Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ð1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - Music in Ancient Greek Life and Thought
  - Music in the Early Christian Church
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome
Music in the Early Christian Church

By the fifth century, Christianity was the main unifying force throughout Europe.
  1. Early Christian Writing about Music

    1. Early Christian theologians ("The Church Fathers") on music
      1. Continued the Greek belief in music's power to influence the listener's character (Doctrine of Ethos)
      2. Believed music should serve religion
      3. Musical instruments should be banned from churches because of their pagan uses.
      4. St. Augustine (see vignette) expresses ambivalence about his enjoyment of music for its own sake.

    2. Theoretical writings
      1. Music was one of the Seven Liberal Arts according to Martianus Capella.
        1. Trivium: the three verbal arts (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric)
        2. Quadrivium: the four mathematical arts (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, harmonics, i.e., music)
      2. Boethius (ca. 480–525) wrote on each of the Liberal Arts.
        1. De institutione musica (Fundamentals of Music) is his book on music.
        2. He summarizes several Greek authors.
        3. His original contribution is the idea of three types of music.
          1. Musica mundana: cosmic music (music of the spheres)
          2. Musica humana: union of the body and soul
          3. Musical instrumentalis: audible music

  2. Parallel between Jewish and Christian practices

    1. Ritual sacrifice
      1. Jewish sacrifice: At the Temple, ritualistic sacrifice of an animal (usually a lamb) was an integral part of worship services. During the sacrifice, professional musicians sang a psalm to instrumental accompaniment.
      2. Christian sacrifice: In the reenactment of Christ's Last Supper, the wine represents Christ's blood, and bread represents his body.

    2. As Christianity spread to other regions it picked up other musical influences.

  3. Regional Differences

    1. In 395 C.E. Christianity split into Eastern (centered in Byzantium, later Constantinople, now Istanbul) and Western (centered in Rome), which had many styles of chant.

    2. Gallican chant (France)

    3. Mozarabic or Visigothic chant (Spanish chant during Moorish occupation)

    4. Old Roman chant developed alongside Gregorian, outside of the Vatican.

    5. Ambrosian, named for St. Ambrose, was centered in Milan and influenced other liturgies to adopt responsorial psalmody.

    6. Sarum use (England)

  4. Gregorian Chant

    1. Named for Pope Gregory II (715–31)

    2. Resulted from reorganization of Roman chant under the direction of Pope Vitalian

    3. The earliest surviving manuscripts were copied for monasteries.

    4. The Schola Cantorum (School of Singers) became Rome's training ground for chant singers (cantors).

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company | Credits