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Medieval Period

476bc - 1400

Artists and Composers
 

1.Donatello

2.Giotto

3.Lorenzo Ghiberti

4.Hildegard of Bingen

5.Medieval Composers

6.Hildegard of Bingen

7.Leonin and Perotin

8.Guillaume De Mauchaut

9.Alfonso X (El Sabio)

 History

Some scholars name this period the “dark age”. In this time were many hard moments for the people. For example, there was a mysterious disease called “The Bubonic Plague”. This plague killed at least 20 million people in Europe. The transmission of this disease was from person to person.

Another strong element was the presence of the church. After the Roman Empire disappeared, the church became the most powerful institution of the medieval period. Thanks to the alliances made different leaders of country gained lots of power.

While the Christian church had much power and territories, another religion was rising: Islam. When the prophet of Islam died in 632, the armies of the Muslim world began conquering the middle east. Here in the Islam world they translated texts from Greek, Iranian  and Indian to Arabic. Also the inventors worked with the pinhole camera, soap, windmills, instruments for surgery and the system of numbers that we use today.

These two religious powers collide in the crusades. The crusades was the war between the Christians and the Muslims for the Holy Land. This war began in 1095 when the Christians were fighting its way to Jerusalem. It lasted until the 15th century and no one “won” this war. Thousands of people lost their lives in this war.

In the aspect of art and architecture they began building big cathedrals. These buildings of the church were very elaborated and had masonry arches, barrel vaults, stone walls and few windows. During this period we can see different styles like the; Romanesque, gothic, frescoes, mosaics. Also we can see many paintings of saints, the virgin Mary and Jesus.  The books were also great works of art. They were made in monasteries and were handmade. These books had color illustrations, gold and silver lettering and different type of ornaments.

Feudalism was the way the countries were ruled.  The king was the leader of the country and he assigned fiefs (large pieces of land to noblemen and bishops). The common people planted and harvested crops. The population began to grow in the 11th century because of different things like: food supply was improved. Some cities reached a population of 50,000 people. And the crusades expanded the trading routes and could exchange and imports goods like: wine, olive, luxurious textiles.

Artists

and

Composers

Donatello

Italian sculptor Donatello was the greatest Florentine sculptor before Michelangelo (1475–1564) and was the most influential individual artist of the 15th century in Italy.

Born in Florence, Italy, around 1386, sculptor Donatello apprenticed early with well-known sculptors and quickly learned the Gothic style. Before he was 20, he was receiving commissions for his work. Over his career he developed a style of lifelike, highly emotional sculptures and a reputation second only to Michelangelo's.

Hildegard von Bingen

Nun, Poet, Playwright, Journalist (1098–1179)

Saint Hildegard was a 12th century religious leader of the Benedictine faith known for her visions and diverse forms of writing.

Saint Hildegard was born in 1098 in West Franconia, Germany, into a wealthy clan. As part of the Benedictine faith she later established her own convent in Rupertsberg, taking on evangelical work as well. Having renowned visions, she was also a poet, composer and science/history writer. Hildegard, who died in Rupertsberg on September 17, 1179, was officially recognized as a saint by the Pope in 2012.

Leonin & Pérotin

Leonin

(1150 - 1201)

The French composer known as Lonin or Magister Leoninus is said to have been active in Paris in the second half of the 12th century, associated with the new church of Notre Dame. His reputed achievement lies in the development and transcription of organa, embellishments of plainchant by the addition of a second voice, preserved in the Magnus Liber, the great book of Notre Dame. This seems to record current practice there in polyphonic performance. The collection was said to have been revised in later years by Protin.

 Pérotin

or Perotinus, absolutely nothing is known. For some time it was believed that a number of documents, dating from 1208 to 1238, referred to the composer, but this has recently been shown not to be the case. All we know is his name, the titles of some of his works, and his achievements, which are mentioned in two treatises: one by an eminent philosopher and music theorist, John of Garland, an Englishman who taught at the University of Paris during the second quarter of the 13th century; and the other by an anonymous English student, actually his voluminous class notes taken during the 1270s in Paris. The student informs us that Pérotin "edited" the Magnus liber organi (Great Book of Organa) of his predecessor at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Léonin, by shortening the long sections of these compositions in which a free-flowing melody was laid over a slow-moving cantus firmus, that is, a series of notes taken from preexisting music—here from Gregorian chants of the Mass or the daily prayer hours. On the other hand, Pérotin added many sections, or clausulae, in discant style, where both voices were regulated by rhythmic patterns in strict meter. Of this style, the anonymous writer tells us, Pérotin was the greatest master (optimus discantor). Over 500 such discant clausulae are extant, some short ones undoubtedly the work of Léonin and of Pérotin's disciples, but the bulk probably Pérotin's own works

Guillaume de Machaut

Machaut also spelled Machault    (born c. 1300, Machault, Fr.—died 1377, Reims), French poet and musician, greatly admired by contemporaries as a master of French versification and regarded as one of the leading French composers of the Ars Nova musical style of the 14th century. It is on his shorter poems and his musical compositions that his reputation rests. He was the last great poet in France to think of thelyric and its musical setting as a single entity. He 

is one of the undisputed pinnacle geniuses of Western music, and the most famous composer of the Middle Ages. Today his four-voice Mass of Notre Dame is a textbook example for medieval counterpoint, and has served sufficiently to maintain his reputation across shifts in fashion. However Machaut's work is extensive, with his French songs & poetry dominating the fourteenth century by both their quality and volume. A series of carefully prepared illuminated manuscripts, undertaken for members of the French royalty, preserve his complete artistic output. Along with these major sources, various pieces are duplicated in scattered sources throughout Europe. His life and work are thus extremely well-preserved for the period, and his position as the most distinguished composer of the century has never wavered.

 

Characteristics

During the Early Christian period (ca. 200-500), portions of scripture were set to traditional Roman melodies. In the Dark Ages (ca. 500-1000), these works were organized into an official Church repertoire, largely under the reign of Pope Gregory I. They are consequently known as Gregorian chant.

Gregorian chants are monophonic vocal works, historically performed during various Roman Catholic ceremonies. The scale of chant performance ranges from a lone soloist to a large choir. In some cases, chant performance may alternate between groups, or between a group and soloist.

The evolution of polyphony began in the late Dark Ages, when some musicians began to embellish Gregorian chants with a parallel melody line

Throughout the Middle Ages, advances in music practice and theory were driven mainly by sacred music. Over the centuries, these advances diffused to secular music (non-religious music).

Since ancient times, secular vocal music had been composed for popular entertainment. From antiquity through the early Middle Ages, these compositions featured monophonic texture  typical subjects were heroic legends, love stories, and satirical observations. In the Dark Ages, minstrels (a general term for wandering performers) were the principal group of professional secular musicians.

In the later medieval period, minstrels were joined by such groups as the troubadours (of southern France), trouveres (northern France), and minnesingers and meistersingers (Germany). In addition to composing monophonic works, these groups introduced polyphony to secular music. Like their sacred counterparts, polyphonic secular works were often built upon an existing melody (rather than being composed entirely from scratch) up until the Baroque era. (essential – humanities.net)

 

 

  • Monophony

  • Gregorian chant

  • Crude notation

  • Polyphonic vocal music

  • Staff notation

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