Mid-Term Study guide Flashcards
Two Jewish Musical traditions continued in Christian churches
Sacrifice rites at the second temple
Played by trumpets and cymbals
Psalm singing
Accompanied by instruments
Dangers St. Augustine felt about music in church
Pleasure of musical creation/strengthening faith through power of music
The worship of scripture w/ music/ seduction of worldly pleasures
Church rites
Church calendar
Liturgy
Repertory of plainchant
Neumes
Gestures placed above words to be sung
Types of Neumes
Early Neumes
- just directions no pitches
Heightened Neumes
- clear indication of intervals
Guidonian notation
- lines for pitches, indicated by letters
The church modes
Final
Reciting tone
Range
How are Dorian and Hypodorian related
Dorian - an authentic mode
Hypodorian - a plagal mode
Same final, different (lower) range and different reciting tone
Solmization
The first 6 phrases of the hymn Vt Queant laxis (ut re mi fa sol la) used to sing whole steps half steps
Office
Eight services observed during the day at different times in monasteries and convents
Mass
Symbolic reenactment of the last supper
3 performance styles of chant
Responsorial - soloist alternates with choir
Antiphonal - two groups or halves alternates
Direct - no alteration
3 types of text setting
Syllabic - one note per syllable, Dixit Dominus
Neumatic - up to 6 notes per syllable
Melismatic - long melodies on a single syllable, Viderunt Omnes
3 genres of chant
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
Organum
Definition and 3 styles
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
What is a motet
New words (substitute Clausula) were added to the upper voice of a discant Organum
How was a motet developed out of an Organum
Double motets
Triple motets
Audience
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
Ars Nova (1310-1370)
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
Contenance angloise
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.
Three innovations of Renaissance music
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”
Four characteristics of Burgundian Chanson
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
What is imitation
How do they relate to phrases in Josquin’s motet “Ave Maria, Virgo serena”
Repeating a melody in one or more other parts
Voices share the same thematic material
How does Guillaume Dufay’s mass, Se la face ay pale musically link the five movements of his compositions
Used Secular cantus firmus in all five movements of mass ordinary.
Mensuration canon compositional technique
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
Guillaume Machaut
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.
