Music History
( Outline of Sacred and Secular Song of the Middle Ages)

 

Compiled and Edited By
Lady Simone O'Dunlaingh

Sacred and Secular Song of the Middle Ages

 
I. Roman Chant and Liturgy
 
A. Office Canonical Hours
1. Codified in chapters 9-19 of the Rule of St. Benedict (520 A.D.)
2. Celebrations generally in monasteries throughout the day
3. Matins Chants and prayers done before daybreak. Lauds done at sunrise, Prime,    Terce, Sext, Nones done respectively at 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm and 3 pm., Vespers done at     sunset, and Compline done after Vespers.
4. Office consistsed of prayers, psalms, canticles (New Testament passages),     antiphons, responses, hymns and sacred readings.
5. Music for the Office is contained in a book called an Antiphoner or Antiphonale.
6. The most musically significant hours of Office are the Matins, Lauds, Vespers.
7. Vespers includes the canticle Magnificat anima mea Dominum. the only Office that     allowed polyphonic singing in early times, was the Vespers.
8. The Compline inlcudes the singing of the Marian antiphons, a diffrent one for each     specific time of the church year.
B. Mass
1. Is the principle service of the Catholic Church.
2. The Apex of the service is the communion of the Last Supper.
3. Types of Mass:
a. High Mass missa solemnis: includes singing by Celebrant, Deacon, Subdeacon, and chanting or polyphonic singing by the choir.
b. Low Mass missa privata: The Priest takes on the roll of Deacon and Subdeacon. Everything is spoken.
c. Sung Mass missa cantata: A modern blending of  High and Low Mass.
4. Parts of the mass:
a. Liturgy of the Word
b. Liturgy of the Eucharist
5. An example of an early Mass found in Ordo Romanus a 7th century instructional for the performance of the liturgy by the Bishop of Rome)
a. Intriot, originally a psalm with antiphon chanted during the entrance of the priest.     Later, it was shortened to a single psalm verse with antiphon.
b. Kyrie, each invocation is repeated three times by the choir.
c. Gloria, Is begun by the priest with the words "Gloria in excelsis Deo" and     continued by the choir. This is omited during the penitential seasons of Advent and     Lent
c. Collects, prayers
6. The Canon of the Mass is Standardized by 6th century
7. Sacramentaries, a books of instruction for the celebrants, from 600 A.D. and later show the level of uniformity in the Mass.
8. Missal, a book with the Mass texts.
9. Tridentine Liturgy,
(Liturgy of the Word)
a. Introit
b. Kyrie
c. Gloria
d. Collects
e. Epistle, scriptural reading
f. Gradual & Alleluia, On Easter, Alleluia is followed by a Sequence.
   In penitential seasons Alleluia is replaced by a solemn Tract.
          (Liturgy of the Eucharist)
g. Credo, is begun by the priest "Credo in unum Deum" and continued by choir.
h. Offertory
i. Preface
j. Sanctus & Benedictus, sung by the choir
k. Canon, prayer of consecration
l. Pater Noster
m. Agnus Dei
n. Communion. sung by the choir
o. Post-Communion, prayers chanted by the priest
p. Ite missa est, sung responsively by priest and choir.
10. Proper of the Mass: parts of the mass which Are altered sepending on the season.
a. Proper: Introit, Collects, Epistle, Gradual, Alleluia/Tract, Sequence, Gospel, Offertory, Preface, Communion, Post-Communion.
11. Ordinary of the Mass: parts of the mass that are standard.
a. Ordinary: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Ite missa est.
b. Choir,or congregation typically sings these parts.
c. Since the 14th century Ordinary texts were most often set to polyphonic musicentury
12. Music for the Mass: Proper & Ordinary is contained in a Gradual
a. Liber usualis: modern text contains a selection of most frequently used chants from the Antiphonale and Graduale. Texts of Mass and Offices respectively are
published in the Missal and Breviary.
 
C. Chant Notation
           1. Clefs indicate relative pitches
           2. Notes are called neumes
          3. Earliest chant notation is preserved in mansucripts from the 9th century and later.
          4. One theory holds that notation was systematic recording of an oral tradition. Important                proponents of this theory include Leo Treitler "Homer and Gregory:  The Transmission                of Epic Poetry and Plainchant" Musical Quarterly, 1974.
D. Classes, Forms and Types of Chant
1. Text classifications
a. Biblical vs. non-Biblical texts
b. Prose vs. Poetic text
1. Biblical prose texts: lessons of the Office, Epistle, Gospel.
2. Biblical poetic texts: psalms and canticles.
3. Nonbiblical prose texts: Te Deum, many antiphons, 3 of the 4 Marian antiphons
4. Nonbiblical poetical texts: hymns, sequences.
2. Performance classifications
         a. Antiphonal: alternating choirs
b. Responsorial: alternating soloist and choir
century Direct: without alternation
3. Text setting classifications
a. Syllabic
b. Melismatic
c.Neumatic
4. Tonic accent: the principle that chant reflects post-classical Latin accents of the text.
5. Forms
a. Forms exemplified in psalm tones: two balanced phrases corresponding to the
two balanced parts of a typical psalm verse.
b. Strophic form: exemplified in hymns, in which the same melody is sung to
several stanzas of text.
c. Free forms
E. Reciting and Psalm Tones
1. Reciting Tones
a. Typically used with more syllabic settings
b. Recitation of prayers, readings border between speech and song
century Reciting note is called the tenor
d. Upper neighbor/lower neighbor used to bring out accent
e. Initium: the 2-3 note introductory formula preceding the recitation tone
2. Psalm Tones
a. Used for psalms and Epistle and gospel.
b. Psalm tone formula:
1. Initium
2. Tenor
3. Mediatio, semicadence in the middle of the verse
4. Termination, final cadence
5. Final verse is followed by the Lesser Doxology "Gloria Patri..."
c. Outline of Office psalmody consists of:
1. Antiphon: incipit sung by cantor followed by choir
2. Psalm, initium sung by cantor, choir follows, mediatio, cantor begins
second half of verse, choir joins, termination.
3. Each psalm verse is sung through in similar fashion
4. Anitphon repeated as at beginning
F. Antiphons
1. Most numerous type of chant: about 1250 in the modern Antiphonale.
2. Many antiphons employ same melodic line, making slight variations to accommodate
the text.
3. Antiphons are originally intended for a group rather than soloist, so the text
setting is predominantly syllabic or only slightly florid, stepwise motion, a limited
range and simple rhythm.
4. Antiphons of the canticles are somewhat more elaborate than the psalms, examples are Magnificat, and Hodie Christus natus est.
5. The antiphon was repeated after each psalm verse. Later it was used to begin and
conclude a psalm .
6. In Modern times only the intonation of the opening phrase of the antiphon is sung first and
the entire antiphon is heard after the psalm.
G. Responsory or Respond
1. A form similar to the antiphon: a short verse is sung by a soloist and repeated by
the choir before a prayer or short sentence of Scripture and repeated again by the
choir following the reading.
H. Antiphonal Psalmody
1. Introit and Communion utilize antiphonal psalmody
2. Tones for the psalm verses of the Mass are more elaborate than the Office
3. Communion is similar to Introit, but employs a verse of scripture btw. the antiphon.
4. Most developed chants in the mass are the Graduals, Alleluias, Tracts, Offertories.
I. Graduals
1. The Gradual is a kind of responsorial psalm. It has an introductory respond (refrain)
followed by a single verse of a psalm. The respond is begun by a soloist, and the choir
joins in shortly thereafter. The verse is likewise begun by the soloist with choir joining
in later.
2. They were originally developed in Rome and disseminated through Frankish churches
3. Graduals occur in 7 of the 8 modes.
4. Large number of mode 2 (Hypodorian) are variants of a single melodic type exemplified
in the Easter Gradual Haec dies quam fecit Dominus
5. Mode 5 Graduals (Lydian) give the impression of being in F major.
6. Certain melismatic formulas recur in different Graduals. Oftentimes, melodies are a
composite of these short formulas, a process called centonization
J. Tracts
1. Tracts are the longest chants in the liturgy using lengthy texts and long melismas
2. All Tract melodies are either in mode 2 or 8. Melodic structure is similar
K. Alleluia
1. Consist of a refrain on the word "Alleluia", psalm verse, followed by the refrain.
2. Performance: soloist sings word "alleluia", chorus repeats and continues with a
jubilus, a long melisma on the final "-ia" of the "alleluia", the soloist then sings the
verse with the chorus joining on the last phrase. Entire "alleluia" is sung by chorus
with jubilus.
3. "Alleluia" is florid, jubilus is melismaticentury
4. Form: AA+BA+
5. Alleluias are relatively late chants, notion of "composed" chants on account of motivic
repetition rather than improvisatory nature of earlier oral tradition.
L. Offertories
1. Melodically similar to Graduals
2. Utilize a variety of forms
M. Chants of the Ordinary
1. Kyrie
a. Form: ABA (Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie)
2. Agnus Dei
a. Form: often ABA as well
3. Sanctus
a. Form: Tripartite (Sanctus, Pleni, Benedictus)
N. Later Developments of Chant
1. The Carolingian Renaissance of 8th-9th century led to codification, and notation of chant
a. Monastic center: St. Gall in Switzerland
b. Northern styles and developments incorporated into chant repertory
2. Tropes
a. A newly composed addition, in neumatic style with poetic text to one of the
antiphonal chants of the Proper of the Mass, usually an Introit, less often
an Offertory or Communion.
b. Later tropes were also made to Ordinary chants, particularly the Gloria
century Tropes were either prefaces to regular chant or interpolations in its text and
musicentury
d. Important troping center was the Monastery of St. Gall where the monk
Tuitilo died 915A.D. was distinguished for compositions of this form.
e. Tropes flourished in the 10th-11th centuries and gradually disappear in the
12th century.
3. Sequences
a. Long recurring passages recurring in different contexts.
b. Long, definitely shaped melodies either used in melismatic form or underlaid
with different texts.
c. Additions to the "Alleluia" are called sequences
d. When text is underlaid it is called prosa ad sequentiam or prosula. Prosa are
set syllabically.
e. Notker Balbulus ,"the stammerer"; 840-912A.D., St. Gall, tells a story of how he
"invented" the sequence to aid in memorizing tunes. Music probably existed first
and Balbulus probably only added the text.
f. The form flourished from 10th-13th centuries.
g. Form: A BB CC DD...groupings of strophic pairs.
h. Most sequences are banned by liturgical reforms of the Council of Trent 1545-1563A.D.
i. Dies irae from the Requiem Mass is one of the most famous examples of sequance. that has been retained.
O. Liturgical Drama
P. Medieval Musical Theory
1. Carolingian treatises more oriented towards practice than earlier treatises.
a. Guido of Arezzo: Mircrologus (1025-28)
b. Musica enchiriadis: anonymous 9th century treatise.
2. Church Modes
a. Standard by 11th century a system of 8 "modes"
b. Diatonic octave built on finalis or final, usually last note in the melody.
century Authentic modes
1. Even numbered
2. Tenor (dominant) is a 5th above: most important note after the final.
Exception: in cases where tenor would be "B", next note is used instead.
d. Plagal modes
1. Odd numbered
2. Begin a 4th below corresponding authentic mode
e. Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian
3. Hexachord system
a. Patterns of 6 notes in which semitone falls between 3 and 4 steps
b. G hexachord is durum 'hard' because of B natural
c. F hexachord is molle 'soft' because of Bb
d. C hexachord is natural because no question of accidentals
Q. Nonliturgical & Secular Monody
1. Goliard songs: from 11-12th century songs with latin texts.
a. Typically recorded with staffless neumes, so melodic content is highly speculative
2. Conductus
a. Originally sung in the mass when celebrant was moving from one place to
another.
b. Texts were metrical verses
c. By end of the 12th century conductus was applied to any nonliturgical Latin song
with metrical text, on either a sacred or secular subject.
d. Melody was newly composed rather than borrowed or adapted from another
source.