Music and the Church: Plainchant

Chapter 5 The Middle Ages

Music and the Church: Plainchant

Key Terms Jongleurs Plainchant Medieval modes Vihuela Recitation

Reciting tone Preface Antiphon Sequence Drone

Middle Ages Timeline

The Middle Ages From fall of Rome (476 C.E.) to c. 1400 Access to international trade waned Feudal economy Primitive, often brutal living conditions Mass migrations due to invasions, famine, plagues Much of the education and technology of Greco-Roman civilization lost in the West

The Middle Ages Slow but sure movement away from the absolute authority of the Church New musical concepts originated and evolved—“quantum leaps” in music history • Music notation • Polyphony • Tunes

Music and the Church The Church held a central position in all areas of life The single greatest preserver of western civilization in the Middle Ages Patron of the arts: music, art, architecture, poetry, learning Most musicians trained in the Church Except at the end, most notated music was Church music

Plainchant Chanting sacred texts is a nearly universal phenomenon Practiced by Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists Also used by many smaller traditional religions, as in Hawai’ian or Navajo cultures Plainchant (Gregorian chant) is the body of chant melodies sung in the Catholic Church from the Middle Ages to 1964

Plainchant Music was used at services in cathedrals, monasteries, and convents every day • The Mass: the major worship service • The Divine Office: eight shorter services at various times of day and night

Thousands of texts and melodies required for these daily services • Prior to notation, all sung from memory!

Pope Gregory I supposedly mapped out the standard order of chants for these services—thus, Gregorian chant

Medieval Modes Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian White-key scales starting on D, E, F, and G, respectively These scales don’t use same patterns of whole steps and half steps as major or minor scales As a result, “pull” to tonic is weaker Richer palette of possible scales

Medieval Modes

Listening to Plainchant Describe the style of plainchant • • • • • • • •

Melody Harmony Key and tonality Rhythm, meter, and tempo Dynamics Texture Tone color Form

How is this music not like a tune?

Features of Plainchant • • • • • • • • •

Legato melody moves mostly by step Based on a medieval mode (Mixolydian) Tonality weaker than with major scale Nonmetrical: no fixed rhythm or meter Rhythms follows text at moderate tempo Unaccompanied, monophonic music Sung by male (or female) voices No obvious patterns of repetition or return Avoidance of repetitions, dance rhythms, and strong tonic gives it a floating, otherworldly, spiritual quality—passionate yet serene

Antiphon, “In paradisum” Burial antiphon from the Requiem Mass (funeral service) Sung over and over while the coffin is carried from church to graveyard in a processional

Preface, “Vere dignum” Preface from the Mass for Whit Sunday Part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Preface introduces the Elevation of the Host Sung by the priest as he presents the bread and wine The Preface immediately precedes the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), one of the most awe-filled moments of the Mass

Preface, “Vere dignum” • Legato melody with many repeated notes • Heightened speech; not as “melodic” as “In paradisum” • Based on a medieval mode (Dorian) • Nonmetrical: no fixed rhythm or meter • Rhythms follows text at moderate tempo • Unaccompanied, monophonic music • Sung by solo male voice • Based on a reciting tone, repeated three times

Hildegard of Bingen Lived 1098-1179 Abbess: founded Rupertsberg Abbey Mystic: author of Scivias, a record of her visions Author: wrote 13 other books on theology, medicine, and physical sciences Composer: wrote some 77 works, including Ordo Virtutum, a liturgical drama

Hildegard, “Columba aspexit” • Legato melody mixes in more leaps, covers wider range than earlier plainchant • Based on a medieval mode (Mixolydian) • Nonmetrical: no fixed rhythm or meter • Rhythms follows text at moderate tempo • Monophonic music over instrumental drone • Sung by female voices • Sequence form: AA’BB’CC’ etc.  Series of solo tunes repeated by chorus

• Ecstatic yet serene

Hildegard, “Columba aspexit”