Kris McConnell

Music Lit
Outline 2
Dr. Harrison

 A. Chants of the Mass and Office display a spectrum of melodic styles, from simple recitation
formulas to elaborate composed melodies. Relate the varying melodic styles of chant to their
liturgical functions and manners of performance. Refer to specific chants and any known
composers.(15 points)

    
Western Christian Chant and Liturgy

Liturgy:a body texts and rights whose purpose is to glorify God and the saints.
    • Teach gospels and the life and works of Jesus.
    • Exhort worshipers along the path of salvation
    • Yearly cycle of reading from the bible and a weekly cycle of readings from the book of
Psalms.
    • Follows the church calendar, yearly cycle of saints, events, feast days, or seasons of the
church year.
        ◦ Advent season leading up to Christmas or the penitential Lenten season preparing for
Easter.
    • Although much of each worship service is the same at every observance, other aspects
change with the day or season.
Office

    • Canonical hours
        ◦ Rule of Saint Benedict
            ▪ Series of eight prayer services observed at specified times around the clock by members
of a religious community.
            ▪ By calling a group of monks or nuns to pray collectively every few hours.
            ▪ Ritual in which life in a monastery or convent is structured.
                • Prayers, recitation  of scriptural passages and songs.
                • According to the church calendar
                • yearly cycle
                    ◦ saints
                    ◦ events
                    ◦ feast daays
        ◦ Each worship service is the same at every observance, other aspects change with the day
or season.
    • Includes several Psalms.
    • Eucharist, Liturgy, Holy communion, the Lord’s Supper.
        ◦ Culminate in a symbolic reenactment of the Last supper.
            ▪ Celebrant blesses bread and wine and offers them to the faithful in memory of Jesus’
sacrifice the atonement of sin.
      Liturgy of the Mass

       1. Introductory of Prayers

    
       2. .Liturgy of the Word
        ◦ congregation listens to passages intoned from the Hebrew scriptures and the apostles and
gospel writer of the New Testament.
       3.  Liturgy of the Eucharist
            ▪ bread and wine are concentrated and distributed.
                • Chants served as the source and the inspiration for later music in the Western art
tradition.
Plainchant: melody that projects the sacred and devotional words of ritual.
    • Shape cannot be separated from its verbal message or form its place in the worship service.  
    • Musically simple as a recitation on a single pitch or as elaborate as a long winding melody
that requires a highly trained soloist to perform.
Office

    • AKA Canonical Hours

        ◦ 8 prayer services observed at specified times around the clock by members of a religious
community.
        ◦ According to life in a monastery or convent which was structured.
        ◦ Every office liturgy included several psalms, lessons, hymns, canticles, and prayers.
Mass
    • remains the most important service of the Catholic Church.
    • AKA: Eucharist, Liturgy, Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper
    • All culminate in a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper.
Proper
    • Introit
    • Collect
Liturgy of the Word
    • Epistle
    • Gradual
    • Alleluia
    • Sequence (major feasts)
    • Gospel
    • Sermon (optional)
Liturgy of the Eucharist
    • Offertory
    • Secret
    • Preface
    • Communion
    • Postcommunion

Ordinary
Introductory Section
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
Liturgy of the Word
    • Credo
Liturgy of the Eucharist
    • Prayers
    • Sanctus
    • Canon
    • Pater noster (Lord’s Prayer)
    • Agnus Dei
    • Ite, missa est

Genres and Forms of Chant

    • Chants are classified in different overlapping ways
        ◦ By texts (biblical or nonbiblical, prose or poetry)
        ◦ manner of performance.
            ▪ Antiphonal (alternating choirs)
            ▪ Responsorial (choir responding to a soloist)
            ▪ Direct (sung by one choir)
        ◦ Musical style(not always clear)
            ▪ Syllabic (one note per syllable of text)
            ▪ Melismatic (many notes per syllable)
    • Most parts of the Mass and Office are chanted to recitation formulas, simple melodic
outlines that can be used with many different texts.
        ◦ Ex: Antiphon:Salve Regina
Text Setting
    • Chant proclaims the text sometimes straightforwardly, and other times ornately.
        ◦ Musical contours of chant reflect the what Latin words were pronounced with prominent
syllables set to higher tones or to a melisma.
        ◦ Florid chants:naturally occuring accents often take a backseat to the melodic curve, long
melismas on weak syllables.
            ▪ “a” of “alleluia or “e” of “Kyrie”
            ▪ Most important words or syllables of a phrase are emphasized with syllabic treatment
and makes them stand out against the rich ornamentation of the unstressed syllables.
            ▪ Melodies conform to the rhythm of the chant.
Chant Forms
    • 3 main forms
        ◦ Psalms tone
            ▪ two balanced phrases that correspond to the two halves of a typical psalm verse.
        ◦ Strophic form
            ▪ same melody is sung to several different stanzas of the text.
        ◦ Free form
            ▪ entirely original.
Psalm tones  
    • adapt to fit the words of any psalm.
    • One tone for each eight church modes.
        ◦ Melodic elements
            ▪ intonation: used in first verse of the psalm.
            ▪ Reciting tone, or tenor.
            ▪ Single repeating note used for recitation.
            ▪ Bends at the midpoint of the verse for a semicadence or mediant, continuing reciting
tone for second half verse.
            ▪ Continues reciting tone for second half verse and concludes at the end of the verse by
descending to a final cadence.
            ▪ Final verse leads to into the Lesser Doxology
            ▪ expression of praise to the Trinity.
Doxology
    • Gloria Patri (Glory be to the Father)
        ◦ Fitted to the same Psalm tone as the psalm verses.
    • Every psalm in the Office is framed by different antiphon.
Antiphonal psalmody
    • half-verses alternate between tow choirs.
    • Imitate ancient Syrian models.
    • Most numerous out of all chants.

Chants of the Mass Proper

    • Introit and communion
        ◦ Introit: originally a complete psalm with its antiphon.
            ▪ Covered the entrance procession.
        ◦ Overtime the opening service was shortened so that today the Introit consists of only the
original antiphon.

    B. Discuss the genres and styles of monophonic secular song in the period circa 1000–1300.
How is it different from sacred music of the same time period? (10 points)

Monophonic Secular Song

    • chants after the ninth century were replaced by more ornate settings for choral performance.
    • The syllabic style was retained for the Gloria and Credo (the longest texts) Kyrie, Sanctus,
and Agnus Dei have three part sectional arrangements
      A. Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison
    •      B. Christe eleison, Christe eleison, Christe Eleison
    •      C. Kyrie eleison, Kyrie
    1. Antiphons were composed for additional feasts introduced into the Church calendar
between the ninth and thirteenth century.
    2. Some antiphons were not attached to particular psalms used for processions and special
occasions.
       Expansions of Tropes
    • New music and words and music before the chant asnd often between phrases. (most
common)
    • Melody only extending melismas or adding new ones.
    • Text only, set to existing melismas.
        ◦ All three types increased the solemnity of a chant by enlarging it.
        ◦ Creative outlet for musicians.
    • Trope compositioin flourished in monastaries.
    • Tuotilo (d.915)composer.
    • Tropes were eventually banned by the Council of Trent, simplifying and standardizing the
liturgy.
    • Sequences, so called because they follow the Alleluias began as tropes probably as text
additions to the jubilus in the Alleluias but became independent compostions.
        ◦ “The Stammerer” a Frankish monk of St. Gall.
        ◦ Most famous early writer of sequence texts.
    • Sequence was an important creative outlet.
    • Most sequences were banned from the Catholic service by the liturgical reforms of the
Council of Trent.
    • Surviving pieces
        ◦ Dies Irae, Requim Mass (Mass for the dead, Victimae paschali laudes.
    • Liturgical Dramas
        ◦ performed on important holy days near the altar (originated in troping)
            ▪ Quem quaeritis in sepulchro (Whom do you seek in the tomb)
                • The 3 Mary’s search for Jesus at the tomb.
                • The dialogue was sung responsorial and the scene was acted out.
            ▪ Quem queritis in presepe (Whom do you seek at the manger)
                • Christmas
            ▪ The Play of Herod
                • the slaughter of innocents.
    • Hildegard of Bingen
        ◦ nonliturgical but sacred drama, Ordo virtutm
            ▪ 82 songs which she wrote both melodies and the poetic verse.
            ▪ Recieved great succes as prioress and abbess of her own convent and as a writer
composer.
            ▪ Claimed her songs and writing were divinely inspired.
            ▪ Quickly became the most recorded and best-known composer of sacred monophony.

Medievel Song

    • Older specimens of secular are in Latin.

    • Poets and composers were students and clerics.
    • Work songs, dance songs, lullabies and lements. Praise songs that celebrate the deeds of past
warriors and present rulers, and love songs.
    • Jongluers or minstrels sang these songs.
    • Jongleurs traveled alone or in small groups from village to village and castle to castle.
        ◦ Performed tricks, told stories, sang or played an instruments.
Social outcasts. Denied protectioin of the law and the sacraments of the church.
    • Troubadours were poet composers who flourished during the twelfth century.
    • Songs preserved in chansonniers (Song books)
    • Songs mostly written about love. As well as political and moral topics.
        ◦ Bernart de Ventadorn
            ▪ Can vei la lauzeta mover (When I see the lark beating)
                • Lovers complaint which is the main subject.
    • Typical troubadour text is strophic with each stanza sung to the same melody.