Medieval Music

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Term Paper Title	Medieval Music
# of Words	1202
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.81

Medieval Music
Music of the Middle Ages made great advancements through the centuries, which many
are still evident today.
The Christian Church effected the development of music greatly during the middle ages.
The first  major type of music of this time was chanting.  “The early Christians inherited the
Jewish chants of synagogues.”(Bishop-324)  Chants didn’t have constant rhythm, every note was
about the same length. They had only one melody ,usually in the major key of C.  All the singers
sang the same notes together, this is called monophonic. Chants became an significant part of the
church service, they were sung throughout the mass.  These first chants were just sung by the
congregation, later on choirs took over.
“Roman Chant became known as Gregorian chant after Pope Gregory I, the great, who
may have composed some of the melodies and who actively encouraged an orderly, ritualized
use of music by the church.”(MS Encarta-1)  He also supported  the schola cantorum, a singing
school, to teach boys how to chant.
During the ninth century many musicians began to use more than unaccompanied
melody.  A new type of chant was formed called organom.  Organum was two octaves of
chanting simultaneously.  “Organum was important to the history of music, because it was the
first step toward the development of the musical texture known as polyphony (multipart music)
the extensive use of which is the most distinctive feature of Western music.” (MS Encarta-1)
Around the twelfth century Organum was mostly being developed in France, but the English did
have their own version called gymel.
If musicians were to chant many pitches at the same time, they needed a more accurate
musical notation.  Before this, the notation being used wasn’t precise at all.  “Music notation was
originally merely a set of small marks, a sort of short hand, written above the words to indicate
the rise and fall of the voice and changes in emphasis, without specifying the duration of the
notes or the exact pitch.”(Bishop-325) The new way of writing musical notes was black squares
and diamonds attached to little poles on a staff of four or five lines, very similar to how we write
music today.
Music, during the fourteenth century, made great changes in style.  “The new style was
called ars nova (Latin, “new art”) by one of it’s leading composers, the French prelate Philippe
de Vitry.  The resulting music was more complex than any previously written, reflecting a new
spirit in Europe that emphas...

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