Music of the Middle Ages: Part 2 

The way you presented this content is much more digestible than other ways I've heard it taught. This was so helpful. Thanks!

I absolutely love listening to music but music appreciation in college has never made me dislike music so much. My academic advisor really messed me over with this class There're so few resources for laymen for music history it's all technical. These clips have helped me understand a bit more. First B or maybe C I'll have. I've never had to try so hard to do so poorly.

The reason why The Church did no allow any instruments is for the same reason that it initially also forbid the usage of chromatic notes. The Church did not consider music as an art but only as a tool to convey the message of the sacred text. The Chant main objective was to help to increase the concentration and devotion of the christians, which also explain why the Roman and then Gregorian chant was slow and mainly diatonic. The Church did not want the chant to ressemble to the pagan roman feasts. The organ is one of the few instruments which can as the human voice have sustained notes and it has no pagan connotation. Also the sacred chant is not without rythm, it is just not using the same concept as our modern rythmic concept. The rythm of the plainsong is dictated by the text it supports. Eventually though with the evolution of the christian practice, increased size of the more educated bourgeoisie and cultural habits in the middle age society and then the advent of the Renaissance spirit, this rigorist position evolved slowly. Music being also a social activity is shaped and evolves alongside the demand and cultural habits of the population.

Keep the good work, we love you Allysia!

Thank you SO MUCH for making these videos! I am studying for placement exams for a graduate degree in music and your videos are extremely helpful in solidifying the information for me! A lot of videos online talk about what happened but not necessarily WHY, which your videos do!

Hey! I really like your channel and the content you give us!! All of your videos have brought me some sort of understanding and that is what brings me back. As a self teaching musician, I search youtube everytime I have a question to ask and generally will search multiple youtubers until it makes sense. So thank you so much for your time and effort, I personally really appreciate it and I know a ton of others do as well. I see you ratings and they match your content perfectly. Now, just give me a decade or two and I will be composing ;)

Fascinating stuff, as always!

Really enjoyed this Medieval series, thank you!

Great video, thank you Allysia.

Very helpful thank you!

Allysia: Thank you for a quick and well done condensation of the Music of the Middle Ages! In my early adulthood I spent a lot of time studying and playing this music on old style woodwinds such as recorders and krummhorns, etc. Hearing this stuff brought me back to fun times. Thank you for mentioning Guillaume Machaut, that amazing composer of 13th century space music. This guy wrote a piece called "Ma fin est mon commencement" (My end is my beginning). A piece of music that is a palindrome, that is, it gets to the middle than REVERSES back to the beginning (that is, the end). It's tough music at first to listen to but on repeated hearings gets really cosmic. Much of his other music may take you to other worlds. Try to enjoy.

Awesome video! Really helped me with my music project! Thanks!

I had to watch this for school and it was torture

That was super interesting!

Good lesson!

Great video!

Very good videos. I only want to make a point. You, as well as most sources I read, consider sacred music to be purely vocal, at best accompanied by the organ. It makes sense, but I believe it was not always the case, especially between 14th and early 15th century. For a couple of reasons: very often in church frescos you can see angels playing flutes, drums, vielles and lyres. Surely if a host of angels could play fife and drum, it could not be considered pagan or secular by the priests. Secondly, at least one other instrument was played in churches: the organistrum, aka the early hurdy gurdy. Maybe other exceptions were made as well. And finally, some religious music, such as the music from the libre vermell, was basically a new arrangement of secular songs, so probably in those cases instruments might have been allowed as well. It's just a theory, but I wanted to share it with you.

There is still a lot of music hidden in old archives and libraries that are interesting to listen to and explore...

Omg I’m glad that I found this or else I’m getting an F for music history. Thank you so much!

Hi, i'm new here and i wanted to ask you what do you think about yanni's music and if you ever would make a video about this. i'm also a piano player and learning his melodies. :))))))

Notification brought me here.

7:07 can you imagine trying to fucking dance to that?

The 3 pieces of the Robertsbridge fragment of which 2 are classified as estampie are likely not meant to be dances; though the structure is indeed like an Estampie their dancing character is fairly low. The first one is very long so its actual purpose is not established. The second one (retrove from old french meaning retrouvé - found) is written in parallel fifth which is unusual and fairly archaic for a composition of c. 1300. These pieces are supposed to be composed for an execution at the organ.

Nice nice nice

This really left me with more questions. great video though. but not enough information to really get a good enough idea.

Can you do an Analysis of Liebesleid Kreisler/Rachmaninov?

Please, play any medieval song on piano. Thank you.

speaking of Rach, can we have a breif history of Rachmaninoff?? I think it's interesting that he had a deformed body like Paganini and composed the Rhapsody. Rach had huge hands!!!!!

Amazing! We are a medieval music group, and you helped us on our studies Thank you

i would like her to describe the whole story and lore of kirby

Why do you call 4ths and 5ths dissonant? When two voices sing in 4ths, it may sound a bit strange, but not that dissonant, at least it is not regarded as dissonant. And natural 5ths are as consonant as octaves (well.....almost of course).

Brief history on Rachmaninoff please

siick, nowadays rubato and melody are dying, stable rhythm and atonality is super good for music evolution imo. Listen to Bukez Finezt- Under Control or Ponicz- Outlawz for example

mrs. gasper gang

Chanson is a French word requiring French pronunciation.

I do love muh Shansonz.

you need to work on your french