The organum, for example, expanded upon plainchant melody using an accompanying line, sung at a fixed interval, with a resulting alternation between polyphony and monophony. The principles of the organum date back to an anonymous ninth century tract, the Musica enchiriadis , which established the tradition of duplicating a preexisting plainchant in parallel motion at the interval of an octave, a fifth or a fourth.
Of greater sophistication was the motet, which developed from the clausula genre of medieval plainchant and would become the most popular form of medieval polyphony. While early motets were liturgical or sacred, by the end of the thirteenth century the genre had expanded to include secular topics, such as courtly love.
During the Renaissance, the Italian secular genre of the madrigal also became popular. Similar to the polyphonic character of the motet, madrigals featured greater fluidity and motion in the leading line. The madrigal form also gave rise to canons, especially in Italy where they were composed under the title Caccia. These were three-part secular pieces, which featured the two higher voices in canon, with an underlying instrumental long-note accompaniment.
Finally, purely instrumental music also developed during this period, both in the context of a growing theatrical tradition and for court consumption. Dance music, often improvised around familiar tropes, was the largest purely instrumental genre. The secular Ballata, which became very popular in Trecento Italy, had its origins, for instance, in medieval instrumental dance music.
During the Medieval period the foundation was laid for the notational and theoretical practices that would shape western music into what it is today.
The most obvious of these is the development of a comprehensive notational system; however the theoretical advances, particularly in regard to rhythm and polyphony, are equally important to the development of western music.
The earliest Medieval music did not have any kind of notational system. The tunes were primarily monophonic and transmitted by oral tradition. However, this form of notation only served as a memory aid for a singer who already knew the melody. As Rome tried to centralize the various liturgies and establish the Roman rite as the primary tradition the need to transmit these chant ideas across vast distances effectively was equally glaring.
The first step to fix this problem came with the introduction of various signs written above the chant texts, called neumes. The origin of neumes is unclear and subject to some debate; however, most scholars agree that their closest ancestors are the classic Greek and Roman grammatical signs that indicated important points of declamation by recording the rise and fall of the voice.
These the acutus and the gravis could be combined to represent graphical vocal inflections on the syllable This kind of notation seems to have developed no earlier than the eighth century, but by the ninth it was firmly established as the primary method of musical notation.
The basic notation of the virga and the punctum remained the symbols for individual notes, but other neumes soon developed which showed several notes joined together. These new neumes —called ligatures—are essentially combinations of the two original signs. This basic neumatic notation could only specify the number of notes and whether they moved up or down. There was no way to indicate exact pitch, any rhythm, or even the starting note.
These limitations are further indication that the neumes were developed as tools to support the practice of oral tradition, rather than to supplant it. However, even though it started as a mere memory aid, the worth of having more specific notation soon became evident.
Beneventan music notation showing diastamatic neumes and a single-line staff. Montecassino, Italy, second half of twelfth century. This allowed the neumes to give a rough indication of the size of a given interval as well as the direction. This quickly led to one or two lines, each representing a particular note, being placed on the music with all of the neumes relating back to them.
At first, these lines had no particular meaning and instead had a letter placed at the beginning indicating which note was represented. However, the lines indicating middle C and the F a fifth below slowly became most common.
Having been at first merely scratched on the parchment, the lines now were drawn in two different colored inks: usually red for F, and yellow or green for C.
This was the beginning of the musical staff as we know it today. While older sources attribute the development of the staff to Guido, some modern scholars suggest that he acted more as a codifier of a system that was already being developed. Either way, this new notation allowed a singer to learn pieces completely unknown to him in a much shorter amount of time.
However, even though chant notation had progressed in many ways, one fundamental problem remained: rhythm. The neumatic notational system, even in its fully developed state, did not clearly define any kind of rhythm for the singing of notes. The music theory of the Medieval period saw several advances over previous practice both in regard to tonal material, texture, and rhythm. Concerning rhythm, this period had several dramatic changes in both its conception and notation.
During the early Medieval period there was no method to notate rhythm, and thus the rhythmical practice of this early music is subject to heated debate among scholars.
Digraphic neumes in an 11th-century manuscript from Dijon. Letter names for individual notes in the neume are provided. One line was marked as representing a particular pitch, usually C or F. These neumes resembled the same thin, scripty style of the chironomic notation. By the eleventh century, chironomic neumes had evolved into square notation; in Germany, a variant called Gothic neumes continued to be used until the sixteenth century.
This variant is also known as Hufnagel notation , as the used neumes resemble the nails hufnagels one uses to attach horseshoes. By the thirteenth century, the neumes of Gregorian chant were usually written in square notation on a staff with four lines and three spaces and a clef marker, as in the fourteenth—fifteenth-century Graduale Aboense shown here.
In square notation, small groups of ascending notes on a syllable are shown as stacked squares, read from bottom to top, while descending notes are written with diamonds read from left to right. In melismatic chants, in which a syllable may be sung to a large number of notes, a series of smaller such groups of neumes are written in succession, read from left to right. Definition offical music of the ROman Catholic Church. Term Why is it called Gregorian Chant?
Definition named after Pope Gregory the first who reorganized the catholic liturgy. Term When were the earliest surviving chant manuscripts? Definition ninth century. Term What were the two types of services the Chants were sung at? Definition Office and Mass. Term Why were the chants first notated?
Definition To ensure uniformity throughout the western church. Term Church Modes. Definition like our scales had 7 diff tones and an 8th that duplicates the first an octave higher. Term Hildegard of Bingen. Definition abess of Rupertsbeg in germany. Term drone. Definition one or more long sustained tones accompanying a melody. Term first secular songs surviving in decipherable notations were composed by whom?
Definition French nobles known as toubadours and trouveres. Term what did most secular songs speak about? Definition LOVE. Term what were the wandering musicians called and how were they considered.
Definition jongleurs. Term estampie. Definition medival dance. Term rebec.
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