Chapter 12: Sacred Music in the Middle Ages
Study Plan
Key Points
- Many world cultures use a kind of chant, a monophonic (single-line) melody, in their worship (CP 3).
- The music of the early Christian church, called Gregorian chant, features monophonic, nonmetric melodies set in one of the church modes, or scales.
- Chant melodies fall into three categories (syllabic, neumatic, melismatic) based on how many notes are set to each syllable of text.
- The most solemn ritual of the Catholic Church is the Mass, a daily service with two categories of prayers: the Proper (texts that vary according to the day) and the Ordinary (texts that remain the same for every Mass).
- Some chants are sung alternating a soloist and chorus in a responsorial performance.
- The Paris Cathedral of Notre Dame was a center for organum, the earliest type of polyphony, with two-, three-, or four-voice parts sung in fixed rhythmic patterns (rhythmic modes).
- Preexisting chants formed the basis for early polyphony, including organum and the motet; the latter features multiple texts (polytextual).
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