Quiz 1 Flashcards
What is The Mass?
The most important service of the Catholic Church.
From “Ite, missa est,” Go, the congregation is dismissed.
Liturgy
The body of texts and rites that make up a sacred service.
The Christian service commemorates the last supper of Jesus and his disciples as found in the New Testament
Ordinary
the five prayers that are always present in the Mass
Five Ordinary Prayers and meaning
Kyrie - Lord
Gloria - Glory
Credo - I believe
Sanctus - Holy
Agnus Dei - The Lamb of God
Proper
Any other pieces that don’t begin with the ordinary prayers
eg: Collects, Gospel, Alleluia, etc
Chant
The music they sang.
Characteristics of a chant
- Monophonic (single line music)
- Limited melodic range
- Unmeasured rhythm
- Based on modes
- Strophic (the same music for each line of text) setting is often used.
Text Setting
Syllabic: One note per syllable
Neumatic: 2- 5 notes per syllable
Melismatic: More than 5 notes per syllable
Performance practice
The manner in which people performed aspects of the music that was not indicated on the page.
Examples of performance practice
Rhythm, tempo, dynamics, articulations, starting pitch and how many people are singing in the chant.
Name the 3 different group settings in chants
Direct performance: Singing in unison
Responsorial performance: Leader alternates with ensemble
Antiphona performancel: Alternating choirs
Solmization, what is it and who invented it?
Guido d’Arezzo invented a system used as an aid to remember the pitches in melismatic passages. (Solfege)
Isorhythm (equal rhythm)
This applied to a chant line. As the pieces grew longer, the pitches of the chant line were repeated
Color
Repeated pitches of the chant line
Talea
Rhythmic pattern in certain medieval choral compositions
Chironomy
Hand gestures to show the rising and falling of pitches
Antiphony
A chant sang alternately by two groups.
Heterophony
The simultaneous performance of different versions of the same melody by different voices or instruments
Monophony
Single line of music
Finalis
Tonic
What are the other names for Confinalis?
Reciting tone and tenor
Confinalis
secondary most important note. This is the note in the mode used if you were repeating many words on the same syllable
How do you find the confinalis in authentic modes?
go up five pitches (If the note is B, make it a C)
How do you find the confinalis in hypo (plagal) modes?
take the Confinalis of the Authentic mode and go down a third (If the note is B, make it a C)
Cantillation
Type of singing where the same note is used when repeating many words on the same syllable.
Cantus Firmus
Principal line of music.
Other names for Cantus Firmus
Chant, Vox Principalis or Plainsong
Vox Organalis
Added voice to cantus firmus (Counterpoint line)
Perfectus (Intervals)
Perfect intervals: unison, fourth, fifth and octave
Imperfectus (intervals)
Imperfect intervals (seconds, thirds, sixths…)
Ambitus
Range (Lowest to highest note in a chant)
Contrafactum
The replacing of one text with a new text (Usually so it can be performed at church)
Musica Ficta
The raising and lowering of pitches by either the performer or the composer
Custos
Indicates the first pitch of the next line.
Incipit
Before the vocal polyphony started, a soloist would chant a few notes of the opening of the tenor part. This provided the sound of the pitch for the day.
Hocket
Medieval practice of a single melody that is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds while the other rests.
Tenor: Definiton and other names
Hold or sustain.
St. Martial, Melismatic, or Organum Purum
3 types of hexachords
Hexachord beginning on:
F : MOLL
G : DUR
C: NATURAL.
Mutation
Moving from one hexachord to another
How many melodic modes are there?
8
Name and number the authentic melodic modes
Dorian (1), Phrygian (3), Lydian (5) and Mixolydian (7)
Name and number the hypo (plagal) melodic modes
Hypodorian (2), Hypophrigian (4), Hypolydian (6) and Hypomixolydian (8)
How many rhythmic modes are there?
6
Name the first 3 rhythmic modes
Mode 1: Long Short (quarter note, eight note)
Mode 2: Short Long (eight note, quarter note)
Mode 3: Long Short Long (dotted quarter note, eight note, quarter note)
Name the last 3 rhythmic modes
Mode 4: Short Long Long (eight note, quarter note, dotted quarter note)
Mode 5: Long Long (two dotted quarter notes)
Mode 6: Short Short Short (3 eight notes)
Double leading tone cadence
One voice goes Ti-Do, the other voice goes Fi-Sol.
Example: Phrygian - D#-E, A#-B
Who created the double leading tone cadence
Machaut
Landini cadence
When the melodic line moves Ti-La-Do
Plainchant/plainsong
Single line melodies being sung by a choir.
Organum
Earliest two voiced counterpoint
Types of organum that didn’t have a fixed rhythm
Parallel: Moves in 4ths or 5ths
Free: Vox Orginalis moves in parallel, contrary, similar or oblique motion
Aquitanian: Chant voice is very sustained, and known as a Tenor.
Type of organum that has a fixed rhythm
Notre Dame (measured organum): Two or more parts added to chant in measured rhythm using the six rhythmic modes
Clausula
Newly composed section of discant inserted into a pre-existing setting of the organum.
Substitute Clausula
New Clausulae sections that could replace old ones. Written for popular clausulae.
What kind of piece could a Motet be?
Sacred or Secular
Trope
Newly composed additions usually in neumatic style to antiphonal chants of the proper
Kinds of tropes
- New words and music added to a regular chant.
- Extending melismas or adding new ones.
- Adding text only to existing melismas.
Ars Nova
The new art. French musical style of the first half of the 14th century
Ars Antiqua
Ancient Art. Musical activity before the 14th century
Chanson
French Song
Channsonniers
a singer or writer of chansons, especially a cabaret performer who specializes in songs that are a combination of melody and rapid spoken pattern.
Motet
Clausula sections that became independent pieces to be performed during a Church service.
By the Ars Nova, the Motet could be either a sacred piece or a secular piece.
Characteristics of a motet
- Non-imitative counterpoint between the lines
- Dissonance between the parts.
- Each line was complete and independent on its own. As long as one resolved at the correct spots, the ear would accept the dissonance along the way.
- Preference for a HETEROGENEOUS texture (independence of parts, non- imitative counterpoint).
Polytextual Motet
Contains two or more voices overlapping each other. These different voices can mean both male and female voices, different languages, or a combination of the two. Written with a lively free, speech-like rhythm for Triplum.
Trouveres
Poet-composers who flourished in Northern France
Troubadours
Poet-composers who flourished in Southern France
Trobairitz
Female version of troubadours
Jongleurs
People that traveled town to town singing the songs of the Trouveres and Troubadours
Lied
German Song
Spielleute
German traveling musicians
Goliards
Footloose clerics who migrated from one school to another. Their vagabond way of life, scorned by respectable people, was celebrated in their songs.
Consort
The ensemble that performed instrumental music
The Recorder
(also known as the flauto) a wind instrument with no reed, still in existence today.
The Shawm
a double reed instrument that evolves into the oboe.
The Bagpipe
a double reed instrument with a bag filled with air, allowing the performer to take a breath while the sound continued through a series of pipes, usually tonic and dominant. It reverts to being primarily a folk instrument associated with Ireland and Scotland.
The Racket/Dulcet
a double reed instrument that evolves into the bassoon.
The Sackbut
A brass instrument with a slide and mouthpiece that evolved the Trombone.
Crummhorn (Krumhorn)
A double reed instrument with a curved bell. (Krum means curved). It has a nasal buzzy sound, closer to a Kazoo. It will not survive as an instrument.
Horn
A hunting instrument that could only play the OVERTONE SERIES, and therefore, could not perform in Church music or secular music.
The Trumpet
Like the horn, played only the overtone series, and was used for royalty and warfare.
Cornetto, cornett or zink
Wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. (sounds like a lose trumpet)
Types of Viols
Viola da gamba and Viola da braccia
Viola da gamba characteristics
- Played between the legs
- 6 strings tuned in 4ths with 3d in middle Fretted
- Flat back and curved sloping shoulders
- The sophisticated string instrument in the Church and aristocracy
- They begin to lose popularity in the Baroque period
Viola da braccia characteristics
- Played on the arm tuned in 5ths
- Unfretted
- Rounded back and curved shoulders
- Peasant instrument
- They rise in popularity in the Baroque period, and survive today as the violin, viola and cello
Harp
Harps could have a variety of strings, depending on the size of the instrument. With tuning pegs on the top of the frame, the harp could be re-tuned to allow it to play in a variety of modes.
Sitar
Six-string instrument from India
Pentar
Five-string instrument
Chitarre
Four-string instrument which later became the guitar.
Lute
Most prized string instrument that came from the Mid-East. Also known as the OUD.
Name the most common keyboard instruments
Organ and Harpsichord
Organ
For use in church and the portative organ (a small portable organ with a small keyboard. One hand played monophonic music on the keyboard while the other hand pumped the bellows to provide the air needed.
Harpsichord
Keyboard instrument that was popular in the court system and for home entertainment.
Percussion instruments
There is a wide variety of percussion instruments used in the Medieval period, and a great amount of iconography illustrating them. There are no percussion parts, however, as they were improvised, usually for standardized rhythmic patterns for military and dance music.
Estampie
The earliest notation dance music to survive, a dance from Southern France.
Hildegard von Bingen
Famous for her prophetic powers and revelations
All her music is monophonic
Hildegard von Bingen: Most famous piece
Her most famous work is Ordo Virtutum (The Virtues) c. 1151, a non-liturgical sacred music drama is a morality play in which all the parts except the Devil are sung in plainchant.
Guido d’Arezzo
Italian music theorist from the town of d’Arezzo who invented a system known as Solmization
Guido d’Arezzo: Most famous piece
Micrologus
Guillaume de Machaut
Considered to be the greatest composer of the Ars Nova
Guillaume de Machaut: Most famous piece
Mass of Notre Dame
What did Machaut use in the Mass of Notre Dame?
Hockets and double leading tone cadence
Adam de la Halle
French poet-composer trouvère. Among the few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music
Adam de la Halle: Most famous work
Musical play Jeu de Robin et Marion (c. 1282–83)
Jeu de Robin et Marion is an example of which type of piece?
Pastourelle
Philip de Virty
He proposed that duple division of note values should be allowed with triple and invented new notation practices to satisfy the demands of the new music.
Philip de Virty: Most famous work
Ars Nova Musicae
Boethius
The most revered and influential authority on music in the Middle Ages.
Boethius: Most famous work
De Institutione Musica
Leonin and Perotin
It was at Notre Dame that two of the earliest composers for which we have information, Leonin and Perotin, were writing music and contributing to the development of polyphony. Leonin and Perotin’s music became associated with what history has termed the Notre Dame School of Polyphony. It’s with these two composers that we can begin to trace the modern roots of modern Western music.
