Contents:

• By the 9th century, theorists were arranging the existing repertoire of chant melodies according to a system of 8 modes
  • Based on the Greek system, but actually a new system
  • Their finals were on the notes D, E, F, or G (one pair of modes for each final)
  • They were named for the ancient Greek modes, which were named for even more ancient Greek tribes+
    • Final on D = Dorian mode
    • Final on E = Phrygian mode
    • Final on F = Lydian mode
    • Final of G = Mixolydian mode
  • In each pair, the Authentic mode had the final as its lowest note
  • In each pair, the Plagal mode had a range extendingboth below and above the final, so is called "Hypo-" meaning "below"
    • Final on D = Hypodorian mode
    • Final on E = Hypophrygian mode
    • Final on F = Hypolydian mode
    • Final of G = Hypomixolydian mode
  • The third factor in identifying the modes was the Reciting tone (or Dominant)
    • In Authentic modes, a 5th above the final unless it falls on B
    • In Plagal modes, a 3rd above the final unless it falls on B
      
• The notation that developed between the 10th and 11th centuries used single notes and neumes (several notes together represented by a more elaborate figure
  • First, little squiggles written in above the text to remind the singers when the notes went up and when they went down--they had already spent 10 years memorizing the chants.
  • Next, the neumes were written higher or lower on the page
  • Next, a scribe drew a horizontal line across the page as a reference
  • The line (or lines) represented specific pitches, an F or a C

Guido d'Arezzo (c. 990-1050)--Use the textbook to learn this, then use the outline below to make sure you know it

• Called a music theorist, but actually an innovative music educator
  
• Had responsibility for teaching choirboys all the chants of the Offices and Mass--a 10-year job because every chant had to be memorized by ear by listening to the teacher sing it over and over
  
• Worked out a new system that reduced the time to 2 years
  • Took the idea of staff lines and increased them to 4, sufficient for the narrow range of most chants
  • Took the idea of neumes and standardized the shapes, using square note shapes that suited the pens then in use
  • Took the idea of lines representing reference pitches by placing a stylized F or C at the beginning of each staff, thus identifying all the lines and spaces on the staff
    • Those "clefs" could be placed on any line, to fit the range of the chant
    • The G clef (or treble clef) did not come into use until the 15th century
  • Wrote a new melody to an old hymn text ("Ut queant laxis")
    • Each of the first 6 lines of poetry begins one note higher than the last
    • Each of the 6 pitches was given the name of its text syllable: Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol La
    • The choirboys memorized the hymn and used the pitch syllables to remember the pitches of any melody written on the staff
  • Covered the entire range of men's and boys' voices (the "Gamut") with a series of overlapping "hexachords" (6-note scales) with C, F, or G as their lowest notes
    • Each hexaachord used the 6 pitch syllables
    • Each hexachord had a half-step in the middle, between Mi and Fa
    • The status of the unstable note B differed from one hexachord to another
      • In the C (or "natural") hexachord the notes were C, D, E, F, G, A; there was no B
      • In the F (or "soft") hexachord the notes were F, G, A, B-flat, C, D; the B-flat required to make a half-step between the two middle notes; B-flat represented by a rounded (soft) form of the letter B
      • In the G (or "hard") hexachord the notes were G, A, B-natural, C, D, E; the B-natural required to make a half-step between the two middle notes and represented by a squared-off (hard) for of the letter B
        
• For the first time in history it was possible for a trained singer to sing a new chant perfectly from written notation, without ever having heard it sung
  
• Guido was incorrectly credited (much later) with the "Guidonian hand," a teaching aid using each joint of the fingers to represent one specific note
  
• Guido's system was so effective it was still being taught 600 years later!!
  

Medieval Musical Instruments--Use the textbook and the on-line glossary of musical terms to make sure you understand what these instruments were and what they looked like

Organs (not a church instrument until the 9th century

Small "positive" organs used from the 10th century

Smaller "portatif" organs used from the 12th century

Stringed instruments

Bowed instruments (from the 10th century)

Hurdy-gurdy ("organistrum," Vièle à roue ) using a rotating wheel

Vielle (fiedel) popular for accompanying singers

Rebec (from Arabic sources)

Plucked instruments (from Antiquity)

Roman Lyre

Harp (introduced from Ireland to Europe before the 9th century)

Psaltery (a triangular or trapezoidal sound box with wire or gut strings; think of an autoharp without the auto)

Lute (from Islamic Spain or the Crusades, 12th or 13th centuries)

Wind instruments

Woodwinds

Transverse flute ("cross-flute"; from Byzantium in the late Middle Ages)

Vertical flute ("recorder," "flageolet"; from Asia, from the 11th century)

Shawm ("pommer," "bombard"; double-reed instrument; from the Near East in the 12th century)

Bagpipe ("musa"; known in 1st-century Rome; popular from the 9th century)

Brass instruments

Horns (of animal horn, wood, or metal; from Antiquity)

Trumpets (metal, short & straight (from Rome), long & straight (brought back from Crusades), long and folded in 3 (late Medieval)

Drums

Very ancient; specific types probably from Asia; also jingles, cymbals, etc.

Early polyphony--This is complicated; know the emphasized terms and make sure you understand each separate entry, using the textbook to help

Early Organum

• Earliest polyphony called organum
• Combining 2 (or more) melodic lines, or adding one (or more) new melodic lines to an existing chant
  • Different from heterophony
  • Different from magadizing
• Earliest sources are from the mid-9th century
  • Musica enchiriadis ("music manual")
  • Scholica enchiriadis ("commentary manual")
  • Original chant melody called vox principalis ("principal voice")
  • Added melody called vox organalis ("organized voice")
  • Described as an improvised practice
• Three kinds of combined motion are possible
  • Parallel motion (voices move together, maintaining the same interval)
  • Contrary motion (one voice moves up as the other moves down)
  • Oblique motion (one voice moves up or down as the other holds pitch)
• Enchiriadis sources describe 3 types of organum
  • Simple organum (parallel motion at an octave, 5th, or 4th below the original chant melody
  • Composite organum (the notes of simple organum are expanded up or down by an octave)
  • Modified parallel organum (phrases begin and end in unison, with the vox principalis moving in oblique motion away from the vox organalis until the desired interval--usually the 4th--is reached for parallel motion to begin)

  St. Martial Organum (10th-11th centuries)

• The Abbey of St. Martial in Limoges was a center of polyphonic composition and a repository of liturgical manuscripts by the 12th century
• Several changes had taken place
  • The vox principalis was now called the" tenor" (the voice which "holds" the original chant melody)
  • The vox organalis was now called the "duplum" (the "second" voice) and usually sounded above the tenor
  • The two parts were notated in score, the duplum above the tenor, but the notes were not lined up exactly
• Two types of organum were in use there
  • Melismatic (florid) organum, in which several or many notes in the organal voice are set against each note of the original chant
    • The tenor was also called the cantus firmus (fixed song)
    • As more notes were added to the duplum, the notes of the tenor became longer and longer until they served as a kind of drone, a style also called "sustained-note style"
  • Discant organum, in which the duplum moves note-against-note with the tenor, giving a more rhythmic feel (later developed into neume-against-neume style)
• The versus, a newly composed setting of a Latin poem in discant style, is also found (the first polyphony not based on pre-existing chant)

  Santiago de Compostela (St. James of Compostela)

• Important shrine (with the bones of St. James the Apostle) and pilgrimage site in northern Spain
• The Liber Sancti Jacobi (Book of St. James; also called the Codex Calixtinus), probably copied in France in the late 1130s, contains both monophonic and polyphonic pieces
  • Processional music is labeled conductus
  • Congaudeant catholici is the earliest 3-part composition that has survived