History of Western Classical Music I

Contributions of Philosophers or Theorists to the Historical Development of Music

Among the philosophers and theorists that contributed to the development of Western music, include
Pope Gregory, Pythagoras, Gudo de Arezo, Marchetto de Padna, Ferdinando Cologne Leonin, Perotin etc.
Perhaps, Pope Gregory’s contribution to the development of Western music remains the one of the
worthwhile contributions.
Pope Gregory came up with the GREGORIAN CHANT (600-850) which brought about SACRED
MUSIC. It was the earliest Sacred Music. Some of the distinguishing features of the Gregorian chant
include: sacredness, plain chant, monophonic, homophonic, unison, partly syllabic, non-magical metrical,
mellicimatic, it is responsorial, acapella, modal etc.
He made the modes out of Gregorian chant to put a solution to the issue of forgetting the tunes of the
chant. He made use of syllables onto tonic sofa (pitches), when the church seems to forget most of the
beat of the music. He made use of some syllables of the Gregorian chants into tonic sofa’s repetition.
He gave support and impetus to church music by gathering and codifying the various chants into a body
of religious musical literature. The function of the Gregorian Chant was simply for WORSHIP and to lift
the faithful into a spirited exaltations that was completely detached from the world.
Characteristics of Medieval Music
Being a Christian era, sacred songs dominated the period. The Medieval denial of physical matter is
apparent in the lack of instrumental music in church services. Because instrument had a bodily shape,
they were banned in order that worship might not be distracted by a concerned or association with bodily
matters. Also, the use of instruments by pagan Greeks and Romans militated against their use as a
religious medium of mutual expressiveness.
Medieval music was largely VOCAL. In short, no musical instruments were allowed because of their
earlier involvement in pagan rituals. The organ was later allowed. Religious music generally was mainly
vocal in order to remain simple and unpretentious in its expression of religious feelings.
The theoretical basis of tonal relationship of music was the result of the acoustical mathematics of
PYTHAGORAS, the first important musical form/style of the period was the rise of the sacred
MONOLY known as the PLAIN SONG, playing chants or the Gregorian chant. So Gregorian chant
became the music for the celebration of MASS.
The Major Sacred Musical Styles and Forms of the Medieval Period
The first important sacred musical style in the medieval period was the GREGORIAN CHANT. It was
the first official music of the Roman Catholic Church. The chant was named after Pope Gregory I (549-
604). Gregorian Chant is used mainly for MASS and CHURCH SERVICE. The mass include two types
of liturgy: the ordinary of the mass; the proper of the mass consisting of ten (10) pieces of music, usually
needed for the celebration of a solemn mass. The ordinary of the mass consist of KYRIE ELEISON and
the GLORIA in EXCELSI DEO, CREDO, SANCTUS, and AGNUS DEI. The texts are always constant
and they don’t vary.
Although, the medieval period was largely a Christian era, there was much life among the people outside
the church. There was evidence from a large body of music that survived the period because they were
composed or written in DECIPHERAL NOTATIONS by French Nobles known as TROUBADOUS and
TROUVERES. One of the first notable composers of the medieval period was GUILAUME DE
MACHANT (1300-1377). He was famous as both a musician and a poet.
Musical Instruments of the Medieval Period
Evidence of musical instruments used by the people outside the church were largely STRING
INSTRUMENTS; HARPS; FEDDLES; (bowed string instrument) and lutes (represents plucked string
instruments).
The Rise of Polyphony
Polyphony, or the combination of two or more simultaneous melodic lines, is the single most important
development in the history of Western music. This style began to emerge toward the end of the
Romanesque era (850-1150). Polyphony helped brought about the use of regular meters, which was
necessary if the different voices were to keep together.
It brought about recognized individual composer. Learned musicians, mostly clerics in religious
communities, mastered the art of writing extended musical works in varied textures and forms. These
musicians were primarily interested in creating a structure through the combination of musical elements.
The earliest polyphonic music, called ORGANUM, grew out of the custom of adding a second voice to a
Gregorian melody at the interval of fifth or fourth.
In the forefront of this evolution were the composer of centred at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris
during the 12th and 13th centuries. Their leader, LEONIN (1150-1201), is the first composer of
polyphonic music whose name is known. He compiled the Great Book of Organum (Magnus liber
organi), music for the entire church year, in this new musical style. His successor, PEROTIN (c. 1200),
expanded the dimensions of organum by increasing the number of voice parts, first to three and then to
four.
In the organum Gaude Maria Virgo, the opening polyphonic section features two voices singing in a
RHYTHMIC MODE – a fixed pattern of long and short notes that is repeated or varied – over a sustained
bottom voice that is drawn from the chant of the same name. It alternates polyphony, sung by soloists,
and monophonic chant, sung by the choir.
The most important form of early polyphonic is MOTET. It was derived from the French word mot
meaning word, referring to the words that were added to vocal lines. This early Medieval Motet began to
surface toward the end of the 13th century when musicians began writing new texts for the previously
textless upper voices of organum. . the medieval motet, then, is a POLYTEXTUAL (more than one text)
vocal composition, either sacred or secular, which sometimes had instrumental accompaniment.
The thirteenth century motet composers built the motet on the bottom voice, the TENOR (to hold). The
tenor can be performed vocally or instrumentally, sounds the note of the chant Portare (to carry) in
several repetitions.
Secular Music in the Middle Ages
• Secular music arose in the courts, performed by aristocratic TROUBADOURS and
TROUVERES in France and by MINNESINGERS in Germany, and in cities performed by wandering
minstrels (GOLIARDS, JONGLEURS).
• Secular song texts focused on idealized love and the value of chivalry (code of behavior).
• Secular songs and dances were sung monophonically, with improvised instrumental
accompaniment.
• GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT was a poet-composer of the French Ars Nova (new art) who
wrote sacred music and polyphonic CHANSONS (secular songs) set to fixed text forms RONDEAU,
BALLADE, VIRELAI.
• Instrumental music was generally improvised, performed by ensembles of soft (bas) or loud
(haut) instruments, categorized by their use.
• GOLIARD songs originated in university towns rather than their villages. The Goliard (or
student) songs – many with lewd texts – express the carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy that has
always inspired youthful poets.
• MINSTRELS emerged as a class of musicians who wandered among the courts and towns. Some
were versatile entertainers who played instruments, sang and danced, juggled etc.the itinerant actor-
singers – called JONGLEURS (male) and JOUGLEURESSES (female) – lived on the fringes of society.
• The poet-musicians who flourished at the various court of Europe – those who lived in the
southern region of France known as PROVENCE were called TROUBADOURS, women were also
called TROBAIRTIZ. Those living in northern France we re called TROUVERES. Both terms means the
same thing – FINDERS or INVENTORS (in musical terms, composer). Some troubadours and trouveres
were members of the aristocracy and some were even royalty.
• Ars Nova (new art) is a musical style which appeared at the beginning of the fourteenth century
in France, ans soon thereafter in Italy, came up as a result of the breakup of the feudal social structure.
The music of the French Ars nova is more refined and complex than music of the Ars Antiqua (old art),
which it displaced. Writers such as PETRARCH, BOCCACCIO, and CHAUCER were turning from
otherworldly ideals to human subjects. Similarly, composers turned increasingly from religious to secular
themes. The Ars nova ushered in developments in rhythm, meter, harmony, and counterpoint that
transformed the art of music.
• Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377) was the foremost composer-poet of the Ars nova style.
Machaut’s double career as cleric and courtier inspired him to write both religious and secular music. His
output includes more than TWENTY MOTETS, many secular CHANSONS (French for songs and
referring to a French secular polyphonic work), and an important polyphonic setting of the complete
Ordinary of the Mass.
• Machaut’s music introduced a new freedom of rhythm characterized by gentle syncopations and
the interplay of duple and triple meters. Among secular genres, Machaut favored the chanson, which was
generally set to courtly love poems written in one of several fixed text forms. These poetic forms – the
rondeau, ballade, and virelai – established the musical repetition scheme of the chansons.
• The 14th century witnessed a steady growth in the scope and importance of instrumental music.
We can group medieval instruments into the same general families as modern ones – strings, woodwinds,
brass, percussion, and keyboard – but they were also divided into soft (bas), or indoor, and loud (haut), or
outdoor, categories according to their use.
• Among the most commonly used soft instruments were the recorder-an end blown flute with a
breathy tone, and its smaller cousin, the three-holed pipe; the lute, a plucked string instrument with a
rounded back; the harp and psaltery, plucked string instruments of Biblical fame; the hammered dulcimer;
and the rebec and veille, the two principal bowed string instruments of Middle Ages.
• The loud category of instruments,, used mainly for outdoor occasions such as tournaments and
processions, included the SHAWN, an ancestor of the Oboe, with a loud, nasal tone; and the slide
trumpet, which developed into the early trombone known as SACKBUT
RENAISSANCE MUSIC (1450-1600)
The Renaissance is known as the golden age of A CAPELLA singing (unaccompanied vocal music).
Renaissance music features a fuller, more consonant sound (with THIRDS and SIXTHS) than medieval
music. Some Renaissance pieces are built on a fixed, preexisting melody (CANTUS FIRMUS).
Musicians of the 15th and 16th centuries were supported by the chief institutions of their society – the
church, city, and state, as well as royal and aristocratic courts. Musicians found employment as
choirmasters, singers, organists, instrumentalists, copyists, composers, teachers, instrument builders, and
music printers.
The Renaissance saw the growth of solo instrumental music, especially for lute and for keyboard
instruments. During this period, most church music was written for a capella performance. Secular music,
on the other hand, was divided between purely vocal works and those in which singers were supported by
instruments. In the matter of harmony, composers of the Renaissance leaned toward fuller chords.
Du Fay (1397-1474) and Josquin created some of the masterworks of the epoch. In the later Renaissance
(1520-1600), Italian composers such as Palestrina and Monteveredi rose to prominence in both the realms
of sacred and secular music.
Renaissance composers set texts from the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus
Dei) for their polyphonic Masses.
Important composers of sacred music (Masses, motets, hymns) include Guillaume Du Fay, Josquin des
Prez, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Du Fay uses a popular tune as a cantus firmus (fixed song) for
his L’homme arme Mass.
In addition to the monophonic Gregorian chant, music for church services included polyphonic settings of
Mass, motets, and hymns.
The five movements of the Ordinary of the Mass are KGCSAd .Today, these sections of the Mass are
recited or sung in VERNACULAR.
Early polyphonic settings of the Mass were usually based on a fragment of Gregorian chant, which
became the CANTUS FIRMUS (fixed melody). The cantus firmus served as the foundation of the work,
supporting the FLORID patterns that the other voices wove around it. It provided composers with a fixed
element that they could embellish.
The REQUIEM, or Mass for the Dead, sung at funerals and memorial services, is the most important of
the Masses for special services.
One of the greatest masters of the Renaissance moter was the northern French composer JOSQUIN DES
PREZ (1450-1521).
HOMORHYTHMIC setings is a texture in which all voices move together rhythmically and it is
associated with Josquin.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) worked as an organist and choirmaster at various churches.
The Renaissance saw a rise in amateur music-making and in secular music (French CHANSONS and the
Italian and English MADRIGALS). Instrumental DANCE MUSIC was played by professional and
amateur musicians, who often added EMBELLISHMENTS. The madrigal originated in Italy as a form of
aristocratic entertainment. MONTEVERDI was a master of the Italian madrigal and of expressive devices
such as word painting. The English madrigal was often simpler and lighter in style than its Italian
counterpart.
In the 15th century, the CHANSON was the favored genre at the courts of the Burgundian dukes and the
kings of France, all great patrons of the arts. Chansons were usually written for three or four voices and
set to the courtly love verses of French Renaissance poets.
The dance arrangement during the Renaissance did not specify which instruments to use. A number of
dance types became popular during the 16th century. The stately court dance known as the PAVANE
often served as the first in a set that included one or more quicker dancers, especially the Italian
SALTARELLO (jumping dance) and French GILLIARD (a more vigorous version of the saltarello). The
ALLEMANDE, or German dance, in a moderate duple time, retained its popularity. Less courtly was the
RONDE, or round dance, a lively romp performed in a circle, usually in an outdoor setting.
The French Ars Nova of the Medieval Period
The French Ars Nova was an evolutionary extension of the Ars Antiqua more than the case in Italy. The
polyphonic motet continued to be written in France, but with important changes (isorhythmic motet).
Equally important were the new polyphonic secular forms – Ballade isorhythmic motet, Rondeau Virelai.
The Italian Ars Nova of the Medieval Period
The principal distinguishing features were that”
• It did not employ cantus firmus technique
• It was less rhythmically complex than French music
• It employed simpler textures
• It introduced characteristic Florid Vocal Styles.
Three secular forms dominated the Italian Ars Nova: Madrigal, Caccia, the Ballata
MADRIGAL is an Italian polyphonic style, usually in two vocal parts. Each style in duple (two) time
concluded with a RITORNELLO section in triple metre.
CACCIA which flourished in about 1345 to 1370 was the first musical style that explore the principle of
canon bases on continuous imitation between two or more parts. Two upper parts were sung in strict
imitation at the unison an with a long time interval between the first sacred parts. The third and lowest
part were freely composed in slow moving notes and was probably played on an instrument.
Caccia, (Italian: “hunt,” or “chase”), one of the principal Italian musical forms of the 14th century. It
consisted of two voices in strict canon at the unison (i.e., in strict melodic imitation at the same pitch),
and often of a non-canonic third part, composed of long notes that underlay the canonic voices, followed
by a ritornello.
BALLATA is a style of Italian Ars Nova originated as a DANCE SONG, and it developed somewhat
later than the madrigal and caccia. Its sectional structure resembled the French Virelai with refrains,
called RIPRESSA, sung at the beginning and end of each stanza.
A distinctive feature of the Ars Nova was the INCREASED ATTENTION given to secular music. For the
first time, the major composer at the period wrote secular as well as sacred music. The unharmonised
melodies that has been sung in the 13th century by the Troubadous and Trouveres were expanded by the
14thC composers into two and three voiced parts called CHANSONS (songs)
Composers During the Period of Ars Nova include:
• Guillaume de Machant (1305-1377)
• Phillipe de Vitry (1290-1361)
• Jaque de Hiege (1260-1330)
• Giovanni Voccaccio (1313-1375)
• Fracesco Landini (1325-1397)
ARS SUBTILIOR
French and Italian music of the late 14th century became ever more refined and complex, catering to the
extravagant taste of increasingly polished performers and the educated courtly elites of the society. In a
paradox typical of the century, the Papa court of the AVIGNON was one of the main patrons of secular
music. There music consisted of chiefly polyphonic ballades, rondeaux and virelais, containing other
forms.
These chanson, mostly love songs, were intended for a highbrow audience-aristocrats and connoisseurs
who esteemed because it developed every possibility of melody, rhythm, notation, and counterpoint.
Some songs from the period featured a remarkable rhythmic complexities, reaching a level not seen again
until the 20th century. Voices move in contrasting meters (rhythmic-that is not timing) and conflicting
rhythmic, groupings, beats, are subdivided in many different ways:
• Phrases demarcated by rest or suspended through
• Harmonies are properly blurred through rhythmic disjunction.