Religious Music in the Middle Ages

Religious Music in the Middle Ages

by Jesús Martínez Cánovas

​INTRODUCTION

Music was very important in the Christian Church all around Europe.

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The Mass and other religious services were sung instead of spoken, always in Latin, the official language of the Christian Church.

​In the 6^th century Pope Gregor I (540-604) ordered to compile the different religious songs that have been created in Europe by anonymous monks over time because there were lots of different songs with different lyrics in so many places that had been learnt by heart.

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​The Pope ordered to rewrite the music and the text in different codices with the intention of gathering the most representative Christian songs in a main chant: the Gregorian Chant, also known as a plainchant. This vast repertoire of chants is considered the oldest music known and written, nowadays 

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Multiple Choice

Religious services in the Middle Ages were 

• spoken instead of  sung 

• spoken instead of played by instruments

• sung instead of spoken

• played with instruments instead of sung

Multiple Choice

The beginning of Gregorian Chant started in the

• 7th century

• 6th century

• 5th century

• 8th century

Multiple Choice

Pope 'Gregor I' ordered to

• compile religious songs around Italy

• compose religious songs around Europe

• compose religious songs around Italy

• compile religious songs around Europe

Multiple Choice

The Pope 'Gregor i' had the intention of 

• writing by himself all religious songs in codices

• gathering all religious songs in some codices

• learning religious songs to monks

• writing the lyrics of religious songs

Multiple Choice

That compiled group of songs has been called Gregorian Chant or

• Choral songs

• Plainsongs

• Church Songs

• Plainchant

​MUSICAL NOTATION

The earliest notation system used symbols called Neumes to indicate tone-movements and relative duration within each syllable but not the specific pitches of individual notes

Later, they decided to include a line which represented one sound; thus, the neumes above the line were higher than that sound and the ones below were lower than the sound of reference

After this first line, they decided to add more lines representing more specific sounds so that they created a system formed by four red lines.

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From the 11th century the square notation on a four-line staff was used as the most common way of writing Gregorian Chant.

Multiple Choice

The first symbols used to write music were called

• Numes

• Notes

• Neumes

• Muenes

Multiple Choice

Did the neumes indicate specific sounds?

• YES

• NO

Multiple Choice

The most common type of writing Gregorian Chant was

• on a 4 lines staff and with a square notation

• on a 5 lines staff and with a square notation

• on a 4 lines staff and with a circle notation

• on a 5 lines staff and with a circle notation

​CHARACTERISTICS OF GREGORIAN CHANT

1. It is a capella, that is, vocal music without instrumental accompaniment and in a monophonic texture, that is, all singers are singing the same melody at the same time

​CHARACTERISTICS OF GREGORIAN CHANT

2. It is a religious chant, sung by men with the intention of enhancing the text and praying so the ideal place for listening to this music is a monastery or a cathedral.

​CHARACTERISTICS OF GREGORIAN CHANT

3. The lyrics are always in Latin and from the 11th century it used the square notation on a four-line staff

​CHARACTERISTICS OF GREGORIAN CHANT

4. All songs are anonymous (we do not know who composed the songs) and the rhythm is free. (there is no meter signature and music depends on the rhythm of the words).

Multiple Choice

Gregorian chant was sung 

• with instruments

• without instruments

• by men and women

• by women

Multiple Choice

The texture of Gregorian chant is

• Polyphonic

• Homophonic

• Monophonic

• Accompanied melody texture

Multiple Choice

Gregorian chant had the purpose of

• entertaining monks in the monasteries

• enhancing the religious lyrics in castles

• entertaining people in the squares

• enhancing the lyrics and praise to God

Multiple Choice

The rhythm of the music in the Gregorian Chant

• depended on the rhythm of lyrics

• depended on the rhythm of instruments

• did not depend on anything

• depended on the place they played

​STYLES OF GREGORIAN CHANT

​Syllabic style. Each syllable in the text has one or two musical notes:

​STYLES OF GREGORIAN CHANT

​Neumatic style. Each syllable in the text has three or four musical notes:

​STYLES OF GREGORIAN CHANT

​Melismatic style. Each syllable in the text has more than five musical notes:

Multiple Choice

This is an example of ______________style

• neumatic

• syllabic

• melismatic

• monophonic

Stream Gregorian Chant - Benedictine Monks - Church Music by lovagdaniel | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

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