3º E.S.O. MUSIC
The birth of polyphony
In the late 9th century, polyphony (different melodic lines at the same time) appeared in Western Music. This fact marked the posterior development of music, and probably appeared spontaneously with the desire of decorating and enriching the Gregorian chant.
Primitive polyphony (9th – 12th centuries)
Polyphony is built by improvising upon the base of Gregorian chant. The main forms of primitive polyphony are:
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Organum: it is the oldest and most rudimentary. It consisted of adding a parallel voice of 4th or 5th below the Gregorian chant. The original Gregorian melody receives the name vox principalis, and the one that is added, vox organalis.
Ars antique (12th – 13th centuries)
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Music abandoned the Gregorian free rhythm and began to measure it due to the need of synchronizing the different voices of the polyphony.
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The most important musical centre of this period was the so called “Notre Dame School” in Paris. And its main composers were Leonin and Perotin .
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New polyphonic forms appeared, like the motet, with several voices that move in different rhythms singing different texts.
Ars Nova (14th century)
The term Ars Nova owes its name to the composer Philippe de Vitry, who wrote a treatise called Ars Nova, to differentiate new techniques of composition and notation of his period, from the former ones from Ars Antiqua.
Polyphony started liberating itself from the Gregorian chant in order to find a type of music closer to humanity, typical of an era that underwent the birth of urban societies and grew apart from medieval theocentrism.
Secular music became increasingly important, making polyphonic forms of songs like the canon, the ballad and the chanson.
The most important composers were Philippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini.
Canon. It is the first preserved example of this musical form.
Canon score