Where did Christianity start?
Near East, Greece and Italy
312 BCE
Constantine converts to Christianity, so in 313 he issues the edit of Milan, which legalizes Christianity.
392 BCE
emperor theodoseus make Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. Judaism wasn’t suppressed by him.
600 BCE
Dioceses were territories in Ancient Rome. Each one was headed by patriarchs, and local churches and bishops. Church becomes political power.
What elements of Christian observances derives from Jewish traditions?
Chanting of scripture and the singing of psalms, which were poems of praise from the Hebrew book of psalms.
What was the second temple of Jerusalem?
530bce-7dce, destroyed by the romans. A place for public worship, services twice daily. Ritualistic sacrifices of an animal. During the sacrifice psalms were sung. Trumpets and cymbals accompanied singing.liturgy and music could not be separated. Sometimes priests ate the sacrifices.
Synagogues
Centers for reading and homilies rather than worship. Reading were assigned to particular days or festivals.
What is cantillation
Scripture that was chanted to a system of melodic formulas based of phrase divisions of the text. In synagogues.
Name 4 christian parallels with Jewish practices
1.Much of the mass includes rituals similar to Jewish practice.
2. Jesus’ last supper commemorated in the mass using symbolic sacrifice and related to the passover meal, which is accompanied by psalm singing.
3. Singing psalms is a central element of all Christian observances.
4. Formulae used for singing psalms, may have derived from jewish cantillation.
Name 2 biblical references to musical activity
1. Mathew and Mark refer to Jesus and his followers singing hymns.
2. In ephyisians in collasians, paul exorts Christians to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Name a historical reference to Christian music
Pliny the Younger governor of a Roman provence reported christians singing songs to christ as if to a God. 112 BCE
4th Century
Official acceptence of Christianity led to large meeting in basilicas
What is a basilica?
A place of Christian worship
describe Ageria’s service experience in 400 CE in 6 steps
1.A sunday morning vigil
2. priests sing psalms followed by response from congregation
3. Prayers folowed each of the three psalms.
4 After the psalms the place was filled with incense and the Bishop read from the Gospel
5. After the reading the Bishop exited to the accompaniement of hymns
6. After the bishops exit there was another psalm and prayer
What kind of music was never played in the early church?
Instrumental music because of the pagan rituals associated with it. earthly enjoyment was wrong
Why was the clergy so afraid of musicians?
Music always transcends the text.
395 CE
The church split into two empires: western and eastern. Political unity ends.
5th century
Empires infrastructure has crumbled, life if poor, there is insecurity due invaders. The common civilization of Europe and Asia and parts of Africa were fragmented.
Describe the western empire
It collased in 476, ruled by rome or milan. There were many invasions by Germanic tribes. The western Church was Roman Catholic, Ruled by the pope. After the 3rd century Latin was the official language of the western church
Describe the Eastern Empire
Centered in Constantinople, it fell to the Turks in 1453. The ancestor of today’s orthodox Churches. Greek was the official language. The final split between east and west occured in 1054.
What were the common components to all the different rites of the church?
1. A church calendar including special events and time of the year.
2.A liturgy
3. A repertory of plainchant or chant
Who was Ageria, and when did she live?
A Spanish nun on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 400ce.
What is a liturgy?
A body of texts and ritual actions assigned to each service
What is the difference between Plainchant and Chant?
NONE. a unison unaccompanied song particularly that of the latin liturgy
Describe byzantine chant?
They were scriptural readings chanted with formulas that reflected the phrasing of the texts. Psalms and hymns were sung to fully developed melodies. Eight modes. (ecoi) were used to classify chants. Many chant melodies were created from standard formulas through a process called centenization. Byzantine melodies were the basis for other orthodox traditions, but over time the traditions diverged.
Name the types of rites that the following countries used. Gaul, Ireland and parts of Britain, Spain (Milan)
Gaul= Galican Ireland and Parts of Britain =Celtic Spain=Mosarabic Milan= Ambrosian chant named after saint ambrose. Still survives in milan today.
what is the schola cantorum?
late 7th century. The Choir sang for observances officiated by the pope and they toured alot. teachers, performers, and helped to standardized chant melodie sin the early eith century. in the mid eight century pope stephen the s2cnd traveled through the frankish kingdom with them
Who was Pepin the Short?
King of the franks in the mid eighth century. Ordered the roman liturgy and chant to be performed which replaced the native Galican rite. the Codification of chant helped him solidate his kingdom.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
was pepin’s son. He expanded the kingdom to include present day Germany, Switzerland and northern Italy. Brought singers from Rome to the North to teach the chant. On Christmas day in 1800, pope leo the 3rd crowned him emperor,initiating the holy roman empire.
Gregorian Chant results from a collaboration between what two countries singers? Characteristics of Gregorian chant
Frankish and Roman singers. SOme melodies survived unchanged, the franks may have altered some chants, some melodies came from galican chant, some melodies were developed in the Frankish kingdom north after the 8th century.
The legend of saint gregory
It may have been pope gregory the 2cnd instead of 1st to whom chant should be attributed, because the chant was codified in the early eighth century.
Describe the legend of the chant and who originated it?
The legend claims that a holy spirit in the form of a dove dictated the melodies to gregory the 1st. The English may have made this up because they adopted roman chant earlier than the franks and they revered pope gregory the 1st as the founder of their church. Gregory wrote some of the church calendar and influenced liturgy. after they adopted gregorian (franks) chants it spread throughout western europe.
what makes roman chant different?
11th and 12th centuries. texts are the same as gregorian, but the melodies are more elaborate. Scholars are not sure whether this is the original or embellishment.
DEvelopment of notation
Chant was transmitted orally. Simple melodies were memorizes, complex improvised from strict conventions, examples = Jewish cantillation and Byzantine centenization.
What were the three main stages of development of the chant?
1.ninth century- nuemes appeared.
2. 10th -11th century -diastimic neumes
3. 11th century -Guido d’arrezo, four line staff with f in red and c in yellow
what are nuemes?
nuemes are placed above words to designate melodic direction .
what are highted or diastemic neumes?
They’re place at varying hights to indicate relative sizes of intervals. A line oriented the neumes around a specific half step note.
What is solelesmis chant notation?
Additions made by monks of solesmis who proclaimed the official vatican addtions by pope pious the 10th in 1903. page 38.
Who were the two writers who transmitted the legacy of Greek music theory to middle ages?
Martianus copella in the early 5th century. Boethius areound 480 to 524.
Who is martianus copella?
He transmitted greek music theory to the middle ages around 5th century. His book was called the marriage of mercury and philology
Describe the seven liberal arts in copella’s “the marriage of mercury and philology”
1. Trivim-three paths of the verbal arts;Grammer dialectic and rhetoric.
2. Quadrivium-four paths of math disciplines. Geometry, arithmitic, astronomy and harmonics.
Who is Boethius?
about 6th cent, most revered authority on music in the middle ages. Three types of music; musica mondana (music of the universe) numerical relations governing the movement of the stars and planets season and the elements. Musica humana: human music, the unification of body and soul and their parts. Musica instrumentalis: musical performance. Music is essential to character, and a philosopher of music is a truer musician than a performer.
Name two important books related to the practice of music?
Musica enchiriadis-Music handbook (first theory book) scholoca enchiriadis-written anonymously in the 9th century. it introduced a system for notating chant; eight modes; explains consonances and their use in polyphony. Micrologus- 11th century Guido d’arrezo
a practical guide for singers. covers notes, intervals, scales, modes, compositon and improvisation