Medieval Music

Question 0

Mass Ordinary

Answer 0

• Kyrie (Greek, not latin)
• Gloria
• Credo
• Sanctus
• Agnus Dei

Question 1

Plainchant or Gregorian Chant

Answer 1

• Music of Christian Church

- First extensive repertory of music preserved in European sources

Question 2

Mass Proper

Answer 2

• Introit
• Gradual
• Alleluia
• Offertory
• Communion

Question 3

600 AD

Answer 3

• Pope Gregory coined term “Gregorian”

- Professional musicians existed (mostly Priests)

Question 4

800 AD

Answer 4

• Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor because he got rid of invading tribal groups (Lombards)
• Pope and Charlemagne wanted to unify the Church, so they used music to unify (Mass)
  
  • Music as statecraft (music used towards political ends)

Question 5

Non-diastematic Chant Notation

Answer 5

• “Guidelines” for those who already know the chant

- no specific pitch, just shape of lines

Question 6

Post-diastematic Chant Notation

Answer 6

• a few lines (specific pitches, usually C)

Question 7

Guido of Arezzo (c. 990)

Answer 7

• added lines to create a staff

- created syllables for sight singing

Question 8

Guido of Arezzo Staff Notation

Answer 8

• 4 lines
  
  • C or F clef
  • neumes
  • ligature
  • read bottom to top, left to right

Question 9

Hexachord

Answer 9

natural hexachord C-A
hard hexachord G-E
soft hexachord F-D with a Bb(no tritones allowed)

Question 10

Performance Style

Answer 10

• direct (unison)
• antiphonal (two choirs)
• responsorial (solo question, choir answer)

Question 11

Text Setting

Answer 11

• syllabic (one note per syllable)
• neumatic (something in between, one or two notes per syllable)
• melismatic (one syllable has many moving notes)

Question 12

Modes

Answer 12

Dorian - Hypodorian
Phrygian - Hypophrygian
Lydian - Hypolydian
Mixolydian - Hypomixolydian

“Hypo” mode begins a fourth below the authentic mode, but still end on authentic note

Question 13

Rise of Polyphony

Answer 13

• No meter in Gregorian Chant (free rhythm)
• Crowding around a large choir book created a sense of unity
• Began to embellish(due to repetition) which gave rise to polyphony

Question 14

Organum

Answer 14

• early polyphony
• perfect fourths and fifths (not thirds because of the close relationship with mathematics in this time)
• not written out, expected to improvise

Question 15

Scholasticism

Answer 15

• reliance on authority
• Bible
• words of Saints

Question 16

Melismatic Chant

Answer 16

• early 12th century
• drone chant on the bottom (word “tenor” came from word meaning “to hold”)
• moving embellished chant on top
• still in free rhythm (made more polyphony hard)

Question 17

Rhythmic Modes

Answer 17

• all in groups of 3 for the Holy Trinity
• first rhythmic notation system
• descriptive notation vs today’s prescriptive notation

Question 18

Rhythmic Modes 1, 2, 5

Answer 18

1 quarter eighth - trochaic (group of three followed by groups of two)
2 eighth quarter - iambic (groups of two followed by group of three)
5

Question 19

Phillip de Vitry

Answer 19

• Ars Nova
• composer who contributed to the new way of writing music, specifically in rhythm refinement
• duple time, which goes against the theory of triple time for the Holy Trinity

Question 20

Phillip de Vitry Ars Nova Notation System (white mensural notation)

Answer 20

• breve (big square note, which can be divided into time)
  - Semibreve (diamond note, which divides using prolation)
  - minims (diamond note with stem)
  
  • 9/8 circle with a dot (perfect - perfect)
  • 3/4 circle with no dot (perfect - imperfect)
  • 6/8 half circle with dot (imperfect - perfect)
  • 2/4 half circle with no dot (imperfect - imperfect)

Question 21

Machaut

Answer 21

• musician and poet, but was a secretary as a profession (music was not a good profession)
• set a whole Mass Ordinary as a unit for the first time
• Trouvere song: - Ma fin est mon commencement

Question 22

Music in the 12th to 14th Century

Answer 22

• rise of notation of rhythm for polyphony
• refinement of notation
• fascinated with rhythm and isorhythm
• especially in France they were interested in “secret structure” even though Pope condemned the Ars Nova
• setting of the Mass Ordinary

Question 23

Patriarchal Society

Answer 23

• Women were excluded from singing in church(too enticing)
• Only position of power women had was in a convent or nunnery
  
  • if women couldn’t be married or didn’t have a dowry, were sent to nunnery by family
  • building up riches for their family in the life to come
• Women’s role in life was to marry and have children (heir)
• Single sex communities (rare coed in separate buildings)

Question 24

Hildegard

Answer 24

• had a vocation
• lived to be 60-70 years old
• wanted to go to the nunnery and form her own convent
  
  • wasn’t allowed
  • protested by not moving or eating for days
  • was granted permission
• wrote prose and music
  
  • visionary writings
  • scientific writings
  • hymns
  • sacred drama
    
    • Ordo virtutum(acted out by nuns)

Question 25

Secular Music

Answer 25

• wasn’t written down in large quantities until the 12th century
• written in vernacular
  
  • everyday language

Question 26

Troubadour/Trobairitz

Answer 26

(male/female) secular music

- langue d'oc -> troubadour (attached to a court)
- langue d'oil -> trouvere (less attached to a court)
- likely men who came back from crusades
	- brought back traditions from the countries they were in
	- can be about war, but usually romance (unrequited or unattainable)

Question 27

Formes Fixes

Answer 27

Troubadour Music (rhyme in text determines poetic form)

	- rondeau (ABaAabAB)
		- stress of music and text don't align
		- complex rhythms
		- text not meant to be understood in singing
	- virel ai (=Italian bollata) (AbbaA)
		- stress of music and text align
		- simpler rhythms
		- text can be understood in singing
		- hemiola (for lively swing)
		- 3rds and 6ths, fewer 4ths and 5ths ("sweet" sounding)
	- ballade

Question 28

Beatriz de Dia

Answer 28

(Trobairitz)

• “A chantar” (early 13th century)
• instrumental accompaniment or interludes
• vernacular
• creativity
  
  • written like Gregorian chant, but sounds nothing like it
  • embellishment and droning

Question 29

Landini

Answer 29

(trouvere)

- blind organist

Question 30

Instrumental Music

Answer 30

“haut” (loud)/outside “bas” (soft)/inside

• trumpet - recorder
• shawm (oboe) - lute
• curtal (bassoon) - rebec
• sackbut (trombone) - vielle
• percussion - harp
• bagpipes - psaltery (zither)

Question 31

Jongleur

Answer 31

• Music was the lowest profession

- Name for musicians that sounds like “Juggler”, showing the similarity in respect for musicians and street performers

Question 32

Earliest Instrumental Music

Answer 32

music was for dancing
- group (round) dances
- couple dances
Heterophony - all playing the same line, but all playing it slightly differently