Christian influence on Music

1. Christianinfluence on Music

2. Goals and purpose -This class will look at the shaping influence Christianity placed upon music as we have it -It will emphasize those aspects which would NOT have been had it not been for the influence of Christianity and the church -It will investigate the role of church/Christianity in preservation and development of musical forms

3. Music: a working definition The word music comes from the Greekmousikê (tekhnê) by way of the Latin musica. It is ultimately derived from mousa, the Greek word for muse. In ancient Greece, the word mousike was used to mean any of the arts or sciences governed by the Muses. Later, in Rome, arsmusica embraced poetry as well as instrument-oriented music (Pythagoras)

4. Toward a working definition In the European Middle Ages, musica was part of the mathematical quadrivium (the 4 part study of mathematics): arithmetic,geometry, astronomy and musica. The concept of musica was split into three major kinds by the fifth century philosopher, Boethius: musicauniversalis, musicahumana, and musicainstrumentalis. Of those, only the last—musicainstrumentalis—referred to music as performed sound. Boethius’(480-525) definition hinged on a concept of harmony: Harmony of the heavenly bodies (musicauniversalis), harmony of the human body (musicahumana), mathematical proportion of sound (quanified earlier by Pythagoras)

5. Music: a category of perception A cognitive definition Music is not merely the sound or the perception of sound, but a means by which perception, action and memory are organized. This definition is influential in the cognitive sciences, which search to locate the regions of the brain responsible for parsing or remembering different aspects of musical experience. This definition would include dance. I believe the evidence points to this as a working definition of music as used and understood by Christians in the early era even before there was “science” to back it up

6. Music: why ask the question of church influence It is important to realize that even asking this question and the placing into one context of many eras, genres and ethnicities of music is a unique opportunity of our time. Few other times had any working knowledge of music except what was immediately around them. Even the asking of the question arises in the ChristianWest. No previous society, religious or ethnic group has shown an interest and emphasis on examining, collecting comparing and preserving music not its own.

7. Important observations of Christian influence Musical notation and scholarship arose in the early middle ages and proceeded throughout the high middle ages and into the renaissance directly under the influence and guidance of the church. The western musical tone scale was developed by and for musicians performing music in the churches. The church was the incubator and driving force for the perceived importance of passing it on accurately Preservation, restoration and reenactment of music of previous times was fostered. It was respected and gave a sense of place and appreciation.

8. Development of numerous musical instruments grew under encouragement of choirmasters and other musicians working within the church: organ, symphonic stringed and wind instruments were refined here. • Many classical forms of music and numerous of its greatest composers were initially and many continuously employed in giving their talents in service of the church • Slaves ripped from their homelands preserved portions of their musical heritage while changing the lyrics to Christian themes. • The invention of musical recording (also born in Christian west, man acting as a co creator)

9. Nestled in the above observations reside the greatest contributions Christianity has made to the body of music (particularly Western) as we have it. And without which it is doubtful mankind would have the meaningful body of music we have today. Now on to some of the history behind these assertions.

10. Music: a category of perception • Important uses of Music: • A Mnemonic device, helps us remember • Meter: Poetry --the steadfast Love of the Lord, • Chant: ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRS TUV WXYZ • An opening to celebration often praise or to deity --- (the very word Hymn means a song of praise to a god) • Events of state, recalling the heroic: “Star Spangled Banner” • Popular dance (all eras) • Masking pain or reason (Attis, Cybele, Catullus 63) • often drumbeats accentuate this • Sometimes ecstatic, the appeal to the emotion “standing outside of” the mind

11. Jewish influences Early Christian familiarity with scripture: Ps 92:1-4 It is good to give thanks to the LORD And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; 2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And Your faithfulness by night, 3 With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, With resounding music upon the lyre. 4 For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

12. Isa 12:4-5 • " Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. • Make known His deeds among the peoples; • Make them remember that His name is exalted." • 5 Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things; • Let this be known throughout the earth. • Rev 5:9-12 • 9 And they sang a new song, -- • 12 saying with a loud voice, • " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." • The Psalms: always a musical or chanted element

13. Christians were familiar with synagogue worship • In temple there were instruments as it was THE place to worship God, a place of pilgrimage employing trained singers and musicians • In the synagogues singing or chant was likely “sotto voce” (voice only) • instrumental music was not revived and used in the synagogue after destruction of the Second temple in 70 AD, although they kept the symbolic Shofar (a horn) still used in orthodox communities. • "the chant continued, and research has made it increasingly clear that many of the forms and even melodic patterns of the Byzantine and Western Christian chants were adaptations from the music of the synagogues.“ William Smoldon

14. Greek influences Long oral tradition :Homer’s epics Iliad and Odyssey were sung/chanted Love poetry Music from Delphi (even with notations we do not know how to reproduce it with any accuracy. Examples then are educated attempts no more.) Instruments: Stringed (kithara, Lyre), flute/oboe (aulos) Music was an element of education

15. Music: in Greek culture On philosophy and music It is common to hear the term "music of the spheres" and read of Pythagoras and his school, who laid the foundations of our knowledge of the study of harmonics—how strings and columns of air vibrate, how they produce overtones, how the overtones are related arithmetically to one another, etc. It is important to note that the entire study of such things by the Greeks was less a formula for the production of playable music than it was a mathematical and philosophical description of how the universe, in general, was perceived to be constructed—the stars, the sun, the planets, all vibrating in harmony. Wikipedia Music was produced modally, in 4 modes (akin to but dissimilar to modern key signatures because the intervals were different) Aeolian, Dorian, Ionian, Lydian (the church later adopted these names.)

16. Music: in Greek education • Our music was once divided into its proper forms...It was not permitted to exchange the melodic styles of these established forms and others. Knowledge and informed judgment penalized disobedience. There were no whistles, unmusical mob-noises, or clapping for applause. The rule was to listen silently and learn; boys, teachers, and the crowd were kept in order by threat of the stick. . . . But later, an unmusical anarchy was led by poets who had natural talent, but were ignorant of the laws of music...Through foolishness they deceived themselves into thinking that there was no right or wrong way in music, that it was to be judged good or bad by the pleasure it gave. By their works and their theories they infected the masses with the presumption to think themselves adequate judges. So our theatres, once silent, grew vocal, and aristocracy of music gave way to a pernicious theatrocracy...the criterion was not music, but a reputation for promiscuous cleverness and a spirit of law-breaking. Plato Laws • Music may serve to form judgments (of the child) by connecting moral concepts and pleasure. It is thus for teaching to form tastes. Plato Laws

17. Music: influence on the Christian early form • Music expressed the human emotions with emphasis on adoration of God, hence umnoshymn a song of praise. • Music was more than our current popular cultural definition of “pleasant sounds’ it implied examination of the “harmony” of the universe • Music was a principal medium of transmission of truths • Music was an integral part of education, related to mathematics • Music was used to induce ecstasy in pagan rituals

18. Sample ancient Greek Music on Lyre and aulos

19. The sounds of Nature are the promise of music, it takes a human being to keep them Igor Strravinski God created ex nililo (from nothing) man ex quo (from something) i.e. in context, building on our forefathers Music is neither an aid to worship nor a tool for producing it It is an offering given to God Who is both means and end Music making is subordinate to and informed by the larger doctrines of creation, worship, offering, faith, grace, stewardship, redemptive witness, excelling and love. Harold Best Within the incubator of the church, these were guiding principles in the formulation and development of music.

20. Christianity exerts influence • The Christian/church influence AD 33 to Constantine 325 • “the early history of music in Western Europe is almost entirely based on its use and development within the church as its source” Heritage of Music Oxford 1989 • Early church Hymns were sung to instruct and to praise: • Eph 2:5-11, I Cor 13 • Mostly unaccompanied “acapella” because the instruments of the day were used and associated with pagan ritual • Early Hymns: The word hymn should be conceived in terms of ancient thought. It is futile attempt to differentiate among psalms, hymns and canticles (spiritual songs). • Specialists in liturgical matters testify to the confusion existing among ancient writers in the use of these words and to the uncertainty of definition which results.

21. By the time of Ambrose(bishop of Milan) in the fourth century Greek and oriental elements had long since merged in other aspects of civilization and, in the course of time, Christian hymns felt the effect of a universal development. • There was a certain departure from biblical models (i.e. using solely the Psalms) and movement from the old poetic forms toward forms adapted to the worship (liturgy) of the church. • Worship (liturgical) forms retained textual evidence: • Benedictus, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel (Luke 1:68-79), spoken by Zacharias, • Nuncdimittis, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace (Luke 2:29-32), the words of Simeon upon seeing the infant Jesus • Magnificat, My soul doth magnify the Lord (Luke 1:46-55), Mary • Gloria in excelsis, Glory to God in the highest (Luke 2:14), angelic host • There was external evidence to Christian hymnody: • “They sing hymns to Christ as to a god” letter from Pliny to Trajan ca 120 AD

22. Important elements of early church music or hymnody • Hymnody developed using the psalms of OT plus original NT writing. • It was used to instruct in moral and orthodox teaching • The predominant absence of instrumentality was borne of desire to be separate from the pagan religious festivals which employed them extensively often to ecstatic ends. • It was preserved much as other music was meaning that evidence is scarce and it is near impossible to accurately reproduce.

23. Examples of early musical notation Delphic hymn to Apollo on stone text with musical notation undecipherable

24. Greek text papyrus with musical notation undecipherable can only assume up/down

25. Ochrhynchus hymn: oldest fragment of Christian Hymn

26. Oxyrhynchus Hymn Third century From Egypt Let it be silent Let the Luminous stars not shine, Let the winds (?) and all the noisy rivers die down; And as we hymn the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Let all the powers add "Amen Amen" Empire, praise always, and glory to God, The sole giver of good things, Amen Amen

27. 325 – high middle ages (ca 1000) • Origin and development of plainsong (chant) • monophonic and modal • increasingly became the work of the monks • Church sought uniformity across western Christendom for the liturgies. • Rise of plainsong modeled after psalmody and the mass • Concurrent retreat of earlier hymnody the music of the church became more and more the work of those with special training • What is plainsong or chant: text sung in unison over a modal framework and with varying or no metrical component

28. Ambrosian Plainsong (Ambrose of Milan 340-397) Call and response style Kyrie Eleison, Christie Eleison, Kyrie eleison Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy

29. Ambrose of Milan 340-397 (Ambrosian plainsong) • Psalmody unites those who disagree, makes friends of those at odds and brings together those who are out of charity with one another. Who could retain a grievance against a man with whom he had joined in singing to God. • Augustine 354-430: wrote a 6 volume work on music with emphasis on the serenity, doctrinal integrity and importance of the church’s singing • I wept at the beauty of your hymns and canticles, and was powerfully moved at the sweet sounds of your church’s singing. These sounds flowed into my ears, and the truth streamed into my heart, so that my feeling and devotion overflowed, and the tears ran from my eyes, and I was happy in them.

30. Gregory the Great (540-604, pope from 590-604) • attributed “father” of plainsong hence the name Gregorian Chant • unlikely the composer of the body of plainsong rather the proponent and codifier for use in various worship settings • during this period writers were anonymous out of humility • the writing of music was still rudimentary so the actual early styles were preserved orally awaiting further development of musical notation

31. Agnusdei qui tollospeccata mundi misererenobis Agnusdei qui tollispeccata mundi donaeispacem Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world pity us Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world grant us peace.

32. Important developments during this period: • church music was exclusively acapella • “Instruments recall the cult of the pagan gods and the songs of the actors” St. John Chrysostom (347-407) • The chant taught the illiterate. So the church used and cultivated music as a means of instructing • Became less participatory and more the work of the monks (specialization and rise of musical leaders) • the desire to replicate the music from place to place gave the rise to the beginnings of modern musical notation

33. Refinement of musical notation • first notation showing up and down (no tonal references) • then single line representing beginning note (so singer should know where he was to begin and end) • later multiple lines (to codify all notes) • Importance of word painting: the words were to take precedence with the lyrics there to carry them along and simultaneously evoke the sentiment thereof. This bore fruit later in the efforts of sacred/secular composers who write their music to specifically evoke certain feelings (now often without words).

34. Ideas: needed to already know the music Direction: you knew what direction the tune was headed Red line: notation indicating “same note” Prior to ca 850 no musical notation was used with significant regularity. These slides show progression of notation from ideas, to direction, to notes to be of same pitch

35. Fully developed 4 line Neume (pneuma) system of notation Credited to an Italian Benedictine monk who lived from 995–1050.Guido D'Arezzo Previously and even until recently with invention of recording instruments few if any ever heard music other than what was produced in their own area BUT now it could be shared

36. Modern western musical notation used from 16th century forward

37. Musical development proceeded along the needs of the church or in many cases the monasteries: • The hours: (monastic times of prayer): • Matins midnight, Laude 3:00, • Prime 6:00, Terce 9:00, • Mass 10:00, Sext, 12:00, • None 3:00, Vespers 6:00, • Compline, bedtime. • Incorporated many Psalms on plainsong and the mass. • Because there were so many times of prayer (and singing was part of the prayer hour) music and its development became very important.

38. Late Middle Ages (ca 1000-1400) • Universities emerged in major centers: • Bologna , Chartres (where music was a specialty), Oxford, Cambridge Linked to the churches in those places • Course work included • Classical studies (Greek Roman) • Quadrivium: Arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. • Trivium: Grammar, rhetoric, Dialectic • Music was viewed as a microcosm of the universe. • Music was taken seriously, elevated on pedestal, not casual.

39. The Center of musical effort was the Mass • The Mass (centered on the Lords supper): • having 2 parts: Ordinary and Proper • The “Ordinary” was that part common to all masses regardless of the time of year i.e. period in the church calendar. It uniformly consists of : • Kyrie “Lord have mercy” • Gloria “Glory to God in the highest” • Credo “I believe” • Sanctus “Holy Holy” • Agnus Dei “Lamb of God” • This was the center of musical effort and involved the most intense efforts of composers, many to this day.

40. The requiem (or mass for the dead) This form of worship traces back to second century association with songs at funeral · Dies Irae days of wrath · DomineJesu Lord Jesus · Sanctus Holy Holy · Benedictus fare well · Pie Jesu O sweet Jesus · Agnus Dei Lamb of God · LuxAeternum Light eternal · Libera Me Deliver me · In Paradisum into paradise This is mentioned because composers form Mozart, to Gabriel Faure, GiuseppeVerde, to name a few wrote masterworks in this form.

41. The Mass has been addressed • By many serious composers • From days of Plainsong (Chant) ca 500 AD to the current day • Composers up until ca 1000 were unknown, consciously not named. Around 1000 history began to record the names of composers (often those who brought innovation) • Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) incorporated “folk song” and thereby “dignified it” also individualized plainsong • Leonin (1135-1201) and Perotin (1160-1230) successive choirmasters at Notre Dame developed early polyphonic (Harmonic) styles • Guillaume De Machaut (1300-1377) France developed multipart harmony • John Dunstable (1385-14530 England motets, songs and hymns • Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) Belgium under patronage of dukes of Burgundy refinement of harmony, wrote sacred and secular music

42. Emergence and development of polyphony: Ca. 1200-1400 Polyphonic styles are simply more than one note sung together (harmony in its simplest form) musical melodies moving in alternate directions. Experimentation with the forms of music: First 2 part then 4 part form called organum, still acapella. Ears untrained, required trained singers. Measured music: a lot of ¾ timing (because of the Trinity) Musical notation led to transportability and accurate reproduction (as opposed to improvisation) This meant that people could share ideas. A few examples follow:

43. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) German nun (She was the tenth child in the family and at age 8 was sent to monastary) She wrote religious poetry set to music. It resembled the Gregorian chant, but was highly original and never drew from existing repertory. This particular chant "O pastor animarum" (O Shepherd of Souls) had an important part to play in later music, when it was used as the foundation of structures of greater complexity.

44. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) La Messe de Notre Dame “Agnus Dei” Music with clear whole tones the full development of “ars Nova” or then new music Strange rhythm and harmonies to the modern ear. Imagine being in a cathedral and hearing this after plainsong. Not all new music was well received.

45. Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) Belgium under patronage of dukes of Burgundy refinement of harmony, wrote sacred and secular music Setting of the Kyrie based on the "Lux et origo" chant for Mass in Eastertide, composed by Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397 - 1474). Performed by Music Divine at the Church of Notre Dame, NYC on May 3, 2009. Modern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word. Desiderius Erasmus 1466-1536 (renaissance humanist)

46. Renaissance, reformation and counter reformation Ca 1500-1650 Backdrop: The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late middle ages saw a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy culminating in the Western Schism (divided papacy Avignon France and Rome Italy) in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true bishop of Rome. While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the 15th century saw a resulting reform movement known as conciliarism, which sought to limit the pope's power. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, (Borgia) who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four illegitimate children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more power.

47. Humanism: A shift on the way of thinking (the center of thought). In some ways Humanism was not a philosophy per se, but rather a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, humanists would study ancient texts in the original, and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based on the programme of 'StudiaHumanitatis', that being the study of five humanities: poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy and rhetoric. (contrast the Quadrivium: Arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) HUMANISM: a “middle of the road” definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome". Above all, humanists asserted : "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind."

48. Renaissance a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century. Beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. As a cultural movement, it encompassed: learning based on classical (Greek Roman) sources development of linear perspective in painting widespread educational reform. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval. Best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance man".

49. Reformation The Protestant Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice — especially the teaching and the sale of indulgences or the abuses thereof, and simony, the selling and buying of clerical offices — that the reformers saw as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Church's Roman hierarchy, which included the Pope. Protests against the corruption emanating from Rome began in earnest: Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk at the university of Wittenberg, called in 1517 for a reopening of the debate on the sale of indulgences and the authority to absolve sin and remit one from purgatory. Luther's dissent marked a sudden outbreak of a new and irresistible force of discontent. John Calvin: Institutes acknowledges its central theme. The sum of human wisdom consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.[63] Calvin argues that the knowledge of God is not inherent in humanity nor can it be discovered by observing this world. The only way to obtain it is to study scripture. Calvin writes, "For anyone to arrive at God the Creator he needs Scripture as his Guide and Teacher.

50. Counter reformation Counter-Reformation: (denotes the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648. A response to the Protestant Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements: Ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration Religious orders (Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola) Spiritual movements Political dimensions Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. It also involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition