Spotlights

Medieval Musical Examples

Early Medieval Examples

Anonymous: Haec dies [Gregorian Chant example from Easter Sunday] (c800)

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Haec_dies_chant.mp4

Performance Notes:
The Haec dies chant, written c800, is one of approximately 2000 liturgical melodies the became the musical foundation of early Christian church. It is monophonic and has an unmetered rhythm driven by the strong/weak accents of its Latin sacred text.

"Haec dies" refers to Easter ("this is THE day..."). Important words are set as melismas (many notes sung on a single syllable of text, to emphasize the word). The longest melisma is on the word "it", because is "let us be glad and rejoice in IT" refers to the Resurrection of Jesus.

[Translation]

This is the day which the Lord hath made;
Let us be glad and rejoice in it.
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good:
For His mercy endureth forever.

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Bernard de Ventadorn: Non es meravelha s'eu chan [Troubadour canso] (c1190)

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Ventadorn_Non_es_meravelha.mp4

Performance Notes:
Bernard de Ventadorn was was a prominent troubadour during the greatest age of troubadour poetry c1200. He is remembered for his popularization of the troubadour canso (French secular songs usually focused on chivalry or courtly love), establishing a poetic/musical model that was imitated throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity.

[Translation of first verse]
It's no wonder that I sing better than any other singer,
for I am the one whose heart is most strongly drawn towards love,
and the most obedient to Love's law.
Heart and body, intellect and instinct,
strength and power, all these have I engaged.
And the bridle steers me so strongly to love that I
pay no attention to anything else.

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Perotin: Sederunt principes [organum quadruplum] (c1200)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Perotin_Sederunt_Principes.mp4

Performance Notes:
Perotin was a leading figure in the development of early polyphony at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (c1200). He is most famous for the examples of organum that were attributed to him by scribes who made hand-copies of his music, and detailed by Anonymous IV (a famous writing by an anonymous student author who described Perotin's work nearly 75 years later).

"Organum" is a type of early polyphony that has a sacred chant sung in long-held unmetered notes in the lowest voice (called the "tenor"--which means "to hold"). One or more voice parts are added above the tenor sung in fast-moving metered rhythmic patterns reminiscent of the secular dance music of the day.

Sederunt principes is an example of organum quadruplum, because it has a tenor part and three upper voices in this simultaneous-sounding vertical design:

-4th voice ("Quadruplum" voice: untexted part sung to faster-moving rhythmic mode metrical pattern)
-3rd voice ("Triplum" voice: untexted part sung to faster-moving rhythmic mode metrical pattern)
-2nd voice ("Duplum" voice: untexted part sung to faster-moving rhythmic mode metrical pattern)
-Tenor voice (the sederunt principes chant on long-held notes)

Organum quadruplum were the most spectacular type of organum, and they were reserved for only very special occasions in the church year such the Christmas and Easter seasons. The text of Sederunt principes is a prayer about St. Stephen (the first martyr of the Christian church), whose festival day in the church year is the day after Christmas (December 26--the Feast of St. Stephen).

[Translation]
Princes sat and spoke against me; and sinners persecuted me: help me,
O Lord my God, for thy servant hath practiced thy commandments.
[Psalm] Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

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Later Medieval Examples:

Phillippe de Vitry: Garrit gallus-In nova fert [isorhythmic motet] (c1319)

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/DeVitry_Garrit_Gallus.mp4

Performance Notes:
Phillippe de Vitry is a famous French composer and theorist during the Ars Nova, known for his innovative and complex rhythmic notation.

Garrit Gallus-In Nova Fert is a 3-voice isorhythmic motet for unaccompanied voices (the title simply lists the first few French words of the top and middle voices). It is from a famous poetic/musical manuscript called the Roman de Fauvel, which through its lavish combination of Gervais de Bus's satirical poetry, the insertion of 169 musical pieces (including this one), 77 miniature color illustrations ("illuminations")makes a strong political statement about corruption by telling the story of a multi-colored horse that self-indulgently rises to power in the French royal court, where he becomes a symbol of royal deceit and abuse.

The text of Garrit Gallus infers that the righteous God-loving French Christians have been exiled symbolically from Gaul (France), just like the Jews were from their homeland by the Pharaoh in the Old Testament. Without their virtue to keep things in check, evil has taken its reign through corrupt, sinful leaders (dragons and foxes). De Vitry's motet is complex, using multiple texts being sung at one time, isorhythm, triplet vs. duple rhythms (which required a new notational system of red ink "coloration" to indicated the duple-rhythm sections ), and unusual harmonies.

[Translation]

TRIPLUM (top voice)
The rooster (Gaul) chatters with bitter weeping; indeed the whole flock mourns,
for it is stealthily being betrayed by the satrap even as it keeps watch.
And the fox, like a grave-robber, flourishing with the cunning of Belial,
reigns with the full consent of the lion himself. Alas, what anguish!
Behold how the family of Jacob once again flees from another Pharaoh:
no longer able, as before, to follow the path of the Jews, it weeps.
In the desert it is tortured by hunger, its arms and armour lack a helper.
If it cries out it will be despoiled; the voice of the wretched exiles,
near death, is harsh. O sad chattering of roosters!
Since the blindness of the lion is subject to the shadowy deceit of the treacherous fox,
whose arrogance encourages sin, you must rise up:
otherwise what is left of your honour slips away and will continue to slip away:
with only late avengers it will soon turn into villainy.

MOTETUS (middle voice)
My mind is bent to tell of bodies changed anew: that evil dragon
whom glorious Michael once conquered thoroughly
with the miraculous power of the cross, again is living, now fortified
with the grace of Absalom, gloating with the eloquence of Ulysses,
armed with the teeth of a wolf as a soldier in the army of Tersitis -
in fact changed into a fox.
Deprived of his sight by deceit, the lion is subject to this ruling fox,
who sucks the blood of lambs, sates himself with chickens, and never stops;
rather he thirsts on.
He comes to weddings with his hunting dogs.
Woe to chickens and woe to the blind lion;
but in the end, woe to the dragon when he must face Christ!

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Guillaume de Machaut: "Agnus Dei" from Messe de Notre Dame [Mass] (c1350)

--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Machaut_Agnus_Dei.mp4

Performance Notes:
Machaut was the most important composer of the late Medieval era. His Messe de Notre Dame was the first complete polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary (first to include a Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei). His musical style as representative of the French Ars Nova is highly complex both rhythmically and harmonically, with perfect intervals (unisons, octaves, fourth and fifths) being the norm, instead of imperfect thirds and sixths that are common from the Renaissance through the Romantic era). Each of the four voice parts is entirely independent. As heard in this video clip, this is an intense sound made by just four singers. This movement features a compositional technique called isorhythm, which from measures 31-46 has a repeating rhythmic pattern ("talea") and an independent repeating melody ("color"). Click here to see how isorhythm works in this movement.

[Translation]
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

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Francesco Landini: Non avrà ma' pietà [ballata] (c1389)--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Landini_Non_avra.mp4

Performance Notes:
Landini was the most prominent composer of the Middle Ages, and wrote approximately 140 Italian love songs (ballatas). His music is representative of the Italian late-Medieval Trecento style, which has a characteristic constantly-driving and syncopated 6/8 vs 3/4 feel in the upper voice (the "cantus"), set against the lowest voice (the "tenor" which is on long notes in a constant 3/4 though sometimes syncopated pattern). The middle voice (the "contratenor"--which means "against the tenor") was written last, and fills out the harmony as best it can. The tenor and contratenor parts are untexted and are supposed to be sung to the same words as the cantus voice, but sometimes they are played on instruments in modern recordings.

Landini is noted for his use of the so-called "Landini cadence," which in the cantus voice at most cadences goes melodically 7-6-1 (leading tone, to submediant, to tonic) instead of directly resolving the leading tone to the tonic as in later traditional tonal harmony does. This can be seen in the score excerpt in the cantus (upper voice) at the cadences of mm. 10-11, mm. 16-17, mm. 28-29, etc.)

[Translation, with the ballata ABbaA form marked in brackets]
[A] She will never have mercy, this lady of mine,
if you do not see to it, Love,
that she is certain of my great ardor.

[B] If she knew how much pain I bear—
for honesty’s sake concealed in my mind—

[b] only for her beauty, other than which
nothing gives comfort to a grieving soul,

[a] perhaps by her would be extinguished in me
the flames which seem to arouse in
me from day to day more pain.

[A] She will never have mercy, this lady of mine,
if you do not see to it, Love,
that she is certain of my great ardor.

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Baude Cordier: Belle, Bonne, Sage [chanson] (c1420)--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Baude_Cordier_Belle_Bone_Sage.mp4

Performance Notes:
Baude Cordier was a highly expressive composer who extended the late Medieval French style into the experimental Ars Subtilior style of the late 1300s-early 1400s. One of his most famous love songs, Belle, Bonne, Sage, is a love song written in the shape of a heart , and features new experiments with rhythm, melody and notation (notice the red "coloration" to depict a duple instead of triple subdivision of the beat).

[Translation]
Lovely, good, wise, gentle and noble one,
On this day that the year becomes new
I make you a gift of a new song
Within my heart, which presents itself to you
Do not be reluctant to accept this gift
I beg you, my sweet damsel.

(Lovely, good, wise...)

For I love you so well that I have no other purpose,
And I know well that you alone are she
Who is famous for being called by all:
Flower of beauty, excellent above all others.

(Lovely, good, wise...)

_______________

Transition to Early Renaissance in England:

John Dunstable: Quam Pulchra Es [motet] (c1430)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Dunstable_Quam_Pulchra_Es.mp4

Performance Notes:
In the early 1400s, Dunstaple was noted for his new, highly-triadic sound that continental European composers called the "Contenance Angloise" (the English sound). His Latin sacred motet Quam Pulchra Es is a blending of forward-looking triadic sounds that eventually cadence on perfect (hollower-sounding) Medieval sonorities. The text may sound sensuous, but it is from the Bible (Song of Solomon/Old Testament):

[Translation: Text in Latin from the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament of The Bible]
How beautiful thou art, and how graceful, my dearest in delights.
Your stature I would compare to a palm tree, and your breasts to clusters of grapes.
Your head is like Mount Carmel, your neck just like a tower of ivory.

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Medieval Musical Examples