Medieval Music (c.500 - c.1400 A.D.)
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| Introit: puer natus est nobis |
In the Middle Ages, a time of poverty, feudalism, wars, strong power of the Catholic Church, Greeks and Roman ancient world, Plato and Aristotle, the Music had essential importance. In Philosophy it was seen as science, believing that music could actually affect human character and behavior according to which harmonia (modes) one's listen to. In sacred liturgy, it played a major role and served a functional purpose in worship, in the form of monophonic Chants. Music also served as recreation and artistic creativity for the society as a whole.
The Medieval Catholic Church for sure played a major role in the development of music at that time, but today I'd like to go further from the sacred music and talk about the secular chansons, focusing in the music of Comtessa de Dia (late twelfth century).
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| Troubadours |
Chanson in the french word for song. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance is associated with the French polyphonic songs performed by poet-musicians known as troubadours. The most common types of Chanson were the Canso, which was the Troubadour name for a strophic song having courtly love as its main theme, more specifically about a lovers' complaint. It is very unfortunate that not a lot of their music have survived.
For me, "A Chantar" by Comtessa de Dia is one of the most significant Canso out of all because is written by the only Trobairitz (female troubadour) known to have her music survived. Its was written around 1175. On this Canso the role of the person in love is now inverted, because in this Canso the person in love is a woman who sings about a man. In my opinion her lyrics are vivid, and gives me an idea of a more realistic love rather than regular Cansos written by men where the love is idealized. The poem is written in the Occitan language, which it was spoken in where is the Southern part of France nowadays, and it is strophic.
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| A Chantar |
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| Comtessa de Dia |
The form of the music is quite simple, AAB, but she decided to include last musical phrase of the A section at the very end of the song, which gives a strong sense of definition to the end of the song. The melody is quite simple and syllabic. The instrumental accompaniment flows with the singing part, not distracting the listener from its main melody and lyrics. Since the music notation of that time does not indicate rhythm, performing it today is quite a challenge. Below you can ear this amazing song performed by Clemencic Consort with English lyrics.
References
Seaton, Douglass. Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1991. Print.
Latham, Alison. The Oxford Dictionary of Musical Terms. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.
Burkholder, James Peter, and Claude V. Palisca. Norton Anthology of Western Music.Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
I wonder how many other women composers there were at the time...I liked your point about the difference in meaning in the text written by a woman versus the meaning in the text written by a man! Good observation...I wouldn't have thought of that.
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