Middle Ages Music

1277 Words3 Pages

Music in the Middle Ages The Middle Ages, also known as the medieval period, began around 450 A.D. with the fall of the Roman empire and lasted until 1450 A.D. , the rise of Renaissance. During the middle ages, the Catholic Church was one of the most powerful and influential institution in society; music was also centered around the church, thus, sacred music was the prevalent music. Much of the medieval music was vocal. In the early years of the medieval period, many music manuscripts do not indicate tempos, dynamics, instruments, nor rhythms. Nonetheless, the Middle Ages was one of the significant period through the history of music. Beginning with Gregorian chant, to the development of polyphonic music called organum, to secular music in the fourteenth century, the changes in musical style during the period lie the foundation of the traditions of the current western music. For over 1000 years, Gregorian chant was the official music of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant is a monophonic, one-line music that is sung in Latin by men without accompaniment. Its rhythm is known for its flexibility and free- flow because there are no meter notated in the music manuscripts to indicate the definite time value. The music is sung in a …show more content…

She was the first woman composer whose works have survived. One of her well-known work is O successores, one of the highly expressive example of Gregorian chant. It was originally composed to be sung by the nuns in Hildegard’s convent. This chant is notated as a single melodic line, without accompaniment. The melody is set to sing one to four notes per syllable, and only at the end, the final syllable is sung with many notes. This creates a sense of progression as it moves towards the end of the song. Hildegard’s chant has a larger range of pitch and more wide leaps, which creates a greater feeling of motion as the progresses to the climax near the

Open Document