Antiquity / Medieval

Question 1

What are the oldest surviving instruments?

Answer 1

Bone Flutes from the Stone Age (40,000 BCE)

Question 2

What are the first civilizations?

Answer 2

Mesopotamia

Question 3

Who developed the first known forms of writing?

Answer 3

Sumerians

Question 4

Who wrote earliest form of musical notation?

Answer 4

Babylonians in 1400-1250 BCE

Question 5

The aulos (two-piped reed instrument) was used to worship who?

Answer 5

Dionysis, god of fertility and wine

Question 6

The lyre (seven strings strummed with a plectrum) was associated with which god?

Answer 6

Apollo, god of light, prophecy, learning, and the arts

Question 7

What is melos?

Answer 7

Monophonic single line, where music is as performing art

Question 8

What is harmonia?

Answer 8

Unification of parts as orderly whole

Question 9

Who discovered intervals as ratios (Octave as 2:1, 5th as 3:2, 4th as 4:3)?

Answer 9

Pythagoras

Question 10

Who was a leading astronomer of antiquity and writer on music?

Answer 10

Ptolemy

Question 11

What is ethos?

Answer 11

Music can affect your etho, or ethical character

Question 12

Who believed that music affected behavior?

Answer 12

Aristotle

Question 13

Which two harmoniai did Plato endorse?

Answer 13

Dorian and Phrygian – fostered temperance and courage

Question 14

What is the greater perfect system?

Answer 14

Four tetrachords plus added lowest note to make 2-octave span

Question 15

Who is credited with creating Gregorian Chants?

Answer 15

Pope Gregory I

Question 16

When was the earliest notation used?

Answer 16

850

Question 17

What did the earliest notation use?

Answer 17

Neumes – placed above words to indicate melodic gesture

Question 18

Who is credited for creating the first staff?

Answer 18

Guido of Arezzo

Question 19

Who wrote Die institutione musica (The Fundamentals of Music)?

Answer 19

Boethius

Question 20

Who introduced solmization?

Answer 20

Guido of Arezzo

Question 21

What do the syllables in solfege correspond to?

Answer 21

Notes in the first six phrases of the hymn Ut quent laxis

Question 22

What is liturgy?

Answer 22

A form in which public worship is to be conducted

Question 23

What are examples of chants at Christmas Mass?

Answer 23

Introit announces birth
Gradual is revelation of salvation
Alleluia hails sanctified day
Offertory acknowledges God's dominion
Communion

Question 24

What are styles of setting texts in chant?

Answer 24

Syllabic - every syllable has a note
Neumatic - one to six notes per syllable
Melismatic - long melodic passages on a single syllable

Question 25

Who was the best-known composer of sacred monophony?

Answer 25

Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote Ordo virtutum

Question 26

Who promoted learning and artistic achievement and was the first emperor in Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire?

Answer 26

Charlemagne

Question 27

What are examples of Latin song?

Answer 27

Versus Conductus Goliard songs

Question 28

What is the chanson de geste?

Answer 28

Song of Deeds

Question 29

What are examples of professional musicians in Charlemagne's time?

Answer 29

Bards: Celtic poet-singers Jongleurs: lower-class itinerant traveling musicians Minstrel: specialized musicians employed by nobles

Question 30

What did 12th-century guilds provide?

Answer 30

Legal protections, right to perform, rules for conduct

Question 31

Who were troubadours (female - trobairitz)?

Answer 31

12th-century French poet-composers in southern France | In Northern France, they were trouveres.

Question 32

What are vidas?

Answer 32

Lives recounted in fanciful biographies

Question 33

Who was Bernart de Ventadorn?

Answer 33

Most influential troubadour

Question 34

What are chansonniers?

Answer 34

Manuscript anthologies

Question 35

What is contrafactum?

Answer 35

New words to existing melodies

Question 36

True or false: Most of Troubadour songs are strophic (same music for each verse).

Answer 36

True

Question 37

What are different types of Troubadour song?

Answer 37

Alba (dawn song) Canso (love song) Tenso (debate song)

Question 38

Which is the only trobairitz song to survive with music?

Answer 38

A chantar by Comtessa de Dia

Question 39

What is Jeu de Robin et de Marion (The Play of Robin and Marion)?

Answer 39

Most famous musical play, by Adam de la Halle

Question 40

What happened in the 1208 Albigensian Crusade?

Answer 40

Aristocratic support for troubadours and trouveres collapsed.

Question 41

What are minnesinger and minnelieder?

Answer 41

Minnesinger are German knightly poet-musicians who wrote Minnelieder (love songs)

Question 42

What are laude?

Answer 42

Sacred Italian monophonic songs

Question 43

What are cantigas?

Answer 43

Medieval monophonic song, includes Cantigas de Santa Maria to honor the Virgin Mary

Question 44

In 1050-1300, the Church prospered and written polyphony inaugurated which four concepts in Western music?

Answer 44

Counterpoint Harmony Centrality of notation Composition as distinct from performance

Question 45

What is a drone?

Answer 45

From antiquity -- melody against sustained pitch (modal final)

Question 46

What is the first form of polyphony?

Answer 46

Organum, in 9th century. Had parallel organum and mixed parallel and oblique organum.

Question 47

What is discant style vs. florid organum?

Answer 47

Discant style - both notes move at similar rates | Florid organum - voices move at different rates

Question 48

What is the first notation since ancient Greece to indicate duration?

Answer 48

Notre Dame Polyphony

Question 49

What is a clausula?

Answer 49

Self-contained section of an organum

Question 50

What is Perotinus organum?

Answer 50

3- and 4-voice organa

Question 51

What is a motet?

Answer 51

Sacred, polyphonic short vocal pieces

Question 52

What is cantus firmus?

Answer 52

Existing melody, usually plainchant, on which new polyphonic work is based

Question 53

What is significant about Franconian notation?

Answer 53

Note shapes signified relative duration

Question 54

Which polyphony uses imperfect consonances in parallel motion?

Answer 54

English Polyphony

Question 55

What is rondellus?

Answer 55

Elaborate form of voice exchange

Question 56

What is rota?

Answer 56

Perpetual canon or round at the unison

Question 57

What is Ars Nova?

Answer 57

French, introduced by Philippe de Vitry, begins duple or imperfect division of note values. Modern notation is direct descendant.

Question 58

Who opposed Ars Nova?

Answer 58

Jacques de Liege in Speculum musicae (The Mirror of Music)

Question 59

Ars Nova also involved isorhythm. What is isorhythm, talea, and color?

Answer 59

Isorhythm is where (at least) one voice keeps the same rhythm (talea) throughout the piece. Color is a recurring segment of the melody.

Question 60

Who is the leading composer of French Ars Nova?

Answer 60

Guillaume de Machaut

Question 61

Some facts about Italian Trecento music?

Answer 61

Italian notation convenient for florid lines. Secular polyphonic songs were largest surviving body of music. Included madrigals (unaccompanied secular polyphonic vocal) and caccia (means "hunt").

Question 62

Who was most famous musician/composer of Italian Trecento?

Answer 62

Francesco Landini