Quiz 2 (Reverse Questions) Flashcards
John Dunstable transmitted this new compositional procedure to the continent. Means false bass. Can also be called Countenace Anglois. It is a technique using 3 voices, where the outer voices frequently move in 6ths, and the inner voice has a 4th below the top voice (It seems like first inversion triads to us).
Fauxbourdon
Rhymed metrical translations of the Book of Psalms set to newly composed tunes, or to tunes that were popular or adapted from plainchant.
Psalters
Performance of a polyphonic (multipart) musical work by unaccompanied voices.
A capella
In Notre Dame polyphony, the Clausula sections became independent pieces to be performed during a Church service and were termed Motets. By the Ars Nova, the Motet could be either a sacred piece or a secular piece.
Motet
A motet-like composition on an English text.
Anthem
Erasable clay or slate tablets used to write down the process of composition.
Palimpsest
This provides more specific meaning to individual words or phrases. E.g: Melodies that rise for the word “Ascend”. Melodies that move downward for “descend.” Strong dissonances or chromatic lines for words such as “pain,” “death,” “sorrow”, etc.
Text depiction
The most popular, vocal, polyphonic piece of the Renaissance was the song. It was called Chanson in France, and Lied in German. And one would expect it to be called Canzona in Italy. However, the term MADRIGAL was used instead. There is no direct evidence as to why this term was used, but it is the equivalent to the French Chanson or German Lied.
Madrigal
Advanced music written by Martin Luther during the Reformation. Originally the melody was in the Tenor voice. Later it moved to the Soprano voice. The other three voices move in a smooth voice leading style. The other voices could be sung by the choir if there was one available. Many of the melodies were based on Gregorian chants, with CONTRAFACTUM applied to the text.
Chorale
The replacing of one text with a new text (Usually so it can be performed at church)
Contrafactum
Another source of income for composers would be from adapting a polyphonic vocal piece for a keyboard instrument, or lute. Professional composers would simply have the skill to take a vocal piece and reduce it to the keyboard, add musica ficta and improvise on it.
Transcriptions
From 15th c. on the term sonata “to sound” (sonare) was used to describe a variety of pieces for instrumental ensembles or solos. The Venetian sonata of the late 1500’s was the sacred version of the canzona and consisted of a series of sections based on a different subject or on variants of a single subject. It resembled an instrumental version of a polyphonic song.
Sonata
Short bass lines that were repeated many times. Performers and composers wrote them and improvised variations over them.
Ostinato
The chief form of keyboard music in improvisatory style during the
second half of the 16th c. From Italian Toccare (to touch). Merulo was an important composer. This genre became much more important in the Baroque period that followed.
Toccata
to seek out” “to attempt”. Early ones were brief and improvisatory on lute. When transferred to the organ they had little imitation. Later its form became clearer as composers introduced repeated phrases and passages of paired imitation. By 1540 it contained a succession of themes without marked individuality or contrast-a textless imitative motet. Evolves into fugue.
Riercare
Showed graphically the location of the frets on a lute, viol, or similar instrument that must be stopped to produce the music. It was often for less trained musicians.
Tablature Notation
With the decline of the madrigal in the early 1600’s, the solo song with lute and viol accompaniment became popular. The leading composers of lute songs were John Dowland (1567-1620) and Thomas Campion (1567-1620). Texts were of a higher quality than the madrigal. Accompaniment is subordinated to the voice, but has a certain independence.
Lute Song
The consort song was a secular song for a solo voice and a consort of instruments that had independent lines. Any instruments could play the non-vocal lines, but the most common was the viola da gamba consort. The consort song demonstrated greater contrapuntal independence of parts than the lute song.
Consort Song
German term for gatherings on a regular basis that would take place and music would be performed for their own entertainment.
Hausmusik
German name for Musica Reservata
Augen Musica
A type of extreme text depiction used in the Renaissance period
Musica Reservata
This was a huge book of dances that was composed/compiled by the German composer Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). It was published in 1612 and comprises over 300 different pieces, arranged by dance types. The pieces were short, so could be repeated as many times as necessary, yet was never far from a cadence. The title is a reference to the muse of dance from the nine Greek muses of mythology.
Terpsichore
Term used to describe a compositional technique used frequently in the Renaissance. One voice introduces a melodic idea, which is then answered in the other voices one after another. At a certain point, (usually coinciding with a punctuation in the text) a cadence is reached. At the cadential point, one of the voices introduces a new idea which is then imitated by the other voices.
Points of Imitation
Equivalent to our sense of meter
C: 2/4 C w/dot: 6/8
O: 3/4 O w/dot: 9/8
Prolations
The most complex and sacred musical composition of the Christian Church.
The Mass
Mass Types
Plainsong Mass (Cyclic Mass), Motto Mass, Cantus Firmus Mass (Tenor Mass), Paraphrase Mass and Imitative/Parody Mass
Each movement of the Ordinary was set to a different chant, yet the appropriate one for that text.
Plainsong Mass (Cyclic Mass)
Each movement opens usually in the treble voice with a recurring thematic idea
Motto Mass
Each movement of the Mass was built around the same cantus firmus. This will become the most common type of the Renaissance.
Cantus Firmus Mass (Tenor Mass)
The Tenor is still based on Gregorian chant, but might be altered with variations, or migrate between the voices.
Paraphrase Mass
All voices of a mass may be subjected to a free fantasy based on a chanson. This became the most controversial type of the Renaissance.
Imitative/Parody Mass
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.
Layered System
Having the musical parts blend together and share musical material through imitative counterpoint.
Pietro Aron used this method for his book De Institutione Harmonica.
Simultaneous Composition
Martin Luther was a Catholic priest that was trying to reform many He nailed his 95 theses (complaints) to the door of Schloss Kirche at Wittenberg in 1517. After heated disagreements with the Church Luther was excommunicated. Many other priests, such as Calvin and Zwingli disagreed with the Church dogma and broke away.
Reformation
Selling of indulgences
Martin Luther’s main complaints during the Reformation
People who broke away from the Church and splintered into different sects.
Protestants
People who remained faithful to the preaching of Luther.
Lutherans
Luther’s music reformation characteristics
- Reduce the counterpoint.
- Use strophic texts so that the congregation would have little music to memorize.
- He used the hymn, originally a text and a monophonic tune set in primarily SYLLABIC text setting.
For more advanced music he wrote a CHORALE or Kirchenlied. Originally the melody was in the Tenor voice. Later it moved to the Soprano voice. The other three voices move in a smooth voice leading style. The other voices could be sung by the choir if there was one available. Many of the melodies were based on Gregorian chants, with CONTRAFACTUM applied to the text. - Luther also replaced Latin with German for parts of the Mass for the “unlearned folk”, so that the congregation could understand the words of the priest.
As the Protestant Reformation spread through different countries, the Catholic Church became concerned. From 1545-63 a number of church leaders met in the Northern Italian city of Trent. For 18 years in a series of 25 sessions they discussed how they could change aspects of the Church’s conduct.
Council of Trent
Council of Trent Decree
- No more usage of secular music in the Mass (The parody mass)
- When a text is first present, make sure the words are audible.
- Counterpoint is not forbidden, but it should not be too much counterpoint and should not detract from the religious spirit.
Importance of printing press
In 1450, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press allowed for improved communication throughout Europe and for ideas to spread more quickly. As a result of this advance in communication, little-known texts from early humanist authors such as those by Francesco Petrach and Giovanni Boccaccio, which promoted the renewal of traditional Greek and Roman culture and values, were printed and distributed to the masses. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance and the Reformation and laid the foundation for the spread of learning for the masses.
The Bible, published by Johannes Gutenberg
First book ever published
The strictest form of counterpoint
Canon
Very close to canon but with some notes altered.
Canonic Imitation
Musical material shared freely between parts.
Imitative Counterpoint
Different musical material between the parts.
Non-Imitative Counterpoint
Melodic Interval
In a canon one determines the exact MELODIC INTERVAL between the parts (including direction up or down)
How far apart are the entries of a Canon.
Rhythmic Distance
Dux or Proposta
Starting voice in a canon
Comes or Riposta
Following voices in a canon
Literal canon, canon by inversion, canon by retrograde, canon by diminution, canon by augmentation and prolation canon.
Canon Techniques
Name for two canons at the same time
Double Canon (same for three, four, etc)
Se la face ay pale
Dufay’s Most Famous Work
Missa Prolationum
Ockeghem’s Most Famous Work
Magnum Opus Musicum
Lassus’ Most Famous Work
Gradus ad Parnassum
Fux’s Most Famous Work
Dodecachordon
Glareanus’ Most Famous Work
Missa Papa Marcelli
Palestrina’s Most Famous Work
Musica Transalpina
Nicholas Yonge’s Most Famous Work
Syntagma Musicum and Terpsichore
Praetorius’ Most Famous Works
Sonata pian’ e forte
Gabrieli’s Most Famous Work
Ein feste burg is unser Gott” (A Mighty Fortress is our God)
Luther’s Most Famous Work
(c. 1400-1474) born in Cambrai. Choirboy at Cathedral in 1409. Between 1420-1426 he served the Malatesta family of Pesaro, Italy. 1428-33 he was a member of the Papel Chapel in Rome. 1433-35 in service with Duke of Savoy 1435-37 again in Papal Chapel. 1439-50 in Cambrai canon and probendary for Pope Eugene IV. 1452-56 choirmaster with the Duke of Savoy. Returned to Cambrai until his death. Well educated having received a degree in canon law from University of Bologna. Generally considered the greatest Bridge composer from the Medieval Period to the Renaissance.
Gillaume Dufay
(ca. 1390-1453) English composer who spent his life in the service of the English Duke of Bedford, regent of France, 1422-1435. About 70 works, showing all types and styles of polyphony. Transmitted a new compositional procedure to the continent known as FAUXBOURDON.
John Dunstable
(1440-1521) One of the greatest of Renaissance composers. He was famous during his own lifetime. Prolific composer in all genres. In the last few decades, musicological articles and books have elevated him to be the equal of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Josquin
Catholic priest that was trying to reform many aspects of abuse in the Church.
Martin Luther
(c. 1400– February 3, 1468) was a German goldsmith, inventor, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe with the printing press.
Johannes Gutenberg
(c. 1480-c. 1545) was an Italian composer and theorist. In his book De Institutione Harmonica he advocated the newer compositional method of SIMULTANEOUS COMPOSITION rather than the older LAYERED METHOD.
Pietro Aron
England, which had been a Catholic country, abolished the Catholic Church under him, who had a disagreement with the Pope about annulment of one of his marriages. He set up the Church of England with himself as the head. This ANGLICAN CHURCH did not have the same intense rejections with Catholicism as other parts of Europe, and many of the traditions remained the same.
Henry VIII
Theorist from the 18th C. who made a study of the music of Palestrina. He extracted general principles to explain what happened when one wrote 1 note against 1; 2 notes against 1; 3 notes against 1, etc. This became known as Species Counterpoint. His book was entitled Gradus Ad Parnassum.
J.J. Fux
(1532-1594). Late Renaissance Flemish composer. One of the greatest composers of the Renaissance. Chief glory is his motets. In 1604, his Magnum Opus Musicum was published after his death by his sons. It is a huge collection of his motets.
Lassus (Lasso)
(c. 1511-1576) Italian composer and theorist who published a treatise where he proposed reusing the ancient Greek chromatic and enharmonic genera (these were tetrachords. The enharmonic used quarter tones). This was used to stretch the limits of realistic representations of a text. He designed an archicembalo and arciorgano to perform music containing half-step and microtonal progressions that were impossible to play on normal keyboards.
Vicentino
(1525/26-1594) was a late Renaissance Italian composer. He served as choirboy, and was educated in Rome. He became Choirmaster of Capelle Guila at St. Peters in 1551. For his last 40 years he was choirmaster at St. John Laterna and Santa Maria Maggiore, as the teacher at newly found Jesuit Seminary. He composed mostly sacred works in a perfect, but very conservative style.
Palestrina
Prince of Venosa (c. 1561-1613). Composer who had an extreme use of texts about death and sadness, and chromatic and dissonant music. He was the Prince of Venosa, and therefore did not have to be concerned with earning money from his compositions. He married his cousin and murdered her and her lover. After this he became very strange and paranoid, and wrote extremely chromatic music. If Palestrina represents the conservative compositional style of the time, he represents the most opposite extreme. To sound like him one would have to compose in a manner in which you would fail Counterpoint classes. His music, like all Renaissance music, disappears in the next period, but resurfaces in the 20th c. He is now one of the most popular composers of the Renaissance. He anticipates 19th c. chromatic harmony.
Carlo Gesualdo
The rise of the madrigal in Italy was bound up with the currents of taste in Italian poetry. Led by X (1470-1547) poets, readers, and musicians returned to the sonnets and canzoni of the famous poet Y (1304-1374) X, himself was a poet and critic, was largely responsible for the renewed veneration of Y. X discovered a music of vowels, consonances and sounding syllables that could inspire composers to imitate these effects in their counterpoint. He noted that Y often made revisions to alter the sound of the words rather than to change the meaning or imagery.
X: Cardinal Bembo
Y: Petrarch
