Early Medieval Music : The Medieval Era Of Music

There are many contrasts in the art and music of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease, such as the Black Death. The Renaissance was revival of art, learning, and literature. The people’s attitude and fervor for religion had tremendous effects on the art and music produced. The Middle Ages also referred to as “The Age of Faith” was God centered and gave power to the church who dictated how the art should appear, and music should sound. The Renaissance was more concerned with individuals and their talents, the church was not the centralized power, the art exhibited influences from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

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

Two composers about this period are: (Hildegregard of Bingen What's more Leonin-ca. ). - those primary 500 quite some time from claiming this period, those pre-dominate kind of music might have been alluded should as Gregorian chant, a monophonic vocal music that might have been sung Previously, church. Those stayed of the time saw a bit by bit evolving unpredictability in the music from serenade comprising of a absolute melodic line will two part composing called organum, Furthermore At last should polyphonic consecrated (religiously based) compositions known as motets (often setting of prayers) Furthermore massenet (settings for specific writings from the custom move fact Mass). A large portion

Another comparison that can be made to the modern era and Renaissance Europe is the field of music. Music has always been a part of the history and served as a form of entertainment for a long time. In early Renaissance Europe, wealthy merchants were able to educate their family in the arts and music. Women from rich families were also involved in music. Music in early renaissance was created in a way to sooth the listener's ears. Music with vocals was predominant and composers documented music for certain instruments. Events that led to changes from 1400 to 1600 (Arkenberg, 2002) led to the major shift in the styles making music, ways of distributing music, neo musical genres and the creation of instrument used in making music. The early Renaissance

The Baroque period stretched across half of European history. It began shortly before 1600 and ended with the death of Bach in 1750. During this time, there were change and

The Renaissance period, from 1450 A.D. to 1600 A.D., comprised of two main types of music, sacred and secular. In comparison with the Medieval period, where music was usually reserved for church purposes, the Renaissance period allowed music to expand beyond the church into upper aristocratic society. Sacred music included motets and mass, while secular included madrigals, instrumental and dance music. Motets initially came about during the late Medieval period, but grew sizably during the Renaissance,

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

During the Renaissance, a new form of music had emerged. This new form of music, known as the madrigal, had become a very popular type of music in the fourteenth century. It had begun the transition from the monophonic Georgian chants and troubadour music of the middle ages to the famous baroque period. The madrigal was very well-liked by courts all around during the time of the Renaissance.

•There wasn't a fixed, standard orchestral group. Ensembles were usually composed of strings, a few woodwinds, percussion, and the harpsichord providing the basso continuo.

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.

Medieval music improved the medieval church as it greatly helped during church services and celebrations . One of the medieval chants that was sung in church was called the “Gregorian Chant”. Aquaviva and Diana say, “What we call today “Gregorian Chant” was sung daily at the monastic hours at mass. Chant was named in honor of Pope Gregory the Great who had insisted that certain chants be sung on certain days of the liturgical year”. Of the many types of Medieval music, there were chants that were sung in church. The music that was sung in monasteries was different than the ones sung at church. The “Gregorian Chant” was usually sung daily at the monastery by monks during prayer and mass. The Medieval music played at church was different

The Baroque time period was a time of artistic style extravagant motion and clear, simply interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, excitement, and magnificence in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. Opera is an arrangement in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining libretto (text) and musical score, typically in a theatrical setting. Opera came out of the baroque period of people wanting to make music that was more expressive. A group of people in Italy decided that a single line of melody with simple accompaniment would be much more expressive than words. This caused the creation of recitatives, which early operas consisted entirely of. This also caused arias, duets, and

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