The Middle Ages is the longest cultural era in the history of Western Europe. It covers nine centuries - from the 6th to the 14th centuries. This was the time of the dominance of the Catholic Church, which from the first steps was the patron of the arts. The church word (prayer) in different countries of Europe and in different social strata was inextricably linked with music: psalms, hymns, chorales sounded - concentrated, detached melodies, far from everyday bustle.

Also, by order of the church, majestic temples were erected, decorated with sculptures and colorful stained glass windows; Thanks to the patronage of the church, architects and artists, sculptors and singers devoted themselves to their undividedly beloved art, that is, the Catholic Church supported them financially. Thus, the most significant part of art in general and music in particular was under the jurisdiction of the Catholic religion.

Church singing in all countries of Western Europe sounded in strict Latin, and in order to further strengthen the unity and community of the Catholic world, Pope Gregory I, who ascended the throne at the beginning of the 4th century, collected together all church hymns and prescribed for the performance of each of them a specific day on the church calendar. The melodies collected by the pope were called Gregorian chants, and the singing tradition based on them is called Gregorian chant.

In a melodic sense, Gregorian chant is oriented toward the octoiche, a system of eight modes. It was the mode that often remained the only indication of how the chorale should be performed. All modes constituted an octave and were a modification of the ancient trichord system. The frets had only numbering, the concepts of “Dorian”, “Lydian” and so on. were excluded. Each fret represented the connection of two tetrachords.

Gregorian chorales ideally corresponded to their prayer purpose: leisurely melodies were composed of imperceptibly flowing motifs into each other, the melodic line was limited in tessitura, the intervals between sounds were small, the rhythmic pattern was also smooth, chorales were built on the basis of a diatonic scale. Gregorian chants were sung by a one-voice male choir and were taught such singing primarily in the oral tradition. Written sources of Gregorianism are an example of non-numerical notation (special symbols placed above the Latin text), however, this type of musical notation indicated only the approximate pitch of the sound, the general direction of the melodic line and did not touch the rhythmic side at all and was therefore considered difficult to read. Singers who performed church chorales were not always educated and learned their craft orally.

Gregorian chant became a symbol of a huge era, which reflected in it its understanding of life and the world. The meaning and content of chorales reflected medieval man's idea of ​​the essence of existence. In this sense, the Middle Ages are often called the “youth of European culture,” when, after the fall of ancient Rome in 476, tribes of barbarians, Gauls and Germans invaded Europe and began to rebuild their lives. Their belief in Christian saints was characterized by artlessness, simplicity, and the melodies of Gregorian chants were based on the same principle of naturalness. A certain monotony of the chorales reflects the medieval man’s idea of ​​space, which is limited by his field of vision. Also, the idea of ​​time was associated with the idea of ​​repetition and immutability.

Gregorian chant, as the dominant musical style, was finally established throughout Europe by the 9th century. At the same time, the greatest discovery occurred in the art of music, which influenced its entire subsequent history: the scientist-monk, Italian musician Guido from Arezzo (Aretinsky) invented musical notation, which we use to this day. From now on, the Gregorian chant could be sung from the notes, and it entered a new phase of its development.

From the 7th to the 9th centuries, the concepts of “music” and “Gregorian chant” existed inseparably. Studying the melody of chorales, medieval musicians and singers wanted to decorate them, but changing church singing was not allowed. A solution was found: above the chorale melody, at an equal distance from all its sounds, a second voice was added, which exactly repeated the melodic pattern of the chorale. The melody seemed thickened, doubled. These first two-voice compositions were called organums, since the lower voice in which the chorale sounded was called vox principalis (main voice), and the upper, added voice was called vox organalis (additional voice). The sound of the organums evoked associations with the acoustics of the temple: it was booming and deep. Further, during the 11th-13th centuries, two-voice grew to three-voice (triptum) and four-voice.

The rhythmic forms of organums are an example of modal rhythm. There are six of them: iambic (l ¡), trocheus (trochee) (¡ l), dactyl (¡ . l¡), anapest (l¡¡ . ), spondee (¡ . ¡ . ), tritrachium (l l l).

In addition to church art, with the development of European cities and economies, the Middle Ages saw the birth of a new art. Ordinary people (city dwellers, peasants) often saw wandering actors and musicians in their settlements who danced and performed theatrical performances on various topics: about angels and the Blessed Virgin Mary or about devils and the torments of hell. This new secular art was not to the taste of the ascetic ministers of the church, who found the machinations of the devil in frivolous songs and performances.

The flourishing of medieval cities and feudal castles, an interest in secular art that embraced all classes, led to the emergence of the first professional school of secular poetry and music - the school of troubadours, which arose in the south of France in the 12th century. Similar German poets and musicians were called minnesingers (meistersingers), and northern French ones were called trouvères. As authors of poetry, troubadour poets acted simultaneously as composers and singers.

The music of the troubadours' songs grew out of poetry and imitated it with its simplicity, playfulness, and carelessness. The content of such songs discussed all life topics: love and separation, the onset of spring and its joys, the cheerful life of wandering school students, the pranks of Fortune and her capricious disposition, etc. Rhythm, clear division into musical phrases, emphasis, periodicity - all this was typical songs of the troubadours.

Gregorian chant and troubadour lyrics are two independent trends in medieval music, however, with all their contrast, common features can be noted: an internal affinity with the word, a tendency to smooth, ornate vocal performance.

The pinnacle of early polyphony (polyphony) was the Notre Dame school. The musicians who belonged to it worked in Paris at Notre Dame Cathedral in the 12th-13th centuries. They managed to create such polyphonic structures, thanks to which the art of music became more independent, less dependent on the pronunciation of the Latin text. Music was no longer perceived as its support and decoration; it was now intended specifically for listening, although the organums of the masters of this school were still performed in church. The Notre Dame school was headed by professional composers: in the second half of the 12th century - Leonin, at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries - his student Perotin.

The concept of “composer” in the Middle Ages existed in the background of musical cultures and the word itself came from “compose” - i.e. combine, create something new from known elements. The profession of a composer appeared only in the 12th century (in the works of troubadours and masters of the Notre Dame school). For example, the rules of composition found by Leonin are unique because, starting with a deep study of the musical material created before him, the composer was subsequently able to combine the traditions of strict Gregorian chant with the free norms of the troubadour art.

Already in Perotin's organums a way of prolonging the musical form was invented. Thus, the musical fabric was divided into short motifs built on the principle of similarity (they all represent fairly close versions of each other). Perotin transfers these motives from one voice to another, creating something like a motivic chain. Using such combinations and permutations, Perotin allowed the organums to grow in scale. The sounds of the Gregorian chant, placed in the voice of the cantus firmus, are located at a great distance from each other - and this also contributes to the expansion of the musical form. This is how a new genre arose - MOTET; As a rule, this is a three-voice composition that became widespread in the 13th century. The beauty of the new genre lay in the simultaneous combination of different melodic lines, although they, in fact, were a variant, a duplication, a reflection of the main tune - cantus firmus. Such motets were called "ordered".

However, motets were more popular among the public, which, in contrast to motets on cantus firmus, exaggerated the principles of discordance: some of them were even composed on texts in different languages.

Medieval motets could have both spiritual and secular content: love, satire, etc.

Early polyphony existed not only as a vocal art, but also as an instrumental one. Dance music was composed for carnivals and holidays, and troubadour songs were also accompanied by playing instruments. Unique instrumental fantasies, similar to motets, were also popular.

The 14th century in Western European art is called the “autumn” of the Middle Ages. A new era has already arrived in Italy - the Renaissance; Dante, Petrarch, Giotto - the great masters of the early Renaissance - had already created. The rest of Europe was summing up the results of the Middle Ages and felt the birth of a new theme in art - the theme of individuality.

The entry of medieval music into a new era was marked by the appearance of Philippe de Vitry’s treatise “Ars Nova” - “New Art”. In it, the scientist and musician tried to outline a new image of the musically beautiful. The name of this treatise gave its name to the entire musical culture of the 14th century. From now on, music had to abandon simple and rough sounds and strive for softness and charm of sound: instead of empty, cold harmonies of Ars antiqua, it was prescribed to use full and melodious harmonies.

It was recommended to leave the monotonous rhythm (modal) in the past and use the newly discovered mensural (measuring) notation, when short and long sounds relate to each other as 1:3 or 1:2. There are many such durations - maxima, longa, brevis, semibrevis; each of them has its own outline: longer sounds are not shaded, shorter ones are depicted in black.

The rhythm has become more flexible, varied, and syncopation can be used. The restriction on the use of modes other than diatonic church modes has become less strict: alterations, increases, and decreases of musical tones can be used.

Musical art of the Middle Ages. Figurative and semantic content. Personalities.

Middle Ages- a long period of human development spanning more than a thousand years.

If we turn to the figurative and emotional environment of the period of the “Dark Middle Ages,” as it is often called, we will see that it was filled with intense spiritual life, creative ecstasy and the search for truth. The Christian church had a powerful influence on minds and hearts. The themes, plots and images of Holy Scripture were understood as a story that unfolds from the creation of the world through the coming of Christ until the Day of Judgment. Earthly life was perceived as a continuous struggle between dark and light forces, and the arena of this struggle was the human soul. The expectation of the end of the world permeated the worldview of medieval people; it colored the art of this period in dramatic tones. Under these conditions, musical culture developed in two powerful layers. On the one hand, professional church music, which went through a huge development path throughout the entire medieval period; on the other hand, folk music, which was persecuted by representatives of the “official” church, and secular music, which existed as amateur music throughout almost the entire medieval period. Despite the antagonism of these two movements, they underwent mutual influence, and by the end of this period the results of the interpenetration of secular and church music became especially noticeable. In terms of emotional and semantic content, the most characteristic of medieval music is the predominance of the ideal, spiritual and didactic principles - both in secular and church genres.

The emotional and semantic content of the music of the Christian church was aimed at praising Divinity, denying earthly goods for the sake of reward after death, and preaching asceticism. Music concentrated in itself what was associated with the expression of “pure”, devoid of any “corporal”, material form of striving for the ideal. The impact of music was enhanced by the acoustics of churches with their high vaults, reflecting sound and creating the effect of Divine presence. The fusion of music with architecture was especially evident with the emergence of the Gothic style. The polyphonic music that had developed by this time created a soaring, free soaring of voices, repeating the architectural lines of a Gothic temple, creating a feeling of the infinity of space. The most striking examples of musical Gothic were created by the composers of Notre Dame Cathedral - Master Leonin and Master Perotin, nicknamed the Great.

Musical art of the Middle Ages. Genres. Features of musical language.

The formation of secular genres during this period was prepared by the creativity of wandering musicians - jugglers, minstrels and shpilmans, who were singers, actors, circus performers and instrumentalists all rolled into one. The jugglers, shpilmans and minstrels were also joined by vagantas and goliards- unlucky students and fugitive monks who brought literacy and a certain erudition to the “artistic” environment. Folk songs were sung not only in the emerging national languages ​​(French, German, English and others), but also in Latin. Traveling students and schoolchildren (vagantes) often had great skill in Latin versification, which gave special poignancy to their accusatory songs directed against secular feudal lords and the Catholic Church. Gradually, traveling artists began to form guilds and settle in cities.

During the same period, a unique “intellectual” layer emerged—knighthood, among which (during periods of truce) interest in art also flared up. Castles are turning into centers of knightly culture. A set of rules of knightly behavior was being compiled, requiring “courtly” (refined, polite) behavior. In the 12th century in Provence, at the courts of feudal lords, art arose troubadours, which was a characteristic expression of the new secular knightly culture proclaiming the cult of earthly love, enjoyment of nature, and earthly joys. In terms of the range of images, the musical and poetic art of the troubadours knew many varieties, associated mainly with love lyrics or military, service songs that reflected the attitude of the vassal to his overlord. Often the love lyrics of troubadours took the form of feudal service: the singer recognized himself as the vassal of a lady, who was usually the wife of his lord. He sang of her virtues, beauty and nobility, glorified her dominance and “languished” for an unattainable goal. Of course, there was a lot of convention in this, dictated by the court etiquette of that time. However, often behind the conventional forms of knightly service lurked a genuine feeling, vividly and impressively expressed in poetic and musical images. The art of the troubadours was in many ways advanced for its time. Attention to the artist’s personal experiences and emphasis on the inner world of a loving and suffering individual indicate that the troubadours openly opposed themselves to the ascetic tendencies of medieval ideology. Troubadour glorifies real earthly love. He sees in her “the source and origin of all goods.”

Creativity developed under the influence of the poetry of the troubadours Trouvères, which was more democratic (most truvères came from city dwellers). The same themes were developed here, and the artistic style of the songs was similar. In Germany a century later (13th century) a school was formed Minnesingers, in which, more often than among troubadours and trouvères, songs of moral and edifying content were developed, love motives often acquired a religious overtones and were associated with the cult of the Virgin Mary. The emotional structure of the songs was distinguished by greater seriousness and depth. The Minnesingers mostly served at courts, where they held their competitions. The names of Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walter von der Vogelweide, and Tannhäuser, the hero of the famous legend, are well known. In Wagner's opera based on this legend, the central scene is a scene of a singing competition, where the hero glorifies earthly feelings and pleasures to everyone's outrage. The libretto of "Tannhäuser" written by Wagner is an example of a remarkable insight into the worldview of an era that glorifies moral ideals, illusory love and is in a constant dramatic struggle with sinful passions.

Church genres

Gregorian chant. In the early Christian church there were many variants of church chants and Latin texts. The need arose to create a single cult ritual and corresponding liturgical music. This process was completed at the turn of the 6th and 7th centuries. Pope Gregory I. Church melodies, selected, canonized, distributed within the church year, constituted an official set - the antiphonary. The choral melodies included in it became the basis for the liturgical singing of the Catholic Church and were called Gregorian chant. It was performed in one voice by a choir or an ensemble of male voices. The development of the melody occurs slowly and is based on variations in the initial melody. The free rhythm of the melody is subordinated to the rhythm of the words. The texts are prosaic in Latin, the very sound of which created detachment from everything worldly. The melodic movement is smooth; if small jumps appear, they are immediately compensated by movement in the opposite direction. The melodies of Gregorian chants themselves fall into three groups: recitation, where each syllable of the text corresponds to one sound of the chant, psalmody, where chanting of some syllables is allowed, and jubilation, when the syllables were sung in complex melodic patterns, most often “Hallelujah” (“Praise be to God”). Of great importance, as in other forms of art, is spatial symbolism (in this case, “top” and “bottom”). The whole style of this monophonic singing, the absence of a “background” or “sound perspective” in it, is reminiscent of the principle of planar image in medieval painting.
Hymn . The heyday of hymn-making dates back to the 6th century. Hymns, distinguished by greater emotional immediacy, carried within them the spirit of worldly art. They were based on song melodies close to folk ones. At the end of the 5th century they were expelled from the church, but for centuries they existed as non-liturgical music. Their return to church use (9th century) was a kind of concession to the worldly feelings of believers. Unlike chorales, hymns were based on poetic texts, which were specially composed (and not borrowed from sacred books). This determined a clearer structure of the tunes, as well as greater freedom of melody, not subordinate to every word of the text.
Mass. The ritual of the Mass has evolved over many centuries. The sequence of its parts was determined in its main features by the 9th century, but the mass acquired its final form only by the 11th century. The process of forming her music was also long. The most ancient type of liturgical singing is psalmody; directly related to the liturgical action itself, it sounded throughout the entire service and was performed by priests and church choristers. The introduction of hymns enriched the musical style of the Mass. Hymnic chants sounded at certain moments of the ritual, expressing the collective feelings of believers. At first they were sung by the parishioners themselves, later by a professional church choir. The emotional impact of the hymns was so strong that they gradually began to supplant the psalmody, occupying a dominant place in the music of the mass. It was in the form of hymns that the five main parts of the Mass (the so-called Ordinary) took shape.
I. "Kyrie eleison"(“Lord, have mercy”) - a plea for forgiveness and mercy;
II. "Gloria"(“Glory”) - a hymn of gratitude to the creator;
III. "Credo"(“I Believe”) is the central part of the liturgy, which sets out the basic tenets of Christian doctrine;
IV. "Sanctus"(“Holy”) - a solemnly bright exclamation repeated three times, followed by the welcoming exclamation “Hosanna”, which frames the central episode of “Benedictus” (“Blessed is he who comes”);
V. "Agnus Dei"(“Lamb of God”) - another plea for mercy addressed to Christ, who sacrificed himself; The last part ends with the words: “Dona nobis pacem” (“Give us peace”).
Secular genres

Vocal music
Medieval musical and poetic art was mostly amateur in nature. It assumed sufficient universalism: the same person was a composer, a poet, a singer, and an instrumentalist, since the song was often performed accompanied by a lute or viol. The poetic lyrics of songs, especially examples of knightly art, are of great interest. As for music, it was influenced by Gregorian chants, the music of wandering musicians, as well as the music of eastern peoples. Often the performers, and sometimes the authors of the music of the troubadours' songs, were jugglers who traveled with the knights, accompanying their singing and performing the functions of servants and assistants. Thanks to this cooperation, the boundaries between folk and knightly musical creativity were blurred.
Dance music The area in which the importance of instrumental music manifested itself especially strongly was dance music. Since the end of the 11th century, a number of musical and dance genres have emerged, intended exclusively for performance on instruments. Not a single harvest festival, not a single wedding or other family celebration was complete without dancing. Dances were often performed to the singing of the dancers themselves or to a horn, in some countries - to an orchestra consisting of a trumpet, drum, bell, and cymbals.
Branle French folk dance. In the Middle Ages it was most popular in cities and villages. Soon after its appearance, it attracted the attention of the aristocracy and became a ballroom dance. Thanks to simple movements, branli could be danced by everyone. Its participants hold hands, forming a closed circle, which can be broken into lines, turning into zigzag moves. There were many varieties of branle: simple, double, cheerful, horse, washerwoman's branle, branle with torches, etc. Based on the movements of the branle, the gavotte, paspier and bourre were built, and from the branle the minet gradually emerged.
Stella The dance was performed by pilgrims who came to the monastery to venerate the statue of the Virgin Mary. She stood on the top of the mountain, illuminated by the sun, and it seemed as if an unearthly light was flowing from her. This is where the name of the dance came from (stella - from the Latin star). People danced in unison, shocked by the splendor and purity of the Mother of God.
Karol Was popular in the 12th century. Karol is an open circle. During the performance of the king, the dancers sang holding hands. Ahead of the dancers was the singer. The chorus was sung by all participants. The rhythm of the dance was either smooth and slow, then it accelerated and turned into a run.
Dances of Death During the late Middle Ages, the theme of death became quite popular in European culture. The plague epidemic, which claimed a huge number of lives, influenced the attitude towards death. If earlier it was a deliverance from earthly suffering, then in the 13th century. she was perceived with horror. Death was depicted in drawings and engravings as frightening images, and was discussed in song lyrics. The dance is performed in a circle. The dancers begin to move, as if they are being drawn by an unknown force. Gradually they are overcome by the music played by the messenger of Death, they begin to dance and in the end they fall dead.
Bassdances Promenade dances and processions. They were ceremonial in nature and technically simple. Those gathered for the feast in their best outfits walked in front of the owner, as if showing off themselves and their costume - this was the meaning of the dance. Dance-processions firmly became part of court life; not a single festival could take place without them.
Estampy (estampidas) Paired dances accompanied by instrumental music. Sometimes the “estampi” was performed by three people: one man leading two women. Music played a big role. It consisted of several parts and determined the nature of the movements and the number of beats per part.

Troubadours:

Guiraut Riquier 1254-1292

Guiraut Riquier is a Provençal poet often called "the last troubadour." A prolific and skillful master (48 of his melodies have survived), however, he was not alien to spiritual themes and significantly complicated his vocal writing, moving away from songwriting. For many years he was at court in Barcelona. Participated in the crusade. His position in relation to art is also of interest. His correspondence with the famous patron of the arts Alphonse the Wise, King of Castile and Leon, is known. In it, he complained that dishonest people, “humiliating the title of juggler,” are often confused with knowledgeable troubadours. This is “shameful and harmful” for representatives of “the high art of poetry and music, who know how to compose poetry and create instructive and enduring works.” Under the guise of the king’s answer, Ricoeur proposed his systematization: 1) “doctors of poetic art” - the best of the troubadours, “lighting the way for society,” authors of “exemplary poems and cansons, graceful short stories and didactic works” in spoken language; 2) troubadours, who compose songs and music for them, create dance melodies, ballads, albums and sirvents; 3) jugglers, catering to the taste of the nobles: they play various instruments, tell stories and fairy tales, sing other people’s poems and cansons; 4) buffoons (clowns) “show their low art in the streets and squares and lead an unworthy lifestyle.” They bring out trained monkeys, dogs and goats, demonstrate puppets, and imitate the singing of birds. Buffon plays instruments or whines in front of the common people for small handouts... traveling from court to court, without shame, patiently endures all kinds of humiliation and despises pleasant and noble activities.

Riquier, like many troubadours, was worried about the question of knightly virtues. He considered generosity to be the highest virtue. “In no way am I speaking ill of valor and intelligence, but generosity surpasses everything.”

Feelings of bitterness and frustration intensified sharply towards the end of the 13th century, when the collapse of the Crusades became an inescapable reality that could not be ignored and which could not be ignored. “It’s time for me to stop singing!” - in these verses (they date back to 1292) he expressed his disappointment with the disastrous outcome of the crusading enterprises of Giraut Riquier:
“The hour has come for us - to follow the army - to leave the Holy Land!” The poem “It’s time for me to finish with songs” (1292) is considered the last troubadour song.

Composers, musicians

Guillaume de Machaut c. 1300 - 1377

Machaut is a French poet, musician and composer. He served at the court of the Czech king, and from 1337 he was a canon of Reims Cathedral. One of the most prominent musicians of the late Middle Ages, a major figure in the French Ars nova. He is known as a multi-genre composer: his motets, ballads, vireles, lays, rondos, canons and other song (song-dance) forms have reached us. His music is distinguished by refined expressiveness and refined sensuality. In addition, Machaut created the first author's mass in history (for the coronation of King Charles V in Reims in 1364. It is the first author's mass in the history of music - a complete and complete work of a famous composer. In his art, important lines running through on the one hand, from the musical and poetic culture of troubadours and trouvères in its ancient song basis, on the other, from the French schools of polyphony of the 12th-13th centuries.

Leonin (mid-12th century)

Leonin is an outstanding composer, along with Perotin belongs to the Notre Dame school. History has preserved for us the name of this once famous creator of the “Big Book of Organums,” designed for the annual circle of church singing. Leonin's organums replaced choral singing in unison with two-voice singing of soloists. His two-voice organums were distinguished by such careful development, harmonic “coherence” of sound, which was impossible without preliminary thinking and recording: in Leonin’s art, it is no longer the singer-improviser, but the composer who comes to the fore. Leonin's main innovation was rhythmic recording, which made it possible to establish a clear rhythm of the mainly mobile upper voice. The very character of the upper voice was distinguished by melodic generosity.

Perotin

Perotin, Perotinus - French composer of the late 12th - 1st third of the 13th centuries. In contemporary treatises he was called “Master Perotin the Great” (who exactly was meant is unknown, since there were several musicians to whom this name could be attributed). Perotin developed the type of polyphonic singing that emerged in the work of his predecessor Leonin, who also belonged to the so-called Parisian, or Notre Dame, school. Perotin created high examples of melismatic organum. He wrote not only 2-voice works (like Leonin), but also 3- and 4-voice works, and, apparently, he complicated and enriched the polyphony rhythmically and texturedly. His 4-voice organums did not yet obey the existing laws of polyphony (imitation, canon, etc.). In Perotin's work, a tradition of polyphonic chants of the Catholic Church developed.

Josquin des Pres ca. 1440-1524

Franco-Flemish composer. From a young age he was a church choirboy. He served in various cities of Italy (in 1486-99 as a choirmaster of the papal chapel in Rome) and France (Cambrai, Paris). He was a court musician for Louis XII; received recognition as a master not only of cult music, but also of secular songs that anticipated French chanson. The last years of his life he was the rector of the cathedral in Condé-sur-Escaut. Josquin Despres is one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, who had a diverse influence on the subsequent development of Western European art. Creatively summarizing the achievements of the Dutch school, he created innovative works of spiritual and secular genres (mass, motets, psalms, frottoles) imbued with a humanistic worldview, subordinating high polyphonic technique to new artistic tasks. The melody of his works, associated with the origins of the genre, is richer and more multifaceted than that of earlier Dutch masters. The “clarified” polyphonic style of Josquin Despres, free from contrapuntal complexity, was a turning point in the history of choral writing.

Vocal genres

The entire era as a whole is characterized by a clear predominance of vocal genres, and in particular vocal polyphony. The unusually complex mastery of polyphony in a strict style, genuine scholarship, and virtuosic technique coexisted with the bright and fresh art of everyday dissemination. Instrumental music gains some independence, but its direct dependence on vocal forms and everyday sources (dance, song) will be overcome only a little later. Major musical genres remain associated with verbal text. The essence of Renaissance humanism was reflected in the composition of choral songs in the frottol and villanelle style.
Dance genres

During the Renaissance, everyday dance acquired great importance. Many new dance forms are emerging in Italy, France, England, and Spain. Different layers of society have their own dances, develop a manner of performing them, and rules of conduct during balls, evenings, and celebrations. The dances of the Renaissance are more complex than the simple branles of the late Middle Ages. Dances with round dance and line-line compositions are being replaced by pair (duet) dances, built on complex movements and figures.
Volta - a pair dance of Italian origin. Its name comes from the Italian word voltare, which means “to turn.” The meter is three-beat, the tempo is moderate-fast. The main pattern of the dance is that the gentleman quickly and sharply turns the lady dancing with him in the air. This lift is usually done very high. It requires great strength and dexterity from the gentleman, since, despite the sharpness and some impetuosity of the movements, the lifting must be performed clearly and beautifully.
Galliard - an ancient dance of Italian origin, widespread in Italy, England, France, Spain, and Germany. The tempo of early galliards is moderately fast, the meter is three-beat. The galliard was often performed after the pavane, with which it was sometimes connected thematically. Galliards 16th century maintained in a melodic-harmonic texture with a melody in the upper voice. Galliard melodies were popular among wide sections of French society. During the serenades, Orléans students played galliard melodies on lutes and guitars. Like the chime, the galliard had the character of a kind of dance dialogue. The gentleman moved around the hall with his lady. When the man performed a solo, the lady remained in place. The male solo consisted of a variety of complex movements. After that, he again approached the lady and continued the dance.
Pavana - court dance of the 16th-17th centuries. The tempo is moderately slow, size 4/4 or 2/4. There is no consensus in different sources about its origin (Italy, Spain, France). The most popular version is a Spanish dance that imitates the movements of a peacock walking with a beautifully flowing tail. Was close to bassdance. Various ceremonial processions took place to the music of the pavan: the entry of authorities into the city, the farewell of a noble bride to the church. In France and Italy, the pavane is established as a court dance. The solemn character of the pavan allowed the court society to shine with the elegance and grace of its manners and movements. The people and the bourgeoisie did not perform this dance. The pavane, like the minuet, was performed strictly according to ranks. The king and queen began the dance, then the Dauphin and a noble lady entered into it, then the princes, etc. The cavaliers performed the pavane with a sword and capes. The ladies wore formal dresses with heavy long trousers, which had to be skillfully controlled during movements without lifting them from the floor. The movement of the tren made the moves beautiful, giving the pavan pomp and solemnity. The queen's attendants carried a train behind her. Before the dance began, people were supposed to walk around the hall. At the end of the dance, the couples walked around the hall again with bows and curtsies. But before putting on his hat, the gentleman had to put his right hand on the back of the lady's shoulder, his left hand (holding the hat) on her waist and kiss her on the cheek. During the dance, the lady had her eyes downcast; only from time to time she looked at her gentleman. The pavan was preserved for the longest time in England, where it was very popular.
Allemande - a slow dance of German origin in 4-beat time. It belongs to the mass “low”, non-jumping dances. The performers stood in pairs one after another. The number of pairs was not limited. The gentleman held the lady's hands. The column moved around the hall, and when it reached the end, the participants made a turn in place (without separating their hands) and continued dancing in the opposite direction.
Kuranta - court dance of Italian origin. The chime was simple and complex. The first consisted of simple, gliding steps, performed primarily forward. The complex chime was of a pantomimic nature: three gentlemen invited three ladies to participate in the dance. The ladies were taken to the opposite corner of the hall and asked to dance. The ladies refused. The gentlemen, having been refused, left, but then returned again and knelt before the ladies. Only after the pantomime scene did the dancing begin. There are different types of chimes of Italian and French types. The Italian chime is a lively dance in 3/4 or 3/8 time with a simple rhythm in a melodic-harmonic texture. French - solemn dance ("dance of manners"), a smooth, proud procession. Meter 3/2, moderate tempo, fairly developed polyphonic texture.
Sarabande - popular dance of the 16th - 17th centuries. Derived from the Spanish women's dance with castanets. Initially accompanied by singing. The famous choreographer and teacher Carlo Blasis, in one of his works, gives a brief description of the sarabande: “In this dance, everyone chooses a lady to whom he is not indifferent. The music gives a signal, and two lovers perform a dance, noble, measured, however, the importance of this dance does not in the least interfere with pleasure, and modesty gives it even more grace; the eyes of everyone follow with pleasure the dancers, who perform various figures, expressing with their movements all the phases of love." Initially, the tempo of the sarabande was moderately fast; later (from the 17th century) a slow French sarabande with a characteristic rhythmic pattern appeared: ...... In its homeland, the sarabande fell into the category of obscene dances and in 1630. was banned by the Castilian Council.
Zhiga - a dance of English origin, the fastest, three-beat, turning into triplets. Initially, the jig was a couples dance; it spread among sailors as a solo, very fast dance of a comic nature. Later it appears in instrumental music as the final part of an ancient dance suite.

Vocal genres

The features of the Baroque were most clearly manifested in those genres where music was intertwined with other arts. These were, first of all, opera, oratorio and such genres of sacred music as passions and cantatas. Music in combination with words, and in opera - with costumes and scenery, that is, with elements of painting, applied art and architecture, were intended to express the complex spiritual world of a person, the complex and varied events he experiences. The proximity of heroes, gods, real and unreal action, all kinds of magic were natural for baroque taste, they were the highest expression of variability, dynamism, transformation; miracles were not external, purely decorative elements, but formed an indispensable part of the artistic system.

Opera.

The opera genre gained the greatest popularity in Italy. A large number of opera houses opened, representing an amazing, unique phenomenon. Countless boxes draped with heavy velvet and a parterre fenced with a barrier (where at that time people stood, not sat) attracted almost the entire population of the city during the 3 opera seasons. The boxes were purchased for the entire season by patrician families, the stalls were crowded with ordinary people, sometimes admitted for free - but everyone felt at ease, in an atmosphere of continuous celebration. In the boxes there were buffets, couches, and card tables for playing "Pharaoh"; each of them was connected to special rooms where food was prepared. The public went to neighboring boxes as if they were visiting; Here acquaintances were made, love affairs began, the latest news was exchanged, a card game was played for big money, etc. And on the stage a luxurious, intoxicating spectacle unfolded, designed to influence the mind and feelings of the audience, to enchant the eyes and ears. The courage and valor of the heroes of antiquity, the fabulous adventures of mythological characters appeared before admiring listeners in all the splendor of the musical and decorative design achieved over the almost century-long existence of the opera house.

Having emerged at the end of the 16th century in Florence, in a circle (“camerata”) of humanist scientists, poets and composers, opera soon became the leading musical genre in Italy. A particularly important role in the development of opera was played by C. Monteverdi, who worked in Mantua and Venice. His two most famous stage works, Orpheus and The Coronation of Poppea, are marked by the astonishing perfection of musical dramaturgy. While Monteverdi was still alive, a new opera school arose in Venice, headed by F. Cavalli and M. Cesti. With the opening of the first public theater, San Cassiano, in Venice in 1637, it became possible for anyone who bought a ticket to attend the opera. Gradually, the importance of spectacular, outwardly spectacular moments in stage action increases to the detriment of the ancient ideals of simplicity and naturalness that inspired the pioneers of the opera genre. Staging techniques are undergoing enormous development, making it possible to embody on stage the most fantastic adventures of heroes - up to shipwrecks, air flights, etc. Grandiose, colorful scenery, creating the illusion of perspective (the stage in Italian theaters was oval), transported the viewer to fairy-tale palaces and to the sea, to mysterious dungeons and magical gardens.

At the same time, in the music of operas, more and more emphasis was placed on the solo vocal principle, which subordinated other elements of expressiveness; this subsequently inevitably led to a fascination with self-sufficient vocal virtuosity and a decrease in the tension of dramatic action, which often became only a pretext for demonstrating the phenomenal vocal abilities of solo singers. In accordance with custom, castrati singers performed as soloists, performing both male and female parts. Their performance combined the strength and brilliance of male voices with the lightness and mobility of female ones. Such use of high voices in parts of a courageous and heroic nature was traditional at that time and was not perceived as unnatural; it is widespread not only in papal Rome, where women were officially prohibited from performing in opera, but also in other cities in Italy.

From the second half of the 17th century. The leading role in the history of Italian musical theater passes to the Neapolitan opera. The principles of operatic dramaturgy developed by Neapolitan composers become universal, and Neapolitan opera is identified with the national type of Italian opera seria. Conservatories, which grew from orphanages into special music educational institutions, played a huge role in the development of the Neapolitan opera school. They paid special attention to training with singers, which included training in the air, on water, in noisy crowded places and where the echo seemed to control the singer. A long line of brilliant virtuoso vocalists - graduates of conservatories - spread the glory of Italian music and “beautiful singing” (bel canto) throughout the world. For the Neapolitan opera, the conservatories constituted a permanent reserve of professional personnel and were the key to its creative renewal. Among the numerous Italian opera composers of the Baroque era, the most outstanding phenomenon was the work of Claudio Monteverdi. His later works established the basic principles of operatic dramaturgy and various forms of operatic solo singing, which were followed by most Italian composers of the 17th century.

The true and only creator of national English opera was Henry Purcell. He wrote a large number of theatrical works, among which the only opera is “Dido and Aeneas.” "Dido and Aeneas" is almost the only English opera without spoken inserts and dialogues, in which the dramatic action is set to music from beginning to end. All of Purcell's other musical and theatrical works contain spoken dialogue (in our time such works are called "musicals").

"Opera is its delightful habitat - a land of transformations; in the blink of an eye people become gods, and gods become people. There the traveler does not need to travel around countries, for the countries themselves travel before him. Are you bored in the terrible desert? Instantly the sound of a whistle transports you to the gardens Idylls; another brings you from hell to the dwelling of the gods: yet another - and you find yourself in the camp of fairies. Opera fairies enchant just like the fairies of our fairy tales, but their art is more natural..." (Dufresny).

“Opera is a performance as strange as it is magnificent, where the eyes and ears are more satisfied than the mind; where submission to music causes funny absurdities, where when a city is destroyed, arias are sung, and graves are danced around; where the palaces of Pluto and the Sun can be seen, as well as gods, demons, wizards, monsters, witchcraft, palaces built and destroyed in the blink of an eye. Such oddities are tolerated and even admired, for opera is the land of fairies" (Voltaire, 1712).

Oratorio

The oratorio, including the spiritual one, was often perceived by contemporaries as an opera without costumes and scenery. However, cult oratorios and passions were performed in churches, where both the temple itself and the vestments of the priests served as both decoration and costume.

Oratorio was, first of all, a spiritual genre. The word oratorio itself (Italian oratorio) comes from the Late Latin oratorium - “prayer room”, and the Latin ogo - “I say, I pray”. The oratorio originated simultaneously with opera and cantata, but in the church. Its predecessor was liturgical drama. The development of this church action went in two directions. On the one hand, becoming more and more popular in character, it gradually turned into a comic performance. On the other hand, the desire to maintain the seriousness of prayerful communication with God all the time pushed towards static execution, even with the most developed and dramatic plot. This ultimately led to the emergence of oratorio as an independent, first purely temple, and then concert genre.

Abstract on the subject “Music”, grade 7

During the Middle Ages, a new type of musical culture emerged in Europe - feudal, combining professional art, amateur music-making and folklore. Since the church dominates in all areas of spiritual life, the basis of professional musical art is the activity of musicians in churches and monasteries. Secular professional art was initially represented only by singers who created and performed epic tales at court, in the houses of the nobility, among warriors, etc. (bards, skalds, etc.). Over time, amateur and semi-professional forms of music-making of chivalry developed: in France - the art of troubadours and trouvères (Adam de la Halle, XIII century), in Germany - minnesingers (Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walter von der Vogelweide, XII-XIII centuries), as well as urban artisans. In feudal castles and cities, all kinds of genres, genres and forms of songs are cultivated (epic, “dawn”, rondo, ballads, etc.).

New musical instruments are coming into everyday life, including those that came from the East (viol, lute, etc.), and ensembles (of unstable composition) are emerging. Folklore flourishes among peasants. There are also “folk professionals”: ​​storytellers, traveling artists (jugglers, mimes, minstrels, shpilmans, buffoons). Music performs mainly applied and spiritual-practical functions. Creativity appears in unity with performance (usually in one person) and with perception. Collectivity dominates both in the content of music and in its form; the individual principle is subordinate to the general one, without standing out from it (a master musician is the best representative of the community). Strict tradition and canonicity reign in everything. The consolidation, preservation and spread of traditions and standards (but also their gradual updating) was facilitated by the transition from neumas, which only approximately indicated the nature of the melodic movement, to linear notation (Guido d'Arezzo, XI century), which made it possible to accurately record the pitch of tones, and then their duration.

Gradually, although slowly, the content of music, its genres, forms, and means of expression are enriched. In Western Europe from the 6th-7th centuries. A strictly regulated system of one-voice (monodic) church music based on diatonic modes (Gregorian chant) was emerging, combining recitation (psalmody) and singing (hymns). At the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia, polyphony began to emerge. New vocal (choral) and vocal-instrumental (choir and organ) genres are being formed: organum, motet, conduction, then mass. In France, in the 12th century, the first composer (creative) school was formed at Notre Dame Cathedral (Leonin, Perotin). At the turn of the Renaissance (ars nova style in France and Italy, XIV century) in professional music, monophony is replaced by polyphony, music begins to gradually free itself from purely practical functions (service of church rites), the importance of secular genres, including songs, increases in it (Guillaume de Masho). Many musicologists (including Pierre Aubry) devoted their works to medieval music in Europe.

Music medieval era - development periodmusical culture, covering a period of time from approximately V to XIV centuries AD .
During the Middle Ages in Europe a new type of musical culture is emerging - feudal , combining professional art, amateur music-making and folklore Because the church dominates in all areas of spiritual life, the basis of professional musical art is the activity of musicians in temples and monasteries . Secular professional art was initially represented only by singers who created and performed epic tales at court, in the houses of the nobility, among warriors, etc. ( bards, skalds and etc.). Over time, amateur and semi-professional forms of music playing develop chivalry: in France - the art of troubadours and trouvères (Adam de la Halle, XIII century), in Germany - the minnesingers ( Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walter von der Vogelweide, XII - XIII centuries ), as well as urban artisans In feudal castles and in the cities all kinds of genera are cultivated, genres and forms of songs (epic, “dawn”, rondo, le, virele, ballads, canzones, laudas, etc.).
New ones come into everyday lifemusical instruments, including those who came from East (viol, lute etc.), ensembles (of unstable compositions) arise. Folklore flourishes among peasants. There are also “folk professionals”: storytellers , traveling synth artists ( jugglers, mimes, minstrels, shpilmans, buffoons ). Music again performs mainly applied and spiritual-practical functions. Creativity acts in unity withperformance(usually one person).
Both in the content of music and in its form it dominates collectivity ; the individual principle is subordinate to the general principle, without standing out from it (a master musician is the best representative communities ). Strict reigns in everything traditionality and canonicity . Consolidation, preservation and distribution traditions and standards.
Gradually, albeit slowly, the content of music is enriched, its genres, forms , means of expression. IN Western Europe from the 6th - 7th centuries . a strictly regulated system is emerging single-voice (monodic) ) church music based diatonic modes ( Gregorian chant), combining recitation (psalmody) and singing (hymns ). At the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia, the polyphony . New ones are being formed vocal (choral ) and vocal-instrumental (choir and organ) genres: organum, motet, conduction, then mass. In France in the 12th century the first one is formed composer (creative) school at Notre Dame Cathedral(Leonin, Perotin). At the turn of the Renaissance (ars nova style in France and Italy, 14th century) in professional musicmonophony is being supplanted polyphony , music begins to gradually free itself from purely practical functions (service of church rituals ), it enhances the meaning secular genres, including songs ( Guillaume de Machaut).

Revival.

Music in the period of the XV-XVII centuries.
In the Middle Ages, music was the prerogative of the Church, so most musical works were sacred, based on church chants (Gregorian chant), which have been part of the religion since the very beginning of Christianity. At the beginning of the 17th century, cult tunes, with the direct participation of Pope Gregory I, were finally canonized. Gregorian chant was performed by professional singers. After the development of polyphony in church music, the Gregorian chant remained the thematic basis of polyphonic religious works (mass, motets, etc.).

The Middle Ages were followed by the Renaissance, which was an era of discovery, innovation and exploration for musicians, an era of renaissance of all layers of cultural and scientific manifestations of life from music and painting to astronomy and mathematics.
Although music remained largely religious, the weakening of church control over society opened up greater freedom for composers and performers to express their talents.
With the invention of the printing press, it became possible to print and distribute sheet music, and from that moment what we call classical music began.
During this period, new musical instruments appeared. The most popular instruments were those that music lovers could play easily and simply, without requiring special skills.
It was at this time that the viol, the predecessor of the violin, appeared. Thanks to the frets (wooden strips across the neck), it was easy to play, and its sound was quiet, gentle and sounded well in small halls.
Wind instruments were also popular - recorder, flute and horn. The most complex music was written for the newly created harpsichord, virginel (an English harpsichord, distinguished by its small size) and organ. At the same time, the musicians did not forget to compose simpler music that did not require high performing skills. At the same time, changes occurred in musical writing: heavy wooden printing blocks were replaced by movable metal types invented by the Italian Ottaviano Petrucci. Published musical works quickly sold out, and more and more people began to get involved in music.
The end of the Renaissance was marked by the most important event in musical history - the birth of opera. A group of humanists, musicians, and poets gathered in Florence under the patronage of their leader Count Giovanni De Bardi (1534 - 1612). The group was called the "camerata", its main members were Giulio Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, Vincenzo Galilei (father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei), Giloramo Mei, Emilio de Cavalieri and Ottavio Rinuccini in his younger years.
The first documented meeting of the group took place in 1573, and the most active years of work "Florentine Camerata "were 1577 - 1582. They believed that music had "deteriorated" and sought to return to the form and style of ancient Greece, believing that the art of music could be improved and, accordingly, society would also improve. The Camerata criticized existing music for its excessive use of polyphony at the expense of intelligibility text and the loss of the poetic component of the work and proposed to create a new musical style in which the text in a monodic style was accompanied by instrumental music.Their experiments led to the creation of a new vocal-musical form - the recitative, first used by Emilio de Cavalieri, which was subsequently directly related to the development of opera.
The first officially recognizedopera , corresponding to modern standards, was the opera "Daphne" (Daphne), first presented in 1598. The authors of "Daphne" were Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi, libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. This opera has not survived. The first surviving opera is "Eurydice" (1600) by the same authors - Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini. This creative union also created many works, most of which are lost.

Early Baroque music (1600-1654)

The creation by the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) of his recitative style and the consistent development of Italian opera can be considered the conventional point of transition between the Baroque and Renaissance eras. The beginning of opera performances in Rome and especially in Venice already meant the recognition and spread of the new genre throughout the country. All this was only part of a larger process that captured all the arts, and was especially clearly manifested in architecture and painting.
Renaissance composers paid attention to the elaboration of each part of a musical work, paying virtually no attention to the comparison of these parts. Separately, each part could sound excellent, but the harmonious result of the addition was more a matter of chance than of regularity. The appearance of the figured bass indicated a significant change in musical thinking—namely, that harmony, which is "the putting together of parts into one whole," was as important as the melodic parts (polyphony) themselves. More and more, polyphony and harmony looked like two sides of the same idea of ​​composing euphonious music: in composing, harmonic sequences were given the same attention as tritones in creating dissonance. Harmonic thinking also existed among some composers of the previous era, for example, Carlo Gesualdo, but in the Baroque era it became generally accepted.
He labeled those parts of works where modality and tonality cannot be clearly separated as mixed major or mixed minor (later he introduced the terms “monal major” and “monal minor” for these concepts, respectively). The table shows how tonal harmony, already in the early Baroque period, practically supplants the harmony of the previous era.
Italy becomes the center of a new style. The papacy, although caught up in the struggle against the Reformation, but nevertheless possessing enormous financial resources replenished by the military campaigns of the Habsburgs, sought opportunities to spread the Catholic faith through the expansion of cultural influence. With the pomp, grandeur and complexity of architecture, fine arts and music, Catholicism seemed to argue with ascetic Protestantism. The rich Italian republics and principalities also competed actively in the field of fine arts. One of the important centers of musical art was Venice, which at that time was under both secular and church patronage.
A significant figure of the early Baroque period, whose position was on the side of Catholicism, opposing the growing ideological, cultural and social influence of Protestantism, was Giovanni Gabrieli. His works belong to the “High Renaissance” style (the heyday of the Renaissance). However, some of his innovations in the field of instrumentation (assigning his own, specific tasks to a certain instrument) clearly indicate that he was one of the composers who influenced the emergence of a new style
One of the requirements imposed by the church on the composition of sacred music was that the texts in works with vocals be legible. This required a move away from polyphony to musical techniques where words came to the fore. The vocals became more complex and florid compared to the accompaniment. This is how homophony developed.
Monteverde Claudio(1567-1643), Italian composer. Nothing attracted him more than the exposure of the inner, spiritual world of a person in his dramatic collisions and conflicts with the outside world. Monteverdi is the true founder of conflict dramaturgy of a tragic nature. He is a true singer of human souls. He persistently strived for the natural expressiveness of music. “Human speech is the mistress of harmony, and not its servant.”
"Orpheus" (1607) - The music of the opera is focused on revealing the inner world of the tragic hero. His part is unusually multifaceted, merging various emotional and expressive currents and genre lines. He enthusiastically calls out to his native forests and coasts or mourns the loss of his Eurydice in artless folk songs.

Music of the mature Baroque (1654-1707)

The period of centralization of supreme power in Europe is often called Absolutism. Absolutism reached its apogee under the French king Louis XIV. For all of Europe, Louis's court was a role model. Including music performed at court. The increased availability of musical instruments (especially keyboards) gave impetus to the development of chamber music.
Mature baroque differs from the early baroque in the widespread dissemination of the new style and the increased separation of musical forms, especially in opera. As in literature, the ability to stream musical works has led to an expanded audience; exchange between centers of musical culture intensified.
An outstanding representative of the court composers of the court of Louis XIV was Giovanni Battista Lulli (1632-1687). Already at the age of 21, he received the title of “court composer of instrumental music.” Lully's creative work was closely connected with the theater from the very beginning. Following the organization of court chamber music and the composition of “airs de cour”, he began to write ballet music. Louis XIV himself danced in ballets, which were then the favorite entertainment of the court nobility. Lully was an excellent dancer. He had the opportunity to participate in productions, dancing with the king. He is known for his collaboration with Moliere, for whose plays he wrote music. But the main thing in Lully’s work was still writing operas. Surprisingly, Lully created a complete type of French opera; the so-called lyrical tragedy in France (French tragedie lyrique), and reached undoubted creative maturity in the very first years of his work at the opera house. Lully often used the contrast between the majestic sound of the orchestral section and the simple recitatives and arias. Lully's musical language is not very complex, but certainly new: clarity of harmony, rhythmic energy, clarity of division of form, purity of texture speak of the victory of the principles of homophonic thinking. To a large extent, his success was also facilitated by his ability to select musicians for the orchestra, and his work with them (he conducted rehearsals himself). An integral element of his work was attention to harmony and the solo instrument.
In England, the mature Baroque was marked by the brilliant genius of Henry Purcell (1659-1695). He died young, at the age of 36, having written a large number of works and become widely known during his lifetime. Purcell was familiar with the work of Corelli and other Italian Baroque composers. However, his patrons and customers were people of a different sort than the Italian and French secular and ecclesiastical nobility, so Purcell's writings are very different from the Italian school. Purcell worked in a wide range of genres; from simple religious hymns to marching music, from large format vocal works to staged music. His catalog contains more than 800 works. Purcell became one of the first composers of keyboard music, whose influence extends into modern times.
Unlike the above composers, Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was not a court composer. Buxtehude worked as an organist, first in Helsingborg (1657-1658), then in Elsinore (1660-1668), and then, starting in 1668, in the church of St. Mary in Lubeck. He made money not by publishing his works, but by performing them, and he preferred composing music based on church texts and performing his own organ works to the patronage of the nobility. Unfortunately, not all of this composer’s works have survived. Buxtehude's music is largely built on the scale of his plans, the richness and freedom of imagination, a penchant for pathos, drama, and a somewhat oratorical intonation. His work had a strong influence on composers such as J. S. Bach and Telemann.

Late Baroque music (1707-1760)

The precise line between mature and late baroque is a matter of debate; it lies somewhere between 1680 and 1720. To a large extent the complexity of its definition is due to the fact that in different countries styles changed asynchronously; innovations that were already accepted as a rule in one place were new discoveries in another
The forms discovered by the previous period reached maturity and great variability; concert, suite, sonata, concerto grosso, oratorio, opera and ballet no longer had clearly defined national characteristics. The generally accepted patterns of works are established everywhere: the repeated two-part form (AABB), the simple three-part form (ABC) and the rondo.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) - Italian composer, born in Venice. In 1703 he was ordained a Catholic priest. It was to these, at that time still developing instrumental genres (baroque sonata and baroque concerto) that Vivaldi made his most significant contribution. Vivaldi composed more than 500 concertos. He also gave programmatic titles to some of his works, such as the famous "Seasons".
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) was one of the leading keyboard composers and performers of his time. But perhaps the most famous court composer was George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). He was born in Germany, studied for three years in Italy, but in 1711 he left London, where he began his brilliant and commercially successful career as an independent opera composer, fulfilling orders for the nobility. Possessing tireless energy, Handel reworked the material of other composers, and constantly reworked his own compositions. For example, he is known for reworking the famous oratorio "Messiah" so many times that there is now no version that can be called "authentic."
After his death, he was recognized as a leading European composer, and was studied by musicians of the classical era. Handel mixed the rich traditions of improvisation and counterpoint in his music. The art of musical decoration reached a very high level of development in his works. He traveled all over Europe to study the music of other composers, and therefore had a very wide circle of acquaintances among composers of other styles.
Johann Sebastian Bach born March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. During his life, he composed more than 1,000 works in various genres, except opera. But during his lifetime he did not achieve any significant success. Moving many times, Bach replaced one not very high position after another: in Weimar he was a court musician for the Weimar Duke Johann Ernst, then became caretaker of the organ in the Church of St. Boniface in Arnstadt, a few years later accepted the position of organist in the Church of St. Blasius in Mühlhausen, where he worked for only about a year, after which he returned to Weimar, where he took the place of court organist and concert organizer. He stayed in this position for nine years. In 1717, Leopold, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as bandmaster, and Bach began to live and work in Köthen. In 1723 Bach moved to Leipzig, where he remained until his death in 1750. In the last years of his life and after Bach's death, his fame as a composer began to decline: his style was considered old-fashioned in comparison with the burgeoning classicism. He was better known and remembered as a performer, teacher and father of the younger Bachs, especially Carl Philipp Emmanuel, whose music was more famous.
Only the performance of the St. Matthew Passion by Mendelssohn, 79 years after the death of J. S. Bach, revived interest in his work. Now J. S. Bach is one of the most popular composers
Classicism
Classicism is a style and direction in the art of the 17th - early 19th centuries.
This word comes from the Latin classicus - exemplary. Classicism was based on the belief in the rationality of existence, in the fact that human nature is harmonious. The classics saw their ideal in ancient art, which they considered the highest form of perfection.
In the eighteenth century, a new stage in the development of social consciousness began - the Age of Enlightenment. The old social order is being destroyed; the ideas of respect for human dignity, freedom and happiness acquire paramount importance; the individual gains independence and maturity, uses his intelligence and critical thinking. The ideals of the Baroque era with its pomp, pomp and solemnity are being replaced by a new style of life based on naturalness and simplicity. The time is coming for the idealistic views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, calling for a return to nature, to natural virtue and freedom. Along with nature, Antiquity is idealized, since it was believed that it was during Antiquity that people managed to realize all human aspirations. Ancient art is called classical, it is recognized as exemplary, the most truthful, perfect, harmonious and, unlike the art of the Baroque era, is considered simple and understandable. The focus, along with other important aspects, is on education, the position of the common people in the social order, and genius as a human property.

Reason reigns in art too. Wanting to emphasize the high purpose of art, its social and civic role, the French philosopher and educator Denis Diderot wrote: “Every work of sculpture or painting should express some great rule of life, should teach.”

The theater was at the same time a textbook of life, and life itself. In addition, in the theater the action is highly ordered and measured; it is divided into acts and scenes, which, in turn, are divided into individual replicas of the characters, creating the ideal of art so dear to the 18th century, where everything is in its place and subject to logical laws.
The music of classicism is extremely theatrical; it seems to copy the art of theater, imitate it.
Dividing a classical sonata and symphony into large sections - parts, in each of which there are many musical "events" - is similar to dividing a play into actions and scenes.
In the music of the classical age, a plot is often implied, a certain action that unfolds before the listeners in the same way as a theatrical action unfolds before the audience.
The listener just has to turn on his imagination and recognize the characters of a classic comedy or tragedy in “musical clothes”.
The art of theater also helps explain the great changes in the performance of music that took place in the 18th century. Previously, the main place where music sounded was the temple: in it, a person was below, in a huge space, where music seemed to help him look up and devote his thoughts to God. Now, in the 18th century, music is heard in an aristocratic salon, in the ballroom of a noble estate or in a city square. The listener of the Age of Enlightenment seems to treat music on a first-name basis and no longer experiences the delight and timidity that it inspired in him when it sounded in church.
The music no longer has the powerful, solemn sound of the organ, and the role of the choir has diminished. Music of the classical style sounds light, it has much less sounds, as if it “weighs less” than the heavy, multi-layered music of the past. The sound of the organ and choir was replaced by the sound of a symphony orchestra; sublime arias gave way to light, rhythmic and danceable music.
Thanks to the boundless faith in the capabilities of the human mind and the power of knowledge, the 18th century began to be called the Age of Reason or the Age of Enlightenment.
The heyday of Classicism began in the 80s of the eighteenth century. In 1781, J. Haydn created several innovative works, including his String Quartet op. 33; The premiere of V.A.’s opera is taking place. Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio"; F. Schiller's drama "The Robbers" and I. Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" are published.

The brightest representatives of the classical period are the composers of the Vienna Classical School Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Their art admires the perfection of compositional technique, the humanistic orientation of creativity and the desire, especially noticeable in the music of W. A. ​​Mozart, to display perfect beauty through the means of music.

The very concept of the Vienna Classical School arose soon after the death of L. Beethoven. Classical art is distinguished by a delicate balance between feelings and reason, form and content. The music of the Renaissance reflected the spirit and breath of its era; in the Baroque era, the subject of display in music was the human condition; the music of the Classical era glorifies the actions and deeds of man, the emotions and feelings he experiences, the attentive and holistic human mind.

Ludwig Van Beethoven(1770–1827)
German composer often considered the greatest composer of all time.
His work is classified as both classicism and romanticism.
Unlike his predecessor Mozart, Beethoven had difficulty composing. Beethoven's notebooks show how gradually, step by step, a grandiose composition emerges from uncertain sketches, marked by a convincing logic of construction and rare beauty. It is logic that is the main source of Beethoven's greatness, his incomparable ability to organize contrasting elements into a monolithic whole. Beethoven erases traditional caesuras between sections of form, avoids symmetry, merges parts of the cycle, and develops extended constructions from thematic and rhythmic motifs, which at first glance do not contain anything interesting. In other words, Beethoven creates musical space with the power of his mind, his own will. He anticipated and created those artistic movements that became decisive for the musical art of the 19th century.

Romanticism.
covers roughly the years 1800-1910
Romantic composers tried to express the depth and richness of a person’s inner world with the help of musical means. The music becomes more prominent and individual. Song genres are being developed, including ballads.
The main representatives of romanticism in music are: Austria - Franz Schubert ; in Germany - Ernest Theodor Hoffmann, Carl Maria Weber, Richard Wagner, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Ludwig Spohr; V
etc.................

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Petrozavodsk State Conservatory (Academy) named after. A.K. Glazunov

Essay

On the topic: “Music of the Middle Ages”

Completed by: student Ilyina Yulia

Teacher: A.I. Tokunov

Introduction

Music of the Middle Ages is a period of development of musical culture, covering a period of time from approximately the 5th to the 14th centuries AD.

The Middle Ages is a great era of human history, a time of dominance of the feudal system.

Periodization of culture:

Early Middle Ages - V - X centuries.

Mature Middle Ages - XI - XIV centuries.

In 395, the Roman Empire split into two parts: Western and Eastern. In the Western part, on the ruins of Rome, in the 5th-9th centuries there were barbarian states: Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, etc. In the 9th century, as a result of the collapse of the empire of Charlemagne, three states were formed here: France, Germany, Italy. The capital of the Eastern part was Constantinople, founded by Emperor Constantine on the site of the Greek colony of Byzantium - hence the name of the state.

During the Middle Ages, a new type of musical culture emerged in Europe - feudal, combining professional art, amateur music-making and folklore. Since the church dominates in all areas of spiritual life, the basis of professional musical art is the activity of musicians in churches and monasteries. Secular professional art was initially represented only by singers who created and performed epic tales at court, in the houses of the nobility, among warriors, etc. (bards, skalds, etc.). Over time, amateur and semi-professional forms of music-making of chivalry developed: in France - the art of troubadours and trouvères (Adam de la Halle, XIII century), in Germany - minnesingers (Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walter von der Vogelweide, XII-XIII centuries), and also urban artisans. In feudal castles and cities, all kinds of songs, genres and forms of songs are cultivated (epic, “dawn”, rondo, le, virele, ballads, canzones, laudas, etc.).

New musical instruments are coming into everyday life, including those that came from the East (viol, lute, etc.), and ensembles (of unstable composition) are emerging. Folklore flourishes among peasants. There are also “folk professionals”: ​​storytellers, traveling synthetic artists (jugglers, mimes, minstrels, shpilmans, buffoons). Music again performs mainly applied and spiritual-practical functions. Creativity appears in unity with performance (usually in one person).

Gradually, although slowly, the content of music, its genres, forms, and means of expression are enriched. In Western Europe from the 6th-7th centuries. A strictly regulated system of one-voice (monodic) church music based on diatonic modes (Gregorian chant) was emerging, combining recitation (psalmody) and singing (hymns). At the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia, polyphony began to emerge. New vocal (choral) and vocal-instrumental (choir and organ) genres are being formed: organum, motet, conduction, then mass. In France, in the 12th century, the first composer (creative) school was formed at Notre Dame Cathedral (Leonin, Perotin). At the turn of the Renaissance (ars nova style in France and Italy, XIV century) in professional music, monophony is replaced by polyphony, music begins to gradually free itself from purely practical functions (service of church rites), the importance of secular genres, including songs, increases in it (Guillaume de Masho).

The material basis of the Middle Ages was feudal relations. Medieval culture is formed in the conditions of a rural estate. Subsequently, the social basis of culture becomes the urban environment - the burghers. With the formation of states, the main classes are formed: the clergy, the nobility, and the people.

The art of the Middle Ages is closely connected with the church. Christian doctrine is the basis of philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, and the entire spiritual life of this time. Filled with religious symbolism, art is directed from the earthly, transitory - to the spiritual, eternal.

Along with the official church culture (high), there was a secular culture (lower) - folklore (lower social strata) and knightly (courtly).

The main centers of professional music of the early Middle Ages were cathedrals, singing schools attached to them, and monasteries - the only centers of education of that time. They studied Greek and Latin, arithmetic and music.

The main center of church music in Western Europe during the Middle Ages was Rome. At the end of the 6th - beginning of the 7th century. The main variety of Western European church music is formed - the Gregorian chant, named after Pope Gregory I, who carried out a reform of church singing, collecting together and organizing various church chants. Gregorian chant is a monophonic Catholic chant that combines centuries-old singing traditions of various Middle Eastern and European peoples (Syrians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, etc.). It was the smooth monophonic unfolding of a single melody that was intended to personify a single will, the direction of the attention of parishioners in accordance with the tenets of Catholicism. The character of the music is strict, impersonal. The chorale was performed by a choir (hence the name), some sections by a soloist. Progressive movement based on diatonic modes predominates. Gregorian chant allowed for many gradations, ranging from severely slow choral psalmody to jubilations (melismatic chanting of a syllable), requiring virtuoso vocal skill for its performance.

Gregorian chant distances the listener from reality, evokes humility, and leads to contemplation and mystical detachment. This impact is also facilitated by the text in Latin, which is incomprehensible to the majority of parishioners. The rhythm of the singing was determined by the text. It is vague, indefinite, determined by the nature of the accents of the recitation of the text.

The diverse types of Gregorian chant were brought together in the main service of the Catholic Church - the Mass, in which five stable parts were established:

Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy)

Gloria (glory)

Credo (I believe)

Sanctus (holy)

Agnus Dei (lamb of God).

Over time, elements of folk music begin to seep into Gregorian chant through hymns, sequences and tropes. If psalmodies were performed by a professional choir of singers and clergy, then hymns at first were performed by parishioners. They were inserts into official worship (they had features of folk music). But soon the hymnical parts of the mass began to supplant the psalmodic ones, which led to the emergence of the polyphonic mass.

The first sequences were a subtext for the melody of the anniversary so that one sound of the melody would have a separate syllable. The sequence is becoming a widespread genre (the most popular are “Veni, sancte spiritus”, “Dies irae”, “Stabat mater”). “Dies irae” was used by Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov (very often as a symbol of death).

The first examples of polyphony come from monasteries - organum (movement in parallel fifths or fourths), gimmel, fauburdon (parallel sixth chords), conduction. Composers: Leonin and Perotin (12-13 centuries - Notre Dame Cathedral).

The bearers of secular folk music in the Middle Ages were mimes, jugglers, minstrels in France, spilmans in the countries of German culture, hoglars in Spain, buffoons in Rus'. These traveling artists were universal masters: they combined singing, dancing, playing various instruments with magic, circus art, and puppet theater.

The other side of secular culture was knightly (courtly) culture (the culture of secular feudal lords). Almost all noble people were knights - from poor warriors to kings. A special knightly code was being formed, according to which the knight, along with courage and valor, had to have refined manners, be educated, generous, magnanimous, and faithfully serve the Beautiful Lady. All aspects of knightly life were reflected in the musical and poetic art of the troubadours (Provence - southern France), trouvères (northern France), and minnesingers (Germany). The art of troubadours is associated primarily with love lyrics. The most popular genre of love lyrics was the canzona (among the Minnesingers - “Morning Songs” - albums).

Trouvères, making extensive use of the experience of troubadours, created their own original genres: “weaving songs”, “May songs”. An important area of ​​the musical genres of troubadours, trouvères and minnesingers were song and dance genres: rondo, ballad, virele (refrain forms), as well as heroic epic (French epic “The Song of Roland”, German - “Song of the Nibelungs”). The songs of the Crusaders were widespread among the Minnesingers.

Characteristic features of the art of troubadours, trouvères and minnesingers:

Monophony is a consequence of the inextricable connection of the melody with the poetic text, which follows from the very essence of musical and poetic art. The monophony also corresponded to the focus on individualized expression of one's own experiences, on a personal assessment of the content of the statement (often the expression of personal experiences was framed by depicting pictures of nature).

Mainly vocal performance. The role of the instruments was not significant: it was reduced to the performance of introductions, interludes and postludes framing the vocal melody.

The art of chivalry cannot yet be spoken of as professional, but for the first time in the conditions of secular music-making, a powerful musical and poetic direction was created with a developed complex of expressive means and relatively perfect musical writing.

One of the important achievements of the mature Middle Ages, starting from the 10th-11th centuries, was the development of cities (burgher culture). The main features of urban culture were an anti-church, freedom-loving orientation, connections with folklore, and its laughter and carnival character. The Gothic architectural style developed. New polyphonic genres are being formed: from the 13th-14th to the 16th centuries. - motet (from French - “word”. A motet is characterized by the melodic dissimilarity of voices that simultaneously intoned different texts - often even in different languages), madrigal (from Italian - “song in the native language,” i.e. Italian. Texts love-lyrical, pastoral), caccia (from Italian - “hunt” - a vocal piece based on a text depicting a hunt).

Traveling folk musicians move from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, populate entire city blocks and form unique “musician guilds.” Starting from the 12th century, folk musicians were joined by vagantes and goliards - declassed people from different classes (school students, fugitive monks, wandering clerics). Unlike illiterate jugglers - typical representatives of the art of oral tradition - vagantes and goliards were literate: they knew the Latin language and the rules of classical versification, composed music - songs (the range of images is associated with school science and student life) and even complex compositions such as conductions and motets .

Universities have become a significant center of musical culture. Music, or more precisely, musical acoustics, together with astronomy, mathematics, and physics, was included in the quadrium, i.e. a cycle of four disciplines studied at universities.

Thus, in the medieval city there were centers of musical culture of different nature and social orientation: associations of folk musicians, court music, music of monasteries and cathedrals, and university musical practice.

Musical theory of the Middle Ages was closely related to theology. In the few musical theoretical treatises that have reached us, music was viewed as a “handmaiden of the church.” Among the prominent treatises of the early Middle Ages, 6 books “On Music” by Augustine, 5 books by Boethius “On the Establishment of Music”, etc. stand out. A large place in these treatises was given to abstract scholastic issues, the doctrine of the cosmic role of music, etc.

The medieval mode system was developed by representatives of church professional musical art - that is why the name “church modes” was assigned to medieval modes. The Ionian and Aeolian modes became established as the main modes.

The musical theory of the Middle Ages put forward the doctrine of hexachords. In each mode, 6 steps were used in practice (for example: do, re, mi, fa, salt, la). Si was then avoided because together with F, it formed a move to an increased fourth, which was considered very dissonant and was figuratively called “the devil in music.”

Non-mutual recording was widely used. Guido Aretinsky improved the system of musical notation. The essence of his reform was the following: the presence of four lines, the third ratio between individual lines, the key sign (originally alphabetic) or the coloring of the lines. He also introduced syllabic notations for the first six degrees of the mode: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la.

Mensural notation was introduced, where each note was assigned a certain rhythmic measure (Latin mensura - measure, measurement). Name of durations: maxima, longa, brevis, etc.

The 14th century is a transitional period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The art of France and Italy of the 14th century was called “Ars nova” (from Latin - new art), and in Italy it had all the properties of the early Renaissance. Main features: refusal to use exclusively genres of church music and turning to secular vocal-instrumental chamber genres (ballad, caccia, madrigal), rapprochement with everyday song, and the use of various musical instruments. Ars nova is the opposite of the so-called. ars antiqua (lat. ars antiqua - old art), meaning musical art before the beginning of the 14th century. The largest representatives of ars nova were Guillaume de Machaut (14th century, France) and Francesco Landino (14th century, Italy).

Thus, the musical culture of the Middle Ages, despite the relative limitations of funds, represents a higher level compared to the music of the Ancient World and contains the prerequisites for the magnificent flowering of musical art during the Renaissance.

music middle ages Gregorian troubadour

1. Basics

Troubadours(French troubadours, from Ox. trobar - to compose poetry) or, as they are often called, minstrels - these are poets and singers of the Middle Ages, whose work covers the period from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, and its heyday begins in the twelfth, and ends at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The art of troubadours originated in the southern part of France, its main center being the Provence region. The troubadours composed their poems in the Oc dialect, a Romance language that was widespread in France south of the Loire, as well as in the regions of Italy and Spain adjacent to France. Troubadours were active participants in the social, religious and political life of society. They were persecuted for criticizing the church. The Albigensian Crusade in 1209-1229 put an end to their art. The art of the troubadours was related to the creativity of the trouvères. Having appeared in the southern regions of France under the same historical conditions as the music of the troubadours, the lyrical works of the trouvères had much in common with it. Moreover, the trouvères were under the direct and very strong influence of the poetry of the troubadours, which was due to intensive literary exchange.

Minnesingers- German lyrical poets and singers who sang knightly love, love for the Lady, service to God and the overlord, and the Crusades. The lyrics of the Minnesingers have survived to this day, for example in the Heidelberg Manuscript. The word "Minnezang" is used in several meanings. In a broad sense, the concept of minnesang unites several genres: secular knightly lyrics, love (in Latin and German) poetry of the vagants and spielmans, as well as the later “courtly (courtly) village poetry” (German höfische Dorfpoesie). In a narrow sense, minnesang is understood as a very specific style of German knightly lyricism - courtly literature that arose under the influence of the troubadours of Provence, France and Flemish.

folk music(or folklore, English folklore) - musical and poetic creativity of the people. It is an integral part of folklore and at the same time is included in the historical process of formation and development of cult and secular, professional and mass musical culture. At the conference of the International Council of Folk Music (early 1950s), folk music was defined as a product of musical tradition, formed in the process of oral transmission by three factors - continuity (continuity), variation (variability) and selectivity (selection of the environment). Oral is distinguished and written musical traditions. Since the development of written musical traditions, there has been a constant mutual influence of cultures. Thus, folk music exists in a certain territory and at a specific historical time, that is, it is limited by space and time, which creates a system of musical folk dialects in each folk musical culture.

Gregorian chant(Latin cantus gregorianus; English Gregorian chant, French chant grеgorien, German gregorianischer Gesang, Italian canto gregoriano), Gregorian chant [cantus planus - traditional liturgical singing of the Roman Catholic Church. The term “Gregorian chant” comes from the name Gregory I the Great (Pope in 590-604), to whom medieval tradition attributed the authorship of most of the chants of the Roman liturgy. In reality, Gregory's role was apparently limited only to the compilation of the liturgical routine, possibly the antiphonary. The word chorale in Russian is used with many meanings (often in the sense of a four-voice arrangement of Lutheran church songs, also in musicological works - in the phrase “choral warehouse” [implying polyphony]), therefore, to denote the liturgical monody of Catholics, it is advisable to use the authentic medieval term cantus planus ( which can be translated in Russian as “smooth chant”, “even chant”, etc.).

According to the degree of chant (liturgical) text, chants are divided into syllabic (1 tone per syllable of the text), neumatic (2-3 tones per syllable) and melismatic (unlimited number of tones per syllable). The first type includes recitative exclamations, psalms and most of the official antiphons, the second - mainly introites, communio (participial antiphon) and some ordinary chants of the Mass, the third - large responsors of the official and masses (i.e. graduals), tracts, Hallelujah, etc.

Byzantine sacred music. The Apostle Paul testifies that the first Christians sang to God in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Thus, music has always been used in the Church. Church historian Eusebius writes that psalms and hymns were created by believers “from the very beginning to glorify the Lord.” Along with the ancient Greek language to compose hymns, Christian poets also used ancient Greek music, which was then widespread throughout the enlightened world. The great Fathers of the first three centuries, such as St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, St. Justin the Philosopher, St. Irenaeus, St. Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea, the miracle worker, showed a special interest in psalmody. A special place in the singing tradition is occupied by St. John of Damascus (676-756), who, in addition to writing beautiful chants, systematized church music. He divided music into eight voices: first, second, third, fourth, first plagal, second plagal, third plagal (or varis) and fourth plagal, and established a way of recording music using special signs. Saint John of Damascus limited the unauthorized, worldly composition of music and advocated simplicity and piety in it.

2. Musical instruments of medieval Europe

Shalmei appeared in the 13th century; its structure is close to the krumhorn. For convenience, a special bend called a “pirouette” is made in the upper part of the barrel (the modern saxophone has something similar). Of the eight finger holes, one was closed with a valve, which also made playing easier. Subsequently, valves began to be used in all woodwinds. The sound of the shawl is sharp and sonorous, and even low-register varieties of the instrument seem loud and shrill to the modern listener.

Longitudinal flutes of various registers were very popular. They are called longitudinal because, unlike modern transverse flutes, the performer holds them vertically and not horizontally. Flutes do not use reeds, so they sound quieter than other wind instruments, but their timbre is surprisingly gentle and rich in nuances. Stringed bowed instruments of the Middle Ages - rebec and fidel. They have from two to five strings, but the fiddle has a more rounded body, vaguely reminiscent of a pear, while the rebec (close in timbre) has a more elongated shape. From the 11th century The trumshait instrument is known to have an original design. The name comes from two German words: Trumme - “pipe” and Scheit - “log”. The trumpet has a long, wedge-shaped body and one string. In the 17th century Additional resonating strings began to be stretched inside the body. They were not played with a bow, but when played on the main string they vibrated, and this added additional shades to the timbre of the sound. There was a special stand for the string, one leg of which was shorter than the other, and therefore the stand did not fit tightly to the body. During the game, under the influence of the vibration of the string, it hit the body, and thus an original “percussive accompaniment” effect was created.

In addition to bowed instruments, the string group also included plucked instruments - a harp and a zither. The medieval harp is similar in shape to the modern one, but much smaller in size. The zither is a bit like a harp, but its structure is more complex. A small round protrusion was made on one side of the wooden case (shaped like a rectangular box). The neck (from German Griff - “handle”) - a wooden plate for tensioning strings - is divided by special metal protrusions - frets. Thanks to them, the performer accurately hits the right note with his finger. The zither has from thirty to forty strings, of which four or five are metal, the rest are sinew. To play metal strings, a thimble is used (placed on the finger), and the strands are plucked with the fingers. (The zither appeared at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, but became especially popular in the 15th-16th centuries.

3. Music in Ancient Rus'

Art of the Middle Ages with all its diversity, it had some common features that were determined by its place in life, in the system of forms of social consciousness, its specific practical purpose and the nature of the ideological functions it performed. Art, like medieval science, morality, and philosophy, was put at the service of religion and was supposed to help strengthen its authority and power over the consciousness of people, clarify and promote the tenets of the Christian faith. Its role thus turned out to be applied and subordinate. It was considered only as one of the components of that elaborate, magnificent ritual action that is the worship of the Christian church. Outside of liturgical ritual, art was recognized as sinful and harmful to human souls.

Church singing was connected with cult more closely than all other arts. Divine services could be performed without icons, outside the luxurious temple premises, in a simple and austere atmosphere. The priests did not have to wear lush, richly decorated vestments. But singing was an integral part of the prayer ritual already in the most ancient Christian communities, which rejected all luxury and decoration.

The dominant role in singing belonged to the text; the melody was only supposed to facilitate the perception of the “divine words”. This requirement determined the very nature of church singing. It had to be performed monophonically, in unison and without the accompaniment of instruments. The admission of musical instruments to participate in worship, as well as the development of choral polyphony in Catholic church music of the period late Middle Ages , was a violation of the strict ascetic norms of Christian art, which was forced to adapt to the new demands of the time at the cost of certain concessions and compromises. It is known that the Catholic authorities subsequently repeatedly raised the question of returning to the chaste simplicity of the Gregorian cantus planus. The Eastern Christian Church maintained the tradition of unison a cappella singing until the mid-17th century, and in some countries longer, but the use of musical instruments remains prohibited in it to this day. Church chants were supposed to be performed simply and restrainedly, without excessive expression, since only such singing brings the worshiper closer to God.

The Church, which held a monopoly in the field of enlightenment and education in the Middle Ages, was the only owner of musical writing and means of teaching music. Medieval non-linear writing, a variation of which was Russian banners, was intended only for recording church chants. Church singing, which developed within the framework of the monophonic tradition, remained in Russia until the second half of the 17th century as the only type of written musical art based on developed theoretical premises and a certain number of compositional and technical rules.

Art of the Middle Ages characterized by great persistence of traditions. One of the consequences of this is the weak expression of the personal, individual principle. From the outside, this is manifested in the fact that the bulk of the works of art remained anonymous. The creators of these works, as a rule, did not sign them or indicated their authorship in a hidden, encrypted way. The finished, completed text did not remain untouched. During correspondence, it could be subject to changes, reductions, or, conversely, expansion through insertions borrowed from another source. The scribe was not a mechanical copyist, but to a certain extent a co-author, giving his own interpretation to what was written, making his own comments, and freely connecting different pieces of text. As a result, the work became essentially a product of collective creativity, and in order to uncover its original foundation under many later layers, very great efforts were often required.

The medieval composer dealt with an established sum of melodic formulas, which he connected and combined, following certain compositional rules and regulations. The formula could also be a whole, complete melody. The so-called “singing on similar”, especially widespread in the first centuries of Russian singing art, consisted in the fact that some of the tunes accepted in church use became models for singing various liturgical texts. The melodic formula, which serves as the main structural unit of znamenny chant, is called chant, and the very method of creating a melody based on the concatenation and modified repetition of individual chants is usually defined as variant chant.

Despite the strict rules that the medieval artist had to obey and the need to strictly follow canonized models, the possibility of personal creativity was not completely excluded. But it was expressed not in the denial of dominant traditions and the affirmation of new aesthetic principles, but in the mastery of subtle, detailed nuance, freedom and flexibility in the use of general standard schemes. In music, such a rethinking of constant melodic formulas was achieved through intonation nuances. Replacing some intervals with others, small changes in the bend of the melodic line, rearrangements and shifts of rhythmic accents changed the expressive structure of the melody without disturbing its basic structure. Some of these changes were consolidated in practice and acquired a traditional character. Gradually accumulating, they led to the formation of local variants, schools and individual manners, which had their own special distinctive features.

4. Folk and professional andart

The Christian Church, both in the West and in the East, which sought to monopolize all means of influencing the human psyche and put them entirely at the service of its own goals, was sharply hostile to traditional folk games, songs and dances, declaring them sinful, turning away from true faith and piety . Medieval religious sermons and teachings are full of harsh denunciations of those who indulge in these entertainments harmful to the soul, and threaten them with damnation and eternal torment in the next world. One of the reasons for such an intolerant attitude towards folk art was its connection with pagan beliefs and rituals, which continued to live among the masses of the population long after the adoption of Christianity. In Russian religious and educational literature, singing songs, dancing and playing instruments are usually compared with “idolatry”, “idol sacrifices” and prayers offered by the “cursed god” paganism .

But all these denunciations and prohibitions could not eradicate the people’s love for their native art. Traditional types of folk art continued to live and develop, existing widely in various strata of society. Folklore in its diverse forms and manifestations captured a wider sphere of life, and its share in artistic medieval culture was more significant than in the art system of modern times. Folklore filled the vacuum created by the absence of written forms of secular musical creativity. Folk song, the art of folk “players” - performers on musical instruments - were widespread not only among the lower working classes, but also in the upper strata of society, right up to the princely court.

Under the influence of folk songs, the characteristic intonation structure of Russian church singing also developed, which over time moved away from Byzantine models, developing its own nationally original melodic forms. On the other hand, in the figurative, poetic and musical structure of Russian folk songs, traces of the influence of religious Christian views and the stylistics of church art can be found, as folklorists have repeatedly pointed out.

One of the main features of folklore is collectivity. As a rule, works of folk art are not associated with the personality of any one author and are considered the property, if not of the entire people, then of a certain social group, corporation (for example, a military squad epic) or territorial community. This does not exclude the participation of personal creativity in their creation and execution.

In music Ancient Rus' there were no figures that could be compared with Palestrina, Orlando Lasso or Schutz. They could not advance under the conditions of that time with the prevailing way of life and worldview. The significance of the ancient Russian musical heritage is determined not by the bold daring of individual outstanding personalities, but by the general, holistic character, which imprinted the courageous, stern and restrained appearance of the people who created it. The masters of the Russian Middle Ages, without violating the strict norms and restrictions prescribed by the canon, achieved in their work remarkable aesthetic perfection, richness and brightness of colors combined with depth and power of expression. Many examples of this art, with its sublime and unique beauty, belong to the greatest manifestations of the national artistic genius.

Sources

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of the Middle Ages

http://medmus.ru/

http://www.webkursovik.ru/kartgotrab.asp?id=-49105

http://arsl.ru/?page=27

http://www.letopis.info/themes/music/rannjaja_muziyka..

http://ivanikov.narod.ru/page/page7.html

http://www.medieval-age.ru/peacelife/art/myzykanarusi.html

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The origins of rock music, centers of its origin, musical and ideological components. Rock music of the 60s, the emergence of hard music and the rise of garage rock. Alternative music culture. Rock music of the 2000s and outsiders of all times.

abstract, added 01/09/2010


Definition of ethnic music, its categories and characteristic sounds. The famous performer of Afro-Cuban son and bolero music Ibrahim Ferrer as an example of an ethno-performer. Popularization of ethnic music in Russia. Examples of ethnic musical instruments.

presentation, added 12/25/2011


Rap music is one of the elements of hip-hop, a form of rhymed lyrics recited rhythmically to musical instruments. History of rap music. Old School Rap, first recordings. The roots of hip-hop. The penetration of hip-hop into Russia. Russian rap artists.

article, added 04/27/2010


Music is a form of art, its role in human life. Music and other arts. Temporal and sound nature of musical means. Images inherent in music. Music in spiritual culture. The impact of the changed conditions of existence of music in society.

abstract, added 01/26/2010


Art that reflects reality in sound artistic images. The relationship between music and age. Determining the relationship between character and music. Main genres of music. The versatility of music and its importance in modern human life.