Beautiful Music of the Middle Ages

“Medieval motets tended to be isorhythmic; that is, they employed repeated rhythmic patterns in all voices—not only the cantus firmus—which did not necessarily coincide with repeating melodic patterns.”2 This new isorhythmic principle, brought on mostly by the composer Machaut, was used not only in the tenor voice but also rather with much more freedom in the upper voice parts. The application of discant over a cantus firmus marked the beginnings of this new revolutionary style, the motet, in Western music. The key motet composers in the medieval period were few in number; Phillip de Vitry and Machaut were one of the earliest composers to institute the isorhythmic technique, which set the style for other medieval composers like Willelmus de Winchecumbe. Guillaume de Machaut was a more famous named late-medieval composer to institute the discant which caught on in other music styles and only helped to evolve the motet into its later stylings. These composers helped carry the motet to the new Flemish motet style.

Music affects our emotions and has much to do with our everyday lives. Music has always and will be a part of my life. I would have to say that without music there is no life -- something is missing in our lives without music. If there were no music society we would only have people speaking to each other, and there would be no entertainment. The form of musical entertainment that I attended was the opera, La Boheme, composed by Giacommo Puccini and Libretto by Giuseppe and Luigi Illica. The opera took place at The New City Opera on November 10, 2001. La Boheme takes place in 1830, 19th century Paris around Christmas time. This opera tells the tragic love story of a young Bohemian, Rodolfo, who finds a love interest in

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Church of England was using new music and hymns that would still be used today. According to “Elizabethan”, this time was the “high point in the English Liturgical Style”. The Mass Ordinary was created in the fifteenth century. There are five sections that go in a cycle basing each movement on the same musical material. The five sections, according to Raeburn, include Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei (11). For more somber religious events, such as funerals, a requiem mass would be used. This mass was relatively peaceful and the melody would tend to wander. Ongaro tells un in his book “Music of the Renaissance” that choirs in this era had up to sixteen members that would dance, sing, and act (32). Religious music was the work of many composers that would give us hymns and musical works that we use

Mood is the affections (to impress the mid or move the feelings of our emotions, emotional response). Composers of this time shaped or molded a musical language to depict the affections. Music is written to fit the needs of society in our always changing world. Church music during this time was very elaborate and music was usually only heard in the churches and if you were wealth enough during that time you could go hear music in public opera houses. Religious music was a huge part of baroque era; it saw the creation of tonality, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques.

Music has been known throughout time. It can help us through everything. There are so many solutions with music to help a person go through so many situations. Music can affect many people in many different ways. Without music some people would be lost and would have no motivation. Music can provide inspiration and insight through education. Music has influence on suicides, killings and shootings, and provocative actions. It can also influence good morals, respect, allowing differences, health, and much more. Music can come in many forms and categories and music is very good for the world.

Music has evolved too many different forms that we recognize today. We trace this development throughout time. Beginning in the middle ages, we have seen advancement from the Gregorian chant all the way to the Jazz of the 20th century. The current events, politics, religion, technology and composers can shape musical eras during time. Here I will look at the middle ages, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic and twentieth century periods. I hope that a better understanding can be reached to why, when, where and who are the reasons for musical evolution.

The Medieval period began in 500 A.D. and ended in 1450 A.D. During this time in particular, the Catholic Church had significant influence on how music was used and created. Sacred music, for example, was most prevalent because of this. Due to the religious nature of this period, music in the church had to adhere to very specific regulations, some of which included prayers such as plainchants or Gregorian chants. A single melody without harmony, or one musical part sung together in unison, is called a Monophonic melody, which was sung primarily by monks. Some time later, around 900 A.D., the using of two melodic lines was permitted by the church, this music was called organum. A low, continuous note called a drone, was sung at the same time as the main melody. The two melodies were often moving in contrasting motion to each other. By the Late-Medieval period, 1100 A.D., the music of the church had shifted from monophonic to more polyphonic, often two or more varying parts.

From 1400 to 1600 A.D., the Renaissance was a period of a rediscovery of Greek ideals for musicians to explore possibilities of their art. It was during this time that ideas were able to better circulate, because individualism began to increase, and the printing of music helped to preserve and distribute musical ideas (History). Also, as opposed to the medieval period, the Renaissance began to expand upon the type of sound that was created by adding the voices of women in choirs, as well as expanding instrumental music. The texture of music also began to change, with homophonic and polyphonic compositions. Sacred vocal polyphony was used rather than monophony in the form of masses and motets, while secular pieces also included madrigals and songs. Instrumental pieces usually were short during this time, and were for dancing (History).

​ Life in the Middle Ages revolved around the Church, which was the Roman Catholic. So, we can imagine early music was pretty much from church. Every morning at 9 o’clock was Mass, a significant ceremony done to commemorate the Last Supper. At this church service, the music was the Gregorian Chant. The Gregorian chant is performed in the Latin language, unison voice and accompanied by no instruments which was believed that the text of the song which carried the divine message from God was more important. The music was just to help you get to a spiritual place (Wright, 4-1a).

During the middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the sole contributor to musical development. The music of the early church was monophonic, and had nonmetric melodies set in one of the church modes, or scales. The rise or development of polyphony came about during the Renaissance period; the Council of Trent wanted polyphonic church music to be created and Palestrina composed the Pope

The Gregorian Chant was used in the church in the Latin language. It was Developed by Pope Gregory the Great, he used different modes to create it. The language made it emotional so everyone could feel it. Also, it was the known language at that time so everyone can interpret it. The ways the text was transformed are syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic.

3. Medieval and Renaissance culture varied in many ways, aside from the differing music. In the Medieval age (the time between the 5th and 15th century), the church controlled many things, not only music. The church was in charge of education, the church also dominated politics. People very much feared God. Whereas in the Renaissance (15th and 17th century) the state ruled over the church. People in the Renaissance believed that God wasn’t some fearsome being, instead they believed more in logical and practical thinking.

There are many categories of turning points we can discover and value, but looking at the intervalic relationships in the harmony throughout these 1,650 years makes it much easier to determine the definitive turning points. This advantage comes from the notion that harmony can be studied in a very scientific manner. Composers undoubtedly use specific intervals for specific reasons in a period of history, which provides clear evidence of actual changes in music. For example, the medieval harmony from the middle ages contains mostly intervals of the perfect fifth, the perfect fourth, octave, and unison (typically on the final note).

The feelings that the Ancient Romans had towards music could be described as ambivalent. They admired it and at the same time, they condemned it. Music, nevertheless, played a role in Roman society that, as time passed, became less and less important to the Romans. As a result, much of the information about music in Ancient Rome has been lost in time. However what has been discovered about this topic is quite fascinating, in spite of what it is lacking. The subsequent paragraphs will explain some of the aspects of Roman life regarding music. This includes the history of music in Ancient Rome, the instruments that the Romans played, the uses of music in their society and the impact that music in Rome has had on the music of today.

Beginning at around 476 AD, the medieval era is mostly related to the church as most music from this era is sacred. The style of this era, the Gregorian chant is monophonic only comprising of the plainchant (or the single- line melodies of early church music) in texture only comprising of the plainchant (or the single- line melodies of early church music). It is not until the arrival of the French composers Léonin and Pèrotin in 1100 and 1200 respectively that polyphony would be incorporated into musical worship with the “decoration” of Gregorian chant with one or more simultaneous musical lines, thus transitioning from Gregorian chant to Organum. During this era, most of the music and roles for musicians belonged to the church except for the troubadours of southern France and the trouvères of northern France. The music was responsorial between the mass and the father during church and was