1. Introduction to Western European Music and Music Manuscripts
A Presentation by K. Christian McGuire

2. Overview of Presentation
General View of Music in Ancient Greek and Medieval Thought
Liturgy: Divine Office and Mass
Examples: Liturgy, Theory, Miscellany

3. 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

4. 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…

5. 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.

6. Music as Liberal Art Trivium Quadrivium Grammar Logic Rhetoric
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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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 memory – Through Composed vs. Strophic – which is a better conduit for prayer?

10. 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.

11. 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 Christendom
commemorating regional Saints and liturgies

12. 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

13. Gregorian Chant – Traditional History
Named for Pope Gregory I ( ) 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)

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

15. 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.
All 150 Psalms were chanted throughout the week.

16. Liturgical Books Liturgical Calendar divided: Breviary 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
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)

17. 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.

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

19. Clare sanctorum senatus apostolorum
London, British Library, Add , fol 16v
Hiley. Western Plainchant. OUP, 1995

20. Clare sanctorum senatus apostolorum

21. Clare sanctorum senatus apostolorum
(top) London, British Library, Add , fol 16v – mid 10th century, German neumes
(bottom) London, British Library, printed book IB fos. 113v-114r
Hiley. Western Plainchant. OUP, 1995

22. Cistercian Tonary (Ms.1412) late 12th cent

23. Nota Quadrata – 13th century on…
Dixon Gradual, Latrobe University

24. Other Mss. – Theory, Miscellany

25. Hucbald – 9th century theorist
Hiley. Western Plainchant. OUP, 1995

26. Guido D’Arezzo – 11th century Theorist

28. Hildegard von Bingen – Kyrie (late 12th c)

30. CANTUS PROJECT