Monophonic Music During The Middle Ages

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.

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

Between the 1300s and 1500s, Europe experienced a period of cultural rebirth known as the Renaissance, marking the transition from medieval times to modern times. The Renaissance brought new importance to individual expression, self-consciousness and worldly experience.

During the 18th century, music was used as a social enhancement on the rising middle class who showed interest in intellectual ideals of Enlightenment. The rising middle class were people who would come between the working class and the upper class. Such as craftsman, bankers, and merchants. These select few decided that since they can now afford some of life's  pleasures, that they would spend it on music that aristocrats and nobility would listen to. While on the other hand, during the 19th century, music began to develop a more story base theme with a moral lesson. Such as Ballets and Grand Operas. So basically, during the 18th-19th century, music has evolved from just sound or noise to a elegant and graceful story played through musical notation with different musical instruments while advancing the growth of the middle class.

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.

Before there was a rebirth in Europe, there was instability that resulted into deaths, famine, and destruction. Therefore, the renaissance played a crucial role in Europe, specifically in Italy. The renaissance would be defined as a cycle where Europe practiced a rebirth of antiquity based on the Greeks and Roman culture. For instance, the people of Italian Europe studied religion and the Northern people established several teachings of learning on topics of technology, philosophy, and science. Wherefore, the social status of artists changed since advanced ideas of art was always available in Europe l throughout the Renaissance. This had an impact on the church to be more stabilized because of how their power was drained in the past. In addition,

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

During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had aspects of plainchant, architecture and visual arts that played a role in their sovereignty throughout the era. Plainchant, or Gregorian chant, is a monophonic vocal style that was meant to exalt certain segments of the religious services provided by the churches. One example of a plainchant is a piece called “Salve Sancta Parens”. The chanted hymn was intended for a choir of men to sing in unison in Latin. At the time, the only people who knew how to read and write were people, mostly men, who served at the church.

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.

​Gregorian Chants are a body chants of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been created by Pope Gregory by 590-604. The Gregorian Chant was also known as plainsong, or plain chant, and it was named after Pope Gregory. This music is a single line of melody with a flexible rhythm sung to Latin words with no male voices on it. The single line of melody called monophony. Furthermore, it was a characterized music until about 1000 AD.

Anne Sullivan, an American teacher, once said “Every Renaissance comes to the world with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free.” The Renaissance was a time of profound social changes that affected nearly every aspect of human life. The Renaissance can be traced to several causes; societal changes such as new philosophies and forms of expression, political changes such as a shifting in the religious-political structures, and, ultimately, economic changes that drove the influx of cultural evolution.

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