Quiz 1 Flashcards
What survives concerning music from Greek culture?
- Physical remains - instruments and performing spaces
- Visual images - drawings of musicians, instruments, and performances
- Music itself - notation, oral tradition, and recordings (estimations)
- Writings - texts about the use, role, and impact of music in culture
What is the Doctrine of Ethos?
- A belief that music is so powerful as to affect human character and morality
What were some of Socrates’ beliefs in regards to music?
- Certain modes of music affect development in different ways
- Instrumental music is more damaging than vocal music
- Frowned upon large ensembles and virtuosic music
Who was Boethius and why is he significant?
- Consul and minister to the ruler of Italy
- Most revered authority on music in the Middle Ages
- Wrote The Fundamentals of Music, which was copied and cited for 1,000 years
Briefly explain the origins of the commonly used solmization syllabes today.
- Introduced by Guido of Arezzo to facilitate sight-singing
- Used the first six phrases of the song Ut queant laxis, which began on C-D-E-F-G-A in ascending order
What is the definition of Mass?
- The most important service in the Roman church
What is the definition of mass?
- A musical work setting the tests of the Ordinary of the Mass
What is the definition of Ordinary?
- Texts of the Mass that remain the same on most or all days of the church calendar
What is the definition of Proper?
- Tests of the Mass that are assigned to a particular day in the church calendar
What is the definition of Office?
- A series of eight prayer services of the Roman church
- Celebrated daily at sepcified times, especially in monasteries and convents
What is the definition of trope?
- An addition to an existing chant consisting of words and melody, a melisma, or words only
Introit, Kyrie, Gradual
Is each chant syllabic, neumatic, or melismatic?
- Introit: between syllabic and neumatic
- Kyrie: neumatic
- Gradual: melismatic
Introit, Kyrie, Gradual
What is the performing force for each chant?
- Introit: antiphonal or responsorial
- Kyrie: antiphonal
- Gradual: responsorial
Introit, Kyrie, Gradual
What is the structure or form for each chant?
- Introit: ABB’A
- Kyrie: AAA BBB CCC’
- Gradual
Introit, Kyrie, Gradual
Is each chant Proper or Ordinary?
- Introit: Proper
- Kyrie: Ordinary
- Gradual: Proper
Introit, Kyrie, Gradual
Did these chants originally accompany any activity during the Mass?
- Introit: entrance procession of the priest
- Kyrie: a short prayer repeated in response to a leader
- Gradual: No accompanying activity
What are the dates of the Middle Ages?
- 5th century - 15th century
- 410/476 CE - 1400 CE
When did Christianity become the state religion and Rome become the center of the Western Christian church?
- 4th century
When was the fall of the Roman Empire?
- 476 CE
When were the Dark Ages? What important developments occured?
- 5th - 8th century
- Monasteries became centers of learning
- Monks formed a core body of chant
When was the rule of Charlemagne? What important developments occured?
- 768-814 CE (8th century)
- Marks the end of the Dark Ages
- Earliest surviving fragments of music manuscripts
- Adoption of Roman chant to centralize authority
When were the High Middle Ages? What important developments occured?
- 12th-13th century
- Music manuscripts survive in large numbers
- Emergence of large cities
- Developments of secular churches and cathedrals
- New compositional ideas came out of universities
When and what was the First Crusade? What important developments occured?
- 1095 CE
- Western attempt to reclaim the Middle East from Muslims
- Returned with their instruments and practices
To what does the term “Middle Ages” refer?
- A middle period between two great cultures (the Greek/Roman culture and it’s rebirth - the Renaissance)
- A derogatroy term
Why was a large part of the Catholic liturgy conducted in music?
- Projection of sound
- Attainability for the illiterate
- To create a sense of unity/oneness
- Doctrine of Ethos
- Method of prayer/meditation
- Conveyed divine beauty
Why is the body of liturgical music called Gregorian Chant?
- Pope Gregory was important in organizing the liturgy and unifying the church
- Myth says that God in the form of a dove whispered the chants in Gregory’s ear
What are the general features of chant? How do they relate to the spiritual purpose of music?
- Latin
- Language of Rome/tradition
- Divine language separate from everyday vulgarity
- One language to unite the church and establish power
- Vocal
- Doctrine of Ethos
- Monophonic
- Unity/oneness
- Simplicity
- Focus on the text***
- Stepwise mostion
- Exaggeration of natural inflections in speech
- Rhythmically free (ametric)
- Lacks wordly limits
- Differentiation from secular music
What was St. Augustine’s concern about setting the liturgy to music?
- The music would be sinful should it take attention away from the text
What causes differences between forms of chant?
- Importance of text
- Various performers
- Matches corresponding actions of the Mass
What two central types of services were celebrated in the Catholic Church?
- Office
- 8 services over 24 hours
- Mass
- mid-morning service
- reflects the Last Supper
- more elaborate music
What factors might lead to such repetition in the Kyrie?
- Importance of the idea
- Short text
- Accesible for congregation
What about the style of the Gradual is ornate?
- Responsorial - never sung by the congregation
- Very long melismas (most melismatic chant)
To what do the terms syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic refer?
- syllabic: having (or tending to have) one note sung to each syllable of text
- neumatic: having about one to seven notes (or one neume) sung to each syllable of text
- melismatic: having many long melodic passages sung to a single syllable of text
What is the subject of the Gradual?
- The importanc and/or the birth of Christ
What takes place during the Gradual?
- Nothing - a point in the service for meditation and contemplation
Why did the Gradual development into a highly ornate chant?
- Movement of the Proper
- Sung by the choir
- A time for meditation
How many modes are in the Medieval modal system? What are the two types?
- 8 modes
- Authentic and plagal
What are the modes of the modes of the Medieval modal system? Which are authentic and which are plagal? What is the final and reciting tone of each mode?
- Dorian
- Authentic
- Final is D
- Reciting tone is A
- Hypodorian
- Plagal
- Final is D
- Reciting tone is F
- Phrygian
- Authentic
- Final is E
- Reciting tone is C
- Hypophrygian
- Plagal
- Final is E
- Reciting tone is A
- Lydian
- Authentic
- Final is F
- Reciting tone is C
- Hypolydian
- Plagal
- Final is F
- Reciting tone is A
- Mixolydian
- Authentic
- Final is G
- Reciting tone is D
- Hypomixolydian
- Plagal
- Final is G
- Reciting tone is C
What is a final? How is it used?
- The important structural pitch of a mode
- Often starts and ends the piece and is repeated at key points
What are the ranges of authentic and plagal modes?
- Authentic ranges go an octave above the final
- Plagal ranges are an octave surrounding the final
What is a reciting tone?
- The secondary important structural pitch of a mode
- In authentic modes, the reciting tone is a fifth above the final
- If the reciting tone falls on B (an unstable pitch), it moves up to C
- In plagal modes, the reciting tone is a third below the corresponding authentic mode’s reciting tone (unless B)
When did Hildegard von Bingen live?
- 1098-1179 CE
What are Hildegard von Bingen’s musical and non-musical accomplishments?
- Given to the Catholic church by parents to be a nun
- Became head abyss of her own convent
- Political advisor
- Wrote books about many different subjects (the human body, religious philosophy, art)
- Largest collection of chants (77), the Play of Virtues
How was Hildegard von Bingen inspired to compose?
- Ideas came as visions directly from God
Describe Hildegard von Bingen’s visions
- Visions becan at age 4-5
- Recieved long, detailed visions of art, music, and other ideas
- God wanted her to share her visions
- Recieved a visions to have an independent convent
- Visions gave her authority and credibility
How were Hildegard von Bingen’s musical output and ideas unusual for the time?
- Chants honored female figures in Catholic history
- Religious writings had females at the center of theology
- Believed all types of music could be used to glorify God
- Wrote a play told through music (completely unique of the time)
- Gave each character a different style of music
What is the Play of Virtues?
- A play about a struggling soul trying to choose the right path
- Continually set to music
How are the charaters in the Play of Virtues provided different styles of music?
- The Devil’s lines are spoken, while the anima is sung
- Varying registers and textual forms
- Disjunct vs. conjuct melodic lines
What developments in the 12th century precipitated secular monophonic song?
- An increase in trade routes
- Prosperous economy, use of money
- Created wealthy courts which could be patrons to the arts
What is the background of the troubadours and trouvères?
- Troubadours were attached to the courts; often came from the upper class themselves
- Trouvères were the next generation of performers; they came from a broader range of society
What and how did the French tradition travel to Germany?
- Beatrice of France brought her favorite minstrels with her to Germany to get married
- Minnesingers became the next generation of performers
On what criterion are songs classified?
- The subject of the poetry used as lyrics
- dawn-song (lovers departing)
- auld/pastoral (woman seduced by a knight)
- debate-song (concepts of love)
What is courtly love?
- A love that redefines and changes a man mentally and physically
- The suffering is a purifying, enobling effect
- A secular parallel to the cult of the Virgin Mary
What were the issues of historical performances?
- Instrumentation
- Determined using iconografic evidence
- Rhythm
- Found in the poem’s metric feel of words
- Language
- Vocal quality/timbre
- Ornamentation/improvisation
- Musical form - compare & contrast
When were troubadours and trouvères active?
What language did they use?
- 12th century France
- Troubadours spoke Occitan; trouvères spoke Old French
