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At around 530, Benedict wrote a rulebook for monastic life. These rules emphasized the virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience to God and the Abbot, the head monk. ("Benedict's Rule | Christian History Institute") -
Charlemagne (aka Charles the Great) became the king of France around the year 750 following the death of his father, Pepin the Short. A loyal follower of the Roman Catholic Church, he sought to centralize Christianity and the Gregorian Chant through education, and in some cases, force. ("Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire")
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In the Medieval ages, the early sequences were Latin texts sung in Catholic mass. They were developed from tropes. ("sequence | musical composition")
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Many Gregorian Chant manuscripts from the 900's used neumes, signs that indicate pitch. However, this form of notation was quite vague rhythm indication. Ledger lines weren't incorporated until the eleventh century. -
Guido of Arezzo was an eleventh century Italian theorist and Benedictine monk who made further additions to the Medieval music notation, such has the 4-line staff and the creation of specific notes.
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Troubadours were French lyric-poets whose songs centered around the idea of courtly love-a set of rules a knight is to follow when they are in love with a woman. The troubadours' main audience was woman of high rank.
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St. Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century Benedictine abbess, composer, scholar, and visionary. Aside from composing 77 lyric-poems, she also wrote about the lives of other saints, and even wrote about scientific study and medicine. She eventually held the title of abbess. Many of her works are still performed today, and she is remembered as a feminist icon for her leadership in a highly patriarchal society. ("Saint Hildegard | Biography, Visions, Works, Feast Day, & Facts")
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Aquitanian organum was a type of florid polyphony that emerged in the early 12th century. This type of organum involved the soprano voice singing a variety of ornamental notes while the tenor voice sustains one note. ("Chapter 3: Polyphony through the Thirteenth Century | Concise History of Western Music, 4: W. W. Norton StudySpace") -
Bernart de Ventedorn remains to be one of the most widely known troubadours of the Medieval time period. He is also famous for establishing a more formal way of composing lyric poetry. Some of his songs are still known today, such as Can Vei La Lauzeta, which is sung in the Occitan language. -
Léonin was a musician and poet who worked in both a monastery and at the Notre Dame Cathedral. He is known as the first named composer through an anonymous treatise called "Anonymous 4". One of his most important accomplishment was compiling the Magnus Liber, a book of chants used at the Notre Dame.
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Pérotin was the younger one of the two known composers of the school of Notre Dame. He was known for "editing" the Magnus Liber and creating "quadrupla", which is an organa sung by four voices. Additionally, he rewrote Léonin's Viderunt Omnes into a quadruplum.
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The Notre Dame School was made up of numerous composers, such as Léonin and Perotin, working around and in the Notre Dame cathedral from 1160 to 1250. These composers made advancements to the development of polyphony, which was still fairly new to the church setting at the time. (Léonin, Pérotin, and the Birth of Polyphony at Notre Dame")
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In the year 1198, Pérotin wrote his own, newer version of the chant Viderunt Omnes in polyphonic quadruplum. -
The earliest motets were based on discant clausula, and their texts were meant to trope the original text.
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Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet and philosopher. He is most known for his famous La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). Because of everything he did, he was a major contributor to the Trecento period. -
By the year 1270, motets have evolved into something more complex. For example, motets are more independent from the original chant, and the tenor part becomes a cantus firmus, which is a pre-existing melody.
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Las Cantigas de Santa Maria was a collection of lyric-poems composed to honor the Virgin Mary. It is composed my Alfonso the Wise and his Court. Many of these manuscripts consist of people playing musical instruments. -
Around the year 1280, Franco of Cologne created a new style of musical notation in his Ars Cantus Mensurabilis. This style of notation mainly centered around rhythm indication. This allowed for motets to evolve further in the Ars Nova period.
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Guillaume de Machaut was one of the greatest, most important composers in the Ars Nova period. Not only is he the first composer to compile his works into a single unit, but he is also known for composing the Messe de Nostre Dame, one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the Mass Ordinary to be written by a single composer. -
In Italy, the Trecento was a marker of the fourteenth century. It involved many new artistic and musical styles. Examples of Italian Trecento music would be madrigals, ballatas, and the Caccia. -
The Ars Nova was the period of time that came after the Ars Antiqua. This period consisted of major historical events such as the Bubonic Plague and the Great Schism. Although the people of the Ars Nova were faced with flood and famine, there was a growing literacy rate. Additionally, there was a growing secularism.
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Francesco Petrarch was another major contributor of the Trecento period in Italy. He is known as the Father of Humanism, for he argued for and encouraged the teachings of the Classical World. -
The Roman de Fauvel manuscript was a collection of songs and poems that made up a satirical allegory on the corruption of society. It features a horse named Fauvel who held a position of power in a city and hosted lavish parties. -
Francesco Landini was an Italian composer, organist, singer, and poet during the Trecento period. While his composition mostly consist of ballatas, he wrote many madrigals, caccias, and virelais. He is also known for inventing a stringed instrument which would be considered an early harpsichord. -
The Ars Nova brought forth new methods of notation. Duple and triple divisions of note values and syncopation were made possible for the first time. Notes were then divided even further.
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The Decameron is a story about ten young people who flee to the country to avoid the Bubonic Plague. This story emphasizes the power of love and serves as a historical record of the affect of a deadly pandemic.
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The Ars Subtilior started in France, and is noted for its music of rhythmic complexity. It was also known for its expressiveness and difficulty to perform.
