Unit 3Musical Life

1000 – 1700

Monty Python as Historian?

1

PART 2SEVEN CENTURIES OF MUSIC

Chapter 8 Harmony and Texture“ Between 1000 and 1700, European music went from ancient to modern.”

Trivia!!!Henry VIII of England owned seventy-four early

flutes.Early music manuscripts came from

monasteries scattered throughout EuropeToday, we have many ways to hear and view

music exactly as the creators intended

2

Musical examples• Just over 500 years separate the first

and last of European musical examples presented in this chapter.

• First example = an antiphon (a type of chant) by Hildegard von Bingen around 1150. Hildegard

• Last example = operatic aria composed by Henry Purcell toward the end of the seventeenth century. Purcell

3

• Hildegard, the abbess of a convent, composed her antiphon for performance by nuns during worship

sole purpose was to worship God

• Opera is a fusion of music and drama purpose is to delight and entertain its

audience• Music evolved from compositions almost

exclusively for church use, to a broad array of styles and genres

4

• Music making became a profession

• Music as a form of paid entertainment expanded the growth of the music business throughout western Europe

• New technologies made it possible to create a variety of musical instruments and to print and publish musical compositions

5

• Seven centuries between 1000 and 1700, span most of three major eras in Western Culture.

– Medieval

– Renaissance

– Early Baroque

6

7

Musical Trends and Developments1000 - 1700

• Church was the sole repository of learning

• Texts were in Latin• Music usually accompanied the

Mass or singing of the Divine Office

• Secular music (non-sacred music) especially polyphonic texture, began to appear toward the end of the thirteenth century.

12

• More simple secular styles emerged during fourteenth century in France and Italy.

• Used vernacular (everyday language of a particular region) rather than Latin

• Harmonice Musices Odhecaton - the first sheet music printed with movable type, is a book of chansons

• Chansons = French secular songs 13

Secular Vocal MusicFlourished during the sixteenth century

Ranged from solo songs and simple homophonic settings to Italian and English madrigals

These madrigals often featured contrapuntal textures and expressive text settings of highly regarded poetry

14

• The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries brought music making to ordinary churchgoers

• Martin Luther reintroduced congregational singing into worship services

• He composed several well-known hymns, many of which were inspired by the secular songs of the day.

15

“Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott”(A Mighty Fortress is our God)

Polyphonic setting of Kyrie from “L’homme arme’ mass”

Listen to the contrast of style between the hymn tune of Luther and the polyphonic setting of Kyrie by Josquin.

16

Mac Users click hereMac Users click here

Polyphony and Tonality

• Evolving system of pitch organization• Chant = monophonic liturgical music• Leonin and Perotin at Notre Dame

Cathedral in Paris added a simple secondary part to a chant melody

• Organum = this type of early polyphonic music

17

• Composers added more parts and gave them greater independence

• Basic melodic part was called the tenor from the Latin word tenere, meaning “to hold.”

• By the fifteenth century, magnificent sacred works were being composed with four or more melodic parts woven together contrapuntally

• Songs with more than one part often had voices moving in similar or identical rhythm (homophonic texture)

• Heterophony = musical texture in which two or more instruments play different versions of the melody (common practice in many folk traditions)

18

Melody and Harmony

• Late Renaissance – focus more on Harmony

• Predictable progressions, particularly at cadences

• By 1700, the major/minor system of harmonic organization had become common practice 19

Instrumental Music

• Earliest date from the thirteenth Century; first instances of music composed for specific instrument appear about a century later

• Composers and publishers favor vocal music through the Renaissance (The Golden Age of Acappella.)

• Modern orchestra first evolved in seventeenth century to accompany opera. 20

• Instrumental music for large ensembles popular in later half of seventeenth century

• Dance music and independent works for listening

• Most important new genre was the concerto

• Concerto = a multi-movement work composed for an orchestra of mainly strings and keyboard.

21

Music as a Profession

• Rise of Middle Class and demand for secular music

• Earliest composers were clergy, and composing was part of their work

• Minstrels were among the first entertainers• The Tale of Sir Robin

• Troubadours – many from aristocratic birth• Musicians formed guilds

22

• Guild Musicians had professional standards for members

• Churches and courts retained singers and composers to provide music

• Professional musicians attached to church or court were still servants

• Josquin des Prez, a very esteemed musician in Europe, also performed tasks such as delivering hunting dogs for his master

23

24

• Most music was copied by hand• The church continued to be the primary musical patron

By the End of the Seventeenth Century

• Musical life had begun to resemble that of our modern musical world

• Music printing

• Opera

• Top Singers were stars

• Composers enjoyed higher social status

• Reformation and rise of secular culture

• Economic growth

• Patronage System25

Top Composers of the time• Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643)

First great composer of Opera

When he moved from Cremona to Venice, he was accosted by highway robbers and left with only pocket change. He credited it as the low point of his life.

• Jean Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1713) Musical director for Louis XIV

*the foot-stabber

• Archangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) Esteemed violinist and composer (but he didn’t like to play

the high notes because he thought they were screeching).

26

Technology• Two major areas related to music

• 1. Instrument making pipe organs harpsichords more modern orchestral instruments (especially violins) • 2. Music Printing

27

Musical Communication• Larger, more diverse audiences• Composers became more responsive to

text• Composers began to depict event and

emotions in purely instrumental music• Opera was public entertainment• Music of middle and lower classes, music

of aboriginal cultures, and music from outside of Europe is lesser known because it was not preserved in notation

28