Today Christians observe Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Traditionally, Ash Wednesday services include the reading or singing of Psalm 51 – in Latin, Miserere Mei – a psalm of humility and repentance. There are numerous settings of this text; more than that, there are numerous GOOD settings of this text. Many, though, believe that Gregorio Allegri’s is by far the best.

Colonial New England was largely literate for its time. Besides a Bible, many families might have owned a copy of the Psalms set to poetic verse by Isaac Watts. The region, being poor, lacked the musical instruments available to European audiences, and so, singing was the primary form of music-making. Everybody sang, and singing-masters made their living travelling from town to town, teaching people to read music, sing, and selling their scores.

William Billings is one of my favorite composers; you might even call him the first great American composer. His music and life perfectly embody the revolutionary American spirit. He was a tanner by trade, but found his passion in composing and singing. He had only one eye, one of his legs was shorter than the other, was unkempt, and probably stunk. His music is rough and angular, lacking any grace that might be found in late 18th century European music.

There is a tradition of giving hymn tunes names; very often, the name of a city – for example, there are hymn tunes named London, Cranham, Richmond. This is why one of Billings’ best loved tunes is called Africa, a place to which I’m sure he never traveled. Its bold melody (found in the tenor voice – not the top note) skyrockets into the high range, capturing the spirit of Watts’ emotional outpouring.

This style of music-writing and singing is today known as Sacred Harp. It is an uniquely American invention, a sort of degenerate grandson of English choral music. And it’s fun to sing, so much so that Sacred Harp singings now occur all over the world. This video comes from a singing in Ireland.

The books and movies that are set in the medieval era usually portray a positive and a negative side to life in olden times. On one hand, famine, hunger, disease, plague, superstition, wars, cruelty – a harsh life. On the other hand, romance, heroics, bravery, passion, beauty – an over-romanticized vision of a charmingly simple life, without the madness of the modern age.

I am no historical scholar, so I won’t go into how things “really were” because I don’t know. What I do know is that the music of the high gothic era is as beautiful and complex as its architecture and art. If you compare the thick, heavy romanesque buildings of the earlier age to the light, ornate buildings of the gothic era, you can understand the profound difference between the monophonic (one note at a time) plainsong of the early medieval period and polyphonic (many independent notes simultaneously) gothic music.

Pérotin le Grand was one of the few named medieval composers from whom we have music. He is the most famous composer of the Notre Dame School of polyphony, and of the Ars Antiqua (“Old Art”) style. This piece, “Sederunt Principes” sounds a bit strange to our modern ears (each word takes about a minute to sing), but you can’t deny that it’s pretty cool.

I especially like some of the comments on this video: “eeeee e ee ee eee  e ee  ee  ee e e e e  eeee  e e e   ee” Yeah that just about sums it up.