Guido of Arezzo A change in Music History - Research Paper Example

Guido d'Arezzo A change in Music History Guido d'Arrezo left the Pompey monastery as a Benedictine Monk in 1025. This paper will give other possibilities of his place of birth. It will explain why he could have left such a large monastery so quickly as a monk only to become a "school teacher". It will then delve into the notation of the Gregorian chants before the 10th century and how Arrezo changed music history by creating his own system. As a conclusion, a short summary of is Guidonien Hand and how it changed music history giving the possibility for more people to learn solfege more rapidly. Little is known of the first twenty years of the life of Guido d'Arezzo. It has always been assumed Guido d'Arrezo was supposed to have been born in Pompey. There are several schools of thoughts as to why this is not so. Les 20 Premières Années de la Vie du Guido d'Arezzo analyses other possibilities. He left Pompey in 1025 as a Benedictine Monk. Did he become a Benedictine monk at the Pompey monastery or did he come to the monastery with the title? As late as 1013, the Abbey of Arrezo has reference of a Guido as a cantor. There is absolutely no reference to a Guido being employed in a musical context in Pompey. There are references of a Guido in the church documents in Arrezo over a period of 10 years from 1001 to 1013 (Malfuci) If he were born in Pompey, this would have meant that he would have gotten his early musical training in Pompey. His birth year was c1990. (Grout 2001,59) If he had been born in Pompey, why would he have had the name d'Arrezo. It was common in European culture to take the name of towns as a last name. For a 10 year period from approximately 1015 to the time he left Pompey, there is very little documented reference to his life. (Aduci) He left the Monastery in 1025 because of his undocumented (musical) differences. (Otten 1910) The church wanted to maintain the oral tradition. They were threatened by innovation. Losing control over the chants would give more power to the people to compose. The church had recognized a sort of power by forbidding any composition other than church composition. After leaving Pompey, he went to Arrezo where he was given a job as teacher in the cathedral and possibly regain his previous job as cantor. He lived there until his death until 1050. During this time he wrote treatises, his famous hand and changed the staff system of notation. Music notation in the 10th century was complicated and non comprehensible to the majority of the catholic monks. It was mostly an oral tradition that was common in most cultures. In the Hebrew Torah, the voice rises and lowers according to a notation that is learned through oral tradition today. The use of lines and dots was common to the Greeks also. The neumes could only be read by a select few. It was highly improbable that the chants of the Northern cathedrals were recognizable by Rome. As they only indicated the direction of the voice, the sound of the chant changed depending on the region of the church. The same chant sung in Northern Europe would not sound the same as it would in Rome. The neumes showed the inflection and descent of the voice. The development of early church notation lead towards fewer and fewer monks chanting. As the church grew there were fewer men to pass on the oral tradition. The first illustration shows the lines of the neumes. Early notation of pre d'Azzero church chants were signs above the words. The inflection of the voice were indicated by complicated, non standardized notation which had been used for generation upon generation. There are factures which must be taken into consideration as to the difficulty of the form of notation. The chanting was only allowed to be performed by the Church. Each chant was passed from one generation to another. The notation was based on the inflection of the voice not on changes of tone. Church documents were limited due to fewer and fewer monks who could transcribe. The scribes were specially trained to write other documents also. Fewer and fewer monks retained the chants by memory Guido d'Azerro was an innovator. He saw an interest in setting up a system so the chants would be the same everywhere. It might not have been his motivating factor. Even though the church had a tight grip on the development of culture , his work was highly accepted. The chants became more complicated and the 2 line staff or the neumes that you see above no longer was adequate enough to keep the oral tradition going. One of his most famous innovations was taking the common system of notation and realizing that there was a logic to it. He used the hymn of Jean Baptiste. It was well known by the church and the population. This hymn was simplistic, as the intervals between the phrases were incremental. This hymn goes up in equal intervals. He took the initiative to say that it was not the words that were being chanted but the sounds that were coming from the voices. Words should be applied to sound and not to the inflection of the voice. His scale became the 6 note hexachord as the premise of our solfege today. According to the Grove's, the system of "solmization is the use of syllable in association with pitch as mnemoic devise for indicating melodic intervals". D'Azzero was clear in writing that the intervals were tonal. In the hymn, one can see the first 6 notes of the scales. The pattern had a demi tone between mi and fa or the third and fourth note depending on where the hexachord was started. (Grout 59) UT queant laxis REsonare fibris Mira gestorum FAmululi tuorum SOLve polluti LAbii reatum Sancte loannes D'Azerro is also known as a medieval theorist. He believed music should give its listener a feeling of spirituality, feeling of sadness or of joy. His writing Micrologus Guidonis De Disciplina Artis Musicae (A Short Treatise on the Discipline of Musical Art) taught young priest his theory of the 8 modes of chant. (Kirsch) He wrote about the value of converging voices in a fourth. As an example they would sing Ut and Fa. He proved that the chants of the 11th century could no longer be displayed on the two line staff. He is responsible for having created the four line staff, so it would be easier to read, he also explained that in his four line staff each line would be represented by a different color. The manuscripts of the chants from the 11th century are works of arts. With the demi tone, the hexachord applies perfectly to a 4 staff system of musical notation. He was invited to Rome. For the first time, musical notation was accepted by the Vatican and became universally adapted by the church. There are records of this visit but the text he wrote does not exist today. The four note staff indicated only the pitch. There is much dispute as to how a neume is to be sung as one example shows. (Martinez 1943) Here is a copy of the ancient form of inflection writing (neumes), the four line staff of Guido d'Arezzo, and the 5 line staff of today. (Martinez)There is the note system of the 11th century and our note system. The four line staff chants would be used by the public who would use the chant as a base for adding their own music There is documentation saying that Guido d'Azerro also known as Guy d'Azerro was born in the late 10th century in France. He received his musical training in Pompey as he became a Benedictine monk. Both these theories are plausible. Early in his life he was forced to move from Pompey for non documented reasons. It can be highly assumed that the reasons were because his theoretical work in harmony and musical notation were not in line with the Church thought. To put feeling and thought into the sound was innovating and heretical. When he left the Abbey, he was never able to get such a high position again. Perhaps he decided that he did not want the politics and he wanted to be free to work as a theorist. He went to the city of Azerro to work in the Cathedral School in 1025. He concentrated on teaching children; developing a system of study which would advance their musical ability. He was known as an excellent teacher. There are records of his treatises and innovations as they were used for many centuries. Guy d'Azerro was attributed with the Guidionnienne hand, a system of notation, using the hexachord which was a major turning point in musical history.. His Guidionienne Hand was a system to allow those to memorize the chants. Each joint represented a hexachord scale. (Otten) As previously stated, written documents. Parchment was expensive and those who knew how to write were rare. Guido d'Arezzo developed a system of teaching solfege and chants by using his 6 note scales by using the hand. Next to his illustration, there is a modern rendition of his hand. D Each scale would be represented by a different finger. Rhythm was not taken into account. The student would be given the first note and be able to sing the chant. Each joint of the finger would represent a different hexachord. His "Hand" allowed more people to have access to church music. He showed that there were actually 21 levels of notes the size of the early keyboards. The church for 10 centuries had kept tight control over music. D'Azerro changed the development of music. Music took on new forms and purposes. More and more people were able to learn the basics and to turn sound into timbre and melodies. It was no longer necessary to depend on the oral tradition. With the four line staff, music took on new sounds and harmonies. For two more centuries it would be necessary for the secular world to compose their music using the Church's chants. D'Arezzo use of the hexachord enabled the secular world to use the chant as a bass chord or melody and interpose their own music. This is the transition from late Medieval to Early Baroque. D'Arezzo made it possible for the music world to go from the Medieval to the Baroque more quickly than anyone would ever have thought.. References Grout, Donald Gray and Claude Palisca. 2001. The History of Western Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Kirsch, J.P. 1911. Micrologus. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved December 1, 2011 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10285a.htm Mafucci, Angelo. 2003 Guido d'Arezzo Les Vingt Permieres Annees de Sa Vie. Retrieved November 26, 2011 http://www.musicologie.org/publirem/mafucci_fr.html Martinez, Fernando. 1943. Método de Canto Gregoriano Capitulos (Gregorian Chant Notation. Retrieved November 27 2011 http://interletras.com/canticum/eng/notation_ENG.htm#top Otten, Joseph. 1910. Guido of Arezzo. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved December 1, 2011 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07065a.htm Read More