CLASS #2

Middle Ages
• medieval

◦ period between antiquity and modernity

• The Great Schism 1054

◦ break of communion between Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church

• The Crusades 1096 - 1272

• Sack of Constantinople 1204

◦ happened in 4th crusade

• The Hundred Years' War 1337 -1453

◦ england - france

• Great European Famine 1315 - 1322

◦ triggered by environmental problems (climate change)

• Bubonic Plague (black death) 1347

Dante

• The Divine Comedy - poem

• written in Italian, using Tuscan dialect which became literary Italian

• depiction of profound Christian vision of life and beyond

• refers to classical writers such as Virgil, Cicero, Boethius

Boccaccio (1304-1374)

• Decameron, published in Venice

• lived during Black Death

• eed Florence to escape Black Death

Petrarca

• Italian scholar, poet, and humanist -- from Tuscany (around Florence)

• father of humanism

◦ in 1345, he discovered the letters written by Cicero, 106-43BC, who's a Roman statesman,
lawyer, scholar and writer

• called Medieval times "dark ages"

humanism

• studia humanitatis

• Cicero mentions the word in writings

• study of humanity subject is widespread in Italian universities by the end of 14th centuries

• one of the factors that are thought to instigated the renaissance

scholasticism

• system of theology and philosophy, based on Aristotelian logic + writings of early Christian Fathers

• emphasizes tradition and xed religious dogma

• dominated majority of schools of western Europe from 1100 until 1600

University of Bologna

• 1088

• rst university

Oxford University

• 1096

• second university

• born from church

7 liberal arts

• quadrivium (more mathematical subjects)

◦ arithmetic

◦ geometry

◦ astronomy

◦ music

• trivium

◦ grammar

◦ logic

◦ rhetoric

three higher faculties:

• law

• medicine

• theology

Boethius (470 - 524)

• Roman scholar, philosopher, statesman

• Consolation of Philosophy

• Principles of Music

◦ described Pythagorean unity of math and music

◦ discussed the Platonic concept relationship between music and society

!! Boethius added another angle to Harmony of the Spheres in Principles of Music. He divides music
into 3 branches:

• music mundana (musica universalis)

◦ music in outer world, heard in the universe

• musica humana (internal music of human body)

• musica instrumentalis (sounds made by singers and instrumentalist)

Arts in the Middle Ages (475 - 1400)

• intertwined with the history of Christian church

• lack of perspective and depth --> two dimensional art

• art seen in middle ages:

◦ painting, mosaic art, manuscript illumination, architecture, architectural sculpture, stained

glass art -----> predominantly religious and functional

! painting had a function of teaching Bible stories.

Giotto (1266 - 1337)

• father of European painting, rst of the great Italian masters

• transitional artist to the renaissance

• liberator of Italian painting from Byzantine style to ___ style

◦ ___ style

‣ 2 dimensional, primitive looking looks

• exclusively religious gures

• !! realism and naturalness

Music in Early Middle Ages

• singing of chant (psalms and hymns) --> religious services

• Gregory the Great is associated with creating the term Gregorian Chant (monophonic) but its
wrong

• di . chant traditions in Europe were merged with Gregorian chant. that became the o cial music
of Catholic Church during the reign of Charlemagne.

• the need to communicate music led to development of the notation of chant

◦ that's why music that has survived is overwhelmingly religious

characteristic of Gregorian Chant

• singers were priests/monks/nuns

• words in Latin

• monophonic --> only melody, no accompaniment

• no instruments, just human voice

• exible rhythm

• scales: church modes -- modal music

• no notation --> learned by repeating + memorizing

• performance manners:

◦ direct

‣ solo or sung in unison

◦ responsorial

‣ a soloist alternates with the choir

◦ antiphonal

‣ two groups of the choir alternate in singing

ancient Greeks and renaissance music was modal.

** Tonal harmony refers to music with a tonal center based on major and minor. (1650-1900 classical
period is Tonal!)

notation begins with neumes - 900:

• graphic symbols inscribed over words to stand for single notes and short
groups

• did not indicate speci c pitch or show note duration

• you needed to know the melody already

Boethius gave name to notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

Guidio d'Arezzo (991 - 1033)

• monk from Italy

• inventor of modern notation

◦ rst sta notation system

◦ four line sta

• solmization

◦ method of assigning a syllabic name to each tone of the scale (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la)

◦ "ut" changed to "do" and seventh note si/ti was added

◦ created this using a chant

Medieval Architecture

• Romanesque Architecture 100-1150

◦ inspired by Roman architectural elements

 ◦ sturdy and durable buildings

‣ thick stone walls, few and small windows, tall towers, rounded arches,

• Gothic Architecture (1150-1450)

◦ vertical emphasis, highly decorated, stone sculptures, larger and stained glass windows,
frescos

◦ !!! more layers, more height, more expensive outlook --> gothic

Beginnings Polyphony

• polyphonic --> di erent lines of music being sang that the same time

• they called it "organum": 9th-13th century name of polyphony

• Musica Enchiriadis (Music Handbook)

◦ composing and singing organum

• polyphony was taught to heighten the grandeur of the chant and liturgy, just like art and
architectural decoration ornamented church

organum duplum -- Leoninus

• double independent lines

• Leoninus' book: Magnus Liber Organi

◦ rstly in the Notre Dame de Paris

organum quadruplum - Petrotinus

• four independent lines

• by Petrotinus

Leoninus and Perotinus added totally independent voices into the monophonic Gregorian chant.

** The chant was placed at the lowest voice, called tenor

Roman Catholic Mass

• mass: central act of worship of the roman catholic church

◦ set of prayers

• ordinary of the mass:

◦ kyrie (greek)

◦ gloria (all others are latin)

◦ credo

 ◦ sanctus

◦ agnus dei

Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame (1364)

• mass Machaut composed in Cathedral of Notre Dame de Reims

• earliest mass that was written by one sole composer

• earliest polyphonic setting of the entire mass

• 4 voices throughout the mass

• tenor melody is taken from a chant

• music is modal (Dorian mode)

Marc Chagall

• stained glass windows

• axial chapel of Reims Cathedral

• more artwork and depiction of religion

"Do Gothic churches embody musical features?" --> big debate

TERMINOLOGY #2
• scholasticism

◦ medieval school of philosophy taught by academics of unis and cathedrals

◦ 12th to 16th century

◦ authority of church fathers and Aristotle

• icon

◦ a devotional painting of Christ/another holy gure, typically executed on wood

t
◦ used ceremonially in Byzantine and other Eastern Churches

• iconoclasm

◦ destruction of icons

◦ Christians who did it

◦ "it might be wrong to depict holy gure"

◦ "Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy"

• mosaic

• fresco

◦ technique of mural painting executed on wet lime plaster

• unison

◦ entire choir singing the main melody

◦ music which notes are sung in unison is called monophonic

• Gregorian chant

◦ repertory of ecclesiastical chant used in roman catholic church

◦ unaccompanied song used in liturgy (???)

• neumes

◦ signs used in notation of chant to indicate certain number of notes/melodic direction

• monophony

◦ simplest of musical texture, a single unaccompanied melody

• polyphony

◦ when two+ melodies are sung simultaneously

• organum duplum, quadruplum

◦ a style of early polyphony 9th 13th century

◦ addition of one+ voices to an existing chant

◦ two voices --> duplum

◦ four voices --> quadruplum

• romanesque

◦ style of architecture that prevails in western and southern europe, 9th-12th centuries

◦ characterization:

‣ heavy masonry construction with narrow openings,

‣ round arch,

‣ groin vault, barrel vault,

‣ introduction of the vaulting rib, vaulting shaft,

‣ central and western towers for churches,

‣ few decorations

• gothic

◦ style of architecture that originates in France, middle of 12th-16th centuries

◦ western half of Europe

◦ characterization:

‣ pointed arch,

‣ ribbed vault,

‣ use of ne woodwork and stonework,

‣ progressive lightening,

‣ use of ying buttresses, ornamental gables, crockets, foils

• mass

◦ moss import. service of Roman Catholic Church

◦ ????

◦ "Ordinary" service consists sections of: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei

• stained glass

• ars subtilior

◦ style of polyphony, late 14th-early 15th centuries

◦ southern france and northern italy

◦ extreme complexity in rhythm and notation

• patronage

◦ artists worked for patrons.

◦ in medieval period patron was the church or wealthy land-lords commissioning for church

◦ after 1600 shifted away from patronage towards open market

◦ this shift accompanied gradual decline of "sacral" and "courtly" art, which were normally
executed on commission