Music History: Commodity and Social Activity PDF

COMMODITY AND SOCIAL ACTIVITY Chap. 13 - Voice and Worship Chap 14 – Storytelling through song CHAP. 15 – SYMBOLS AND PUZZLES The Middle Ages and The Renaissance Timeline Music Enhances Communication European musical tradition influential throughout the world...

COMMODITY AND SOCIAL ACTIVITY Chap. 13 - Voice and Worship Chap 14 – Storytelling through song CHAP. 15 – SYMBOLS AND PUZZLES The Middle Ages and The Renaissance Timeline Music Enhances Communication European musical tradition influential throughout the world Notation: sound to paper ♫ Defined the development of Western music ♫ Influence of European musical style surpasses language or religion ♫ Invented to further goals of Christian Music as product, commodity Preserved, taught and learned, bought and sold Social activity: recreational and spiritual Sacred music: Music for the church Music is essential to Christian worship Early worship: music traditions shift to meet needs of changing society Secular music: Music for entertainment From Antiquity to the Middle of Things Ancient Mediterranean cultures: foundation of Western music Fall of Roman Empire (476 CE): beginning of Middle Ages Early Middle Ages (500–1000) Power from kings, approval of Roman Catholic Church Charlemagne (742–814), progressive monarch Strong centralized government Encouraged education Systematic use of music notation Markets and Courts Late Middle Ages: trade routes throughout Europe ♫ Merchant class arose outside feudal society ♫ Music: necessity and recreational, crucial commodity Flowering of music in vernacular (language of the people) ♫ Crusades: The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Islamic rule. Songs of court minstrels: adored women with fervor Faithful knight worshiped his lady from afar Inspired to deeds of daring and self-sacrifice Troubadours (female: trobairitz) and trouvères: French poet- musicians First extensive notated tradition of love song Introduced complex instruments Instruments and song styles adapted from Middle Eastern tradition Looking Out and Looking In Early Renaissance (1450–1520) ♫ Compass: voyages, discovery ♫ Invention of printing (c. 1455), Johannes Gutenberg ♫ Fall of Constantinople (1453): Greek and Roman ancient writings distributed ♫ Increased interest in human concerns (secular, humanism) ♫ Influenced architecture, painting, and sculpture ♫ Palaces, villas: classical style, order and balance  Musicians in Medieval and Renaissance Society Supported by chief institutions of society ♫ Church, city and state; royal and aristocratic courts ♫ Choirmasters, singers, organists, instrumentalists, copyists, composers, teachers, instrument builders, music printers (16th century) ♫ Opportunities for apprentices ♫ Master singers, players, instrument builders ♫ Few professional women: court singers Rise of merchant class ♫ New group of music patrons ♫ Cultivated middle and upper classes ♫ Emergence of amateur musicians ♫ Printed music books available, affordable ♫ Music literacy spread  CHAP. 13 – VOICE AND WORSHIP: TRADITION AND INDIVIDUALITY IN MEDIEVAL CHANT Plainchant: Music of the Church Pope Gregory the Great (r. 590–604) Codified church music; liturgy Liturgy: set order of church services Music at core of Christian prayer More than 3,000 Gregorian melodies Composed anonymously Belief in divine composition Greek, Hebrew and Syrian influences  Plainchant or Gregorian Chant Single-line melody: monophonic texture Follows inflections of Latin text; free-flowing, non-metric Avoids wide leaps; gentle contours Types of text settings - Syllabic: one note per syllable of text Neumatic: a few notes per syllable of text Melismatic: many notes per syllable of text Early chant: oral transmission of melodies Early notation: Neumes: Early notation that uses small dots or squares to indicate pitches and melodic contour Modes: predecessors of major and minor scales Acappella: No instruments, only voices Antiphonal: Using two choirs of voices simultaneously across a performance space  The Mass Reenactment of Christ’s Last Supper Most solemn ritual of the Catholic Church Mass liturgy(set order of church services) included two ways to have a service Proper: variable portions – Used for “special occasions” Ordinary: fixed portions – Used for everyday services Gregorian melodies central to the Mass, used as sung prayers A Gregorian Melody: Kyrie first in the Ordinary Greek prayer for mercy; central-Mediterranean Christian tradition Symbolic three-part form: evokes the Trinity A Song for Worship by Hildegard Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) Renowned poet and prophet Daughter of a noble German couple Given to the church as a tithe Founded monastery in Rupertsberg, Germany Famous throughout Europe; advice sought after Sainthood 2012, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI Highly original musical style: Resembles Gregorian chant Expressive leaps Melismas: convey meaning of the words Poetry: brilliant imagery, creative language Alleluia, O virga mediatrix Prayer to the Virgin Mary, specific occasion: feast day Text by Hildegard: not “Gregorian” New praise song used in liturgy, controversial Three-part structure Responsorial singing: group repetition of leader’s text-music phrase  Chap 14 – Storytelling through song: Troubadours and Medieval Court Culture  Medieval Minstrels and Court Musicians Popular repertoire of songs and Dances reflect aspects of medieval life Minstrels wandering, versatile entertainers musicians on the fringe of society descriptive accounts; music not notated Troubadours and Trouvères French poet-musicians, flourished at various aristocratic courts of Europe troubadour (feminine, trobairitz): Occitania, southern France trouvère: northern France sometimes members of aristocracy and royalty (e.g., King Richard the Lionheart) dancing, banquets, ceremonies, tournaments, civic processions, military campaigns poems: idealized love, chivalry, laments, political and moral ditties, chronicles of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras and the Troubadour Tradition Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (c. 1155–1207) humble origin, son of a “poor knight,” southern France service of Marquis Boniface I of Montferrat, northwestern Italy later knighted output: 35 poems survive; seven preserved in music  Raimbaut de Vaqueiras: Kalenda Kalenda maya (The First of May) maya estampie: troubadour dance song love song to Beatrice, daughter of Marquis of Montferrat 6-strophe poem in Provençal celebrates return of spring; courtly love compares devotion to Eric and Enide (ancient epic poem) style and structure echo Middle Eastern music original notation: no indication of instruments, ambiguous indications of  Chap 15 – Symbols and Puzzles: Machaut and the Medieval Mind Machaut and the French Ars Nova A. New musical style 1. early 1300s France, then Italy 2. developments in rhythm, meter, harmony, counterpoint 3. more refined and complex than Ars antiqua (old art) 4. secular themes B. Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) 1. foremost composer-poet, far-reaching influence 2. double career: cleric, courtier 3. worked at various French courts 4. self-consciously collected his works for posterity 5. sacred and secular compositions a. favored chanson: French courtly love Machaut: Ma fin est mon commencement (My end is my beginning) (Mid-14th century) 1. three-voice, a cappella chanson a. non-imitative polyphony b. duple meter, syncopated rhythm c. long melismas, hollow cadences 2. puzzle text: rondeau by Machaut a. enigmatic text, palindromes b. religious connotations as well