Polyphony in the Middle Ages - Coursework Example

Polyphony in the Middle Ages Introduction Dalahoyde s that polyphony as music of the Middle Ages arose from the various techniques that were usedto spice up play chant. Polyphony in its literal meaning is a musical type with two or more lines that are independent of each other. By maintaining the primacy and integrity of the chant lines, medieval sacred music incorporated the following: responsorial, antiphonal, procession, octaves and organum. Polyphony dates back to 8th and 9th century in which it appeared as parallel organum-a chant which strictly involved parallel progression. This form of progression gave the music resonance that is so fascinating. The first parallel organum was the Musical enchiriadis (Musical Handbook) which emerged in 9th century1. Occasionally, two voices in the music began in unison followed by vox organalis climbs to its hiatus, receding at the ends of phrases to the unison. This form was followed by the Ad organum facienddum2 . In 11th century, four other organums emerged. This include florid organum, melismatic organum, duplum organum and organum purum. Dalahoyde notes that the unmeasured melismatic dupum invoved the use of long tenure notes. Aquitanian organum of the 11th century which is linked to the French SW ‘Discant organum’ involved the use of two voices falling into a rhythmic style. This style of organum involved 6/8 or sometimes 8/9 fell, singing at the same pace for a passage. Dalahoyde reveals that in the 11th and 12th century, the octaves, fourth and fifth were perceived constant but not thirds. He notes that the standard closing sonority was 1-5-8 structure because it involved two perfect intervals3. Notre-Dome is also a style of early organum which came into being in 12th century. Its is derived from the Notre Dame Cathedral which was constructed in 1163. Notre Dame has two parts: organa and several clausulae, motets and Conductus. In organa, the melody involved the use of long notes with the organal part being left free and measured rhythm but with complex melismata. The free melismatic style is used when the original melody of the playsonng is syllabic in nature. Under discantus style, two parts of the play song moves notes by note rhythmically or in forms derived from the music of troubadour. The discantus style is employed especially when playchant is elaborated in lyrical form4. Clausula is another form of Notre Dame Style developed in 12th and 13th century. It is based on small portions of Gregorian chant as opposed to the organa which is based on the whole chant. This style involved squat compositions based on responsorial chant of melisma. Under this style, the tenor has no full text, nevertheless, icipit or just a syllable to show the chant from which tenure is taken from5. Organum Purum is another form of the Notre Dame which is employed where chants are syllabic. This implies situations where tenor cannot be modal. Immediately the tenure employs ligatures, its tenure transforms to modal and becomes discant which is the second type. Copula is the third form which entails the use of loh. de garlandia used between the discant and organum. Under Notre Dame Style, there are some distinctions that exist whether the style is strictly modal or not. Under duplum organum in its purum organum parts of syllables, the parts of cum littera in two-part conductus, monophonic conductus and copulae would be part of repertory. This are not strictly modal. Under monophonic songs, whether it is a conductus or a chant by Petrotin, musical standards for declamation is not varied as was the case with traditional types. Research has shown that there is a lot of variance and fluency of declamatory speech rhythms used in chants and should, therefore, govern it6. Florid organum is a musical genre of the twentieth century. Under this genre, there exist between two to six notes sung in the original voice but under a single nonstop note in the tenor. This is the principle also followed by the Paris duplum organum and Saint Martial organum. In the mid twentieth century, the florid organum was transformed in Aquitania and is associated with Saint Martial de Limoges. The organum involved the use of play chant melody which is sung in note-values that are extended in the lower voice Its length and duration was to be determined by the phrase in the part or organum. The chant then changes into long held notes of succession in accordance with the original melody. This was later on termed as ‘tenor’ derived from Latin word tenere which means to hold. Basically, there are six consonant intervals that can be applied in organum7. Notre Dame In the early ninth century, musicians introduced an idea of singing music by using two melodies at the same time. The melodic lines would be performed at the fourth, fifth, or at the octave. The result of this simultaneous melodic singing was referred to as the Organum. Organum had to develop for the next several years, and by the eleventh century the added melodic lined could no longer move in parallel motions. The added melodic lines could, in sometimes, contrary to the expectation, cross each other. Further, Notre Dame involved the singing of the polyphony into two parts using the solo voice. This would be achieved through moving from one section to another of the plainsong composed by a choir. The decant style was the most original and it was also the first style to have appeared. This style had parts; the tenor part had shorter and calculated notes8. By using tenor voice, the original melody would be sung at a low pace. The added melodies could then be used to achieve the desired drone. This type of music was sung at the Cathedral of Nontre Dame in Paris, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Later, Nontre Dame came to be referred to as the Ars Antiqua. The well known artists who composed Nontre Dame were Leonin and Perotin9. Motet Motet is the best form of music to have come from the Ars Antiqua, it was able to maintain its quality and popularity for several years. The most important part of motet is in its ability to present several texts. It involved the addition of a extra new text to the upper voices. These voices would normally be of a sacred polyphonic music where the lower moving voice would maintain its earlier sacred text. In the Latin, the next text, just like the original text, signified the significance of the original text. In the next years, the language used in the text became to be French. At this time, motet started to be more popular than Organum and Conductus, it even replaced Organum and Conductus. In Organum, the tenor part was borrowed while in while in Motet, the tenor part had to be created by the composers. In singing motet, a plain song had to be applied in collaboration with the tenor voice. Motet could be composed both in secular and in sacred styles10. Polyphonic Conductus During the 13th century, polyphonic conductus was the main music form that was in wide usage. In this composition, the tenor part had to be original, for instance, the artist had to compose the tenor part. The tenor part could not be derived from other plainsongs, as in the case of Organum. Further, the parts of Polyphonic conductus would move in unity and create a unified rhythm. The resulting musical piece was composed in two to four parts. It is important to note that the polyphonic Conductus was not sacred in nature, but was composed in secular form11. Hocket Hocket is a kind of Polyphony that was widely used in the melodies of the 11th and the 12th centuries. In this composition, the composers used a technique whereby they interrupted the melody line through the placement of rests at frequent intervals. In addition, the melody lines would then be alternated from one voice to another into the musical piece12. The French and Italian Ars Nova The Ars Nova usage began in 1316 and ended in 1973. It was a new way of doing music, a style that was employed during the time of European domination and is associated with the development of manuscript. The style involved the use of constrained use of poetic verse patterns and structures of metric and rhythmic notations. The former songs in French seldom employed menstrual notation where music genres like dance songs were organized into metric notations, in the latter performances, the composers had the authority to restrict a wide range of verses that could be performed rhythmically. Verses that could allow duple and triple mensuration were easier to combine into structures of rhythmic patterns which are still a major stylistic composition in today’s French music. According to the most famous composer of fourteenth century French lyrics, Guillaume de Machaut, “music is an art which likes people to laugh and sing and dance. It cares nothing for melancholy, nor for man who sorrows over what is of no importance, but ignores, instead, such folk. It brings joy everywhere it is present; it comforts the disconsolate, and just hearing it makes people rejoice”13. Most performances during the fourteenth century were mainly used for entertainment mostly during breakfast and supper times. The composers and audiences of the time believed that music served the role of evoking different feelings and would cheer up worried and sulking people14. Repertoire The significant feature of fourteenth century French and Italian lyrics is the use of developed poetic patterns known as the former fixes whereby the basic principles were poetic and musical theory. However, the environment in which these genres were performed was more of entertainment and games than serious and feeling evoking compositions. Machaut sometimes composed genres involving religious themes by employing the holy trinity and the worship of the Virgin Mary. Various formal fixes made significant use of refrain: the virelai which is almost like the dance songs, the Ballade and the Rondeau. The use of capital letters implied music and a text in refrain while the small letters represented the verses sung depending on the text. The virelai variety is characterized by three stanzas but in ballade, the refrain is present only between the different verses of the poem15. In Italy, the musical style dictated the composers to employ shorter notes in their composition. The reason for this development was the inadequacy of description of the earlier system of rhythmic modes. Phillip de Vitry came up with a metrical scheme system, a way of making longer and shorter notes last longer by subdividing them into two or three shorter notes. This made it possible for the composers to control the varied movement of many voices. In addition, the performances involved a combination of the local 13th century theory with the French performances. Similarly, rhythmic patterns remained the major characteristic of Italian performances. ‘Staccato’ and ‘Legatro’ are major types of articulation whereby; the playing of stringed instruments is referred to as ‘bowing’ and wind instruments ‘tonguing’. Early Polyphonic Styles The other relevant composition process is the free organum, developed after the parallel organum the earliest style of this type of composition dates back to 1020 which made use f parallel and oblique motions. This is a situation under which upper voice is required to move with the tenor holding one note. Under free organum, voices were now required to move ion the opposite direction. At the same time, the voices could be required to shift in the same direction at varying intervals. Thus under this style of music, two voices must move in the same direction at the same speed16. The words and music exhibited a relationship in which both had to move together rhythmically. In several ways, the treatise “Ars cantusa menurabilis Musicae” marks a division in the history of the musical notation. This treatise is accredited to the Franco of Cologne. The treatise can also be accredited to Franco of Paris. Further, the treatise highly developed the first notational system capable of shaping the length of time of every single note, whether written as an individual figure or in ligature. Franco’s treatise resulted into the whole tradition of music theoretical composition commonly contained under the term “Franconian”. About the writer of this treatise, however, we know little for sure, not even how the name Franco came to be connected with it. It is clear that traditional sources from the thirteenth century and the following years consistently associated Franco with the Ars Antiqua. In effect, Franco was not only reputed as the leading theorist of music, but even given recognition for its very discovery. Historically, Franco was recognized as the first theorist who used the full range of the musical forms to complex genuine compositions17. In the years around 1320, there was a change in the musical techniques to comply with the notation described by Philippe De Virtry’s Treatise. It was during this time that the Roman de Fauvel borrowed the ideas of the manuscript to compose the motet. The manuscript was called F-pn fr.146. Few French musical compositions were able to survive after the launching of the Roman de Fauvel’s manuscript. The few remaining fragments are part of the purest Ars Nova notation18. Bibliography Delahoyde, Michael. Medieval Music: Early Polyphony. Washington State University. N.d. http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/polyphony.html (accessed on 5th May, 2012) Grout, Palisca & Grout, Donald. A History of Western Music. Norton, 1988. Harris, David & Claude, Palisca, A Study Guide for Music History, Questions on "A History of Western Music", Kinko’s Copies, 1988. Kibbler, William, Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. New York, Rutledge, 2010. Werf, Der, The Oldest Extant Part Music And The Origin Of Western Polyphony, Hendrik Van der Werf, 1993. Read More