2. K E Y P O I N T S I N M E D I E VA L M U S I C
The traditions of Western music can be traced back to the social and religious
developments that took place in Europe during the Middle Ages, the years roughly
spanning from about 500 to 1400 A.D. Because of the domination of the early Catholic
Church during this period, sacred music was the most prevalent. Beginning with
Gregorian Chant, sacred music slowly developed into a polyphonic music called organum
performed at Notre Dame in Paris by the twelfth century. Secular music flourished, too,
in the hands of the French trouvères and troubadours, until the period culminated with the
sacred and secular compositions of the first true genius of Western music, Guillaume de
Machaut.
3. GREGORIAN CHANT
The early Christian church derived their music from existing Jewish and Byzantine religious
chant. Like all music in the Western world up to this time, plainchant was monophonic: that is, it
comprised a single melody without any harmonic support or accompaniment. The many
hundreds of melodies are defined by one of the eight Greek modes, some of which sound very
different from the major/minor scales our ears are used to today. The melodies are free in tempo
and seem to wander melodically, dictated by the Latin liturgical texts to which they are set. As
these chants spread throughout Europe , they were embellished and developed along many
different lines in various regions and according to various sects. It was believed that Pope
Gregory I (reigned 590-604) codified them during the sixth-century, establishing uniform usage
throughout the Western Catholic Church.
4. N O T R E DA M E A N D T H E A R S A N T I Q UA
Sometime during the ninth century, music theorists in the Church began
experimenting with the idea of singing two melodic lines simultaneously at parallel
intervals, usually at the fourth, fifth, or octave. The resulting hollow-sounding music
was called organum and very slowly developed over the next hundred years. By the
eleventh century, one, two (and much later, even three) added melodic lines were no
longer moving in parallel motion, but contrary to each other, sometimes even
crossing. The original chant melody was then sung very slowly on long held notes
called the tenor (from the Latin tenere, meaning to hold) and the added melodies
wove about and embellished the resulting drone.
5. THE TROUVÈRES AND THE TROUBADOURS
Popular music, usually in the form of secular songs, existed during the Middle Ages. This music
was not bound by the traditions of the Church, nor was it even written down for the first time
until sometime after the tenth century. Hundreds of these songs were created and performed
(and later notated) by bands of musicians flourishing across Europe during the 12th and 13th
centuries, the most famous of which were the French trouvères and troubadours. The
monophonic melodies of these itinerant musicians, to which may have been added improvised
accompaniments, were often rhythmically lively. The subject of the overwhelming majority of
these songs is love, in all its permutations of joy and pain. One of the most famous of these
trouvères known to us (the great bulk of these melodies are by the ubiquitous "Anonymous") is
Adam de la Halle (ca. 1237-ca. 1286).
6. TYPES OF INSTRUMENTS USED
Woodwind Instruments - Musical instruments which were blown like
trumpets or bagpipes
String Instruments - Musical instruments which were played with a bow or
plucked
Percussion Instruments - various forms of drums and bells were used
during the Medieval times
7. INSTRUMENTS USED
Strings Percussion Woodwinds
The Harp The Flute
Lute • The Drum The Trumpet
• Cymbals The Pipe
The Fiddle
• The Triangle
The Rebec • The Tambourine The Shawm
The Psaltery • The Tabor Recorder
• Timbrel
Chittarone • Bells Flageolet
Cittern The Bagpipe
The Dulcimer The Crumhorn
The Gem
Cornett
