History of Early Western Music: From Psalms to Polyphony
Early Music Practices
Psalms
The psalms were likely performed responsorially, with a soloist singing the verses and a choir or congregation singing the refrain (e.g., Alleluia). Antiphony, where two groups of choirs sang alternating psalm verses, was also practiced.
Gregorian Music (4th-9th Centuries)
Early Christian liturgical music in this period lacked a unified style. From the 6th century, the Roman Rite gained dominance due to papal policy. Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine to England in 597 to establish the Roman Rite there. By the 8th century, Roman songs spread throughout the Frankish kingdom, leading to a “hybrid style” known as Gregorian, named after Pope Gregory I.
The Mass
Structure and Parts
The term “mass” comes from the concluding words of the Eucharist ceremony: “Ite, missa est.” The mass has two sung parts: the ordinarium (fixed parts) and the proprium (variable parts). The ordinarium remains the same in every mass celebration, while the proprium changes based on the day, feast, or ritual (e.g., Christmas, Requiem, Easter). The structure is still used today. The ordinarium includes: Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est. The proprium includes: Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion.
Text Setting
The Introit, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei were typically set neumatically (2-10 notes per syllable). The Kyrie and Offertory often featured melismatic passages (more than 10 notes per syllable). Psalms, hymns, Glorias, Bible readings, and prayers were performed syllabically.
Polyphonic Mass
Guillaume Machaut was the first to compose a polyphonic cyclic mass, using four voices for the fixed parts of the ordinary mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei). In the 15th century, Guillaume Dufay utilized the cantus firmus mass, which could be based on sacred or secular melodies (e.g., “L’homme armé”). Johannes Ockeghem employed techniques like the crab canon and proportional canons. Contrapuntal techniques were prominent in his freely composed masses. Josquin des Prez introduced the paraphrase mass, where the melody permeates all voices and is varied and “paraphrased” rather than directly copied. This approach created an audible and recognizable thematic core, as seen in his Missa Pange Lingua, which also features imitation techniques. Other types of tenor masses included the canon mass and parody mass.
Polyphonic Music
Organum
Polyphonic music involves simultaneous, distinct musical parts. The Musica Enchiriadis describes the organum, a form of polyphonic singing. It involves a Gregorian melody (vox principalis) with a second voice added simultaneously, following the same rhythm and text (vox organalis). Types of organum include parallel organum, organum with a pedal point, and melismatic organum (developed in the 12th century), where the vox organalis gained independence and prominence.
Notation and the Rise of Polyphony
The use of a line-based notation system facilitated the development of polyphony, which gained importance in the 12th century with the Notre Dame School.
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.