Welcome
to Medieval Music History month in Clef Notes. We’re stepping way back in time
to look at some of the earliest forms of music. Last time, we talked about how
music history follows Christian church history, since music was so important to
the early church services. In order to unify a divided church and divided
lands, church and political leaders sought to standardize the chant used within
a church service. One way to help ensure people from different regions were
singing the same thing was to come up with a system of notation. Up until this
point, most music traditions were transmitted orally, which wasn’t always
accurate. Key features often got lost in translation!
During
the 9th century, we see the earliest examples of notation. At this point, neumes
were used to represent contour of a chant only. There was no pitch designation,
and typically no rhythm indicated. What’s a neume, you ask? A neume is a sign
used to write down chant notation (similar to a note head today, but not
quite!) During the 10th and 11th centuries, neumes were
arranged relative to one another in order to suggest pitch. During the 11th
century, a monk named Guido of Arezzo suggested using lines and spaces to help
indicate pitch. He used a line in red ink to show F and a line in yellow ink to
show C. The staff we know today evolved from this early form of notation.
You
may have heard of a scale. But what about a church mode? Join me next time to
learn more!
