Sarah Mitchell
The Middle Ages, which lasted from around 500 to 1400 AD, was a time when music was heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. Gregorian chants, plainchants, and monophonic music were popular during this period. However, as we transition into the Renaissance, we see a shift towards polyphonic music and the advent of the motet, which played a crucial role in the development of secular music. This period also witnessed the emergence of the madrigal and the exploration of new instruments and musical styles, marking a departure from the constraints of medieval music.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Time Period | 500-1400 AD |
| Type of Music | Sacred music |
| Notable Examples | Gregorian Chant, Organum, Ars Nova |
| Notable Composers | Guillaume de Machaut, Hildegard von Bingen, Stephen of Liège |
| Musical Developments | Transition from monophonic to polyphonic music, development of musical notation |
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What You'll Learn
Gregorian Chant
The development of Gregorian chants is widely debated among scholars. Some believe that Pope Gregory I (reigned 590-604) was responsible for codifying the chants during the sixth century, establishing uniform usage throughout the Western Church. However, others argue that he only ordered a compilation of melodies from across the Christian world and that the chants themselves were a later Carolingian synthesis of Old Roman and Gallican chants.
The chants were initially organized into four modes, then eight, and finally, twelve modes. They were embellished and developed differently as they spread throughout Europe, giving rise to distinctive regional traditions of Western plainchant in the British Isles (Celtic chant), Spain (Mozarabic), Gaul (Gallican), and Italy (Old Roman, Ambrosian, and Beneventan).
The melodies of Gregorian chants are free-flowing and dictated by the Latin liturgical texts to which they are set. They can be sung using six-note patterns called hexachords, and traditionally, the chants were written using neumes, an early form of musical notation from which the modern staff developed. The Metz project in the 11th century invented an innovative musical notation using freeform neumes to show the shape of a remembered melody, which later culminated in the introduction of staff lines attributed to Guido d'Arezzo.
The development of Gregorian chants laid the foundation for the evolution of Western music. The multi-voice elaborations of these chants, known as organum, were an early stage in the development of Western polyphony.
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Sacred music
During the Middle Ages, from around 500 to 1400 AD, sacred music was the most prevalent form of music due to the domination of the early Christian Church. Gregorian Chant developed into polyphonic music called organum, which was performed at Notre Dame in Paris by the twelfth century. The motet, one of the most important musical forms of the high Middle Ages, developed out of organum and was elaborated by Pérotin, who replaced lengthy florid clausulae with substitutes in a discant style.
The early fifteenth century is considered a transitional period in music, retaining some medieval elements while also showing traits of the Renaissance. The Renaissance saw the development of the stile antico, a universal polyphonic style that continued to be used in sacred music, while the stile moderno was developed for secular usage.
The Baroque period, from around 1600 to 1750, saw a dramatic shift in sacred music. The Council of Trent in 1545 had a significant impact on sacred music, leading to the codification of practices and the resulting Tridentine Mass, which remained the primary form of the Roman Catholic Mass until the Second Vatican Council. The Baroque style featured an increased use of accompaniment separate from the vocal parts, with a "rhythm section" covering the bass and harmony parts. This resulted in more accompanied homophony (two or more voices singing together in harmony) and monody (a single melody line with accompaniment) in sacred music. The opera, oratorio, and cantata were important new vocal forms, while the sonata, concerto, and overture were created for instrumental music.
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Secular music
The Middle Ages, from around 500 to 1400 A.D., was dominated by the early Christian Church, and so sacred music was the most prevalent form. Beginning with Gregorian Chant, church music slowly developed into a polyphonic music called organum, performed at Notre Dame in Paris by the 12th century.
However, secular music also flourished during the Middle Ages, thanks to the French trouvères and troubadours. The invention of the printing press led to the publication of thousands of collections of songs that were never before available. One instrument or small groups of instruments were used to accompany solo voices or groups of solo voices.
The Renaissance, which emerged around 1400, saw a continued increase in the popularity of secular vocal music. This was set to poems in several languages, including English, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish. Dance music also became the most widespread genre for instrumental music.
The motet, one of the most important musical forms of the high Middle Ages and Renaissance, developed during the Notre Dame period out of the clausula. This was a form using multiple voices, elaborated by Pérotin, who replaced his predecessor Léonin's lengthy florid clausulae with substitutes in a discant style. The clausula became the motet when troped with non-liturgical words, and this further developed into a form of great elaboration, sophistication, and subtlety in the 14th century.
The 14th century also saw the emergence of Ars Nova, a primary rhythmical system that pushed the boundaries of rhythmic freedom. This was characterised by extremes of notational and rhythmic complexity, with some compositions having different voices written in different mensurations simultaneously.
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Polyphony
The origins of polyphony in Western church traditions are unknown, but the treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis, authored around 900 CE, are considered the oldest written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. The Winchester Troper, from around 1000 CE, is the oldest example of notated polyphony for chant performance.
European polyphony arose from melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of chant. In the 12th century, composers such as Léonin and Pérotin developed organum further by adding a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant. In the 13th century, the chant-based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to develop polyphonic techniques. The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in (c. 1240). Polyphony was also used in the papal court in the 14th century, with the oldest extant polyphonic setting of the mass attributable to one composer being Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame, dated to 1364.
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Musical notation
The first definitive references to musical notation date to 850 CE, when the Roman Catholic Church began developing a system of notation to standardize the performance of plainsong melodies or chants across different areas. These early notations were called "neumes", signs placed above chant lyrics that indicated the general shape of the melody for each syllable. The Gregorian chant, which developed around 750 CE, was traditionally written using neumes, from which the modern four-line and five-line staff (or stave) developed. The first Western system of functional names for musical notes was introduced by Guido of Arezzo (c. 991 – after 1033), using the beginning syllables of the first six musical lines of the Latin hymn 'Ut queant laxis'. The original sequence was Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, with each verse starting a scale note higher.
The direct ancestor of the modern Western system of notation emerged in medieval Europe, with the first staff lines attributed to Guido d'Arezzo in the early 11th century. During the Renaissance and Baroque music eras, musical notation continued to develop, and by the Classical period (1750–1820) and the Romantic music era (1820–1900), notation advanced alongside the technology for musical instruments. Today, modern music notation is used by musicians of many different genres throughout the world.
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Frequently asked questions
The medieval period, which lasted from approximately 500 to 1450 AD, followed the fall of Rome and was heavily influenced by the Catholic Church.
Medieval music was almost the sole property of the Christian Church. It was sacred and typically monophonic, devoid of harmony, meter, or accompaniment, and without a strict rhythmic structure.
Gregorian chants, plainchants, and motets.
The Renaissance period, which began around 1400, followed the Middle Ages.
