In this recording, the monophonic melody is sung by men and women and is played by a medieval fiddle and lute a drum plays the beat near the end of the excerpt, you can also hear flutes and shawms.Its narrow-ranged melody and repetitive rhythms make it easy for non-professionals to sing.It is music for entertainment, even though it has a sacred subject.What we want you to remember about this composition: Performing Forces: small ensemble of vocalists, men and women singing together and separately Nature of Text: Refrain and strophes in an earlier form of Portuguese, praising the Virgin Mary 181: “The Virgin will aid those who most love her” (Pero que seja a gente d’outra lei descreuda ) These parts are not notated in the manuscript, but it is likely that similar instruments would have been used to accompany this monophonic song in the middle ages.Ĭomposition : Song of Mary, No. The ensemble also includes a hand drum that articulates the repeating rhythmic motives, a medieval fiddle, and a lute, as well as medieval flutes and shawms, near the end of the excerpt below. In the recent recording done by Jordi Savall and his ensemble, a relatively large group of men and women sing the refrains, and soloists and smaller groups of singers perform the verses. The two-line melody for the refrain is repeated for the first two lines of the verse a new melody then is used for the last two lines of the verse. Its two-lined chorus (here called a refrain) is sung at the beginning of each of the eight four-lined strophes that serve as verses. It uses a verse and refrain structure similar to those discussed in chapter one. “The Virgin will aid those who most love her” praises Mary for her help during the crusades in defeating a Moroccan king in the city of Marrakesh. “The Virgin will aid those who most love her,” is one of over four hundred songs praising the Virgin Mary in the Cantigas de Santa Maria described above. 181: “The Virgin will aid those who most love her” Other manuscripts also show individuals dancing to the songs of composers such as Machaut.įocus Composition: Song of Mary, No. We believe such songs as these were also sung by groups and used as dance music, especially as early forms of rhythmic notation indicate simple and catchy patterns that were danceable. These depictions suggest to us that, outside of worship services, much vocal music was accompanied by instruments. Elsewhere in the manuscript these drummers and fifers appear (see Figure 2.6.2).
The musician on the left in Figure 2.6.1 is playing a rebec and the one to the right a lute. Cantigas de Santa Maria also includes many illustrations of individuals playing instruments. Many songs that merge these two focus points appear in a late thirteenth-century manuscript called the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Songs for the Virgin Mary), a collection sponsored by King Alfonso the Wise who ruled the northwestern corner of the Iberian peninsula. These poet-composers also sang of devotion to the Virgin Mary and of the current events of the day. Like most singer-songwriters, love was a favored topic. Individuals roughly comparable to today’s singer-songwriters served courts throughout Europe. Like the Catholic Church, medieval kings, dukes, lords and other members of the nobility had resources to sponsor musicians to provide them with music for worship and entertainment.
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