Lecture 15. Gregorian Chant and Music in the Sistine Chapel

Listening to Music (MUSI 112) This lecture begins the third part of the course, which looks at music from a historical perspective. Here Professor Wright focuses on the medieval period. He discusses chant, and its role in the lives of monks and nuns in medieval monasteries, convents, and cathedrals. He then moves on to briefly discuss polyphony. The lecture is supplemented by visuals of cathedrals, monasteries, and medieval illuminations, as well as recordings of monophonic chant by the eleventh-century polymath Hildegard of Bingen, anonymous polyphony, polyphony by the Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina, and a recording of the last papal castrato, Alessandro Moreschi. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Gregorian Chants in the Medieval Period 07:14 - Chapter 2. Religious Influence on Early Music: The Roles of Monks and Nuns 16:56 - Chapter 3. Chant Analysis of Hildegard’s “O Greenest Branch“ 26:56 - Chapter 4. From Monophony to Polyphony: A Cappella of the Sistine Chapel