Medieval Music: Gregorian Chants, Troubadours, and Cantigas

Gregorian Chants: We call them Gregorian chants, in honor of Pope Gregory I (540-604), who was their first compiler. Western music comes from the medieval chants of the Catholic Church.

Characteristics of Gregorian Chants:

• The song is a capella, only voice with no instruments.
• The subject is religious. It is a prayer.
• All the voices sing the same melody, so the texture is monophonic or monodic.
• The language is Latin.
• Its rhythm is free (without a time signature) and it flows with the text.
• The authors are anonymous.

Troubadours: Troubadours are in the countryside playing instruments of the period (the harp, bagpipe, and shawm). Songs were not religious. It developed mainly in France in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

Characteristics of Troubadour Music:

• The subjects of their songs were love, war, etc.
• They sang in their own language (modern languages), not in Latin.
• The rhythm of the music was usually marked but could be free.
• The troubadours sang solos, unlike the collective Gregorian chants.
• They normally accompanied their songs with instruments.
• The composers of the music were known (not anonymous).

One of the most important troubadours was Bernat de Ventadous (¿?-1195). Spain also had important troubadours, such as Martín Codax and King Alfonso X el Sabio. One of the jewels of Spanish medieval secular music is the immense collection of the Cantigas de Santa María, by Alfonso X el Sabio (1221-1284).

Cantigas de Santa María: The word cantiga means a type of poetic-musical composition in the Galician-Portuguese dialect. It is considered secular, although the text is religious. The cantigas narrate the miracles done through the intercession of the Holy Virgin (a few were of praise).

The Gregorian Chant:

Gregorian chants were intended for praying. So, the ideal place for listening to this music is a monastery or a cathedral. Depending on how the text is sung, we can distinguish three melodic styles in Gregorian chants.

Syllabic Style:

We sing each syllable of the text over multiple notes.

Melismatic Style:

We sing each syllable of the text over multiple notes.

Neumatic Style:

We sing each syllable over more than one note.

The World of Musical Instruments:

In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, the first families of instruments appeared, with the rise of “independent” instrumental music. The timbre of these instruments was high-pitched and clear. The instruments in the Middle Ages were used mainly in secular music.

The troubadours were accompanied by plucked string instruments, such as the lute, the harp, the psaltery, and the viola. The string instruments were often used to make sustained notes that complemented the voice. The wind instruments included recorders, shawms (antecessors of the modern oboe, with double reed), bagpipes, and trumpets. The percussion instruments were also very diverse and included different cymbals, bells, triangles, tambourines of all types, etc. In the church, the organ was used the most.