Medieval and Baroque Music: Chords, Contrasts, and Instruments

Medieval and Baroque Music

Chords and Melodies

Arab Music

Arab Music: Originating from Northern Africa to Iran, through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Features:

  • Heterophony
  • Improvisation
  • Ornamentation
  • Based on melodic and rhythmic modes

Gregorian Chant

The evolution of Western music from medieval chant, part of the church, called Gregorian chant, in honor of Pope Gregory I, who was the first collector.

These Gregorian chants formed by uniting all religious songs from the areas in which Christianity had influence.

Features:

  • Absence of a bar
  • Latin text
  • Religious theme
  • Monophonic song
  • Vocal music without instrumental accompaniment
  • Anonymous author

Troubadours and Trouvères

The troubadours were nobles and educated, originating in the south of France. They wrote and performed their songs, often with the help of minstrels and jugglers, who were multi-talented performers: dancing, singing, storytelling. Among the most important are Bernart of Ventadour, and in Spain, Martin Codax.

Features:

  • Themes of courtly love and longing
  • Sung in their own language, not Latin
  • Rhythm could be free or marked
  • Usually accompanied by instruments
  • Sung solos

The Songs of Alfonso X the Wise

One of the great jewels of Spanish medieval secular music is the vast collection of Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X the Wise. His cantigas recount the miracles wrought by the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

Instruments of the Middle Ages

String Instruments: lute, harp, psaltery, viola

Wind Instruments: flute, oboes, bagpipes, and trumpets

Percussion Instruments: bells, triangles, drums, cymbals

Colors and Contrasts in Baroque Music

Baroque Music

Basso Continuo: A new musical texture based on a melody rooted in a deep voice.

Use of Contrast: Baroque music seeks contrast, facing large and small instrumental groups.

The Movement: Use of a regular and very strong pulse. In this period, the notion of time was a succession of strong and weak beats.

The Birth of the Tonal System: The late baroque tonality is implemented to reduce the scale modes to two: Major and minor.

Secular Vocal Music

Opera is defined as a play set to music.

The stories told in operas needed to be adapted to be sung. This adaptation is called the libretto. Common themes of the librettos were mythology.

Religious Vocal Music

Religious music in the Baroque period also brings new genres, most notably the oratorio and cantata. These genres were used by different churches (Catholic, Lutheran) as a vehicle to transmit their doctrines. The oratorios were produced by setting religious stories to music, usually based on texts from the Bible.

Instrumental Music

In the Baroque, instrumental music gained its independence in a definitive way against the vocal. Music was composed specifically for instruments, creating purely instrumental genres such as the concerto, the suite, the fugue, and the sonata.

Concerto

Concerto Grosso: A small group of instruments called the concertino, and the rest of the orchestra or tutti.

Concerto Solo: Establishing a dialogue between a solo instrument and orchestra. Vivaldi emphasized this form. Consists of 3 parts: 1. Fast; 2. Slow; 3. Fast

The Suite

The other major instrumental genre of the Baroque was the suite of dances, that is, a succession of dances, and consists of several movements.