Renassaince Musuc

Music 1751-September 1, 2011-Thursday-CH.8

o Gregorian chant is pure melody. This kind of music when you just have a single melodic line is called monophonic music or monophony. Music for one line. It would often be doubled at the octave.

o Either for a choir of Men or a choir of Women. Never together.

o Anonymous, Gregorian Chant, Viderunt omnes (Fifth Century)

o 2 types of singing:

 Syllabic singing: 1 or 2 notes for each syllable of text

 Melismatic singing: many notes sung to just one syllable

o Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)- given to the church as a child as tithe- at 52 founded a convent near Bingen, Germany- 1st Renaissance man a Medieval woman

o Playwright, Poet, Musician, Naturalist, Pharmacologist, Visionary

o She wrote her own text based on her visions

o Listen to:

 Hildegard, O rubor sanguinis

Music in the Cathedral

o Notre Dame of Paris constructed during the "age of cathedrals" (1150-1350) These buildings took around a century to complete

o In Paris we have two great churchmen/ musicians that take music to the next stage of development

o Perotinus and Leoninus

o They create a new style of music called polyphony. Which means many voices.

o Listen to:

 Perotinus, Organum on Viderunt omnes

o Composers became very involved with writing music to accompany the Mass.

o The mass has 2 parts; the Proper and The Ordinary

o The Proper texts change with the liturgical year.

o The Ordinary Texts remain the same.

o The parts of the ordinary of the Mass:

 Kyrie

 Gloria

 Credo

 Sanctus

 Agnus Dei

o The Mass continues throughout history to be a form utilized by composers.

o Guillaume de Machaut- worked at the cathedral of Notre Dame of Reims.- he adds not just 1 voice to his music but 3!

o He takes the old chant melody and has it held with long notes in the "tenor" line. He then constructed 2 voices above the tenor, the alto and