A History of Early Western Music: From Psalms to Polyphony
Early Music Practices
The psalms were probably performed responsorially, meaning a soloist sang the verses, with a choir or congregation singing the refrain, such as “Alleluia.” Another practice was antiphony, in which two groups of choirs sang alternating psalm verses.
Gregorian Music (4th-9th Centuries)
The early, monophonic liturgical music in this early period of official Christianity didn’t exist in the form of one unified style. From the 6th century, the Roman Rite became dominant and normative due to papal policy. Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine to England in 597 to establish the Roman Rite there. In the 8th century, the Roman songs became widespread across the kingdom of the Franks, and a “hybrid style” of the Gallican variant emerged. It was to be given the name “Gregorian” after Pope Gregory I.
The Mass
The term “missa” or mass comes from the final words of the Eucharist ceremony: “Ite, missa est.” There are two sung parts: the ordinarium and the proprium. The parts of the ordinarium stay the same in every celebration of the mass, whereas the proprium changes depending on the day, feast, or ritual, like Christmas, mass for the dead (or requiem), or Easter. The structure is still used today. The ordinarium includes: Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est. The proprium includes: The introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion.
In the text setting, the Introit, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei were neumatic (between 2-10 notes for each syllable), whereas the Kyrie and Offertory often contained melismatic passages (+10 notes per syllable). Psalms, hymns, Glorias, readings from the Bible, and prayers were performed syllabically.
Guillaume Machaut was the first to compose a polyphonic cyclic mass. His cycle had four voices and included the fixed parts of an ordinary mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. In the 15th century, Guillaume Dufay used the cantus firmus mass, which could be derived from spiritual or profane music (e.g., “L’homme armé”). Later, Johannes Ockeghem used techniques like the crab and proportional canons. The contrapuntal tours of this time can be found in his freely composed masses. Then, with Josquin des Prez, appeared the paraphrase mass, where the melody begins to infiltrate the other voices and is not exactly copied but played around with, adapted, varied, and “paraphrased.” It is not an abstract foundation that is difficult to perceive but an audible, recognizable thematic musical core, like Missa Pange Lingua, which also features an imitation technique. There were other types of tenor masses like the canon mass and parody mass.
Polyphonic Music
Polyphonic music features simultaneous parts that differ from each other, as described in the music manual Musica Enchiriadis. Organum was used for this form of polyphonic singing, meaning “something in the correct mathematical order.” There is a Gregorian melody, or vox principalis, to which a second, simultaneous voice is added with the same rhythm and text, the vox organalis.
- The first type is the parallel organum.
- The second is the organum with a pedal point, where the vox principalis goes up, then the vox organalis goes to the same low pitch. When the interval is a fourth, the vox organalis moves in parallel with the vox principalis.
- The third type is melismatic organum, which appeared in the 12th century. In this style, the vox organalis became more independent of the vox principalis, becoming the more important musical part.
The notation system based on lines was used, and polyphony began to be important in the 12th century with the Martial School in Limoges.
The Motet
notation because the voices needed to be notated one above the other, with the three part motet./renaissance/ In the isorhythmic motet G.Dufay composed his Nuper Rosarum Flores, It was composed for the consecration of the Santa Maria del Fiore, with an Anglo-French style and imitative counterpoint in the upper voice. This motet has a brilliant fusion of elegant vocal lines and counterpoint, with a complex mathematical structure and even a touch of dramatic text expression. Dufay mainly wrote Marian motets with a considerable extension of the theme of
motets to include psalm texts only really happened in Josquin’s generation. Under Josquin’s influence appeared two tendencies, the first one has a imitation in all the voices with less attention to the relationship between text and music than to contrapuntal play. And the second one has a close relationship between text and music and also imitation cantus firmus and canons.