Medieval Music & Core Musical Elements

Key Historical Periods in Music

Medieval Era Overview

The Medieval period broadly spans from the 5th to the 14th centuries, encompassing significant developments in music and art.

Architectural & Artistic Periods

Romanesque Period

Primarily associated with the 11th century, characterized by robust, monumental structures.

Gothic Period

Flourished from the 11th to the 14th centuries, known for its soaring architecture and intricate details.

Characteristics of Gregorian Chant

• Texture: Monophonic, sung in a single voice collectively.
• Timbre: Vocal, a cappella (without instruments).
• Text: Always in Latin.
• Songwriters: Anonymous, often attributed to humility rather than individual composers.
• Movement: Slow, unhurried, without a defined pulse.
• Rhythm: Free, dependent on the text, without a strict meter, and not repetitive.
• Melody: Long, following the phrasing of the text or extended vocally.
• Character: Reflective and devotional.

Gregorian Chant Melodic Styles

• Syllabic: Each note corresponds to one syllable.
• Psalmodic: One note is sung over several syllables (often a reciting tone).
• Neumatic (Ornate): Two or three notes are sung per syllable.
• Melismatic: Three or more notes are sung per syllable.

Monophonic Secular Music: Troubadours & Jongleurs

Characteristics of Troubadour Music

• Texture: Monophonic, typically one voice.
• Timbre: Vocal, often with instrumental accompaniment.
• Text: In various vernacular languages, focusing on human and worldly themes.
• Songwriters: Troubadours (poet-composers).
• Movement: Varies according to the character of the piece.
• Rhythm: Marked with a clear meter.
• Melody: Lyrical and singable.
• Character: Often sensual, expressing a range of emotions.

Key Figures in Medieval Secular Music

• Troubadours: Poet-composers of classical music who lived in castles and courts, creating and performing their own works.
• Jongleurs (Ministers): Itinerant performers who often lived with troubadours and performed the music composed by them.
• Minstrels: Versatile entertainers including musicians, acrobats, storytellers, and merchants, who traveled from village to village to entertain people. They were often viewed unfavorably by the Church.

Common Themes in Troubadour Music

• Themes of love (courtly love), honor, loyalty, and battle.

Fundamental Musical Concepts

Understanding Sound

• Sound: Vibrations produced by an elastic body that reach our ears.
• Concept of Sound & Noise: Organized sounds that are pleasant to our ears, as opposed to unorganized noise.

Characteristics of Sound

• Intensity (Loudness): Related to amplitude. High intensity = greater amplitude; Low intensity = smaller amplitude.
• Pitch (High/Low): Related to frequency. High pitch = high frequency; Low pitch = low frequency.
• Duration: The length of time a sound lasts.
• Timbre (Tone Color): The characteristic quality that distinguishes one sound from another (e.g., a flute from a violin).

Core Musical Elements & Concepts

• Melody: The organization of pitches in succession, characterized by contour, length, height (pitch), and intensity.
• Rhythm: The organization of sounds in time, involving patterns of duration, intensity, and accent.
• Harmony: The science that studies the combination of simultaneous musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions.
• Tempo (Movement): The speed at which a musical piece is performed.
• Dynamics: The organization of intensity or loudness in music (e.g., soft, loud).
• Ostinato: A musical pattern or phrase that is persistently repeated throughout a composition or section.
• Version: An interpretation of a musical work that has already been performed or recorded.
• Texture: The way different melodic lines or musical sounds are combined in a composition (e.g., monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic).
• Form (Musical Form): The overall structure and organization of a musical piece.
• Genre: A category of musical composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content, reflecting the composer's intentions.
• Music of Circumstance: Music commissioned by composers for a specific reason or particular occasion.