Chapter 6 Flashcards
isorhythm
Repetition in a voice part (usually tenor) of an extended pattern of durations throughout a section or an entire composition.
minims
Ars Nova & Renaissance rhythmic notation; a note equal to half or a third of a semibreve.
mensuration signs
Ars Nova and Renaissance systems of rhythmic notation, signs that indicate which combination of time and prolation to use . The predecessors of time signatures.
mode
time
prolation
semibreve
describes rhythmic structure on a small scale (tempus describes larger scale)
perfect/major
In medieval and Renaissance notation, a division of a note value into three (rather than two) of the next smaller unit.
imperfect/minor
In medieval and Renaissance notation, a division of a note value into two of the next smaller units (rather than three).
semiminim
In Ars Nova and Renaissance systems of rhythmic notation, a note that is equal to half of a minim.
color
In an isorhythmic composition, a repeated melodic pattern, as opposed to the repeating rhythmic pattern (the talea).
talea
In an isorhythmic composition, an extended rhythmic pattern repeated one or more times, usually in the tenor.
hocket
In thirteenth- and fourteenth-century polyphony, the device of alternating rapidly between two voices, each resting while the other sings, as if a single melody is split between them; or, a composition based on this device.
virelai
French forme fixe in the pattern A bba A bba A bba A, in which a refrain (A) alternates with stanzas with the musical form bba, the a using the same music as the refrain.
formes fixes
Schemes of poetic and musical repetition, each featuring a refrain, used in late medieval and fifteenth-century French chansons; in particular, the ballade, rondeau, and virelai.
syncopation
Temporary disruption of meter by beginning a long note on an offbeat and sustaining it through the beginning of the next beat.
contratenor
In fourteenth- and fifteenth-century polyphony, voice composed after or in conjunction with the tenor and in about the same range, helping to form the harmonic foundation.
ballade
(medieval) (1) French forme fixe, normally in three stanzas, in which each stanza has the musical form aabC and ends with a refrain (C). (2) Instrumental piece inspired by the genre of narrative poetry.
cantus
In polyphony of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, the highest voice, especially the texted voice in a polyphonic song.
chanson
Secular song with French words; used especially for polyphonic songs of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries.
treble-dominated style
Style common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which the main melody is in the cantus, the upper voice carrying the text, supported by a slower-moving tenor and contratenor.
Ars Subtilior
Style of polyphony from the late fourteenth or very early fifteenth centuries in southern France and northern Italy, distinguished by extreme complexity in rhythm and notation. )
Trecento
The 1300s (the fourteenth century), particularly with reference to Italian art, literature, and music of the time.
madrigal
(1) Fourteenth-century Italian poetic form and its musical setting, having two or three stanzas followed by a ritornello. (2) Sixteenth-century Italian poem having any number of lines, each of seven or eleven syllables. (3) polyphonic or concerato setting of such a poem or of a sonnet or other nonrepetitive verse form. (4) English polyphonic work imitating the Italian genre.
ritornello
(1) In a fourteenth-century madrigal, the closing section, in a different meter from the preceding verses. (2) In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century vocal music, instrumental introduction or interlude between sung stanzas. (3) In an aria or similar piece, an instrumental passage that recurs several times, like a refrain. Typically, it is played at the beginning, as interludes (often in modified form), and again at the end, and it states the main theme. (4) In a fast movement of a concerto, the recurring thematic material played at the beginning by the full orchestra and repeated, usually in varied form, throughout the movement and at the end.
ballata
Fourteenth-century Italian song genre with the form AbbaA, in which A is the ripresa or refrain, and the single stanza consists of two piedi (bb) and a volta (a) sung to the music of the ripresa.
caccia
Fourteenth-century Italian form featuring two voices in canon over a free untexted tenor.
Landini cadence
In polyphony of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a decorated sixth-to-octave cadence in which the upper voice moves down a step, then rises a third as the tenor descends by step.
bas
In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, term for soft instruments such as vielles and harps.
haut
In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, term for loud instruments such as cornetts and sackbuts.
cornetts
high instrument, hollowed-out wood, slightly curved, finger holes, brass-type mouthpiece
stops
component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes
musica ficta
(1) In early music, notes outside the standard gamut, which excluded all flatted and sharped notes except B . (2). In polyphony of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, the practice of raising or lowering by a semitone the pitch of a written note, particularly at a cadence, for the sake of smoother harmony or motion of the parts.
double leading-tone cadence
cadence popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which the bottom voice moves down a whole tone and the upper voices move up a semitone, forming a major third and major sixth expanding to an open fifth and octave.
Phrygian cadence
cadence in which the bottom voice moves down a semitone and upper voices move up a whole tone to form a fifth and octave over the cadential note.
