Lesson 3 Flashcards
- What does the Mass commemorate?
The most important service in the Roman church is the Mass, a symbolic re-enactment of Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples
- What are the two divisions of the Mass?
The text of the Mass alternates between the Proper and the Ordinary. In the Proper of the Mass, the words varied from day to day according to the church calendar. The musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass included the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
- What is the Office?
These observances were codified in the Office, a series of eight services that since the early middle ages have been celebrated at certain specified times. The office was particularly important in monasteries and convents, where they were originally celebrated every three hours throughout a 24 hour day. The most important Office services, liturgically and musically, are Matins, Lauds and Vespers.
- What are the three ways of performing chant?
There are three ways of performing Gregorian chant: responsorial, in which a soloist alternates with the choir or congregation; antiphonal, in which two halves of the choir alternate singing; and direct, where there is no alternation.
- What are the three types of text setting in chant?
There are three types of text setting; syllabic, in which each syllable of the text gets a note; neumatic, in which each syllable has 1-6 notes; and melismatic, where there are melismas, long melodic passages on a single syllable. They often used recitation formulas, simple melodic outlines that could be used with many texts.
- How did the chant express emotion?
The chants were not composed to depict emotions or images.
- What was the chief advantage of chanting over speaking?
They were vehicles for declaiming the words, which could be understood more easily in a reverberant church when sung than when spoken.
- What was the intended effect on the congregation?
They were also a means of inspiring devotion in the congregants and singers.
- What is an antiphon?
The antiphon was a setting of a psalm, divided between two individuals or groups. They were more elaborate than the reciting formulas
- What is a hymn?
The most common song type was the hymn, a strophic song sung by the congregation.
- What is a trope?
The most important of these additions was the trope, an interpolation to a chant that expanded it using new words and/or music. The most common tropes added words and music to the Introits and Glorias.
- A sequence?
A sequence was generally new text and music added to follow an Alleluia; it could be as simple as an extended melisma on the word Allelujia, or a completely new set of words and music.
- A gloss?
The added words could be a gloss, interpreting the chant text and linking it more closely to the occasion
- A liturgical drama?
Finally, a genre called the liturgical drama was a trope in the form of a dialogue, illustrating stories in the Gospel. These could take the form of little staged plays added to the Mass, at Christmas and Easter, for instance.
- What is ordo virtutum? Who composed it?
Hildegard wrote in a variety of styles and forms, and her melodies are striking in their individuality. Her Ordo virtutum is the earliest surviving music drama not attached to the liturgy.
