Guido D'Arezzo: Medieval Musician and Educator

Abstract

The Church preserved ancient culture and language, recorded items worthy of mention in its daily records, and prescribed the framework wherein future growth would take place. For the Christian world, the Church instructed and passed judgment. It was the light in a dark world until, at the onset of the Renaissance, men began seeking learning and beauty through humanism and secularism. From the time of Pope Gregory I (590 to 604 A.D.) -the time of the codification of chant and liturgies and the revitalization of the traditional choir school or cantorum-music was the province of the Church. Music was held in high esteem for the aesthetic beauties and services it rendered to the rites of public worship. Essentially two styles of music were hinged together by the eleventh century, the monodic and polyphonic. The former was well established and had reached its expressive and technical fruition; the latter was new, somewhat unsettled, awkward, and striving for recognition. Polyphonic music posed many problems yet unanswered by theorists. From this golden age of the Christian Church and music emerged Guido d'Arezzo (also Latinized as Guido Aretinus), Benedictine monk, musician, and above all, music educator. Although music historians have traditionally described and paid tribute to certain theoretical aspects of his work, they and music educators to a large extent have neglected or misunderstood his contributions and rightful claim as a true pioneer and innovator of methodology. Insofar as can be established by historical accounts, his contributions to music and education include (1) the writing of a primary