refrain (A section) echoing the soprano

The violins drop out entirely during the B sections to emphasize contrast between

A and B

Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 (“Little”) [1705]

A fugue is a polyphonic work based on a central theme. They are easily to

recognize as they begin with the theme in one voice, which is imitated by all the

other voices in succession.

Comes from the word fugitive as it refers to the tendency of voices chasing each

other

Fugue is regarded as the touchstone of a composer’s art for it demanded more

than just the invention of a good tune.

Bach wrote this fugue when he was 20 in Arnstadt

Timbres of the Organ, Timbres of the Orchestra

No other instrument has the range of volume and timbre found in the organ

High voices have a particular sound, perhaps a bit reedy, middle voices have a

more rounded tone, and the lowest notes blast like brass instruments.

Number of combinations goes well into the 100’s

A Distinctive Melody

The progression – slow to faster to fastest – gives the theme a strong sense of

forward progression.

Fugal Texture:

Fugues begin with a central theme (subject) in one voice all by itself. Subject is

often recognizable and has features such as a melodic leap, distinctive rhythms

etc.

Imitative counterpoint is recognizable as the voices imitate each other sounding

against (countering) the others at the same time

Opening entry of all voices on the main subject is known as a fugal exposition as

it exposes the main idea of the work

Fugues were common in baroque era

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, “Winter”, first movement (1720)

A concerto is an instrumental work for a soloist and larger ensemble. This one is

for a solo violin and an orchestra of stringed instruments plus basso continuo.

Contrasting Timbres:

Concerto was a favorite for baroque audiences as it featured dramatic contrasts

between the sound of a solo instruments and the combined sound of all other

instruments.

Solo parts in a concerto are demanding and downright flamboyant.

Form: The Ritornello Principle

Movement consists of series of alternating sections between the orchestra and

soloist

The statements made by soloists and the return of the full ensemble after is the

ritornello principle

Tonic note is F minor

Operatic arias contain ritornellos also

Word-Music Relationships: Program Music

Vivaldi indicated which lines of the following poem corresponded to the specific

points of the concerto

Johan Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047, finale

(1720)

Features multiple soloists: trumpet, oboe, violin, and recorder

Not all concertos are for only one soloist

Extreme Timbres

Solo instruments provide unusual contrast amount themselves.

o Trumpet is loud and penetrating

o Recorder is soft and gentle

o Oboe and violin lie in between

George Frideric Handel: Water Music, Hornpipe (1717)

King George hired Handel to write a song for his party on the Thames.

Water Music is a suite, a series of some two dozen individual dance movements

o Usually consists of different types of dances such as minuets, gavottes,

and gigues.

Was performed 3 times in succession

Binary Form

Consists of two sections, both repeated

First section begins in the primary key, or tonic, and modulates to a secondary key

area

At the end of the first section, the central note is not the same as the point of

origin (modulation) and it changes the harmonic home

Second section begins in any key except for the tonic and remains unstable before

finally returning to tonic

Melodically, binary form rests on a single basic idea

Movements appear in genres such as sonatas and symphonies as well as suites and

later became the basis for sonata form

Timbre: Strings vs. Winds

Orchestration is the manner in which various instruments are assigned to the

musical lines

Each line sounds different because of different orchestration

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata 140, Awake a Voice Calls to Us, selections (1731)

Cantata is a work sung during a service of worship

Bach wrote cantatas when he was music director at St. Thomas’ Church in

Leipzig

Unified Timbre

Instruments of the orchestra double the voices

o High instruments like violin, flute, and oboe double soprano line while

low instruments (violas, cellos, basses) double lower voice lines

When instruments double voices, the contrast is minimized and creates a sense of

unity

A Familiar Melody

Lutherans placed high importance on the personal connection of each believer

Chorale melodies played a role in making this connection

Bar Form:

Form is AAB

Opening phrase (A) is sung twice then melody concludes with contrasting section

(B)

Star spangled banner has this form

Form: Ritornello Principle

Similar to that of Winter by Vivaldi

George Frideric Handel: Messiah, selections (1747)

Church remained ambivalent toward opera

Oratorio is like opera except it wasn’t staged

Handel’s oratorio, messiah, doesn’t have characters or plot nit uses conventions of

opera and has recitative, aria, and chorus

Form: Paired Movements:

the aria is built on the ritornello principle

Single Melody

aria speaks of destruction

Handel thus does not use any melodic contrast

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