Page 71 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

The term Middle Ages is a catch-all phrase that refers to the thousand years of history between the fall of the Roman Empire (476) and the dawn of the Age of Discovery (mid-1400s, culminating in the voyages of Christopher Columbus). It was a period of monks and nuns, of knightly chivalry and brutal warfare, of sublime spirituality and deadly plagues, and of soaring cathedrals amidst abject poverty. Two institutions vied for political control: the Church and the court. From our modern perspective, the medieval period appears as a vast chronological expanse dotted by outposts of dazzling architecture, stunning stained glass, and equally compelling poetry and music.
For the interconnected inhabitant of the twenty-first century, it is difficult to imagine an isolated, solitary life revolving around prayer. But in the Middle Ages, a large portion of the population (monks and nuns) defined their lives with two simple tasks: work and prayer. They worked to feed their bodies and they prayed to save their souls. Indeed, the Middle Ages was a profoundly spiritual period, because life on earth was uncertain and often brief. If you got an infection, you likely died (there were no antibiotics); if insects ate your crops, you likely starved (no insecticides); if your village caught fire, it likely burned to the ground (no fire trucks). With seemingly little control over their own destiny, people turned to an outside agent (God) for help. And they did so mainly through organized re- ligion—the Roman Catholic Church, the dominant spiritual and administrative force in medieval Europe.
Music in the Monastery
Most medieval society was overwhelmingly agricultural, and thus religion was centered in isolated, rural monasteries (for monks) and convents (for nuns). The clergy worked in the fields and prayed in the church. Religious services usu- ally began well before dawn and continued at various other times throughout the day in an almost unvarying cycle. The most important service was Mass, a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper, celebrated at about nine o’clock in the morning. The music for these services was what we today call Gregorian chant (or plainsong)—a unique collection of thousands of religious songs, sung in Latin, that carry the theological message of the Church. Although this music bears the name of Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540–604), this pontiff actu- ally wrote very little of it. Instead, Gregorian chant was created by many people, male and female, before, during, and after Gregory’s reign.
Gregorian chant is like no other music. It has a timeless, otherworldly quali- ty that in part arises from its lack of meter and regular rhythms. True, some notes are longer or shorter than others, but pitches do not recur in obvious patterns that would allow us to clap our hands or tap our feet. Because all voices sing in unison, Gregorian chant is monophonic music. There is no instrumental ac- companiment, nor, as a rule, are men’s and women’s voices mixed. For all these reasons, Gregorian chant has a consistently uniform, monochromatic sound, one far more conducive to meditation than to dancing. The faithful are not to hear the music per se, but rather to use the music as a vehicle to enter a spiritual state, to reach communion with God.
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