SACRED MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

 UBE CARITAS0 - is a chant or hymn traditionally used as an ANTIPHON, a verse recited or sung after a
psalm or canticle in a liturgy, during the Christian Church’s washing of the feet ceremony on Maundy
Thursday. The actual origin of the hymn is unknown but presumed to be created between 300 and
1100

MUSIC MAP
ALL VOICES Ubi caritas et amor , Deus ibi est

OO:OO – OO:11 Where charity and love are, God is there.

LOW VOICES Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor

OO:12-OO:22 Christ’s love has gathered us into one.

HIGH VOICES Exsultemus, et amemus Deum vivum.

OO:22-OO:30 Let us rejoice and be pleased in him.

LOW VOICES Timeamus, et amemus deum vivum.

OO:31- OO:40 Let us fear, and let us love the living God.

HIGH VOICES Et ex corde diligamus nos sincere.

OO:41-OO:52 And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

ALL VOICES Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

OO:53-O1:O3 Where charity and love are, God is there.

INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Music of the Middle Ages, also known as Medieval music, flourished from 400 to 1450. It was also the
period when the Christian Church became heavily involved in secular society in the Western World,
attaining enormous influence in their politics, culture, and the arts.
As a result of it’s influence, music in this era was mainly sacred or religious and performed for church
purposes

GREGORIAN CHANT
The best-known type of a plainchant or plainsong, was the dominant religious music during the Medieval
period. Its melodies were set to sacred Latin text meant to enhance the church services.
The music of the Gregorian Chant was rhythmically free-flowing and monophonic in texture.
 SACRED MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Advent of notation

 In Ancient times, Chants were usually learned by ear and memorization and passed on orally. But
in order to disseminate and duplicate their correct performances musicians started developing
and writing notation, adding to it signs called neumes.
 A neumes is a musical symbol which designates one to four notes to a single syllable.
 Staff – a series of parallel horizontal lines where notes are written down on.
 SOLMIZATION
 Another innovation by Arezzo to help musicians memorize and sight-sing chants was to assign a
syllable to each tone of the scale.

Organum

Centuries, musical style in the Middle Ages, were steadily monophonic. But around the tenth to eleventh
century , church musicians began singing four or five notes below the melody of the chant resulting in a
parallel harmony.

CHURCH MODES

By the tenth century music theorist had reached a system that would categorize the melody of the chants
based on scale-like system known as the church modes.

PLAINSONG OR PLAINCHART- a body of chants of monophonic and rhymically unmeasured style

used in liturgical services of the western Church.

TEXTURE – a musical element that focuses on the number of melodic lines sounded together in a piece
of music; also refer to overall quality of the interweaving melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic materials in a
piece of music.

PART WRITING- The composition of parts in consideration of the harmony and counter point.

The Christian Church had a great influence in the music of the Middle Ages.

GREGORIAN chant was the dominant religious music in the Middle Ages; it was rhythmically free-
flowing, monophonic, in texture and sung in unison without accompaniment and meter.
Significant breakthroughs of the period were the conception of staff notation, Solmization, Organum,
and Church mode.