Medieval

Question 1

What did Pope Gregory the Great do that helped with the evolution of music?

Answer 1

He codified liturgical music, creating the Gregorian melodies (over 3,000).

Question 2

Who composed the Gregorian melodies?

Answer 2

They are marked as anonymous because the belief was that all music came from God, which meant no man could take credit.

Question 3

What is liturgy?

Answer 3

The set order of the church service.

Question 4

What are numes?

Answer 4

The notes in plainchant. Squares are long notes. Diamonds are short notes. The staff also has 4 lines and 3 spaces

Question 5

What is the structure of plainchant?

Answer 5

1. Single-line melodies.
2. Free flowing and non-metric.
3. Follows the inflection of Latin text.
4. Gentle contours.
5. Contained the predecessor of the major and minor scale.

Question 6

What does syllabic mean?

Answer 6

1 note per syllable.

Question 7

What does neumatic mean?

Answer 7

2-3 notes per syllable.

Question 8

What does melismatic mean?

Answer 8

4+ notes per syllable.

Question 9

How is the mass of a church structured?

Answer 9

1. A reenactment of The Last Supper (The most solemn ritual in the Catholic Church).
2. Mass liturgy-Divided into the ordinary and proper.
3. Gregorian melodies.

Question 10

What is the ordinary?

Answer 10

The fixed portions of the service.

Question 11

What is the proper?

Answer 11

The variable portions that change by the seasons in the church.

Question 12

What is Kyrie?

Answer 12

1. The first chant in the ordinary that is a Greek prayer for mercy.
2. In three parts to represent The Trinity.
3. Sung a capella.
4. Conjunct and wave-like.
5. Starts neumatic but becomes melismatic.

Question 13

Where did most of the music come from during the Medieval period?

Answer 13

Monasteries

Question 14

Who was Hildegard of Bingen?

Answer 14

A poet-prophet who wrote music similar to Gregorian chants but that had expressive leaps. Her music was melismatic and her poetry contained brilliant imagery and creative language. Wrote Alleluia, O virga mediatrix.

Question 15

What is Alleluia, O virga mediatrix?

Answer 15

A song written by Hildegard of Bingen as a prayer to the Virgin Mary to be used on special occasions. Three-part structure. Responsorial in nature (leader-group-leader-group). Expressive leaps and melisma.

Question 16

What is considered to be the single most important development in western music?

Answer 16

Polyphony.

Question 17

What happened to polyphony during the Romanesque era?

Answer 17

It was notated with precise rhythm and pitch indications.

Question 18

What happened to polyphony during the Gothic era?

Answer 18

Individual composers began to gain recognition. Although mostly clergy wrote it, music was becoming a profession.

Question 19

What did Organum do to polyphony?

Answer 19

It added a second voice to Gregorian melodies. The lower voice chants and has extremely long notes. The upper voice is freely composed and moves rapidly.

Question 20

Who are the Notre Dame composers?

Answer 20

The composers who were at the forefront of creating polyphonic music.

Question 21

Who was Leonin?

Answer 21

The leader of the Notre Dame composers and the compiler of the Great Book of Organum. The first polyphonic composer whose name we know.

Question 22

Who was Perotin?

Answer 22

The sucessor of Leonin. Expanded organum to 3 and 4 voices.

Question 23

What is Gaude Maria virgo?

Answer 23

A three-part polyphony that is a prayer of praise of the Virgin Mary.

Question 24

What happened to music once a fascination with puzzles and riddles arose?

Answer 24

Music began to be crafted to have hidden meetings that were revealed with careful listening. Was considered to be part of a well-rounded education.

Question 25

Who were minstrels?

Answer 25

Wandering musicians/entertainers that lived on the fringes of society. Arose as music became secular.

Question 26

Who were troubadours and trouveres?

Answer 26

French-Poet musicians that live in aristocratic courts and entertain the court with poems and songs about loves, adventure, and politics.

Question 27

Why was the Ars nova important to the development of western music?

Answer 27

1. Led to rhythm, counterpoint, harmony, and meter developments.
2. Led to an interest in the regularity and complexity of musical patterns.
3. Contained secular themes instead of strictly religious ones.

Question 28

When was the Ars nova developed and who developed it?

Answer 28

1. Early 1300’s in France.

2. Machaut.

Question 29

Who was Machaut?

Answer 29

Was a cleric-courtier who worked in various French courts and eventually the church as a composer-poet of both sacred and secular (especially chansons) music. Is well-known due to collecting and organizing his works. Introduced new freedom of rhythm, duple and triple meter interplay, and syncopation.

Question 30

What is Ma fin est mon commencement (My end is my beginning)?

Answer 30

A chanson written by Machaut that is performed as a three-voice a capella with non-imitative polyphony, duple meter, syncopated rhythm, hollow cadences, and long melismas. Contains palindromes and alternating A and B sections.