Music of the Middle Ages

We got started with A Young Scholar's Guide to the Composers this week, and the first week's lesson was on music from Creation through the Middle Ages.  Music has been part of civilization since the start, but we know very little about what the music of ancient civilizations sounded like because it wasn't written down.  During the Middle Ages, the music for church services was written down, and although the notation was very different from what we are used to today, we can still follow it and get a sense of what it sounded like.  In addition, the sung parts of the Mass didn't change very much for many years afterwards.  Thanks to Pope Gregory, we can still listen to, and learn from, Gregorian chant today.

Landon and Kennady were not sure they wanted to listen to Gregorian chant, but in the end they didn't really mind it.  I found several videos on youtube featuring chant sung by a group called Psallentes that we listened to.  The accompanying videos showed the Latin words and notation from illuminated manuscripts, so we could follow along to a certain extent.

Here are the links to the pieces we listened to -

• Advocatum (Psallentes)


• Gloria Patri (Psallentes)


• Quis Deus (Psallentes)


• Agnus Dei (Monastic Choir of the Abbey of Notre Dame de Fontgombault)

Kennady rather liked the last one because instead of the manuscript, the video showed stained glass windows.

I have yet to make sure that I have music lined up for us to listen to next week, when we learn about music during the Renaissance.

And because Monday was a holiday, we didn't get Kennady's official piano lesson in.  But she has been practicing this week, so all was not lost!

This post is linked at ~a teaching heart~ where we are keeping each other accountable for making time for music in our homeschooling!