Music in Classical Antiquity

January 10, 2018 | Author: Anonymous | Category: Social Science, Anthropology, Mythology
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Secular Song and Instrumental Music to 1300

Latin songs • Conductus — serious topics — eleventh to thirteenth centuries • Planctus — lament in praise of dead friend or patron • Goliard songs — informal — eleventh to twelfth centuries – Goliards — dropouts from clerical studies – name from “patron” Golias (Goliath) – song topics — praise of wine, women, song; political satire – Carmina Burana — collection from Benediktbeuern (in Bavaria) in thirteenth century

Minstrels, or jongleurs — from tenth century • Performers, not necessarily composers — variety of activities – acrobatics and juggling – singing and playing songs and dances – chansons de geste — epic, historical tales in vernacular • ex. Chanson de Roland — late eleventh century, tells events of ninth century • Depended on court or (less successfully) public donations • Gathered in scolae in Netherlands at Lent to learn new repertoire

Feudalism and chivalry — development to eleventh century • Feudal hierarchy — from warrior lords to serfs • Chivalry — formalization of feudalism as courtly culture – tournaments — ritualized combat, held in conjunction with festivals – crusades — supported by church, removed warlike force from Europe – spiritualization of knighthood — Christian ideals of love, sacrifice, self-denial; cult of the Virgin Mary – service to women as idealized model of protecting the weak — courtoisie • Courtly love (fin’ amors) — Andreas Capellanus, Tractatus de amore (ca. 1180) — courts of love

Troubadours • In southern France or Aquitaine — vernacular Occitan (langue d’oc) or Provençal – ca. 1100 to 1250 • Aquitainian secular song arises from chivalry • Troubadours — from trobar (to find) or trope (?) • Trobairitz — women composers • Individuals known from vidas in song manuscripts

Texts in troubadour songs Numerous types based on different literary themes • Canso — dealt with courtly love (fin’ amors) • Alba — song by friend and lovers’ lookout, refrain characteristic • Tenso, partimen, joc parti — discussion or debate about courtly love • Planh — comparable to planctus, but in vernacular • Sirventes — political or moral subjects • Dansa — popular style dance song (for carole), characterized by refrain • Pastorela — popular knight and shepherdess story

Style in troubadour songs • Scoring — voice, probably with instruments • Rhythm — text-based — probably more measured than chant • Melody — simple lines, became steadily less dependent on modal construction – wider ambitus than chant – repetitious figures – general freedom — some approach major-minor • forms – strophic — various simple patterns of stanzas, sometimes with refrains – open and closed cadences to create continuity and finality

Trouvères • In France (langue d’oïl) and England — ca. 1150 to ca. 1300 • Rise of power of north over south in France

Texts in trouvère songs • Types adapted from troubadours – chanson d’amour (from canso) – aube (from alba) – jeu-parti (from joc-parti) – pastourelle (from pastorela) • Poetry – often characterized by religious imagery, references to Virgin Mary, crusades – more organized than troubadour lyrics

Style of trouvère songs • Rhythm — more likely to be measured than in troubadour songs • Melody — short, clear phrasing • Form — more carefully patterned than troubadour songs – strophic, with envoi at end – common outline for each stanza: frons cauda pes pes volta A A B ab ab c d . . . b(?) – more patterned forms begin

Minnesinger • Courtly composers in Germany — from ca. 1170 • From Minne, courtly love — modeled on troubadours

Texts of Minnelieder • Middle High German • Types – Lied (from canso) – Tagelied (from alba) – Leich (from lai) — multiple stanzas of text but throughcomposed – Wechsel (dialogue of man and woman) – Tanzlied (dance song) – Kreuzlied (crusade song) – Spruch (based on sirventes) — moral adage, political statement in single stanza • More sober than troubadours, often religious • Often praise of nature (especially winter, summer)

Style in Minnelied • Rhythm — German based on stress rather than duration • Melody — less clearly major-minor oriented • Form — mostly strophic – structure of each stanza — Bar Stollen (A)

Stollen (A)

| Abgesang (B) ||

Abgesang often rhymes musically with Stollen (i.e., balanced binary form)

Medieval songs in Spain • Occitan influence in northern Spain until ca. 1300 (Moors in south) • Cantigas de gesta modeled on French chansons de geste • Troubadours in courts — canciones de amor modeled on troubadour canso

Alfonso X (el Sabio)

Cantigas de Santa María • Praise miracles of Virgin Mary • Form — villancico estribillo estrofa estribillo A b b a A chorus solo chorus

estrofa . . . b b a solo

Medieval secular songs in Italy • Lauda — used by lay fraternities (“laudesi”) in the Franciscan movement, penitents and pilgrims • Influence of traveling (crusading) troubadours • Popular secular dance music — ballata form ripresa A

piede b

piede b

volta a

ripresa A

Medieval instruments haut and bas — loudness as the main classification

Organs • Church organ — built in place • Positive organ — placed on table, required assistant for bellows • Portative organ — held on lap, single player

Trumpets • Straight design • For heraldic use

Strings • Use – favored for nobility — classical tradition of ethos – accompaniment for singing — troubadours and trouvères • Types – bowed • vielle (Fiedel, viuola) — gut or silk strings • rebec — high range – hurdy-gurdy (organistrum) — crank and keys – plucked • lute — played with plectrum (stiff or flexible) • Psaltery • harp — played with finger and thumb

Wind instruments • Horns – oliphant — military, royal, status symbol – cow or deer horn • Reeds – shawm (bombarde) — loud, outdoors – bagpipe – capped reed, softer than shawm or modern bagpipe • Flute family – cross-blown – recorder and notched flute – pipe and tabor

Percussion • Indefinite pitch – miscellaneous drums, including tabor – nakers — small drums in a pair – tambourine

• Pitched – bells – dulcimer

Uses of instruments to 1300 Instruments in the church • Use limited – documentary evidence generally in context of condemnation • Depictions in art often symbolic rather than realistic • Organ accepted

Instruments and vocal music • Use with singers — string instruments favored (vielle; also lute and harp) – doubling (heterophonic ornamentation) – drone, accompanying rhythmic figuration – prelude, interlude, postlude • Instruments could substitute for vocalists

Instruments in dance music • Social position — participatory rather than staged for an audience – aristocracy – peasants – ecclesiastical disapproval — related to paganism, sensual • Types of dances – line dances — related to procession – circle dances — carole – couples dances — seem to be later

Forms and genres in dance music • Forms — like Sequence – paired puncta – often open and closed endings • Types of dance music – ductia • group dance • quick tempo • few, equal-length sections – stantipes (estampie) • couples dance? • several sections of different lengths

Scoring for dance music • Indoors • rebec • bagpipe — could be carried in processional dance • Outdoors • pipe and tabor — useful in processions • shawm(s)

Questions for discussion • Why did it become necessary to create a new word (troubadour or trouvère) to distinguish a composer from other types of musicians at a particular point in the history of Western music? • How can musicians who want to play medieval music in historically appropriate scorings attempt to discover what was done, since the written music does not specify instrumentation?

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