Chapter 2 Flashcards
Cantillation
Chanting of a sacred text by a solo singer, particularly in the Jewish synagogue.
Rite
The set of practices that defines a particular Christian tradition, including a CHURCH CALENDAR, a LITURGY, and a repertory of CHANT.
Church Calendar
In a Christian RITE, the schedule of days commemorating special events, individuals, or times of year. Catholic church celebrates events before, during, and after life of Christ (Advent, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost)
Liturgy
The prescribed body of texts to be spoken or sung and ritual actions to be performed in a religious service.
Ambrosian chant
A repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT used in Milan.
Gregorian chant
The repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT used in the Roman Catholic Church. Unison unaccompanied song, particularly that of the Latin liturgy
Old Roman chant
A repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT preserved in eleventh- and twelfth-century manuscripts from Rome representing a local tradition; a near relative of GREGORIAN CHANT.
Notation
A system for writing down musical sounds, or the process of writing down music. The principal notation systems of European music use a staff of lines and signs that define the pitch, duration, and other qualities of sound.
Neume
Earliest notation indicating the melodic gesture for each syllable. Includes the number of notes and pitch direction. Was a reminder of the melodic shape, could not teach the melody.
Diastematic
Having to do with INTERVALS. In diastematic motion, the voice moves between sustained pitches separated by discrete intervals; in diastematic NOTATION, the approximate intervals are indicated by relative height (see HEIGHTED NEUMES).
Centonization
(from Latin cento or patchwork) Process of creating a melody using material from a body of common phrases. Found in Byzantine chant.
Musica Mundana
Latin, ‘music of the universe
Three kinds of music identified by Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524), respectively the ‘music’ or numerical relationships governing the movement of stars, planets, and the seasons; the ‘music’ that harmonizes the human body and soul and their parts; and audible music produced by voices or instruments.
Musica Humana
Latin, ‘human music’
Three kinds of music identified by Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524), respectively the ‘music’ or numerical relationships governing the movement of stars, planets, and the seasons; the ‘music’ that harmonizes the human body and soul and their parts; and audible music produced by voices or instruments.
Musica Intrumentalis
Lantin, ‘instrumental music’
Three kinds of music identified by Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524), respectively the ‘music’ or numerical relationships governing the movement of stars, planets, and the seasons; the ‘music’ that harmonizes the human body and soul and their parts; and audible music produced by voices or instruments.
Final
The main NOTE in the MODE; the normal closing note of a CHANT in that mode.
Tenor
From Latin tenere, ‘to hold’
In a MODE or CHANT, the RECITING TONE
POLYPHONY of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the voice part that has the chant or other borrowed MELODY, often in long-held NOTES.
Male voice of a relatively high range.
Reciting Tone
Also called Tenor
The second most important NOTE in a MODE (after the final), often emphasized in CHANT and used for reciting text in a PSALM TONE
Hexachord
From Greek, ‘six strings’
(1) A set of six pitches.
(2) In medieval and RENAISSANCE SOLMIZATION, the six NOTES represented by the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, which could be transposed to three positions: the ‘natural’ hexachord, C-D-E-F-G-A; the “hard” hexachord, G-A-B-C-D-E; and the ‘soft’ hexachord, F-G-A-B-C-D.
(3) In TWELVE-TONE theory, the first six or last six notes in the ROW.
Solmization
A method of assigning syllables to STEPS in a SCALE, used to make it easier to identify and sing the WHOLE TONES and SEMITONES in a melody.
Mutation
In SOLMIZATION, the process of changing from one HEXACHORD to another
Martianus Capella
In the early 5th century, wrote treaties “The Marriage of Mercury and Philology”
Boethius
(ca. 480-524) Wrote most revered authority on music in the Middle Ages, “De institutione musica” (The Fundamentals of Music). Related music to math, believed music had the power to educate the young and influence character, held rational philosophy of music superior to practical skills of musicians, wrote in Latin, read Greek
Schola Cantorum
(School of Singers) Choir founded in late 7th century, played a role in standardizing Gregorian chant, sang when the pope officiated
Early Systems of Notation
First referenced around 850.
(1) Neumes;
(2) Heighted/diastematic neumes
(3) Line labled with the pitch F or C; (4) Guido of Arezzo used 4 lines with red for F and yellow for C
Liber Usualis
Collection of Gegorian chants, assigned to specific days; compiled by the monks of the Abbey of Solemes
Medieval Church Modes
Learning the mode and classifying the chants by the mode made it easier to learn and memorize
Guido d’ Arezzo
Wrote “Micrologus” (1025-1028), the second most important music treaties in the Middle Ages. It was a practical guide for singers about notes, intervals, scales, modes, melodic composition, improvised polyphony, plainchant, and polyphony. Used notation with lines. Developed solomization and hexachord system.
Guidonian hand
Pedagogical aid developed by the followers of Guido, used to locate pitches of the system of hexachords. Syllables counterclockwise spiral on left hand starting with the thumb. Teachers would point to a part of their hand while students sang the intervals.
Anonymous IV
Treaties from late 13th century by an Englishman who studied at the University of Paris. Named Leonin and Perotin as fathers of polyphony.
