THE HISTORY OF MUSIC
The Middle Ages 450-1450
Characteristics of Music
Music comes from the Ancient Greek muses, who were the nine goddesses of art and science. Music actually began around 500 B.C. when Pythagoras experimented with acoustics and how math related to tones formed from plucking strings. The main form of music during the Middle Ages was the Gregorian chant, named for Pope Gregory I. This music was used in the Catholic Churches to enhance the services. It consisted of a sacred Latin text sung by monks without instrumentation. The chant is sung in a monophonic texture, which means there is only one line of music. It has a free-flowing rhythm with little or no set beat. The chants were originally all passed through oral tradition, but the chants became so numerous that the monks began to notate them.
Music in Society
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, about the 12th and 13th centuries, music began to move outside of the church. French nobles called troubadours and trouveres were among the first to have written secular songs. Music of this time was contained among the nobility, with court minstrels performing for them. There were also wandering minstrels who would perform music and acrobatics in castles, taverns, and town squares. These people were among the lowest social class, along with prostitutes and slaves, but they were important because they passed along information, since there were no newspapers.
Links to Composers of the Middle Ages
Queen Blanche of Castile (1188-1252)
Comtessa Beatiz de Dia (attested 1212)
Herrad of Landsberg (1167-1195)
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Leonin (1163-1190)
The Renaissance 1450-1600
Characteristics of Music
During the Renaissance Period, vocal music was still more important then instrumental. A humanistic interest in language created a close relationship between words and music during this time. Composers began to write music to give deeper meaning and emotion to the words in their songs. They wrote in a style referred to as word painting, where the music and words combine to form a representation of poetic images. Renaissance music is very emotional music, although to us it seems to be much calmer. This is because the emotion is expressed in a balanced way, without extreme contrasts of dynamics, tone color, and rhythm. Renaissance music has a mostly polyphonic texture, which means there are many lines of music being played at the same time. As opposed to medieval times, this music has a more full sound, because the bass register was used, expanding the range of music to about four octaves. Each line of melody has rhythmic independence, giving Renaissance music a more flowing rhythm and not a sharply defined beat. The melodies are also easy to sing because they move along scales with few large leaps.
Music in Society
Music was becoming more popular during this time. Much of this was due to the invention of the printing press, which could circulate copies of music. The number of composers also began to increase. The Renaissance had the ideal of the “universal man” and believed that every educated person was to be trained in music. Musicians still worked in the churches, courts, and towns. The size of church choirs grew. But unlike the Middle Ages where just a few soloists performed in the church, an entire male choir would now sing. Music was still important in the church, although it has shifted more to the courts. The kings, princes, and dukes were all fine composers. One court alone might have had ten to sixty composers consisting of vocalists and instrumentalists. There was a music director for each court that would compose and direct the court’s performers. The town musicians would perform for civic processions, weddings, and religious services. Musicians now had a higher status in society with better pay, and they wanted to be known and sought credit for their work.
Links to Composers of the Renaissance
Antoine Brumel (1460-1520)
Jean de Castro (1540-1611)
John Dowland (1563-1626)
Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
Claudin de Sermisy (1490-1562)
The Baroque Age 1600-1750
Characteristics of Music
Unlike the previous two periods in music, the Baroque Age was a time of unity. Most musical pieces of this time expressed one mood throughout the whole piece. These moods were conveyed through a musical language with specific rhythms and melodic patterns. One exception to the unified mood is vocal music. There would be drastic changes in emotion, but they would still convey one mood for a long period in the piece. One thing that helps the unity of mood was the continuity of rhythm of this time. The rhythm is maintained throughout the entire piece creating a drive and feel of forward motion that goes uninterrupted. Along with mood and rhythm, the melody is also continuous. The melodies tend to be varied throughout the piece and many are elaborate and difficult to sing or remember. They do not give an impression of balance and symmetry; many times a short opening phrase is followed by a longer one with a flow of rapid notes. Dynamics are in the same category with the other characteristics; they are usually continuous. The dynamics in Baroque music have a term called terraced dynamics. This means that the dynamics usually stay the same for a while, but shift suddenly. Much of the Baroque music was played in a polyphonic texture with multiple melodic lines. People of this time believed that music could move the listener in more ways than one. Opera was a major ideal for this belief.
Source:webpages.shepherd.edu
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