Plainsong and the Monophonic Tradition

views updated

Plainsong and the Monophonic Tradition

MUSIC
Sources for Medieval
Instrumental Performance

In the medieval music manuscripts that still exist today, there are very few examples of music intended for instrumental performance. The small amount of music written for instruments that has come down to us consists of the following:

The Robertsbridge Codex (English) from c. 1370: a total of six compositions consisting of two-part arrangements of dances, motets, and a hymn, possibly intended for keyboard performance.
The Faenza Codex (Italian) from c. 1430: approximately fifty, mostly two-part arrangements of secular songs, plus a few dances and sacred pieces. It may have been intended for keyboard or lute duets.
The Buxheimer manuscript (German) from c. 1470: over 250 two- and three-part pieces for keyboard, consisting of a few dances, some preludes, and many arrangements of sacred and secular pieces for organ.
A total of 45 pieces, mostly monophonic, known or suspected to be dances, and found in manuscripts from Italian, French, English, and Czech sources, including estampies, carols, and saltarellos.

Origins of Plainchant.

Music can be easily divided into two large categories according to how many parts are performed simultaneously—that is, monophony and polyphony. Monophonic music, which consists of a single line whether performed by a soloist or by many performers in unison, is the oldest tradition of European music and one shared with all other cultures. At the beginning of the Carolingian period, the music of the Christian church was a monophonic type called plain-chant, a style of music that was originally adopted in the first and second centuries from the traditions of a number of other religious sects—mainly, but not exclusively, Judaism. In the early centuries this repertory was passed on orally, growing and adapting as Christianity and its ceremonies gradually evolved. The name "Gregorian Chant" is often used for this music, based on the erroneous belief that it was composed by Pope Gregory the Great in the seventh century. It is true that some of the chant comes from his era, and Gregory probably had a hand in its organization and promotion. But chants continued to be composed throughout the later centuries of the Middle Ages, and therefore it has recently become the custom to refer to the entire corpus as plainchant (or chant). Chants range from the fairly simple, which involve only a few different pitches and assign a single note to each syllable, to elaborate melodies with large ranges of notes and dozens of ornate melodic passages for a single syllable. Some chants are performed by a soloist, some by the entire chant choir (or the entire monastery), and some alternate between soloist and choir. They occur in several principal styles.

SINGING OF PSALMS

introduction: Psalms were sung to formulas that allowed for expansion and contraction to accommodate the varied lengths of the verses. There was a different formula for each of the eight modes. The example below shows the formula for Mode 1, where a = the opening phrase; b = the reciting tone; c = the internal phrase ending; and d = the closing phrase. The application of the formula, shown for the first verse of Psalm 125, "In convertendo Dominus," shows how each syllable of the psalm is matched to one note in the opening, internal, and closing musical phrases, while all the remaining syllables of the verse are chanted on a single reciting tone.

Psalms and Antiphons.

Psalms are sung to relatively elementary music with a single note for each syllable. This music usually involves no more than four or five different pitches, with the majority of each phrase of text chanted on a single note, known as the reciting tone (see Modes). The remainder of the phrase, its beginning and ending words, are sung to simple formulae specified by the mode itself. Since the psalm verses are all in prose lines of different lengths, the reciting tone can easily be adjusted to the length of each verse. When performed during the daily office, the singing of a psalm involved the entire monastic choir divided into two groups, each group alternately singing one of the two balanced phrases that make up the dozens of verses in each psalm. Antiphons, on the other hand, are usually quite melodic, with a somewhat wider range and more frequent variation of pitch, reflecting their performance by the entire choir. They are found in a number of different places in the Mass and office liturgies, often framing (that is, preceding and following) a psalm verse. An introit (entrance song), for example, would repeat a single antiphon in alternation with a succession of psalm verses, resulting in a performance that could be graphed as: Antiphon; Psalm verse 1; Antiphon; Psalm Verse 2; Antiphon; etc.

Hymns and Responsories.

Hymns involve poetic texts with regular meter. Their musical construction, therefore, involves matching words to musical phrases, which are composed to fit all of the lines of the first verse of text and intended to be repeated for all successive verses. They are melodic but not overly complex or ornate, and are sung by the entire choir. In contrast, responsories are the most elaborate of all chants, and their music is divided between a soloist and the choir, with highly ornate passages throughout. Responsories are used in a number of the Office Hours, and for the Gradual and Alleluia in the Mass. One responsorial chant, the Mass Alleluia, is a rather special case because it includes a long, rhapsodic melodic section on the final "a" in Alleluia, sung by the choir. The extended melody is called the jubulus, and it was originally intended to be an expression of pure, wordless joy. After the ninth century the jubulus was frequently replaced by a new composition with a text, known as a Sequence (see Additions to the Sacred Repertory, below).

AN EXAMPLE OF A RESPONSORY

introduction: Responsories are the most elaborate of all chants. They can be found in a number of the Office Hours and were also composed for the Gradual and Alleluia in the Mass. The music is divided between a soloist and the choir, with highly ornate passages throughout, as shown in the example of the beginning section of a verse shown below.

Mass.

Central to the Christian demonstration of faith is the ceremony of the Mass, which includes the Communion service, a reenactment of the Last Supper. The ceremony itself evolved slowly over the centuries; various prayers and events were added, subtracted, and revised, reaching its present form only in the mid-sixteenth century following the Council of Trent. During the late Middle Ages the Mass included approximately twenty prayers and readings, half of which were spoken and half sung. The texts include some that remain the same throughout the year, known as the Ordinary items, others that change depending on the liturgical season (for example, Christmastime, Easter), and some, known as the Proper, that change each day and are particular to the saint being celebrated on that date (for example, St. Stephen is celebrated on 26 December, St. John the Apostle on 27 December, and so on). Of the many sung parts of the Mass, it is to five parts of the Ordinary that composers devoted most of their attention during the late Middle Ages. In the order in which they occur in the service the items are:

Kyrie elieson—"Lord have mercy," a ninefold invocation for mercy;
Gloria—"Glory to God in the Highest," a celebration of the glory of God (omitted during the forty days of mourning preceding Easter);
Credo—"I believe in one God," a declaration of the essential beliefs of the Christian faith;
Sanctus—"Holy, Holy, Holy," the cry of the multitudes when Jesus entered Jerusalem;
Agnus Dei—"Lamb of God," a plea for personal peace.

Office Hours.

In addition to the Mass, the clergy observe eight additional daily prayer rituals at various hours of each day, known as the Office or the Hours, beginning shortly after midnight and lasting until evening. In the monasteries, when it is time for each of the Hours, all of the monks stop whatever they are doing and gather in the Chapel to pray and chant together. Priests not part of a monastic community simply read the prayers to themselves. Most of the Hours have prayers that are sung, including antiphons, psalms, responsories, and hymns. An outline of Matins, the most important of the Hours, will provide an idea of the structure of the service and its contents:

Introduction: Deus in adiutorium meum intende (dialogue chant), Psalm 94 with antiphon, hymn
Nocturn I: three psalms with antiphons, three responsories.
Nocturn II: three psalms with antiphons, three responsories
Nocturn III: three psalms with antiphons, three responsories
Conclusion: Te Deum (hymn), Benedicamus Domino (dismissal)

All five sections in Matins involve the chanting of psalms: an introduction and conclusion, both of which remain the same each day, and three central sections known as Nocturns. The importance of the Psalms to the services is apparent from the fact that the services in monasteries are constructed so that all 150 can be sung each week.

Not all of the eight Offices are as elaborate as Matins, but it can be seen that a very large portion of a medieval monk's day was spent in singing.