PART 2SEVEN CENTURIES OF MUSIC

UNIT 4The Middle Ages

What we think when we say "Let's study Gregorian Chant!"

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Chapter 9Chant and Hildegard of Bingen

“The Overriding purpose of chant is to connect the human with the divine.”

One of the top five hit albums of the 1990’s was Chant, a recording of Gregorian Chant by the Benedictine Monks of Santa Domingo de Silos.

You can hear vocal melismas not only in Gregorian Chant, but in today’s music by artists such as Mariah Carey and Beyonce’. 2

Monasteries, Convents and Abbeys

• Central fact of life was “the afterlife”• Orders followed a particular rule• After the fall of the Roman Empire, the

Catholic Church became the dominant institution in Europe

• universal religion• repository of learning• only place where a young person could receive an education

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Monasteries, Convents and Abbeys

• Clergy social standing comparable to that of nobility

• Both were well above peasant, artisan or tradesman status

• Daily routine in monasteries– prayer eight times a day– Mass– Work

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Monasteries, Convents and Abbeys

• Divine Office = Periods of daily prayer occurred at regular intervals from sunrise to after sunset

• St. Augustine - “To sing is to pray twice.”

• Work included copying books and music• Scribes worked in a scriptorium and

monastery libraries have been our main source of chant and medieval sacred music

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Religion and Politics

• Christmas Day 800 – Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor

• Holy Roman Empire lasted for a millennium

• Bond between church and state

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Chant• Plainchant (chant) = music used in both

Mass and Divine Office

• Gregorian Chant = most widely used chant in western Europe

• Pope Gregory did not write these, but had the liturgy organized and the chants notated

• Antiphon = chant with prose (not poetic) text, sung with a psalm 7

Hildegard of Bingen• The most extraordinary woman of the

Middle Ages• Promised to the church by her parents at

age eight, entered the abbey at age fourteen, became the prioress (nun in charge) then founded her own convent around 1150

• Volumes on science, lives of the saints, poetry, artwork, and songs

• Ecstatic visions, experienced since the age of five

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• Dates: 1098 – 1179• Most famous female composer of chants; a

gifted writer, musician, and artist

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Nunc aperuit nobisMac Users click hereMac Users click here

1994 BBC Movie - “Hildegard” • Multimedia class resource• Presents Hildegard’s life as an “intellectual,

visionary, a poet, composer, naturalist, healer and theologian.”

• Movie takes place during her time at St. Disibod in Germany’s Rhineland, and ends in 1150 as she sets out to Rupertsberg near Bingen to found her own convent.

IMDb (Internet Movie Database) review states that this movie “clearly portrays her great compassion towards her fellow human beings, her modesty and her ardent faith.”

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• Chant Melody is above a drone• Drone = note continuously sounding

throughout the piece or large section of the piece (like bagpipe sound)

• Melodic movement is mostly by step• Spoken words cannot project the power

of Hildegard’s visions• Symbolism – drone = earthly reality/

chant melody = Hildegard’s ecstatic state during visions

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Melody in Chant

• Syllabic = chant text setting having one note per syllable

• Neumatic = generally has two to four notes per syllable

• Melismatic = most elaborate form of text setting with single syllable sustained for many notes

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Text in Chant

Key, Scale and Mode

• In chant, sustained notes act as home base for pitch

• Tonal – the other notes of the melody are understood in terms of this reference pitch

• Major and minor scales not yet developed; Chants used Modal Scales

• Ionian and Aeolian developed into modern Major and minor scales

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Chant in the 21st Century

• Gregorian - Live on Tour 2011

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