Lesson 3 Music in the 14th Century

Lesson 3 - Music in the 14^th Century

Part I France: The Ars Nova

"Ars Nova" translates to "New Art"  Meaning that composers consciously knew the music they were composing was completely different than what had been happening prior.  There was a devotion particularly to the following:

• An increased use of the minim and semiminim
• The legitimization of duple meter as fully equal to triple
• Imperfection by notes of more remote values instead of notes of the next shorter value.
• the use of red ink. (for example, a note in red ink was understood as having two-thirds  the duration of a note of the same value written in black ink

Part II - Polyphonic settings of the Mass Ordinary

There was a shift in the 14^th Century from composing full settings of the Mass Ordinary to composing only single movements, or pairs of movements.

Part III - Secular song

By the middle of the 14^th Century, the Formes Fixes--Literally "fixed formes," or structural patterns had established themselves as the most important varieties of secular song in France.  These forms are:

• The Ballade
• The Virelai
• The Rondeau

First the Ballade consists of seven or eight strophes (or lines) of text, the last of which is a refrain.

Second, the Virelai follows this pattern: abbaA. The refrain is sung at the beginning and at the end of each line.  

Lastly, the rondeau consists of eight lines of text set to the following scheme: ABaAabAB

Part IV - Secular song in Italy

The Trecento was the Italian equivalent of the French Ars Nova.  All of the same song styles manifested in Italy as did in France.  

•The Ballata is equivalent to the French virelai (Structurally these two forms are exactly the same)

•The Ritornello is a form that consists of two strophes each of three lines with a two line ritornello at the end of each line.  Meaning that the same two lines appeared ad the end of each stroph of text.  A refrain, if you will.

•The caccia takes its name from its root word meaning chase.  This form deals with hunting, running, chasing, and the like.

Lesson 2 Polyphony to 1300

Part I - Organum

The earliest known examples of polyphonic compositions were based on existing plainchant.  Organum is the addition of one or two more voices to the original chant line.  These added voices run in parallel motion to the original voice.  There are several manifestations of organum.  The first is parallel organum, in that the added voice sings the same line as the original voice at the interval of a fourth or fifth above or below.

Notice how the added line (the lower voice) stays away from the principal line at the interval of a fifth throughout the passage.  This is called parallel organum.  

Here is an example of our part organum.  Notice how the voices all sing in parallel motion to the principal line:

Part II - Innovations in organum

More elaborate organum eventually became more popular once people discovered that the second voice did not have to imitate the principal voice exactly.  This is an example of four part organum where the added voices do not imitate the principal voice exactly.

After the invent of organum, composers began to mix the two types of composition (plainchant and organum).

The Clausula is an excerpt of organum at the end of a section of plainchant. These were usually placed on the end of a text to give certain text more importance.

Part III - Innovations in notation

By the middle of the 13th century, the notation systems needed to take into account note durations as well as pitches.  Thus several new notation styles were devised.  The first we will discuss is Franconian Notation.  This notation style devised the Long (equivalent to a dotted half note), the Breve (equivalent to a quarter note) and the semibreve (equivalent to an eighth note) Among others:

Lesson 1 Plainchant and monophony

Plainchant and Secular Monophony

Part I -  The Emergence of Plainchant

Often called Gregorian chant by its supposed creator, Pope Gregory I (590-604).  Plainchant continued to develop long after his death.  Plainchant is heavily linked to the Mass and the texts of the Christian worship services.  

Plainchant notation looked very different from what we know as standard notation today.  As evidenced in this excerpt:

Notation of plainchant varied greatly from region to region.  As seen here, there was no standard notation practice. 

Part II - The Elements of Plainchant

Plainchant is pure melody with no harmony, accompaniment, or added voices.  In other words, all voices sing the same one line in unison.  

There are five key elements to understand plainchant:

• Liturgical function
• The relationship of words and music
• Mode
• Melodic Structure
• Rhythm

First of all, All chants were sung during the Christian Mass, there are five main chants that are sung during every Mass, They are:

1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Agnus Dei

These five Mass parts make up every service and are found in every Mass.  Every other part, such as the Sequence, Offertory Psalm, and Lord's Prayer, are only sung during special services, such as Easter or Christmas Mass.

The relationship of words and music, is inseparable.  Back in the early days of music, it was believed that all of the parts of the Mass were to be sung in order for the prayers to be heard by God.  

There are  three basic types of plainchant, Syllabic, Neumatic, and Melismatic.  These three types served three very different functions as well.  Syllabic plainchant is that were each syllable would have a separate note.  Notice how every syllable is on a seperate note in the chant.  This is for punctuating and articulating the importance of a text.

 Here is a neumatic chant, where some syllables are punctuates with seperate notes and others are drawn out for effect

Finally, here is a Melismatic chant, where each syllable would be drawn out over several notes.

 Part III - Secular music

With all of the Music of the day being sung only during the mass and only in Latin, people began to take the melodies of the chants they heard during Mass and set their own words to them. These songs were not sung in Latin, but in the tongue of the people.  Whereas all of the songs for the Mass regardless of in what country they were sung were in latin, a secular song would be in the tongue of the people, but used the same melodies as the chants from the Church.