1. Chapter 5 The Middle Ages
Music and the Church:
Plainchant

2. Key Terms Jongleurs Plainchant Medieval modes Vihuela Recitation
Reciting tone
Preface
Antiphon
Sequence
Drone

3. Middle Ages Timeline

4. The Middle Ages From fall of Rome (476 C.E.) to c. 1400
Access to international trade waned
Feudal economy
Primitive, often brutal living conditions
Mass migrations due to invasions, famine, plagues
Much of the education and technology of Greco-Roman civilization lost in the West

5. The Middle Ages
Slow but sure movement away from the absolute authority of the Church
New musical concepts originated and evolved—“quantum leaps” in music history
Music notation
Polyphony
Tunes

6. Music and the Church
The Church held a central position in all areas of life
The single greatest preserver of western civilization in the Middle Ages
Patron of the arts: music, art, architecture, poetry, learning
Most musicians trained in the Church
Except at the end, most notated music was Church music

7. Plainchant Chanting sacred texts is a nearly universal phenomenon
Practiced by Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists
Also used by many smaller traditional religions, as in Hawai’ian or Navajo cultures
Plainchant (Gregorian chant) is the body of chant melodies sung in the Catholic Church from the Middle Ages to 1964

8. Plainchant
Music was used at services in cathedrals, monasteries, and convents every day
The Mass: the major worship service
The Divine Office: eight shorter services at various times of day and night
Thousands of texts and melodies required for these daily services
Prior to notation, all sung from memory!
Pope Gregory I supposedly mapped out the standard order of chants for these services—thus, Gregorian chant

9. Medieval Modes Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian
White-key scales starting on D, E, F, and G, respectively
These scales don’t use same patterns of whole steps and half steps as major or minor scales
As a result, “pull” to tonic is weaker
Richer palette of possible scales

10. Medieval Modes

11. Listening to Plainchant
Describe the style of plainchant
Melody
Harmony
Key and tonality
Rhythm, meter, and tempo
Dynamics
Texture
Tone color
Form
How is this music not like a tune?

12. Features of Plainchant
Legato melody moves mostly by step
Based on a medieval mode (Mixolydian)
Tonality weaker than with major scale
Nonmetrical: no fixed rhythm or meter
Rhythms follows text at moderate tempo
Unaccompanied, monophonic music
Sung by male (or female) voices
No obvious patterns of repetition or return
Avoidance of repetitions, dance rhythms, and strong tonic gives it a floating, otherworldly, spiritual quality—passionate yet serene

13. Antiphon, “In paradisum”
Burial antiphon from the Requiem Mass (funeral service)
Sung over and over while the coffin is carried from church to graveyard in a processional

14. Preface, “Vere dignum” Preface from the Mass for Whit Sunday
Part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Preface introduces the Elevation of the Host
Sung by the priest as he presents the bread and wine
The Preface immediately precedes the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), one of the most awe-filled moments of the Mass

15. Preface, “Vere dignum” Legato melody with many repeated notes
Heightened speech; not as “melodic” as “In paradisum”
Based on a medieval mode (Dorian)
Nonmetrical: no fixed rhythm or meter
Rhythms follows text at moderate tempo
Unaccompanied, monophonic music
Sung by solo male voice
Based on a reciting tone, repeated three times

16. Hildegard of Bingen Lived 1098-1179 Abbess: founded Rupertsberg Abbey
Mystic: author of Scivias, a record of her visions
Author: wrote 13 other books on theology, medicine, and physical sciences
Composer: wrote some 77 works, including Ordo Virtutum, a liturgical drama

17. Hildegard, “Columba aspexit”
Legato melody mixes in more leaps, covers wider range than earlier plainchant
Based on a medieval mode (Mixolydian)
Nonmetrical: no fixed rhythm or meter
Rhythms follows text at moderate tempo
Monophonic music over instrumental drone
Sung by female voices
Sequence form: AA’BB’CC’ etc.
Series of solo tunes repeated by chorus
Ecstatic yet serene

18. Hildegard, “Columba aspexit”