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The historical origins of medieval music

The history of the Middle Ages is a historical period of about 1,200 years between ancient Europe and modern times. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, Europe's political and social structures collapsed, life was difficult and depressed, and what followed was a long and slow recovery. However, the cultural and artistic achievements of this period cannot be ignored. Musical heritage is also important. Although its way of thinking and cognitive characteristics are far from those of today, in other important respects, contemporary music inherits a lot of wealth from medieval music.

The adjective "Medieval", like its English counterpart and its counterparts in other languages, is derived from the Latin noun. Renaissance humanist scholars conceive that the whole thousand years from the decline of ancient civilization to the "resurrection" of culture, literature and art in the fifteenth century were merely a dark episode of the unworthy "Goths". Historians have long refuted this prejudice (although this view is partly preserved by the term "Dark Ages") but still customarily regard this slow period as an independent historical stage. It is generally accepted that 476 (the fall of the Western Roman Empire) and 1453 (the fall of Constantinople to the Turks) are the upper and lower limits of this period.

"The Middle Ages developed from a primitive and primitive state. The only things it inherited from the declining ancient world were Christianity and some incomplete and uncivilized cities." The Roman Catholic Church was ideologically dominant, and under the strict supervision of the church, it fell into the abyss of obscurantism and asceticism. The Bible is considered to be absolutely authoritative and the majestic standard for judging right and wrong. All authoritative explanations come from God. A person is influenced and controlled by the church from the cradle to the grave, from his thoughts, words and deeds to his daily work. The medieval church tried its best to promote asceticism and the concept of the afterlife, and preached the doctrines of original sin and the afterlife. Monks gained a monopoly on knowledge and education, and education itself was permeated with a theological character. The Middle Ages left behind the remains of the violence of feudal lords and the religious rule of monastic monks on the one hand, and the artistic creation of poetry, music, literature, architecture and sculpture on the other. Music should be ranked first among the arts. St. Thomas Dacan (1225-1274 Catholic theologian, author of "Introduction to Theology") called it "the crown of the seven literary arts" and regarded it as "the noblest modern science". It is both an art and a science, and is taught as a subject in universities along with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. At a very early time, people established strict musical rules and, in the spirit of the scholastic school, regarded music creation as a rational achievement rather than a product of imagination or sensibility. But this need for rational structure, which is sometimes exaggerated, and which characterizes the musical activity of the Middle Ages, has an excellent influence here, because it has to do with several problems: clarifying the confusion of the newly emerged polyphony. ;Determine the measure of the rhythm and find a notation for the duration and height of the sound. But this desperate desire to stay true to ancient concepts - concepts that are often misunderstood - sometimes confuses the minds of theorists and in some respects delays the development of musical techniques.

In early music, the church played a major role here, so the first thing we should pay attention to is religious music, church music. In all the history of music, there are two thousand years from Christianity to the 21st century. However, in these two thousand years of music history, the previous years only account for a small part, so that they have become our understanding of music history. An important reason why Western music cannot be truly understood. What’s more important is understanding the music itself. Historical facts are nothing but dry skeletons, and only music can give life and meaning to the skeletons. This is especially important to bear in mind when studying less familiar music like plain chant.

Psalms must be listened to and sung over and over again until one gets used to them. But our difficulties are greater. It was only after World War II that Western musicologists in the 20th century began to pay attention to medieval music and ancient music, and then some academic results began to be made. Later, I recorded many records, most of which were recorded in Catholic churches and various churches. The acoustics are great, with some interesting echoes. Only after listening to that will you know what kind of music the music was at that time. What we consider medieval church music is the form of hymns that began to form in the seventh century and lasted until the 1960s. The repertoire of psalms and the liturgies to which they belong were developed over many centuries. Even as some rituals became stable, the Psalms continued to expand and change. Most hymns originate from the Middle Ages and have been sung continuously since then. They have survived to this day and are often full of errors. Therefore, plain hymns are a historical system, a piece of music sung in early concerts, and a ritual that is still sung. Classic music. It is therefore prudent to consider the psalm repertoire through the liturgical conventions observed in recent times, even if this obscures the chronology of style and practice. Below we have to ignore the time gap between ancient and modern times and focus on the end of the 19th century. The style restored at the beginning of the 20th century was also the style that was widely used until recently. Delving into these pieces, you can at least appreciate the feelings of medieval monks and Russians.

Christian music originated from Jewish music. The latter was influenced by Greek art. The religious music of the Hebrews consisted of songs and dances accompanied by musical instruments.

It has little contemplative meaning, and has a strong and even rough breath, which is particularly loud and enthusiastic. It is fully suitable for the passion filled with psalms.

The first Christians sang little or not at all. They were in hiding due to persecution, and singing would expose them. If they sometimes dared to hum a few melody, it was always without any instrumental accompaniment. of. In addition, their teachings rejected the sentimentalism in pagan music, at least rejecting the chromatic and quarter-tone scales as too decadent. This was not always the case in the East, where local traditions trumped any religious considerations. Guido was responsible for the complete and permanent elimination of all non-diatonic modes in Christian church songs.