Medieval Music History

Conductus

i) Sacred vocal music from the medieval period culminating in the 13th century Notre Dame School in France. The word derives from Latin conducere (to escort), most likely sung while the lectionary was carried from its place of safekeeping to the place from which it was to be read. ii) One of the main forms of vocal composition in the Ars Antiqua, the Conductus form allowed church composers the ability to use secular melodies within the context of the church. iii) Subject of the conductus revolved around church festivities and holidays. iv) Type of sacred, but non-liturgical vocal composition for one or more voices. The form most likely originated in the south of France around 1150, and reached its peak development during the activity of the Notre Dame School in the early 13th century. Most of the conductus compositions of the large mid-13th century manuscript collection from Notre Dame are for two or three voices. Much of the surviving repertoire is contained in the Florence Manuscript and also the manuscript Wolfenbüttel 1099.[1] Conductus are also unique in the Notre Dame repertory in admitting secular melodies as source material, though sacred melodies were also commonly used. Common subjects for the songs were lives of the saints, feasts of the Lord, the Nativity, as well as more current subjects such as exemplary behavior of contemporary witnesses to the faith, such as Thomas Becket. A significant and interesting repertory of conductus from late in the period consists of songs which criticize abuses by the clergy, including some which are quite outraged. While it might be difficult to imagine them being sung in church, it is possible that the repertory may have had an existence beyond its documented liturgical use. Almost all composers of conductus are anonymous. Some of the poems, all of which are in Latin, are attributed to poets such as Philip the Chancellor and John of Howden. The style of the conductus was usually rhythmic, as befitting music accompanying a procession, and almost always note-against-note. Stylistically it was utterly different from the other principal liturgical polyphonic form of the time, organum, in which the voices usually moved at different speeds; in conductus, the voices sang together, in a style also known as discant. Music theorists who wrote about the conductus include Franco of Cologne, who advocated having a beautiful melody in the tenor, Johannes de Garlandia, and Anonymous IV. Early 14th century theorist Jacques of Liège, a vigorous defender of the ars antiqua style against the new "immoral and lascivious" ars nova style, lamented the disinterest of contemporary composers in the conductus. The conductus lasted longest in Germany, where it was documented into the 14th century. English conductus of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries often use the technique of rondellus.

Guillaume de Machaut

(c. 1300 - April 1377) French composer, poet, canon (priest), was the first composer to set the ordinary of the mass. Guillaume de Machaut was a medieval French poet and composer. -He is a part of the musical movement known as the ars nova. -Machaut helped develop the motet and secular song forms (particularly the lai and the formes fixes: rondeau, virelai and ballade). -Machaut wrote the Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest known complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer. -As a composer of the 14th century, Machaut's secular song output includes monophonic lais and virelais, which continue, in updated forms, some of the tradition of the troubadours. He also worked in the polyphonic forms of the ballade and rondeau and wrote the first complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass which can be attributed to a single composer. Machaut fused together contemporary styles and techniques. -Secular music: The lyrics of Machaut's works almost always dealt with courtly love. A few works exist to commemorate a particular event, such as M18, "Bone Pastor/Bone Pastor/Bone Pastor." Machaut mostly composed in five genres: the lai, the virelai, the motet, the ballade, and the rondeau. In these genres, Machaut retained the basic formes fixes, but often utilized creative text setting and cadences. For example, most rondeau phrases end with a long melisma on the penultimate syllable. However, a few of Machaut's rondeaux, such as R18 "Puis qu'en oubli", are mostly syllabic in treatment. Machaut's motets often contain sacred texts in the tenor, such as in M12 "Corde mesto cantando/Helas! pour quoy virent/Libera me". The top two voices in these three-part compositions, in contrast, sing secular French texts, creating interesting concordances between the sacred and secular. In his other genres, though, he does not utilize sacred texts. -Sacred music: Machaut's cyclic setting of the Mass, the Messe de Nostre Dame ("Mass of Our Lady"), was probably composed for Rheims Cathedral in the early 1360s. While not the first cyclic mass - the Tournai Mass is earlier - it was the first by a single composer and conceived as a unit. Machaut probably was familiar with the Tournai Mass since the Messe de Nostre Dame shares many stylistic features with it, including textless interludes. Whether or not Machaut's mass is indeed cyclic is contested; after lengthy debate, musicologists are still deeply divided. However, there is a consensus that this mass is at best a forerunner to the later 15th-century cyclic masses by the likes of Josquin des Prez. Machaut's mass differs from these in the following ways: (1) he does not hold a tonal centre throughout the entire work, as the mass uses two distinct modes (one for the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo, another for Sanctus, Agnus and Ita missa est); (2) there is no extended melodic theme that clearly runs through all the movements, and the mass does not use the parody technique; (3) there is considerable evidence that this mass was not composed in one creative motion. That the movements may have been placed together does not mean they were conceived so.[5] Nevertheless, the mass can be said to be stylistically consistent, and certainly the chosen chants are all celebrations of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Also adding weight to the claim that the mass is cyclic is the possibility that the piece was written or assembled for performance at a specific celebration. The possibility that it was for the coronation of Charles V, which was once widely accepted, is thought unlikely in modern scholarship. The composer's intention that the piece be performed as one entire mass setting makes the Messe de Nostre Dame generally considered a cyclic composition.

Francesco Landini

(c. 1325 or 1335 - September 2, 1397) was an Italian composer, organist, singer, poet and instrument maker. He was one of the most famous and revered composers of the second half of the 14th century, and by far the most famous composer in Italy. -Landini was the foremost exponent of the Italian Trecento style, sometimes also called the "Italian ars nova". -His output was almost exclusively secular. -What have survived are eighty-nine ballate for two voices, forty-two ballate for three voices, and another nine which exist in both two and three-voice versions. In addition to the ballate, a smaller number of madrigals have survived. Landini is assumed to have written his own texts for many of his works. His output, preserved most completely in the Squarcialupi Codex, represents almost a quarter of all surviving 14th century Italian music. Landini is the eponym of the Landini cadence (or Landino sixth), a cadential formula whereby the sixth degree of the scale (the submediant) is inserted between the leading note and its resolution on the tonic. However this cadence neither originated with him, nor is unique to his music; it can be found in much polyphonic music of the period, and well into the 15th century (for example in the songs of Gilles Binchois). Gherardello da Firenze is the earliest composer to use the cadence whose works have survived. Yet Landini used the formula consistently throughout his music, so the eponym—which dates from after the medieval era—is appropriate.

Guido de Arrezo

-a monk of the Benedictine order from the Italian city-state of Arezzo -music theorist and inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) that replaced neumatic notation -his text, the Micrologus(1025), which he wrote at age 34 was the second-most-widely distributed treatise on music in the Middle Ages (after the writings of Boethius). -His early career was spent at the monastery of Pomposa, on the Adriatic coast near Ferrara. While there, he noted the difficulty that singers had in remembering Gregorian chants.

Troubadour

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Philippe de Vitry

...Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 - 9 June 1361) -French composer, music theorist and poet. -may also have been the author of the Ars Nova treatise. -He was widely acknowledged as the greatest musician of his day, with Petrarch writing a glowing tribute, calling him: "...the keenest and most ardent seeker of truth, so great a philosopher of our age. -prominent in the courts of Charles IV, Philippe VI and Jean II, serving as a secretary ; perhaps aided by these Bourbon connections, he also held several canonries, including Clermont, Beauvais and Paris, also serving for a time in the antipapal retinue at Avignon starting with Clement VI. -diplomat and a soldier, known to have served at the siege of Aiguillon in 1346. In 1351 he became Bishop of Meaux, east of Paris. Moving in all the most important political, artistic and ecclesiastical circles, he was acquainted with many lights of the age -most famous in music history for the Ars nova notandi (1322), a treatise on music attributed to him which lent its name to the music of the entire era. -innovations in musical notation, particularly mensural and rhythmic, with which he was credited within a century of their inception. -Such innovations as are exemplified in his stylistically-attributed motets for the Roman de Fauvel were particularly important, and made possible the free and quite complex music of the next hundred years, culminating in the Ars subtilior. -In some ways the "modern" system of rhythmic notation began with the Ars Nova, during which music might be said to have "broken free" from the older idea of the rhythmic modes, patterns which were repeated without being individually notated. The notational predecessors of modern time meters also originate in the Ars Nova. -He is reputed to have written chansons and motets, but only some of the motets have survived. Each is strikingly individual, exploiting a unique structural idea. He is also often credited with developing the concept of isorhythm (an isorhythmic line consists of repeating patterns of rhythms and pitches, but the patterns overlap rather than correspond; e.g., a line of thirty consecutive notes might contain five repetitions of a six-note melody or six repetitions of a five-note rhythm). -Five of his three-part motets have survived in the Roman de Fauvel; an additional nine can be found in the Ivrea Codex.

Cantus firmus

A fixed melody to which other voices are added, typically in polyphonic treatment. -in the Musica enchiriadis (around 900 AD), contain the chant in the top voice, and the newly composed part underneath; changed around 1100, after which the cantus firmus typically appeared in the lowest-sounding voice. Later, the cantus firmus appeared in the tenor voice singing notes of longer duration, around which more florid lines, instrumental and/or vocal, were composed. -cantus firmus continued to be the norm through the 13th century: almost all of the music of the St. Martial and Notre Dame schools uses a cantus firmus, as well as most 13th century motets. Many of these motets were written in several languages, with the cantus firmus in the lowest voice; the lyrics of love poems might be sung in the vernacular above sacred Latin texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be sung to a familiar secular melody. -In the 14th century, the technique continued to be widely used for most sacred vocal music, although considerable elaboration began to appear: while most continental composers used isorhythmic methods, in England other composers experimented with a "migrant" cantus firmus, in which the tune moved from voice to voice, however without itself being elaborated significantly. -paraphrase technique; this compositional method became important in composition of masses by the late 15th century. (See paraphrase mass.) -The cyclic mass, which became the standard type of mass composition around the middle of the 15th century, used cantus firmus technique as its commonest organising principle. At first the cantus firmus was almost always drawn from plainchant, but the range of sources gradually widened to include other sacred sources and even sometimes popular songs. -The cantus firmus was at first restricted to the tenor, but by the end of the century many composers experimented with other ways of using it, such as introducing it into each voice as a contrapuntal subject, or using it with a variety of rhythms. -During the 16th century the cantus firmus technique began to be abandoned, replaced with the parody (or imitation) technique, in which multiple voices of a pre-existing source were incorporated into a sacred composition such as a mass. Yet while composers in Italy, France, and the Low Countries used the parody and paraphrase techniques, composers in Spain, Portugal, and Germany continued to use the cantus firmus method in nationally idiosyncratic ways. -Probably the most widely set of the secular cantus firmus melodies was L'homme armé. Over 40 settings are known, including two by Josquin des Prez. Many composers of the middle and late Renaissance wrote at least one mass based on this melody, and the practice lasted into the seventeenth century, with a late setting by Carissimi. There are several theories regarding the meaning of the name: one suggests that the "armed man" represents St Michael the Archangel, while another suggests that it refers to the name of a popular tavern (Maison L'Homme Armé) near Dufay's rooms in Cambrai. Being that this music arose shortly after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, it is possible that the text "the armed man should be feared" arose from the fear of the Ottoman Turks, who were expanding militarily towards central Europe.[4] There are numerous other examples of secular cantus firmi used for composition of masses; some of the most famous include: Se la face ay pale (Dufay), Fortuna desperata (attributed to Antoine Busnois), Fors seulement (Johannes Ockeghem), Mille Regretz, Pange Lingua (Josquin), and Westron Wynde (anonymous). German composers in the Baroque period in Germany, notably Bach, used chorale melodies as cantus firmi. In the opening movement of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the chorale "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" appears in long notes, sung by a separate choir of boys "in ripieno". Many of his chorale preludes include a chorale tune in the pedal part.

Anitphon

An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a responsory by a choir or congregation, usually in the form of a Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work. Antiphony is now generally used for any call and response style of singing, such as the kirtan and the sea shanty. Antiphonal music is music that is performed by two semi-independent choirs in interaction, often singing alternate musical phrases. Antiphonal psalmody is the singing or musical playing of psalms by alternating groups of performers.

Leonin

Creator of the first cycle of Notre Dame polyphony. Poet and composer. Born c. 1135 and educated art the Cathedral school of Notre Dame. Received a masters degree and was appointed as one of the administrators of the Cathedral. Composer of the first comprehensive body of polyphony in western music.

Franco of Cologne

Franco of Cologne (fl. mid-13th century) was a German music theorist and possibly composer. He was one of the most influential theorists of the late Medieval era, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform musical notation permanently: that the duration of any note should be determined by its appearance on the page, and not from context alone. The result was Franconian notation.The Franconian Motet was named after Franco of Cologne. These motets, composed around 1250-80, differed from the earlier Notre Dame motets in that they did not use the rhythmic modes, the triplum was more subdivided, and the multiple texts could also be in multiple languages. An example of a Franconian Motet is Amours mi font/En mai/Flos filius eius.

Musica enchiriadis

Musica enchiriadis—Musica enchiriadis is an anonymous musical treatise of the 9th century. It is the first surviving attempt to set up a system of rules for polyphony in classical music. The treatise was once attributed to Hucbald, but this is no longer accepted. [1] Some historians once attributed it to Odo of Cluny (879-942). [2] This music theory treatise, along with its companion text, Scolica enchiriadis, was widely circulated in medieval manuscripts, often in association with Boethius' De institutione musica.[3] It consists of nineteen chapters; the first nine are devoted to notation, modes, and monophonic plainchant.[3] Chapters 10-18 deal with polyphonic music. The author here shows how consonant intervals should be used to compose or improvise the type of early-medieval polyphonic music called [3] organum, an early style of note-against-note polyphony several examples of which are included in the treatise.[3] (Scolica enchiriadis also observes that some melodies should be sung sung "more quickly" (celerius), others "more slowly" (morosius).) The last, nineteenth, chapter of Musica enchiriadis relates the legend of Orpheus.

Old Roman Chant

Old Roman chant is the liturgical plainchant repertory of the Roman rite of the Roman Catholic Church formerly performed in Rome, closely related to but distinct from the Gregorian chant, which gradually supplanted it between the 11th century and the 13th century. Unlike other chant traditions such as Ambrosian chant, Mozarabic chant, and Gallican chant, Old Roman chant and Gregorian chant share essentially the same liturgy and the same texts, and many of their melodies are closely related. Although primarily associated with the churches of Rome, Old Roman chant was also performed in parts of central Italy and possibly even in Great Britain and Ireland. Old Roman chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Roman rite, as distinguished from the northern "Gallic" liturgies such as the Gallican rite and the Ambrosian rite. Gregorian and Old Roman chant largely share the same liturgy, but Old Roman chant does not reflect some of the Carolingian changes made to the Roman liturgy. Both an Old Roman and a Gregorian version exist for most chants of the liturgy, using the same text in all but forty chants, with corresponding chants often using related melodies. The split between Gregorian and Old Roman appears to have taken place after 800, since the feast of All Saints, a relatively late addition to the liturgical calendar, has markedly different chants in the two traditions. The Old Roman tradition appears to have preserved the texts more faithfully; the Old Roman texts often resemble the earliest Carolingian sources more closely than the later Gregorian sources do. Musically, there are a number of similarities between the Gregorian chants and their Old Roman counterparts. In addition to the similarities in texts noted above, corresponding Old Roman and Gregorian melodies often begin and end musical phrases at the same points. They use similar intonations for incipits, reciting tones, and cadences. Unlike most other chant traditions, they occasionally repeat words within a text, and the two traditions repeat such words in the same places. Corresponding chants in the two traditions are usually assigned to the same mode, although that appears to be the result of later Gregorian influence on the Old Roman repertory, as these analogous chants often have very distinct tonalities. Related chants in the Gregorian and Old Roman repertories differ mostly in ornamentation and surface detail. Old Roman chants are much more stepwise and gently undulating than Gregorian chants. Skips, even of thirds, are much less common in Old Roman chants than Gregorian. Gregorian chants often have a pentatonic structure, reinforced by their skips, while Old Roman chants are simpler in structure but more ornate, with more individual notes. Old Roman chants have intricate melodic motion within a narrow ambitus, with small repeating melodic motifs, which are common in the Italian chant traditions such as the Ambrosian and Beneventan. Old Roman chants are often highly melismatic, with melismas blending into one another and obscuring the underlying melodic structure.

Perotin

Pérotin (fl. c. 1200), also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style. He was one of very few composers of his day whose name has been preserved, and can be reliably attached to individual compositions; this is due to the testimony of an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV, who wrote about him and his predecessor Léonin. Anonymous IV called him "Magister Perotinus" ("Pérotin the Master").[1] The title, employed also by Johannes de Garlandia, means that Perotinus, like Leoninus, earned the degree magister artium, almost certainly in Paris, and that he was licensed to teach. The name Perotinus, the Latin diminutive of Petrus, is assumed to be derived from the French name Pérotin, diminutive of Pierre. The diminutive was presumably a mark of respect bestowed by his colleagues. He was also designated "magnus" by Anonymous IV, a mark of the esteem in which he was held, even long after his death.

Hildegard von Bingen

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, (1098 - 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising brilliant miniature illuminations. Although the history of her formal recognition as a saint is complicated, she has been recognized as a saint by parts of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.

Contenance angloise

The Contenance Angloise or English manner, is a distinctive style of polyphony developed in fifteenth-century England. It used full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth. It was highly influential in the fashionable Burgundian court of Philip the Good and as a result on European music of the era in general. The leading figure was John Dunstaple, followed by Walter Frye and John Hothby.

Formes fixes

The formes fixes (singular forme fixe, "fixed form") are the three fourteenth- and fifteenth-centuries French poetic forms: i) the ballade, rondeau and virelai. ii) Each was also a musical form, generally a chanson, and all consisted of a complex pattern of repetition of verses and a refrain with musical content in two main sections. iii) All three forms can be found in thirteenth-century sources but a fifteenth-century source gives Philippe de Vitry as their first composer while the first comprehensive repertory of these forms was written by Guillaume de Machaut. The formes fixes stopped being used in music around the end of the fifteenth century, although their influence continued, but in poetry they, especially the rondeau, continued to be used.

Vernacular Traditions

The rise of regional languages based on Latin during 1000-1300 years such as Italian, Spanish, and French.