Medieval music
Demarcating the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the Renaissance, with regards to the composition of music, is problematic. While the music of the fourteenth century is fairly obviously medieval in conception, the music of the early fifteenth century is often conceived as belonging to a transitional period, not only retaining some of the ideals of the end of the Middle Ages (such as a type of polyphonic writing in which the parts differ widely from each other in character, as each has its specific textural function), but also showing some of the characteristic traits of the Renaissance (such as the international style developing through the diffusion of Franco-Flemish musicians throughout Europe, and in terms of texture an increasing equality of parts). The Renaissance began early in Italy, but musical innovation there lagged far behind that of France and England; the Renaissance came late to England, but musical innovation there was ahead of continental Europe.
Music historians do not agree on when the Renaissance era began, but most historians agree that England was still a medieval society in the early fifteenth century (see a discussion of periodization issues of the Middle Ages). While there is no consensus, 1400 is a useful marker, because it was around that time that the Renaissance came into full swing in Italy.
The increasing reliance on the interval of the third as a consonance is one of the most pronounced features of transition into the Renaissance. Polyphony, in use since the 12th century, became increasingly elaborate with highly independent voices throughout the 14th century. With John Dunstaple and other English composers, partly through the local technique of faburden (an improvisatory process in which a chant melody and a written part predominantly in parallel sixths above it are ornamented by one sung in perfect fourths below the latter, and which later took hold on the continent as "fauxbordon"), the interval of the third emerges as an important musical development; because of this Contenance Angloise ("English countenance"), English composers' music is often regarded as the first to sound less truly bizarre to modern, unschooled audiences. English stylistic tendencies in this regard had come to fruition and began to influence continental composers as early as the 1420s, as can be seen in works of the young Dufay, among others. While the Hundred Years' War continued, English nobles, armies, their chapels and retinues, and therefore some of their composers, travelled in France and performed their music there; it must also of course be remembered that the English controlled portions of northern France at this time.
English manuscripts include the Worcester Fragments, the Old St. Andrews Music Book, the Old Hall Manuscript, and Egerton Manuscript.
For information about specific composers who are considered transitional between the medieval and the Renaissance, see Roy Henry, Arnold de Lantins, Leonel Power, John Dunstaple, Guillaume Dufay, and Gilles Binchois.
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Further reading
- Ardis Butterfield. Poetry and Music in Medieval France. Cambridge University Press
- Hoppin, Richard H. Medieval Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978.
- McKinnon, James, ed. Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.
- Parrish, Carl. The Notation of Medieval Music. London: Faber & Faber, 1957.
- Reese, Gustave. Music in the Middle Ages. New York: W. W. Norton, 1940.
- Seay, Albert. Music in the Medieval World. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1965.
- Yudkin, Jeremy. Music in Medieval Europe. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989.
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Study and vocational training
The Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, university for old music in Basel, Switzerland, provides the only full-time practical study course for the music of the Middle Ages. A two-year vocational training for musicians is offered at the academy Burg Fürsteneck in Germany.
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See also
- List of Medieval composers.
- List of early music ensembles.
- Bauska castle - location of Medieval Music festival.
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External links
- The Schøyen Collection: Music (scans of medieval musical notation)
- Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments photos, descriptions, and sounds of early musical instruments
- Medieval Music & Arts Foundation
- Wine, Women, and Song: Mediaeval Latin Students' songs, trans. John Addington Symons (1884).
- Vocational training in medieval music in Germany
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