songwriter question

MUS 1930. Assignment 3 (Middle Ages). Please have the lecture at hand while you work on this assignment. 1. Listening example. Gregorian chant (listen to the first 3 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi5CZ3lTXP8 Task: • Is this chant monophonic or polyphonic? Tip: I don’t know how many men are singing, but I think it’s pretty clear they are ALL singing the same notes at the same time. 1. Léonin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngCRm7uLirA Tasks: • How many melodies are there? NOTE: each staff (“duplum” and “tenor”) corresponds to one singer, and each singer sings one melody. Therefore, the number of singers and the number of melodies is the same. This applies to the other pieces in this assignment. • Which of the two singers sings MELISMAS? • Note that the song does NOT have any sense of steady beat, of regular rhythm. You couldn’t possibly dance to this music, or march to it or anything like that. 2. Pérotin (just listen to the first 3 minutes. Notice the looooong melismas! The lyrics of the whole song are just one sentence!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oaRM1uDsw8 Tasks: • How many melodies are there? (Again: this is a very simple task. Just count the name of people singing. They are named in the video, “quadruplum,” “Triplum” etc.) • I definitely notice that there’s a steady beat (unlike the previous song). Why is that? In other words, why does Pérotin need to create a sense of regularity? 3. Machaut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOVsY1rxJB8 Tasks: • How many melodies are there? Notice that all the voices seem to sing in the same range. • What is your honest opinion about this song? (you will not be penalized if you do NOT like it!)