Slide 1

Concise History of Western Music 5th edition

Barbara Russano Hanning

Chapter

3 Polyphony through the Thirteenth Century

Prelude 1050–1300 economic growth • increasing trade and commerce throughout western Europe • growing population, modern cities develop • cultural revival, music and the arts  ancient Greek writings translated into Latin  encouraged development of music theory

• • • •

universities founded: Paris, Oxford, and Bologna large Romanesque churches erected donors funded new monasteries, convents Scholasticism

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Prelude (cont’d) 1050–1300 economic growth (cont’d)  reconcile classical Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine  Roger Bacon and St. Thomas Aquinas make contributions

• mid-twelfth century, Gothic style

Polyphonic music, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris • polyphony: added voices sing together in independent parts  heightened grandeur of chant

Prelude (cont’d) Polyphonic music, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (cont’d) • written polyphony, inaugurated four concepts in Western music    

counterpoint: combination of multiple independent lines harmony: regulation of simultaneous sounds centrality of notation composition as distinct from performance

• monophony remained principal medium • polyphonic music grew out of improvisational practice

Prelude (cont’d) Polyphonic music, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (cont’d) • development of organum  polyphonic elaboration of plainchant

• new genre, motet  breakthrough in rhythmic notation

Early Organum Organum, ninth through eleventh centuries • described in anonymous treatise, Musica enchiriadis • parallel organum  chant melody is principal voice  organal voice moves in exact parallel motion 4th or 5th below (NAWM 14a)  may be further duplicated at octave (NAWM 14b)

• oblique organum  adjustments made to avoid tritones  wider variety of intervals, dissonance

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Early Organum (cont’d) Organum, ninth through eleventh centuries (cont’d) • contrary and oblique motion     

predominated in eleventh century voices grew more independent parts often cross organal voice above chant consonant intervals: unison, octave, 4th, and 5th

• eleventh-century polyphony  troped plainchant sections of Mass Ordinary (Kyrie and Gloria)  parts of Mass Proper (Tracts and Sequences)

Early Organum (cont’d) Organum, ninth through eleventh centuries (cont’d)  responsories of the Office and Mass (Graduals and Alleluias)  trained singers improvised solo portions, alternated with monophonic chant by full choir

• Alleluia Justus ut palma (NAWM 15)  instructions preserved in Ad organum faciendum (On making organum, ca. 1100)  new style of organum, more rhythmic and melodic independence

Early Organum (cont’d) twelfth-century organum • Aquitainian organum: free and florid  developed in Aquitaine, southwestern France

• organum, organum duplum (“double organum”), or organum purum (“pure organum”)  lower voice (existing chant or original melody) sustains long notes  chant became elongated into series of single-note “drones”  lower voice called tenor, Latin tenere (“to hold”)  upper voice sings decorative phrases of varying lengths  upper voice moved independently

Early Organum (cont’d) twelfth-century organum (cont’d) • discantus (discant) style  movement is primarily note against note

• Leoninus praised as best singer or composer of organum, optimus organista • Perotinus praised as best maker of discants, discantor • Jubilemus, exultemus (NAWM 16), 2-voice Aquitainian organum  florid organum, melismas of three to fifteen notes  discant passages: one to three notes

Early Organum (cont’d) twelfth-century organum (cont’d)  most note groups begin on perfect consonance  phrases end on octaves or unisons, heighten sense of closure

• both styles: lower voice holds principal melody, tenor

Notation • score notation, one part above the other • phrases marked off by short vertical strokes • polyphonic complexities create need for rhythmic notation • rhythmic modes devised in northern France

Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century Parisian polyphony even more ornate style • creators associated with Cathedral of Notre Dame  Leoninus (fl. 1150s–ca. 1201), priest and poet-musician  Perotinus (fl. 1200–1230), probably trained as singer under Leoninus  both may have studied at University of Paris

• repertory sung for more than a century • primarily composed in writing and read from notation

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Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Magnus Liber Organi (“great book of polyphony”) • compilation attributed to Leoninus • collection of 2-voice settings of solo portions of responsorial chants  Graduals and Alleluias of the Mass, and Office responsories

• different settings for same passages of chant • includes organa for two, three, and four voices

Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Magnus Liber Organi (“great book of polyphony”) (cont’d) • musicians freely altered and added to the collection

Viderunt omnes (NAWM 17), by Leoninus, Gradual for Christmas Day • responsorial chant: polyphonic music performed by soloists, choir sings in unison

Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Viderunt omnes (NAWM 17), by Leoninus, Gradual for Christmas Day (cont’d) • plainchant, organum, and discant heard side by side • opening section on “Viderunt”  chant melody in tenor, series of drones  upper voice sings expansive melismas  notations suggests free, unmeasured rhythm

Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Viderunt omnes (NAWM 17), by Leoninus, Gradual for Christmas Day (cont’d)  improvisational practice suggested by use of dissonances

• discant passage on “Dominus”  long melisma in original chant  created piece of manageable size

Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Clausula: self-contained section of an organum • discant style, more consonant than organa, short phrases, more lively pacing • substitute clausulae: new clausulae replace original setting of setting of chant • manuscript includes ten clausulae for “Dominus” from Viderunt omnes (NAWM 18) • repetition and structure:

Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Clausula: self-contained section of an organum (cont’d)  tenor repeats rhythmic motive  some clausulae tenors repeat melody  repetitions create coherence; becomes significant in thirteenth and fourteenth century

Perotinus “the Great” • Perotinus and his contemporaries created 3- and 4-voice organa

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Notre Dame Polyphony: Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century (cont’d) Perotinus “the Great” (cont’d)  organum duplum, triplum (3-voice organum), quadruplum  voices above named duplum (second voice), triplum, quadruplum

• Viderunt omnes (1198) (NAWM 19), 4-voice organum  upper voices use modal rhythm  long, unmeasured notes in tenor  discant passage on “Dominus,” longest section

The Motet New genre, early thirteenth century • originated from troped repertory of clausuale • clausula became separate piece  independent composition in melismatic polyphony

• Latin or French words added to upper voice • borrowed chant material in tenor  tenor known as cantus firmus

• some motets intended for nonliturgical use  upper voices have vernacular texts  tenor may have been played on instruments  compound titles indicate first words of each voice

The Motet (cont’d) Early motets • Factum est salutare/Dominus (NAWM 21a)  based on substitue clausula from Magnus liber organi  text is trope on original chant text  elaborated meaning: words drawn from a psalm referring back to original chant  ingenious composite artwork, multiple layers of borrowing and meaning

Versatility of motets • became genre independent of church performance • tenor lost its connection to the liturgy

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The Motet (cont’d) Versatility of motets (cont’d) • composers reworked existing motets  different text for duplum in Latin or French  not necessarily linked to chant text, often secular topic

 added a third voice to those already present  gave additional parts texts of their own: double or triple motet  deleted original duplum, wrote one or more new voices

• motets from scratch using Notre Dame clausula  new rhythmic pattern, new voices added above it

The Motet (cont’d) Versatility of motets (cont’d) • Fole acostumance/Dominus (NAWM 21b)  tenor same as Factum est salutare/Dominus, stated twice  substitutes new, more quickly moving duplum  doubled length, faster motion accommodate longer secular French poem  intended for entertainment

• Super te/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus (NAWM 21c)  unchanged tenor from a clausula  first half of chant melisma on “Dominus” with different modal

The Motet (cont’d) Versatility of motets (cont’d)  two upper voices: first and second halves of Latin poem on birth of Christ  upper parts rarely rest together, or with tenor  music moves forward in unbroken stream

• Franconian motet    

each upper voice has distinctive rhythm no longer conform to rhythmic modes more rhythmic freedom and variety among and within voices triplum bears a longer text, faster-moving melody, many short notes  layered texture

The Motet (cont’d) Versatility of motets (cont’d) • De ma dame vient/Dieus, comment porroie/Omnes, by Adam de la Halle (ca. 1240– 1288?) (NAWM 22), Franconian motet    

upper voices differ in rhythm, reinforce contrast of texts triplum lover’s complaints duplum: woman’s thoughts of him slow-moving tenor: repeats melody of “omnes” from Gradual Viderunt omnes twelve times

The Polyphonic Conductus Notre Dame composers and others in France and England • 2- to 4-voice settings of rhymed, metrical, strophic Latin poems  sacred or serious topic

• Ave virgo virginum (NAWM 20) • differs from Notre Dame polyphony  tenor: newly composed  all voices sing text together in same rhythm  conductus style: nearly homorhythmic quality

 mostly syllabic text setting

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TIMELINE

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The Polyphonic Conductus (cont’d) Notre Dame composers and others in France and England (cont’d) • caudae (“tails”): melismatic passages at beginning, end, before important cadences

Postlude Rise of polyphony parallels development of monophonic song • • • •

began as manner of performance practice of oral composition developed into written tradition reconstruction from treatises and notated examples

Notre Dame repertory • expanded through troping  combinations of new melodies and texts added to or layered above monophonic lines

Postlude (cont’d) Notre Dame repertory (cont’d) • organum and motet genres established by late twelfth century  musicians elaborated on chant tenors

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Concise History of Western Music, 5th edition

This concludes the Lecture Slide Set for Chapter 3

by Barbara Russano Hanning

© 2014 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc

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