Explore characteristics of medieval music. Learn about how music in the Middle Ages evolved and read about medieval musical instruments, composers, and notation.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Medieval Music | Characteristics, Instruments & History
In the field of western classical music history, the term ''early music'' refers to any music written between the medieval period or Middle Ages (500-1450 C.E.) and the early Baroque Era (1600-1750). Although music has been made by humans for most of recorded history, scholars begin discussions of the development of western classical music with medieval music.
Medieval music progressed through the 14th century and eventually developed into Renaissance Era music. As such, medieval music is seen as a much simpler, earlier prototype of what would eventually be the classical music sounds known by modern audiences.
One of the most important medieval music facts is its intensely strong ties to the Christian church. Although both sacred and secular compositions existed in Middle Ages music, it is important to note that most secular music was of folk origins. This means that most secular music was created, performed, and passed down orally by traveling musicians. Secular music was written down in the church liturgy and better preserved for historical records. Much like modern-day music, the characteristics of medieval music varied depending on the genre. Because secular and sacred music were entirely separate in form and function, the sound characteristics, instrumentation, and song forms are somewhat different.
These musical characteristics also evolved through the early medieval, high medieval, and late medieval periods, yet some common characteristics that persisted throughout the period include:
- Monophony- music that features a single line of melody and no accompaniment or harmony
- Development and use of early music notation systems- ''neumes'' above text indicated pitch direction changes and loose rhythms, but not exact pitch as in modern music notation
- Early medieval musical instruments- lutes, psalteries, lyra, and others were prevalent
- Troubadours and Trouvères- traveling secular musicians of Northern and Southern France
- Rhythms and modes- looser structures of rhythm and tonal centers than in modern music
Early Medieval Ages
At the start of the medieval period, a type of monophonic, single-line melody meant to be sung in the church or sacred setting began to spread in popularity across Europe. This somber sacred music called plainchant or plainsong, became a dominant song form in Middle Ages music.
Gregorian chant was born from this medieval monophonic music. Gregorian chant was a sacred song form within the medieval Catholic church that was typically monophonic, sung in unison even with multiple performers, devoid of harmony, meter, or accompaniment, and without a strict rhythmic structure. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this version of ''sung prayer'' soon became the standard liturgical music for the Catholic church for many centuries to follow.
High Medieval Ages
As with most trends in music, plainchant, Gregorian chant, and monophonic music began to evolve as composers experimented with form and layers of sound. Although monophony was still a widely used musical texture, the high medieval ages saw the development of heterophonic and polyphonic textures.
Heterophony, the simultaneous performance of multiple musical lines with a primary melodic line, was developed through a practice called organum. Organum, sacred music with two vocal parts, took the original monophonic melody line of plainchant and layered it with a second line which would follow the original line, a perfect fourth or perfect fifth above or below. This new two-voiced sacred song would eventually evolve into a more sophisticated song form, the motet. Motets would continue to add three or four more vocal lines against the main melody, creating a richer sound.
The development of the motet would prove to be extremely important to the future of secular music and later style periods like the Renaissance and Baroque Eras. The rise of the motet signaled a true shift in composition style. A focus on polyphony, the simultaneous performance of two or more unique melody lines, began to take hold by the late medieval period.
Late Medieval Ages
Music was seen as a tool of sacred worship during most of the medieval ages. Plainchant and Gregorian chant were used in the Catholic liturgy, and liturgical dramas were invented as a way of presenting this music to theater audiences. However, with the advent of the motet, secular music began to evolve and become more commonplace. If an overarching theme could be assigned to secular music of the Middle Ages, it would certainly be the idea of courtly love. Courtly love was a relatively new concept in the arts, and it addressed feelings of romantic love, chivalry, and other elevated ideas of romance.
During this time, leaders of secular music performance were the troubadours and trouvères. Troubadours hailed from Southern France, while trouvères were positioned in northern France. These musicians, regardless of origin, would travel across Europe from township to township, performing secular music for informal audiences. Many troubadours would perform plainsong about courtly love, chivalry, and travel and would often accompany themselves with instruments like the lute.
Ars Nova or ''new art'' was particularly influential during the late medieval ages. Developed by Philippe de Vitry, a French music theorist, this more stylized Ars Nova utilized polyphonic music textures unlike any music before and directly influenced the transition to later Renaissance Era music forms. Ars Nova song forms like the chanson, a French polyphonic vocal work set to poetry, resulted from years of experimentation and evolution from earlier forms like the organum and motet.
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As popularity of secular music increased in the late medieval period, the need for instruments to accompany the more complex musical textures developed simultaneously. Many medieval musical instruments have since fallen out of popular favor or have evolved into modern versions of instruments used in modern western classical and folk music.
Unlike today, medieval musical instruments were not classified into instrument families based on similar characteristics. Because of the characteristics of medieval music and the importance of setting and function, instruments were instead classified by loudness (haut) and softness (bas). Haut instruments were meant to be played in outdoor settings and could include:
- shawm- an ancestor of the modern oboe. A double-reed woodwind instrument with a tone quality similar to a trumpet and used for outdoor events
- sackbut- an ancestor to the modern trombone with a narrower bell
- buisine- a non-valved straight trumpet, usually longer than a modern trumpet
Bas instruments were more suitable for works written for indoor events, accompanying a vocalist, or chamber works involving multiple instruments. Examples of bas instruments include:
- recorder- similar to the modern recorder. Medieval recorders were made of wood, with eight open finger holes
- lute- a medieval relative of the modern guitar, with a deep-set body. Made in various sizes
- psaltery- a medieval hammered dulcimer-style string instrument. Held in the lap of the performer, this instrument would eventually become the predecessor of the harpsichord
- harp- a smaller, handheld ancestor to the modern pedal harp and a popular instrument among medieval troubadour musicians
- hurdy gurdy- a crank-organ style medieval cousin to the violin. While a wheel is cranked, a drone pitch sounds. A keyboard-string mechanism is used to create melody notes with the other hand
- viol (viola da gamba)- an ancestor to the modern cello, this stringed instrument was held between the legs in a similar fashion
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Most composers of medieval songs were focused on sacred music and were expected to follow a specific set of rules. The rules for medieval music notation were meant to avoid writing music that would elicit the condemnation of God. There were composers dealing in secular music as well, but because of the formal notation traditions of the church, more medieval church music survived in historical records. Composers of this period are not as widely-known as composers of later style periods, but their contributions to western classical music are important nonetheless.
Stephen of Liège was one of the earliest recorded composers of medieval music. His music is largely known through oral traditions since his music pre-dated formal music notation systems. Stephen of Liège wrote Gregorian chant and monophonic plainsong.
Hildegard von Bingen is largely considered one of Western music history's most influential medieval composers. A highly-educated German abbess, writer, and composer, she claimed her music came to her through divine imagery during prayer and meditations. She is most known for her monophonic sacred works and Ordo Virtutum, the first recorded ''morality play''.
Léonin was a high medieval French composer who was central to the development of polyphonic organum. He was credited as the first composer to experiment with polyphonic art music.
Pérotin was an Ars Nova French composer who was mostly known for expanding Léonin's two-part organum into a four-part vocal polyphony. He is often credited with setting a precedent for four-part vocal harmony, a cornerstone of western classical music.
Guillaume de Machaut was an influential composer of the Ars Nova style. Widely considered one of the most important composers of the late medieval period, his career is one of the first to be extensively recorded by historians. His music focused on themes of courtly love. Although Machaut is mainly known for his secular compositions, he is also famous for a select number of large sacred works, including the polyphonic mass Messe de Nostre Dame.
Music of the medieval period (500-1450 A.D.) is considered an early predecessor of western classical music. Medieval music was heavily tied to the Christian church. Some of the earliest recorded compositions of the period are plainchant works called Gregorian chant (monophonic texture songs written to be performed in the church). Composers were often expected to follow certain songwriting guidelines to avoid writing must that would elicit the condemnation of God. Gregorian chant later developed into organum, sacred music composition with two vocal parts instead of one.
Secular music also became prominent in the later medieval period. Traveling French musicians called troubadours performed songs about courtly love, chivalry, and travel for informal audiences in townships across Europe. Medieval music would set the foundation for western classical music as it is known today.
Video Transcript
The Fall of Rome, The Rise of the Western European Church
What do you do after the fall of Rome? You party! (Church-style, of course.) The medieval period lasted from approximately 500-1450 A.D. and was a time of heavy church influence. Music was obviously around before this time and had various developments, but during the medieval period, the use and creation of music was regulated by the church.
Music for the Church
Why could the church suddenly inflict rules on such a free-spirited art? Money and fear. The church was a main patron of the arts, including music. Many musicians were trained in the church, and the church had the financial means to buy such extravagant items like paper, where eventually music was written down. Our current system of music notation is even rooted in the developments made in the medieval church! The church was also full of God-fearing Christians who were devoted to serving God and not making him angry, and this of course included only making music that would align with this purpose.
Early Medieval Church Music
Because of these circumstances, medieval church music had very specific rules, including what was acceptable in chanting prayers. Chanting of this time period is called plainchant and is sometimes referred to as Gregorian chant, since Pope Gregory standardized chant for the liturgy. It was standardized to promote unification of the churches throughout Europe and to rid the churchgoers of their pesky pagan tendencies. Pope Gregory was actually credited with quite a few things he may or may not have done, including the dictation of these chants from a dove who flew down from the heavens and perched on his shoulder. Even his scribe didn't quite believe him and had to peek behind the screen to see for himself. In any case, Pope Gregory remains the legendary transcriber of these chants.
The music itself was monophonic, meaning it was one melody without harmony, resulting in just one musical part. Monks would sing the prayers together in unison, so it sounded like this. You should notice that there are no background singers or instruments.
Mid-Medieval Church Music
Around the year 900, some simple harmony of two vocal parts was allowed. This was possibly because singing one part all of the time is boring or because some monks couldn't sing in tune. This type of simple two-part medieval harmony is called organum. The harmony was made in one of two ways: Sometimes a drone, or low, continuous note, was sung while the main melody was sung at the same time. Drones are still used often in bagpipe music today. Other times, the words of the song would be sung on two different pitches at the same time.
One composer of mid-medieval music was a nun named Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard was a German nun who wrote over 70 works of plainchant. She is known for writing songs that were uncharacteristically melodic for the time period.
Late Medieval Church Music
By the late 1100s, church music was becoming more and more polyphonic, with two or more differing parts. The French composer Leonin of the Notre Dame cathedral, and his student, Perotin, are generally credited with composing the first significant polyphonic church music and creating plausible guidelines for composing polyphonic music. Both composers added more vocal parts and developed rhythmic notation into measurable notes. Later, motets, which were sacred songs with multiple vocal parts of varying texts, also became popular.
Medieval Music Outside the Church
By the late medieval period, secular, or non-religious music, was becoming prevalent outside of the church. The musical developments made within the church were utilized there as well. Royalty also played a prominent part in musical development, since they too could afford to train musicians and pay composers to entertain them. Two types of court musicians and poets were called minstrels and troubadours. Minstrels were a bit less refined than troubadours and had other jobs of entertaining, such as juggling. Troubadours, on the other hand, sang songs of chivalry and courtly love. Troubadours also sang of travel and faraway lands, as they were quite the jet setters of the day. Secular songs became more and more complex, with multiple voices and instruments being used.
The end of medieval period music is around the 1400s, and Guillaume de Machaut was a key composer in ushering the change of music and style. Literally one of the first Renaissance men, Machaut was a composer and poet who wrote both sacred and secular music. He is considered one of the most important and influential composers of his time. His efforts contributed to the Ars Nova school of musical thought, which encompassed more complex rhythms and polyphony of secular music.
Lesson Summary
The medieval period (500-1450 A.D.) was a time of great musical growth in Europe. While the medieval church was initially resistant to harmony, it soon embraced the sonorous qualities of polyphonic music. As the medieval period carried on, more and more secular music was created, and the great musical accomplishments were made without consideration of the church. The sacred chants of the liturgy called plainchant were monophonic, or made of one musical part.
This eventually developed into organum and contained two simple vocal parts. Polyphonic music, which has many musical parts at a time, developed in the mid-medieval period and was used in progressively more complex ways, such as in motets, which are sacred songs with multiple vocal parts of varying texts. The secular music world flourished as minstrels and troubadours sang of courtly love while entertaining the royal court.
Learning Outcome
The video will make it easier for you to:
- Examine the musical growth within the medieval period
- Analyze how the church influenced and controlled music
- Recognize how music changed from the early medieval period through to the late medieval period
- Examine secular music in the late medieval period
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FAQ
What is the example of medieval song?
Medieval music was sacred and secular, however most music saved to history was of a secular nature. Most secular songs of the time dealt in themes of chivalry and courtly love. One of the most famous sacred works of the Middle Ages was the masterwork polyphonic mass Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut.
What was the oldest medieval musical instrument?
Music like in other human cultures, the human voice and flute-like instruments are some of the oldest musical instruments to be recorded. Other instruments such as string instruments, reed instruments, and were popular medieval music instruments. Each evolved independently and simultaneously.
What is the musical elements of medieval music?
The most recognizable musical element of medieval music is monophonic texture. Monophony is the performance of a single melody line, unaccompanied. Later, other instrument began to be included in performances, such as the lute. Rhythm and tonal center are also looser in structure than modern musical forms.
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