Turning Points In Medieval Music

22.  By the 14th century a new system of music notation had evolved.  It allowed a composer to specify almost any rhythmic pattern.  Were beats now divided into two or three parts or both?  Was syncopation used? Both and yes

Music. Entrancing both by its various individual styles and the unavoidable combination of diverse kinds which thusly have made other totally new and novel styles of music. Traditional music is a flawless sample. The soonest types of traditional music were made in the eighteenth and mid nineteenth hundreds of years and showed an exceptionally confused and modern type of composing joining an extensive variety of instruments and utilized the guideline of multi instrumentation which accomplished a full symphonic sound which thusly prompted the making of uniquely planned lobbies to encourage the sound. The sources of the music were additionally differing, numerous organizations having been composed for the stage, writers.

“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 is present in every culture’s past, present, and future. It has been around since 500 B.C. and was especially important in the Elizabethan Era. There were reinventions of music as it was widespread and popular. Without this essential time in history, modern music may have been completely different from what we have today. This era brought new uses for music, styles of compositions, new instruments, and the uprising of popular composers.

The trio sonata leaves on an incomplete cadence which causes the expectancy of more, it is later completed in the other movements. The piece seems to cut off the melody and start back over from the beginning.

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 Classical time period, which spanned a length of seventy years, from 1750 to 1820, was very different in nature from its predecessor, the Baroque time period. The Baroque era featured works that were ornamentally elaborate, where the artists and composers centered their works on a big, bold style that was dramatic in its composition. Artists and composers transferred strong feelings of tension and emotion into their works and it was common for there to be some type of action or movement happening within the work. Those who lived in the Classical time period, valued simplicity and wanted to return to the ideals of the Greeks. Therefore, the Classical time period is characterized by clear structural clarity, simplicity, smoothness, and symmetry. However, though the works took a step back from the grand movement of the Baroque era, the composers and artists of the Classical time period did lay out a tuneful and elegant style in their music and art. Out of the Classical era came many renowned artists and composers, two of those whom are artist Sir Thomas Lawrence and composer Ludwig van Beethoven (“NYU”).

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).

Music has been categorized over time in different periods, each of which have their own characteristics, composers and music style. Two of those important periods were baroque and romantic, which had left an important musical legacy though history. The baroque was the period from about 1600 to 1750. It was called one of the best periods of the music history, because there was a huge change from the style of composition from antique and renaissance music which achieved great expectations about this music. Furthermore, Baroque music was written by great composers such as Bach, Handel, Rameau and Vivaldi who were the most representative composers of the period. In addition, Baroque music was characterized

The final decades of the fourteenth century witnessed one of the strangest developments on the entire history of music. Characterized primarily by extremes of notational and

In 1750, the classical period of music started, and it terminated in 1810. The texture was primarily homophonic (Fuller – “Classical”), which means there is

The animation of classical music began to increase; the transition was a natural growth of what comes before. Never before in history had it been possible to move from one kind of tempo, to another so naturally, with such grace. The kind of rhythmic transition is the touch stone of classical style (Rosen 60). For the classical composer, the Perpetuum Mobile1, where adding it, creates another challenge the composer has to overcome to achieve the added desire to break up the rhythmic texture of the piece and to create the tension required to add a dramatic force.

The three most well-known, and arguably most important, musical eras in western civilizations would be the; medieval, Renaissance and Baroque time periods. With the basics of music with Gregorian chant and organum from the medieval era to the newfound polyphony texture from the Renaissance and the equal temperament and major-minor tonality of the baroque era; Each time period brings a part of the foundation that most past, present, and future music is and will be based on. While it may seem that these three eras or completely different, they do contain several underlying similarities.

Music from all over the world presents a range of musical theories. Some of these are documented in writing whilst others are transmitted orally. Discuss and give examples with reference to both Western and non-Western music.