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Music of the Dark Ages. Medieval music was both sacred and secular . During the earlier medieval period, the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was Monophonic .
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Medieval music was both sacred and secular. During the earlier medieval period, the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was Monophonic. Polyphonicgenres started to develop during the late medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th and early 14th century. The development of such forms is often associated with the Ars nova.
Words to know Monophonic: Single line of music (no harmony) Polyphonic: Multiple lines of music Ars Nova: polyphonic music of the 14th century “the new music” Cantus firmus: ("fixed song") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.
Gregorian Chant / aka “plain chant” The central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services. It is named after Pope Gregory I, Bishop of Rome from 590 to 604, who is traditionally credited for having ordered the simplification and cataloging of music assigned to specific celebrations in the church calendar.
Organum Organum: is a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bourdon may be sung on the same text, or the melody is followed in parallel motion (parallel organum) or a combination thereof. Organum was originally improvised; while one singer performed a notated, another singer—singing "by ear"—provided the unnotated second melody. Over time, composers began to write added parts that were not just simple transpositions, thus creating true polyphony.
The music of the troubadours and trouvères was a vernacular tradition of monophonicsecular song, probably accompanied by instruments, sung by professional, occasionally itinerant, musicians who were as skilled as poets as they were singers and instrumentalists. Motet: a piece of music in several parts with words From these first motets arose a medieval tradition of secular motets. These were two or three part compositions in which several different texts, sometimes in different vernacular languages, were sung simultaneously over a Latin cantus firmus
Listening examples: Bernat del Ventadorn:a prominent troubador of the classical age of troubadour poetry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWfuhcJ0VVA&feature=related
Hildegard von bingen: (1098 – 17 September 1179), a german nun, Hildegard was raised in a family of free nobles. She was the 10th child, sickly from birth.In her Vita, Hildegard explains that from a very young age she had experienced visions. Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard's parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, offered her as a tithe to the church.
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