Late Chant and

Secular Song
c1000-1300
 The Sung Items of the Mass

Proper Ordinary
(e.g. invariable
text, variable melody)

Fore-Mass
Introit
Kyrie
Gloria
Gradual
Alleluia / Tract

Eucharist
Credo
Offertory
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Communion
Ite missa est
 The Sung Items of the Mass

Proper Ordinary
(e.g. invariable
text, variable melody)

Fore-Mass
Introit
Kyrie
Gloria
Gradual
Alleluia / Tract
Sequence
Eucharist
Credo
Offertory
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Communion
Ite missa est
Sequence

• Late (10th c) chant genre (Proper)

• Sung in the Mass, after the Alleluia.

• Hundreds composed

• In 16th century, pared down to five

Sequence

• Newly composed texts are set syllabically

• Usual Form: A BB CC DD … X
• Note the characteristic paired versicles
• Notker Balbulus traces origins to troping, or
adding text to, the jubilus of the Alleluia
Easter Sequence: Victime
paschali laudes (NAWM 5)
• One of few chants attributed to an author: Wipo of Burgundy,
• One of the five sequences retained in the present-day liturgy
• Characteristic of late chant, range is large: an 11th (A-d)
• Almost entirely syllabic
Trope
Compositional technique
practiced from the 9th century
onwards

TROPE – The addition of new

music or text or both to an
existing chant.

Three ways of troping:

• Add a melisma to a chant
• Add text to a melisma
• Add a new section of text and
music to a chant
Trope on Puer natus est
(Christmas) (NAWM 6)
• Shows two types of trope:

• The first 13 lines are a textual trope, a mini-drama added before

the Introit of the Mass for Christmas day (Puer natus est)
• Dramatizes the birth scene: shepherds and midwives ponder what is
about to happen
• Line 13” the shepherds introduce the Introit:
• “Let all sing with the prophet, saying: [begin Introit, Puer natus est]

• The last melisma is a musical trope: a melisma is added at the

end of the Introit, on the last syllable of “angelus”
Hildegard of Bingen
• 12th Century Mystic
• Abbess/leader of a female
monastery
• Had ecstatic visions,
• later wrote these down in text and
images (and music)
• Important works: Ordo Virtutum,
Scivias
• Composed non-liturgical works in
late chant style
• One of few named composers, only
named female
Ordo Virtutum
(The Order of Virtues)
• A morality play
• Allegorical drama
• Instructs audience on how to live the Good life
• Characters are abstract
• Personifications of moral attributes, i.e. chastity, humility, etc
• Earliest known morality play is Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo
Virtutum
• Only Medieval musical drama w/known author
Ordo Virtutum
• Story:
• Soul is torn between temptations of Devil and sway of Virtues
• Music:
• All characters sing in plainchant except the devil
• Devil does not sing (because he is Godless)
• Final Chorus “In principio omnes” (NAWM 7)
• A short speech by Christ “This I know…” introduced by four lines of
verse
• Mode 3
• Dramatically large range
• “Oculi” and “Patrem” reach a high g (a 12th)
• Ends with a flourish:
• Melismas,
• difficult intervals to sing: two ascending 4ths on “Porrigat”
 Ordo Virtutum
Chorus “In principio omnes” (NAWM 7)
• In principio omnes creature viruerunt, in
medio flores floruerunt; postea viriditas
descendit. Et istud vir preliator vidit et
dixit:
• Hoc scio, sed aureus numerus nondum est
plenus. Tu ergo, patemum speculum aspice:
in corpore meo fatigationem sustineo,
parvuli etiam mei deficiunt.
• Nunc memor esto, quod plenitudo que in
primo facta est arescere non debuit, et tunc
te habuisti quod oculus tuus numquam
cederet usque dum corpus meum videres
plenum gemmarum. Nam me fatigat quod
omnia membra mea in irrisionem vadunt.
Pater, vide, vulnera mea tibi ostendo.
• Ergo nunc, omnes homines, genua vestra ad
patrem vestrum flectite, ut vobis manum
suam porrigat.
• In the beginning all creation was verdant,
flowers blossomed in the midst of it; later,
greenness sank away. And the champion saw
this and said:
• "I know it, but the golden number is not yet
full. You then, behold me, mirror of your
fatherhood: in my body I am suffering
exhaustion, even my little ones faint.
• Now remember that the fullness which was
made in the beginning need not have grown
dry, and that then you resolved that your eye
would never fall until you saw my body full
of jewels. For it wearies me that all my limbs
are exposed to mockery: Father, behold, I am
showing you my wounds.“
• So now, all you people, bend your knees to
the Father, that he may reach you his hand.
Troubadours, Trouveres, Minstrels, Pilgrims

SECULAR SONG IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval Singer-Songwriters
• Three “types”
• Troubadours / Trobairitz
• Southern France. Language:
Occitan (Provençal)
• Trouvères
• Northern France. Language: Old
French
• Minnesingers
• German lands. Language:
German

French and Occitan Boundaries

Court Culture / Courtly Love
Bernart de Ventadorn (c1130-c1200)
• Troubadour
• Possibly lived in the castle of
Ventadorn (Southern France)

• 45 poems survive, 18 with music

(that’s a lot)

• Cansos helped define

conventions of courtly love
poetry
•
Canso, “Can vei la lauzeta mover”
(NAWM 8)
Can vei la lauzeta mover
De joi sas alas contral rai,
Que s'oblid' e.s laissa chazer
Per la doussor c'al cor li vai,
Ai! Tan grans enveya m'en ve
De cui qu'eu veya jauzion,
Meravilhas ai, car desse
Lo cor de dezirer no.m fon.
Ai, las! Tan cuidava saber
D'amor, e tan petit en sai,
Car eu d'amar no.m posc tener
Celeis don ja pro non aurai.
Tout m'a mo cor, e tout m'a me,
E se mezeis e tot lo mon;
E can se.m tolc, no.m laisset re
Mas dezirer e cor volon.
Etc.
When I see the lark
Spread its wings for joy and fly towards the
sun,
Forget itself, and fall
In the bliss that rushes to its heart
Alas! How I then envy
All creatures that I see happy.
I am amazed that my heart
Does not melt away there and then with
longing.
Alas! how much of love I thought I knew
And how little I know,
For I cannot stop loving
Her from whom I may have nothing.
All my heart, and all herself,
And all my own self and all I have
She has taken from me, and leaves me
nothing
But longing and a seeking heart.
Bernart de Ventadorn, Can vei la
lauzeta (NAWM 8, p. 39)
syl. ct. rhyme
Can vei la lauzeta mover 8 a
De joi sas alas contral rai, 8 b
Que s'oblid' e.s laissa chazer 8 a
Per la doussor c'al cor li vai, 8 b
Ai! Tan grans enveya m'en ve 8 c
De cui qu'eu veya jauzion, 8 d
Meravilhas ai, car desse 8 c
Lo cor de dezirer no.m fon. 8 d
Comtessa Beatrix de Dia (c1200)
• A Trobairitz

• In love with a count, wrote many songs about

her obsession

• “A chantar” is another canso (in Occitan

language),
• Also courtly love, but from a lady’s perspective

• This is the only surviving song by a trobairitz

Canso, “A chantar”
1. A chantar m'er de so qu'eu no volria,
tant me rancur de lui cui sui amia;
car eu l'am mais que nuilla ren que sia:
vas lui no.m val merces ni cortezia
ni ma beltatz ni mos pretz ni mos sens;
c'atressi.m sui enganad' e trahia
Com degr' esser, s'eu fos dezavinens.
2. D'aisso.m conort, car anc non fi faillensa,
Amics, vas vos per nuilla captenenssa;
ans vo am mais non fetz Seguis Valensa,
e platz mi mout quez eu d'amar vos vensa,
lo meus amics, car etz lo plus valens;
mi faitz orgoil en digz et en parvensa,
et si etz francs vas totas autras gens.
1. I must sing of what I do not want,
I am so angry with the one whom I love,
Because I love him more than anything:
[Neither] mercy nor courtesy moves him,
Neither does my beauty, nor my worthiness,
nor my good sense,
For I am deceived and betrayed
As much as I should be, if I were ugly.
2. I take comfort because I never did anything
wrong,
Friend, towards you in anything,
Rather I love you more than Seguin did Valensa,
And I am greatly pleased that I conquered you in
love,
My friend, because you are the most worthy;
You are arrogant to me in words and appearance,
And yet you are so friendly towards everyone
else.
A minstrel
French and Occitan Boundaries
Albigensian or Cathar Crusade
(1209-1229)
Pope declares war on “heretics” hiding out in Occitan courts
Other Vernacular song traditions
• Trouveres: Northern French – 12-14th C
• Formes fixes
• Minnesingers: German – 12-14th C
• Bar form
• Cantigas of Alfonso el Sabio (13th C)
• One of largest collections of vernacular monophony of Middle
Ages
• Notated with rhythm
Cantigas de Santa María
• Over 400 songs about / in
honor of the Virgin
• Compiled by King Alfonso X
the Wise (El Sabio) of Castille
• In Galician-Portuguese
language
• Survive in 4 manuscripts,
lavishly illustrated
• Highly organized
• Each song mentions Mary
• Every 10th song is a hymn in
praise of Mary
• Melodies have rhythm, but
we’re not sure what it is
King Alfonso the Wise,
writing the Cantigas
Lute and Rebec
Harps
Zithers
Cantiga 159, “Non sofre Santa
Maria”
Non sofre Santa Maria Mary does not allow
Deseeren perdidosos Losses to befall
Os que as sas romarias Those who desire
Son de fazer desejosos. To undertake Her pilgrimages.

E dest’ oyd un miragre And for this, listen to a miracle

De que vos quero falar, That I want to tell you about,
Que mostrou Santa Maria, That Mary performed,
Per com’ eu oy contar, As I heard it told,
Aũuns romeus que foron For some pilgrims who went
A Rocamador orar To Rocamador to pray,
Como mui bõos crischãos, Like many good Christians,
simplement,’ e omildosos. simply and humbly.
Non sofre Maria… Mary does not allow…

E pois entraron no burgo, After they entered the town,

Foron pousada fillar They went to an inn,
E mandaron conprar carne And ordered meat be bought
E pan pera seu jantar And bread for their supper,
E vynno: e entre tanto And wine; and in the meantime
Foron aa Virgen rogar They went to pray to the Virgin
Que a seu Fillo rogasse That she pray to Her Son for them
Dos seus rogos piadosos With Her merciful prayers.

Non sofre Maria… Mary does not allow

E mandaron nove postas And they ordered nine chops of meat,
Meter, asse Deus m’anpar, As God is my witness, to be put
Na ola, ca tantos eran; Into the pot, that’s how many they were,
Mais poi las foron tirar, But when they pulled them out,
Acharon end’hua menos, They found one fewer,
Que a serventa furtar- For a servant girl had robbed
lles for a, e foron todos them and they were all
poren ja quanto queixosos. complaining a lot about it.

Mary does not allow

And they searched throughout the house

Trying to find it
Calling to Holy Mary
ESTAMPIE – Popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries.
• Several (4-7) sections
• Each section is repeated with different endings (open/ouvert and
closed/clos)
• Form: is AA’ BB’ CC’ DD’ etc.
• Copied in the Manuscrit du Roi (13th c) – rare instance of
instrumental music being written out.