Chapter 5 Polyphony In The 13th C

Question 1

What is polyphony?

Answer 1

Music in which voices sing together in independent parts. The earliest example is the use of drones

Question 2

What is a organum polyphony?

Answer 2

Two or more voices singing different notes in agreeable combinations.

Question 3

What is parallel organum?

Answer 3

Parallel organum- two voices moving in exact parallel motion a fifth apart.

Question 4

What two forms are found in Aquitanian Polyphony?

Answer 4

Discant Organum- when both parts move at about the same rate with one or three notes in the upper part per one note in the lower voice.

Florid Organum- when the lower part moves extremely slow compared to the upper part (where the word ‘tenor’ was born; “to hold”)

Question 5

What were the names of two famous composers of polyphony associated with Notre Dame?

Answer 5

Leonin and Perotin

Question 6

What were the differences between Leonin and Perotin’s composing styles?

Answer 6

Leonin was known as the “best composer of organum.” He combined various methods (distant and organum) creating long lines lingering on dissonances with the tenor and cadencing at irregular intervals.

Perotin used more rhythmic motives and wrote up to four parts in a four voice setting. These voices crossed repeatedly moving in similar ranges

Question 7

What is a motet?

Answer 7

A new genre where composers added new text to an existing discant. Here one or more voices are used, each with its own sacred or secular text in Latin. Composers using motets began to see this form independent of church performances.

Question 8

What is a Rota in English Polyphony?

Answer 8

A perpetual canon or round at the unison (think “row row row your boat”)

Question 9

What is mixed parallel or oblique organum?

Answer 9

Mixed Parallel and Oblique Organum- combines parallel movement with oblique movement to avoid tritones

Question 10

What is free organum?

Answer 10

Free organum- singers improvised and scribes recorded this new style of organum

Question 11

What was the Magnus Liber?

Answer 11

“Great Book of Polyphony” by Leonin- first book that actually credited composers.

Question 12

What 6 specific rhythmic modes were invented during this time?

Answer 12

1. LS
2. SL
3. LSS
4. SSL
5. LL
6. SSS

Question 13

What is descant style of singing?

Answer 13

When both vocal parts move at about the same rate with one to three notes in the upper part for each note of the lower voice.

Question 14

What is Florid Organum?

Answer 14

when the lower voice moves much more slowly than the upper.

Question 15

What is cantus firmus?

Answer 15

A new polyphonic work based off of an existing melody (plainchant).

Question 16

Rhythmic modes are indicated by signs called:

Answer 16

ligatures!

Question 17

Rules for composing in free organum are preserved in:

Answer 17

Ad organum faciendum

Question 18

What is a clausula?

Answer 18

The Latin word for phrase or a clause in a sentence.

Question 19

Relative durations signified by note shapes were first introduced by Franco of Cologne in his treatise:

Answer 19

Ars cantus mensurabilis (The Art of Measurable Music)

Question 20

What is a polyphonic conductus?

Answer 20

A polyphonic setting in which all four voices sing the text together in essentially the same rhythm is called a polyphonic.

Question 21

A system for notated duration developed by musicians at Notre Dame was described in a thirteenth-century treatise attributed to:

Answer 21

Johannes de Garlandia