The Classical Music Book

MUSICCLASTSHEICAL
BOOK



MUSICCLASTSHEICAL
BOOK

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CONTRIBUTORS

DR. STEVE COLLISSON, CONSULTANT KEITH MCGOWAN

British cellist, lecturer, and examiner Dr. Steve Collisson has taught Early music expert Keith McGowan has worked with most of the
at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the University of Birmingham, major early music ensembles in the UK and was Master of Music
and the Open University. He has adjudicated at many music festivals and on several productions at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
competitions, including the BBC Young Musician competition.
KUMI OGANO
LEVON CHILINGIRIAN
Adjunct Associate Professor in Music at Connecticut College, Kumi
Founder of the Chilingirian Quartet with the pianist Clifford Benson, Ogano is an authoritative performer of the work of Japanese composers
renowned violinist Levon Chilingirian performs worldwide and Toru Takemitsu and Akira Miyoshi.
teaches at London’s Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School
of Music & Drama. SOPHIE RASHBROOK

MATTHEW O’DONOVAN Sophie Rashbrook writes and presents on classical music for Sinfonia
Cymru and the Royal College of Music.
Head of Academic Music at Eton College, in the UK, Matthew
O’Donovan writes extensively about music. He is also a founding DR. CHRISTINA L. REITZ
member of the vocal ensemble Stile Antico and a published arranger.
Dr. Christina L. Reitz is an Associate Professor of Music at Western
GEORGE HALL Carolina University (North Carolina), where she teaches courses in
music history and American music.
A former editor for Decca and the BBC Proms, George Hall is now a
full-time music critic. He writes for a wide range of UK music publications, TIM RUTHERFORD-JOHNSON
including The Stage, Opera, and BBC Music Magazine.
A teacher at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Tim Rutherford-
MALCOLM HAYES Johnson blogs about contemporary music and is the author of Music
after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture since 1989.
Composer, writer, and broadcaster Malcolm Hayes has written
biographies of Anton Webern and Franz Liszt and edited The Selected HUGO SHIRLEY
Letters of William Walton. His Violin Concerto premiered at the BBC
Proms in 2016. Hugo Shirley is a music journalist and critic based in Berlin. He is a
regular contributor to Gramophone and Opera magazines.
MICHAEL LANKESTER
KATIE DERHAM, FOREWORD
Educated at the Royal College of Music, Michael Lankester enjoys
an international conducting career. He has been Music Director of Host of the BBC Radio 3 programs Sound of Dance and In Tune, Katie
the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut, and Conductor-in- Derham is one of the station’s best-known voices. She has
Residence of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. been the face of the BBC Proms since 2010 and hosts the weekly
magazine show Proms Extra during the season. Katie also fronts
KARL LUTCHMAYER television documentaries, including The Girl from Ipanema: Brazil,
Bossa Nova, and the Beach for the BBC, and hosted the programs
An international concert pianist, Karl Lutchmayer holds a professorship All Together Now: The Great Orchestra Challenge and Fine Tuned.
at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London and is guest lecturer at In 2015 Katie was a finalist on Strictly Come Dancing, and she
various music colleges, including the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools. won the Christmas Special in 2017.

6

CONTENTS

12 INTRODUCTION 36 Music is a science that 55 This feast … did even
makes you laugh, sing, ravish and stupefie all
EARLY MUSIC and dance those strangers that
Messe de Notre Dame, never heard the like
1000–1400 Guillaume de Machaut Sonata pian’ e forte,
Giovanni Gabrieli
22 Psalmody is the weapon RENAISSANCE
of the monk 56 My lute, awake!
Plainchant, Anonymous 1400–1600 Lachrimae, John Dowland

24 Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la 42 Not a single piece of BAROQUE
Micrologus, music composed before
Guido D’Arezzo the last 40 years … 1600–1750
is worth hearing
26 We should sing psalms Missa L’homme armé, 62 One of the most
on a ten-string psaltery Guillaume Dufay magnificent and
Ordo Virtutum, expensefull diversions
Hildegard of Bingen 43 Tongue, proclaim Euridice, Jacopo Peri
the mystery of the
28 To sing is to pray twice glorious body 64 Music must move
Magnus liber organi, Missa Pange lingua, the whole man
Léonin Josquin Desprez Vespers,
Claudio Monteverdi
32 Tandaradei, sweetly sang 44 Hear the voyce
the nightingale and prayer 70 Lully merits with
Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion, Spem in alium, good reason the
Adam de la Halle Thomas Tallis title of prince of
French musicians
46 The eternal father Le bourgeois gentilhomme,
of Italian music Jean-Baptiste Lully
Canticum Canticorum,
Giovanni da Palestrina 72 He had a peculiar
genius to express
52 That is the nature of the energy of
hymns—they make us English words
want to repeat them Dido and Aeneas,
Great Service, Henry Purcell
William Byrd
78 The object of churches
54 All the airs and madrigals is not the bawling
… whisper softness of choristers
O Care, Thou Wilt Despatch Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,
Me, Thomas Weelkes Dieterich Buxtehude

7

80 The new Orpheus 128 The most tremendous
of our times genius raised Mozart
Concerti grossi, Op. 6, above all masters
Arcangelo Corelli Symphony No. 40 in
G minor, K. 550,
82 The uniting of the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
French and Italian
styles must create the 108 Bach is like an astronomer, 132 The object of the
perfection of music who … finds the most piano is to substitute
Pièces de clavecin, wonderful stars one performer for
François Couperin The Art of Fugue, a whole orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach Piano Sonata in F-sharp
84 What the English like minor, Op. 25, No. 5,
is something they can CLASSICAL Muzio Clementi
beat time to
Water Music, 1750–1820 134 We walk, by the
George Frideric Handel power of music,
116 Its forte is like in joy through death’s
90 Do not expect any thunder, its crescendo dark night
profound intention, a cataract The Magic Flute,
but rather an ingenious Symphony in E-flat major, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
jesting with art Op. 11, No. 3,
Sonata in D minor, Johann Stamitz 138 I live only in my notes
K. 9 “Pastorale,” Symphony No. 3 in E-flat
Domenico Scarlatti major, “Eroica,” Op. 55,
Ludwig van Beethoven
92 Spring has come,
and with it gaiety ROMANTIC
The Four Seasons,
Antonio Vivaldi 1810–1920

98 The end and final 118 The most moving act 146 The violinist is
aim of all music in all of opera that peculiarly
should be none Orfeo ed Euridice, human phenomenon …
other than the Christoph Willibald Gluck half tiger, half poet
glory of God 24 Caprices for Solo Violin,
St. Matthew Passion, 120 We must play from Op. 1, Niccolò Paganini
Johann Sebastian Bach the soul, not like
trained birds 148 Give me a laundry
106 Telemann is above Flute Concerto in A major, list, and I will set it
all praise WQ 168, Carl Philipp to music
Musique de table, Emanuel Bach The Barber of Seville,
Georg Philipp Telemann Gioachino Rossini
122 I was forced to
107 His whole heart and become original 149 Music is truly
soul were in his String Quartet in C major, love itself
harpsichord Op. 54, No. 2, Hoboken III:57, Der Freischütz,
Hippolyte et Aricie, Joseph Haydn Carl Maria von Weber
Jean-Philippe Rameau

8

174 I love Italian opera—it’s would not bother
so reckless saying it in music
La traviata, Giuseppe Verdi Das Lied von der Erde,
Gustav Mahler
176 Who holds the devil, let
him hold him well NATIONALISM
Faust Symphony,
Franz Liszt 1830–1920

178 And the dancers 206 My fatherland means more
whirl around gaily in the to me than anything else
waltz’s giddy mazes The Bartered Bride,
The Blue Danube, Bedrˇich Smetana
Johann Strauss II

150 No one feels another’s 179 I live in music like 207 Mussorgsky typifies
grief, no one understands a fish in water the genius of Russia
another’s joy Piano Concerto No. 2 in Pictures at an Exhibition,
Die schöne Müllerin, G minor, Camille Saint-Saëns Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Franz Schubert
180 Opera must make 208 I am sure my music has
156 Music is like a dream. people weep, feel a taste of cod fish in it
One that I cannot hear horrified, die Peer Gynt, Edvard Grieg
String Quartet No. 14 in The Ring Cycle,
C-sharp minor, Op. 131, Richard Wagner 210 I wanted to do
Ludwig van Beethoven something different
188 He … comes as if sent Requiem, Gabriel Fauré
162 Instrumentation is at straight from God
the head of the march Symphony No. 1, 212 The music of the
Symphonie fantastique, Johannes Brahms people is like a rare
Hector Berlioz and lovely flower
190 The notes dance up there Symphony No. 9,
164 Simplicity is the on the stage Antonín Dvoˇrák
final achievement The Nutcracker,
Préludes, Frédéric Chopin Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 216 Music is a language
of the intangible
166 My symphonies would 192 A symphony must Woodland Sketches,
have reached Opus 100 if be like the world. It must Edward MacDowell
I had written them down contain everything
Symphony No. 1 (The Also sprach Zarathustra, 218 The art of music above
“Spring” Symphony), Richard Strauss all the other arts is
Robert Schumann expression of the soul
194 Emotional art is a kind The Dream of Gerontius,
170 The last note was drowned of illness Edward Elgar
… in a unanimous volley Tosca, Giacomo Puccini
of plaudits 220 I am a slave to my
Elijah, Felix Mendelssohn 198 If a composer could themes, and submit
say what he had to their demands
to say in words, he Finlandia, Jean Sibelius

9

222 Spanish music with 258 Life is a lot like jazz … 274 Real music is always
a universal accent it’s better when revolutionary
Iberia, Isaac Albéniz you improvise Symphony No. 5 in D minor,
Rhapsody in Blue, Op. 47, Dmitri Shostakovich
223 A wonderful maze of George Gershwin
rhythmical dexterities 280 My music is natural, like
El sombrero de tres picos, 262 A mad extravaganza at a waterfall
Manuel de Falla the edge of the abyss Bachianas brasileiras,
Les Biches, Francis Poulenc Heitor Villa-Lobos
MODERN
263 I come with the 282 Never was I listened to
1900–1950 youthful spirit of with such rapt attention
my country, with and comprehension
228 I go to see the shadow youthful music Quartet for the End of Time,
you have become Sinfonietta, Leoš Janácˇek Olivier Messiaen
Préude à l’après-midi d’un
faune, Claude Debussy 264 Musically, there is not 284 I must create order
a single center of gravity out of chaos
232 I want women to turn in this piece A Child of Our Time,
their minds to big and Symphonie, Op. 21, Michael Tippett
difficult jobs Anton von Webern
The Wreckers, Ethel Smyth 286 The music is so knit …
266 The only love affair that it takes you in very
240 An audience shouldn’t I ever had was strong hands and leads
listen with complacency with music you into its own world
Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21, Piano Concerto for the Left Appalachian Spring,
Arnold Schoenberg Hand, Maurice Ravel Aaron Copland

246 I haven’t understood 268 Science alone can 288 Composing is like driving
a bar of music in my life, infuse music with down a foggy road
but I have felt it youthful vigor Peter Grimes,
Le Sacre du printemps, Ionisation, Edgard Varèse Benjamin Britten
Igor Stravinsky
270 A nation creates music.
252 And ever winging up The composer only
and up, our valley is his arranges it
golden cup String Quartet No. 6,
The Lark Ascending, Béla Viktor János Bartók
Ralph Vaughan Williams
272 I detest imitation. I detest
254 Stand up and take your hackneyed devices
dissonance like a man Romeo and Juliet,
Symphony No. 4, Sergei Prokofiev
Charles Edward Ives
273 Balinese music retained
256 I have never written a rhythmic vitality both
a note I didn’t mean primitive and joyous
Parade, Erik Satie Tabuh-Tabuhan,
Colin McPhee

10

CONTEMPORARY 316 In music … things 324 Volcanic, expansive,
don’t get better or dazzling—and obsessive
298 Sound is the vocabulary worse: they evolve and Études, Gyorgy Ligeti
of nature transform themselves
Symphonie pour un Sinfonia, Luciano Berio 325 My music is written
homme seul, Pierre for ears
Schaeffer/Pierre Henry 318 If you tell me a lie, let L’Amour de loin,
it be a black lie Kaija Saariaho
302 I can’t understand why Eight Songs for a Mad King,
people are frightened of Peter Maxwell Davies 326 Blue … like the
new ideas; I’m frightened sky. Where all
of the old ones 320 The process of possibilities soar
4´33˝, John Cage substituting beats blue cathedral,
for rests Jennifer Higdon
Six Pianos, Steve Reich
328 The music uses simple
306 He has changed our 321 We were so far ahead … building blocks and
view of musical time because everyone else grows organically
and form stayed so far behind from there …
Gruppen, Einstein on the Beach, In Seven Days,
Karlheinz Stockhausen Philip Glass Thomas Adès

308 The role of the musician 322 This must be the first 329 This is the core of who
… is perpetual exploration purpose of art … to we are and what we
Pithoprakta, Iannis Xenakis change us need to be
Apocalypsis, Alleluia, Eric Whitacre
309 Close communion R. Murray Schafer
with the people is the 330 DIRECTORY
natural soil nourishing 323 I could start out from the 340 GLOSSARY
all my work chaos and create order
Spartacus, in it 344 INDEX
Aram Khachaturian Fourth Symphony,
Witold Lutosławski 351 QUOTE ATTRIBUTIONS
310 I was struck by the
emotional charge of 352 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
the work
Threnody for the
Victims of Hiroshima,
Krzysztof Penderecki

312 Once you become an ism,
what you’re doing is dead
In C, Terry Riley

314 I desire to carve … a
single painful tone as
intense as silence itself
November Steps,
Toru Takemitsu

11

FOREWORD

Music has a certain magic. It can transport us to a You might know that Beethoven was deaf later in life,
different world, drive us to dance, or remind us of lost but learning which of his works he composed yet never
loved ones. A single chord can reduce us to tears. Far actually heard adds a poignancy and an increased
from being an exclusive, elite preserve, the kind of sense of wonder to the listening experience. Realizing
music that provided people in the Western world with that Mozart was effectively an 18th-century pop star
pleasure and inspiration for most of the past 1,000 might convince you to give the Marriage of Figaro
years—and now commonly known as classical another try. Power, patronage, and censorship have
music—is still delighting listeners today. It toys with each played a part in the genesis of some of the best-
our emotions in our favorite movies; its symphonic loved pieces of music. As you will discover, the real-life
swells add drama to the action of computer games; drama and scandals often kept pace with the musical
and it hides in the structure and melodies of everyday dramatics on the stage and in the score.
pop songs. Its magic is of a very special sort—one that
has grown and evolved over the centuries, shaped These, then, are the worlds that the book you are
by politics, geography, religion—and the particular holding invites you to explore. It will be an invaluable
genius of a multitude of great composers. companion as it takes you on a journey through the
different periods of musical history, deepening your
Sometimes it’s enough just to listen and let the understanding and appreciation of some of classical
music wash over and through you without asking music’s greatest works. It will delight those of you who
why, when, or how, this piece originated. However, already love classical music but may have never—until
the classical music canon can seem intimidatingly now—come to grips with the component elements of
vast, encompassing many different styles and genres. musical vocabulary and theory. And best of all, it will,
For example, the early music of the medieval church— I hope, encourage endless hours of new listening.
plainsong and chant—is a sonic world away from
the waterfalls of sound created by the 19th-century Classical music, like all music, has passion at its heart.
symphony orchestras employed by romantic composers, It’s why the great works of the past have endured for
such as Tchaikovsky and Brahms, or the atonal centuries, why contemporary composers still strive to
experimentation of Schoenberg in the early 20th match and challenge that beauty, and why millions of
century. At times exploring new sound worlds can us love to play, listen, and be transported by it today.
be unfamiliar, or even a little uncomfortable, as the There is so much wonderful, passionate music out
composer may have intended. there—let this book open your eyes and your ears to it.

With The Classical Music Book, you will discover the Katie Derham
context of the great musical works of the last 1,000 Classical music commentator
years. Understanding who the composers were and
why they were writing can be a revelation and can add
a new layer of enjoyment and insight to your listening.
A familiar piece such as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons takes on
a whole new resonance when you learn that Vivaldi
demonstrated the true potential of the concerto form
for the first time and that his reputation spread from
Italy to Germany, where he inspired a young organist
named Johann Sebastian Bach.

INTRODU

CTION

14 INTRODUCTION

A vital part of human culture, disregard for Classical conventions, The first of these was the Church.
at least since Neolithic just as Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre Western classical music originated
times, music has been du printemps (Rite of Spring) in a Europe dominated by the
a feature of every civilization, astounded those who attended Church. In addition to wielding
as cave paintings, frescoes, and its Paris premiere a century later. considerable political power, the
archaeology show. What is loosely clergy provided the only source
referred to as “classical music” is Such leaps have defined the of learning in society. For the
the music of Western civilization main periods of classical music— educated, music was part of an
as it evolved from medieval times Early Music, Renaissance, Baroque, act of worship, not entertainment.
to the present day. In its broadest Classical, Romantic, Nationalist, It was sung by monks without
sense, it covers a wide spectrum Modern, and Contemporary— instrumental accompaniment.
of music and not just the orchestral though these are broad distinctions,
or piano music that some people with different styles within each The “New Art”
imagine. This book explores how one, and the dividing lines are For hundreds of years, the Church
classical music developed as an not clear-cut. resisted any change to the simple
essential part of European culture chanting of sacred texts, the rise
and then spread across the world, The role of the Church and fall of which was represented
delighting, surprising, and sometimes Like other art forms, music has on manuscripts by “neumes”
perplexing audiences as it evolved been shaped by external influences (inflective marks). Eventually,
through the centuries. as well as by brilliant individuals. however, new ideas found their
way in. With the invention of
Bold leaps Music is the social act a system of notation by Guido
The development of a musical of communication d’Arezzo, a monk in 11th-century
tradition, from medieval church Italy, choristers began to sing
music and courtly trobadors to among people, a gesture simple harmonies to the tunes.
the avant-garde music of the of friendship, the They later embellished them with
21st century, was often incremental, strongest there is. other melodies, creating polyphony,
but it has also been punctuated a new sound that, in the 14th
by exciting innovations. The Malcolm Arnold century, was hailed as the Ars
first operas, staged at the end of nova, the “New Art.” Composers
the 16th century, for example, soon introduced other innovations,
revolutionized sacred as well as such as an organ accompaniment.
secular music, while Beethoven’s
“Eroica” Symphony shocked early The Church began to lose its
19th-century audiences with its control over music, and culture
groundbreaking structure and in general, a process helped along
by the birth of a new cultural

INTRODUCTION 15

movement, the Renaissance. As continued to act as patrons to symphony, the solo concerto,
the taboo surrounding secular composers and performers, but and the string quartet. Music
music disappeared, composers there was also an increasing public also became popular in the home
expressed themselves more freely, demand for opera and music in as the swelling middle class
and their music spread through general, prompting investment in acquired leisure time and musical
Europe, especially after the opera houses, concert halls, and instruments, including the piano,
invention of a method for printing public theaters. became more affordable.
and therefore distributing music.
No longer controlled by the Church, As the Baroque period The Romantic period
musicians sought employment progressed, composers such as Despite its enduring influence, the
in the aristocratic courts of Italy, J.S. Bach and George Frideric Classical period gave way to a new
France, Britain, and the Netherlands, Handel created works of increasing cultural movement almost as soon
where they made a comfortable complexity, taking advantage of as it had begun. As Romanticism,
living providing entertainment. the orchestras provided by their with its emphasis on the individual,
aristocratic patrons. The music swept through Europe, expression
The Church still wielded some of the “High Baroque” era was took precedence over clarity.
power, however, and after the particularly expressive, often Composers stretched the Classical
Reformation, a more austere musical ornamented with trills and other forms to their limits in the quest
style was imposed on the Protestant embellishments, and sometimes for new sounds. They looked to
churches in northern Europe, and dazzlingly virtuosic. extramusical sources of inspiration,
even the Catholic authorities looked such as art, literature, landscapes,
to curb the complexity of polyphony. For a while, the concertgoing and human experience. ❯❯
Composers thus developed a simpler public flocked to hear the latest
yet more expressive harmonic orchestral showpieces, operas, What passion cannot
style. Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and choral works, but then the music raise and quell.
broke new ground for sacred music Enlightenment, the Age of Reason,
by incorporating elements of this dawned, and fashions changed. John Dryden
exciting new style. There was suddenly a demand for
more elegant music emphasizing
Musical explosion balance and clarity, leading to
Around the same time, in Florence, the Classical period from which
a group of intellectuals called the “classical music” gets its name.
Camerata de’ Bardi came up with
a new form of entertainment, In a short time, Classical
combining music and drama to composers, such as Mozart, Haydn,
create opera. This was a success and Beethoven, established the
in the aristocratic courts, which musical forms that are the staple
of modern concert repertoires,
including the four-movement

16 INTRODUCTION

Romanticism was essentially rock music, whose rhythmic pitch of an individual note, how
a Germanic movement, yet its beats had instant appeal, causing high or low the sound is, especially
emphasis on the individual audiences to turn away from the in relation to others, is represented
provoked a wave of nationalist unfamiliar sounds of new classical by a letter (A, B, C, and so forth),
composers who wanted to music, and even classical music sometimes modified by “accidentals”
distance themselves from Austro- in general. Nonetheless, popular (sharp or flat) that raise or lower the
German dominance of the musical music also influenced and inspired note by a half step. For much of the
ancien régime and champion classical composers, producing history of classical music, melodies
the music of individual nations. a cross-fertilization of ideas that (patterns of notes) were composed
Russian and Czech composers brought new life to classical forms, using the notes of the major and
began to integrate elements of folk as did the harnessing of modern minor scales, or keys, which help
music and themes into their work, technology. Composers such as to determine the mood of a piece
a trend later explored by composers Karlheinz Stockhausen exploited of music. The key also governs
in other parts of Europe. the potential of the electronic the harmony, when two or more
studio and the huge advances notes are played at the same time.
By the end of the 19th century, in recording equipment. Certain combinations of notes—
the excesses of German Romanticism chords—are consonant, or
also precipitated a breakdown of Today, some composers, more harmonious, and others more
the very foundations of Western conscious of public tastes, are dissonant, harsher; major chords
music—a structure based on the writing in a more accessible style tend to sound brighter, while minor
harmonies of the major and minor than was the case 50 years ago, but chords are more mournful.
keys. What followed was a century composers continue to experiment,
of composers seeking not just a producing music incorporating Rhythm and harmony find
fresh style but a completely new video, theater, and global influences. their way into the inward
musical language. Two of the
many strands that emerged were The elements of music places of the soul.
particularly influential: 12-note In order to understand the ideas Plato
“serialism,” pioneered by Arnold and innovations described in this
Schoenberg and refined by Pierre book, it is useful to be familiar
Boulez, and “aleatoricism”—in with the “building blocks” of
which chance played a role in the Western classical music, many
composition or performance of music. of which were devised by medieval
monks, drawing on concepts
New influences formulated by the Ancient Greeks.
These musical experiments
coincided with the evolution of jazz Notes are the fundamental
and later the explosion of pop and material of all music, either sung
or played on an instrument. The

INTRODUCTION 17

A feature of the Baroque, Classical, For listeners, the most noticeable woodwind, brass, and percussion
and Romantic periods was the difference between a Renaissance instruments, and—since the
system of major-minor tonality in song and a full-blown 19th-century 1950s—electronic technology.
which a key note, called the tonic, symphony is the sound of the voice
is the gravitational center around and/or instruments. Throughout This book
which a composition revolves— history, new musical instruments How composers put these musical
moving away from the tonic to have been invented and existing elements together to develop
create tension and toward the ones refined, giving composers different genres of classical music,
tonic to resolve it. and musicians new sounds with and the factors that influenced
which to work. them, is explained in this book.
Musical forms It presents significant milestones
Different styles of music emphasize Each of these instrument has in the history of Western classical
particular aspects of its structure. its own distinctive timbre, or music: not only the great composers
Some focus on melody, perhaps tone, and different combinations and their works but also some
with a harmonic accompaniment, of instruments and voices have lesser-known figures whose music
as was common during the Early evolved over time. These range exemplifies a style or period. They
Baroque period; others employ from a cappella (the unaccompanied are arranged in chronological order,
counterpoint, the interweaving voice), through solo instruments, placing them in a wider historical
of two or more melodies in a like the piano, and small chamber context to show how they reflect
complex form of polyphony that is groups, such as the string quartet, society and culture.
one of the defining characteristics to the full concert orchestra of more
of Western classical music. than 70 players of stringed, Each article focuses on a piece
of music that illustrates a particular
Also important is the musical The time is past when development in music, discussing
form, or shape, of a piece of music: music was written for a its salient features and its
it may comprise recognizably significance in relation to other
different sections, perhaps in handful of aesthetes. works by the same composer, or
contrasting keys. For example, Sergei Prokofiev in the same style. An “In Context”
in a simple “ABA” form, a musical sidebar and a “See also” section
idea is presented, followed by a refer to other pieces of music that
second idea, and then the opening are relevant to the one under
idea is repeated. Musical forms discussion. As not every major
range from simple songs, such composer, let alone all the great
as the Lieder, made popular pieces of music, could be featured,
by Franz Schubert and Robert a Directory section at the end of
Schumann, to the complexity the book details other significant
of a multimovement symphony. composers and their work. ■

EARLY

MUSIC

1000–1400



20 INTRODUCTION

Pope Gregory I Frankish ruler The anonymous treatise Hildegard of
gathers plainchant Charlemagne instructs his Musica enchiriadis is Bingen’s musical play
musicians to employ the published, the first Ordo Virtutum depicts
traditions from nuances of Roman singers, publication to name
across the Church leading to the development musical pitches with a war between the
in an attempt to the letters A to G. Virtues and the Devil
of neumatic notation. over the human soul.
unify them.

C.600 C.800 C.875 C.1151
C.1026
C.750 C.850

Gregorian chant, a The development of Guido d’Arezzo
synthesis of Roman and the sequence, text pens his treatise
associated with a Micrologus and
Gallican chants, is particular chant melody dedicates it to Tedald,
commissioned by French of the Latin Mass, Bishop of Arezzo, in
redefines liturgical music.
Carolingian rulers. Tuscany, Italy.

W hat is now known it was exclusively vocal music, the melody. At this point, some
as Western Classical without accompaniment, and time in the ninth century, the pace
music evolved from consisted of a single line of music, of change began to accelerate: a
the music of the medieval Church known as monody, which could be standardized form of church
in Europe, which in turn had its sung by one voice or a choir singing service, the Mass, was established,
roots in Jewish religious music and in unison. The tunes they sang are and specific plainchants were
the music of classical Rome and called “plainchant,” and each assigned to its various sections.
Greece. Our knowledge of this early region had its own collection of Notation also became more
music is limited, however, as it was chants. At the beginning of the sophisticated, with a horizontal
an oral tradition, memorized by seventh century, however, Pope line to clarify the pitch of the notes,
musicians and passed down from Gregory attempted to collect, showing how high or low they are.
generation to generation. The little categorize, standardize, and
that is known for certain comes teach these regional variations Most significant musically was
from contemporary accounts, which of plainchant as part of his efforts the introduction of “organum,”
almost exclusively describe sacred to unify liturgical practice. a simple form of harmony. Where
music, as the Church effectively plainchant had consisted of a single
had a monopoly on literacy. In order to guarantee that line of music, organum had two, and
performance of these plainchants later three or even four, lines. One
The role of the Church was standardized across the whole voice would sing the plainchant,
The story of classical music begins of Christendom, a form of music and the other a parallel line of
with sacred Latin texts sung by notation was developed. This used music a few notes higher or lower.
monks as part of acts of worship. symbols, known as “neumes,”
The performance was simple— written above the text to give a As the music became more
graphic indication of the shape of complex over the years, the means
of writing it down also evolved,

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 21

Adam de la Halle’s The Tournai Mass, French composer
Le Jeu de Robin et composed by several Guillaume de
de Marion, regarded anonymous authors, is the
as the first secular first known polyphonic Machaut’s
French play, is polyphonic mass
premiered in Naples. setting of a Mass Messe de Notre
transcribed to a manuscript. Dame is composed.

C.1280–1283 C.1320 C.1360–1365
C.1170
C.1300 C.1350

In Paris, Léonin Music theorist The Toulouse
bridges the gap Johannes de Mass assembles
between plainchant Garlandia’s De polyphonic Mass
and polyphony in his mensurabili musica movements adapted
Magnus liber organi. explains modal from existing motets
rhythmic systems. for three voices.

and in the 11th century a system of the plainchant, was succeeded By the mid-14th century, polyphonic
of differently shaped dots written by a more complex style, polyphony, music with interweaving vocal
on a staff of four or more horizontal in which each voice has its own lines had become known as Ars
lines was established this way— melody. This new technique was nova, the “New Art,” and composers
the forerunner of our modern pioneered by Léonin and Pérotin who had mastered the technique
system of music notation. in Paris and rapidly caught on were commissioned to write
across Europe. Masses for the cathedrals.
Music spreads
Notation not only helped standardize At the same time, secular The new style was not
performance but also enabled music was flourishing, too, in the exclusively developed for the
musicians to write new music, form of traveling minstrels who Christian Mass. Composers also
which they did from the 12th entertained in the aristocratic wrote shorter settings of words in
century onward, marking the courts and on the street. Known the same polyphonic style called
beginning of classical music as as trobadors, trouvères, or similar “motets.” Some were settings of
it is known today. Music was no regional variations, they were sacred texts, but a number of
longer anonymous and passed poets as well as composers and “serious” composers were also
on orally, and this led to the performers and, unlike church writing polyphonic motets on
emergence of composers and musicians, sang their songs with secular poems. As the medieval
compositions. This new breed an instrumental accompaniment. period drew to a close, and the
of composer was keen to try out It is likely that these entertainers Renaissance got under way,
innovatory techniques. The simple also played purely instrumental the Church’s monopoly on music
harmony of organum, with voices music for dancing, but as such was on the wane. Sacred and
singing in parallel with the melody secular music was still an oral secular music were about to
tradition, none has survived. flourish side by side. ■

22

POTSHFAETLHWMEEOMADPOYONINSK

PLAINCHANT (6th–9th CENTURY), ANONYMOUS

IN CONTEXT T he early Christian Church into the Divine Office or Liturgy
began as a Jewish sect, of the Hours—the basis of Roman
FOCUS so the evolving liturgy, or Catholic worship.
Plainsong forms of service, of the new faith
shared many traits with Jewish The singing of rites
BEFORE worship, including the repeated As Christianity spread from
c.1400 bce A clay tablet from speaking, or chanting, of scripture the Holy Land, so did its rites
the ancient city of Ugarit in and prayer. Specifically, Christian and ceremonies, celebrated in
northern Syria records the aspects focused on particular the languages of the communities
hymn of a religious cult, with types of observance, such as the where it took root, such as Aramaic
fragmentary musical notation. reenactment of the Last Supper in Palestine and Greek in Rome.
(later to become the Mass) and As a result, different chant styles
c.200 bce–100 ce Found psalm-singing, scripture readings, evolved, including the Mozarabic in
on a tombstone in a town and prayer to mark the new Iberia, the Gallican in Roman Gaul,
near Ephesus, in Turkey, Church’s holy days and feasts. and Ambrosian, after St. Ambrose,
the “song of Seikilos” is the Over time, these rites evolved a 4th-century bishop of Milan.
earliest complete, notated
musical composition. Of these earliest liturgies, only
the Roman and Ambrosian chants
AFTER have survived in a recognizable
1562–1563 The Catholic form. They became known as
Church’s Council of Trent bans “plainsong” (a direct translation
the singing of the medieval of the Latin cantus planus) for the
embellishments of plainchant simplicity of their unaccompanied
known as “sequences.” melodies, which were sung in a
free, speechlike rhythm, reflecting
1896 The monks of the the unmetrical prose of prayers,
Benedictine Abbaye de psalms, and the scriptures. This
Solesmes publish their Liber music, though unstructured, largely
usualis, an attempt to restore
Gregorian chant, distorted by A wooden sculpture of St. Ambrose
centuries of use, to a more (c.1500) shows him in his study. The
pristine and standardized text. Roman bishop championed the hymn,
or “sacred song,” as a key part of
church worship.

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 23

See also: Micrologus 24–25 ■ Magnus liber organi 28–31 ■ Messe de Notre The Mass
Dame 36–37 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ Great Service 52–53
It took until at least the 11th
followed the ancient Greek modal This Gregorian chant, Hodie century for the Mass to reach
system of seven-note octaves made Cantandus (“today we must sing”), by a final form. Its music became
up of five tones and two semitones, St. Tuotilo, a 10th-century Irish monk, known as the Gradual, a book
and consisted of two types of has neumes on the upper lines and divided into the Ordinary (the
chant: the responsorial and the Latin script underneath. elements that remain the same
antiphonal. The former involved every week) and the Proper
more elaborate, solo chants, with a Gregory consolidated the music of (the parts that are particular
response from the choir. Antiphonal the Roman rite and is said to have to the time and day in the
chants, where singing alternated instigated a papal schola cantorum Church calendar).
between choir and congregation, (“choir school”) to do justice to the
consisted of simpler melodies. evolving repertoire. The Ordinary of the Mass
has five parts. The first, Kyrie
These forms were shared by Expanded repertoire eleison (“Lord, have mercy”),
Roman and Ambrosian plainsong, Under the rule of Charlemagne is an ancient text in Greek (the
but Ambrosian chant was smoother (742–814), the first Holy Roman language of Roman services
in its note progression and more Emperor, Roman chants were until about the 4th century);
dramatic than Roman chant. It also synthesized with elements of the the second, Gloria in excelsis
made greater use of melisma, in Gallican style, which was also Deo (“Glory to God in the
which a string of notes was sung in common use. This expanded highest”), was introduced
on one syllable—a style still used collection formed the basis of in the 7th century; the third,
in Middle Eastern and Asian song. Gregorian chant, which remains at the Credo (“I believe”) was
the heart of Catholic Church music. adopted in 1014 (though is
By the middle of the first Plainsong was also the foundation believed to date from the
millennium, thousands of chants for medieval and Renaissance 4th century); and the fourth,
existed across the different rites. music and its notation, based on the Sanctus (“Holy”), rooted
The sheer variety of unique styles the staves and neumes, or notes, in Jewish liturgy, had become
and traditions was addressed by of written chants. ■ part of the Roman rite before
Gregory I (Pope 590–604 ce), who the reforms of Pope Gregory I.
wished to unify liturgical practice. The fifth section, Agnus Dei
(“The Lamb of God”), was
added to the Roman Mass in
the 7th century, originating
from a Syrian rite.

The ritual of the Mass was
based on the Last Supper, shared
by Christ and His disciples,
seen here in this detail from
a 6th-century manuscript.

24

USTO,LR, EL,AMI, FA,

MICROLOGUS (c.1026), GUIDO D’AREZZO

IN CONTEXT M odern Western musical The Guidonian Hand was a system
notation has its origins invented to teach monks the easiest
FOCUS in Europe’s monasteries way to reference the 20 notes of
Early music notation at the end of the first millennium. medieval liturgical music.
The earliest musical symbols,
BEFORE called neumes, were written aids pitch was now not only fixed from
500 ce Boethius, a Roman for chants that used simple pen note to note, but the singer knew
senator and philosopher, writes strokes to remind the monks if at a glance on which note to start.
De institutione musica, which the music moved up or down, or
was still in use as a music remained on the same tone. Guido’s treatise Micrologus
primer in the 16th century. (c.1026) describes the singing
Diastematic, or “heightened,” aid for which he is best known, the
935 ce In France, Odo of neumes brought more clarity Guidonian Hand. If a modern singer
Cluny’s Enchiridion musices to notated chant by formalizing has to describe a particular note,
becomes the first book to the note shapes and imagining they might picture the continuous
name musical pitches with a single horizontal line across row of notes using seven letters
the letters A to G. the page. This gave a “horizon” from A to G, repeated over the
against which the singer could seven octaves of a piano. To specify
AFTER work out the pitch. Nonetheless, a particular “C,” the singer might
1260 German music theorist heightened neumes were open
Franco of Cologne writes to misinterpretation and greater
Ars cantus mensurabilis, precision was needed.
which adds refinements to
Guido’s notation. Invention of the staff
The solution, credited to Guido
1300 In Paris, Johannes d’Arezzo, an Italian monk and
de Garlandia writes De music theorist (though he may
mensurabili musica, describing have only formalized what was
the six rhythmic modes. then current practice) was to draw
four lines across the page, allowing
the singer to precisely gauge the
melody’s movement. Guidonian
notation sometimes has one of the
lines in yellow ink to show the note
C, and one in red to show F, so

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 25

See also: Plainchant 22–23 ■ Ordo Virtutum 26–27 ■ Le jeu de Robin et de Marion 32–35 ■ Great Service 52–53 ■
Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105

I have determined to his thumb’s middle joint, his voice
notate this antiphoner, ascended to A, and so on up the
so that any intelligent scale, spiraling his finger around
the joints and tips of his fingers to
and diligent person indicate all 20 notes (going into
can learn a chant. falsetto as the spiral tightened
Guido d’Arezzo and the octaves ascended).

say “middle C” (in the middle of Solmization syllables Italian monk and music theorist
the keyboard). However, if that Guido backed up these seven Guido d’Arezzo wears a laurel wreath
is not the one they had in mind, letter names with six “solmization” in a portrait painted by Antonio Maria
they might have to say clumsily, syllables—ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la—a Crespi in the early 16th century, some
“C, the octave above middle C.” system of talking about melodies 600 years after Guido’s death.
in an abstract way. This was the
Guido, requiring only 2.5 precursor to today’s more familiar “C sol-fa-ut” on the Guidonian
octaves (20 notes) to cover the sol-fa (doh, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti), but Hand and the lowest G, using the
vocal range of the chants, used Guido’s syllables differ in that his Greek letter name, was “gamma
the same seven note names we use solmization did not use the note ut,” hence the expression still in
today (A to G) for his singing aid. ti, so it has only six notes—a use today “running the gamut.”
The novice monk would point to hexachord. As the range went
the tip of his left-hand thumb and beyond the six notes, the hexachord The monk could now easily
sing a low G. Sliding his finger to had to be repeated in overlapping specify any of the 20 notes in
patterns over the extent of the conversation, in writing, or by
20 notes of Guido’s Hand. Each simply pointing to his hand. ■
note then ended up with both a
base letter name and a secondary
coordinate, derived from the
note’s unique position on the
hand, to designate the octave.
Modern “middle C” translates to

The modes developed soon after) were minor scale). (The mode on “B,”
categorized. Modes helped sometimes called “Locrian”
DE F GAB C D monks remember the many mode, was not used in the
liturgical works. Western music of the Middle
Western music inherited a Ages as it was too dissonant.)
theoretical foundation based on Modes can be played by
early church musical practices using only the white notes on Music was organized
in Greece, Syria, and Byzantium. a piano. If you were to play six according to this modal theory
Sometime in the 10th century, complete seven-note scales, until, by the time of 18th-
the principle of musical “modes” starting on each of the following century Baroque composers,
(groupings or “scales” of notes) notes, that would give an idea such as Bach and Handel, the
developed, by which the various of how each basic corresponding “major” and “minor” principle
melodies of plainchant (the basis church mode would sound: C of tonal harmony essentially
for “Gregorian” chants that (Ionian mode, corresponding reduced the number of scales
with the major scale); D (Dorian); to just two. From then on,
E (Phrygian); F (Lydian); G music was considered to be
(Mixolydian); A (Aeolian, in a particular “key” and
corresponding with the natural not in any given “mode.”

26

PWTSEENAL-SSMHTOSRUIOLNNDGASPISNAGLTERY

ORDO VIRTUTUM (c.1151), HILDEGARD OF BINGEN

IN CONTEXT O ne of the most original Hildegard receives a divine
voices in sacred music of vision in an image from a 13th-century
FOCUS the early Middle Ages was manuscript. She is accompanied by
Early female composers that of the female cleric Hildegard Volmar of Disibodenberg (left) and
of Bingen in Germany. Her musical her confidante Richardis von Stade.
BEFORE output is also one of the largest of
c.920 The surviving two any single identifiable medieval Hildegard grew up under the
stanzas of Jórunn Skáldmaer’s composer. Her collection entitled tutelage of a young visionary
Sendibítr (“A biting message”) Symphonia armonie celestium called Jutta of Sponheim. With
represent the longest skaldic revelationum (“The symphony of support from Jutta and a monk
verse (a type of Norwegian the harmony of celestial revelation”), named Volmar at the abbey of
poem possibly sung in for example, includes more than Disibodenberg, Hildegard learned
performance) by a woman. 70 plainchant compositions. the psalms and practiced the

1150 In Paris, Abbess Héloïse
possibly composes the Easter
music drama Ortolanus
and the Easter sequence
Epithalamica, attributed to
theologian Peter Abelard.

AFTER
1180 Beatriz Comtessa de
Dia writes a collection of five
troubadour songs. The song
A chantar m’er de so qu’eu no
volria survives with notation.

1210 Juliana of Liège may
have written music for the
Feast of Corpus Christi,
which is said to have come
to her in a vision.

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 27

See also: Le jeu de Robin et de Marion 32–35 ■ Messe de Notre Dame 36–37 ■
Missa l’homme armé 42 ■ The Wreckers 232–239 ■ blue cathedral 326

chant repertory of the church Heaven was opened and a Hildegard of Bingen
year, studied the playing of the fiery light of exceeding
psaltery (a stringed instrument), brilliance came and Born in 1098 as the youngest
and learned to write Latin. Like child in a large family of
Jutta, Hildegard professed to be permeated my whole brain … lesser nobility, Hildegard
divinely inspired, claiming to have and immediately I knew the spent her early childhood in
“never learned neumes, or any meaning of the exposition Bermersheim, south of Mainz,
other part of music.” While the in Germany. She suffered
truth of this assertion is unknown, of the Scriptures. from ill health, and even
it may have been an attempt to Hildegard of Bingen before the age of five began
disassociate herself and Jutta from to see visions, drawing the
an education that ordinarily would becomes more expressive and family’s attention to her
not have been available to women. animated, the sweeping vocal spiritual acuity by predicting
For women in the 12th century, to lines of Humilitas (Humility), Fede the color of an unborn calf.
profess knowledge of the trivium (Faith), and Spes (Hope) inspiring At about the age of eight,
(the rhetorical arts) or quadrivium the sister Virtues to respond she was placed in the care of
(the sciences and music theory) with ardor. However, the original Jutta of Sponheim, a visionary
or to provide interpretation of the notation is little more than the who lived as a recluse in a
Bible might be considered a direct barest of bones: recordings with hermitage near the abbey
threat to male authority. fiddles, flute, and harmonized at Disibodenberg.
accompaniments represent
Magnum opus the modern interpretation of The women’s hermitage
The earliest extant morality this sketch. was later opened to monastic
play, and one of the first musical aspirants, and at the age of
dramas to be recorded, Hildegard’s Writings and divinity 14 Hildegard devoted her life
most well-known work, Ordo Hildegard’s letters reveal her to God as a Benedictine nun.
Virtutum (“The play of the Virtues”), status as “seer and mystic,” which On the death of Jutta in 1136,
contains more than 80 melodies allowed her not just the freedom and at the age of 38, Hildegard
that form a musical drama most to offer stern advice (even to the was elected to lead the
likely intended to be performed by pope) but opportunities for musical religious community. She
the nuns of Hildegard’s order. The expression. She often emphasized performed this role until her
play calls for a cast of more than the transcendent origin of her death in 1179 but also found
20 singing roles and concerns works. Music connected her to time to write three volumes
the struggle for a soul (Anima) a lost Eden, before Adam and Eve of visionary theology, scientific
between 17 “Virtues” (Humility precipitated the Fall of humankind works, and religious verse.
is the Queen of the Virtues) and by eating the forbidden fruit. She
their adversary, Diabolus (the envisaged her texts being at the Other key work
Devil). Diabolus, perhaps originally service of the music, so that “those
spoken by Hildegard’s friend who hear might be taught about c.1150s Symphonia armonie
and scribe Volmar, lacks all inward things.” ■ celestium revelationum
harmony and articulates in
spoken interjections.

The accompanying melodies
in the manuscript indicate when
the Virtues sing as a chorus and
gives more florid music to the solo
voices. As the Virtues step forward
to introduce themselves, the music

28

ITTSOWTSIOCINEPGRAY IN CONTEXT
MAGNUS LIBER ORGANI (c.1170),
LÉONIN FOCUS
The rise of vocal harmony

BEFORE
c.1000 More than 160 organa,
probably written by Wulfstan,
the Cantor of Winchester
Cathedral, are collected in
the Winchester Troper.

c.1140 The Codex Calixtinus
mentions a certain Magister
Albertus Parisiensis as
composer of the first notated
work for three voices.

AFTER
c.1200 Pérotin improves and
expands on Léonin’s work in
the Magnus liber organi.

T he development of
polyphony (richly layered
music for multiple voices)
in the mid-12th century is closely
linked to Notre Dame in Paris,
the lavish new cathedral built by
Maurice de Sully when be became
Bishop of Paris in 1160. Around
this time, a French composer
called Léonin was creating fresh
embellishments for two voices, in
order to enhance the traditional
plainchant. Under the patronage of
the cathedral, Léonin and a number
of other innovative composers
formed what later became known
as the Notre Dame School.

Composing organa
There are no records of Léonin
until nearly a century after he
was active, when an Englishman
studying in Paris (known to
musicology as “Anonymous IV”)
wrote about Master Léoninus.

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 29

See also: Plainchant 22–23 ■ Micrologus 24–25 ■ Messe de Notre Dame 36–37 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■
Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69 ■ Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott 78–79

He described Léonin as the The nave of Notre Dame de Paris shifting the single note to an
optimus organista (best composer was completed shortly after the death adjacent pitch, to make a more
of organa, or vocal harmonizations) of Maurice de Sully in 1196. Léonin and pleasant relationship with the
and the author of the Magnus liber Pérotin created their music in or close chant before moving back to the
organi (Great Book of Organum), an to the new cathedral. finalis. Traditions involving a fixed
anthology of music used by the note accompaniment are still heard
cathedral to solemnify the liturgy. century, but the stages in the today, in Sufi Muslim Qawwali
development of harmony-singing music from India and Pakistan,
Anonymous IV writes that are unclear. The papal Schola and in bagpipe music.
Léonin’s Great Book was used until cantorum (choir) of the 7th century
the time of Pérotin (c.1160–1205), maintained a total of seven singers, A sinful sound
who was known as the best including three scholae (scholars) The move toward polyphony was
composer of discants—an organum as well as an archiparaphonista not universally welcomed. Some
with countermelodies on top of the (the fourth-ranking singer) and within the church objected to the
plainsong. Pérotin shortened and three paraphonistae, a Greek term new methods—notably the English
improved Léonin’s organa, wrote meaning “one who sings alongside cardinal Robert of Courçon, who
better clausulae (musical episodes the chant.” Some musicologists criticized the writers of organum
inserted in the chant), and also believe this may suggest the on the grounds that this new music
composed organa for three and four presence of singers who specialized was effeminate. In his Summa, he
voices. According to Anonymous in a harmonizing role. wrote that “If a wanton prelate
IV, Pérotin’s music was still in use gives benefices to such wanton ❯❯
at Notre Dame in his time (c.1280). The simplest harmonizing
technique was for a singer to hold Cistercian monks at Zwettl Abbey,
the finalis (principal note) of the Austria, practice choral singing in this
mode of the piece as a sustained miniature accompanying notation for
note underneath the chant. This the Graduale Cisterciense (c.1268). A
would be sung to an open vowel graduale is a liturgical chant or hymn.
sound, perhaps occasionally

Early harmony
Before the time of Léonin,
vocal harmonies were far simpler.
Theorists took a certain interest
in the practice of singing in parts
from the latter half of the 9th

30 THE RISE OF VOCAL HARMONY

Pérotin’s Alleluia nativitas was
written for three voices. As seen here,
the number of lines in a staff was not
fixed at this time; they merely gave a
rough idea of the “height” of the notes.

singers in order that this kind of
minstrelish and wanton music may
be heard in his church, I believe
that he becomes contaminated
with the disease of simony.”
Attitudes such as Courçon’s, which
associated the intertwined male
voices of polyphony with sodomy,
sought to discredit the new musical
style by associating it with sin.

Two handbooks also suggests a hybrid method, describe this technique as
The first works that attempted whereby the vox organalis a version of “heterophony”
to explain vocal harmony were (“accompanying voice”) either (embellishing a single line).
Musica enchiriadis (“The Music holds a pitch or moves in parallel
Handbook”), c.900, and its harmony with the vox principalis Scattered examples
companion text Scholia enchiriadis. (“main voice”) before returning A short piece of organum for two
The simplest harmonizing method to a unison with the chant at the voices moving independently came
illustrated by the writer of the ends of phrases. to light in 2014 on the back leaf of a
handbooks was singing in octaves. manuscript in the British Library
This technique was known as Although simple organum that can be dated to c.900. It
“magadizing” in ancient Greece involves more than one voice, this appears to demonstrate that some
and occurs naturally when men and singing in octaves is not normally singers in northwest Germany were
boys sing in unison. The method of described by modern writers as quite adept at this hybrid style of
utilizing a basic harmony, parallel “polyphony,” because the two parts organum by the end of the 9th
to the original chant, was called are not independent. Creating century. Although it is a single
“simple organum” by the writer of harmony by simply following the isolated example, the piece (Sancte
the enchiriadis. Scholia enchiriadis melody at a different octave (or Bonifati martyr, “St. Boniface the
other harmonic interval) makes the Martyr”) is agreed to be the
Masters of organum … set harmonizing part a slave to the oldest existing notated piece of
minstrelish and effeminate chant’s shape and movement. The polyphonic music for performance.
effect is to enrich the sound of the
things before young and chant, but the technique of finding The Winchester Troper (c.1000),
ignorant persons. this added harmony has little a manuscript copied into two books
finesse. Musicologists prefer to at Winchester Cathedral from
Robert of Courçon

English cardinal
(c.1160–1219)

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 31

Development of indication of pitch, either of the [Pérotin] notated his books
vocal harmony original chant melody or in the very faithfully according to
harmonizing vox organalis, making the use and custom of his
Plainchant: accurate transcription of these
A single unaccompanied pieces difficult. master, and even better.
vocal line in free rhythm, Anonymous IV
A century after the Winchester
like speech. Troper, The School of St. Martial of to one of six metrical patterns
Limoges explored polyphony in 90 (trochaic, iambic, and so forth, akin
Organum: pieces in four French manuscripts to Classical poetic meter). These
Addition of a second (c.1120–1180), and the Codex are indicated by two note shapes,
voice at a different Calixtinus (c.1140) from Santiago longa and brevis (long and short),
de Compostela, in northwest Spain. the duration of the note depending
octave paralleling The notation of this “Aquitanian on context. Léonin’s development of
the first voice. polyphony” was less ambiguous in organum in the discant style owed
pitch than the Troper and suggests much to this innovation.
Counterpoint: that most of the repertoire was
The interweaving of sung to a rhythm. The pieces are Pérotin, Léonin’s successor in
simultaneous playing or mostly for two singers in a more the Parisian style of discant, went
singing. Also known as melismatic style, in which the one better, composing organum
upper voice sometimes has many triplum, and even organum
contrapuntal. notes, sung over a less active lower quadruplum, for three and four
voice. The Codex Calixtinus voices respectively. Proclaiming
Harmony: contains what may be the first their magnificence, the Bishop of
Three or more musical notes composition notated for three Paris decreed in 1198 that Pérotin’s
sung simultaneously to voices, the Congaudeant Catholici. four-voice works Viderunt omnes
and Sederunt principes should be
create a chord. The Notre Dame School performed on Christmas Day,
As the Cathedral of Notre Dame St. Stephen’s Day (December 26),
French sources a few decades rose up on the Île de la Cité in Paris, and again on New Year’s Day. ■
after Sancte Bonifati martyr, gives the discant style emerged, which
a snapshot of monastic musical allowed the upper voice of organa
life in England prior to the Norman more freedom. The roles of the two
Conquest. Although the second singers diverged into that of the
volume contains 174 organa florid soloist and an accompanying
(making it the first substantial voice holding long notes. This
corpus of composed polyphony), distinction was reflected in the
the notation assumes that the new titles of tenor (“one who holds”)
singer already has some knowledge and duplum (“second voice”).
of the repertoire. The unstaffed
neumes do not give a precise At this time, Léonin introduced
a greater degree of rhythmic
organization to his compositions,
regulating the flow of the meter in
an early form of “modal rhythm.” In
its mature iteration, modal rhythm
sets the line in motion according

Pérotin, called Perotin Magister
(“Pérotin the Master”) by Anonymous
IV, is believed to have lived from
c.1160–1230. He is pictured here with
church bells at Notre Dame de Paris.

32 IN CONTEXT

STTAHWNEEDNEAITRGLHAYDTSIENAI,GNAGLE FOCUS
Secular medieval music
LE JEU DE ROBIN ET DE MARION (1280–1283),
ADAM DE LA HALLE BEFORE
c.1160 Festum stultorum
(Feast of Fools) appears in
Paris and Beauvais as an
opportunity around Christmas
for clerics to indulge in a
parody of the liturgy.

c.1230 Ludus Danielis (The
Play of Daniel) is written in
Beauvais as a liturgical drama
in Latin.

AFTER
Late 14th century The
annual cycle of Mystery Plays
(performances of biblical
scenes set to music) begins in
York and Wakefield, England.

D iverse musical traditions
are known to have
flourished in European
towns and villages in the Middle
Ages, as they did in the courts of
noble families, yet almost none
of this popular music survives in
notation. While the Church used
scribes to regulate and record its
own repertoire for posterity, much
secular music was passed on orally.

However, the lack of written
sources among common people is
not just the consequence of poor
literacy. For many dance musicians
and the singers of epics, a written
text would not have reflected the
skilful, improvisatory nature of their
profession, honed by generations
of hereditary entertainers.
Furthermore, by recording their
works in a manuscript, they
risked handing their cherished
repertoire to rivals.

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 33

See also: Missa l’homme armé 42 ■ Water Music 84–89 ■ Musique de Adam de la Halle
table 106 ■ The Magic Flute 134–137 ■ Die schöne Müllerin 150–155
French musician Adam de la
Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion was (where oïl meant “yes”). Each of Halle was born in the cloth-
performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, these languages had its own working city of Arras in 1222,
in 1907. Its set design was recorded in bardic tradition: the south had the and grew up learning about
watercolor by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. music of the trobador and female music as part of his theological
trobairitz, while the north used education at the abbey of
The sources of European secular the word “trouvère,” both of which Vaucelles, founded only a
music tended to be found where may have come from the Early century before. De la Halle’s
popular styles aroused the interest French word trobar, meaning father expected him to enter
of the Church or nobility. The “to find or invent” (a song). An the Church, but he chose a
crusading knights of southern alternative root may be the Arabic different path. After a short-
France found the highly developed word tarab, meaning “source of joy.” lived marriage, he enrolled at
styles of instrumental and vocal One of the earliest troubadours, the University of Paris, where,
music they encountered on William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, among other things, he learned
Crusades in the Holy Land was said to have sung “in verse the polyphonic techniques
particularly appealing, this being with pleasant tunes” about his that he would later apply to
a period of great cultural exchange experience of leading the so-called popular musical genres.
as well as of conflict and hostility. “Crusade of the Faint-Hearted”
into Anatolia (now Turkey) in 1101. De la Halle initially used
Languages and influences His songs are clearly influenced his verse to speak out against
Medieval secular music features by Arabic poetic conventions, in the corrupt administration of
distinct poetic identities linked to particular the popular song-forms Arras but later entered into
regional languages. Two medieval of muwashah and zajal. noble service. It was in the
French languages emerged from service of Charles of Anjou,
Latin: langue d’oc or Occitan in A play with music who became king of Naples,
Southern France and Northern The 13th-century musician Adam that he wrote Le jeu de Robin
Spain (where oc meant “yes”); and de la Halle has been described as a et de Marion. Halle died a few
langue d’oïl, north of the Loire trouvère. De la Halle probably wrote years later, sometime between
1285 and 1288.

Other key works

Date unknown Mout me fu
grief/Robin m’aime/Portare
(Great was my sadness/Robin
loves me/Portare)
Date unknown A jointes
mains vous proi (Take my
hand, I pray)

Le jeu de Robin et de Marion (“The
Play of Robin and Marion”) for his
fellow Frenchmen as part of a
Christmas celebration in Naples
in 1284. The French noblemen had
taken refuge there after the island
of Sicily had overthrown the rule of
Charles I of Anjou (Adam’s patron)
in a bloody Easter coup. The Jeu
tells the story of a country maid
who is wooed by a lustful knight
yet remains true to her lover ❯❯

34 SECULAR MEDIEVAL MUSIC

Robin. The titular characters identify the piece as pantomime etiquette between a knight and
perform the bulk of the music, in (drama of spoken text with songs). an idealized lady, based on the
monophonic songs that de la Halle Halle’s comedy knew no limits—he principles of allegiance and fealty
created by setting his own lyrics poked fun at the church and its that defined a noble life. De la
to tunes in a popular style. corrupt clerics, at the people of Halle’s Robin and Marion played to
Arras, where he lived and worked, this idea, as a depiction of a knight
Some have called it the “first and even his own family and life. trying to woo his love, but was
comic opera,” although modern also influenced by the French
audiences might more readily Chivalric tales pastoral storytelling tradition.
The songs of both trobadors and
Henry of Meissen performs at court trouvères—have their roots in the Trobador verse has survived
in the Codex Manesse (1300). The medieval culture of fin’amor (courtly well: there are more than 2,000
musician was called Frauenlob (“praise love)—the chivalric code of extant poems composed by more
of women”) for his chivalric songs. than 450 known poets. However,
transmission of the musical
accompaniment for these songs is
patchy, with barely 10 percent of
the poems having their associated
melodies relayed in notation.

Trouvère activity in northern
France began with the 13th-century
poet Chrétien de Troyes, about 70
years after the first trobador in the
south. The number of surviving
trouvère songs is similar to that of
the southern corpus, but more than
60 percent of trouvère songs have
music—albeit without precise
information concerning rhythm.

Southern Europe
While trobadors and trouvères were
a distinct group of courtly poets
writing in specific poetic genres,

When I see the lark
Set flight for joy

toward the sun …
It’s a marvel that my heart

Does not melt with
longing at the sight.
Bernart de Ventadorn

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 35

lesser entertainers were manifold, is the main surviving source of Medieval instruments
and their activities were varied. In goliard song. The title ménestrel
southern Europe, a musician might (minstrel) meanwhile refers to Many of the instruments
go by the title of joglar or joglaresa, one who is a “little minister,” in associated with European
while their northern counterparts service perhaps at court, or to medieval music have their
were called jongleurs. The skillsets a city. Armed with finely honed roots in North Africa, Central
of these musicians encompassed musical skills and a claim to a Asia, and the Balkans. These
feats of dexterity, fluency in any patron’s protection, a minstrel included the lute (a string
instrument required for dancing, might hope to escape some of instrument with a back
singing songs of love and heroes, the opprobrium that was often shaped like the shell of a
or simply playing the fool. Yet, levelled at a jongleur. By the tortoise), the rebec (a spoon-
in spite of the joy they brought, 14th century, however, the term shaped bowed instrument),
itinerant entertainers were not ménestrel was increasingly used and the shawm, the precursor
only on the lowest rung of the social in France as a term to describe all of the oboe. The European
order but were also outside of the urban musicians—many of whom tabor (drum) is akin to the
protection of the law. One example played in taverns or on the streets. Indian tabla while nakers
of joglar song is the work of Martin were related to the Asian
Codax (c.1250), written in the style Songs in German naqqara (kettledrums). The
of cantiga de amigo, a genre that The genre of courtly love extended English word “fanfare”
told stories from a woman’s point all the way from Latin Europe to the probably derived from Arabic
of view. Codax, for example, evoked German-speaking peoples, where anfar, meaning trumpets.
the emotions of a woman left on the the Minnesinger sang songs about
shore in Vigo (a fishing town in chivalric romances. Like his French Early poets often
Galicia, Spain), waiting for her counterpart, the Minnesinger was accompanied themselves on
beloved to come home from sea. normally welcome in noble houses the vielle, a bowed string
as a social equal, and examples of instrument supported on the
Tavern players early Minnelieder (“love songs”) collarbone. A vielle could have
Another type of medieval musician suggest that trouvère songs were anywhere from three to six
at this time, the goliards, had a lot in known in Germany. By 1200, the strings passing over a flat
common with traveling musicians, style asserted a stronger identity bridge, or string support. This
but were, in fact, unemployed characterized by the work of Walther favored a harmonic style of
clerics known for playing bawdy von Vogelweide—but, compared to playing with many strings
songs in taverns that satirized the works from Spanish and French sounding at once—unlike the
society at all levels. The Carmina traditions, few Minnelieder survive arched bridge of the modern
Burana Manuscript (c.1200–1300) with contemporary melodies. ■ violin, which allows individual
strings to be sounded, thus
favoring melody.

Europe’s secular
music-makers

Musicians fitted Troubadours Poets and Jongleurs Low-born Goliards Traveling Minstrels Musicians
into distinct composers who performed itinerant storytellers, songsters who were former who initially performed
categories that songs for the nobility that jugglers, and acrobats, clerics. They often sang for the nobility and later
were defined by were inspired by the who also danced bawdy and satirical verses on street corners and in
social status culture of courtly love. and sang. in Latin “a cappella.” public taverns.
and their typical
audience.

36

MSTHIUNASGTI,CMAINASDKAEDSSACNYIOCEUENCLEAUGH,

MGUEISLSLEAUDME ENODTERMEADCAHMAEU(Tc.1360–1365),

IN CONTEXT T he 14th century was one compositions based on one melody
of the most turbulent and text, with other voices bringing
FOCUS periods of medieval history. in different words and melodies).
Polyphony and the The “Little Ice Age,” which began Each of Vitry’s motets, only 12
notation revolution around 1300, resulted in crop of which survive, displayed
failures and famines, including different aspects of a technique
BEFORE the Great Famine of 1312–1317, known today as isorhythm (from
c.1320 The Tournai Mass is and the Black Death killed up to the Greek for “same rhythm”),
the first known Mass that uses 60 percent of Europe’s population. which aimed to give structure
polyphony—“many sounds.” to extended compositions.
Such extreme social, economic,
c.1350 The Toulouse Mass and environmental upheaval shook
assembles polyphonic religious certainties. Scholars,
Mass movements arranged such as the French scientist-cleric
from existing motets (short, Nicole Oresme (c.1320–1382), began
unaccompanied choral pieces). to envision a more complex
universe than the faith-based
AFTER view of the natural world. Music,
1415–1421 The Old Hall already embracing polyphony,
Manuscript contains several was also influenced by this way
polyphonic settings of the of thinking and exploded into
Kyrie to suit the English new metrical complexity when
fashion for elaboration of Oresme’s fellow Frenchman, the
that section of the Mass. mathematician-composer Philippe
de Vitry (1291–1361), devised a
1440s Missa Caput is an early precise method to notate rhythm.
Mass by an English composer
using a cantus firmus (“fixed A new order of rhythm Musicians illuminate a 1316
song”) around which other The new style became known manuscript of Le Roman de Fauvel,
melodies are based. It includes as Ars nova after de Vitry’s treatise a French poem by Gervais du Bus,
a bass voice below that of Ars nova notandi (“The New Art which is interspersed with some
the tenor—one of the first of Notation”), published in 1322. of the first Ars nova music.
compositions with a bass part. Vitry composed vocal pieces to
demonstrate the novel notation
in the form of motets (polyphonic

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 37

See also: Magnus liber organi 28–31 ■ Missa l’homme armée 42 ■ Missa Pange
lingua 43 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69

Certain disciples of the (“even more subtle art”). Ars nova Guillaume de Machaut
new art are preoccupied had become established and
went on to form the basis for the Born in the Champagne
with their measured development of rhythmic notation region of France around 1300,
dividing up of beats … We in Western music. Machaut spent much of his
life in and around the nearby
forbid these methods. Changing the Mass city of Reims. After taking
Pope John XXII De Vitry’s ideas found perhaps holy orders, in 1323 he joined
their greatest flowering in the the household of John of
Vitry took a series of notes in the music of Guillaume de Machaut, Luxembourg, King of Bohemia,
tenor voice (called the color) and a 14th-century composer and traveling with him around
applied a rhythmic pattern (called poet. Machaut used the same Eastern Europe and Italy as
a talea) to it. The talea (rhythm) isorhythmic techniques in his own his chaplain and secretary.
was usually shorter than the color motets and in the Kyrie, Sanctus, Through King John, Machaut
(melody) so it might require several Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est acquired lucrative benefices
cycles of the talea to equal one movements of his Messe de Notre as canon of the cathedrals at
repetition of the color. Dame, the first known setting of Verdun in 1330, Arras in 1332,
polyphonic music for a complete and in Reims in 1337.
The Church was not enamored Mass cycle by a single composer.
of Ars nova, and Pope John XXII As well as using isorhythm to After King John’s death
condemned it in a decree of 1323. unify elements of the Mass, at the Battle of Crécy in 1346,
The clergy were alarmed by the Machaut also employed a plainsong Machaut found further
style’s role in the secularization cantus firmus (“fixed song”) as a patronage from Bonne of
of the once purely sacred motet, linking melody for each movement, Luxembourg, the second
which was now appropriated as a from which other melodies develop, daughter of King John the
way to comment on events of the and added a contratenor to raise Blind, and Charles II, King
day. The satirical poem Le roman the number of voices from three of Navarre in Spain. The
de Fauvel (c.1316), for example, (the traditional number) to a richer composer’s final years were
contains 130 musical works, and more expansive four. spent in Reims, overseeing
including five motets by de Vitry. the compilation of his works.
Machaut secured his artistic He died in 1377 and was
Despite the religious opposition, heritage by carefully managing his buried in Reims cathedral.
the precision of the new notation own output, collecting his works
opened the door to experiments in manuscripts that he compiled Other key works
in rhythm and meter. These can during his lifetime. Besides
be heard in the intricate and his importance as a composer, c.1330s Douce dame jolie
shifting rhythms of the songs of Machaut was one of the greatest (virelai)
the Italians Matteo da Perugia French poets of the medieval c.1340s Rose, liz, printemps,
and Philippus de Caserta and the period, producing extensive poetic verdure (rondeau)
French composer Baude Cordier narratives in the form of lais (lines c.1340s Voir dit
(all working around 1400), in a style of verse with eight syllables) and
that is now known as Ars subtilior dits (verse without music). He
also developed shorter poetic
genres with repeated phrases,
or refrains, such as the ballade,
rondeau, and virelai, which became
popular vehicles of expression
for poets and composers of
subsequent generations. ■

RENAIS

1400–1600

SANCE

40 INTRODUCTION Franco-Flemish Thomas Tallis’s
composer Josquin 40-part motet
Missa Rex seculorum is Desprez sets music to
written as a cantus firmus the Ordinary of the Spem in alium, is
Mass in his Missa composed, featuring
Mass in the influential
English style, attributed Pange lingua. eight choirs of five
either to John Dunstaple voices each.

or Leonel Power.

C.1430 C.1515 C.1570
1568 1572
C.1460

Guillaume Dufay Italian composer and Spanish composer
composes the Mass diplomat Alessandro Tomás Luis de
Victoria writes his
L’Homme armé, Striggio premieres first collection of
employing the third his motet Ecce motets while working
interval in the scale to beatam lucem in
create a sweet sound. in Rome.
Munich, Germany.

T he cultural movement plainchant melody. Echoing medieval times was being
known as the Renaissance the Renaissance trend toward challenged, and in 1517 Martin
emerged in Italy as early increasing secularization, he Luther triggered the Reformation.
as the 14th century. However, a started to use secular melodies Much of northern Europe converted
distinctively Renaissance style of instead of plainchant as a basis for to the Protestant Church, which
music did not manifest itself until his Masses, which were in a richly had a very different attitude to
some years later. It first flourished expressive polyphonic style. He and music for their services, preferring
in the Netherlands, at the court other composers at the Burgundian simple hymns and melodies for
of Philip the Good of Burgundy court, including Gilles Binchois, the congregation to sing rather
(1396–1467). The composers there, Johannes Ockeghem, and one of than polyphonic Masses sung only
although Franco-Flemish by birth, the finest composers of the early by the choir. Such music became
were cosmopolitan by nature. The Renaissance, Josquin Desprez, did the foundation of a distinctly
leading light of the Franco-Flemish not restrict themselves to sacred Germanic musical tradition.
school, Guillaume Dufay, inspired music and also wrote secular
by the Ars Nova polyphony that motets and chansons. The Reformation had, however,
he had heard while in Italy, found provoked a reaction in the Catholic
a way to break with the medieval New challenge world—the Counter-Reformation—
style and began to redefine The Franco-Flemish school of in which the Church defended
Renaissance music. polyphony dominated the music some of its practices while
of the early Renaissance, but in examining and reforming others.
One of Dufay’s innovations the 16th century, things changed One of the things that came under
was his use of the cantus firmus, dramatically. The power that the scrutiny was the music for church
the technique of composing Catholic Church had wielded in services. Many in the Catholic
a polyphonic piece around a Church were uncomfortable

RENAISSANCE 1400–1600 41

William Byrd composes Venetian composer Thomas Weelkes
Great Service for use on Giovanni Bassano pens O care, thou wilt
publishes his four-part despatch me as part
state occasions at collection Ricercate, passaggi
Her Majesty’s Chapel et cadentie, to be played in of his most famous
the style of an étude. work—his collection
Royal at Hampton
Court Palace. of madrigals.

C.1580–1590 1585 1600
1597 1604
1584

Giovanni Pierluigi da Italian organist John Dowland’s
Palestrina writes the Giovanni Lachrimae uses
Canticum Canticorum, a dissonance to
collection of motets based Gabrieli uses
on excerpts from the loud and soft conjure an
biblical Song of Songs. dynamics in Sonata atmosphere of
pian’ e forte.
melancholy.

with the complex polyphony that In England, it was adopted by either in consorts of instruments,
had become fashionable, as so composers such as Thomas such as viols or recorders, or for
many voices singing different Tallis and William Byrd. solo keyboard instruments, such
lines of melody made the words as the harpsichord. Thanks to
unintelligible. Composers were Instrumental music the development of a mechanical
told to moderate their style, It was not just church music that technique for printing, sheet music
precipitating the adoption of a was changing. By the end of the was readily available, and the new
relatively simple polyphony that 14th century, traveling minstrels style spread through Europe.
avoided the sometimes dissonant had all but disappeared thanks Madrigals, for small groups of
harmonies that occur in polyphonic to the ravages of the Black Death. singers, became a popular form
music and emphasized the clarity They gravitated instead to the of home entertainment, especially
of the words. This clearer and aristocratic courts, where they in Italy and England.
sweeter-sounding style characterized provided entertainment, singing
what came to be regarded as the chansons and playing instrumental However, composers and the
musical “High Renaissance.” music for dancing and for civic public were experimenting with
ceremonies, such as the installation another form by the end of the
Among the first composers to of a new Doge in Venice. 16th century, and a dramatic new
adopt the style was Giovanni style was heralded by the works
Pierluigi da Palestrina, who wrote In a more secularized society, of Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice. The
numerous motets and Masses for instrumental music became last great works to be composed
churches in Rome. Composers from popular not only in the courts in the Renaissance style were
across Europe gravitated to Italy but also among an increasingly Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Officium
to absorb the new sound, before educated middle class, creating defunctorum and John Dowland’s
taking it back to their native lands. a demand for music to play at home, Lachrimae, fitting ends to an era. ■

42

INMTSHOUWETSILAOCARSSCTITNOHGM4HL0PEEOAYPSREIEAIENDRCGSEBE…OFFORE

MISSA L’HOMME ARMÉ (c.1460),
GUILLAUME DUFAY

IN CONTEXT F rom Franco-Flemish layering of voices. Following the
composer Guillaume Dufay lead of English musicians, who had
FOCUS onward, the harmonic already embraced the use of third
New harmonies language of music begins to sound intervals, Dufay allows the music
more familiar to modern listeners. to dwell on the interval’s sweet,
BEFORE Earlier composers had followed the less hollow sound. This extended
1430 Englishman Leonel harmonic ideals worked out by the the harmonic vocabulary and
Power composes Alma ancient Greek philosopher and created room for more voices. ■
redemptoris mater, possibly mathematician Pythagoras, based
the first Mass to use an on the “perfect” consonance of
identified cantus firmus—a octaves and fourth and fifth
“set song”—as the basis for intervals. Dufay’s innovation was
its melodic framework. to use chords featuring the third
interval in the scale as a harmony
1430 Rex seculorum is written note (mi in the sol-fa singing scale,
as a cantus firmus Mass in the following do and re). Historically,
English style, either by John the harmony of third intervals had
Dunstable or Leonel Power. been seen as somewhat dissonant,
to be used sparingly.
AFTER
1570 Italian Giovanni Secular sounds in church Master of melody Guillaume Dufay
Palestrina publishes a five- Dufay’s masses made much use of stands beside a portable organ in an
voice setting of the Mass on the cantus firmus technique, which illumination from the 15th-century
the L’homme armé melody. built a piece around an already poetic work, Le champion des dames.
existing melody, such as a well-
1999 Welsh composer Karl known sacred composition or a
Jenkins incorporates the plainchant. In L’homme armé,
L’homme armé folk song into Dufay chose a popular French folk
the first and final movements song with a distinctive melody that
of his Mass The Armed Man. lent itself well to a polyphonic

See also: Micrologus 24–25 ■ Magnus liber organi 28–31 ■ Missa Pange
lingua 43 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105

RENAISSANCE 1400–1600 43

GTTHOLOENRGMIUOYEUS,STPERBROOYCDOLYFAITMHE

MISSA PANGE LINGUA (c.1515), JOSQUIN DESPREZ

IN CONTEXT J osquin Desprez, born in Desprez’s contemporary, the
France around 1450, was Italian printer Ottaviano Petrucci,
FOCUS an early beneficiary of the perfected a method for printing
Dissemination of music printing press. Until the invention music in three passes: the staves,
of the technology in the mid-15th followed by notes, and then the
BEFORE century, music was copied out by words. Petrucci’s first publication,
c.1415–1420 The largest hand, by professional copyists. Odhecaton, a selection of nearly
collection of 14th-century According to the 16th-century 100 secular pieces, mostly by
Italian music, the Squarcialupi Swiss music theorist Heinrich Franco-Flemish composers,
Codex illuminated manuscript, Glarean, Desprez “published his including Desprez, Alexander
is compiled in Florence. works after much deliberation Agricola, Antoine Busnois, and
and with manifold corrections.” Jacob Obrecht, appeared in 1501.
1457 The Codex Psalmorum, This care and attention made To meet the challenge of a first
produced in the German his compositions a favorite in the collection of polyphonic music for
city of Mainz, is the first emerging music publishing market. the Mass with underlayed text,
printed book to contain Petrucci chose to devote his Misse
music, although the notation (1502) to works solely by Desprez.
is handwritten.
Now that Josquin is dead, A late Mass
AFTER he is putting out more works Missa Pange lingua was one
c.1520 English printer John of Desprez’s final compositions,
Rastell produces the first than when he was alive! taking its central melody from
music where the staves, Georg Forster a hymn for the Feast of Corpus
notes, and text are printed Christi written by the 13th-century
in a single impression. German composer (1510–1568) Italian friar and theologian Thomas
Aquinas. The work was not ready
1710 The Statute of Anne, in time for Petrucci’s final book
enacted in Britain, gives of masses in 1514, but it survived
authors copyright over their in manuscript form and was
printed work for the first time, finally published in 1532. ■
a right finally extended to
music composition in 1777. See also: Messe de Notre Dame 36–37 ■ Missa l’homme armé 42 ■
Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105

44

HPVROEAAYYCREEERATNHDE

SPEM IN ALIUM (c.1570), THOMAS TALLIS

IN CONTEXT T he composition of the great mission from the Medici court in
40-voice motet Spem in Florence, bringing with him the
FOCUS alium by Thomas Tallis parts for his recent compositions
Large-scale choral music marked a pinnacle of early English for 40 or more independent voices.
Renaissance choral music and These were musical manifestations
BEFORE was an inspired response to a of influence and power, and some
c.1500 French composer continental challenge. In 1567, the wondered what the result might
Antoine Brumel writes a composer Alessandro Striggio had be if an English composer were
Mass in 12 parts, Missa Et arrived in England on a diplomatic to attempt such a composition.
ecce terrae motus, known They turned to Tallis, who had
as the “Earthquake Mass.” been the foremost court composer
under four monarchs—Henry VIII,
1568 Alessandro Striggio’s Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
motet Ecce beatam lucem for Tallis’s Roman Catholic patron,
40 voices with instruments Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of
is performed in Munich. Norfolk, commissioned the work.

AFTER A chapel choir sings from sheet A long choral tradition
1682 Heinrich Biber composes music displayed on a lectern in the The English had long excelled
his Missa Salisburgensis in 53 frontispiece of Practica musicae by at choral music. In the 15th century,
parts arranged in six choirs of the Italian music theorist Franchini John Dunstable established the
singers, strings, recorders, di Gaffurio, published in 1512. contenance angloise (“English
cornetts, and sackbuts, with manner”), a distinctive, richly
two ensembles of trumpets harmonic polyphonic style.
and timpani, and at least Flemish music theorist Johannes
two organs—probably the Tinctoris described Dunstable
largest work in the Colossal as “the fountain and source” of
Baroque style, the name musical innovation.
given to large-scale, poly-
choral works. A generation before Tallis,
Robert Fayrfax was the leading
English composer and a favorite
of Henry VIII. He was the organist
and Master of the Choristers at
St. Albans Abbey from 1498 to 1502

RENAISSANCE 1400–1600 45

See also: Messe de Notre Dame 36–37 ■ Missa l’homme armé 42 ■ Missa Pange lingua 43 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■
Great Service 52–53 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105

and composed the complex five- statement of the Nunc dimittis
voice Mass O quam glorifica for chant running through the work
his doctorate in 1504. adds to its impact.

Masters of sacred music The Duke hearing of the An extraordinary response
In the early 16th century, John song [Spem in alium] took his Thomas Tallis was a member of the
Taverner emerged as a significant chain of gold from of his neck Chapel Royal when Striggio visited
composer of English sacred music and unfurled his multipart scores.
after his appointment in 1526 as and put it about Tallis his The Italian’s works were in the
Master of the Choristers at Thomas neck and gave it him. polychoral style, with voices
Wolsey’s newly founded Cardinal Thomas Wateridge grouped into self-contained choirs
College, Oxford (the future Christ that came together in a grand
Church). There he composed three Letter (1611) sound at crucial points in the score.
six-voice Masses, Corona spinea,
Gloria tibi Trinitas, and O Michael. Protestant monarchs. He was the Tallis’s response in his motet
The tenor part from the “In nomine choirmaster at Magdalen College, Spem in alium was quite different:
Domini” section of the Benedictus Oxford, for three years, and then, it dipped back into the soaring
of his Gloria tibi Trinitas became from 1552, a Gentleman of the sound of Taverner’s and Sheppard’s
widely used by other composers as Chapel Royal under Edward VI music to create an unmistakably
the basis of vocal and instrumental and Mary I. He died on the eve English piece. The 40 voices of
arrangements. This was the origin of Elizabeth’s succession in 1558. Spem in alium seldom gather in the
of the English fantasia genre known Much of Sheppard’s Latin-texted same groupings, but each follow
as In nomine, which was popular church music survives. His their own paths. One voice may
until the late 17th century. responsory Media vita for six maintain a steady pace on the beat
voices is a Lenten work of but will have a counterpart that
Taverner moved back home monumental status: the slow achieves something similar in
to Lincolnshire after Wolsey’s syncopation, adding a scintillation
downfall and produced little more to the steady voice. Like a gradual
music. John Sheppard was perhaps murmuration of birds, the voices
more adept at tailoring his output gather, separate, and finally
to the tastes of Roman Catholic and assemble to exhilarating effect. ■

Thomas Tallis Little is known of Tallis’s early life, was also one of the first to
but by 1532 he was the organist set English words to psalms,
of Dover Priory, on England’s canticles, and anthems.
south coast. After the priory’s Centuries later, his setting of
dissolution three years later, he Psalm 2 was used by Vaughan
worked at the church of St. Mary- Williams for his Fantasia on a
at-Hill in London, Waltham Abbey, Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910).
and Canterbury Cathedral, before
becoming a member of the choir Tallis died peacefully at
(“Gentleman”) of Henry VIII’s home in 1585. It is thought he
Chapel Royal, where he later was around 80 years of age.
became the organist.
Other key works
Queen Elizabeth granted Tallis
and William Byrd a patent to print 1560–1569 The Lamentations
music in 1572, and in 1575 they of Jeremiah
jointly published Cantiones sacrae, 1567 Nine psalm settings for
a collection of Latin motets. Tallis Archbishop Parker’s Psalter.

FTHAETETHERENRAL

OF ITALIAN MUSIC

CGAIONVTAICNUNMI DCAAPNATLICEOSRTURMIN(A1584),



48 SIMPLIFICATION OF POLYPHONY

IN CONTEXT T he Protestant reformer instrumental brilliance of Roman
Martin Luther influenced Catholic music. Its simple appeal
FOCUS sacred music not only in spoke directly to many who felt
Simplification of polyphony the new Protestant churches, but alienated by the Church’s love
also, as a result of the Counter- of wealth and lavish ritual.
BEFORE Reformation, in Roman Catholic
c.1540 In the motet Inviolata, rites. The Council of Trent, an Popular, accessible music
integra et casta es Maria, the ecumenical meeting of senior became a potent vehicle for
Italian composer Costanzo members of the Church in the spreading ideas and rallying
Festa uses canonic Flemish northern Italian town of Trent support and was also the hallmark
style to great effect. Festa was between 1545 and 1563, issued of services in the new reformed
much admired and imitated guidelines for sacred music that church. Luther and the French
by Palestrina. restrained dissonance, curbed Protestant reformer John Calvin
excessive ornamentation, and encouraged the singing of hymns
1545 Franco-Flemish refined liturgical polyphony. The to tunes that everyone knew.
composer Nicolas Gombert composer who responded most
publishes Musae Jovis, a exquisitely to this new call for Old traditions
deliberately archaic piece, as purity was Giovanni da Palestrina. This emphasis on simplicity was in
a tribute to Josquin Desprez. sharp contrast to Roman Catholic
New demands practice. The less educated would
AFTER Luther was an accomplished singer have had the greatest difficulty in
1610 Claudio Monteverdi and loved music, which, together following the Masses in a cathedral
returns to polyphony and with the power of the printing or ducal chapel of the time. This
the stile antico (“old style”) press to disseminate his ideas, was was a problem that the Roman
with Missa in illo tempore. key to the success of his reforms. Catholic churchman, humanist,
In 1524, his first published hymn, and scholar Bernardino Cirillo
c. 1742 J.S. Bach performs his “Ein newes Lied wir haeben an” recognized. In 1549, he wrote:
arrangement of Palestrina’s (“We’re raising a new song”) was a “In our times musicians have put
Missa sine nomine (1590). street ballad about the death at the all their work and effort into the
stake in Brussels of two adherents composition of fugues (where the
to Protestant reform. Set to a voices make staggered entries), so
familiar tune, it was far removed that while one voice sings ‘Sanctus’
from the rich polyphony and another has ‘Sabaoth,’ and yet one
more sings ‘Gloria tua.’ Howling,

Giovanni da Palestrina Probably born in the Italian dedicated his Missa Ecce
town of Palestrina in 1525, sacerdos magnus to Julius in
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1554. The next year he gained
had strong family connections to a place in the papal choir at the
nearby Rome. After his mother’s Sistine Chapel and went on to
death when he was about 11, he hold several top musical posts.
became a chorister at the city’s His music includes madrigals
Santa Maria Maggiore church. and more than 105 masses and
50 motets.
In his late teens, Palestrina
returned to his hometown to Other key works
become the organist at the
cathedral. When the Bishop of 1562 Missa Papae Marcelli
Palestrina, Cardinal Giovanni 1570 Missa brevis
Maria del Monte, was elected 1572 Missa Tu es Petrus
Pope Julius III in 1550, the 1584 Pulchra es (motet)
composer went back to Rome as 1590 Stabat Mater (motet)
director of the Capella Giulia: he