Chapter 6

Question 1

isorhythm

Answer 1

Repetition in a voice part (usually tenor) of an extended pattern of durations throughout a section or an entire composition.

Question 2

minims

Answer 2

Ars Nova & Renaissance rhythmic notation; a note equal to half or a third of a semibreve.

Question 3

mensuration signs

Answer 3

Ars Nova and Renaissance systems of rhythmic notation, signs that indicate which combination of time and prolation to use . The predecessors of time signatures.

Question 4

mode

Answer 4

time

Question 5

prolation

Answer 5

semibreve

describes rhythmic structure on a small scale (tempus describes larger scale)

Question 6

perfect/major

Answer 6

In medieval and Renaissance notation, a division of a note value into three (rather than two) of the next smaller unit.

Question 7

imperfect/minor

Answer 7

In medieval and Renaissance notation, a division of a note value into two of the next smaller units (rather than three).

Question 8

semiminim

Answer 8

In Ars Nova and Renaissance systems of rhythmic notation, a note that is equal to half of a minim.

Question 9

color

Answer 9

In an isorhythmic composition, a repeated melodic pattern, as opposed to the repeating rhythmic pattern (the talea).

Question 10

talea

Answer 10

In an isorhythmic composition, an extended rhythmic pattern repeated one or more times, usually in the tenor.

Question 11

hocket

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

virelai

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

formes fixes

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

syncopation

Answer 14

Temporary disruption of meter by beginning a long note on an offbeat and sustaining it through the beginning of the next beat.

Question 15

contratenor

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

ballade

Answer 16

(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.

Question 17

cantus

Answer 17

In polyphony of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, the highest voice, especially the texted voice in a polyphonic song.

Question 18

chanson

Answer 18

Secular song with French words; used especially for polyphonic songs of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries.

Question 19

treble-dominated style

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Ars Subtilior

Answer 20

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. )

Question 21

Trecento

Answer 21

The 1300s (the fourteenth century), particularly with reference to Italian art, literature, and music of the time.

Question 22

madrigal

Answer 22

(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.

Question 23

ritornello

Answer 23

(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.

Question 24

ballata

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

caccia

Answer 25

Fourteenth-century Italian form featuring two voices in canon over a free untexted tenor.

Question 26

Landini cadence

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

bas

Answer 27

In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, term for soft instruments such as vielles and harps.

Question 28

haut

Answer 28

In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, term for loud instruments such as cornetts and sackbuts.

Question 29

cornetts

Answer 29

high instrument, hollowed-out wood, slightly curved, finger holes, brass-type mouthpiece

Question 30

stops

Answer 30

component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes

Question 31

musica ficta

Answer 31

(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.

Question 32

double leading-tone cadence

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

Phrygian cadence

Answer 33

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.