monophony

The complete French estampies of c. 1300: music, analysis, performance

Ian Pittaway Ars musice, Chansonnier du Roi, chant, church modes, citole, contrary motion, Doctrina de compondre dictates, drones, ecclesiastical chant, Edi beo thu heuene quene, Edi beo thu hevene quene, estampida, estampie, estanpie, fiddle, gittern, harp, heterophony, historically informed performance, istanpitta, Johannes de Grocheio, Manuscrit du Roi, medieval fiddle, medieval harp, modes, monophony, musica falsa, musica ficta, musica recta, musica vera, Notre Dame school, organum, parallel harmonies, parallel polyphony, polyphony, postlude, prelude, prime Estampie Royal, quarte Estampie Royal, quinte estampie Real, rhythmic modes, Roman de Horn, seconde Estampie Royal, septime estampie Real, Sexte estampie Real, stampen, stampita, stantipede, stantipedem, stantipedis, stantipes, tierce Estampie Roial, Uitime estampie Real, viella, vielle 2 Comments

Among the treasures of surviving medieval instrumental music are eight French royal estampies in the Manuscrit or Chansonnier du roi, c. 1300. This article includes:

• an outline of the manuscript, putting the estampies in context;
• a description of the estampie form from a contemporaneous French source, Ars musice by Johannes de Grocheio, c. 1300;
• a video of each of the eight royal estampies performed on either gittern, citole or medieval harp;
• the music for all the royal estampies in the original neume notation and in modern notation;
• music analysis and historically-informed performance suggestions, looking at a different aspect of performance for each estampie.

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Performing medieval music. Part 1/3: Instrumentation

Ian Pittaway Beverley Minster, Cantigas de Santa María, carols, citole, fiddle, gittern, harp, historically informed performance, mediaeval, medieval, medieval fiddle, medieval harp, monophony, recorder, rota, tabulae, vielle 17 Comments

The most fundamental question of all in playing early music today is: how can the music be played to reflect historical practice? This is the first of three articles looking at historically-informed ways of performing medieval music, aiming to be a practical guide, with plenty of musical examples and illustrations, and a bibliography for those who wish to delve further.

This first article discusses the use of instruments and instrument combinations in medieval music. The illustrations in two manuscripts are used as typical representative examples: the 13th century Iberian Cantigas de Santa Maria and the 14th century English Queen Mary Psalter. The second article gives practical methods for making arrangements of medieval monophonic music according to historical principles, with an example to illustrate each method; and the third article discusses questions of style, including the performance of the non-mensural (non-rhythmic) music of the troubadours, ornamentation, and the medieval voice. Read more