This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
GRADE9 MUSIC LESSON 1 450 145 A.D.
MiddleAges Around 450 the Roman Empire began to disintegrate.
This was the beginning of the dark ages. Life was hard and full of
migrations, upheavals, and wars. In the later Middle Ages churches
and monasteries were constructed, towns grew, universities were
founded.
This was a time of three social classes: NOBILITY PEASANTRY
CLERGY
NOBILITY Nobles were sheltered within castles surrounded by
moats. The men were often knights during war time. In peace time,
they amused themselves with hunting, feasting, and tournaments.
*moats = dikes or trenches
Peasants Peasants the majority of people lived miserably in
one-room huts. Many were serfs, bound to the soil and subject to
feudal overlords. Homes were damp and cold. The entire family
shared two rooms. For protection, there were no windows.
Clergy Monks in monasteries held a monopoly on learning; most
people including the nobility were illiterate. The church was the
center of musical life. Musicians were priests and worked for the
church. An important occupation in monasteries was liturgical
singing. Women were not allowed to sing in the church.
Cathedrals
MusicintheMiddleAges Most medieval music was vocal. The church
frowned on instruments. Around 1100, however, instruments were used
increasingly in church. The organ was most prominent. At first it
was primitive and could only be played by hitting it with your
fist. It was so loud that it could be heard for miles around.
Organ Organ from the 900s.
GregorianChant The music of the church was Gregorian chant. It
is a single line (no harmony) sung by many to convey a calm
quality. It represents the church. It has flexible rhythm, without
meter, and little sense of beat. Exact rhythm is uncertain, because
precise time values were not notated. Free-flowing rhythm gives the
chant a floating, improvisational feeling.
GregorianChant The melodies moved by step and were sung in
Latin, the language of the church. At first, the melodies were
passed on by tradition, but as the numbers grew to the thousands,
they were notated to ensure uniformity. The earliest manuscripts
were from the 800s.
GregorianChant The composers of Gregorian chant remain almost
completely unknown.
GregorianChant
SecularMusic Besides Gregorian chant in the church, there was
much music outside of the church, too. The first music that has
survived in notation was composed during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries by French nobles called troubadours. Many of the songs
they sang have been preserved because nobles had clerics write them
down. Some 1,650 melodies have been preserved.
Troubadours Troubadours were French musicians who traveled
across Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. They sang mostly
love songs. They accompanied their love songs with instruments,
unlike the church.
Troubadours
AdamdelaHalle(1237-1286) The most famous troubadour ever Wrote
the first ever musical theater piece Le Jeu de Robin et Marion
Inventor of the Motet Motet - a piece of music where two or more
different verses are fit together simultaneously, without regard to
harmony Adam de la Halle (1237-1286)
During the Middle Ages, wandering minstrels performed music and
acrobatics in castles, and towns. They had no civil rights and were
on the lowest social level. It was a tough life. Without
newspapers, the music of the minstrels was an important source of
information.
For centuries music had just a single melodic line. But
sometime around 700 900 monks began to add a second melodic line to
Gregorian chant. At the beginning, it was usually improvised.
Listeners at that time must have been surprised!
Churches were getting more elaborate as was the music in the
church.
PolyphonicMusic Polyphonic music (music with more than one
part) was developed mainly in Paris at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
Using precise rhythms, this was the first time in music history
that notation indicated precise rhythms as well as pitches. Soon
music had more than two voices. Music with three parts began to
develop, although the range was still small and hollow
sounding.
FourteenthCentury Secular music became more important in the
lives of the people in the 1300s. This was due to many factors
including the Hundred Years War, the black plague (which destroyed
of the population of Europe), the weakening of the feudal system,
and the fighting of the Popes in the Catholic church. The changes
in musical style were so many that this era was named the time of
new art.
GuillaumedeMachaut Guillaume de Machaut was a priest, but spent
most of his life working with the noble families of France. Machaut
travelled to many courts and presented beautifully decorated copies
of his music to the nobles. Because of this, his music has survived
for us to enjoy today. This piece you are hearing (The Agnus Dei)
is possibly the finest composition known from the Middle Ages.
AgnusDei This piece is from a Mass, which is a sacred piece of
music. It is written in four voices, some of which are doubled by
instruments. The Agnus Dei is a prayer for mercy and peace and is
solemn and elaborate. It is in triple meter. This piece is based on
Gregorian Chant, but you can hear how much this idea has
developed.
AgnusDei Like the chant it is based on, it has three sections.
The form for this piece is: A B A In Machauts time, music was meant
to appeal to the mind as well as to the ear! Although this sounds
so different to us today, it is pleasing to our ears.
There were two schools of music during the Middle Ages Ars
Antiqua - 1100-1300 & Ars Nova - 1300 - 1450
NotreDame
MedievalInstruments Instruments in early secular music were
used to accompany songs. Musicians usually improvised the simple
accompaniments. While the accompaniments were melodically simple,
they were rhythmically lively. Lets take a look at the many
different instruments used in these accompaniments