Transcription
Hello everyone, and welcome to Keep It Classical, where today we talk about the birth of polyphony.
In a previous episode, I mentioned the word monophony, or a single melodic line. This is not to be confused with Monopoly, that satanic board game that turns decent human beings into absolute monsters. So, if monophony means one line, polyphony means multiple melodic lines that work together but can stand independently of each other. This is different from homophony, which means lines moving together in harmony or an accompaniment and not being able to be independent from each other.
This is an exciting moment in history because music is taking on a second dimension with multiple voice parts, leading to new ideas about harmony and texture. Without further ado, let's get started.
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It stands to reason that humanity was making music in polyphonic or homophonic textures before the Middle Ages, but if they did, we really don't have a record of it. Even still, when we do start seeing recorded polyphony, it comes with very little additional information. The first written account about polyphony called it an old style. All the examples predate it, and it doesn't attribute any of these styles to any composer. It's safe to say that polyphony was an oral and improvisatory practice long before it was written down.
When we first see recorded instances of polyphony, the scholars of the time called it organum. The most basic style of organum is the use of a drone. This is where the final pitch of the chant is held by an instrument, or by voice, or group of the combination of the two. We saw an example this in the previous week's episode of Hildegard von Bingen's chant. She didn't write a drone in her music, but the performance that we listened to implies that that might have been the case and has the drone going along with the chant.
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The next basic style of polyphony is parallel organum. This is where the original plain chant is sung by one voice, and then another voice sings the chant a fifth below in parallel motion.
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Another style is a combination of parallel organum and droning, where one voice sings the chant and the other voice alternates between singing a drone and moving in parallel motion. This is called mixed or oblique organum.
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Another style is called free organum, where one voice sings the chant and the other voice sings with a variety of parallel, contrary, or similar motions.
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Now, all of these previous styles of organum have involved each voice essentially singing the same syllables at the same time in more or less a homophonic style of part singing. Other styles of organum have the singers singing at different rates. These are called discant and florid organum.
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Eventually, as the idea of polyphony started to spread across Europe, certain centers of learning and religious worship began to teach it to students. Most notably is the style taught at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, called, ironically enough, Notre Dame polyphony. There were two major composers mentioned at Notre Dame during this time: Leonin and Perotin. It helps that their names rhyme. Leonin was the older of the two composers and is generally given credit for this compositional style, which Perotin would later expound upon. These two composers are attributed with composing numerous works and collecting them into a book called Magnus Liber Organi, or Great Book. By the way, it takes a certain amount of gumption to call a collection of your own works a great book. I mean, I admire it for sure, it just, just takes a lot of nerve.
Essentially, the composers at Notre Dame were writing in a more florid style of organum by taking plain chant melodies, elongating their duration in a technique known as augmentation, and writing multiple florid, decorative parts above that plain chant. It's worth giving both these composers a small listen each, comparing them side by side. Fortunately, they both wrote a setting of Viderunt Omnes, which contains the chant for Christmas Day that we heard in a previous episode. Yep, I planned that. I do think ahead, barely.
Before we listen, let's talk about what to listen for. This music has a meditative, contemplative, and even hypnotic quality to it. When listening to this music, it can be easy to become lost in the texture of the sound. It's best to think of this as oral incense, or an abstract stained glass window in a church or cathedral. Its function isn't to teach a lesson or describe a narrative, only to enjoy its beauty as it floats along. Regarding the differences between Leonin and Perotin, how do they sound similar and how do they sound different?
Here is Viderunt Omnes by Leonin.
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And here is Viderunt Omnes by Perotin.
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As you can hear, these two are pretty different. The most obvious difference between the Leonin and the Perotin is that Leonin writes for one additional part, while Perotin writes for three additional parts. However, they both have florid writing above the given chant, and one can recognize the similarities between their phrasing and different aspects of their part writing.
Now, one might rightfully ask, what did contemporary listeners think of this music? Turns out, we actually have a quote from an English bishop named John of Salisbury, who wrote about his experience listening to this music: "When you hear the soft harmonies of the various singers, some taking high and others low parts, some singing in advance, some following in the rear, others with pauses and interludes, you would think yourself listening to a concert of sirens rather than men, and wonder the powers of voices, whatever is most tuneful among birds, could not equal. Such is the facility of running up and down the scale, so wonderful the shortening or multiplying of notes, the repetition of the phrases or their emphatic utterance. The treble and shrill notes are so mingled with tenor and bass that the ears lost their power of judging. When this goes to excess, it is more fitted to excite lust than devotion. But if it is kept in the limits of moderation, it drives away care from the soul and the solicitudes of life, confers joy and peace and exaltation in God, and transports the soul to the society of angels."
That is quite the endorsement. In other words, it was pretty well received.
Now, here's the thing: music has a lot of fads and trends that come in and out of style. It's one of the ways that we can date pieces so well, attribute pieces to certain composers that we're not quite sure of, and it's how we study each of the different composers that we do. Over the centuries, polyphony, however, is not a fad. This is a sea change, and it becomes the norm from here on out. Yes, our styles of polyphony have changed, but the fact that we use multiple voices in music is pretty universal and accepted from here on out. Yes, there are notable exceptions with the use of monophony here and there, but they are increasingly rare after this point.
That's all for now. Next time, we'll talk about the Roman Catholic Mass and the Ars Nova movement. If you heard something you enjoyed or learned something new, share it with your friends and family. In the meantime, if you like this video, give it a thumbs up, hit the subscribe button for more videos, follow me on Instagram @matthewdnielsen, and remember, keep it classical.