Today I'll be looking some of the
origins of music notation and also finding out if the medieval populace preferred
sacred or secular music.
Secular
profanity in a sacred age.
What did they really sing about in the Middle
Ages? Exactly what made these people tick? If I start with a short
song outline, a pastorela, it may help define the
mindset of these early 12th century ancestors of ours:
A knight riding through the green hills
comes across a lovely shepherdess; he courteously proposes an indecent act.
This is typical 12th century style. Morality at this time led stories to an often
non-platonic conclusion. While the slight possibility of a knight failing to
seduce the shepherdess added enough suspense to satisfy audiences again and
again. That the pastorela was a highly popular format is in no doubt, as it
clearly and consciously reflected a pastoral lifestyle led by all during the
medieval period.
What exactly is medieval? Formed
from the Latin words medium aevum 'the middle age'. Medieval as a word
was first used towards the end of the 1700's to describe the period between the
11th century and
Renaissance or 're-birth' around the 15th century. Let's look at some of the religious elements and see
whether sacred or secular music held more relevance among the populace of the
time.
Traditions,
Troubadours & Trovères.
One of the earliest figures in liturgical
church history was Gregory the great (540 - 604). Gregory had a profound
impact on the music of his time, though not as a composer. Eventually
becoming Pope (c. 590), he was intent on standardizing sacred music to fit with
current Roman liturgy.
Around 596, sending forty Benedictine
monks to England carrying liturgical books, he was to forever shape early
music, the Gregorian chant was born. Three hundred years later Gregorian
chant had reached its highest peak in Europe. The chant, a doxology sung as a
simple monophonic line, used a notation system called 'neumes', which were a
series of squiggles, symbols and lines. Eventually this so called
'neumatic' notation appeared written on staff-less pages, above the sacred
text.
Shuttling forward to 1100, we find another
exponent of liturgical writing, in Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard (1098 -
1179), a nun and an artist, who, legend tells us, received her music direct
from the deity, also had a profound influence on medieval music and
notation. By Hildegard's time notation had progressed further still, now
using the more familiar looking square note heads, on a series of parallel
lines. Still, sacred music was very much an elitist entity, practiced by
the wealthy and literate. The commoner's experience of the sacred was an
altogether different one. Outside the sacred realm they would have
encountered the 'Troubadours' and 'Trovères', traveling minstrels in a
musically secular society.
The 1100s were brutal times in many
ways. With a life span of around 30 years, most Europeans lived under the
feudal system and were known as 'vassals'. As a vassal one would work the
land, protected from attack by knights, through whom a tax was paid to a
lord. Lords then looked after their knights splendidly, on the
understanding that each knight shall lay down his life to protect both lord and
vassal. This seemingly noble existence lead to the rise of chivalry, the
epitome of medieval knighthood and the subject matter of many songs.
The carriers of these ennobling but often
satirical secular songs were known as troubadours, originating from western
France, one of the first was William IX of Aquitaine (1071-1127). So what did they sing about? Mainly, troubadour
songs consisted of the chanson or l'amour courtois (courtly love). Courtly love sang of unattainable love, often between a knight and a
noble woman. He, never sated, yearns for the object of his desire.
In fact this idea dominated secular music for a century or two, echoes of which
can still be found in popular music today.
Just like today, even the writers of
music were often not the performers, this job fell to the jongleurs (or
jugglers). Jongleurs were of a lower social class, jacks-of-all-trades
who helped in the dissemination of chansons, thus enabling them to reach a
wider audience. At the other end of the scale from these troubadours we
find the trovères, who came from the slightly richer northern French
provinces. Often trovères were aristocratic and wealthy, with the ability
to write songs down; jongleurs merely provided a link between the two.
Over five thousand poems are known to exist from these combined genres,
although only a third have surviving melodies.
Were profane songs or those based on a
sacred text more in vogue? Secular music of the time undoubtedly
exploited the inexhaustible subject of unrequited love. Another early
narrative form, known as chansons de toile (picture
songs), often wrote of the dissatisfaction of a woman due to the absence of her
lover, or indeed the presence of her husband. However, aristocratic
trovères wrote about many secular subjects, such as the legends of King Arthur
and other myths.
Many songs were simply profane rants,
often attacking a person's physical attributes. Songs known as sirventes
were also of major importance. Now
accepted as 'songs of service' for the lord to whom a troubadour or trovère may
serve, sirventes often painted a vivid picture of the moral code, life style
and manners of the time.
Which became more important? Was
sacred music too far removed from general involvement, because of the elite
nature of its setting and patronage? Possibly, education during the 12th century only ever became accessible
through the church, as they had access to books, and employed learned
ministers. Church scholars were certainly able to write music down,
unlike the many traveling artists of the time, who relied on aural tradition to
pass music on. Widespread printing did not become available until William
Caxton introduced the first English text printing press in 1477. Books
were unavailable, leaving most of the general population illiterate, while
their experience of Christian doctrine at that time was almost purely
pictorial, where illustrations from the bible existed on woodcuts only.
Alas, accusations of idolatry were abundant 'Not to worship the picture but
to worship from the story depicted what should be worshipped.'
Sacred music, especially during Christian
liturgy, also touched on subjects many vassals would have found hard to embrace
in the absence of literacy. The Planctus Marie for instance, conveys
Mary's involvement in the suffering of Christ in a dramatic form. An idea far removed from the common themes
of love and lust most people of this era were accustomed to. Even access
to musical instruments had its limits.
During the early medieval period, we find
the use of musical instruments in church was often frowned upon. Indeed
even today many orthodox Jewish churches have introduced the organ only
relatively recently, and some still rely on voices alone. Apart from the
organ, the only other instruments widely admitted to church use were small
bells or cymbala. Instruments themselves also held an idiomatic significance, the Lute and
Harp were considered the noblest of instruments. Trumpets had the honour
of accompanying a king's arrival or an army's presence. While the vielle,
played by many jongleurs, became linked with beggars and low life
characters.
Dancing was an almost daily ritual during
the 12th century, many poetic
dance songs known as balada or dansa, were
written for the sole purpose of dance. Often the subject matter would be
joyous, the rites of spring or the simple enjoyment of life and love.
Carefree banality was always at the forefront of these frivolous tunes, and it
was rare for sacred sentiment to be expressed at a dance, although reflective
moments were sometimes found within the jollity.
Idolatry
and Illiteracy.
To answer the question, 'which was more
important during the medieval period, sacred music
or secular'? We also need to ask, 'to whom was
it more important'? A thing only has value if the perceiver values it,
after all. For the large medieval majority their illiterate haze
prevented almost anything more than a superficial understanding of the Christ
story. Illiteracy inadvertently led them to idolatry, and, in an attempt
to make sense of the religious doctrine they were constantly bombarded with,
they sought a release, which became unintentionally secular in nature.
The real opposite of the sacred is
the profane. The profane steps further outside the secular in an almost
mockingly irreverent fashion. We see many troubadour songs dealing with
the profanity of their time and, in nearly all cases from a firmly secular
viewpoint. Parallels can be drawn with today, we have the trained elite,
for whom often the boundaries of music and worship become blurred. This
is normal. Also normal is the 'common' industry, a musical free for all,
in which secularism, or more precisely non-theistic and profane lyricism is
acceptable. The larger of the two groups is of course the latter, but
does this make the music more important? Even now we could argue that
sacred and secular music is as equally important and unimportant today, as it
was in 1170.
Mass appeal gives an item weight but does
it really impart importance? Well, yes. To all those who held secular
medieval music dear, who survived on the money it gave them, who found it the
very centre of their world. It was beyond important. I do of course
believe sacred music has, in many ways, led to all the wonderfully erudite
compositions we know and love today. For the people of the 12th century though, secular music appears to
have enriched their lives in an immeasurably important way.
- David.
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