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4th-12th Centuries
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- Official codification of western plainchant
- A synthesis of Roman and Gallican chants
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Pepin the Short decrees the use of Gregorian chant throughout his empire -
Pepin receives an organum (previously known as a hydraulis) as a gift from the Byzantine empire
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Pepin's son Charlemagne demands his empire use Gregorian chant in their mass rite--on pain of death.
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- The French court's organum/hydraulis is moved to Rome (a power move by the Church)
- earliest evidence of neumes
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symmetrical hexachords are used to organize music, based on the tuning of a 6-string lyre
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The clergy at monasteries adopt the organ as a scientific tool, encouraging its spread throughout Europe
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Circa the end of the 900s.
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- Codifies the hexachord system and expands it using mutations, creating the gamut
- Establishes the 8 "church modes"
- Teaches Gregorian chant using syllabic singing and the Guidonian hand technique
- Advocates for the use of the musical staff
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- The 6 Rhythmic Modes are used to communicate new rhythmic ideas
- NO instruments are used in sacred music
- Thirds and triads start to accidentally appear and be heard regularly
- First appearance of the 5-line music staff
- Regular use of clefs
- Gregorian chant has fully overtaken all other plainchant customs.
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- Use of instruments
- NO written parts for instruments--all improvised
- Monophonic texture overall
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- Scribal Culture: pecia system/handwritten manuscripts
- Available instruments: organ, bowed/plucked strings, woodwinds, percussion
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- Hurdy-gurdy appears (only second machine in Europe to use a crank)
- Square notation introduced
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The beginning of time signatures
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Uses Franconian notation:
- new rhythmic communication to address new rhythmic ideas
- the musical "rest" is introduced and notated
- abandonment of the 6 Rhythmic Modes -
During the 1300s
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- Thirds are officially consonant
- Mensural notation appears
- Secular music becomes more sophisticated (experimentation from the sacred world is brought into the secular world)
- Still NO written music for instrumentalists!
- Scribal work is revived in handwritten manuscripts, for the remission of sins
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- text-painting
- triads
- chromaticism
- faster, shorter rhythms
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An early version of "graphic notation"
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melody in highest voice
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- Harpsichord first appears
- Instrumental consorts (fully established by 1500): groups of loud vs. soft instruments, or same instruments of different ranges
- Instrumental virtuosity begins in the 1500s
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Groovy bass lines
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- simple melodies
- champions musical borrowing
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...using 2-impression technique + woodcut
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Monopoly is first purchased in 1498, and Petrucci uses it to publish the first (printed) polyphonic music collection in 1501
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by John Rastell in England
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The first instrumental music collection is published
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- Promotes monody
- Creates the first successful opera
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Opera and Monody:
- Figured bass/basso continuo
- Beginning of the orchestra (1607)
- Clear text and freedom of expression
- Focus on the soloist and the bass line -
- Flute becomes its own instrument, apart from the recorder
- Natural trumpets (without valves) and horns with crooks are used in orchestras
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- The first piano is invented
- Metal-plate engraving is introduced: helpful for printing more complex instrumental music!
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c. 1715