Middle Ages Music History Historical Information

1. Music in History: The Middle Ages
Historical Information
Music Appreciation
Unit 3

2. The Middle Ages
• An age spanning the years from the fall of the
Roman Empire in 476 to around 1400.
• Medieval society was conservative and
oriented toward God.
• The church (the Roman Catholic church) was
the primary patron of art and education and
the single greatest safe guarder of culture.
• All music, architecture, poetry and learning
was cultivated by the church.

3. The Middle Ages
• Timeline
– Rome sacked by Vandals 455
– Beowolf c. 700
– First Crusade 1066
– Black Death 1347-52
– Joan of Arc executed by English 1431

4. The Middle Ages
• Other Information
– Architecture
• Early: Romanesque
• Late: Gothic
– Visual Arts
• Stressed iconic/symbolic, not realism
– Late Middle Ages saw technological progress

5. The Middle Ages
• Composers were churchmen and musicians got
their training as church choirboys.
– Music during this time period was not notated,
meaning written down.
– If you wished to learn music, you were shown how to
perform each piece by ear.
• The role of music in the medieval church was to
embellish or accompany prayer.
• It was intended to create a mood of peace,
contemplation and spirituality.

6. The Middle Ages
• The exception of music made in the church were the
popular musicians called troubadours who held the
reputation as wandering musicians.
• These wandering entertainers called troubadours or
jongleurs sang their songs and played their instruments
wherever they could find a paying gig.
• But it was still the church that preserved culture and
stood against many of the barbaric conditions that
prevailed during the Medieval Period.
• Many of the surviving music was composed
anonymously.

7. The Middle Ages
• The political system of Europe during the Middle Ages
is called feudalism.
• There were three main social classes during this period
– Nobility: Kings, Queens, landowners
– Peasantry: poor workers
– Clergy: monks and priests of the church
• Rulers granted land to certain people under their
authority.
• These land holders were are called vassals.
• In return for the land the vassals promised to support
their rulers in time of war.

8. The Middle Ages
• The remaining people who lived and worked on
the land were called serfs.
• Those who owned the land were called nobles.
• In addition a knight or soldier of the noble class
was trained as a horseman and pledged loyalty to
a particular nobleman and in return was granted
land.
• The church was all that stood against these harsh
conditions and the threat of diseases and
different religious invasions from the North and
from the East.

9. The Middle Ages
• This was the period in Western Europe in which musical notation
began, counterpoint was invented around 1000, and some of the
present-day instruments were brought from Asia and Africa.
• Gregorian chant or plainsong, was invented around 500.
• It was sung as a single line by a priest and a choir in unison, without
instrumental accompaniment.
• Around the year 1000, singers began singing Gregorian chant on its
correct pitches others singing it a fourth, fifth, or octave higher and
by the end of the period, wonderful polyphony was being
composed.
• Music was an important part of life not only in the church but also
outside of the church performed by troubadours in castles, village
huts and taverns.