OU on the BBC: Sacred Music - The Gothic Revolution

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Simon Russell Beale’s journey starts in medieval Paris as ‘The Gothic Revolution’ follows the story of the early development of Christian church music from the haunting simplicity of plain song to the full glory of gothic polyphony.

Starting in the mid-twelfth century with the construction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame he examines how the cutting edge of medieval technology - the rib-vault and the flying buttress - was used to create vast new acoustic spaces. He is joined outside the cathedral by historian Andrew Hussey, who explains the political significance of the Gothic style. As the new vast edifice of Notre Dame began to tower over Paris, Simon discovers how the most famous of all medieval music manuscripts - the 'Magnus Liber' or 'Great Book' of Notre Dame - was also taking shape, providing us with intriguing clues to the early development of western music.

Working with the choir in the Gothic Basilica of St Denis Simon reveals how a new architecture in sound was created when Léonin, master of the Notre Dame School, remodelled plainsong to produce 'Organum Duplum '– the first written music for two voices. Together with conductor Harry Christophers they explore one of the key texts 'Viderunt Omnes'. Tracing its progress from a single line of unmeasured chant through first a two voice then a four voice setting they discover how the huge new interiors of Gothic Cathedrals and the new polyphony developed side-by-side. This was the birth of Harmony and Simon builds his own medieval instrument, a monochord, to discover the theoretical work of Pythagoras and how and why certain notes were considered pure.

First broadcast: Friday 21 Mar 2008 on BBC FOUR

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