Characteristics of Medieval Music
For many, the use of the word medieval conjures up a time of extreme poverty,
war and plague with little in the way of redeeming features. Far from the dark images offered by
Hollywood films, the Medieval times were rich with invention, discovery and creative insight.
The Medieval period can broadly be thought of as spanning the late twelfth century,
until the beginning of the Renaissance in around the mid-fourteen hundreds. It is possible to
see the medieval period beginning after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century.
Much of the music from this artistic period emanates from the churches of Europe.
At the same time it is through the music of Troubadours that offers us a secular balance.
It is from these traveling musicians that we have some of the first evidence of notated
music outside the high walls of the churches and monasteries. We refer to the music of
the Troubadours as secular and the music that was composed for religious purposes, sacred.
Sacred music focused on the setting of Latin text to the Mass. The music did not take center
stage and was a servant of the sacred text. Music of the early Medieval period began as
a single line of notes, or monodic, that was defined as a plainchant or Gregorian chant.
The music does not distract from the importance of the sacred text.
It was sung unaccompanied and only by men.
As sacred music developed we began to hear two lines of music that sound in parallel.
The lines were composed with the natural ranges of men’s voices in mind (the bass and the tenor),
giving the characteristic sound of a perfect 5th (for example; C – G).
This eventually developed over the coming three hundred years,
into Renaissance polyphony that literally translates as - many voices.
In Medieval music, ecclesiastical orders were quite clear about how a composer could work.
Composers carefully highlighted important words through the use of melisma,
or more than one note per syllable. This subtly drew the attention of both listener and performer.
Hildegard von Bingen (1009-1179) is one of the composers who wonderfully demonstrates these
characteristics without attracting unwanted comments from the Church.
One of her most famous works is the Ordo Virtutum, composed around 1115.
It is an experimental, melodic and remarkable composition.
Other notable Medieval composers include Leoninus and Perotin, both French composers at the Church
of Notre Dame; whose works are directly attributed to the textural development of Medieval music.
They meticulously based their original works on the past,
but composed additional melodies that often ran in parallel.
Other composers who made a significant contribution to the world of Medieval
music include; Guillaume de Machaut and Philippe de Vitry.
Secular Medieval music was dominated by the traveling entertainer,
a musician called the Troubadour. These men originated mostly from Southern France,
the Trouveres from the northern parts of the country. Both sung songs of heroes from
ancient times, the tales of the crusades, love songs and songs of religious nature.
They were immensely popular with nobility and peasantry alike.
Composing intricate, poetic songs and traveling freely in France and Northern Italy.
The songs of the Troubadours can be broadly divided into three groups of work as follows:
the canso (love songs), sirventes (moral or religious songs) and the tensos
(lyrical songs where two opposing singers take it in turn to sing their stanzas).
Often songs were sung unaccompanied. But these tenacious musicians also
played a variety of portable instruments that are characteristically Medieval.
These include harps and lyres, lutes and guitars alongside wind and percussion instruments.
Early flutes and trumpets were popular but in a much less sophisticated form.
Double-reed instruments like the crumhorn, shawm and the early version of the oboe were common.
Percussion was hugely important to the Medieval musician and included drums,
bells and tambourines to bring rhythmic vitality to the songs of the Troubadours.
From the violence of the Dark Ages, the Medieval times brought music forward in
ways that laid the foundations for all Western Classical music.
The work of so many Medieval composers that has survived a millennium,
still resonates with us today and offers us a window into a world of astonishing variety.