Example of
Music From
The Middle Ages

Ce fut en Mai
Moniot d'Arras

Middle Ages Music Medieval sacred music Medieval secular music End of the era Middle Ages Information Medieval Terminology

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Prominent Composers
of the
Middle Ages

Hildegard Von Bingen
 

Moniot d'Arras
 

Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant, which is a type of plainsong, is central to the musical tradition of Europe in the Medieval era. Chant (or plainsong) is a monophonic secular form which represents the earliest known music of the Christian church; that which we call Gregorian chant is the stylistically consistent, doctrinally unified version which came together from several different chant traditions (Roman, Mozarabic, Gallican, Ambrosian, and others) under the supervision of Rome in approximately the ninth century. The actual melodies that make up the repertory probably come from several sources, some as far back as the pontificate of Gregory the Great himself (c. 540–604). Many of them were probably written in the politically stable, relatively literate setting of western monasteries during the reign of Charlemagne. The earliest surviving sources of chant showing musical notation are from the early ninth century, though the consistency of the music across a wide area implies that some form of chant notation, now lost, may have existed earlier than this. It should be noted that music notation existed in the ancient world--for example Greece--but the ability to read and write this notation was lost around the fifth century, as was all of the music that went with it.

To what extent the music of the Gregorian Chant represents a survival of the music of the ancient world is much debated by scholars, but certainly there must have been some influence, if only from the music of the synagogue. Only the smallest of scraps of ancient music have survived (for instance, the Seikilos epitaph), but those that have show a not surprising similarity of mode, shape and phrase conception to later western music.

Chant survived and prospered in monasteries and religious centers throughout the chaotic years of the early middle ages, for these were the places of greatest stability and literacy. Christian chant (known as the Mozarabic liturgy) also survived in Spain under Moslem domination, though this was an isolated strand and this music was later suppressed in an attempt to enforce conformity on the entire liturgy.

Most developments in western classical music are either related to, or directly descended from procedures first seen in chant and its earliest elaborations.

Organum
Around the end of the ninth century, singers in monasteries such as St. Gall in Switzerland began experimenting with adding another part to the chant, generally a voice in parallel motion, singing in mostly perfect fourths or fifths with the original tune. This development is called organum, and represents the beginnings of counterpoint, that feature which most definitively distinguishes European music from the rest of world music. Over the next several centuries organum developed in several ways. The most significant was the creation of "florid organum" around 1100, sometimes known as the school of St. Martial (named after a monastery in south-central France, which contains the best-preserved manuscript of this repertory). In "florid organum" the original tune would be sung in long notes while an accompanying voice would sing many notes to each one of the original, often in a highly elaborate fashion, all the while emphasizing the perfect consonances (fourths, fifths and octaves) as in the earlier organa. Later developments of organum occurred in England, where the interval of the third was particularly favored, and where organa were likely improvised against an existing chant melody, and at Notre Dame in Paris, which was to be the center of musical creative activity throughout the thirteenth century.

School of Notre Dame (Ars Antiqua)
The impressive flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony from around 1150 to 1250 corresponded to the equally impressive achievements in Gothic architecture: indeed the center of activity was at the cathedral of Notre Dame itself. This is the period in which rhythmic notation first appeared in western music, as well as structure which was attentive to proportion, texture, and architectural effect. Sometimes this music is called the Parisian school, or Parisian organum, and represents the beginning of what is conventionally known as the ars antiqua. Composers of the period created several new musical forms: clausulae, which were melismatic sections of organa extracted and fitted with new words and further musical elaboration; conductus, which was a song for one or more voices to be sung rhythmically, most likely in a procession of some sort; and tropes, which were rearrangements of older chants with new words and sometimes new music.

The motet, one of the most important musical forms of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, developed initially during the Notre Dame period out of the clausula, especially the form using multiple voices as elaborated by Perotin. It was further developed into a form of great elaboration, sophistication and subtlety in the fourteenth century, the period of the ars nova.

French ars nova
The beginning of the ars nova is one of the few clean chronological divisions in medieval music, since it corresponds to the publication of the Roman de Fauvel, a huge compilation of poetry and music, in 1310 and 1314. The Roman de Fauvel is a satire on abuses in the medieval church, and is filled with medieval motets, lais, rondeaux and other new secular forms. While most of the music is anonymous, it contains several pieces by Philippe de Vitry, one of the first composers of the isorhythmic motet, a development which distinguishes the fourteenth century. The isorhythmic motet was perfected by Guillaume de Machaut, the finest composer of the time. Most of the music of the ars nova was French in origin; however, the term is often loosely applied to all of the music of the fourteenth century, especially to include the secular music of Landini in Italy.

During the ars nova, secular music acquired a polyphonic sophistication formerly found only in sacred music, a development not surprising considering the secular character of the early Renaissance (and it should be noted that while this music is typically considered to be "medieval", the social forces that produced it were responsible for the beginning of the literary and artistic Renaissance in Italy—the distinction between Middle Ages and Renaissance is a blurry one, especially considering arts as different as music and painting). The term "ars nova" [new art, or new technique] was coined by Philippe de Vitry in his treatise of that name (probably written in 1322), in order to distinguish the practice from the music of the immediately preceding age.