This is all thanks to priest and composer Guillaume de Machaut and his piece, La Messe de Notre Dame. ![]() It was only when Pope Urban V came around in 1364 that the church finally authorized the use of polyphony in sacred music. Even so, Pope Clement VI, who, at the time, was the head of the Catholic Church, favored and even indulged in it. In the 1324 Bull Docta Sanctorum Patrum, Pope John XXII warns the people of the unbecoming and preposterous elements of polyphonic music. ![]() Due to this, they banished polyphony from the Liturgy in 1322. In fact, polyphonic music was considered the devil’s music by the church for a time because it uses forbidden modes and instruments that clash against secular music rules and pagan rites. Polyphonic music, therefore, caused offense to medieval ears because merging secular music with sacred music is considered “taboo” and “uncultured” by the papal court.Īfter all, polyphony sounded jocular and jagged, a stark contrast to the solemn melodies they were accustomed to.įor decades, the medieval church considered polyphonic music to be lascivious, frivolous, impious, and evil until the end of the fourteenth century. At the time, Avignon was the center of secular music-making and the primary seat of the antipopes. Avignon, a city in France’s southeastern Province region, influenced sacred polyphony. Historical records of Greek and Roman antiquity further solidified this. In any case, polyphony was already heavily established during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, roughly between the Medieval period of 500-1450 and the Renaissance period of 1450-1600. They believed that polyphony stemmed from the melismatic organum, the earliest known harmonization of chant that developed in the Middle Ages. Improvising performances is pretty common among professional musicians.Īccording to historians, polyphony relates to the development of human cultural music and the earlier stages of human evolution, the Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis. Another example is the Winchester Troper, from C.1000 A.D, the oldest known extant example of chant polyphony.Ĭompared to monophony and homophony, polyphony is mostly improvised during the performance. These treatises utilize two-voice note-against-note chant embellishments with parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. Although unknown, the oldest written examples of polyphony are the treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis, both of which date back to C.900 A.D. ![]() The origins of polyphony are the subject of many debates. Origin and History of PolyphonyĪlthough widely distributed across all known countries in the world, polyphony’s most significant influence is in regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Polyphony is often associated with Renaissance music and Baroque forms, such as fugue. It’s believed to be the least popular among all three textures. Polyphony, also known as a counterpoint or contrapuntal music, is a formal musical texture that contains at least two or more lines of independent melody. Types of Polyphonic Textures What Is Polyphony in Music?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |