During the medieval ages the most popular music: monophonic chants, gregorian chants, and plainsong. However, these are highly linked and should not be interpreted as different styles because the styles make up each other.
Monks often sang during church processions.
Served as an example for music to be used for means of entertainment during the medieval & renaissance period.
One of the ways for monks and members of the monasteries to entertain themselves and express there religous spirits.
Music was limited during medieval ages due to the high costs for parchment, lack of writing skills, and length of time it took to write the music.
>
* Music was often very religious but in certain instances had no relation to the church.
The chant early in the medieval ages was extremly popular most commonly in western areas, later it became known simply as the gregorian chant.
Almost all of music was song and very little was just instrument solos.
>
* Often music for mass, office, requiem mass, & most religion procedings.
One of witnesses to the music was Egeria and it has been recorded in her detailed list of her pilgrimage.
>
* Was often characterized with mathematics and learning.
Kept monasteries interested because it was one of their many passions.
>
* The 9th century library at Reichenau, had work from Agustine, Isdorus, Cassiodurus, and Boethius which were all early forms of chants.
"In the monasteries, churches, and cathedrals, music accompanied and amplified the Christian liturgy."
Secular music provided entertainment to communities strucken with poverty.
>
* Allowed wealthy families to enjoy themselves in their own quarters.
>
"In an age of mass illiteracy, popular literature was transmitted orally: the most popular works of literature were set to music and performed publically."
"Music was a profoundly democratizing experience, and part of the life of every level of society."
"Gregorian Chant is the earliest known categorization of sacred song. Credit for this musical form is commonly given to Pope Gregory I (540-604), but he may well have a less of a role in its discovery than previously thought. Originating in Rome, this sacred music was carried throughout the Christian world by the spread of Christianity in the early Middle Ages. Gregorian chant preserved the Greek diatonic modes, and its purest form was monodic. It could be performed by either a soloist, a soloist and a choir, or two alternating choirs. Originally, the chants were preserved orally, but they began to be documented in liturgical manuscripts from approximately the end of the eighth century onwards."
During the medieval ages there was no form of musical notation which was later invented by the Greeks.
However, later symbols were placed over the letters and signs in chants to communicate the pitch of the singer's voice.
>
* "Individual notes were drawn as a dot or a line, but if several notes were to be sung to one syllable, they were drawn as a connected group (a neume). This system served only to remind singers of the general trend of the piece, and was not designed to allow sight-reading of unknown melodies."
"The neume system was later developed into a more sophisticated musical notation by the monk Guido d'Arezzo (ca. 980-1050). Guido was single-handedly responsible for some of the most revolutionary developments in the history of music, such as the development of the stave, with lines and spaces representing relative pitches; letters on the stave to denote exact pitch (which would later become the modern clef); and a sight-singing system. His influential treatise, Mikrologus, formulated his theories on such matters as intervals, modes, and polyphony, and led to his immense fame in the Middle Ages"
- During the medieval ages the most popular music: monophonic chants, gregorian chants, and plainsong. However, these are highly linked and should not be interpreted as different styles because the styles make up each other.
- Monks often sang during church processions.
- Served as an example for music to be used for means of entertainment during the medieval & renaissance period.
- One of the ways for monks and members of the monasteries to entertain themselves and express there religous spirits.
- Music was limited during medieval ages due to the high costs for parchment, lack of writing skills, and length of time it took to write the music.
>* Music was often very religious but in certain instances had no relation to the church.
- The chant early in the medieval ages was extremly popular most commonly in western areas, later it became known simply as the gregorian chant.
- Almost all of music was song and very little was just instrument solos.
>* Often music for mass, office, requiem mass, & most religion procedings.
- One of witnesses to the music was Egeria and it has been recorded in her detailed list of her pilgrimage.
>* Was often characterized with mathematics and learning.
- Kept monasteries interested because it was one of their many passions.
>* The 9th century library at Reichenau, had work from Agustine, Isdorus, Cassiodurus, and Boethius which were all early forms of chants.
- "In the monasteries, churches, and cathedrals, music accompanied and amplified the Christian liturgy."
- Secular music provided entertainment to communities strucken with poverty.
>* Allowed wealthy families to enjoy themselves in their own quarters.
>
- "In an age of mass illiteracy, popular literature was transmitted orally: the most popular works of literature were set to music and performed publically."
- "Music was a profoundly democratizing experience, and part of the life of every level of society."
- "Gregorian Chant is the earliest known categorization of sacred song. Credit for this musical form is commonly given to Pope Gregory I (540-604), but he may well have a less of a role in its discovery than previously thought. Originating in Rome, this sacred music was carried throughout the Christian world by the spread of Christianity in the early Middle Ages. Gregorian chant preserved the Greek diatonic modes, and its purest form was monodic. It could be performed by either a soloist, a soloist and a choir, or two alternating choirs. Originally, the chants were preserved orally, but they began to be documented in liturgical manuscripts from approximately the end of the eighth century onwards."
- During the medieval ages there was no form of musical notation which was later invented by the Greeks.
- However, later symbols were placed over the letters and signs in chants to communicate the pitch of the singer's voice.
>* "Individual notes were drawn as a dot or a line, but if several notes were to be sung to one syllable, they were drawn as a connected group (a neume). This system served only to remind singers of the general trend of the piece, and was not designed to allow sight-reading of unknown melodies."
Sample Chant Here
*Images of early gregorian chants