Mid-Term Study guide

Question 1

Two Jewish Musical traditions continued in Christian churches

Answer 1

Sacrifice rites at the second temple
Played by trumpets and cymbals

Psalm singing
Accompanied by instruments

Question 2

Dangers St. Augustine felt about music in church

Answer 2

Pleasure of musical creation/strengthening faith through power of music

The worship of scripture w/ music/ seduction of worldly pleasures

Question 3

Church rites

Answer 3

Church calendar

Liturgy

Repertory of plainchant

Question 4

Neumes

Answer 4

Gestures placed above words to be sung

Question 5

Types of Neumes

Answer 5

Early Neumes
- just directions no pitches

Heightened Neumes
- clear indication of intervals

Guidonian notation
- lines for pitches, indicated by letters

Question 6

The church modes

Answer 6

Final

Reciting tone

Range

Question 7

How are Dorian and Hypodorian related

Answer 7

Dorian - an authentic mode

Hypodorian - a plagal mode

Same final, different (lower) range and different reciting tone

Question 8

Solmization

Answer 8

The first 6 phrases of the hymn Vt Queant laxis (ut re mi fa sol la) used to sing whole steps half steps

Question 9

Office

Answer 9

Eight services observed during the day at different times in monasteries and convents

Question 10

Mass

Answer 10

Symbolic reenactment of the last supper

Question 11

3 performance styles of chant

Answer 11

Responsorial - soloist alternates with choir

Antiphonal - two groups or halves alternates

Direct - no alteration

Question 12

3 types of text setting

Answer 12

Syllabic - one note per syllable, Dixit Dominus

Neumatic - up to 6 notes per syllable

Melismatic - long melodies on a single syllable, Viderunt Omnes

Question 13

3 genres of chant

Answer 13

Recitation formula - chanted on one reciting tone

Office antiphons- proceeded and followed by antiphon resulting in ABB…BBA, Tecum Principium

Office hymns - strophic form, several stanzas sung to same melody, Christie Redemptor ominum

Office Psalm - more complex than recitation formulas, can be adapted to any psalm, Dixit Dominus

Question 14

Organum

Definition and 3 styles

Answer 14

Plainchant melody with one added voice for harmony

Parallel organum - added voice appears below principal voice moving in parallel fifths, fourths, or octaves

Florid Organum - chant sustained in long notes in the low voice (tenor) while the upper voice sings phrases

Free Organum - added voice note to note using different intervals. Chant is in the bottom voice

Question 15

What is a motet

Answer 15

New words (substitute Clausula) were added to the upper voice of a discant Organum

Question 16

How was a motet developed out of an Organum

Double motets

Triple motets

Audience

Answer 16

Motets were created from adding new words to a discant style of Organum

Double motet - two texts sang simultaneously over tenor

Triple motet - three texts sang simultaneously over tenor

Music for the discerning elite

Question 17

Ars Nova (1310-1370)

Answer 17

Translated - New Art

New form of notation in which the note shapes indicate duration.

Allowed duple (imperfect) division of note values as well as the (perfect) division

Division of semibreve (formally smallest note value) into smaller values called minims

Question 18

Contenance angloise

Answer 18

English way/style of composing
15th century

Developed during Hundred Years’ War when British and French musicians were in close contact

John Dunstable
Motet Quam pulchra es

Emphasis on thirds and sixths, homophonic textures, melody in upper voice

Developed into what we would describe as “music” today.

Question 19

Three innovations of Renaissance music

Answer 19

Four voices (S, A, T, B) with more contrasts between higher and lower registers

Clear rhythms, duple meter

Clearer musical structure: Tonal Centers, end of sections marked by cadences

Sweet-sounding intervals “thirds and sixths”

Question 20

Four characteristics of Burgundian Chanson

Answer 20

Voices: Each voice has a distinct role with no imitation

Text setting is mostly syllabic except for cadences

Melody is memorable and arching

Consonant harmony

Question 21

What is imitation

How do they relate to phrases in Josquin’s motet “Ave Maria, Virgo serena”

Answer 21

Repeating a melody in one or more other parts

Voices share the same thematic material

Question 22

How does Guillaume Dufay’s mass, Se la face ay pale musically link the five movements of his compositions

Answer 22

Used Secular cantus firmus in all five movements of mass ordinary.

Question 23

Mensuration canon compositional technique

Answer 23

Canon - when several voices sing the same melody and enter on different intervals of time.

Missa Prolationum - notated in two parts but sung in four, each voice pair functions as a canon where the voices move at varying speeds and have different time signatures

Question 24

Guillaume Machaut

Answer 24

1300-1377

First modern composer because he organized his music into a collection of his 140 musical works with his name attached so he could receive credit for the his work.