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Unit 1. Antiquity and Middle Ages

1. Antiquity: Music of the Ancient Greece

2. Middle Ages

      2.1. Religious vocal music: Gregorian chant

      2.2. Secular vocal music: troubadours

      2.3. The birth of polyphony

3. Dance in Antiquity and Middle Ages

4. Medieval music impact

1. Antiquity: Music of the Ancient Greece

For Greek people, music was an art of divine origins. The word "music" derives from mousiké, that means art of the muses. Music was thought to have magical powers that could cure illnesses and modify behaviours. That is why it was considered an essential discipline in young people's education.

Music and creativity in Ancient Greece

The concept of music comprised music, poetry and dance. It had a monodic texture with heterophonic accompaniment of instruments. They used modal scales, alphabetic notation and metrical feet to measure durations. The most important instruments were:

Sin título.png

Instruments of the Ancient Greece

The "Seikilos Epitaph" is one of the few preserved fragments of the music from the Ancient Greece. It appeared carved on a funerary pillar. But far from being a mournful lament, it is a song that encourages us to enjoy our short lives.

Seikilos epitaph

2. Middle Ages

The Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th centuries, a period dominated by the power of the Church and a profound theocentrism, reflected in the predominance of religious music.

The Middle Ages in 3 1/2 minutes

2.1. Religious vocal music: Gregorian chant

The Gregorian chant was the liturgical chant of the Christian church. It is sung a cappella (without instrumental accompaniment) and the texts are written in Latin. The texture is monodic and uses eight modes or modal scales. The rhythm is prosodic, depending on the text. It uses a neumatic notation (neumes).​

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  • Singing styles:​

    • Syllabic: one note per syllable.

    • Neumatic: two or three notes per syllable.

    • Melismatic: more tan three notes per syllable.

Syllabic

Neumatic

Melismatic

"Puer natus est nobis" (A boy is born for us) is a Gregorian chant for Christmas Day.

Puer natus est nobis

In the Middle Ages, we find female names who enjoyed great recognition as composers. This is the case of the German abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), in religious music.

O ignee spiritus - Hildegard von Bingen

2.2. Secular vocal music: troubadours

Secular music was represented by troubadours, poets-musicians generally from noble birth. Troubadours appeared in the south of France in the 11th century and expanded rapidly throughout Europe. They used monodic textures and the scales of the Gregorian chant. The rhythm was marked.. They wrote songs in the vernacular languages of each area, accompanied by instruments. The texts dealt with themes of courtly love and chivalry.

 

​The Cantigas de Santa María by Alfonso X the Wise are the main example of the repertoire of
troubadours in Spain. They were 427 songs written in Galician-Portuguese and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Cantiga 47 Virgen Santa Maria

Cantiga 100 Santa Maria, strela do dia

Cantiga 166 Como poden per sas culpas

Listen to this song by Adam de la Halle, recognized as the greatest of the French troubadours.

Robins m'aime - Adam de la Halle

Beatriz de Dia (1140-1212), known as the Countess of Day, was one of the great “trobairitz” or troubadour women.

A chantar m'er de so - Beatriz de Dia

2.3. The birth of polyphony

Polyphony appeared in the late 9th century and was developed in three stages:

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  • Primitive polyphony (9th-12th Century): Primitive polyphony was built by improvising upon the base of a Gregorian chant. Forms:

    • Organum: simplest polyphonic form.

      • Parallel organum:  primitive polyphonic form that comprises two melodies in parallel movement.

      • Melismatic organum: primitive polyphonic form in which the cantus firmus is set in long notes and over it the vox organalis sings melismas.

    • Discantus: primitive polyphonic form that comprises two melodies, but when one melody goes higher the other melody goes lower. 

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  • Ars Antiqua (12th-13th Century): new more complex polyphonic forms were developed:

    • Conductus: it is built upon newly created melodies (not Gregorian), with a processional rhythm.

    • Motet: it has 2 to 4 voices; each one of them has a different text and rhythm.

       The musical centre was the Notre Dame School in Paris. Its main composers were Leonin and Perotin.​​

Viderunt omnes - Leonin

Sederunt principes - Pérotin

  • ​Ars Nova (14th Century): mensural notation appeared. Profane polyphonic forms arose, such as canon, ballad and chanson. Listen to this canon called "Laudemus virginem", collected in the Llibre Vermell, a codex copied at the end of the 14th century for entertaining pilgrims who visited the monastery of Montserrat in Catalonia.

Canon: Laudemus virginem - Anonymous

3. Dance in Antiquity and Middle Ages

All ancient civilizations performed dancing as a way of accompaniment and celebration of social events. Greece gave dance a fundamental role in education, and Roman civilization included dancing in their theatrical spectacles. Christianity forbade dances, associated with pagan rites, but in the Middle Ages we find examples generically called estampies. Listen to this estampie, a sung dance composed by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras.

Calenda Maia - Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Unfortunately not many original documents remain on the procedures and steps of dances in the Middle Age time, but we can assume how it was done according to the information which is available.

4. Medieval music impact

Medieval music has inspired contemporary music on numberless occasions.

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For instance, "Gregorian" is a german band that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. In this case, they perform the song "The sound of silence".

Gregorian - The sound of silence

Thanks to medieval music, we can listen to more recent songs performed on medieval instruments, such as Stary Olsa's cover of the epic "One" by Metallica.

Stary Olsa - One (Metallica)

Click!

"Scarborough Fair" is a medieval English folk song by an unknown author. It has been versioned many times. Here I bring the brilliant version by the singer LP. Learn more about this song

Simon and Garfunkel - Scarborough fair

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