Medieval Music

Question 1

Plainchant

Answer 1

• Often referred to as Gregorian chant
  
  • used in the Roman Catholic Church
• earliest written musical repertoire in the West
• the legend of Pope Gregory the Great as a divinely inspired author of all of plainchant

Question 2

Alliance between the Frankish Kings and the Roman papacy

Answer 2

• in the late 8th century
  
  • Carolingians were legitimated by the papacy
  • The church received protection against invasion of their lands

Question 3

Carolingian Renaissance

Answer 3

• under the reign of Charlemagne at the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th century
• a large-scale campaign to produce authoritative written documents and to form communities of literate people who could refer to these documents

Question 4

Neumes

Answer 4

• dots and lines above chant text, which were meant to show the contour of vocal inflection rather than specific pitches

Question 5

Characteristics of Plainchant

Answer 5

1. monophonic
2. non-metric
   
   • does not have a system of strong and weak beats
3. step-wise motion
   
   • they don’t have many large intervals in them
4. relatively small range
5. both melismatic and syllabic singing

Question 6

Melisma vs. Syllabic

Answer 6

• Melisma: a single instance where there is one syllable and a lot of notes
  
  • used to emphasize and embellish particular words
• Syllabic: each syllable of text is set to a single note
  
  • reflect its connection to speech

Question 7

Why is plainchant anonymous?

Answer 7

• transmitted orally and only later written down

Question 8

Hildegard von Bingen

Answer 8

• (1098 - 1179)
• melodies tend to have a slightly larger range and bigger leaps than the earlier chants

Question 9

Troubadours

Answer 9

• the troubadours were lyric poets who inhabited a region called Occitania
• their poetry and music reflects the nature of social relations in feudal Occitania

Question 10

Languages of Plainchant and Troubadours

Answer 10

• Plainchant = latin
• Troubadours = Occitan, the vernacular language of the region

Question 11

Strophic

Answer 11

• when the same music is sung for each stanza of poetry

Question 12

Monophonic

Answer 12

• they contain only one line of music to which the text should be sung

Question 13

Canso

Answer 13

• troubadour love song
• fin’amors:“refined” or courtly love
  
  • ritualized form of love in which the beloved was unattainable and portrayed as a quasi-sacred entity rather than as an object of lust