1 | IM– P a r t 2
II. THE MIDDLE AGES
MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES (450-1450)
Objectives
The section provides a brief overview of the medieval period (dark ages, Romanesque, and Gothic
periods) and defines the roles of the three principal social classes of the time: nobility, peasantry, and
clergy. The uses of instruments in the predominantly vocal music of the period are discussed, as is the
ambivalent attitude of the church authorities toward musical instruments.
Suggestions
1. Discuss the social groupings of the Middle Ages, and then compare to present day America.
Do we have a nobility and a peasantry? How does the power of the church today compare with then? If
there are classes today, are there musical associations?
2. The mention of Hildegard of Bingen should whet one’s appetite for more information on the
status of women in music. There is no question that women have been ignored in standard writings on the
subject, and it is time their roles are recognized by examples of women composers and performers. A
highly recommended resource for further information is Women Making Music, edited by Jane Bowers
and Judith Tick.
3. In discussing the restrictions, formulas, and sacred emphasis of the Middle Ages, consider that
the pictorial arts were under similar restraints. The Byzantine icon Madonna and Child Enthroned is a
perfect example of how an anonymous painter transcended the strict formal rules. Does this icon have a
“calm, otherworldly” vision comparable to the “calm, otherworldly” sound of Gregorian chant mentioned
in the text? Can further analogies be fruitfully discussed?
Questions and Topics
1. What was the attitude of the church toward the use of musical instruments?
2. Describe the musical life of a major cathedral.
3. Plato and medieval music.
4. The attitude of the church fathers toward music.
5. Music’s place in the medieval university.
GREGORIAN CHANT
Objectives
The nature of chant is defined, and the role of Pope Gregory in its organization is explained. The
“otherworldly” sound of chant is partly traced to its characteristic scales, the so-called church modes. One
chant, the Alleluia: Vidimus stellam, is singled out for study in both modern and medieval chant notation.
Hildegard of Bingen’s O successores is presented as a late example of Gregorian chant.
Suggestions
1. In order to help students understand the church modes and their use, play the familiar major
and minor scales first, and then help the students sing several of the modes. Explain that the modes can be
defined by means of the white notes on the piano, and help students to write them out in notation.
2. Compare the medieval chant notation of the Alleluia: Vidimus stellam, its modern transcription,
and standard notation. Since there are no bar lines, how can there be rhythm? Quickly review the basic
rules for pronouncing church Latin, and then ask a student to read the text. After following the transcribed
notation, encourage the students to follow the chant notation.
3. Hildegard of Bingen has become a major personality in early music. Her fame is deserved: not
only did she compose a significant number of antiphons, responsories, and sequences, but also the earliest
extant liturgical morality play, Ordo virtutum. Three of her antiphons are available from the Hildegard
Publishing Company (HPC), and the fact that the company was named after her gives some indication of
her renewed stature. The text gives brief biographical details, and then provides a Vocal Music Guide
with original text and English translation for the chant O successores. An amazing work for its time, it is
included in the recordings.
4. Discuss the merits of the second Vatican Council’s decision to institute the use of the
vernacular in place of the traditional Latin liturgy. Ask your Catholic students to describe the musical life
of the churches they attend. Is the ability of the congregation to understand every word worth sacrificing
the large body of chant that has sprung up around this liturgy?
Questions and Topics
1. What are the characteristics of Gregorian chant?
2. How are the church modes different from the major and minor scales?
3. What is the general structure and character of the chant Alleluia: Vidimus stellam?
4. Discuss the names of the church modes and the origins of these names.
5. The liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.
6. Music in the Roman Catholic Church today.
SECULAR MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Objectives
This section provides a very brief introduction to the secular music of the period. The life of the jongleur
is described, as is that of the musical poet of this age of chivalry, the knight. The subject matter of their
songs is discussed, and it is emphasized that, unlike chant, the secular songs probably had regular meters
with clearly defined beats. An estampie is discussed as an example of instrumental music.
Suggestions
1. Discuss the importance of dancing to the nobility, and the use of music for accompaniment.
Referring to the illustration in the text, discuss earlier forms of dancing. Possibly some of the students
have had experiences with country or square dancing that they can share. Have the students ever seen,
heard, or danced to music provided by only one or two musicians, such as those portrayed? Play the
estampie and review the above comments. Is it danceable? Would it be sufficient for a small group, as in
the illustration? What element of music is the most important for dancing? Must there be harmony?
2. Discuss the concept of the nobility as composer-poets. How does this compare with the
standard conception of the Age of Chivalry? As examples, see the trouvère virelai Or la truix and the
minnelied Willekommen Mayenschein by Neidhart von Reuenthal. Both pieces are quite short.
3. Discuss the status of the wandering minstrel in comparison to the composer-poets. Are there
similar differences today between the professional popular or folk musicians and other segments of
society?
3 | IM– P a r t 2
Questions and Topics
1. What was the subject matter of French medieval songs?
2. Compare the rhythm of the Gregorian chant with that of the trouvère songs.
3. The Virgin Mary in the secular love songs of the French Middle Ages.
4. The rhythmic modes in troubadour and trouvère songs.
5. Instrumental accompaniment in the troubadour-trouvère repertory.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLYPHONY: ORGANUM
Objectives
The evolution of polyphony is traced from its beginnings in simple parallel organum, through the addition
of contrary motion and rhythmical independence, to the complex creations of the members of the Notre
Dame school, Leonin and Perotin. A three-voiced organum by Perotin, Alleluia: Nativitas, is discussed as
a representative composition of the Notre Dame school.
Suggestions
1. Review texture by asking the class to sing a familiar song (America, Mary Had a Little Lamb,
etc.) in unison. Discuss the natural division of voices, and the perfect intervals (octaves between sexes,
fourths and fifths between registers S, A, T, B). Introduce parallel organum, and ask them to sing the song
again, this time concentrating on the organum.
2. As a step toward the Notre Dame school, discuss melismatic organum.
3. Discuss Paris as the intellectual and artistic capital of Europe after 1150, and the importance of
Notre Dame Cathedral. Discuss the school of Notre Dame, and Perotin’s Alleluia: Nativitas. Play or sing
the chant given in the text. After playing the recording, point out the two distinct styles of writing in the
tenor, unmeasured and measured. Considering the physical environment for which this work was intended
(the great open spaces of the Gothic cathedral), are there any acoustical reasons for the sustained nature of
the music?
Questions and Topics
1. Trace the evolution of organum from its simplest to its most complex style.
2. Describe measured rhythm and the rhythmic innovations of the Notre Dame composers.
3. Describe the sound of medieval polyphony, based on your experience with Perotin’s Alleluia:
Nativitas.
4. Medieval theorists on consonance and dissonance.
5. The music of Leonin.
6. The music of Perotin.
FOURTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC: THE “NEW ART” IN ITALY AND FRANCE
Objectives
This section discusses the ars nova in Italy and France during the fourteenth century and explains the
cultural milieu in which this musical development took place. The rhythmic characteristics of the new
music are defined, and the increasing secularization of music during this period is illustrated by Landini’s
Ecco la primavera. The career of the leading French composer of the time, Guillaume de Machaut, is
4 | IM– P a r t 2
briefly traced. The section ends with a definition of the mass ordinary and a study of the Agnus Dei from
Machaut’s Notre Dame Mass.
Suggestions
1. Review the section in the text dealing with the fourteenth century, stressing the breakup of
feudalism, the rise of the middle class, the emergence of the vernacular, and other factors encouraging the
rise of secular music. You may wish to discuss literary works of the fourteenth century which, as the text
puts it, “stressed sensuality more than virtue.” Examples: the Canterbury Tales and the Decameron.
2. Francesco Landini’s Ecco la primavera, a ballata about the joys of Springtime, is presented as
an example of a secular song in the new syncopated style. The text has the original Italian, with English
translation. Mixed in with popular and folk songs in a contemporary vein, does Landini’s ballata seem out
of place?
3. Discuss Machaut’s career as priest, secretary, courtier, and church official, as described in the
text. If you wish to relate this to modern times, how does his career compare with that of today’s
“serious” composer? In what sense has the university replaced the court and cathedral as a patron of
music? How does a priest come to write love songs? Discuss the importance of the mass in the Roman
Catholic Church, and its various sections. Point out the sections of the mass ordinary, and the importance
of Machaut’s setting as the first polyphonic treatment by a known composer. Draw attention to the Agnus
Dei, as discussed in the text, then play the work.
4. Discuss the use of modern versus period instruments and the various performance techniques
used prior to the early nineteenth century. If possible, listen to a piece from the fourteenth or early
fifteenth century recorded both on period and modern instruments. What is the student’s reaction?
Discuss which performance they prefer and why.
Questions and Topics
1. Describe the career of Guillaume de Machaut.
2. Discuss the rhythmic innovations of the “New Art.”
3. Describe the form and stylistic characteristics of Machaut’s Notre Dame Mass.
4. Musicians at court in the fourteenth century.
5. Love songs: poetry and music, idealized and realized.
6. Reasons, musical and nonmusical, for the decline of liturgical music during the fourteenth
century.