The Classical Music Minute

Medieval Music Era In A Nutshell

June 06, 2022 Steven Hobé, Composer & Host Season 1 Episode 58
The Classical Music Minute
Medieval Music Era In A Nutshell
Show Notes Transcript

Description
Medieval Western European music encompassed sacred and secular genres in the Middle Ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. It spans centuries and is worth considering as an integral part of our musical development.  Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
Hildegard von Bingen was a rare Medieval female composer. Also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by many in Europe to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

Support the show

The Medieval period of music history began around the fall of the Roman empire in 476 AD and spanned to roughly 1400 and the beginning of the Renaissance. So a long stretch of time!

Medieval-era music centred primarily around the church and developed significantly over the centuries.

It began with Monophonic chant, based on a single unison melodic line. Then Heterophonic singing added a second vocal line. Polyphonic genres, such as Ars Nova or "new art" followed in which multiple independent melodic lines. 

The vast majority of Medieval music has not survived due to music notation being infrequent. However, some have. There is the work of Léonin, a French composer famous for pioneering polyphonic composition in the style known as organum.

Pérotin who is remembered for such works as Magnus liber organi. And Hildegard von Bingen who composed monophonic chants specializing in music for women's voices.