Introduction to Western European Music and Music

ManuscriptsA Presentation by K. Christian McGuirehttp://www.grianeala.com

Overview of Presentation

I. General View of Music in Ancient Greek and Medieval Thought

II. Liturgy: Divine Office and Mass

III. Examples: Liturgy, Theory, Miscellany

Common views on music Not academic – music for the sake of music. Frivolous – valued only as entertainment

suitable for: Concert Halls Pop concerts iPod sales

Major chords are “happy”; minor chords are “sad”

These prejudices obscure our understanding of music in ancient and medieval cultures

Getting Medieval on Music Clear your mind of everything you know

and appreciate about music. Western Music since 1600 is structured

around the polarity between 2 voices: Soprano (melody = i.e. the “tune”) Bass (harmonic foundation)

Unique development in Western culture: some examples: Scarlatti, JS Bach, Mozart, Beethoven,

Faure, S. Joplin, R. Rodgers, Bill Monroe, Quincy Jones, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Queen, Prince, Iron Maiden, etc…

Aspects of Greek musical thought Pythagoreans

quality of music judged by mathematical measure. Harmony of the Spheres – Pythagoras could hear

the motion of the heavens. Pythagoras cured a frenzied boy by singing an

appropriately soothing melody.

Aristoxenus – quality of music judged by the ear.

Plato Doctrine of Ethos: Music affects character

Boys should be taught strong and simple music, not frivolous effeminate music.

Music as Liberal Art Trivium

Grammar Logic Rhetoric

Quadrivium Arithmetic – study of number

Geometry – study of number in space

Music (or Harmony) – study of number through time

Astronomy – study of number in time & space

Boethius (ca.480 – 526 CE)

“…of the four mathematical disciplines, the others are concerned with the pursuit of truth, but music is related not only to speculation but to morality as well.”

“The Pythagoreans used to free themselves from the cares of the day by certain melodies…knowing that the whole structure of soul and body is united by musical harmony

Book I De Institutione Musica. Trans. William Strunk, Jr. and Oliver Strunk.

Cassiodorus (490 – 583 CE)“Music is closely bound up with religion itself. Witness the decachord of the Ten Commandments (Ps. 32:2) the tinkling of cithara and tympanum, the melody of the organ, the sound of cymbals. The very Psalter is without doubt named after a musical instrument because the exceedingly sweet and pleasing melody of the celestial virtues is contained within it.”

Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum.De Musica. Trans. William Strunk, Jr. and Oliver Strunk. Munchen St.B.Cod.lat. 2599, f. 106

Useful Terms in Describing Plainchant Monophonic – one melodic line

Syllabic (1 note per syllable of text) Melismatic (many notes per syllable) Neumatic (somewhere in between)

Through Composed vs Strophic/Formal Modal

8 diatonic musical modes

Importance of Plainchant to History Development of Western musical

notation Cultural basis of shared musical

knowledge Catholic music and composers: Machaut,

Mozart, Berlioz Becomes foundation for first polyphonic

musical genres (i.e. music is built around the voice (the Tenor) with “holds” the fragment of chant melody.

Early Liturgical Practice to 6th century

Psalmody

Helena mother of Constantine encouraged worship in Jerusalem. Late 4th c. Egeria mentions the singing of antiphons, hymns and

psalms during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Newly composed hymns Ambrose of Milan

Few fragments including Oxyrhynchus Papyrus

Chants and continued to develop orally throughout Christendomcommemorating regional Saints and liturgies

Early Developments in Chant by 900 CE Two main branches of Chant

Byzantine*

Western Gallican Old Italian

Ambrosian (Milanese) Old Roman Beneventan

Old Spanish (Mozarabic)

Chant Melodies still transmitted orally by memory

Gregorian Chant – Traditional HistoryNamed for Pope

Gregory I (590-604) who was inspired by the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove) and dictated chant.

Antiphonary of Hartker of Sankt-Gallen

(Cod. Sang. 390, 13r, 10th century)

Gregorian Chant

752 - Pepin the short begins policy of replacing Gallican Chant with Roman Chant after visit by Pope Stephen II.

768-814 – Charlemagne continues this policy, instituting “Gregorian” chant throughout the empire.Melodic differences in the few extant sources of Old Roman and Gregorian chant suggest that the Franks may have only borrowed the texts but retainedGallican melodies.

Rule of St. Benedict (535 CE)

Divine Office

Matins

Lauds

Little Hours Prime

Terce

Sext

Nones

Vespers

Compline

Matins – most musically elaborate

All 150 Psalms chanted each week along with antiphons, responsories, hymns.

Approximately one quarter of the day is spent chanting in prayer.

Liturgical Books

Breviary Antiphoner (Antiphons and

Responsories) Psalter Hymnal Collectar (office prayers) Homilary, lectionary,

passionary (office lessons) Missals

Gradual (chants of the mass)

Sacramentary (prayers) Epistolary and evangeliary

(lessons of the mass)

Liturgical Calendar divided:

Temporale Feasts determined by

events in Christ’s life; ferias (ordinary days)

Saints’ feasts between December 24 and January 13

Sanctorale Celebration of Saints’ Feast

Days between January 14-December 23

Common Types of Chant

Divine Office Psalms Antiphons Responsories Hymns

Mass Chants Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,

Sanctus, Agnus Dei Graduals Alleluias Sequences

Sung after the Alleluia, all but 4 sequences were banned during the Council of Trent.

Notation - neumes

Richard Rastall, The Notation of Western Music. St. Martin’s Press, 1982

Clare sanctorum senatus apostolorum

London, British Library, Add. 19768, fol 16v

Hiley. Western Plainchant. OUP, 1995

Clare sanctorum senatus apostolorum

Clare sanctorum senatus apostolorum

(top) London, British Library, Add. 19768, fol 16v – mid 10th century, German neumes(bottom) London, British Library, printed book IB. 8668 fos. 113v-114r

Hiley. Western Plainchant. OUP, 1995

Cistercian Tonary (Ms.1412) late 12th cent

Nota Quadrata – 13th century on…

Dixon Gradual, Latrobe University

Other Mss. – Theory, Miscellany

Hucbald – 9th century theorist

Hiley. Western Plainchant. OUP, 1995

Guido D’Arezzo – 11th century Theorist

Hildegard von Bingen – Kyrie (late 12th c)

CANTUS PROJECT

http://publish.uwo.ca/~cantus/index.html