how was medieval music learned?

Question

My daughter is writing a paper on Medieval Music. Any ideas on how it was learned or written? Thanks.

Answer 1

Try this article as a start:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/~cyrus/ORB/orbmusic.htm

I found this paragraph particularly interesting:

"Though the modern world considers music a 'sounding art' involving melodies, rhythms, and harmonies, the medieval thinker classified music as a mathematical discipline, part of the quadrivium, along with geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy. The intellectual study of music--speculative music theory--was a study of proportions, whereas aspects of actual performed music treated music as a craft. This bias can be traced back to Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524) and Martianus Capella (fl. ?early 5th century), whose treatises served as textbooks for much of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, a body of music theory addressing issues such as mode and, later, rhythm developed."

So, music theory was learned formally as part of the second stage of one's education (the "quadrivium"; the first stage was the "trivirum" - grammar, logic & rhetoric). If performed music was treated as craft, then it would be logical to assume it was learned as a craft as well, that is, it was learned by practice and by rote from someone who was already a musician.

Answer 2

Most of the instruments used in midieval music the instruments are in the bible guess from the instruments they had at the time and the things they had going on at the time put to song.