Art and Music in Medieval Times - Speech or Presentation Example

Academia - Research December 2009 Stuck In the Middle: Art and Music in Medieval Times Introduction The medieval age spanned a number of centuries from about 500 to 1450 AD. It was a long dark era during which everything seemed, from this distance in time, to happen very slowly. Inventions and innovations did not boom until later, during the Renaissance. Everything seemed stuck in time, when communication was slow and people were illiterate and superstitious. Fashion, events such as wars and successions of kings and queens, affected art and music, but at a slower pace than we are used to now. (Holmes 2001) THE AUDIO SAMPLE YOU CAN HEAR IS A MODERN REPRODUCTION OF A MEDIEVAL PIECE OF MUSIC WRITTEN IN 1300 FOR THE LUTE [Title slide] It was a fascinating time - the age of chivalry - when men and women were not treated equally, when knights and noblemen enjoyed unequalled power, when the church was very important in politics as well as people’s spiritual lives. (Bloch 1992) Countries were divided into principalities and dukedoms, and battles between them further carved up the land. There were frequent feudal skirmishes between owners of neighboring lands. Transport, clothing, tools and buildings were comparatively primitive. (Cantor 1994) The gap between rich and poor people was extremely wide. Trades were developing slowly, and goods were exchanged for money and more commonly bartered. Different occupations were organized by guilds.(Holmes Ibid) [Slide 2] Medieval Society Fashion and clothing were laborious to make and mend. Fabrics were woven and sewn by hand. Women were weighed down by heavy garments, as if to purposely slow them down. Everyone wore hats outdoors and in. Knights wore insignia to show their rank and coats of arms, and all colors had a meaning. When they were not fighting real wars, knights held jousting contests, and outdid each other to win favor from the ladies. (Bishop 2001) Marriages were arranged: the concept of romantic love was just entering society and folklore. Women were married off by their fathers as soon as they reached marriageable age. Candidates for marriage were often found through a matchmaker or marriage-broker. Pictures of the man or woman were sometimes shown to the fathers of prospective husbands. This was the beginning of the portrait industry. (Bloch 1992) Entertainment was home-made. Most women learned how to sew and play an instrument such as the lute. They sang to each other, and made tapestry pictures. (Cantor 1994) Minstrels and storytellers went from town to town reciting long poems and playing drums, flutes, bagpipes and lutes. [Slide 3] Society Creates Art Art is created by the forces of society: it is the product of what people are doing and feeling at the time. It is bound by rules and fashions of the day, and illustrates what society is concerned about, so it is a good way to gauge what was going on at the time in the way of politics. Nearly always, it is groundbreaking and new, with artists trying to express novel ways of depicting the same old things. Medieval art was always representational, but they had not yet mastered the problems of perspective, tone and proportion. (Thompson 1956) Their paints were encaustic, which were pigments mixed into resin or wax, and fixed to the support by heat after the paint was rubbed inside the outlines by hand. They also started using tempera: egg yolk mixed with pigments, applied with a brush. A lot of medieval art was religious and displayed in chapels, churches and private bedrooms. (Thompson 1956) [Slide 4] Some well-known medieval artists are Giotto: they say he started it all. [Slide 5] Brunelleschi, who was very respected. [Slide 6] and Hieronymus Bosch, who was labeled mad. Each in their own way did a number of things: they influenced artists around them and created trends. They altered what was accepted and stretched the limits of what was possible technically and socially. They learned their craft and taught it to others. They created controversy, stimulated debate, and changed accepted thought. [Slide 7 ] Byzantine influence Politics and religion of the time were complicated. Byzantium, a place we now know as Istanbul, in Turkey, was chosen by Emperor Constantine to represent the centre of the Christian world. Religious art flourished there in the form of precious and amazing mosaics that covered the inside walls of churches and halls. (Cantor 1994) [Slide 8] Society Creates Music Music is always a good indicator of the trends in society. Music is an ancient art, which started to become sophisticated in medieval times. Compositions were necessarily restricted by whatever instruments were available at the time. Drums, flutes and bagpipes are very ancient, and were developed further in medieval times. The lute and other string instruments gained popularity. Medieval music was written for events such as weddings and holy masses. (Bloch 1992) A lot of medieval music was sacred, bound by strict rules, and chanting was very popular, especially the kind called Gregorian, which was sung by monks. [Slide 9] Some famous medieval musicians and composers were: Hildegard of Bingen. She was a nun who wrote devotional music and chants for monasteries and convents. [Slide 10]Roy Henry, who was most probably the multi-talented King Henry the Fifth of England. He was a king who knew how to read and write. [Slide 11] Andrea Stefani. Not much is known about this musician. Some of his hand-written sheet music still exists. The era’s major composers were very much influenced by sacred poetry, such as verses from the Bible, and chivalrous poetry, or stories of famous battles in verse. Most history was passed on by word of mouth or orally, rather than being written, since most people could not read or write. (Holmes Ibid) It was much easier for narrators to memories poems and songs, so music had a role that was much more important than mere entertainment. [Slide 12] But composers had to be careful, because not all music was considered appropriate. A special note called a tritone (which was considered a dissonance in the Middle Ages) was banned by the Church, and musicians could not use it. It was called the Devil’s interval. In Latin, it was known as ‘mi contra fa.’ (Hoppin 1978) [Slide 13] The Middle Ages (500 - 1450) were years full of slow experimentation. Although not as vibrant as the Renaissance that followed, because people were still very superstitious and fearful, it was a fertile ground for art and music, although things seemed stuck and static. The Church was strict, powerful and limited invention and creativity. Wars, crusades and feudal battles decimated and impoverished populations, and were were more important than art. Art was linked to marriage by betrothal portraits. Music was linked to oral history and praising God. Ultimately, it was a preparation period for a more fruitful one to follow, and set fashions and trends, so that people expected them as a matter of course. * References Bishop, Morris (2001) The Middle Ages Mariner Books Bloch R. Howard (1992) Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love University of Chicago Press Cantor, Norman F (1994) The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History Holmes, George (2001) The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe Oxford University Press Hoppin, Richard H (1978) The Norton Introduction to Music History (Medieval Music)W.W Norton & Co. Thompson, Daniel (1956) The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting Dover Publications Acknowledgments Pictures courtesy: 1. www.pillagedvillage.com/cgi-bin/gram_send.cgi... 2. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Medieval_couple.jpg 3-12 Commons online Read More