Essay Middle Ages & Renaissance Study Guide (Unit 2)

“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.

The attacks were unsuspecting on the towns and villages so that they couldn’t maintain order. All the while this was taking place the Frankish Empire was falling apart. They begin to fight among each other for the Kingdom. They became a disorder society. Life may have been not suitable for some but feudalism turned dysfunction into order during a violent time.

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.

1. How is the history of European and Arabic cultural contact reveal through musical characteristics in places such as Spain and Bulgaria?

1.     Gregorian chant consists of a single-lined melody and is monophonic in texture. This piece also consists of these basic structures as well as not having any harmory or counterpoint. This piece performed by U of I faculty member Steven Rickards, is sung a cappella.

Composers: Please include the following for each (I need to be able to tell that you read about them and did not just google them or use wikiepedia, etc. and copied and pasted-read your textbook please)

​ 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 instruction to make music in worship moves beyond the Levites alone (Foley, 1992) and stretches into the whole body of Israel. Frame (1996:111) says ‘Scripture plainly teaches that God’s people are not only to speak, but also to sing, the truth of God (eg. 1 Chron. 16:9; Ps. 33:2-3; Col. 3:16).’ This last verse demonstrates how the mandate for music has carried on through to the New Covenant people of God.

The music of the early Christian church featured monophonic, nonmetric melodies set in the church modes or scales. Sacred vocal music in the Middle Ages, like Gregorian Chants, are set to latin texts and sung unaccompanied with a single line melody, making them a monophonic. Gregorian chants have small leaps, allowing its smooth figure to create a kind of musical speech. Free from regular phrase structure, the continuous vocal line is the musical counterpart to the ornamentation found in medieval art and architecture. In chants that serve for recitations, such as psalms, lessons, or prayers, the music is secondary to a clear projection of the text; these settings are predominantly syllabic and use relatively few pitches.The Gregorian melodies, numbering more than three thousand, form an immense body of music that was composed by unknown sources.

When examining the theme of Music and Religious Life, the question that often comes up is, what makes this music religious? Is it the choice of the musician or is it out of the artist’s control all together? It’s hard to say with confidence that the answer is just one or the other because it’s easy to find exceptions for each. When looking at artists that have been able to have a career as a “musician” and as a “religious musician” like Johann Sebastian Bach and Isaac Slade from The Fray, it appears it’s not about what the artist’s preference is, but the preference of the people and environment around them.

Church music in the ninth-century, namely, the Gregorian Chant, was, as Matthews, Platt and Noble note, monophonic7 and lacked instrumental accompaniment.8 Similarly, Greek music was monophonic, even though the melody was ornamented by instruments.9 This, however, did not last long in isolation during the ninth-century, since a basic form of polyphonic10 music developed.11 This polyphonic music that developed was called Organum in which a principal voice or main melody is duplicated at a fifth or fourth below by a harmonic voice called the organal voice.12 Moreover, the rise of polyphony continued to develop in the twelfth-century and onward into more complex forms, but retained the basic principal.13 Furthermore, developing in the thirteenth-century as an addition to organum, polyphonic conductus was homo-rhythmic but contained up to four voices with the tenor often being newly composed rather than adapted from a chant.14 Although these developments did not see influence from Greek music, they are, nevertheless, a continuation on Greek forms of complex modal melodies that the Gregorian Chants had been influenced by. Thus, polyphonic music was built on the Gregorian Chant, but made possible the beginnings of harmonious music that, consequently, influenced all of Western

“The Rite of Spring” was written during the Modern Era of music. The characteristics of music during this period used nonsymmetrical patterns in the meter based on five, seven, eleven, or thirteen beats per measure. The meter could shift constantly changing the flow of the music. Composers started using sharply contrasting rhythms simultaneous , this is called polyrhythm. Early modern composers wrote melodies in relation to the instruments instead of the voice. Harmonies became more complex during this time. Composers used stacked chords adding as much as seven notes to one chord. These chords were highly dissonant and were known as polyharmony cords. These chords redefined the tonality and needed new ways of organization in music. These chords also could make distinctions with the dissonance and consonance in music.

The early twentieth century was filled with violence and progress. However, despite all that was taking place, the arts still had room to evolve. In the arts, as in other aspects of life, there was an increased emphasis on pluralism and diversity. In the twentieth century, there were revolts spanning all areas; but in this essay, I will focus on the musical aspects of them. Composers drew inspiration from an enormous variety of sources, including folk and popular music; the music of Asia, Africa, and Latin America; and European art music from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, differences among styles were so great that it seems as though composers used different musical languages, not merely different

Austria is a very beautiful place with kind people and a very good history in music. It is often known as the music capital because of the musical geniuses who have worked there, including Beethoven, Mozart and Strauss(biography). Some of the most famous pieces of music were written in Austria including Silent Night and Edelweiss. Austria is located in Europe and its capital is Vienna(Austria). Austria has one of the most stable economies in Europe. Austria has unique qualities such as its geography, history, culture, economy, and its current events.