Medieval Music 3º ESO Unit 2 PDF

UNIT 2: MEDIEVAL MUSIC THE HUMAN VOICE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 2.1- MEDIEVAL MUSIC 476 Fall of the Roman Empire 1492 Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America About economy: The economic system was feudalism. In the l...

UNIT 2: MEDIEVAL MUSIC THE HUMAN VOICE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 2.1- MEDIEVAL MUSIC 476 Fall of the Roman Empire 1492 Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America About economy: The economic system was feudalism. In the latter Middle ages, churches and monasteries were constructed, towns grew, universities were founded. About culture: The church was very powerful: Monks in monasteries held a monopoly of learning; most people, including nobility, were illiterate. About music: Sacred music: The church was the center of musical life (but not the only one). Musicians were priests and worked for the church. Most medieval music was vocal. An important occupation in monasteries was singing because for them is a way of praying Women were not allowed to sing in the church. Secular music: Is non-religious music and was present in castles and villages. The topics were different 2.1- RELIGIOUS MUSIC. GREGORIAN CHANT. The evolution of Western Music comes from the medieval chants of the Catholic church. We call them Gregorian Chant (also known as Plainchant), in honor of Pope Gregory I, who unified the liturgy in Europe. Before that, every region had its own chants. Characteristics: - Sung in Latin a capella (without instruments, were forbidden) - Free rhythm and monophonic texture (one melody) Pope Gregory I - To ensure that everyone sang the songs in the same way, Gregory I adopted a system of signs to fix the pitch of the notes. This is the beginning of musical writing through neumatic notation system. Later, they decided to include a line which represented one sound; thus, the neumes above the line were higher than that sound and the ones below were lower. After this first line, they decided to add more lines representing more specific sound, creating a system formed by four red lines. The neumes changed into square forms, representing different durations. This is the origin of the modern staff. Video: What is Gregorian chant? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igoh5kEqj3Y&t=337s&ab_channel=UnderstandingMusic In gregorian chant there are three ways to sing the text depending the number of notes per syllable: Syllabic: One note per syllable. Neumatic: Two or three notes per syllable. Melismatic: More than three notes per syllable. THE NAME OF THE NOTES The first syllable of every verse of a hymn for Saint John began with the following note of the ascending scale. Guido d’Arezzo used those syllables to call the notes of the scale. Modern transcription: 2.2- ORIGINS OF THE POLYPHONY In the Ninth century, music theorists in the Church experimented with the idea of singing two melodic lines simultaneously at parallel intervals. This kind of music was called ORGANUM. There are three stages: 1. Organum Parallel: A parallel voice is added at the distance of fourth, fifth or octave. 2. Organum melismatic of florid: The original chant melody was sung very slowly on long notes called cantus firmus. 3. Discantus: By the 11th Century, these added melodic lines began to move towards the opposite direction to the original line. 2.3- MEDIEVAL SECULAR MUSIC During the 11th century in France, some men became “professional musicians”: Troubadours (in Germany named “minnesänger”) were of noble origin and can be described as poets. Joungleurs were musicians from a lower social class. They went from village to village, or castle to castle, singing and performing tricks. Both share these characteristics: - The subjects of their songs were love, war... - They sang in their own language, not in Latin. - They normally accompanied their songs with instruments. The composers of the music were known, not anonymous. In Spain there were troubadours too, such as Martín Codax and King Alfonso X el Sabio. Exercise: Cantigas de Santa María by Alfonso X el Sabio was one of the jewels of Spanish medieval secular music. Search information and answer the following questions: What is a Cantiga? Who was Alfonso X el Sabio? Exercise: Look at the following music scores and identify which type of polyphony is: _____________________ ______________________ ___________________________ 2.4- MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS The instruments in the Middle Ages were used mainly in secular music. Troubadours were accompanied by plucked string instruments to make sustained notes that complimented the voice as: - Lute - Harp - Psaltery - Viola The wind instruments included: - Recorders -Shawms - Bagpipes - Trumpets The percussion instruments were also very diverse included different: - Cymbals -Bells - Triangles - Tambourines In the church, the organ was the most used instrument. 2. VOICE AND INSTRUMENTS 2.1- THE HUMAN VOICE The voice is a musical instrument that produces sound when air vibrates the vocal cords. We can classify the voice according to their vocal range or timbre: The vocal range or tessitura: It is how high or low a person can sing. Male voices are about an octave lower than female voices. The four main vocal ranges are: - Soprano: A high female voice - Alto: A low female voice - Tenor: A high male voice - Bass: A low male voice There are some ranges between the main ones: -Mezzo-soprano: Between soprano and alto voice - Baritone: A male voice between tenor and bass Also there are special voices such as Countertenor, a male voice that is unusually high, light and agile, even for a tenor. The timbre: It is the group of characteristics of a voice that makes it different from any other. The main ones are professional singers, jazz singers, flamenco singers and pop-rock singers.