1. Elements of Music (continued)
Musical “Style”

2. Musical “Style”
Characteristic way of using melody, rhythm, tone, color, dynamics, harmony, texture, and form in music
The distinctive or unique sound of
One composer
A group of composers
A country
A period in history

3. Historical Musical Style Periods
Middle Ages ( )
Renaissance ( )
Baroque ( )
Classical ( )
Romantic ( )
20th century

4. Music of the Middle Ages
Medieval Music ( )

11. Feudal Society Three main social classes
Nobles (Kings, Queens, Knights, etc.)
Peasants (Serfs)
Clergy (Church People - priests, monks & nuns)

12. Knights/Nobility

15. Clergy

16. Peasants

17. Medieval Sacred Music (religious)
Most music in churches
Churches centers of learning, culture, and power
Most important musicians were priests

18. Gregorian Chant
Prayer music for voices performed in churches; melodies set to sacred Latin texts, sung without accompaniment

19. Gregorian Chant (continued)
Gregorian Chant was the official music of the Roman Catholic church - “the” church of Medieval Europe
Named for Pope Gregory ( ) who was reputed to have assembled and standardized all basic chants required for church services of the time

20. ANONYMOUS - Alleluia: Vidimus Stellam (We have seen the star)
Latin text
Music has “otherworldly” quality
Not in minor or major, but a “church mode”
No beat
Music has “eternal” quality
No “catchy” tune; motives don’t seem to repeat as expected; seems like it will go on forever and forever
Monophony
Uses melismas

21. Melisma* (not in textbook glossary)
Many notes sung to one syllable of text
Al - le- lu ia
Melismas

22. ANONYMOUS - Alleluia: Vidimus Stellam (We have seen the star)
Beginning - Solo, then Choir
Alleluia
Middle (verse) - Choir
We have seen his star in the east and are come with gifts to worship the Lord
End - Choir sings beginning phrase

23. HILDEGARD OF BINGEN - O successores (You successors)
Abbess of Rupertsberg in Germany
Amazingly talented and influential woman
Religious mystic and philosopher
Diplomat
Wrote poetry, music,
and musical drama
Scientist and healer

24. HILDEGARD OF BINGEN - O successores (You successors)
Latin text
Music has “otherworldly” quality
Not in minor or major, but a “church mode”
No beat
Music has “eternal” quality
No “catchy” tune; motives don’t seem to repeat as expected; seems like it will go on forever and forever
Monophony, performed with a drone
Uses melismas, but less-long that Alleluia chant
Larger pitch range than older Alleluia chant

25. Drone
Long, sustained note or notes accompanying a melody

26. HILDEGARD OF BINGEN - O successores (You successors)
“You successors of the mightiest lion between the temple and the altar- You the masters in his household- As the the angles sound forth praises and are here to help the nations, you are among those who accomplish this, forever showing your care in the service of the lamb.”

27. Medieval Secular Music (Non-religious)
Heard outside church in castles, taverns, and town squares
JONGLEURS
travelling minstrels who performed music and acrobatics for popular entertainment

28. ANONYMOUS - Estampie Strong, regular BEAT (dance music)
Fast triple meter
3 instruments
Rebec (bowed string)
Pipe (wind)
Psaltery (plucked string)
Monophony (rebec & pipe) with drone (psaltery)
Repetitive sounding; “catchy”

29. Important Musical Development in Middle Ages around 900 A.D.
Birth of Polyphony

30. Organum (pl. Organa)
Medieval polyphony that consists of Gregorian Chant and one or more additional melodic lines

31. Architectural
Layers =
Layers of
Chant or
Organum

37. Birth of Polyphony simple organum
simple organum
"School" of Notre Dame (Leonin, Perotin); simple rhythmic notation invented
ARS NOVA
new system of notating rhythm
monks add a 2nd melody above chant
chant stretched out and more lines of organum added above chant
used for complex rhythms and syncopation

38. Notre Dame Cathedral
Paris, France

39. GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT - (1377-1377)
French composer
Educated as priest
Mostly worked as court official
Wrote sacred and secular music

40. GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT - Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass
Agnus Dei part of MASS
MASS - sacred choral composition made up of five sections
Kyrie (Lord have mercy)
Gloria (Glory to God in the highest)
Credo (I believe in one God)
Sanctus (Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Hosts)
Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)

41. GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT - Agnus Dei from Notre Dame Mass
Written for 4 voices
NON-IMITATIVE POLYPHONY
3 sections = 3 lines of text each closed by cadences
“Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis” (Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us)
“Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis” (Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us
“Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem” (Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace)
Chant stretched out in tenor voice
Upper voices have faster melodies with syncopation
Regular BEAT
Harmony has dissonant parts

42. Musical Style Elements Early and Mid - Middle Ages (Chant)
Late Middle Ages
(Machaut)
Rhythm
no regular beat, free-flowing, creates "floating," "otherworldly" sound
has regular beat, more complex, has syncopations
Melody
uses melismas, very smooth (legato)
uses melismas, more "jumpy" and less smooth
Form
sounds non-repetitive
Dynamics
no changes, all one level
Texture
monophonic
polyphonic (non-imitative); produces heavy, dense, thick sound
Harmony
none
mixture of consonance and dissonance; produces serious sound

43. BENART DA VENTADORN - La douza votz (The sweet voice)
Troubadour song
Monophony (voice) with improvised drone accompaniment (plucked string)
“I have heard the sweet voice of the woodland nightingale and my heart springs up so that all the cares and the grievous betrayals love has given me are softened and sweetened; and I would thus be rewarded, in my ordeal, by the joys of others…”

44. BENART DA VENTADORN - La douza votz (The sweet voice)
“In truth, every man leads a base life who does not dwell in the land of joy…”
“One who is false, deceitful, of low breeding, a traitress has betrayed me, and betrayed herself…”