How much music theory knowledge is necessary to study medieval music?

I'm enrolled for a course called History of Medieval Music. I've had AP theory in high school, but quite a few of the people in the class are music majors who have had advanced theory. Is medieval music complicated stuff or what?How much music theory knowledge is necessary to study medieval music?
I agree with Delicio - the interwoven lines of medieval music are often functioning on a level that one does not appreciate without a decent background.



Tell you what - get yourself a copy of Gradus ad Parnassum by FUX (that is pronounced FOOKS, so you do not get into trouble. Betcha that Yahoo *cleans up* the spelling!). It is the book that Mozart's teacher used to teach HIM - and countless thousands of other have learned from it. IT goes through the forms of *species counterpoint* - how melodies are built to weave around each other - in a Master and Pupil dialogue. Yes, it can be dry - but see how much of it you can comprehend on your own. If you have a sense of "Ah, Little Grasshopper, see if you can take the cola nuts from my hand!", then it makes it easier to read - we have all seen those kinds of martial-arts learning movies! This can be VERY interesting - my son is getting his MM in Digital Music, and for an elective, decided he needed sometime REALLY different than all the Final and Sibelius and recording stuff running through his head - so HE just tokk a Medieval and Renaissance choral music course - wrote a monster paper on "Spem in Allium". I read it because I am his Mom - otherwise, it would put me into a powerful somnolence . . . A lot depends on the professor - if they are psyched about this, great. If they are a deadly snore - ouch. I had a guy for Art History who was, I swear, the last semi-living grandson of Bela Lugosi. We were asleep in minutes- dark room, too many slides . . .



Good luck with the course - you never know until you try.How much music theory knowledge is necessary to study medieval music?
It is very important if you want to learn very good the medieval music. I recommend you to read the articles from this website http://stelianpetcuband.ro/ good luck

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How much music theory knowledge is necessary to study medieval music?
Many years ago I took such a course in college, with virtually no knowledge of music theory at the time, and did well--because in my course no theory background was truly necessary.

Why don't you contact the instructor and ask about your concerns? I'm sure he/she won't mind speaking to you about this--instructors don't want students to unnecessarily set themselves up for a rough time of it.
Yes, medieval music was sometimes very complex indeed. Composers were experimenting a great deal with the new, developing music notation (still very different to what we are used to) and the rhythmic freedoms and compexities that this notation facilitated. To understand these compositional techniques fully, one would need quite a sound grounding in music theory.