Journey Highlights: April and May 2009

For all you lazy brutes out there who don't want to follow my regular blog entries, I present my journey highlights. In these posts (framed in red), I pick my favorite composers and tracks from the last month of the Journey, along with an explanation for why their awesomeness wowed my senses. Since I have two months of posts already, I will pick two from each category. First, my composers of the month:

April: Pérotin
May: Anonymous

The Notre Dame School of Polyphony pretty much got things started for music worth listening to on the European continent. Without a doubt, the best of the Notre Dame composers was Pérotin, who flourished around 1200. I reviewed two of his songs (Beata Viscera and Sederunt Principes) and read much about his influence on later composers. His simple approach to composition remains accessible to this day and was a major influence on the modern minimalist movement.

The fallout from the musical blast that was the Notre Dame School spread throughout Europe. Many of the techniques pioneered by this school (most notably the rhythmic modes) were used by composers of both sacred and secular music. Unfortunately, the vast majority of compositions from this period were written anonymously and may have been copied many times before finally appearing in collections like the Montpelier Codex. The identities of these lost masters may have been erased from historical records, but they will live on through their music.

The compositions of the month are:

April: Sederunt Principes (Pérotin)
May: Hoquetus I - II (Anonymous)

My favorite of Pérotin's compositions, Sederunt Principes impresses me more each time I listen to it. This four-voice motet demonstrates all of the major musical advances of the early medieval period, including the rhythmic modes and parallel and contrary vocal motion. Similarly, Hoquetus I - II is an excellent demonstration of early medieval techniques, including the hocket and the rare second rhythmic mode. This piece has garnered a lot of attention from the people I've spoken to about my journey, so I suggest giving it a listen.

Hoquetus I-II and Hoquetus David: Hocket Up

Album: Music of the Gothic Era
Track: "Hoquetus I-II" (first ~2 minutes of Track #1 on disk 2) and "Hoquetus David" (Track #20 on disk 2)
Composer: Anonymous and Guillaume de Machaut
Instruments: 2 cornetts, 1 shawm
Year: ~1300 - 1400

That's right, the hocket. Basically, a hocket is a piece where two voices alternate on notes of the melody, one resting while the other sounds. In modern music, you'll often hear a second voice harmonizing, backing the lead, or alternating on verses, but seldom will you hear two voices alternate on the melody multiple times in a measure. I was excited when I discovered this lost art, because it offers something that you'll never hear listening to the radio.

The hocket was actually pioneered by the Notre Dame School of Polyphony, but survived into the 14th century in secular music. I unknowingly encountered the hocket for the first time in "Amor Potest" (see Honking Geese), where its use was so simple-minded that I dismissed it almost immediately. In that piece, they alternated with uniform rhythm and minimal melodic complexity, but the two hockets listed above, "Hoquetus I-II" and "Hoquetus David", demonstrate a much more thorough mastery of the technique. Most notably, they offer rhythmic complexity ("Hoquetus David" is in 9/4 time) -- the way in which the voices pop in and out at irregular intervals, it feels as if they're surprising me even when I know exactly what's coming next.

External Links: YouTube

The Rhythmic Modes and Sederunt Principes

Album: Leonin & Perotin: Sacred Music from the Notre Dame Cathedral
Track: "Sederunt Principes" (Track #31)
Composer: Pérotin
Instruments: 4 voices
Musical Form: Conductus
Year: ~1200

The Notre Dame School was renowned not just for polyphony, but also for its use of rhythm, which came in the form of one of six rhythmic modes. These modes can be thought of as groupings of notes with the same relative durations. For example, the first mode is simply a long note followed by a short note. If you skip to 1:45 in "Sederunt Principes", the second-to-last piece on L&P, you can hear the first rhythmic mode clearly in multiple voices, being repeated over the steady drone of the lowest voice. The full set of modes are as follows:

1) long - short
2) short - long
3) long - short - medium
4) short - medium - long
5) long - long
6) short - short - short

Pérotin utilizes a variety of modes in Sederunt Principes, most frequently the first, third, and fifth modes. Listen to the whole piece and see if you can identify modes as they pop up in the different voices, keeping in mind that voices aren't always in the same mode at the same time.

The piece is also worth a listen in its own right. The way it slowly shifts in rhythm and pitch structure, I am reminded of modern minimalist composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich; in fact, the latter acknowledges drawing inspiration from Pérotin. This fact alone reassures me that I haven't wasted my time revisiting the music of the ancient world.

External Links: YouTube

Parallel, Oblique, and Contrary Motion

Album: Leonin & Perotin: Sacred Music from the Notre Dame Cathedral
Track: "Viderunt Omnes" (Tracks #2 - 8)
Composer: Léonin
Instruments: 2 voices
Musical Form: Conductus
Year: ~1150

Following "Beata Viscera", the album Leonin & Perotin: Sacred Music from the Notre Dame Cathedral takes a purposeful step backwards and presents the first of five renditions of an ancient Christmas chant, Viderunt Omnes (meaning "all have seen"). Written by an unknown medieval composer, the first arrangement demonstrates polyphony in its simplest form. To begin the piece, we hear only a single voice performing a traditional Gregorian chant, a chant not unlike the ones reviewed in my second entry. After only a minute of this, however, we hear a another voice arise, moving in parallel motion above the first and adding texture that must have been thrilling to the medieval ear (listen to an example of parallel motion). Not impressed? Of course you're not, modern music is replete with harmonies much more complex than this one, but be patient.

Continuing to the next track, we hear the first contribution from Léonin and the beginning of the second rendition of Viderunt Omnes, this time split into five sections. Léonin preceded Pérotin by ~50 years and most of his compositions had only two voices, but his work helped lay the foundation for the more complex four-voice motets that would follow. In addition to experimenting with parallel, oblique, and contrary motion in the vocal parts, he also was among the first composers to use rhythmic modes, a set of very simple rhythms common to later medieval music. In this third track, he demonstrates a mastery of oblique motion; that is, the motion of one voice over the constant or slowly changing pitch of another (listen to an example).

Léonin works with a mix of parallel and oblique motion through the next few sections of the piece, until we reach "Dominus." Here, he begins to experiment with contrary motion in the voices, one moving up in pitch as the other moves down (listen to an example). This technique, which was developed by the Notre Dame School of Polyphony, would later be formalized into a system of "counterpoint" and would be mastered in the early 18th century by none other than Johann Sebastian Bach. At this point, however, we only hear a glimmer of the complexity exhibited in Bach's much later work. The lower voice in "Dominus" exhibits a slow, deliberate motion, while the upper voice moves with relative freedom through the musical space carved out by Léonin. The combined effect is worth more than the sum of its parts.

External Links: YouTube

Beata Viscera

Album: Leonin & Perotin: Sacred Music from the Notre Dame Cathedral
Track: "Beata Viscera" (Track #1)
Composer: Pérotin
Instruments: 1 voice
Year: ~1200

Although you can't yet tell from the number of blog entries written so far, I've actually traveled quite a distance in my Hopeless Journey. Of all the songs I've listened to, it may be that the most beautiful is "Beata Viscera", the first track on Léonin & Pérotin: Sacred Music from Notre-Dame. The title translates to "blessed is the womb" and the piece is composed as a tribute to the Virgin Mary. This rendition is appropriately performed with only one voice -- its haunting beauty would likely be spoiled by a more complex arrangement. Although the mood of the piece would be more appropriate near the end of L&P, it begins our experience on a high note, demonstrating that even primitive medieval monophony can be beautiful when crafted by the hand of a composer like Pérotin. Where the Gregorian chant is stubborn in its single-mindedness, Beata Viscera explores a much broader spiritual space and feels as if it is speaking to us from the heavens themselves.

If you have iTunes (or an equivalent), I urge you to download this track and listen to it. In many ways, the medieval musical mind was primitive -- unlike modern composers, they did not have a plethora of techniques developed from centuries of musical experimentation to use as a reference point. Nevertheless, their analytical and creative minds were no less capable and their aesthetic was no less relevant than ours. "Beata Viscera" is a demonstration of how we can learn from the masters of any age; one should never underestimate the power of simplicity in music.

External Links: YouTube

1160 - 1250: The Notre Dame School of Polyphony, Introduction

Every once in a blue moon, an album comes along that completely changes your perspective on hackneyed opening sentences to music reviews. Performed by the vocal group, Tonus Peregrinus, Léonin & Pérotin: Sacred Music from Notre-Dame details the progression of polyphony in early medieval music, all the while offering something more than just a history lesson.

The collection features performances of pieces composed by Léonin and Pérotin, as well as by a number of anonymous (that is, unknown) composers, all products of the Notre Dame School of Music between the years 1160 and 1250. Named after the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, this collection of composers was renowned for its role in the development of early polyphony; that is, compositions using more than one independent voice. The pieces themselves were generally written around a traditional Gregorian Chant and would include variations in voicing, tempo, and rhythm. The most advanced compositions of the time, the motets, would include as many as four voices, often in contrary motion.

Since my experiences with this recording were both positive and educational, I will return to it in subsequent entries. If my blog encourages you to listen to anything, it should be this collection, not just because it is a pleasure to listen to, but also because it will enhance your appreciation of music in general.