Gregorian Chant and

The Beginnings of Polyphony:

from Ars Antigua to Ars Nova
Gregorian Chant
The religious music of the Roman Catholic
Church was borrowed from:

 Byzantium (now Istanbul) contributed

hymns (songs of praise).
 Ambrosian Chant (Milan) contributed
antiphonal singing.
 Gallican chant (France);
 Mozarabic chant (Spain).

Pope Gregory the Great (6th Century) is said

to have been responsible for unifying this
chant into a body of Christian music which
would be used throughout the Christian
empire for over a thousand years.

The standardization of the chant and the shift

from improvisation to composedmusic
required the development of musical notation.

Source: History of Western Music, Miller and Cockrell

Icon of Blessed Virgin Mary
Byzantine
Characteristics of Gregorian Chant

 Monophonic
 Modal
 A cappella
 Non-metric (uses free/flexible prose
rhythms)
 Melodically conjunct
 Limited range
 Sung in Latin
 Written in neumatic notation
Gregorian chant remains among the most
spiritually moving and profound music in
western culture. An idea of its pure,
floating melody can be heard in the
following musical example.
Source: History of Western Music, Miller & Cockrell
Gregorian Chant:
Introit: Puer natus est nobis

The main function of chant is to

enhance the meaning of the church
liturgy. This chant is from the mass for
Christmas Day.
The melodies of these Gregorian
Chants were the main melodic sources
for much of the music written during
the next thousand years. (Cantus
Firmus)

Nave of Chartres Cathedral

Notre Dame and
the Ars Antiqua:
Organum

Sometime during the ninth century, Church composers began experimenting with the
idea of having two melodic lines sung simultaneously at parallel intervals, usually at the
fourth, fifth, or octave. The resulting hollow-sounding music was called organum. By
the eleventh century, two or even three melodic lines were no longer moving in parallel
motion, but contrary to each other, sometimes even crossing. The original chant melody
was sung very slowly on long held notes called the tenor (from the Latin tenere, meaning
to hold), and the added melodies were woven around and embellished the tenor. Music
History 102
Organum (c.1100)

Alleluia Justus ut Palma (2:31)

The strict organum (vocal harmony part)
here is composed in parallel and contrary
motion, mainly using the intervals of the
4th, 5th, and octave.
The composer had discovered that moving
from a sixth to an octave or from a third to
a unison was an effective device.
This piece demonstrates the origins of
harmony and polyphony (more than one
musical line played at the same time.)

North Trancept Rose Window, Chartres Cathedral

Ars Antigua

This music thrived at the Cathedral of

Notre Dame in Paris during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and
much later became known as the Ars
Antiqua, or the "old art." The two
composers at Notre Dame especially
known for composing in this style are
Léonin (fl. ca. 1163-1190), who
composed organum for two voices, or
motets, and his successor Pérotin (fl.
early13th century), whose organum
included three and even four voices.
Pérotin's music is an excellent example
of this very early form of polyphony
(music for two or more simultaneously
sounding voices), as can be heard in
his setting of Sederunt principes.

Notre Dame 1163- 1250

Organum Duplum

(Melismatic Organum)
Alleluia by Leonin (1163-1190)
(0:59)

This excerpt demonstrates how

plainchant settings were
embellished in the 12th c. by one of
the first ascribed composers. An
elongated form of the plainchant
melody (the ‘tenor’) can be heard in
the notes of the lower part. This
emphasis on two dimensions in
music can be compared with the flat
painting style of Giotto.

GIOTTO, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310.

Motet by Leonin (1163-1190)

Salve, salus hominem (0:58)

In this motet (a piece of choral music in
several parts) the different voices actually
sing different texts.
This elaborate motet demonstrates
developments in polyphony: three
separate voices sing away only linked
rhythmically.
The deliberate horizontal organization of
the motet reflects the horizontal social
organization of the time: more
international than national, dominated by
the Church, by Latin, and by the separate
classes of feudal society. (Boyden 141)

North Tower of Chartres Cathedral

Secular Song: The Troubadours
Jeu de Robin et de Marion (1284) (2:31)
by Adam de la Halle

Images of Robin Hood through the Ages

This is a monophonic song with simple instrumental accompaniment: a drone and a

melody doubled by lute and flute. Yet it is sung in French, the vernacular of the
people not the prevailing Latin of sacred music. Its rhythms are varied. It celebrates
the cult and code of chivalric love. (Boyden 144) The song comes from a secular
musical play and was composed by Adam de la Halle, the last of the famous French
wandering troubadours.
Secular Song
by Gillaume Machaut (ca. 1300-1377)
Rondeau: Rose, liz, printemps,
verdure
part one, part two, part three
This secular song uses the triple meter of
the dance from which it is derived. The
four vocal parts here are melodically and
rhythmically independent. There is
greater use here of the intervals of the 3rd
and 6th (previously the 4th and 5th
dominated) which gives the piece a
sweeter, more harmonious and ‘modern’
sound. Machaut, the preeminent
composer of the day, wrote both secular
and sacred music and was also well
known for his masses and motets.
LIMBOURG BROTHERS detail from Novemebr,
from Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413-
1416.
Ars Nova

Mass: Agnus Dei: part one,

part two, part three
(2:48)
by Gillaume de Machaut (c.1360)
This is a four-part polyphonic setting of
the Agnus Dei from Machaut’s Messe de
Notre Dame. It is one of the earliest
polyphonic settings of the mass. Note the
more varied melodies and rhythms
incorporated from secular dances. This
piece features ‘isorhythmic structures’,
long repeated rhythmic patterns (or talea)
that had their origins in Indian classical
music. (an indication of burgeoning
international trade.)
Jamb Figures 1150-70 Chartres
Cathedral