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MUAR 211—Art of Listening—Dr. Jerry Cain Day 01 (Summer 2019 rev)

I. Music and Mysticism in the Medieval Christian Church: Introduction
A. Early Christianity, like its ancestor Judaism, was a social institution that inherited a very
long and important written historical tradition, consisting of a vast collection of sacred texts:
for instance, the old and new testaments of the Bible, the biographies and testimonies of saints
and other church fathers, numerous canonic interpretations of scripture, etc. This reliance on
scripture gave the Christian church a special reason to preserve literacy during the political
turmoil of the early medieval period, and to promote it among priests, monks, nuns, and other
members of the clergy. After the fourth century, centers of power in the Christian church—from
prosperous Italian courts to the widely scattered monastic communities throughout Europe—
created libraries, book binderies, and scriptoriums, and served as centers of learning and book
making. The manuscripts created, copied and disseminated by this relatively small class of
literate men and women provide evidence that music—in addition to architecture and the visual
arts—was an essential medium of worship in the early Christian Church.
B. As Europe gradually became Christianized after the fourth century, its worship and
musical practices diversified, due largely to lack of centralized authority and difficulty of travel
over continental distances.
1. The strongest political, cultural and musical center was the eastern portion of Christendom,
centered in the new capital of the Roman Empire at Constantinople, or Byzantium, to use its
traditional name (modern Istanbul). This branch produced the modern Eastern Orthodox
Church, the liturgy and music of which is only loosely connected to the Church of Rome.
2. St. Ambrose, the fourth-century bishop of Milan (now in Italy), promoted the singing of
hymns and composed texts of several great hymns, though he probably did not invent the
music. The musical and liturgical tradition that grew out of this practice became known as
Ambrosian: i.e., the “Ambrosian chants,” “Ambrosian hymns,” etc.
3. Other more or less independent traditions of liturgical music developed in Ireland (the
Celtic tradition, founded in the fifth-century monasteries of St. Patrick ), in the Frankish
territory (the Gallican tradition in monasteries in what is now western France and the
Netherlands), and in the Iberian Peninsula (the Mozarabic tradition of Spain and Portugal).
C. One of the great accomplishments of the early Medieval Period was the unification of the
Christian Church throughout western Europe as the Roman Catholic Church, with the Pope in
Rome as the seat of power.
1. The famous pope and church father St. Gregory I (c. 540-604) is particularly noted for
promoting a unified, standard liturgy, under the central authority of papal control.
a. Medieval tradition credited St. Gregory I with assembling and even creating the
plainchants (sung sacred texts, see below) required for Roman Catholic Church services
(Mass and Divine Office) of the middle- and late-medieval Christian Church, although
many of the plainchants are known to pre-date the sixth century.
b. Although it is correct to refer to many plainchants as Gregorian (Gregorian chants),
because they have been traditionally attributed to him, it is not technically correct to
refer to all chants as ‘Gregorian’, particularly those that are known to have been
composed later—for instance those written by Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century.
Therefore, unless you know the text of a plainchant, the ‘second-best genre term’ to use
is simply plainchant or chant. (The best genre term would be based on the function of
the chant’s text, as is discussed further below.)
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2. Establishing and maintaining a unified liturgical practice over such large distances
required written transmission of all the necessary texts, music, papal edicts, etc., which of
course required a great many scribes making multiple copies of these materials. Many of
these texts survive, providing valuable primary evidence in the study of Medieval music.

II. Music of the Medieval Period, c. 450 -- 1450 A.D.

A. The Medieval Period in music history extends basically from the final collapse of the
Roman Empire in the fifth century to the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century.
1. Two of the central features of later Western music, tune (melody) and polyphony,
originated around the middle of this long period.
2. The Medieval Period is the longest ‘style period’ in music history; music changed
radically from the beginning to the end of the Medieval Period, more than in any other
historical period. Therefore, for musical-historical purposes, we need to separate this long
‘style period’ into four shorter periods and areas of knowledge:
a. 5th – 8th centuries, during which diverse musical/liturgical practices developed, and
from which many liturgical texts but no notated music survives.
b. the first extant manuscripts of notated music date from the late 9th century, by
which time most of western Europe had been unified under the Roman Catholic Church,
following the liturgical reforms that began to be instituted and enforced by Pope
Gregory I in the late sixth century.
c. the musical innovations of the 12th century (to be described below):
i. the music of Hildegard of Bingen
ii. earliest extant manuscripts of secular vocal music
iii. earliest extant manuscripts of instrumental music (ALL dances of various types)
iv. the beginning of the Notre Dame School of polyphonic music
d. the musical innovations of the 14th century (to be described later), which includes the
Ars Nova music of Guillaume da Machaut.
B. The earliest extant manuscripts of music in western Europe date from the late 9th
century (800s).
1. All of the musical manuscripts dating from the 9th century (and in fact all extant
manuscripts until the 12th century) contain sacred music exclusively: i.e., music that was
intended to serve the function of Christian worship.
Sacred culture (and art) = anything intended to serve as part of religious worship
Secular culture (and art) = everything else, including art intended for entertainment
2. The earliest musical manuscripts were created by ANONYMOUS SCRIBES (both men
and women), who were learned, professional copyists and scholars, often working in
scriptoriums supported by monasteries and royal courts, where detailed and elaborate copies
of books (sometimes containing music) were made and preserved. Therefore, the earliest
extant music in western Europe survives in the handwriting of anonymous copyists and are
copies of music by anonymous composers—composers who were not generally known even
in their own day. Indeed, much of this liturgical music was centuries old even during the
Medieval Period and was generally believed to be of divine origin.
3. The fact that all of this earliest notated music is sacred does not mean that there was
no secular music. Most of the music performed by the common people (weddings, parties,
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entertainments in pubs and homes, etc.) was certainly, decidedly secular. However, as a non-
literate musical tradition (i.e., music that was never written down), we know practically
nothing today about this music. In other words, the historical record is biased towards
those cultural traditions that were most important to the literate class, which in the early
and mid-Medieval period was almost exclusively the clergy.
C. The earliest extant manuscripts of music demonstrate an advanced theoretical system,
suggesting that the tradition was far older than the manuscripts themselves: i.e., these early
manuscripts were not the first ever created, just the oldest ones that still survive. (Just because
the earliest musical manuscripts are from the 9th century does not mean that music was invented
in the 9th century, of course).
1. In addition to sacred plainchant of various kinds, these 9th-century manuscripts also
include theoretical treatises that describe various aspects of how to compose and perform
this music (‘performance practice’) as well as the system of church modes, which was the
basis of the medieval harmonic system.
a. ‘medieval modes’ or ‘church modes’ were basically the scales (a hierarchical and
limited set of musical pitches) that served as the basis for the harmonic language of
Medieval music.
i. A mode is a limited collection of pitches that are organized within a piece of music
to emphasize one particular pitch, called the FINAL.
ii. Even more importantly, the pitches of a mode represent a collection of specific
intervals in relation to one another (i.e., interrelationship or ‘distances’ between the
various pitches in the mode).
2. The modal harmonic system also allows the construction of cadences of various
strengths, allowing the motion of the music to accentuate the meaning and structure of the
text that it sets.
a. Cadence: a ‘resting place’ in music, usually on the FINAL in modal music, if it is a
very strong and conclusive cadence. In plainchant, the location and relative strengths
of all cadences were determined by the syntax of the sacred text.
b. Weaker cadences—comparable, perhaps, to a comma in writing rather than a period
—can occur on other selected pitches within the mode, but cadences on pitches other than
the final will sound less conclusive.
D. In nearly every case, the texts of Medieval sacred music are older than the music itself—
for instance, during the Divine Office (see below) monks and nuns sing or recite all 150 Psalms
from the Bible’s Old Testament—and it is the text that is most important. Therefore, the
music was created in a manner that accentuates and is entirely dependent upon the syntax of the
text the music sets.
1. There are three basic types of text setting, two of which you must know:
a. syllabic: each syllable of the text is set to only one pitch
b. neumatic: (not a term you need to know) some syllables are set to small groups of
pitches, often four or five pitches per syllable. These groups of pitches were notated
using symbols that we now call neumes.
c. melismatic: a text setting that contains melismas; a melisma is a single syllable of
text that is set to a large number of pitches.
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2. In general, a syllabic text setting presents the sacred words in the plainest or most easily
understood manner, whereas a melismatic text setting elongates the syllables and might make
the text more obscure. However, a melismatic presentation might not impede comprehension
when the sacred text is very brief (as in the Kyrie of the Mass) or otherwise well known to the
intended audience.
E. All of the music found in music manuscripts from the 9th – 11th centuries fit into the broad
category (not technically a genre) of PLAINCHANT (also known as plainsong or simply as
chant):
1. People often mistakenly refer to all monophonic, a cappella, sacred vocal music with a
Latin text as ‘Gregorian chant’, but that is only correct when referring to the 3000 or so
melodies that became associated with Pope Gregory I’s sixth-century liturgical reforms.
There are in fact many plainchants that are older or more recent than the sixth century.
2. The most important part of a plainchant is its text, and therefore the specific genre of a
plainchant is determined by the function of that text. Most of those texts were
intended for one of the two primary worship services of the Roman Catholic Church: the
Mass or the Divine Office.
F. In the Medieval Period, plainchant was (and actually still is) performed in the two primary
worship services of the Roman Catholic Church: the MASS and the DIVINE OFFICE.
See the RCC Liturgy handout posted to MyCourses for a description of these religious practices
and the role of music within them. You do not have to know any of the parts of the Divine
Office or most parts of the Mass, but you do have to know the five parts of the Ordinary of
the Mass in order and with correct spelling.

♪ Anonymous, Viderunt omnes

https://youtu.be/EN73kO2_PZA [YouTube video including late-Medieval notation]
original Latin text English translation
Viderunt omnes fines terræ All the ends of the earth have seen
salutare Dei nostri. the salvation of our God.
Jubilate Deo, omnis terra. Rejoice in the Lord, all lands.
Notum fecit Dominus salutare suum; The Lord has made known his
ante conspectum gentium salvation;
revelavit justitiam suam in the sight of the heathen
he has revealed his righteousness.
1. The musical characteristics or ‘style traits’ of this piece are those generally associated with
all plainchant.
a. TEXT = LATIN (language) and SACRED (function)
b. NONMETRICAL: i.e., rhythmically ‘free’: i.e., it has no discernible beat or meter
c. based harmonically on the CHURCH MODES of the Medieval musical-theoretical
system, much discussed and written about by medieval scholars. This particular piece is
based in the Mixolydian (G) mode. (No, you do not have to know the mode of the piece.)
d. Plainchants are typically performed with a MONOPHONIC TEXTURE, meaning
that the music consists only of a single melody line. Whether sung by an individual, a
small group or a large group, there is only one part and everyone sings that same part.
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e. Plainchants are usually performed A CAPPELLA (the ensemble type), which means
‘for the choir’ (without any instruments, although practices did vary widely).
f. This recording is an example of direct performance, a performance practice (see
below) for either one singer alone or multiple singers singing together throughout.
2. The most specific genre term for this piece is plainchant gradual: ‘plainchant’
describes the style of performance (as explained above) and ‘gradual’ is the function of this
particular text.
a. A gradual is part of the Mass Proper and is sung after the reading or chanting of
the Epistle and before the Alleluia.
b. This particular gradual (Viderunt omnes) is associated with the Christmas season.
c. The chant was subsequently expanded upon by composers of the Notre Dame school
who developed it as type of early polyphony known as organum.
G. Most manuscripts of medieval chant contain simply the text and the music, and provide no
directions at all regarding ‘performance practice’ (i.e., the often unwritten rules regarding how
music is actually performed). However, there are three general manners of performing any chant:
1. Direct performance: solo or unison performance of the music throughout—i.e., one
person or multiple people singing the same thing together (not in alternation).
2. Responsorial singing: in which a solo singer or ‘leader’ performs verses of the text and
the choir and/or congregation answers each verse with the following verse or with a response
or refrain. Common responses were the simple Hebrew words amen (an expression of
affirmation) and hallelujah (‘praise Jahweh’), but others were more expansive.
3. Antiphonal singing: in which singers were divided into two groups that take turns singing
phrases of text in alternation (with no individual ‘leader’).

**YouTube Links for discussions of plainchant performed in the modern world**

The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenskreuz (professional video on YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sFgtIpjrGk
Anonymous 4 (famous, highly recommended vocal quartet of early music specialist)
teaching at Chant Camp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_lr3CYWPkM

Medieval image of monks (some of

whom appear to be young boys,
because of their relative size)
singing together from a single, large
manuscript book—a common
Medieval practice. Note that one of
the monks appears to be teaching or
directing the others.
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III. St. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
A. One of the first composers for whom we have
numerous pieces of music and a well established
biography. Obviously she was well known in her day,
for her musical works, poetry and other writings
were widely copied and disseminated around Europe.
1. Hildegard lived all of her life in service to the
Church, eventually becoming a convent abbess
and founding her own convent in Rupertsburg
(western Germany). This convent survives today.
2. A noted visionary, mystic, and prolific writer of
original poetry, prose and music. In addition to
her spiritual writings and morality plays,
Hildegard wrote on a wide variety of topics,
including science, medicine, botany, and sexuality.
3. Her visions and prophecies made her famous
throughout Europe: popes, kings, and priests
sought her advice on political and religious issues.
She was an unusually well-educated, famous and
powerful woman for her time.
B. Hildegard wrote religious poetry with music, collected in the Symphonia armonie celestium
revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations)
1. Her poetry is characterized by brilliant imagery and visionary language.
2. Much of her original poetry celebrates the lives of local saints, such as St. Rupert, the
patron saint of Hildegard’s convent, but many others are in praise of the Virgin Mary.
C. Hildegard’s musical style is rather unusual for her time; it uses an expansive range (most
chant is much more limited), occasional wide intervallic leaps, and florid melismas. The
technical challenges of her music suggest that Hildegard worked with talented singers in a
sophisticated musical establishment.
♪ Hildegard of Bingen, Alleluia! O virga mediatrix
webpage about this piece at International Society for Hildegard con Bingen Studies
http://www.hildegard-society.org/2014/10/alleluia-o-virga-mediatrix-alleluia-verse.html
original Latin English translation
Alleluia! Alleluia!
O virga mediatrix, O branch and mediatrix,
sancta viscera tua your sacred flesh
mortem superaverunt has conquered death,
et venter tuus omnes creaturas your womb all creatures
illuminavit illumined
in pulchro flore de suavissima integritate in beauty’s bloom from that exquisite purity
clausi pudoris tui of your enclosed modesty
orto. sprung forth.
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“This verse, meant to accompany the singing of the Gospel
at Mass, is one of Hildegard’s elegant meditations on the
Virgin Mary’s role in salvation history as prefigured in
the ‘flowering branches’ of two Old Testament figures:
Aaron’s blooming staff (Numbers 17:1-11) and the
branch of the root and Tree of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). The
prefiguration was particularly fertile for medieval minds
because of the similarity of the two Latin words, virgo
(virgin) and virga (branch or rod), and the illustration of
salvation history as a tree of life rooted in those patriarchs
and blossoming into the Virgin and the fruit of her womb
was popular in medieval art.”
a. Genre = plainchant Alleluia, part of the Mass
Proper, usually performed before the reading of the
Gospel to accompany the procession of the minister and
book of Gospels.
b. Text = sacred (function)/ Latin (language);
a meditation on the Virgin Mary, a very prominent theme
in Hildegard’s original poetry.
c. Texture = monophonic throughout (comprised of a single melody line only)—at least
that is the way the music looks in the original manuscript.
d. Performance practice: The required listening materials for Quiz #1 includes two
different performances of Hildegard’s Alleluia! O virga mediatrix, demonstrating just two
of the innumerably different ways this work might have been performed in the past.

♪ Performance #1 Alleluia! O virga mediatrix version #1 on MyCourses

https://youtu.be/j-xhStMloyo (from a CD called Canticles of Ecstasy)
ensemble: a single female soprano soloist with an improvised harp countermelody.
Please note that the harp part heard in this recording is not part of the original work; the
harpist is simply improvising using pitches within the mode of the notated vocal part. It
is certainly possible that monophonic chants were turned into polyphonic works
through such a performance practice, although it is a matter of debate.
Note that performance #1 is also much quicker, energetic and virtuosic than the second
performance. It is also an example of a direct performance of plainchant.
♪ Performance #2 Alleluia! O virga mediatrix version #2 on MyCourses
https://youtu.be/27ol_QffDhE (same or similar to performance posted)
ensemble: a cappella male choir
This is a much more ‘conservative’ performance of Hildegard’s Alleluia. It is
monophonic throughout, and of course it is a cappella. The first ‘Alleluia’ is sung by a
male soloist (the leader), but the second ‘Alleluia’ is sung by a larger group (the choir),
therefore this is also an example of a responsorial performance of plainchant.
e. Note that in both performance the melody becomes more melismatic as it continues,
with the voice or voices rising to the upper range, thus requiring very skilled singers.
Hildegard’s music is known for the large ranges of the parts and the frequent,
complicated melismas, through which the music expresses religious ecstasy.
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D. General thoughts on the concept of PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
1. Performance practice: the study of how music was performed in a given and specific
time and place, perhaps even by a specific historical performer. Such study often results in
modern attempts to recreate that earlier method of performance (if possible).
2. Recreating historically ‘authentic’ performances can be a difficult pursuit for a variety of
reasons:
a. musical notation is notoriously imprecise and incomplete, especially in the case of
earlier music.
b. Historical performers typically took the un-notated details of their own performance
practice for granted and did not bother to describe it adequately in writing (adequately for
modern scholars that is—obviously the notation used by people of any given historical
period suited those peoples’ needs perfectly well).
c. It is often difficult to avoid recreating older music in a manner that conforms to our
own modern tastes, especially if that music is for sale to the public.

Late medieval, highly

decorated manuscript
image of nuns sitting and
presumably singing in choir
stalls. Note that each of the
nuns is holding an
individual part book, which
was not a typical
medieval practice, since it
would have required great
expense to create
individual, handwritten part
books for so many singers.