Paste your essay in here…This essay will outline the important steps in the development of musical notation before 1500. For the terms of development of musical notation, the most important steps consisted of different variations of notation systems, oral traditions and composers’ concept of notation. Melodies were simple in the early medieval period comprising mainly of single melody without harmonies or accompaniment (Seay, 1965). Forrest (2015), acknowledges ‘The oldest recording device and the newest is the memory’. Singers pre 1500 had to remember precise notation of music as there were limited written notation and also no recording devices (Forrest, 2015). Musicians built on further music development making old music new and the new music as if they are familiar friends. It could be considered if the music was not recognisable, it would be meaningless to the intended audience (Fassler and Frisch, 2014).
Church music in the early centuries were classed as sacred works, and mainly the sole the property of the catholic church controlling the development of music to its musicians (Fassler and Frisch, 2014). ‘Avis maria stella’ is an example of a Gregorian chant which many versions of music have been composed (Fassler and Frisch, 2014). The Hymn (poem) as it is repeated and sung creates visual images in the combination of music and text so giving composers tunes to create new music (Fassler and Frisch, 2014). Music at this time was mainly passed through oral tradition.
Taking into consideration the only way the melodies could be passed on would be through oral tradition which could cause several hindrances. Melodies would change and variations of tunes would be in accordance to each locality. Symbols known as Neumes in the ninth century were written to indicate movement of tone and musicality (Forrest, 2015). Neumes which originally began as symbols were placed above the words to signify music direction (Treitler, 2007). However, it could be considered the Greek system of letters representing pitches could be thought as cumbersome. The neume notation did not give a clear outline of the melody, whether going up or down the scale. Performers would have to make many independent decisions as to the shape of the piece of music (Fassler and Frisch, 2014). To communicate ideas, the shapes of the neume would signify directions of the pitch of the music (Berger, 2005). As these melodies would be passed on through oratory, this meant they couldn’t be too long nor too demanding. This kept the melodies very basic and not very interesting.
Gregorian chants were monophonic single melody lines which singers could sing putting words to music using repetition of structure (Treitler, 2007). Pope St Gregory the Great (R. 590-604 AD) was credited to be influential in the arrangement of chants to a consistent form to be used throughout the Western Catholic church (Crocker, 2000). Earliest seen manuscripts worked alongside using the memory, thus supplementing oral tradition instead of replacing it. Neumes were meant to trigger the memory. Although initially the Greeks were the first to come up with a notation system of symbols, this was lost in the late medieval period as Charlemagne (R 768- 814) set in motion the use of the neume notation system. Charlemagne decreed a standardization of the Roman chant liturgy to be applied throughout his realm (Fassler and Frisch, 2014). This new notation system allowed the composers to preserve their notation as well as conveying the growing repertory of liturgical Chants (Yudkin, 1989).
As the church developed, as well as the swift development of organized liturgy, it became more difficult to memorize the music as melodies became more complex and needed to impress the audience. As the melodies became more challenging it was more difficult to pass on through oral tradition (Yudkin, 1989). Early written notation to how modern day musicians understand it, was developed by ‘Boethius’ a Roman Philosopher in 6th century AD indicating notes of a scale A –G known as Boethian notation (Atkinson, 2008). Benedictine monk Guido d ‘Arezzo introduced an alternative method of note naming around 1000 AD (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015). The six letters ‘ut’, ‘re’, ‘mi’, ‘fa’, ‘sol’, ‘la’, with the ‘ut’ later changed to ‘do’ has become to be called the Sol-fa notation with the addition of ‘ti’ to exact musical tones (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015). This was alongside the combination of pitch using tones, semitones giving the nature of intervals (Atkinson, 2005). Guido introduced horizontal lines to the music notation known as staves firstly to a single lines and then introduced to a stave of four lines (Atkinson, 2005).
Extract from the “Iubilate deo universa terra” illustrates how this helped in the development of writing music notation to follow the developing complexities of the chant. The wide use of the square notation derived by Guido using staves ensured standardization (Forrest, 2015). The development of this notation system allowed the singers to be able to understand where to start along with different intervals the song / chant includes. The composers would be allowed to be more creative and experiment more with the songs as the singers would not have to remember the melody as had a visual score. The melody lines are conjunct lines moving within the seconds and it was very rare for the composers to include leaps (Yudkin, 1989). This meant that when the leaps were included it created a strong impact (Yudkin, 1989). The practice of improvisation of the music gradually reduced as notation came to play an importance role (Forrest, 2015).
As different experimentations of the notation systems developed it became easier to pass on melodies but there were still problems that occurred. These notation systems were not perfected as it would be very hard to specify the particular interval in which the composer intended so the oral tradition was still needed to show what the notation meant (Fassler and Frisch, 2014). Many notation systems had different disadvantages as it could be considered singers / musicians had the inability to be able to understand the precise intervals as well as confusion with the character of the melodies. If the composer were to think the melodies to be melismatic, it is obvious that the letter notation concentrating on separate tones would cause more complications than actually making it helpful (Seay, 1965).
Extract from Composer Hildegard Von Bingen music ‘The Symphonia et ordio virtutum’ is a copy of a 12th century manuscript showing a monophonic chant. It shows the difficulties musicians would have in understanding the precise rhythm and pitch compared to music which modern day musicians understand. The range of the monophonic melody line is very narrow as they don’t explore the different pitches but the shape of the line impresses itself through the senses (Forrest, 2015).
The progression of polyphony drew on the monophonic melody to develop and decorate the monophonic tune (Pesce, 2011). The monophonic melody line within the chants were not obscured by other voices, but more by the particular melody shape took on more importance (Yudkin, 1989). Although simple polyphony started to develop from the ninth century, it was not until the twelfth century in Notre Dame did the progression of rhythmic notation really advance (Pesce, 2011). Mensural notation grew from rhythms of fixed patterns, which later was expanded to allow development of rhythmic complexities in the 14th -15th century of the ‘Ars Nova’ movement (Seay, 1965). Composer Phillippe de Vitry established the use of Isorhythms and the introduced color notation to indicate new rhythmic values (Pesce, 2011). The Isorhythms built on the structure of the notations to help develop longer complex compositions (Burkholder and Grout, 2014). This was further developed by Guillaume de Machaut (Ca 1300-1377) which is illustrated in the music ‘Messe de Nostre Dame’ a polyphonic mass chant. The Tenor melody line is the basis of the polyphonic composition, of which an additional contratenor voice works in connection with the tenor using Isorhythms (Burkholder and Grout, 2014). Machaut uses syncopation in parts and the upper voices move rapidly often alternating in quick succession (Burkholder and Grout, 2014).
Importance steps of the development of music notation have been considered and discussed. In the early devolvement oral tradition gave the musicians information that notation did not provide. However, the progression of the written notation improved the reproduction of music to ensure uniformity and the developing complexity. Music notation has developed from Greek symbols to written neumes. The introduction of lines, staves and pitches, values and clefs was important in the development of complex melodies. The 14th century showed a development of rhythms and complex harmonies, that prepared a move to music notation as is seen in modern music. The church played a large part in development the transition of the development of musical notation together with music theorists. Music notation came to play an important role how the music was taught, memorized and performed (Forrest, 2015). Conservation of particular music detail became importance, hence created uniformity and reduced variation of music (Forrest, 2015).