This document summarizes key aspects of medieval music traditions including Gregorian chant, the development of Christian worship music, and prominent composer Hildegard of Bingen. Chant was the dominant sacred music, consisting of single melodic lines sung in Latin. Over time, churches developed elaborate structures with strong acoustics for musical performances. Hildegard composed chant and sequences incorporating her visions and established a prominent role for women. Her musical dramas depicted spiritual struggles through allegorical virtues and devils. Medieval music helped instruct worshippers and project sacred texts in elaborate sacred spaces.

1. THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
EDITION
by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
THIRD EDITION
Lecture Slides

2. Chapter 12
Voice and Worship: Tradition and
Individuality in Medieval Chant

3. Middle Ages: Music
• Secular--music for ceremonies and entertainment in courts of
royalty/aristocracy
• Scales--different from major and minor; different placement
of the half steps in the scale
• Polyphony--multiple lines of equal importance performed
together; both sacred and secular music
• Composers tried to make music express meaning of the texts,
both sacred and secular.

4. Christianity
• Had no standard musical practice for 1st 3
centuries
• Borrowed from Judaism, reciting psalms,
call & response method
• Adopted other practices upon expansion
through Asia Minor & Europe
• Symbolism very important to medieval life-
age of miracles, mysticism, etc.

5. Life in the Medieval Cloister
• Development of
monasteries responsible
for preserving writings &
culture of ancient world
• Gothic Period-1100 to 1450
– Poems of troubadours,
legends of King Arthur
– Dante The Divine
Comedy
– Most secular music lost
but did exist outside the
Church

6. Middle Ages: Music for Sacred
Spaces
• Churches/Cathedrals = most important sacred structures of
the Middle Ages
– Reflected testimonies toward God and power of Church itself
– Created spaces in which music could be performed
• Large with incredible acoustic qualities
• Built to instruct the faithful (e.g., stained glass windows depicting
Biblical scenes)

7. Pope Gregory I
• 6th Century-codified music of
worship services,
establishment of liturgy, body
of rites prescribed for worship
• Function = to project the text
clearly so that it could be
understood by the people.
• Possessed clarity and melodic
beauty; thus it was
inspirational.

8. Gregorian Chant
• Sung only by monks & priests
• Plainchant, plainsong
• Text-Latin
• Liturgical
• Features
– Non-metrical rhythm
– Monophonic texture
– Smooth, stepwise
contour
– Modal scales
– Reverent mood
Composers of chant primarily
unknown
Music passed down almost strictly by
oral tradition
Whitsunday Mass, “Alleluia,
emitte spiritum”

9. The Church Modes
• Unfamiliar scales, not like major & minor
• Consist of seven different tones, an eighth tone
duplicating the first(octave)
• Different pattern of half-steps & whole-steps
• Were the basic scales of Western music during
the Middle Ages-Renaissance
• Used in secular & sacred music
• Many still used in Western folk music

10. Ionian (major)
Dorian
Phrygian
Mixolydian
Lydian
Aolean (minor)
Modal (old system) vs. tonal (major/minor system used later)
Locrian
Early Church Modes

11. • Chant
– 3,000-plus surviving
melodies
– Early notation =
neumes
Plainchant: Music of the Church

12. Text Setting
• Setting words to music
– Syllabic--one note per syllable
– Melismatic--many notes per syllable
– Melismas often used to emphasize words

13. “Dies Irae”
• Dies Irae

14. CHANT
• Santo Domingo de Silos
– Fastest selling classical record in
history
– Sold more than 2 million copies
– Number 5 on U.S. Pop Charts
– Royalties helped needy in Third
World Countries & repairs to 12th
century monastery
Sadeness

15. Middle Ages: Notation
• Earliest music wasn’t written down. Until 10th
century, music transmitted orally.
• Earliest chant manuscripts merely showed
whether the chant went up or down, not
specific pitches.
• Most manuscripts created by monks in
monasteries, by hand. Parchment and ink
were expensive.
• Printing emerged--middle of 15th century.

16. The Music of Hildegard of Bingen

17. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
• Hildegard von Bingen--most prolific composer before 1500
• First woman composer from whom a large number of works
survived
• Powerful abbess, theologian, naturalist, healer, poet, musician
• Born in what is now western Germany to a noble family. Became
a Benedictine nun at age of 16.
• In 1150 founded convent in Germany
• Used prominent position in Church to improve that of women
• Experienced visions and revelations that were recorded in
books-writer of theology, medicine, botany, and lives of the
Saints
• Musical works consisted of chants for religious services which
took place throughout the day in the convent.

18. Alleluia, o virga mediatrix
• Alleluia, o virga mediatrix(Sequentia)
• Alleluia, o virga mediatrix(Music for a Knight)

19. Alleluia, O Virga Mediatrix
Listening Guide

20. Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues)
• A morality play--dramatized allegory of Good vs. Evil struggling over the fate of
a single soul
• Written for dedication of convent church at Rupertsberg
• Plot centers around disputes between Satan and 16 virtues (e.g., Charity,
Obedience, Humility, Chastity, Knowledge of God, Discipline, Compassion,
Mercy, Victory, Discretion, Patience, Faith, Hope, Innocence, World Rejection,
Heavenly Love).
• Each virtue = 1 female singer
• Chorus of all virtues sings same melody monophonically (called unison
singing).
• Music was based on a florid style of liturgical plainchant.
• Rhythm--mostly free rhythm reflecting the long and short accents of the
words.
• Performers--nuns in a convent--the Virtues were presumed to be female at
that time.
• The Devil was presumed to be male--probably performed by the priest who
served the convent.

21. Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues)
• The Soul Fights Against the Devil and
Overcomes his Power

22. by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
Lecture Slides (end)
SECOND EDITION
THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING EDITION
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