Music from the Medieval and Renaissance Ages

The Mass was a prime source of inspiration for the production of music in the Middle Ages. Since it was felt that the plainsong (chant) was divinely inspired by God, it was the task of the Medieval monk to preserve the music more than compose. As a result, the Middle Ages gives us the first extensive exploration of musical notation and as such the first real ability to actually hear a musical tradition. Since the focus of the Christian Church was extensively on the Mass - which was sung in its totality - we have a rich collection of chants sung for every day of the year. The Introit was the first thing sung in the Mass as the officiates enter the cathedral in a grand procession. The enormous stone vaulting was designed to carry the reverberation of the plainsong throughout the cathedral like overlapping waves of musical smoke. With the accompanying ceremonial procession richly adorned in sight and sound, it was the closest to heaven anyone was likely to get in the Medieval Age.

Introit for Christmas Day

Moniot d' Arras was one of the last of the Trouveres and wrote songs like many others to provide entertainment at tournaments, festivals, or at court. Subjects are almost always about the two elements of a Courtly Romance - chivalry and courtly love. His Ce fut en mai (It Happened in May) tells of an unhappy lover who finds solace in religious feeling. All that survives of the work (as is true with all Medieval secular songs) is a basic melody in which the singer was expected to improvise an instrumental accompaniment.

CE fut en mai - It Happened in May

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) is without doubt the most famous of Medieval secular composers. His career as both cleric and courtier inspired him to compose both sacred and secular music. An excerpt from the text of his Douce dame jolie shows the continuing grip that courtly love had on the poetry:

Douce dame jolie - Fair and Gentle Lady

Josquin Desprez (1440-1521) was a master of the Renaissance motet (he wrote over 100). His style would epitomize the Renaissance taste for naturalness without "affectations." A purity of sound and a pious humanism comes through in his a cappella works. His Ave Maria is just one of many works of the time dedicated to Marian worship. This one, like most, was written in four parts and depending on the choral resources would be sung by as few as four performers.

Ave Maria

John Farmer (16th century) was one of the most noted English madrigal composers. Fast, fleeting, and light... his style is typical of the English approach to the genre. Fair Phyllis is a light-hearted poem which allows Farmer to playfully combine the polyphonic texture into a series of engaging points of imitation. Listen closely and the innocent text turns out to be less-so once all four parts get involved.

Fair Phyllis
Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all along,
Feeding her flock near to the mountainside.
The shepherds knew not whither she was gone,
But after her lover Amyntas hied.
Up and down he wandered, whilst she was missing;
When he found her, o, then they fell a-kissing.

Jacob Arcadelt (1505-1560) was for a time the head of the Pope's chapel, though this didn't stop him from writing madrigals. His madrigals are like many in the Italian tradition with sentimental or erotic subjects supported by complex polyphony and rich harmony. His madrigals would have been sung in all types of courtly settings (not unlike the gathering Castiglione describes in The Courtier). Between 1530 and 1600 over two thousand collections of madrigals were published, Arcadelt's work being among them.

The Sweet White Swan
The sweet white swan dies while singing,
And I while weeping reach the end of my life.
What a strange and different fate,
For he dies comfortless,
While I die a blissful death,
A death which
Fills me with joy and desire.
If I feel no other pain than this in dying,
I should be content to die a thousands deaths a day.

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter