Humanities Study Guide

Humanities Study Guide

where worshipers sit to pray. The clerestory , or row of windows above the nave, is easy to spot in many Gothic structures. Sculpture Sculpture continued to be incorporated into architecture during the Gothic awakening. Tympanums continued to flourish, with elaborate carvings on the outside of buildings to express a cathedral’s theme or history. The sculptures took on a more realistic, Greek feel. Jamb sculptures, with figures carved onto the side of a doorway or window, became increasingly popular as well. Music Music remained primarily religious during this time, although secular music became more popular among ordinary people. During the late Middle Ages, more musical theory and notations developed that laid the foundation of the theory we use today. For the first time in musical history, polyphony , the use of two or more melodic lines played simultaneously, emerged in many musical pieces. One example of polyphony is a low-moving lower voice, with a rapidly moving higher voice creating a sound together, called an organum . Parallel Organum, not to be confused with plain organum, was when the main melody had a voice singing below it. Organum Duplum was a melody with long, sustained notes underneath it called the tenor. Motets were also introduced around this time, which are songs with two or three voices singing different words. During this time, composers began collaborating to form the first formal school of music. They met at the famous Notre Dame cathedral and established the Notre Dame School of Music. Leonin, the first known composer of polyphonic organum, compiled a book of music in organum duplum. Leonin is credited with adding the third and fourth voices to the choral music we know today. Theater and Drama Middle Age theater arose from the church's desire to educate the public on stories from the bible, since the majority of people still could not read. Plays continued to gainmomentum, not only straying from biblical reenactments but also becoming increasingly more violent. These plays included mystery plays and morality plays . Morality plays showed the struggle to resist temptation and not fall into a life of sin. Everyman is a famous morality play that took less than an hour to perform and required little to no scenery. Two other common types of plays included masques, which told of current events and political figures, and farces, comedy plays with exaggerated situations, and "slapstick" comedy. The Feast of Fools was a festival that helped develop comedy, as the actors were allowed to ridicule their superiors and the routine of church life. As time went on, professional actors became more popular, and they even began forming the first actor's guilds.

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