Music in Antiquity

I. The Earliest Music

A. Prehistoric musical cultures

1. limited understanding, lack of written record

B. Historical traces

1. physical remains: instruments, performing spaces

2. visual images of musicians, instruments, performances

3. writings about music and musicians

4. music itself: notation, oral tradition, recordings

C. Prehistoric music-making

1. Stone Age, oldest surviving instruments: bone flutes, 40,000 B.C.E.

2. Paleolithic cave paintings show musical instruments

3. Neolithic era: pottery flutes, rattles, and drums

4. sixth millennium B.C.E.: Turkish wall paintings

a. drummers play for dance and the hunt

5. Bronze Age (fourth millennium B.C.E.)

a. metal instruments: bells, jingles, cymbals, rattles, horns

b. plucked string instruments: shown in stone carvings

D. Invention of writing

1. end of prehistoric period; history of music begins

II. Music in Ancient Mesopotamia

A. Mesopotamia: land between Tigris and Euphrates

1. first true cities and civilizations emerge fourth millennium B.C.E.

2. Sumerians developed first known forms of writing

a. cuneiform (wedge-shaped) impressions on tablets

b. adopted by later civilizations: Akkadians, Babylonians

c. many tablets mention music

B. Archeological remains and images

1. pictures: how instruments were held, played, circumstances

2. surviving instruments reveal details for reconstruction

3. 2500 B.C.E. royal tombs at Ur (Sumerian city): lyres and harps found

a. lyres: strings run parallel to resonating soundboard, attached to crossbar supported by two

arms

b. harp: strings perpendicular to soundboard, supporting neck attached to soundbox

c. bull lyre: distinctly Sumerian

i. soundbox features bull’s head, religious significance

ii. variable number of strings run from bridge on soundbox to crossbar

iii. strings knotted around sticks, change of tension allows for tuning

d. other instruments: lutes, pipes, drums, cymbals, clappers, rattles, bells

C. Uses for music in Mesopotamian cultures

1. best evidence for music from elite classes; rulers, priests

a. resources to make instruments; hire musicians, artists, and scribes

2. similar to today’s uses

a. wedding songs, funeral laments

b. military music, work songs

c. nursery songs, dance music, tavern music

d. entertainment at feasts

e. songs to address the gods, accompany ceremonies and processions

f. epics sung with instrumental accompaniment

D. Written sources

1. ca. 2500 B.C.E. word lists/terms: tuning procedures, performers, techniques, genres

2. Enheduanna (fl. ca. 2300 B.C.E.) earliest composer known by name

a. Akkadian high priestess at Ur

b. composed hymns

c. texts survive on cuneiform tablets

3. 1800 B.C.E. Babylonians wrote down music

a. writings describe tuning, intervals, improvisations, techniques

b. genres include love songs, laments, hymns

c. 7-note diatonic scales: parallels in ancient Greek music

d. earliest known musical notation ca. 1400–1250 B.C.E.

i. tablet found at Ugarit, Syrian coast

e. music played from memory or improvised

f. notation used as written record

E. Other civilizations

1. India and China developed independently from Mesopotamia

2. rich Egyptian musical traditions: artifacts, paintings, hieroglyphs in tombs

3. ancient Israel: scant images and music

III. Music in Ancient Greek Life and Thought

A. Ancient Greece

1. Greek peninsula, islands in the Aegean, much of Asia Minor, southern Italy and Sicily, colonies ringing

the Mediterranean and Black Seas

2. numerous images, few surviving instruments, writings, forty examples of music

B. Instruments and their uses

1. sources: writings, archeological remains, hundreds of clay pot images

2. aulos: two-piped reed instrument

a. finger holes, mouthpiece with reed, long tube with beating tongue

b. images suggest unison playing

c. used to worship Dionysus, god of fertility and wine

i. Dionysian festivals in Athens: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

ii. accompanied choruses and other musical portions

3. lyre: seven strings strummed with a plectrum

a. tortoise shell soundbox with stretched oxhide

b. right hand strummed with plectrum, left hand fingers touched strings

c. associated with Apollo, god of light, prophecy, learning, and the arts, especially music and

poetry

d. learning to play lyre, core element of education in Athens

e. used to accompany dancing, singing, recitation of epic poetry

i. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

f. provided music for weddings, played for recreation

4. kithara: large lyre

a. used for processions, sacred ceremonies, theater

b. played while standing

5. music learned primarily by ear, played from memory or improvised despite well-developed notation by

fourth century B.C.E.

C. Greek musical thought

1. two kinds of writings on music

a. philosophical doctrines

i. Plato (ca. 429–347 B.C.E.) Republic and Timaues

ii. Aristotle (384–22 B.C.E.) Politics

b. systematic descriptions of the materials of music (music theory)

i. Pythagoras (d. ca. 500 B.C.E.)

ii. Aristides Quintilianus (4th century C.E.)

2. music in Greek mythology

a. music inventors and practitioners: gods and demigods

i. Apollo, Hermes, Amphion, and Orpheus

b. music (Greek mousiké) derives from word for Muses

3. music pervaded all Greek life

a. music was an art for enjoyment

b. science related to arithmetic and astronomy

4. music as performing art called melos

a. surviving music is monophonic (single melodic line)

i. pictures show accompaniment with lyre or kithara

ii. possible heterophony or polyphony

b. “perfect melos”: melody, text, and stylized dance

i. conceived as a whole

5. music and poetry were nearly synonymous

a. blend of text, rhythm, and harmonia

i. harmonia: unification of parts as orderly whole

ii. encompasses mathematical proportions, philosophical ideas, order of the

universe

b. no name for artful speech that did not include music

i. “lyric” poetry sung to the lyre

ii. “tragedy” incorporates noun meaning “the art of singing”

iii. other Greek words for poetry were musical terms, “hymn”

6. Pythagoras: music was inseparable from numbers, key to the universe

a. rhythms ordered by numbers

b. discovered intervals as ratios: octave 2:1, 5th 3:2, 4th 4:3

7. Claudius Ptolemy (fl. 127–48 C.E.): leading astronomer of antiquity, writer on music

a. music connected to astronomy, harmonia

b. mathematical laws and proportions: movements of planets correspond to notes, intervals,

and scales

c. Plato “harmony of the spheres”: unheard music, revolutions of the planets

D. Music and ethos

1. music affects ethical character (etho)

a. Pythagoras view: music governed by mathematical laws, operated visible and invisible

world

i. harmonia could influence other realms

ii. human soul kept in harmony by numerical relationships

iii. music could penetrate the soul, restore inner harmony

2. Aristotle’s Politics: music affected behavior

a. music that imitated ethos aroused same ethos in listener

b. imitation of ethos through use of scale type, style of melody, rhythms and poetic genres

3. Plato and Aristotle: gymnastics disciplines body, music disciplines the mind

a. Plato’s Republic:

i. two must be balanced, certain music suitable

ii. endorsed Dorian and Phrygian harmoniai, fostered temperance and courage

iii. musical conventions must not be changed

iv. lawlessness in art led to licenses in manners and anarchy in society

b. Aristotle’s Politics:

i. less restrictive than Plato

ii. music for enjoyment and education

iii. negative emotions purged through music and drama

iv. menial and vulgar to play solely for pleasure or others

E. Greek music theory

1. earliest theoretical works: Aristoxenus, Harmonic Elements and Rhythmic Elements (ca. 330 B.C.E.)

a. pupil of Aristotle

2. important later writers: Cleonides (ca. second or third century C.E.), Ptolemy, Aristides Quintilianus

3. Aristoxenus

a. Rhythmic Elements: musical rhythm closely aligned with poetic rhythm

b. Harmonic Elements: continuous movement and diastematic (intervallic) movement

i. melodies consist of notes, interval, scale

ii. definitions establish basis for all later music theory

4. tetrachord: four notes spanning P4th

a. outer notes stationary

b. genera (classes) of tetrachords

i. diatonic genus: oldest and most natural

ii. chromatic: most recent iii enharmonic: most refined, difficult to hear

5. Greater Perfect System: tetrachords combined to cover larger range

a. four tetrachords plus added lowest note, 2-octave span

b. conjunct: shared note

c. disjunct: separated by whole tone

d. middle note called “mese”

e. tetrachords named to indicate place in system

i. “meson” tetrachord 4th below the mese

ii. “hypaton” (first), lowest tetrachord

iii. “diezeugmenon” (disjunct), above the mese

iv. “hypabolaion” (of the extremes)

f. not based on absolute pitch

g. Lesser Perfect System: spanning octave plus a 4th

6. species of consonances

a. Cleonides: limited number of ways P4th, 5th, and octave divided into tones and semitones in

diatonic genus

b. seven species of octave; division of octave into species of 4th and 5th

i. Mixolydian, Lydian, Phrygian, Dorian, Hypolydian, Hypophrygian, Hypodorian

ii. octave species parallel Babylonian diatonic tunings

iii. octave species lack principal note

c. Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian: ethnic names

i. music styles of different regions of Greek world

ii. Plato and Aristotle used these names for harmoniai, scale types or melodic styles

iii. prefixes (e.g. Hypo-) multiplied number of names

d. tonos, scale or set of pitches within a specific range i. Fifteen different tonoi

ii. transpose system of tones up or down

iii. tonoi associated with character and mood

e. “harmonia,” “tonoi,” “Dorian”: meanings defined by context

F. Ancient Greek music

1. forty-five fragments survive from fifth century B.C.E. to fourth century C.E.

a. Greek texts, when Greece was dominated by Rome

b. most recovered in twentieth century

c. notation: notes and duration placed above text

d. two fragmentary choruses, plays by Euripides (ca. 485–06 B.C.E.)

2. later pieces more complete

a. two complete Delphic hymns to Apollo, 128–27 B.C.E.

b. epigram to Seikolos, epitaph on tombstone, first century C.E.

c. four hymns by Mesomedes of Crete, second century C.E.

d. consistencies, correspondence between theory and practice

3. style example: Epitaph of Seikolos (NAWM 1)

a. diatonic melody, octave range, Phrygian octave species

b. Iastian tonos: system transposed up a whole step

c. text consistent with tonos: moderation

d. melody moderate in ethos: rising 5th and 3rds balanced by falling gestures

4. style example: Euripides’ Orestes (NAWM 2)

a. papyrus from ca. 200 B.C.E.

b. middle portion of seven lines of text; musical notation above

c. diatonic with chromatic or enharmonic genus

d. instrumental notes interspersed with vocal

e. music reinforces ethos of intense agitation and grief

i. small chromatic or enharmonic intervals

ii. stark changes of register

IV. Music in Ancient Rome

A. Less evidence survives for music of ancient Rome

1. images, some instruments, written descriptions

2. no settings of Latin text survive

B. First and second centuries of Roman Empire took musical culture from Greece

1. lyric poetry often sung

2. Cicero, Quintillian, other writers: cultivated people should be educated in music

3. Greek architecture, music, and philosophy imported into Rome

4. famous virtuosos, large choruses and orchestras, grandiose musical festivals and competitions

5. emperors supported and cultivated music

a. Nero aspired to personal fame as musician, competed in contests

6. third and fourth centuries economic decline: music on large and expensive scale ceased

C. Instruments

1. tibia (Roman version of aulos)

a. important in religious rites, military music, and theatrical performances

2. tuba: long straight trumpet, derived from Etruscans

a. used in religious, state, and military ceremonies

3. cornu and buccina: G-shaped circular horns

D. No trace of direct influence of Roman music

V. The Greek Heritage

A. Characteristics of Greek music continued in later Western music

1. melody shaped by rhythm and meter of words

2. musicians relied on memory and conventions of formulas

B. Aspects of Greek thought influenced later generations

1. music influences human behavior

2. medieval church music and theory used Greek concepts

3. opera composers look to Greek tragedies for models

The Christian Church in the First Millenium

I. The Diffusion of Christianity

A. Jesus of Nazareth, Jew and subject of Roman Empire

1. apostles traveled, brought Christianity to Near East, Greece, and Italy

2. promise of salvation in afterlife, community and equality between social classes

a. drew many converts

b. women played major role in its growth

3. Roman subjects

a. must worship Roman gods and emperors

b. Christians gather in secret, are persecuted, martyred

B. Emperor Constantine I (r. 310–17), 313 Edict of Milan

1. legalized Christianity

2. allowed church to own property

C. 392 Emperor Theodosius I (r. 374–95)

1. made Christianity the official religion

2. suppressed others, except Judaism

3. Roman empire as model for church organization

4. church patriarchs in Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem

D. By 600 entire area once controlled by Rome was Christian

II. The Judaic Heritage

A. Elements of Christian observance sprang from Jewish tradition

1. chanting of scripture

2. singing of psalms

B. Temples, place for public worship

1. observance centered around a sacrifice (usually a lamb)

2. performed by priests, assisted by Levites, witnessed by worshipers

a. Levites: members of priestly class, including musicians

3. choir of Levites sang psalms accompanied by harp and psaltery, trumpets, and cymbals

C. Synagogue: centers for readings and homilies

1. public reading from scripture performed in chant

2. cantillation: chanting sacred texts based on melodic formulas

3. certain readings assigned to particular days or festivals

D. Parallels between temple rites and Christian Mass

1. symbolic sacrifice

2. singing psalms assigned to certain days

3. gathering in a meeting house to hear Scripture readings

4. Mass commemorates Last Supper, imitates Passover meal

5. Christian melodies may have drawn from Jewish cantillation

III. Music in the Early Church

A. Earliest recorded musical activity, Biblical references

1. Jesus and his followers sang hymns

2. communal meals: sang psalms and hymns

B. Fourth century: number of converts grew

1. basilicas for public meetings

a. sung words carried better than spoken word

2. monasteries: devout believers lived in isolation

a. singing psalms central to monastic life

i. pleasures of music discipline the soul

ii. turn the mind to spiritual things

iii. build the Christian community

3. Late fourth century: standard format in Christian observance

a. singing was regular feature: Books of Psalms and nonbiblical hymns

b. singing of psalms and hymns codified in rites of medieval church, continue to this day

C. Church fathers interpret Bible, set down principles

1. similar to ancient Greeks

a. value of music: power to influence ethos

b. held to Plato’s principle: beautiful things exist to remind of divine beauty

c. music was servant of religion

2. condemned instrumental music

a. lyres accompanied hymns and psalms at home only

b. entire tradition 1,000 years: unaccompanied singing

c. elaborate singing, large choruses, instruments, dancing: associated with pagan festivals

3. Christian community set off from pagan society

IV. Divisions in the Church and Dialects of Chant

A. 395, Division of Roman Empire

1. Western empire

a. ruled from Rome or Milan

b. Germanic invasions; 476 decline and collapse

c. bishop of Rome asserted control of Western Church

d. after third century Latin used in Rome

2. Eastern empire

a. centered at Constantinople

b. under control of the emperor

c. used Greek language of early Christian apostles

3. 1054 division became permanent

a. Western Church became Roman Catholic Church

b. Eastern Church became Byzantine Church

4. regions evolved rites

a. church calendar

b. liturgy: body of texts, ritual actions

c. repertory of plainchant or chant: unison song

B. Byzantine chant

1. scriptural readings chanted using formulas

2. hymns and psalms sung to fully developed melodies

3. melodies classified into eight modes (echoi)

a. served as model for Western Church modes

4. hymn melodies more prominent

a. notated from tenth century on

b. still sung in Greek Orthodox services today

C. Western dialects

1. regional rites emerged: own liturgy and chant

2. Ambrosian chant: after St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan (374–97)

a. Milan important center for Western Church

b. close cultural ties to Byzantium

c. liturgy and chant survives to present day

3. Eighth century: standardized church services

a. local chant dialects disappeared over time

D. Creation of Gregorian chant

1. Schola Cantorum (School of Singers)

a. established late seventh century

b. sang when Pope officiated

2. 752 to 754 Pope Stephen II sojourned in Frankish kingdom with Schola Cantorum

3. Pippin the Short (r. 751–68) king of Franks

a. imported Roman liturgy and chant

b. consolidated diverse kingdom; political and religious

4. Charlemagne (Charles the Great, r. 768–814)

a. expanded territory through conquests

b. continued policy of common liturgy

c. 800 crowned emperor by Pope Leo III; initiated Holy Roman Empire

d. melodies brought from Rome to Frankish lands

i. not written down; not known what melodies were brought

ii. some chants altered by Franks

iii. some drawn from Gallican chant

5. Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great, r. 590–604)

a. development of chant repertory attributed to him; Gregorian chant

b. English revered Gregory as founder of their church

c. attributed liturgy and music to him

d. legend: Holy Spirit dictated chants to Pope Gregory

6. Old Roman chant

a. preserved in eleventh- and twelfth-century manuscripts

b. same texts as Gregorian chant

c. melodies resemble Gregorian chant, more ornate melodies

d. both dialects derived from common source; disputed by scholars

V. The Development of Notation

A. Oral transmission

1. chant learned by rote, sung from memory

2. simple chants passed down with little change

3. other chants improvised within strict conventions

a. standard patterns developed, use of formulas

4. variations preserved later through notation

B. Stages of notation

1. notation needed to stabilize chants

2. earliest notation 850, possibly used in Charlemagne’s time

3. strive for and perpetuate uniformity

4. copied in monasteries and scriptoria

5. neumes placed above words

a. indicate melodic gesture

b. serve as reminders of melodic shape

c. heightened neumes, tenth and eleventh centuries

i. indicate size and direction of intervals

ii. sacrificed subtle performance indications

6. horizontal lines scratched into parchment

a. musical sign that did not represent a sound

b. corresponded to particular note

c. neumes oriented around the line

d. other manuscripts line-labeled with letter for note (evolved into clef signs)

7. Guido of Arezzo (ca. 991–after 1033), eleventh-century monk

a. colored lines: red ink for F, yellow for C

b. letters in margins identify lines

c. scheme widely adopted: neumes reshaped to fit arrangement

d. four-line system evolved, staff of four lines a third apart

e. pitch was still relative

8. notation freed music from dependence on oral transmission

a. notation valuable tool for memorization

9. rhythm

a. staff notation with neumes convey pitch, not duration

b. some signs for rhythm, meaning unknown

c. all notes of chant sung with same basic value

d. notes grouped in twos or threes, grouped into larger units

C. Solesmes chant notation

1. 1903 Pope Pius X proclaimed Solesmes official Vatican edition

a. created by Benedictine monks of Solesmes in France

2. modernized form of chant notation

a. four-line staff, C or F clef designated

b. notes and notegroups called neumes

c. neumes read left to right

i. variants: obilique neumes, quilisma

3. edition includes interpretive signs not in manuscripts

VI. Music Theory and Practice

A. Transmission of Greek music theory

1. Martianus Capella The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, early fifth century

a. seven liberal arts

i. trivium: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric

ii. quadrivium: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and harmonics (music)

b. modified translation of On Music by Aristides Quintilianus

2. Boethius (ca. 480–ca. 524) most revered music authority in Middle Ages

3. Die institutione musica (The Fundamentals of Music) by Boethius

a. widely copied and cited for next thousand years

b. music as science of numbers; numerical ratios and proportions determine intervals,

consonances, scales, and tuning

c. compiled book from Greek sources: treatise by Nicomachus and Ptolemy’s Harmonics

d. original part of book divides music into three types

i. music mundana (the music of the universe): movements of stars and planets

ii. musica humana (human music): harmonizes and unifies body and soul

iii. musica instrumentalis (instrumental music): audible music

e. emphasized influence of music on character

i. music education as introduction to advanced philosophical studies

ii. music as object of knowledge

B. Practical theory

1. ninth-century treatises: Musica enchiriadis (Music Handbook) and Scolica enchiriadis (Comments on

the Handbook)

a. directed students entering clerical orders

b. emphasized practical matters

c. eight modes described; exercises for locating semitones in chant

2. Guido of Arezzo’s Micrologus (ca. 1025–28)

a. practical guide to singers

b. covers notes, intervals, scales, modes, melodic composition, improvised polyphony

C. Church modes

1. system completed by tenth century

2. chants classified by modes; eight modes identified by number

a. final, range, and reciting tone all characterize a mode

3. final: main and last note in melody

4. modes paired, share final

a. authentic: odd-numbered modes; step below and octave above final

b. plagal: even numbered modes; 4th or 5th below to 5th or 6th above the final

5. chromatic alteration: B-flat

6. species of fifth or fourth applied (Cleomedes)

a. divided modes into two spans

b. modes not octave species, extend to ninth or tenth

7. reciting tone: most frequent or prominent note in chant

a. authentic modes: 5th above final

b. plagal modes: 3rd below

8. modes first codified as means to classify chants

a. tonaries: books grouped chants together by mode

b. not all chant melodies conform to modal theory

i. many existed before theory developed

ii. chants after tenth century have different style

9. ninth-century application of Greek names to church modes

a. misread Boethius

b. called lowest mode the highest in Cleomedes arrangement

c. moved through names in rising rather than descending order

10. poor fit between modes and Greek system

a. modes based on final, reciting tone, ranges exceeding an octave

b. Greek system based on tetrachords, octave species, and tonoi

c. important for medieval scholars to ground work in Greek tradition

D. Solmization

1. facilitated sight-singing

2. introduced by Guido of Arezzo

3. set syllables corresponding to succession of tones

a. notes in first six phrases of the hymn Ut quent laxis

b. initial syllables of each phrase: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la

c. solmization syllables still used; do for ut, addition of ti

4. syllables helped locate semitones in chant

5. taught pattern of whole and half steps around final of each mode

E. Hexachord system

1. Guido’s followers developed six-step solmization into system of hexachords

a. “natural” beginning on C

b. “hard” beginning on G

c. “soft” beginning on F

d. “round b” and “square b” evolved into our accidentals

i. originally indicated syllable B (mi or fa)

2. basic scale began on G: gamma ut

a. each note named by letter and position within hexachord

3. mutation: process of changing hexachords

a. melodies exceeding 6-note range change hexachords

4. “Guidonian Hand”

a. mnemonic device to locate pitches of system of hexachords

b. joints stood for one of 21 notes

c. other notes “outside the hand”

d. included in medieval and Renaissance textbooks

Roman Liturgy and Chant

I. The Roman Liturgy

A. Purpose of the Liturgy

1. precepts of Roman church doctrine

a. immortality of the soul

b. Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

c. Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, ascension into heaven

d. salvation and eternal heavenly life

e. damnation in hell for the unworthy

2. religious services reinforce lessons

a. purpose served through liturgy

i. texts spoken or sung

ii. music carried words, accompanied rituals, inspired the faithful

3. dual aim of services: unceasing praises to God, reinforce faith

B. Church calendar

1. story of Christ celebrated in yearly cycle

2. feast days, commemoration of events or saints

3. aspects of liturgy change with day or season

C. Mass

1. most important service in Roman Church

2. central act is symbolic reenactment of Last Supper

a. other ritual actions: prayers, Bible readings, psalm-singing

b. performed daily, more than once on important feast days

3. Proper of the Mass

a. variable portions

b. called by their function

4. Ordinary of the Mass

a. invariable portions

b. called by their initial words

c. sung portions performed by congregation, later taken over by male choir

5. early form of ceremony in two parts

a. prayers, Bible readings, psalms, sermon, catechumens dismissed

b. offering of gifts, communion, final prayer; dismal of the faithful

c. late additions: musical items of the Ordinary

i. Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei

D. Proper for Christmas Mass

1. addresses nativity of Jesus, places it in broader theological context

2. juxtaposition of psalms, Hebrew Scripture, New Testament passages

3. Epistle and Gospel: two main readings in Mass

4. style examples, elaborate and florid chants:

a. Introit (NAWM 3a) announces birth

b. Gradual (NAWM 3d) revelation of salvation

c. Alleluia (NAWM 3e) hails sanctified day

d. Offertory (NAWM 3g) acknowledges God’s dominion

e. Communion (NAWM 3j)

E. The Office

1. series of eight services celebrated daily

a. important in monasteries and convents

b. all members sang in services

2. liturgy codified in Rule of St. Benedict (ca. 530)

a. Office observances differ outside monasteries

3. Offices include:

a. psalms with an antiphon

i. all 150 psalms sung each week

b. Bible reading lessons with music responsories

c. hymns

d. canticles: poetic passages from Bible

4. Matins, Lauds, and Vespers most important liturgically and musically

F. Liturgical books

1. Mass

a. Missal contains texts for the Mass

b. Gradual contains chants

2. Office

a. Breviary contains texts

b. Antiphoner contains music

3. Liber Usualis (Book of Common Use)

a. most frequently used texts and chants for Mass and Office

b. prepared by monks of Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes

c. adopted as official book

II. Characteristics of Chant

A. Diverse styles

1. styles reflect functions and histories

B. Manners of performance

1. responsorial: soloist alternates with choir or congregation

2. antiphonal: two choirs alternate

3. direct: without alternation

C. Styles of setting texts

1. syllabic: almost every syllable has a single note

2. neumatic: one to six notes per syllable

3. melismatic: long melodic passages on a single syllable

D. Recitation formulas

1. simple melodic outlines

2. can be used with many texts

E. Melody and declamation

1. melodies vehicle for declaiming words

a. melodies reflect shape of text

b. no attempt to express emotions or depict images

2. phrases and periods correspond with text

a. most phrases resemble arch, parallels spoken Latin

b. accented syllables set to higher notes

c. emphasis through melismas or syllabic settings

3. example: Viderunt omnes

a. “Dominus” (Lord): longest melisma and highest note in chant

b. “jubilate” (sing joyfully): almost syllabically

III. Genres and Forms of Chant

A. Recitation formulas

1. simplest chants, intoning prayers and Bible readings

a. Collect, Epistle, Gospel

b. project words without embellishment

c. chanted on reciting tone, usually A or C

d. brief motives mark ends of phrases

e. sung by priest, occasional responses from choir or congregation

i. untrained singers: simple melodies, limited range

2. some formulas predate system of modes

B. Psalm tones

1. used for singing psalms in the Office

2. can adapt to fit any psalm

3. one psalm tone for each of eight modes

4. reciting tone: pitch for reciting most of text

5. style example: Dixit Dominus (NAWM 4a) first psalm for Christmas Day Vespers

a. intonation: rising motive used for first verse

b. recitation on reciting tone

c. mediant: cadence for middle of each verse

d. termination: final cadence for each psalm verse

e. last psalm verse followed by Lesser Doxology

i. formal praise to the Trinity

ii. places Hebrew Scripture into Christian framework

6. canticles and psalm verse in Introit use more elaborate variants

C. Office antiphons

1. precede and follow Office psalm

2. antiphon text refers to event or person commemorated

3. style example: Tecum principum (NAWM 4a) paired with first psalm at Vespers

a. text: fourth verse of the psalm, herald birth of Christ

b. antiphon determines mode for the psalm tone (mode 1)

c. termination used with antiphon shown at end; vowels for last six syllables of Doxology

d. psalm does not close on final; antiphon does

4. performance style varied

a. direct performance by soloists

b. responsorial alternation: soloist and choir or congregation

c. antiphonal alternation: two singers or groups

d. antiphonal performance suggested by division of psalm verse

i. encouraged by layout of medieval churches

e. monastic practice: monks or nuns divided into two choirs

i. sang psalm antiphonally: alternating verses or half verses

ii. antiphon sung by soloists reading Antiphoner, or all singing from memory

5. modern performance

a. cantor sets pitch with opening words, full choir completes antiphon

b. cantor sings first half of first psalm verse, half the choir completes it

c. two half-choirs alternate verses or half-verse

d. full choir joins for reprise of the antiphon

6. Office antiphons are simple, mostly syllabic

a. reflect historical association with group singing

b. over thirty are sung each day

c. fully independent melodies

D. Office hymns

1. most familiar song type

2. sung by choir in every Office service

3. strophic; 4-to-7 line stanzas

4. style example: Christe Redemptor omnium (NAWM 4b), Christmas Day Vespers

a. syllabic and neumatic

b. mode 1; each phrase rises and falls

c. contour moves by 2nds and 3rds to a peak, descends to a cadence

E. Antiphonal psalmody in the Mass

1. psalmody (singing of psalms): Introit, Communion

a. early Masses, psalms sung antiphonally

b. eventually both chants were abbreviated

2. greater solemnity of Mass: greater musical splendor

a. Mass antiphons more elaborate than Office antiphons

b. neumatic with occasional melismas

3. style example: Viderunt omnes (NAWM 3j), Communion from Mass for Christmas Day

a. higher notes and longer notegroups

b. emphasize important accents and words

F. Responsorial psalmody in Office and Mass

1. responsorial psalms stem from early Christian practice

a. soloist sang psalm verse

b. congregation or choir responded with brief refrain

2. chants assigned to soloists: more melismatic

a. musical peaks of the service

b. words secondary to expansive melody

3. text shortened to a single psalm verse, choral respond preceding

4. Office responsories

a. all include respond, verse, full or partial repetition of respond

b. Matins

i. nine Bible readings, each followed by a Great Responsory

ii. neumatic to melismatic

c. other Office services

i. brief Bible reading, Short Responsory

ii. neumatic

5. Graduals

a. more melismatic than responsories

b. style example: Viderunt omnes (NAWM 3d)

i. 52-note melisma on “Dominus”

ii. 3 other 10-20 note melismas

iii. cantor begins respond, choir completes it

iv. soloists sing verse, choir joins on last phrase

6. Alleluias

a. respond on word “Alleluia,” psalm verse and repetition of the respond

b. jubilus: long melisma on final syllable of “Alleluia”

c. St. Augustine: long melismas, expression of joy beyond words

d. example Alleluia Dies sanctificatus (NAWM 3e), from Mass for Christmas Day

i.. soloist and choir

ii. articulated phrases, primarily steps and 3rds, arching contour

iii. prominent pitches reinforce mode 2, plagal mode on D

7. Offertories

a. melismatic as Graduals

b. Middle Ages, performed during offering of bread and wine

c. choral respond, two or three ornate verses sung by a soloist

d. each followed by second half of respond

e. verses dropped later; respond only

8. Tracts

a. longest chants in the liturgy

b. originally direct solo psalmody, no responses

c. verses combine recitation with florid melismas

d. oral composition based on formulas

e. today performed like Graduals

f. several psalm verses set in florid style

9. chants derived from responsorial or direct psalmody

a. long, virtuosic melismas show off voice

b. passages resemble improvised embellishment of simple melodic outline

c. all but Offertory attached to Bible readings

d. musical parallel to illuminations of medieval Bible manuscripts

G. Chants of the Mass Ordinary

1. originally sung by congregation; simple syllabic melodies

2. by ninth century, choir took over

a. trained singers: new more ornate melodies

b. later style: clearer pitch centers, more melodic repetition

3. Credo (NAWM 3f) and Gloria (NAWM 3c)

a. recurring motives, no set form

b. Credo: longest text, syllabic style

c. Gloria: neumatic

d. priest intones opening words, choir completes chant

4. Sanctus (NAWM 3h) and Agnus Dei (NAWM 3i)

a. repetition of text, musical repetition

b. neumatic

c. Sanctus ABB1 or A BC DC

d. Agnus Dei AAA, ABA, or AB CB DB

5. Kyrie (NAWM 3b)

a. usually performed antiphonally; half-choirs alternate statements

b. brief text, florid setting

c. melismas on last syllables of “Kyrie” and “Christe”

d. AAA, BBB, AAA1; AAA BBB CCC1 or ABA CDD EFE1

6. thirteenth century: Ordinary chants grouped into cycles

a. one setting of each text, except Credo

b. cycles appear in Liber usualis

i. Ite, missa est set to Kyrie melody

H. Style, use, and history

1. type of chant reflects its role and history

a. antiphons and hymns add melodic interest

b. neumatic chants of choir adorn Mass

c. melismatic chants decorative beauty, musical jewels

i. soloist and choir, no ritual actions

ii. embellish readings from Scripture

2. as function changed, style and form changed

3. recitation formulas: project words, easy to memorize, apply to many texts

4. chants share common history with ancient roots

a. drew on psalm texts: Jewish practice

b. modes and melodic formulas: Jewish, Near Eastern and Byzantine traditions

c. phrasing and declamation of text: classical Latin rhetoric

IV. Additions to the Authorized Chants

A. Musicians added to and embellished liturgy

1. creative outlet for musicians

2. most for observances in honor of local saints

B. Trope

1. expanded existing chant, three types:

a. new words and music before the chant and between phrases

b. melody only, extending or adding melismas

c. text only, called prosula

2. first type most common; Introits and Glorias

3. increased solemnity of chant

4. interpret text; link to specific occasion

a. Introit antiphon (NAWM 3a) and (NAWM 6)

5. sung by soloists, set neumatically

6. trope composition flourished in monasteries, tenth and eleventh centuries

7. banned by Council of Trent (1545–63)

C. Sequence

1. popular late ninth through twelfth centuries

2. sung after Alleluia, set syllabically in couplets

3. derived from melismas added at end of an Alleluia

4. most melodies newly composed

5. with text and as extended melismas on “Alleluia”; new texts written for existing sequence

6. form: A BB CCÉ.N

a. initial single sentence

b. series of paired sentences or phrases

i. within pairs: two sentences or phrases, same number of syllables set to same

music

ii. syllable count and music change for each new pair

c. final unpaired sentence

d. tonal focus clear, most phrases end on modal final

7. Council of Trent banned all but four sequences including Victimae paschali laudes (NAWM

5), and Dies irae

D. Liturgical drama

1. tropes in dialogues added to the liturgy

2. performed in church; processions, dramatic action

3. Easter and Christmas plays most common, performed all over Europe

4. all parts sung by male clergy

5. style example: Quem queritis in presepe (NAWM 6) Introit for Mass on Christmas Day, late tenth

century

6. twelfth and early thirteenth century:

a. some staged separately

b. chants strung together, sometimes joined by secular style songs

V. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)

A. Renowned visionary, best-known composer of sacred monophony

1. born to noble family, Bermersheim, Germany

2. consecrated to the church; vows at Benedictine monastery

3. 1150 founded convent, Rupertsberg near Bingen

4. famous for prophecies

a. corresponded with emperors, kings, popes, and bishops

b. preached throughout Germany

c. prose works in the Scivias (Know the Ways, 1141–51)

i. account of twenty-six visions, books on science and healing

5. religious poems set to music: preserved in two manuscripts in liturgical cycle

6. major works: Ordo virtutum, forty-three antiphons, eighteen responsories, seven sequences, four

hymns, five other chants

B. Women excluded from priesthood

1. choir took over singing; women silenced in church

2. convents: celibate religious women

a. hold positions of leadership

b. participate in singing and composing

c. learn to read Latin and music

3. Hildegard achieved great success

a. most songs praise Virgin Mary, Trinity, local saints

b. works vary, syllabic hymns to highly melismatic responsories

c. most composed for Office services

4. Hildegard’s style:

a. melodies exceed range of octave by a 4th or 5th

b. repeats melodic figures in constant variation

c. some patterns drive from chant

i. rising 5th, stepwise descent

ii. circling around cadential note

d. extraordinary patterns: successive leaps, patterns that quickly span octave or more

e. music prolongs words encouraging contemplation

5. style example: Ordo virtutum (The Virtues, ca. 1151) (NAWM 7), final chorus

a. sacred music drama in verse with eighty-two songs

b. morality play with allegorical characters

i. Prophets, Virtues, Happy Soul, Unhappy Soul, Penitent Soul

c. all sing in plainchant; Devil speaks, separation from God

VI. The Continuing Presence of Chant

A. Chant deeply influenced later music

1. Christian services throughout central and western Europe until Reformation

2. principal activity of professional singers until end of sixteenth century

3. chant reformed in late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries

4. Second Vatican Council (1962–65)

a. service held in vernacular

b. chant no longer prescribed

5. late twentieth century: chant known through recordings

a. practiced mostly in monasteries and convents

b. performed in concerts, recordings

Song and Dance Music to 1300

I. European Society, 800–1300

A. Ninth-century successors to Roman Empire

1. Byzantine Empire: Asia minor and southeastern Europe

a. preserved Greek and Roman science, architecture and culture

b. Byzantine scribes responsible for preservation of ancient Greek writings

2. Arab world: strongest, rapidly expanded, vast territory

a. including modern day Pakistan through the Middle East

b. extended Greek philosophy, science

c. patrons of literature, architecture and other arts

3. western Europe

a. weakest and poorest, fragmented

b. Coronation of Charlemagne, 800

i. Charlemagne promoted learning and artistic achievement

ii. improved education, encouraged primary schools in monasteries and cathedral

towns, sponsored scholarship and the arts

iii. courts: centers for intellectual and cultural life

B. Death of Louis the Pious, empire divided, modern boundaries emerge

1. western part became France

a. until 1200 France relatively weak

b. courts provided opportunities for poets and musicians

i. duchy of Aquitaine in southwestern France

2. eastern part of empire (Holy Roman Empire)

a. German kings claimed title as Charlemagne’s successors

b. 1250 power: princes, dukes, bishops and administrators

c. compete for prestige: hire best singers, instrumentalists, composers

C. Economic progress in western Europe

1. technological advances in agriculture, increased food supply

2. expansion of lands

3. 1000 to 1300 population tripled

4. 1300 western Europe surpassed Byzantine and Islamic World in economic strength

D. Medieval economy

1. mostly agricultural, rural population

2. society organized into three classes (“estates”)

a. nobility: governed and waged war

b. clergy: prayed

c. peasants: worked land controlled by nobles

3. twelfth century growth of towns and cities

a. independent artisans organized into guilds

4. 1300 new middle class between nobles and peasants

a. doctors, lawyers, merchants, and artisans

E. Learning and the arts

1. 1050–1300 cathedral schools established

2. after 1200 independent schools for laymen

3. fostering of secular culture, rise of literacy

4. twelfth century on: universities founded

a. women excluded

b. ancient Greek writings translated into Latin

c. Roger Bacon and St. Thomas Aquinas make contributions

d. epic, lyric, and narrative poems grew independent from ancient models

II. Latin and Vernacular Song

A. Latin song

1. versus:

a. sacred, rhymed poetry, regular pattern of accents

b. eleventh to thirteenth centuries, monophonic versus in Aquitaine

c. influenced troubadours and Aquitanian polyphony

2. conductus:

a. twelfth century, serious Latin song

b. rhymed, rhythmical text

3. versus and conductus: newly composed melodies

4. Latin secular songs:

a. Latin no longer native tongue, taught in schools

b. staffless neumes; cannot be transcribed

5. goliard songs:

a. late tenth through thirteenth centuries

b. wandering students and clerics; goliards

c. religious themes, satire, celebration of earthly pleasures

B. Vernacular song

1. most vernacular song not preserved

a. few are quoted in polyphonic music for educated audiences

2. epics transmitted orally

3. chanson de geste (“song of deeds”)

a. epic in northern French vernacular

b. recounts deed of national heroes

c. sung to simple melodic formulas

d. Song of Roland (ca. 1100) Charlemagne’s battle against the Muslims in Spain

C. Minstrels and other professional musicians

1. music not preserved in manuscripts

2. bards: poet-singers in Celtic lands

3. jongleurs: lower-class itinerant traveling musicians

4. thirteenth-century minstrel: specialized musicians

a. employed at court or city

b. varied backgrounds: former clerics, children of merchants, craftsmen, knights

5. twelfth-century guilds: legal protections, rights to perform, rules for conduct

III. Troubadour and Trouvère Song

A. Aristocratic sponsorship

1. twelfth-century French poet-composer

a. troubadours (feminine trobairitz): southern France, Occitan (langue d’oc)

b. trouvères: northern France, old French (langue d’oïl)

2. lives recounted in fanciful biographies, vidas

3. some were nobles: Guillaume IX, Comtessa de Dia

4. some born to servants at court, e.g. Bernart de Ventadorn (?ca. 1130–ca. 1200)

a. best-known and influential troubadour

b. brought troubadour tradition to the north

c. entered service of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204)

5. chansonniers: manuscript anthologies

a. 2,600 troubadour poems survive, few with melodies

b. 2,100 extant trouvère poems, two-thirds have music

c. variants of text and music

i. contrafactum: new words to existing melodies

d. poems and melodies composed and transmitted orally

e. preserved retrospectively

f. performance often entrusted to jongleur or minstrel

B. Poetry

1. notable for refinement, elegance and intricacy

2. varying subject, form, and treatment

3. most are strophic; dance songs include refrain

4. alba (dawn song), canso (love song), tenso (debate song)

5. fin’amors (Occitan), or fine amour (French), “refined love” central theme

a. formal, idealized love

b. object was a real woman of noble birth

i. adored from a distance, discretion, respect, humility

ii. lady depicted was lofty and unattainable

c. Can vei la lauzeta mover (NAWM 8), canso by Ventadorn

i. most widely disseminated troubadour song

ii. demonstrates refinement and eloquence, lover was himself refined

6. women poets adopted similar language

a. A chantar (NAWM 9), by Comtessa de Dia, only trobairitz song to survive with music

C. Melodies

1. strophic, mostly syllabic

a. groups of notes on penultimate syllable of a line

2. narrow range, within 9th

3. move mostly by step; arch-shaped phrases

4. not conceived in church modes; most fit modes 1 and 7

5. troubadour melodies: new music for each phrase

a. AAB form in some troubadour and most trouvère melodies

6. rhythm not indicated

a. varying performance interpretation

b. disagreement among scholars applying meter to syllables

c. considerable variations between editions

7. accompaniment not notated

a. pictures and accounts indicate plucked or bowed string instruments

D. Musical plays

1. built around narrative pastoral songs

2. Jeu de Robin et de Marion (The Play of Robin and Marion, ca. 1284), most famous, by Adam de la Halle

a. Adam de la Halle (cal. 1240–?1288), trouvère

i. complete works collected in manuscript, held in great esteem

b. draws on tradition of pastourelle

c. style example: Robins m’aime (NAWM 10), rondeau

i. dance song with refrain in two phrases

ii. music also used for the verse (ABaabAB), capital letters indicate refrain

E. Dissemination

1. origins of troubadours unclear

2. possible sources or influences: Arabic songs, the versus, secular Latin songs

3. late twelfth century: spread north to trouvères

a. then England, Germany, Italy, Spain

4. 1208 Albigensian Crusade: aristocratic support collapsed

5. troubadours dispersed, active in Italy until fourteenth century

6. trouvères in northern France through the thirteenth century

a. admired and preserved troubadour song

IV. Song in Other Lands

A. English song

1. French: language of kings and nobility after Norman Conquest of 1066

2. English held lands in France, sponsored troubadours and trouvères

3. King Richard I (the Lionheart, 1157–1199) trouvère; wrote songs in French

4. Middle English, language of lower and middle classes

a. few melodies for songs in Middle English survive

b. surviving poems meant to be sung

B. Minnesinger

1. knightly poet-musicians; troubadour model

2. flourished between twelfth and fourteenth centuries

3. wrote in Middle High German

4. Minnelieder (love songs): emphasis on faithfulness, duty, and service

a. reflected nobles' loyalty to king, Christian loyalty to church

b. strophic; melodic form AAB (bar form)

i. Stollen (A section): each uses same poetic meter, rhyme scheme, and melody

ii. Abgesang (B section): longer, ends with part of the Stollen

c. rhythm unclear in notation

5. style example: Palästinalied (Palestine Song) (NAWM 11) by Walther von der Vogelweide (?ca. 1170–?

ca.1230)

C. Laude (sing. lauda)

1. sacred Italian monophonic songs

2. several dozen laude melodies survive

3. composed in cities, not court

4. sung in religious processions, gatherings for prayer

5. lauda tradition continued for several centuries

a. late fourteenth century, most were polyphonic

D. Cantigas

1. Cantigas de Santa María, honor the Virgin Mary

a. collection of over 400 songs in Galician-Portuguese

b. prepared 1270–90 under King Alfonso el Sabio (the Wise) of Castile and León (northwestern

Spain)

c. preserved in four beautifully illuminated manuscripts

d. most songs relate miracles performed by the Virgin

2. form:

a. songs all have refrains; illustrations of dancers Cantigas manuscripts

b. verses in AAB form

c. music for B section also used for refrain

d. overall form A bba A bbaÉA; refrain appears first

3. style example: Non sofre Santa María (NAWM 12)

V. Medieval Instruments

A. Illuminated manuscripts depict medieval instruments

1. most instruments came from Asia

a. through Byzantine Empire

b. Arabs in North Africa and Spain

2. early history is obscure, nomenclature inconsistent

B. thirteenth-century miniature, string instruments

1. vielle, fiddle: principal bowed instrument

a. predecessor of Renaissance viol and modern violin

b. vary in shape and size

c. five strings, tuned in 4ths and 5ths

d. melody supported by drones on open strings

2. hurdy-gurdy: three-stringed vielle

a. rotating wheel inside, turned by crank

b. levers change pitches on melody string

c. other strings sound drones

3. harp: style originated in British Isles

4. psaltery:

a. plucked strings attached to frame over wooden sounding board

b. remote ancestor of harpsichord and piano

C. Cantigas de Santa María miniature, wind and percussion instruments

1. transverse flute: wood or ivory without keys

2. shawm: double reed, similar to the oboe

3. trumpet: straight, lacked valves, played harmonic series

4. pipe and tabor: high whistle

a. fingered with left hand

b. right hand beat small drum with a stick

D. Other instruments

1. bagpipe: player inflated bag (animal skin or bladder)

a. air through the chanter, drone pipes, all sounded by reeds

2. bells: played in church, used as signals

3. organs:

a. 1100, monastic church, early forms of organ

b. 1300 organs common in cathedrals

c. portative organ: portable

i. right hand played keys, left worked bellows

d. positive organ: played on table

i. assistant pumped the bellows

VI. Dance Music

A. Dance songs and instrumental music

1. usually performed from memory

2. few melodies survive

B. Dance songs

1. carole: twelfth through fourteenth centuries, France

a. most popular social dance

b. circle dance accompanied by song sung

c. sometimes joined by instrumentalists

d. only two dozen melodies survive

C. Instrumental music

1. thirteenth and fourteenth centuries fifty instrumental dance tunes survive

a. most monophonic, some polyphonic keyboard

b. steady beat, clear meter, repeated sections, predictable phrasing

c. melody notated, performed with improvised accompaniment

2. estampie: most common instrumental dance form

a. several sections, each played twice with two different endings

i. first with open (ouvert), incomplete cadence

ii. second with closed (clos), full cadence

b. triple meter, short sections

c. Le manuscript du roi (The Manuscript of the King) (NAWM 13), late thirteenth-century

chansonnier

3. istampita: 14th century Italian

a. same form as estampie

b. duple or compound meter, longer sections, more repetition

VII. The Lover’s Complaint

A. Troubadours’ successors

1. lyric songs to this day share traits with troubadour songs

a. strophic, diatonic, primarily syllabic, stepwise, range of an octave, clear pitch center

b. short musical phrases, rising to high point, fall to cadence

c. most common subject: pure, unattainable love

2. ninteenth century, renewed interest in Middle Ages

a. collection and publication of medieval poetry

b. Adam de la Halle’s works transcribed and published, 1872