The flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony from around 1150 to 1250 corresponded to the equally impressive achievements in Gothic architecture. The center of activity was at the cathedral of Notre Dame itself. Sometimes the music of this period is called the Parisian school, or Parisian organum. It also represents the beginning of what is conventionally known as Ars antiqua. Rhythmic notation first appeared in western music, mainly in the form of the rhythmic modes.
Styles and Forms
Two styles of Organum existed during this period (1) note-against-note and (2) florid many-notes against long-held notes called melismas. .Note this is a little different use of the term, melisma than that expressed in the preceding topic (melismatic chant). IN melismatic chant, the melisma is contrasted with a single note whereas in the melismatic chant it is contrasted with a single syllable of the text.) Melisma is used frequently in other musical periods to describe music.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicappreciation_with_theory/chapter/721/
The simplest form of Organum comprises two musical voices or melodies. One melody is a Gregorian or plain chant melody, and the other is an additional melody added in parallel at the interval of a perfect fourth or fifth. Thus it is called parallel organum. The texture of this style could be viewed either as heterophony (added voice viewed vertically as as harmony) or polyphony (added voice viewed horizontally as an additional melody).
Organum evolves to more complex forms such as improvised organum where one part is composed while another part is “improvised” (sung “by ear”).
This listening file is an example of how early organum might have sounded as a result of research or scholars at St John’s college of Cambridge England. Listen for parts of parallel motion as well as parts which are more independent of each other. When the parts sound more independent, we call this “contrary” motion”. Listen!!
Free Organum: Two of organum’s greatest innovators are Léonin and Pérotin – “the first international composers of polyphonic music”. They promoted the next development after parallel organum – the practice of free organum. The earliest examples of this style dating from around 1020–1050 utilize parallel motion and oblique motion with the upper voice moving while the tenor (lower voice) holds one note.
The rhythmic modes: Listen to the first three minutes of Gaude Maria Virgo, At the beginning, 0’00”, you hear long extended notes of the chant with improvised parts above. The chant notes are too long to have a feel or sense of the chant melody. This is because the chant melody is serving as a bass or foundation for the improvised parts sung above it. At 0’47” the chant is sung alone in monophonic texture. At 2’07” the return of florid organum occurs above the sustained chant notes as in the beginning. Note in this section the obvious trochee rhythm pattern in the free improvised higher part: long – short — long – short — long – short. (see rhythmic modes discussed below.. This represents the use of one of the rhythmic modes which appear in music of this time. Composers are beginning to organize music rhythmically and are introduce rhythmic patters (rhythmic modes).This introduction of contrary motion (voices moving in opposite directions) instead of only parallel motion – same direction) led to freer independent musical lines resulting in counterpoint or true polyphony (two or more independent voices. Free Organum: Free organum places places the chant in the lower voice. Florid or free organum has anywhere from two to six notes in the added voice sung over a single sustained pitchers in the original chant melody now called the tenor from the Latin tenere meaning “to hold”. The original plainchant melody (the tenor) is expanded into a succession of long held notes while the upper organal voice moves in extensive melismas on the long protracted notes s of the lower voice.
Rhythmic modes
A rhythmic mode was understood simply as a patterned sequence of long and short note values. The expressions “rhythmic mode” and “modal rhythm” names applied to this medieval practice. Rhythmic modes were first used by the Notre Dame School The patterns are all in a ternary meter. The six most often described, form the nucleus of the system, are (Apel 1961, 220; Reese 1940, 272). One may be familiar with thiese mores in the study of various forms of poetry in English literature. :
- Long-short (trochee)
- Short-long (iamb)
- Long-short-short (dactyl)
- Short-short-long (anapest)
- Long-long (spondee)
- Short-short (pyrrhic)
Notre Dame school
he Cathedral of Notre Dame and the University of Paris served as the center of musical composition and as a transmitter of musical theory in the 12th and 13th centuries. The presence of Léonin and Pérotin at the Notre Dame School made Paris the center of the musical world in the 12th century. As Magister Cantus of the Notre Dame, Léonin compiled the ‘Magnus Liber In hindsight, this turned out as a major event, as this was the first large-scale project attributable to a single composer. Not only is it a compilation for practical use during Mass and Office compassing the ecclesiastic year, it also introduces the use of the rhythmic modes (see above in Gaude Maria Virgo) as a creative principle. “Viderunt omnes” and “Sederunt principes” were performed in Notre Dame in 1198 on New Year’s Day and in 1199.
Listen to this beautiful example of Viderunt Omnes. The Chant melody is in the lower voice. If you listen carefully you can hear the separate syllables of the chant Vi–de–runt–Om–nes sung on the changing pitches of the chant song. Above this foundation is the improvised organum. At 6’17” the chant melody is sung in unison. Then the organum continues again. You may not need to listen to all of this work. It is included here as it is an especially beautiful rendition. In addition listen to the rhythm pattern of the free upper part the long short alluded to above is present (Rhythmic mode)
Pérotin, a generation removed from Léonin, introduced different rhythmic modes, increasing the rhythmic organization and diversity of the parts. These Organa that were created in Paris were disseminated throughout Europe.
As Parisian Organum is rooted in Gregorian chant tradition, it is categorized under Ars antiqua (Old Art) which is thus called in contrast to the Ars nova (New Art) which embarked on new forms that were in every sense original and no longer based on Gregorian chant and as such consisted a breach with the musical practice of the ancients. This division represents a significant change in the evolution of music in the middle ages. Ars Nova, discussed in the next topic follows.
Mode in the Middle Ages and Renaissance:
We are use to hearing music of today in two modes – major and minor ( review the topic – Scales, Module 1.)
Modal scales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_(medieval_music)
Modified by Robert Ford
| Authentic modes | Plagal modes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Dorian | II. | Hypodorian |
| III. | Phrygian | IV. | Hypophrygian |
| V. | Lydian | VI. | Hypolydian |
| VII. | Mixolydian | VIII. | Hypomixolydian |
Virtual Keyboard: You can actually play and hear different modes using the Virtual keyboard. .Click on the link below: http://www.apronus.com/music/flashpiano.htm
Read these directions to get started: First play the major and minor scales which we are use to hearing in today’s music. Play the major scale going from c to c playing only the white keys and then the minor scale going from a to a – again using only white keys. Now try the authentic modes (above) starting with the dorian (d to d), then the phrygian, e to e, the lydian f to f, and mixilodian g to g.
References[edit]
- Apel, Willi. 1949. “From St. Martial to Notre Dame”. Journal of the American Musicological Society 2, no. 3 (Autumn): 145–58.
- Fuller, Sarah. 1990. “Early Polyphony”. In The New Oxford History of Music 2: The Early Middle Ages to 1300, revised edition, edited by Richard Crocker and David Hiley, 485–556. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN 9780193163294.
- Johannes de Garlandia. 1972. De mensurabili musica, edited by Erich Reimer, 2 vols. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 10–11. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
- Lewis, Charlton, T. 1890. “Organum“. An Elementary Latin Dictionary. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. American Book Company. Online access at Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Gregory R. Crane, editor-in-chief (Accessed 26 December 2013).
- Lewis, Charlton T., and Charles Short. 1879. “Organum” Freund’s Latin Dictionary, revised, enlarged, and in great part rewritten by. Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and., LL.D. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1879. Online access at Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Gregory R. Crane, editor-in-chief (Accessed 26 December 2013).
- Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. 1940. “ὄργανον , τό, (ἔργον, ἔρδω)“. A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones, with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Online access at Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Gregory R. Crane, editor-in-chief (Accessed 26 December 2013).
- William G. Waite. The Rhythm of Twelfth Century Polyphony. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954. Second edition 1976. Apart from a selective transcription of the organa dupla by Leonin, this dissertation contains many quotations from the contemporary theorists preceding the transcription. Of particular interest is ‘The Notation of Organum Duplum, p. 106–27, from which quotes are taken.
Attribution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organum
Modified by Robert Ford