Catholic Influence on Music — Overview

Singing, dancing, and musical instruments have existed in every known civilization. In most cultures, however, musical traditions, including folk songs, dances, and primitive instruments remained unchanged for hundreds of years. Only in the West, under the influence of the Catholic Church, has the science and traditions of music progressed to the point of Operas, Symphonies, elaborate harmonies and vocal arrangements. This is the story of the progression of Christian music from chants and songs based on Bible verses to the sophisticated vocal and instrumental arrangements of the classical age.

Most important develops in western music occurred between the ninth and seventeen centuries under the patronage of the Catholic Church. For most of that time, musical instrumentation and tuning were not sophisticated and harmony among multiple instruments was difficult to achieve. The most advanced harmonies were therefore vocal works.

By the 18th century, however musical instruments became more finely tuned, and orchestral music arose. By this time secular productions, such as operas and symphonies began to find audiences and the period of Church domination of music came to an end. The major periods related to the development of Western Music are as follows:

50 to 300 A.D. — EARLY CHURCH MUSIC

From its very beginning, the Christian Church integrated song and chant into its worship service. The earliest traditions of Christian music evolved from Hebrew worship services, including the singing or chanting of Psalms and other verses from Scripture.

Psalms

• The Psalms were the prayer book of the Hebrews and there was already a tradition of singing "Seven Times a Day" (Psalm 119) in Synagogues that was incorporated into the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) of religious communities.
• The music associated with psalms was based on four note melody patterns called tetrachords that were common in the ancient world.
• Psalms were sung as antiphons (alternating call and response) and in unison (monophonic).

Hymns

• Early hymns were inspired by verses from the Old and New Testaments, and were monophonic (without harmony). They became more common in 4th century after Christian worship became public.
• Early hymn writers included Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary of Poitiers, and Ephraim the Syrian. Other church fathers commented on music and liturgy of the early church.

Spiritual Canticles

• Spiritual Songs emphasized vocal music, not lyrics; They were based on the ideal of the human voice as a perfect instrument of praise.
• Spiritual Songs were usually melismatic (multiple notes per syllable) and some had very few lyrics. They were often based on sacred words or phrases. "Alleluia", "Kyrie", "Agnus Dei", or "Gloria" are familiar examples.

300 to 1000 A.D. — DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITURGIES

Liturgies in the Early Church

• Early masses followed some of the traditions of Hebrew worship services, with the addition of the Eucharistic prayer and service.
• In pre-Nicene times rites and liturgies varied by region. Local bishops set standards to encourage singing and praise in churches.
• The chanting of psalms seven times per day (and once at night), known as the Liturgy of the Hours, was based on Hebrew traditions, and was adopted by early monastic communities

Eastern Liturgies

• John Chrysostom revised the rubics of the Divine Liturgy in 400 A.D, at a time when Constantinople was the leading city of the Empire and Hagia Sophia the largest Church.
• Most other Churches in the East adopted Divine Liturgy of John Chysostom. The Coptic Rite (Egypt), Syrian Rite, and Amenian Rite retained many of their own traditions.
• The Russian Church adopted the Eastern Rite, or Byzantine Rite, before the East-West Schism and still retains it.

Western Liturgies

• Schola Cantorum (Choir Schools) – were organized in the 400s for training male singers. Benedictine monasteries helped establish musical traditions in Western liturgies.
• Gregory the Great revised the Roman liturgy and promoted Schola Cantorum in the early 600s. By the 8th century the music traditions in the Latin liturgy were referred to as Gregorian Chant throughout western Europe.
• Earliest method of cataloging Gregorian Chants into eight pitches was known as Church Modes. This was the basis from which musical notation developed.
• Sacred songs sung after the Alleluia were called Sequences. Many were written for seasonal masses and became part of the liturgical calendar.

Other Developments

• In the early 500's Boethius wrote De Institutione Musica, an authoritative book on Ancient Music. He was the most widely read authority on music until the invention of scale notation in 1000 A.D.
• Water Organs were introduced into Churches service in 7th century by Pope Vitalian. Organum,an early form of Harmony using two voices, was named after sound of organ.
• Organum was developed in monasteries before the 9th century. In Parallel Organum, two choirs sang the same melody one octave off. In Drone organum, a singer or music held a particular note whole the rest of the choir sang the melody.

Carolingian Renaissance

• Under Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious, the influence of the Roman Church, including liturgical and musical traditions, flourished throughout western Europe.
• Charlemagne promoted conformity of liturgy and musical traditons and Gregorian Chant spread throughout his realms.
• Pepin the Short (Charlemagne's father) received a great pipe organ from Byzantine Emperor and from that time the popularity of organ accompaniment for Church music increased.

1000 to 1400 A.D. — MUSICAL NOTATION AND POLYPHONY

Musical Notation

• Guido of Arezzo, a Benedictine monk, lived around 1000 A.D. and invented modern musical notation. He used staff notation to represent notes on a lined scale and named the notes with words taken from the first lines of a popular hymn (Ut, re, me, fa, sol, la).
• Methods for denoting duration, loudness and rhythm were refined in later years, but the revolution in preserving melodies was immediate.
• Gurido wrote The Micrologus, a widely read treatise on music explaining his innovations.
• The Guidonian hand was a mnemonic device that mapped notes onto parts of a human hand to provide visual guide to music scale. (May not have been developed by Guido.)

Beginning of Polyphonic Music

• Once musical notation was understood composers could experiment with harmony and record their innovations.
• Perotin and other composers from Notre Dame in Paris experimented with three and four voices around 1200.
• Notre Dame composers experimented with 3-beat rhythmic system (tenary), and used different words for simultaneous voices as well as different voices singing same words.
• Motets were music written with words, usually with three or more harmonic parts. Early motets had the "tenor" maintain the chant while other voices harmonized.
• Early polyphony used voice to create beautiful harmonies, but words of complex pieces became hard to understand. Some compositions were criticized as too extravagant for regular worship.

Music during Gothic Era

• Polyphonic music benefited from instrumental accompaniment. Organs became more common in great churches after Gothic innovations in Architecture.
• Troubadours popularized secular music in France, Spain, and Italy, during 1100-1350.
• As with other art forms, the musical innovations of the 12th and 13th centuries were set back by the Black Plague and wars of the 14th century and didn't recover until 1450s.

1400 to 1600 A.D. — FRANCO-FLEMISH SCHOOL

Events leading to Musical Renaissance of 15th century

• After fall of Constantinople in 1453 many scholars, artists, musicians of the east, fled to Western Europe, brought Byzantine traditions.
• Printing press invented in 1450's. First sheet music printed only 50 years later. For the first time, popular music composition spread rapidly over all of Europe.
• Composers started using chords involving 1-3-5 notes, called Triads. This led to recognition of Major and Minor modes.
• In some polyphonic arrangements, the main voice moved from tenor to higher octaves, increasing the audibility of phrases or lyrics.

Josquin des Prez and Franco-Flemish School

• Josquin des Prez (1450-1521), the greatest composer of the Franco-Flemish School of Music, excelled in polyphonic compositions.
• Des Prez and other Flemish musicians supported by Burgundian princes composed masses, motets, and hymns, and produced both sacred and secular music.
• De Prez compositions were circulated throughout Europe and were so popular that other composers attributed their works to him. Miserere Mei is one of his most famous works.
• Franco-Flemish school was badly effected by Protestant Revolt. By 1600 Italy became center of musical innovations.

1520-1640 — PROTESTANT WORSHIP INNOVATIONS

Lutheran Music Traditions

• Protestant criticisms of Catholic music was that it was overly complicated, the words of psalms could not be heard clearly, and that singers were sometimes irreverent.
• Martin Luther reforms preserved most of the Mass, but he wanted congregation to sing parts instead of choirs of trained clerics.
• Luther promoted using the vernacular for hymns, but preserved many of the prayers in Latin. He applied German lyrics to popular melodies used in Gregorian Chant.
• A Chorale is a harmonic melody to which a hymn is sung by the German congregation. It is a distinctively Lutheran form of Music.
• Luther was a musician and composer who made many liturgical innovations himself. His best known original hymn is A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Calvin and the 'Reformed' Churches

• John Calvin tossed out the entire Catholic liturgy, but retained the used of Psalms, and reverted to a primitive (monophonic) musical style. He also created his own Psalter as a hymnbook for his congregation in Geneva.
• Other 'Reformed' churches developed their own Psalters and Prayer books. All preferred simple melodies the congregation could sing without special training.
• Calvinism was a destructive, rather than creative force in sacred arts. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and music were all stifled under the reformed church.

Cranmer and the Church of England

• When the Church of England broke from Rome under Henry VIII few changes were made to the liturgy, but under the reign of his son Edward, Cranmer was able to make both doctrinal and liturgical changes through the Book of Common Prayer.
• Anglican congregations remained attached to many traditional Catholic hymns and sequences, so much Catholic music has been adapted for Anglican services by translating words to English and by adapting polyphonic music to Anglican choirs.
• William Byrd was the greatest composer of Reformation Era England. He wrote hymns and masses for Anglican services but converted to Catholicism late in life.

1560 to 1700 — ROMAN AND VENETIAN SCHOOLS

Council of Trent Reforms

• Latin liturgy (Tridentine Mass) was standardized in 1570 by Pius V, based on best practices of existing Roman mass. Restrictions on variations in Latin Liturgy were formalized to prevent Protestant abuses.
• The Council of Trent insisted that words be understandable, set limits on types of instruments used in churches and tried to curb abuses in the liturgy. It insisted that Sacred music be dignified and serious, not sensuous.
• The Renaissance in Italian music began after the council of Trent and continued throughout the 17th century.

Giovanni de Palestrina and the Roman School

• After the council of Trent, Rome became a center of musical composition, and continued the polyphonic traditions of the Franco-Flemish composers.
• The leading composer of the Roman School was Giovanni de Palestrina. He excelled in polyphonic compositions and adhered to a 'strict' version of counterpoint.
• Palestrina, a disciple of St. Philip Neri, wrote music for Neri's'Oratorios, a traveling mission featuring scenes from scripture set to music
• Rome was the center of Art and Architecture during Renaissance and the Sistine Chapel Choir was one of the leading polyphonic choruses in Europe.

Giovanni Gabrieli and the Venetian School

• The Venetian school of Music, based in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice arose at the same time as Roman school, but was more daring and progressive.
• St. Mark's Basilica had spacious, opposing choir lofts, appropriate for polychoral compositions and large orchestras.
• The Venetian school developed musical styles, such as solo vocals with orchestral accompaniments, and melody-dominated polyphony that became the foundation of operas and popular music of the 'classsical' era.
• Venice based composers experimented with more innovative polyphony than the Roman school permitted, and since Venice was a center of printing their compositions influence all of Europe.
• Giovanni Gabrieli was the most famous composer of the Venetians School. He wrote sacred concertos and symphonies

Claudio Monteverdi and Opera

• Monteverdi was an Italian Catholic priest who became conductor in Venice in 1614. He wrote many madrigals (secular, polyphonic vocal pieces) as well as sacred music.
• Monteverdi wrote two operas, L'Orfeo, and Coronation of Poppea, staged in the Ducal palace of Venice, that helped establish opera as a popular art form.
• Opera became extremely popular throughout Europe during the late 17th century, due to the rise of orchestras. For the first time composers served the "paying public" in addition to Church and secular patrons.

1700-1800 — CLASSICAL PERIOD CONCERTOS, ORATORIO

Violins are the most important instrument in symphony orchestras, so it was not until the 1700s, when symphony quality violins became widely available, that the composition and performance of orchestra music became common. Before the 1700s most music was composed for voice with musical accompaniment. By the end of the Baroque period, however, music intended entirely for instruments, such as symphonies, were common. The 1700s were also the age of the great Opera Houses of Europe, and the age of the Great Composers of "Classical" Music.

Although the Great composers of the classical period are known for their secular music, most 18th century composers intended much of their repetiore as worship music.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

• Vivaldi was a Catholic priest, and violin virtuoso who spent most of his life as a music teacher for a convent-orphanage in Vienna. His orchestra was composed of orphans and female singers who were trained in music and performed at religious festivals.
• Vivaldi wrote hundreds of compositions for the orphanage choir and orchestra, and under his direction they became well known throughout Europe.
• Vivaldi's innovations had a tremendous influence on later composers such as Bach and Handel. He composed hundreds of Concertos, Sonatas, Operas, Cantatas, and Masses, but his most famous work is a set of four violin concertos, The Four Seasons.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

• Bach was a renowned Organist, a devout Lutheran, and was a master composer of counterpoint, a style of polyphonic composition that mixed harmonically similar lines with different rhythms and pace.
• Bach worked as an organist and chorale director in Weimer and Leipzig, He was known to be able to improvise complicated compositions based on a simple chord sequence.
• Almost all of Bach's compositions were religiously inspired. Many of Bach's best known works were Lutheran hymns or cantatas based on scriptural quotations.
• Some of Bach's famous works are the Brandenburg Concertos, Jesus Joy of Man's Desire, Mass in B minor and St. Matthew's Passion, dramatizing Christ's sufferings and death.
• Bach wrote the Well Tempered Clavier setting forth his recommendation for 12 division octaves, known as equal temperament.

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)

• Handel was born in Germany but spent most of his career in England at the court of George I and II. He began his career writing operas, but later switched to Oratorio.
• Handel's most famous work is The Messiah, an English language Oratorio performed every year on Good Friday. His Hallelujah Chorus is especially well known.

Vienna School

• By the late 1700s the center of musical innovation moved to Vienna due to the patronage of the Hapsburgs. Most of the famous composers of late 18th and early 19th century lived in Austria, including Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.
• The French Revolution caused great upheavals all over Europe and especially in the Church. During the 19th and early 20th most composers, including those in Catholic countries wrote much of their works for a secular, rather than sacred audience.