Polyphony in the Middle Ages Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Polyphony in the Middle Ages - Research Paper Example This form of progression gave the music resonance that is so fascinating. The first parallel organum was the Musical enchiriadis (Musical Handbook) which emerged in 9th century1. Occasionally, two voices in the music began in unison followed by vox organalis climbs to its hiatus, receding at the ends of phrases to the unison. This form was followed by the Ad organum facienddum2 . In 11th century, four other organums emerged. This include florid organum, melismatic organum, duplum organum and organum purum. Dalahoyde notes that the unmeasured melismatic dupum invoved the use of long tenure notes. Aquitanian organum of the 11th century which is linked to the French SW ‘Discant organum’ involved the use of two voices falling into a rhythmic style. This style of organum involved 6/8 or sometimes 8/9 fell, singing at the same pace for a passage. Dalahoyde reveals that in the 11th and 12th century, the octaves, fourth and fifth were perceived constant but not thirds. He notes that the standard closing sonority was 1-5-8 structure because it involved two perfect intervals3. Notre-Dome is also a style of early organum which came into being in 12th century. Its is derived from the Notre Dame Cathedral which was constructed in 1163. Notre Dame has two parts: organa and several clausulae, motets and Conductus. In organa, the melody involved the use of long notes with the organal part being left free and measured rhythm but with complex melismata. The free melismatic style is used when the original melody of the playsonng is syllabic in nature. Under discantus style, two parts of the play song moves notes by note rhythmically or in forms derived from the music of troubadour. The discantus style is employed especially when playchant is elaborated in lyrical form4. Clausula is another form of Notre Dame Style developed in 12th and 13th century. It is based on small portions of Gregorian chant as opposed to the organa which is based on the whole chant. This style involved squat compositions based on responsorial chant of melisma. Under this style, the tenor has no full text, nevertheless, icipit or just a syllable to show the chant from which tenure is taken from5. Organum Purum is another form of the Notre Dame which is employed where chants are syllabic. This implies situations where tenor cannot be modal. Immediately the tenure employs ligatures, its tenure transforms to modal and becomes discant which is the second type. Copula is the third form which entails the use of loh. de garlandia used between the discant and organum. Under Notre Dame Style, there are some distinctions that exist whether the style is strictly modal or not. Under duplum organum in its purum organum parts of syllables, the parts of cum littera in two-part conductus, monophonic conductus and copulae would be part of repertory. This are not strictly modal. Under monophonic songs, whether it is a conductus or a chant by Petrotin, musical standards for declamation is n ot varied as was the case with traditional types. Research has shown that there is a lot of variance and fluency of declamatory speech rhythms used in chants and should, therefore, govern it6. Florid organum is a musical genre of the twentieth century. Under this genre, there exist between two to six notes sung in the original voice but under a single nonstop note in the tenor. This is the principle also followed by the Paris duplum organum and Saint Martial organum. In the mid twentieth century,