Music Of The Middle Ages Essay, Research Paper

Music has been a great influence in the lives of many people for many old ages

and is invariably altering. Music has been divided into six periods: Medieval,

Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Twentieth Century.

The Medieval period was the longest and most distant period of musical

history and consists of about a millenary? s worth of music. To analyze the

music of this period we must first expression at the influences or ruling factors

of mediaeval life.

In a political sense, every bit good as a religious sense, the Roman Catholic Church

was really much the focal point of a Medieval adult male & # 8217 ; s life. Between the prostration of

control of the Roman Empire around 500 A.D. and the Renaissance in the center

1400s, the Church remained the most continuously powerful organisation in

Europe.

The great Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages aid show how faith

had become the focal point of the times. The 1000s and 1000s of hours of

labor, the enormous cost involved, the extraordinary and elaborate

workmanship without the usage of Cranes or power tools must give us an thought of

the effects of faith and the power of the Church. To idolize God through

one & # 8217 ; s trade was the highest artistic ideal of the times. While some of the great

secular authoritative literature of the yesteryear was good known to many, it was considered

to be merely a learning tool to help in the apprehension of the Bible.

Music has ever been an built-in portion of spiritual jubilations throughout

history, and for the Catholic Church of antiquity, it was a critical component.

The music of the Catholic Church absorbed Greek, Jewish, and Syrian

influences among others, through the instructions of:

Pythagoras 6th? 5th BCE, a Grecian mathematician and a musical theoretician who

believed that there were perfect intervals in music and introduced the 8ve, 5th,

4th, whole tone. Pythagoras? thoughts gave music scientific credibleness through

Numberss and allowed it to be introduced as one of the scientific disciplines.

Plato 427? 347 BCE / Aristotle 384-322 BCE, Greek philosopher? s whose

instructions introduced the thought that music is ethical. Plato believed that music

could bring forth ethical infinite and could hold an consequence on the moral fiber of a

individual. The power to cleanse, to make an? ethos? . He believed that the

thought is created by the minds ( Speclatores ) and that it? s reading is

a mirror of the thought ( Speclum ) , and that the representation was carried out by

the actors, the instrumentalists, creative persons etc ( Cantores ) . Plato believed that minds

were more of import than actors. Music was seen as one of the scientific disciplines and

therefore was controlled by the theoreticians ( Speculatores ) who decreed that music

should be good to convey good things lest it should present impure ideas.

Music in it? s most superior signifier could non be heard. Merely by mirroring

( Speculum ) could it be heard.

Aristoxenus 375 BCE, pupil of Xenophilus and Aristotle researched pitch,

intervals, graduated tables, keys, transition and constructed tunes. He introduced the

Tetrachord ( 4-note ) . Aristoxenus wrote books on both listening to and doing

music and playing instruments. He examined the nature of beat ( strong vs weak )

and supported division into 3 as perfect, and into 2 as progressive utilizing

Pythagoras? thoughts on figure flawlessness.

Emperor Constantine 306? 337 AD, became the emperor of Rome in 306, and

was the most powerful individual in his portion of the universe. His transition to

Christian religion had far making effects on the common pattern of the faith and

on all the cabals of Christianity that are present today. His transition

happened during a war with his brother-in-law and co-emperor, Maxentius.

Harmonizing to the historian Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, before

the important conflict of Milvian Bridge, Constantine was convinced that he needed

Godhead aid. While he was praying for such aid, God sent him a

vision of a cross of visible radiation at noon, bearing the lettering “ in hoc signo

vinces “ ( “ in this mark you will be winning ” ) . That dark he

had a dream that reaffirmed his earlier vision. God told him to utilize the mark he

had been given as a precaution in all of his conflicts. Therefore, Constantine converted

to Christianity and ordered the symbol of his Savior & # 8217 ; s name ( the intersection of

the Grecian missive qi and rho ) to stand for his ground forces. Constantine was winning

in the conflict of the Milvian Bridge, and he continued to have on the symbol for

Jesus against every hostile power he faced.

At about 350 AD, the Schola Cantorum ( singing school ) was founded. This was

an thought picked up from the Judaic temples where the Levittes had particular

preparation and took on the function of temple instrumentalists.

St Augustine of Hippo 354-430 AD, was a really influential and great

philosopher/theologian. Saint Augustine is one of the most of import of the

Latin Church Fathers. His plants, particularly his De Musica, Confessions and City

of God, helped separate the Church in Western Europe from the Church as it

developed elsewhere. He decreed that music should non be excessively melodious and that

there should be no metre/rhythm, which led to church leaders being beset by

frights of musical pleasances and therefore go oning the thoughts of the Grecian

Philosophers. ? I wept at the beauty of your anthem and the Song of Songss? the

sounds poured into my ears and the truth distilled in my bosom? -from

Confessions. This encapsulates the feeling and temper of the church at this clip

? that the? bad? feelings produced by the music had to be distilled.

A penchant for sacred vocal music was developed and heathen secular music and

instruments were rejected. Instruments were non appropriate because of the links

with heathen rites and Roman arenas. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan introduced anthem

vocalizing. The anthem, St. Ambrosia, is a tuneful/ornate nexus with secular music.

Justinian I was crowned in 527. Up until this clip heathen rites, statues and

temples still existed. Justinian decreed that the perusal of all heathens beliefs

should be outlawed. Latin was steadfastly established as the linguistic communication of the church.

Besides around this clip St. Benedict founded the Benedictine Rule at Monte

Casino. Monasteries were established all over Europe and the Benedictines become

really powerful and influential people.

The leaders of the Church decided to organize and codify the 1000s of

pieces of music used in worship. Gregory I, Pope from 590 to 604, is normally

given the recognition for acquiring the attempt started.

Codified all the church chants ( Antiphonar ) and set class to do the Roman

Rite pre-eminent across western Europe utilizing Gregorian Chant, the Mass and the

Daily ( cloistered ) Office as it? s base. Legend has it that a Dove from God sat

on Gregory? s shoulder and whispered the chants to him. He founded the Schola

Cantorum in Rome.

He produced sacramentary rubrics ( ruddy regulations ) , that brought together all the

thoughts and formalised the? order of services? , Gregory used the first Canon

of Euchology, standardised the chants and

started to do usage of the Schola

Cantorums. He sent envoies all over Europe to learn the Roman manner and was

responsible ( chiefly by his publicity by the Franks 300 year subsequently through the

reign of Charlemagne 768? 814 ) for standardization of Masses all over Europe.

768? 814

While some beginnings suggest that he composed many of the tunes, there is

small to authenticate this. However, this music grew to be called

“ Gregorian Chant ” in his honor.

Prior to around the twelvemonth 1000 AD, virtually all music, Western music

included, consisted of one dominant, unaccompanied tune line. This texture,

called monophonic still dominates much non-western music today, including Army for the liberation of rwanda

Eastern, Indian, and Arabic cultures & # 8211 ; at least those that haven & # 8217 ; t go

corrupted by Western patterns yet!

Gregorian chant, sometimes known as “ plainchant ” consists entirely of

a tune, Sung unaccompanied in Latin, with really free beat. It is one of the

few types of music in Western civilization without a feeling of metre. Gregorian

chant conveys a discorporate, aeriform, religious sound, surely non concentrating

on anything that might animate physical pleasance. These chants made usage of

graduated tables other than the major and minor 1s familiar to us. Alternatively they used the

different “ manners ” such as Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc.

Get downing around the twelvemonth 1000, the pattern of utilizing polyphonic music began to come in

into Western music. Polyphony is the usage of independent lines within a piece of

music. This multi-layered texture gave music a new expressive strength, about

literally giving it another dimension. Possibly non a happenstance, the usage of

position in picture was germinating at about the same clip, showing a

parallel enlargement in the ocular medium. The first polyphonic music ( called & # 8216 ; organum & # 8217 ; )

consisted of two voices traveling in parallel gesture. Subsequently as harmoniousness became a

little more sophisticated, the voices began taking on a small more independency

from each other.

Sing all these factors it is non truly surprising that the huge

bulk of music that survives from the Middle Ages is sacred music. There are

a twosome of grounds for this.

First, the cardinal word in the above statement is survives. In European

civilization following the prostration of the Roman imperium, literacy fell to an all

clip low during the Middle Ages. Even though modern bookmans are revising their

sentiments of civilization in the Medieval times upward, the mean provincial merely

couldn & # 8217 ; t read or compose. That particular endowment was passed along by the church

through its spiritual orders.

This included the particular endowments of reading and composing music. And of

class, the monastics whose responsibility it was to notate and copy music would hold a

enormous prejudice toward the sacred music.

A 2nd ground is that there truly was a great trade of sacred music

composed. Again, it was considered the highest signifier of art to be able to utilize

one & # 8217 ; s endowment to praise God. Life had become more and more unsafe and

uncertain for the dweller of the Middle Ages. Without scientific discipline to light

physical Torahs, without bacteriology to let the apprehension of diseases and

pestilences, fright and superstitious notion became the method of explicating the unknown. Our

earthly being was finally looked upon as a unsafe, wretchedness filled

preliminary to a blissful hereafter. The Church represented the hopes of the better

universe to come.

Sacred music of the Middle Ages centred around two primary countries, the Office

and the Mass. Virtually all sacred music at that clip was sung in Latin.

Monks were expected to sing, pray, and read the Bible eight times during

the twenty-four hours from Matins ( merely after midnight ) to Vespers ( merely before the eventide

repast ) and Compline ( at twilight ) . These times were known as the Hours of the Divine

Office.

The most of import musical event in the Roman Catholic Liturgy was the Mass.

Wrapped around the sacrament of Holy Communion, the Mass consisted of two parts

called the Ordinary, and the Proper.

The Proper of the Mass was the portion that changed from twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours, as the

readings were geared for specific feast yearss and occasions. The Ordinary of the

Mass was the text that remained consistent throughout the church twelvemonth. The five

parts of the Ordinary were the 1s most normally set to music in Medieval and

subsequently times.

Below is a list of the parts of the Mass. The parts of the Ordinary are in

bold font.

Introit

Kyrie

Gloria

Collects

Epistle

Gradual

Alleluia ( or Tract in certain seasons )

Gospel

Creed

Offertory

Foreword

Sanctus/Benedictus

Canon

Lord & # 8217 ; s Prayer

Agnus Dei

Sacramental manduction

Post & # 8211 ; Communion supplications

Ite Missa Est

In add-on to the regular Mass, a Requiem Mass was a common Holy Eucharist. Meaning

“ remainder ” , the Requiem Mass was the “ Mass for the Dead ” , used

at funerals.

The earliest scenes of this music were purely single-channel. Through the

Middle Ages, polyphonic music became an of import stylistic component in music. Not

surprisingly, the greatest composers of the clip put their best energies into

the mass. “ Missa Notre Dame ” by Guillaume de Machaut represented the

foremost polyphonic ordinary done by a individual composer. Leonin, Perotin, Dufay, and

Machaut were the taking composers of the earliest sacred polyphonic music. Many

other taking composers of the Middle Ages remain anon. & # 8211 ; this was non yet an

age of musical personalities.

Guido D & # 8217 ; Arezzo, a monastic who lived in the early eleventh century devised a version

of the staff that is the precursor of today & # 8217 ; s staff. Some of his patterns besides

contributed to “ sight-singing ” & # 8211 ; the reading of music at sight. He besides

started the pattern of utilizing the Latin syllables of Do, Re, Mi, Fa, etc. to

symbolise pitches.

Traveling folk singer vocalists, frequently known as folk singers, trouveres, and

minnesingers, were the secular instrumentalists. Generally their music was a single-channel

line which they accompanied on the luting or harp, likely utilizing one of the

Church manners. These poet/musicians American ginseng of nature, of love, of knightly fables,

and of the sense of the mystical that pervaded their lives. Mysticism and

superstitious notion were the lone tools available to explicate the stars, the seasons,

the entropy of conditions forms, diseases, etc. & # 8211 ; and these tools played a

great portion in the lives of Medieval citizens as they struggled to understand the

universe around them.

Common types of secular music were the Rondeau, Virelai, the Frottola ( many

of which today we would merely chunk under the header “ ballad ” ) , and

the motet. Coming from the Gallic “ mot ” significance & # 8216 ; word & # 8217 ; , the motet

frequently had several lines of music and text, Sung in different linguistic communications. Often

the different tunes were on wholly different topics, on occasion

partner offing a sacred text with a really off-color one!