5 - 14/15 century

Music at Church: Plainchant

This repertory of music is the collection of melodies designated religious texts to be sung at services.

The early Church condemned sensuality, and with it anything that suggested dancing, such as meter or musical instruments.

The chant is call ‘Gregorian’ after the famous pope and Church father Gregory I (c. 540-604) assembled adn standardized all the chants required for the Church services of his time.

Genres

Alleluia, psalm, prayer, etc..

Characteristics

Plainchant employs the modal system, called the medieval modes. It is called ‘plain’ because it is unaccompanied, monophonic music, without fixed rhythm or meter.

The Evolution of Polyphony

Polyphony was seen as a way of embellishing plainchants and is often improvised at that time.

Organum

This is the earliest type of polyphony. A.D. 1000- A.D. 1200. Important features are:

First a strict accompany is introduced, but the embellishment gets more independent with its own melody.
(Radical change,) two counterpoint were added to the chant.
(Radical) definite rhythms controlled by meter were introduced, each melody has its own rhythm.
The chant, became often the sustained notes or drones, can not be recognized a an actual melody. The plainchant is an abstract basis for the ecstatic upper-voice melodies, still the main focus of interest.

Later Medieval Polyphony

At that time, polyphonic music gradually distanced from Church services. The upper lines were given own words. This sort of polyphony is called motet.