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The Birth of Church Music: Purpose, Polyphony, and the Forming of New Art
In this episode, Christen Crumpler investigates the relationship between music and religion during the Middle Ages. While the musical stylings were under restrictive guidelines, the music still managed to reach artistic creativity—with its purpose changing with the aging period. We look back at western music’s development for better clarity on its historical ties to today.
Episode Notes
Research:
The History of Music
Killcoyne, Hope. 2015. The History of Music. Rosen Publishing Group. (Retrieved August 4, 2021.)
The Middle Ages
Music Appreciation “Introduction: The Middle Ages”
Musical Performance – The Middle Ages
Music Appreciation “Week 5: The Middle Ages”
Western Civilization “Daily Medieval Life”
St. Gregory the Great
Medieval Holidays
Gregorian Chant for Christmas
Music:
“Victory In Praise” by Cast of Characters
“The First Delphic Hymn To Apollo (Ancient Greek Melody c.138BCE - Arranged For Replica Kithara)” performed by Michael Levy
“Parallel Organum: Rex Caeli, Domine” performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen
“Melismatic Organum: Benedicamus Domino” performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen
“Missa Aeterna Christi munera, Alleluia – Justus ut palma” performed by Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis
“adeste fideles” performed by Jaroslav Orel
“Christmas Mass ‘Puer Natus’: Graduale ‘Viderunt Omnes’” by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz
“La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria” performed by Jeremy Summerly and Oxford Camerata
“Thank You” by Demure
Transcript
Christen: Welcome back to Power Play, the podcast where we bring you stories about the power of music, the music of the powerful, music as a means to power, and what happens when music and power go head to head. I’m your host, Christen Crumpler. Let’s begin!
[Victory In Praise, by Cast of Characters, plays]
Introduction to the Birth of Christian Music
Christen: If someone asked you to describe music within a church, what sorts of things come to mind? Maybe the emotionally moving melodies of Gospel music? The personal testimonies told throughout contemporary worship songs? What about a congregation singing hymns?
Each of these styles hold their own influence and messages over the listener. They also describe the variety of music for the church. However, these styles of today didn’t exist at church music’s creation.
To better understand music’s purpose within church history, we need to go back to the start.
So, the birth of Christian music is usually associated with the Middle Ages. Lumen Learning’s Western Civilization database shares what it may have looked like.
A large amount of the “European population were rural peasants,” and the early Christian church held power over them. This power dynamic allowed church music—also referred to as sacred, or liturgical music—to be the dominant musical style of this time.
In its early forms, the purpose of sacred music took from the previous ideas and theories of Greek philosophers and scholars. Here is “The First Delphic Hymn To Apollo” performed by Michael Levy to illustrate.
[The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo, performed by Michael Levy, plays]
Christen: Some of those were the philosophers Plato and Aristotle. It may seem strange to see academic figures associated with music. You see, music during this time wasn’t viewed as an art form. The Greeks saw music as a tool within math and science.
The philosopher Pythagoras certainly thought so!
Becoming the first musical numerologist, he and other Greek scholars created modes from Pythagoras’ experimentation with acoustics and math.
Modes became another key point in others’ perspectives of music during this time. Modes are the “unique tonal system by which pitches were arranged and understood.” In music today, these are now also known as scales.
Though, certain modes were considered “dangerous” because they conveyed too much “emotional power.”
Could you think back to a time where you were feeling sad and put on happier music to cheer you up? Well, the concept is similar to that, with the happier music eventually making you...happy!
These views formed a connection between a person and the type of music that they listened to. This created the idea that music needed to be simple to counteract its powerful influence.
The Greek philosopher Plato shared similar ideas to the ones on “dangerous modes.” In his perspective, “Earthly music” was to be questioned, in contrast to the music of the divine.
For this time, the divine would have come from Greek Mythology and its gods and goddesses.
Mythology and the Greek’s thoughts on Astronomy involved details that were shared between the two. This music of the divine imitated the movement of heavenly bodies, which included “spheres and reflecting the moral order of the universe.”
Earthly music would be hard to justify against those standards.
And so, the weight of these philosophers’ thoughts and theories continued in sacred music’s development. Their outlook on music’s influences had established censorship determining what type of music would be considered acceptable.
[Viderunt Omnes, performed by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, plays]
Christen: These conservative philosophies fit with the way of order the church favored during the Middle Ages.
During that period, the composers came almost exclusively from within the church. Same, with any of the musicians and singers of this time receiving their training from here.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the practice of having only men and boys in the choir was the convention of that time.
Often, music was used to assist the religious texts of services and other acts within the church. This meant musical simplicity, to not distract from the biblical messages within the lyrics. And to further enforce this, many of the pieces went unaccompanied with no instrumentalists.
The piece you’re hearing now is Viderunt Omnes, performed by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz. Gregorian chants were the liturgical music of Catholicism—receiving its name from St. Gregory I.
Also known as Pope Gregory the Great, he was pope from the years 590 to 604. Information from his Britannica biography tells us that he was the first person to promote the ideas of a “truly medieval, sacramental spirituality.” He received his nickname “the Great” as an indication of “his status as a writer and a ruler.”
Though it was not clear if he made any contributions to the music of Gregorian Chants, Pope Gregory’s name is still attached to it since it was codified during his time as the pope.
So, how would you go about performing these chants?
You could have a single musical line that would typically be sung, performing it alone. This is known as monophonic texture. This same musical line could be sung, but instead, together as a group.
Gregorian Chants, and the rest of sacred music, were the main vehicle the church used to assert its authority.
Not only over the people attending service, but the musicians and composers as well. Certain musical messages were required to be present within each of the pieces, such as the specific parts of the Catholic Mass.
The process of codifying mainly arose because the church’s goal was to enforce these rules widespread.
Since these chants were already in use before its codification, it made the process simple.
Individual chants were further designated to specific services—such as holidays like Christmas or Easter—within the liturgical calendar. Similar to how we, today, have certain music that plays for different occasions throughout the year.
For example, here is the Gregorian chant “Adeste Fideles,” which the English hymn, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” comes from.
[adeste fideles, performed by Jaroslav Orel, plays]
Music’s Growth in Complexity with the Church
Christen: Music did begin to acquire more character within the church as it developed. Eventually allowing itself to pull away from the rigid outline that had once dictated its purpose. Composers were finding new ways to invite musical creativity, while still adhering to the requirements set by the church.
The high medieval era, around the later 13th and early 14th centuries, was when a new type of musical texture emerged—Polyphonic texture.
Polyphonic texture consists of more than one melodic line, or melody, playing or singing at the same time. These lines would each contain varying melodic texture from each other.
With this possibility, new techniques were formed and were offering differing methods for how these melodic lines could move with each other.
Polyphony was primarily demonstrated through the organum—two, or more, voices moving parallel with each other in its harmonic motion. This type of organum was referred to as strict or parallel organum. Moving together, the voices had a “hollow-sounding" nature to its harmonies.
Here is an example of this form.
[Parallel Organum: Rex Caeli, Domine, performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen, plays]
Christen: Other styles of organum grew from this primary version.
Free organum allowed the different voices more—freedom—to move independently from each other. The voices could still move in parallel motion but could now also move contrary to one another, with the possible occasion of the voices crossing.
This next piece, “Alleluia – Justus ut palma,” is one expressed in the form of free organum.
[Alleluia – Justus ut palma, performed by Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis, plays]
Christen: The most contrasting from the previous styles mentioned was the melismatic organum. This style consisted of one voice being a sustained line from a liturgical chant, and the other voice having a very ornate melodic line vocalizing a single syllable.
Here is an example of this type of organum.
[Melismatic Organum: Benedicamus Domino, performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen, plays]
Christen: In the late medieval era, sometime around the early 14th century, a shift in power from the church to more secular groups were being seen.
The term secular, by the way, refers to aspects of things—like objects or activities—that have no ties to religion.
[La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria, performed by Jeremy Summerly and Oxford Camerata, plays]
Christen: This period was called Ars Nova, meaning “new art,” in France--or referred to as Trecento in Italy. In 1310 and 1314, the beginning of Ars Nova was defined by published secular compilations of poetry and music. A good representation of its musical style is shown in the piece you’re currently hearing. It is “La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria” by the Ars Nova composer Guillaume de Machaut.
As the 14th century continued, the Middle Ages was starting to blend into the Renaissance Period. For music, the secular forms of this period were able to take from the polyphonic structures found in the music of the church.
Secular music was able to branch into more complex forms with polyphony.
Growing was the number of pieces that allowed the musical combination of voice and instrumentals. The Chanson—a French art song from the Ars Nova—is an example of the dominating musical genre of this time.
A diffusion of music styles also occurred, with Franco-Flemish musicians dispersing across Europe.
How the Music of This Past Can Still Be Seen Today
Christen: Although churches may have lost some power while moving into the Renaissance, their musical forms were carried on in different ways. Even within the Ars Nova period!
Sacred music of today still utilizes the musical texts of the Middle Ages. It’s shown through hymns, and—what once was frowned upon in its early stages—the combination of religious texts alongside emotion-filled melodies.
While it may look different, the influence and important contributions of these musical forms have made an immense impact on how music is viewed today.
Outro
[Thank You, by Demure, plays]
Christen: Thank you for listening to Power Play. The creator of Power Play is none other than Karbo. This episode was researched and edited by myself, Christen Crumpler, and produced by Tamberly Ferguson. Production help and advisement by Frank Dominguez and Bruce Scott.
The music you heard today was “Victory in Praise” by Cast of Characters; “The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo” performed by Michael Levy; “Parallel Organum: Rex Caeli, Domine” and “Melismatic Organum: Benedicamus Domino” performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen; “Alleluia – Justus ut palma” performed by Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis; “adeste fideles” performed by Jaroslav Orel; “Viderunt Omnes” performed by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz; “La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria” performed by Jeremy Summerly and Oxford Camerata; and “Thank You” by Demure.
Research regarding this episode can also be found within the episode’s show notes.
Lastly, thank you to you our listeners for tuning into this episode of Power Play. Power Play is presented by WDAV Classical Public Radio. If you like what you heard, you can find more information on this episode, and other great programming, at wdav.org/subscribe. Catch ya in the next one.
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In this episode, Christen Crumpler investigates the relationship between music and religion during the Middle Ages. While the musical stylings were under restrictive guidelines, the music still managed to reach artistic creativity—with its purpose changing with the aging period. We look back at western music’s development for better clarity on its historical ties to today.
Episode Notes
Research:
The History of Music
Killcoyne, Hope. 2015. The History of Music. Rosen Publishing Group. (Retrieved August 4, 2021.)
The Middle Ages
Music Appreciation “Introduction: The Middle Ages”
Musical Performance – The Middle Ages
Music Appreciation “Week 5: The Middle Ages”
Western Civilization “Daily Medieval Life”
St. Gregory the Great
Medieval Holidays
Gregorian Chant for Christmas
Music:
“Victory In Praise” by Cast of Characters
“The First Delphic Hymn To Apollo (Ancient Greek Melody c.138BCE - Arranged For Replica Kithara)” performed by Michael Levy
“Parallel Organum: Rex Caeli, Domine” performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen
“Melismatic Organum: Benedicamus Domino” performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen
“Missa Aeterna Christi munera, Alleluia – Justus ut palma” performed by Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis
“adeste fideles” performed by Jaroslav Orel
“Christmas Mass ‘Puer Natus’: Graduale ‘Viderunt Omnes’” by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz
“La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria” performed by Jeremy Summerly and Oxford Camerata
“Thank You” by Demure
Transcript
Christen: Welcome back to Power Play, the podcast where we bring you stories about the power of music, the music of the powerful, music as a means to power, and what happens when music and power go head to head. I’m your host, Christen Crumpler. Let’s begin!
[Victory In Praise, by Cast of Characters, plays]
Introduction to the Birth of Christian Music
Christen: If someone asked you to describe music within a church, what sorts of things come to mind? Maybe the emotionally moving melodies of Gospel music? The personal testimonies told throughout contemporary worship songs? What about a congregation singing hymns?
Each of these styles hold their own influence and messages over the listener. They also describe the variety of music for the church. However, these styles of today didn’t exist at church music’s creation.
To better understand music’s purpose within church history, we need to go back to the start.
So, the birth of Christian music is usually associated with the Middle Ages. Lumen Learning’s Western Civilization database shares what it may have looked like.
A large amount of the “European population were rural peasants,” and the early Christian church held power over them. This power dynamic allowed church music—also referred to as sacred, or liturgical music—to be the dominant musical style of this time.
In its early forms, the purpose of sacred music took from the previous ideas and theories of Greek philosophers and scholars. Here is “The First Delphic Hymn To Apollo” performed by Michael Levy to illustrate.
[The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo, performed by Michael Levy, plays]
Christen: Some of those were the philosophers Plato and Aristotle. It may seem strange to see academic figures associated with music. You see, music during this time wasn’t viewed as an art form. The Greeks saw music as a tool within math and science.
The philosopher Pythagoras certainly thought so!
Becoming the first musical numerologist, he and other Greek scholars created modes from Pythagoras’ experimentation with acoustics and math.
Modes became another key point in others’ perspectives of music during this time. Modes are the “unique tonal system by which pitches were arranged and understood.” In music today, these are now also known as scales.
Though, certain modes were considered “dangerous” because they conveyed too much “emotional power.”
Could you think back to a time where you were feeling sad and put on happier music to cheer you up? Well, the concept is similar to that, with the happier music eventually making you...happy!
These views formed a connection between a person and the type of music that they listened to. This created the idea that music needed to be simple to counteract its powerful influence.
The Greek philosopher Plato shared similar ideas to the ones on “dangerous modes.” In his perspective, “Earthly music” was to be questioned, in contrast to the music of the divine.
For this time, the divine would have come from Greek Mythology and its gods and goddesses.
Mythology and the Greek’s thoughts on Astronomy involved details that were shared between the two. This music of the divine imitated the movement of heavenly bodies, which included “spheres and reflecting the moral order of the universe.”
Earthly music would be hard to justify against those standards.
And so, the weight of these philosophers’ thoughts and theories continued in sacred music’s development. Their outlook on music’s influences had established censorship determining what type of music would be considered acceptable.
[Viderunt Omnes, performed by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, plays]
Christen: These conservative philosophies fit with the way of order the church favored during the Middle Ages.
During that period, the composers came almost exclusively from within the church. Same, with any of the musicians and singers of this time receiving their training from here.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the practice of having only men and boys in the choir was the convention of that time.
Often, music was used to assist the religious texts of services and other acts within the church. This meant musical simplicity, to not distract from the biblical messages within the lyrics. And to further enforce this, many of the pieces went unaccompanied with no instrumentalists.
The piece you’re hearing now is Viderunt Omnes, performed by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz. Gregorian chants were the liturgical music of Catholicism—receiving its name from St. Gregory I.
Also known as Pope Gregory the Great, he was pope from the years 590 to 604. Information from his Britannica biography tells us that he was the first person to promote the ideas of a “truly medieval, sacramental spirituality.” He received his nickname “the Great” as an indication of “his status as a writer and a ruler.”
Though it was not clear if he made any contributions to the music of Gregorian Chants, Pope Gregory’s name is still attached to it since it was codified during his time as the pope.
So, how would you go about performing these chants?
You could have a single musical line that would typically be sung, performing it alone. This is known as monophonic texture. This same musical line could be sung, but instead, together as a group.
Gregorian Chants, and the rest of sacred music, were the main vehicle the church used to assert its authority.
Not only over the people attending service, but the musicians and composers as well. Certain musical messages were required to be present within each of the pieces, such as the specific parts of the Catholic Mass.
The process of codifying mainly arose because the church’s goal was to enforce these rules widespread.
Since these chants were already in use before its codification, it made the process simple.
Individual chants were further designated to specific services—such as holidays like Christmas or Easter—within the liturgical calendar. Similar to how we, today, have certain music that plays for different occasions throughout the year.
For example, here is the Gregorian chant “Adeste Fideles,” which the English hymn, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” comes from.
[adeste fideles, performed by Jaroslav Orel, plays]
Music’s Growth in Complexity with the Church
Christen: Music did begin to acquire more character within the church as it developed. Eventually allowing itself to pull away from the rigid outline that had once dictated its purpose. Composers were finding new ways to invite musical creativity, while still adhering to the requirements set by the church.
The high medieval era, around the later 13th and early 14th centuries, was when a new type of musical texture emerged—Polyphonic texture.
Polyphonic texture consists of more than one melodic line, or melody, playing or singing at the same time. These lines would each contain varying melodic texture from each other.
With this possibility, new techniques were formed and were offering differing methods for how these melodic lines could move with each other.
Polyphony was primarily demonstrated through the organum—two, or more, voices moving parallel with each other in its harmonic motion. This type of organum was referred to as strict or parallel organum. Moving together, the voices had a “hollow-sounding" nature to its harmonies.
Here is an example of this form.
[Parallel Organum: Rex Caeli, Domine, performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen, plays]
Christen: Other styles of organum grew from this primary version.
Free organum allowed the different voices more—freedom—to move independently from each other. The voices could still move in parallel motion but could now also move contrary to one another, with the possible occasion of the voices crossing.
This next piece, “Alleluia – Justus ut palma,” is one expressed in the form of free organum.
[Alleluia – Justus ut palma, performed by Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis, plays]
Christen: The most contrasting from the previous styles mentioned was the melismatic organum. This style consisted of one voice being a sustained line from a liturgical chant, and the other voice having a very ornate melodic line vocalizing a single syllable.
Here is an example of this type of organum.
[Melismatic Organum: Benedicamus Domino, performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen, plays]
Christen: In the late medieval era, sometime around the early 14th century, a shift in power from the church to more secular groups were being seen.
The term secular, by the way, refers to aspects of things—like objects or activities—that have no ties to religion.
[La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria, performed by Jeremy Summerly and Oxford Camerata, plays]
Christen: This period was called Ars Nova, meaning “new art,” in France--or referred to as Trecento in Italy. In 1310 and 1314, the beginning of Ars Nova was defined by published secular compilations of poetry and music. A good representation of its musical style is shown in the piece you’re currently hearing. It is “La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria” by the Ars Nova composer Guillaume de Machaut.
As the 14th century continued, the Middle Ages was starting to blend into the Renaissance Period. For music, the secular forms of this period were able to take from the polyphonic structures found in the music of the church.
Secular music was able to branch into more complex forms with polyphony.
Growing was the number of pieces that allowed the musical combination of voice and instrumentals. The Chanson—a French art song from the Ars Nova—is an example of the dominating musical genre of this time.
A diffusion of music styles also occurred, with Franco-Flemish musicians dispersing across Europe.
How the Music of This Past Can Still Be Seen Today
Christen: Although churches may have lost some power while moving into the Renaissance, their musical forms were carried on in different ways. Even within the Ars Nova period!
Sacred music of today still utilizes the musical texts of the Middle Ages. It’s shown through hymns, and—what once was frowned upon in its early stages—the combination of religious texts alongside emotion-filled melodies.
While it may look different, the influence and important contributions of these musical forms have made an immense impact on how music is viewed today.
Outro
[Thank You, by Demure, plays]
Christen: Thank you for listening to Power Play. The creator of Power Play is none other than Karbo. This episode was researched and edited by myself, Christen Crumpler, and produced by Tamberly Ferguson. Production help and advisement by Frank Dominguez and Bruce Scott.
The music you heard today was “Victory in Praise” by Cast of Characters; “The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo” performed by Michael Levy; “Parallel Organum: Rex Caeli, Domine” and “Melismatic Organum: Benedicamus Domino” performed by Schola Gregoriana of Copenhagen; “Alleluia – Justus ut palma” performed by Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis; “adeste fideles” performed by Jaroslav Orel; “Viderunt Omnes” performed by The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz; “La Messe De Nostre Dame: II. Gloria” performed by Jeremy Summerly and Oxford Camerata; and “Thank You” by Demure.
Research regarding this episode can also be found within the episode’s show notes.
Lastly, thank you to you our listeners for tuning into this episode of Power Play. Power Play is presented by WDAV Classical Public Radio. If you like what you heard, you can find more information on this episode, and other great programming, at wdav.org/subscribe. Catch ya in the next one.