MEDIEVAL (500-1400)

“Every creature is a glittering, glistening mirror of Divinity.” – Hildegard von Bingen

THE SOCIETY

  • This was the age of theocracy.  The fall of Rome at the end of the previous century left a societal void, which the Catholic Church filled.

THE ROLE OF MUSIC

  • The role of composed music was devotional to God, so it was mostly sacred (religious).

  • Most secular music was improvised or passed down aurally, without notation.

MUSICAL STYLE

  • Composed music was mostly a cappella vocal music (without instrumental accompaniment).

  • The earliest music was Gregorian chant (also known as plainchant).  It consisted of single melodic lines (monophony) sung a cappella.

MUSICAL DEVELOPMENTS

  • The origins of Western Music come from this time.

  • Music notation developed.

  • Over time, monophonic plainchant evolved into multi-melody music (polyphony).

COMPOSERS

FUN FACTS

  • The music from a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a spoof on medieval music.

  • Pope Gregory the Great claimed that a divinely inspired bird landed on his shoulder and sang plainchant melodies to him.  He wrote them down and insisted that all churches use them because they were inspired by God.  This is how plainchant became known as “Gregorian chant.”

  • Hildegard von Bingen was a remarkable person and a female jack of all trades.  She is the first female composer studied (and the last we hear of for a while) in most music history courses.