I.

Introduction

Early Music, inclusive term to describe European music from c. 900 to c. 1400 (also referred to as Medieval Music) and, alternatively, a recent movement relating to the performance practice of pre-19th-century music.

II.

European Music, c. 900-1400

A.

Sacred Monody

Although the earliest sources of polyphonic (multipart) music date from the start of this period (for example, Musica Enchiriadis, c. 850), the main received traditions were monophonic (single part). There is still considerable debate about the exact origins of the liturgical chant which is known today as plainsong, or, more popularly, Gregorian chant. Surviving manuscripts from the late 9th century display a range of regional styles and use types of musical notation (neumes) which indicate only the approximate contours of the melodies.

However, the 10th-12th centuries saw significant developments within this repertory. New poetic and musical items (for example, sequences, tropes, and conductus) were added to the traditional liturgy and the theoretical innovations of Guido d'Arezzo (c. 1030) led to the production of complete chant books using simple staff notation. Perhaps one of the most important of the new forms was liturgical drama which flourished between c. 1000 and c. 1200. The earliest examples re-enact the visit of the Three Marys to Christ's tomb (Visitatio Sepulchri) using expanded versions of the plainsong dialogues between the Angels and the Marys that had been introduced into the ceremonies of Holy Saturday (Easter Eve). Later church dramas use other subjects from both the New and Old Testaments (for example, Ordo Prophetarum) and, occasionally, the lives and miracles of saints (for example, the St Nicholas plays in the Fleury Playbook). The musical settings continued to draw on plainchant models but augmented their expressive vocabulary with passionate laments (planctus) or cries of rage. It is likely that some of the dramas were written for the diversion of choristers (for example, The Play of Daniel) as well as for Christian instruction.

B.

Secular Monody

By comparison with the wealth of sources of sacred monody from c. 900, the repertory of secular song before c. 1150 is relatively undocumented apart from the occasional quotation of popular poetic refrains in later romances, plays, and polyphony. Even when musical notation is preserved this cannot be guaranteed to be the original setting. However, with the rise of langue d'oc (Provençal) and langue d'oïl (an early form of French) as poetic languages in the 12th and 13th centuries, substantial repertories of troubadour and trouvère songs were created for the courts of the French nobility. The Troubadours (active in the south of France) and the Trouvères (active in the north) came from varied social backgrounds but the majority were of aristocratic birth and wrote within the conventions of courtly love which elevated women to a new position of importance in society. It is no coincidence that this period witnessed the growth of the Virgin Mary cult but it was also the age of crusades and, consequently, the themes of war and separation feature prominently in the output of these poet-musicians whose influence quickly spread through Germany, Italy, and Spain.

In general, the songs of the trouvères demonstrate a greater concern for formal organization than those of the troubadours and anticipate certain of the structures of 14th- and 15th-century chansons (the rondeau in particular). Over 2,000 of their compositions survive in the chansoniers (song anthologies copied in the late 13th and 14th centuries) which not only identify many of the composers (for example, Thibaut IV, King of Navarre, 1201-1253) but also provide brief pen-portraits (vidas) of the more celebrated figures. Secular monody declined after c. 1300 but was kept alive briefly in the trouvère-inspired virelais and lais of Machaut.

C.

Polyphony

By the time that Adam de la Halle (one of the last trouvères) was adding simple harmonic accompaniments to his songs, the great abbeys and collegiate churches of Europe had witnessed over 400 years of experimentation with written polyphony. No doubt there had been improvised part-music in both sacred and secular contexts before records began, but from c. 850 to c. 1150 it is possible to trace the development of a type of liturgical polyphony known as organum from simple parallel duplications of plainsong at the octave, fifth, or fourth to more sophisticated versions in which the plainsong is stated in long, drone-like values (known as the tenor) beneath an exuberant upper voice (known as the cantus). Important manuscripts containing examples of this repertory have survived at Winchester, Limoges, Chartres, and Santiago de Compostella. The peak of this process of embellishing the liturgy (mainly the Proper of the Mass) is represented by the School of Notre Dame in Paris during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Two composers are known to us by name: Léonin (who is credited with compiling the Magnus Liber Organi, c. 1180) and Pérotin, who is thought to have revised and added to his predecessor's work (c. 1200). It seems very likely that both played major roles in the development of the earliest form of rhythmic notation based on six rhythmic modes (named after the Greek poetic patterns—trochaic, iambic, and so on). The application of metrical patterns (roughly equivalent to modern compound duple rhythms) to the upper voices of organum—and sometimes to plainsong tenors too—revitalized the form and opened the way for an accelerated development of notation and allied compositional techniques in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Because organum itself had evolved as a decoration of the solo sections of plainsong Introits and Graduals, it is logical to assume that it too was performed by soloists. Indeed, the constant overlapping and interchange of voices in, for example, Pérotin's four-part Viderunt (Gradual for Christmas) presupposes a clarity of execution that could best have been achieved with the use of one voice to a part. There is also much evidence of the upper part(s) of organum being supplied with additional texts (tropes) in sections where the tenor moves metrically with the other part(s). These sections (clausulae) seem to have been performed as self-contained pieces of devotional or recreational chamber music as well as within their original organum contexts. By c. 1240 upper parts in French as well as in Latin were being invented and these were termed motetus (French, mots,”words”)—a title that was subsequently applied to complete works.

During the second half of the 13th century, the motet became established as the main form of polyphonic art music in Europe. Numerous manuscript collections (some copied after 1300) attest to its significance and popularity. The Montpellier manuscript, for example, contains over 300 motets in two, three, and four parts whose subjects range from the religious to the erotic—and often contain a juxtaposition of the two in Latin and French. One important genre, the pastourelle-motet, relates incidents from the rustic courtship of shepherds and shepherdesses and introduces cross-cultural intrusions in the person of a knight bent on seduction. This influence of troubadour and trouvère poetic conventions is often combined with the quotation of common poetic refrains or (in about 20 cases) the use of French secular songs and dances in place of the usual plainsong tenors.

One consequence of the use of narrative texts in the upper parts of motets was the need for shorter note-values to enable the words to be set syllabically. Solutions were supplied by the theorists Franco of Cologne (c. 1260), who introduced a form of mensural (measured) notation which included the semibreve as a distinct unit (approximately equal to a modern semiquaver, or 16th note, in transcription), and Petrus de Cruce (c. 1280), who further extended the flexibility of the system to allow for the grouping of up to seven semibreves, thus enabling words to be declaimed more rapidly. These notational developments provided the seed-bed for Ars Nova (the new art), the principles of which were encapsulated in the eponymous treatise (c. 1325) by Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361). Amongst other notational refinements, Vitry (and other contemporary theorists) introduced a further note-value (the minim), time signatures, and a more systematic method of indicating rests. For the first time it was possible to notate syncopation—a practice which reached a high level of complexity in the so-called Ars Subtilor (mannered style) of the late 14th-century papal court at Avignon.

Although it is more logical to use the term Ars Nova to describe music of only the first half of the 14th century, it is now widely adopted as a stylistic label for the whole period, c. 1300-c. 1400. Writers of the time had themselves coined the term Ars Antiqua to refer to the previous century, c. 1200-c. 1300. Apart from notational innovations, the new art of the 14th century established a number of technical approaches to composition that were far-reaching in their influence. One of these, isorhythm (Latin, “the same rhythm”), built on the repeated rhythmic patterns used in the tenors of Ars Antiqua motets and applied the same principles to the upper voices of motets and polyphonic Mass movements as well as to the tenors. The motet itself continued to be used as both a sacred and a secular form, as in the 13th century, and was also adopted as a medium for political debate and satire (as in Le Roman de Fauvel, an extensive satirical poem (c. 1310-1314) with 167 musical items—several by Philippe de Vitry).

Whereas isorhythmic motets were composed starting with the tenor (usually the lowest part), polyphonic chansons of the Ars Nova period appear to have been constructed from the highest voice (cantus) downwards—the lower part(s) acting as an accompaniment to a more expressive melody which set poetry in one of the established formes fixes (rondeau, ballade, and virelai in France). The musical (as opposed to poetic) structures were based on the use of two counterbalancing sections which were repeated with the same or new text depending on the form being employed. The use of canon was not uncommon, especially in songs about hunting (in its widest definition) known as chace (in France) or caccia (in Italy). Occasionally, chansons made use of motet techniques when they quoted a popular melody in the tenor part. Such use of a cantus firmus (fixed melody) was to be further exploited in Mass settings, especially in the first half of the 15th century.

The two leading 14th-century composers were Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini (c. 1325-1397). The preservation of their works in exquisite manuscripts reflects the esteem in which they were held by their contemporaries and successors. Their respective outputs are indicators of the popularity of the motet and formes fixes in France and, in Italy, of the madrigal (not to be confused with the 16th-century type) and ballata. Machaut is also the first known composer of a complete polyphonic setting of the Ordinary of the Mass and was a poet of considerable standing in his day. His works are characterized by a refined application of isorhythm and syncopation that sometimes leads to his music being described as intellectual or angular. This is less than fair since his compositions are always sensitive to the text and exude a joyous delight in the opportunities for vocal display. By comparison, Landini is justly praised for his flowing melodic style and more gracious rhythmic manners. In a real sense his music rehearses some of the features of later Italian bel canto style.

Relatively little instrumental music survives from the period under discussion. The small number of estampies (structure: AABBCC, etc.) that are preserved in various 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts are mostly monophonic and occasionally bear colourful titles (for example, Lamento di Tristan). From c. 1325 a growing number of keyboard arrangements of vocal compositions (including some by Vitry in the Robertsbridge Codex) represent the beginnings of a tradition which culminates in 15th-century collections such as the Buxheim Organ Book (c. 1470). Music of the 15th century was to draw heavily on the techniques and structures of the Ars Nova period. In England, particularly, the development of a richer harmonic idiom reached fruition in the Mass settings and motets of Leonel Power (c. 1370/85-1445), John Dunstable, and others included in the Old Hall manuscript (copied in the early 15th century). The synthesis of national styles which coincided with the establishment of the Mass Cycle as a major art form in Europe (c. 1430-1470) was stimulated to a large extent by the popularity and influence of English music on the continent.

III.

Performance Practice

In this second sense, Early Music refers to the movement concerned with the authentic performance of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. Initially identified with the pioneering work of David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London, which he directed, the term is now generally used as an umbrella description for all applied scholarship which aims to recreate the conditions and performing conventions of a composition's original performance(s). In 1973 a British quarterly magazine with the same name was founded by John Thompson with the aim of creating a forum for performers, musicologists, instrument makers, and organologists. It rapidly proved to be an outstanding success in focusing attention on fundamental issues in editing and performance practice and was influential in setting up regional Early Music Forums in Britain and a national body to coordinate the work of educational organizations and amateur, as well as professional, groups. Since c. 1970 Early Music festivals and exhibitions of reproduction early instruments have proliferated across Europe and North America. The British Broadcasting Corporation and other broadcasting bodies regularly promote recitals and educational programmes in this field as do the Arts Council and the London Early Music Centre. As a description of a repertory which now extends from pre-Christian chant to 19th- and even early 20th-century works, the term Early Music is so widely employed as to be meaningless or misleading. But as a synonym for authenticity it has proved a valuable concept, albeit often associated with preciosity in some quarters.