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Medieval Music
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Medieval Music Music of the Middle Ages made great advancements through the centuries, which many are still evident today. The Christian Church effected the development of music greatly during the middle ages. The first major type of music of this time was chanting. “The early Christians inherited the Jewish chants of synagogues.”(Bishop-324) Chants didn’t have constant rhythm, every note was about the same length. They had only one melody ,usually in the major key of C. All the singers sang the same notes together, this is called monophonic. Chants became an significant part of the church service, they were sung throughout the mass. These first chants were just sung by the congregation, later on choirs took over. “Roman Chant became known as Gregorian chant after Pope Gregory I, the great, who may have composed some of the melodies and who actively encouraged an orderly, ritualized use of music by the church.”(MS Encarta-1) He also supported the schola cantorum, a singing school, to teach boys how to chant. During the ninth century many musicians began to use more than unaccompanied melody. A new type of chant was formed called organom. Organum was two octaves of chanting simultaneously. “Organum was important to the history of music, because it was the first step toward the development of the musical texture known as polyphony (multipart music) the extensive use of which is the most distinctive feature of Western music.” (MS Encarta-1) ...
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