Medieval Antiphon in F minor

hello this harmonically incorrect piece is my idea of medieval music. please comment!

give it a rest,

I don't understand what this is supposed to be. Have you studied any medieval music before? It might be worth comparing what you have with something by Dufay, Dunstable or Hildegard. The very latest medieval compositions (pardon the phrasing!) are not this polyphonic or tonal, and use the intervals of the fifth and octave far more extensively.

Some of the most complicated medieval polyphony was written in what is now Britain, where the interval of the third is first found as a consonant interval. This piece, recorded (or possibly composed) by John of Fornsete comes from a medieval monastic source dated around 1226. Whether or not is was a song sung by the laity, or simply something John realised could be a canon is unknown. Certainly its complexity is unique for the period:

YouTube - English Singers - Summer is Icumen In - John of Fornsete

hello this harmonically incorrect piece is my idea of medieval music. please comment!

I don't undersand why the prima part's left hand is always above the right hand part.

edit**

ah, ok, I get it now...

do NOT notate a piano part with a 15ma treble clef. If you want it played 2 octaves up, write 8va sempre and write it one octave up.

In this case, I would put a note that the prima part is to be played one octave up. ("Prima sempre ottava" for example)

it's basically a passacaglia, with the repeating bass line.

there are a lot of contrapuntal errors in it if your intention was to write something medieval.

A few too many parallel octaves too. they take away from the contrapuntal effect.

If you stated goal hadn't been to write something "medieval", this would actually be quite interesting. It's simply a passacaglia for piano 4-hands. by correcting the parallel 8ves here and there, it can certainly be a worthy piece.

Sadly... I didn't enjoy this as much as I would have liked to.

It didn't feel very "medieval" to me. And I didn't particularly like your harmonic ideas. I have no issues with atonality... I actually enjoy it quite a bit. I also enjoy standard tonalities... and also the sometimes akward tonalities of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, or Satie. But this was just weird... it felt like it was trying to be tonal... yet harmonically difficult just for the sake of confusion. I suppose that when a guy who likes everything except 12-tone theory has a problem, that maybe there's something wrong.

Ummm... there are probably other things I could comment on... but I'm tired right now. I think I need to go take a nap...

G'night! :sleeping:

i stupidly assumed that little is known about medieval music so i thought id be safe to try and write music somewhat evocative of renaissance but without the refinedness in harmony without fear of contradiction. the earliest music im familiar with is Bach. thanks for correcting me on the 8va sempre and inaccurately named passacaglia. i have no theory background and i really appreciate all the comments i can learn from!