•

as Christianity spread throughout Europe in the 300s and 400s CE

•

singing songs and hymns became part of worshop in Catholic church

•

text was regularly chanted and set to different melodies

•

different churchs developed had different musical traditions

•

even chants that were intended to be the same ended up with slight variations as they were passed from one generation to another over large areas

•

the Church eventually felt there was too much diversity

•

not enough unity

•

needed a way to carry this out

•

could no longer rely on memory and oral transmission

•

neumes

•

the first step in solving this problem

•

Latin for "gestures"

•

provide a reminder for the melodic shape

•

but they don't indicate pitches and there was no indication of rhythm

•

they merely indicated if the melody went up or down or stayed the same

•

the specific melodies still had to be taught by ear

•

but the neumes provided a reminder of the melodic shape

•

900-1000 AD

•

these neumes began to be placed at relative heights which indicated interval size

•

in some musical manuscripts, the author would draw a horizontal reference line, so that the heightened neumes could be interpreted relative to that line

•

these lines were eventually marked as F and C and eventually evolved into our modern clefs

•

melody shape was still not completely clear and there was no indication of rhythm

•

Guido of Arezzo (991-1033)

•

was a monk

•

came up with a system of four lines and three spaces, using colored lines for F and C

•

eventually get expanded to our modern five-line staff with four spaces

•

neumes were then fixed on a line or a space, which for the first time, represented an exact pitch

•

this was revolutionary because it allowed a singer to learn how to sing a verse without having heard it before, which was called sight reading and sight singing

•

created syllables of notes

•

he developed new techniques for teaching, such as staff notation and the use of the "ut–re–mi–fa–so–la" (do–re–mi–fa–so–la) mnemonic syllables which are taken from the initial syllables of each of the first six half-lines of the first stanza of the hymn "Ut queant laxis": (1) Ut queant laxīs, (2) resonāre fībrīs, (3) Mīra gestõrum, (4) famulī tuõrum, (5) Solve pollūtī, (6) labiī reātum

•

didn't name B right away

•

Ut eventually changes to Do, probably for the word Domine

•

hexachords

•

arrangements of six notes

•

one that started on C

•

one that started on G

•

required a B-natural (square)

•

one that started on F

•

required a B-flat (rounded)

•

Guidonian hand

•

a mnemonic device used to assist singers in learning to sight-sing

•

teachers would point to different joints and fingers and have their students sing the intervals

•

musical manuscript production

•

Jean Miélot, 15th century

•

writing music into manuscripts was a regular part of living in a monestary

•

special rooms called scriptoria were dedicated to manuscript production

•

creating a manuscript was part of the religious experience of being in a monestary

•

prayers were said as you entered the room

•

monks were able to meditate on the text as they wrote it down

•

elaborate drawings, sometimes for a single letter

•

ornate borders

•

leather bindings with metals and gemstones

•

Gregorian chants

•

written and recorded into manuscripts for hundreds of years in order to standardize the music service in the Catholic Church to prevent variation over time

•

there was still a problem of rhythm

•

go back 1000 years and go back this simple system of neumes which are marks that show the pitch with no concept of meter, measures, time signature, or even a specific indication of rhythm for a given note