Terms Flashcards
Church modes
11th century. 8 modes, paired one authentic and one plagal. The FINAL in D, E, F, G. Each has a tenor/reciting tone, in authentic mode a 5th above the final, the plagal mode a 3rd below the authentic modes tenor tone.
Used to classify the chants and write them down in liturgical books.
Guido of arezzo
ca. 991-1033 Created basis for the staff, with one line for F in red and C in yellow.
Solmization
Guidi de arezzo developed syllables for CDEFGA after the hymn Ut queant laxis, ut re mi fa sol la. Beginning of solfege, was used to teach the whole and half-tones around each final.
Hexachord
6-note scales using moveable-do solfege (ut-la), with three permutations, starting on C (natural), G (hard) and F (soft). The mi-fa always being the half-step
Proper Mass
The texts and melodies that vary day to day
Ordinary mass
The parts of the mass that stay the same every day: Kyrie, Gloria, credo, sanctus, Agnus Dei, ite, missa est
Neume
Figures written above the text to indicate number of notes per syllable and whether the melody ascended descended or repeated a pitch. Might have derived from the signs for inflection and accent, but didn’t show melody. Still had to memorize the melody.
Hymn
song to a gods. tradition included “shape-note singing” after the notation in these collections. an inventince american reconception ofthe syllables introduced by guido of arrezo. many open fifths.
Requiem Mass
mass for the dead. Oldest surviving polyphonic mass.
Dies irae
chant sequence from the mass of the dead. symbol of death, the macabre or the diabolical
sequence
genre popular from late 9th-12th century. set syllabically to a text mostly in couplets and are sung after the Alleluia in the Mass. A BB CC … N
Troubador and trouvéres
Middle Ages 12th century: poet-composers, sponsored by courts. Troubador in southern France whose language was Occitan, spread north to the Trouvéres (Old French). Trobar and Trover mean “to compose a song” later to mean “to invent” or “to find”. Kept their songs in chansonniers
Organum
two or more voices singing different notes in agreeable combinations. several styles of polyphony from 9th-13th centuries. parallel organum: (in 5ths) original chant melody is the principal voice, other is the organal voie, moving in a parallel 5th below. either or both voices may be doubled at the octave. also mixed parallel organum, such as moving over a drone with parallel motion. no tritones allowed. free organum, included improvising - parts may cross and added voice is now above the chant melody (instead of below). more disjunct voice becuase of the limited number of harmonic intervals.
Caccia
popular-style melody is set in strict canon to lively, graphically descriptive words. in fashion between 1345 - 1370, 2 voices in canon at the unison. cace means “hunt” in italian
Formes fixes: ballade, virelai, rondeau
14th century: ballades most serious, for philosphiocal or historical themes or for celebrating an event or person, rondeaux centered on themes of love, virelais related descriptions of nature to feelings of love. all formes fixes derived from genres associated with dancing. Machaut wrote many. ballade 3 stanzas each with same music and each ending with same line of poetry. rondeau has only one stanza and the refrain in two sections: ABaAabAB
Musica ficta
14th-16th centuries, “feigned music” because most altered notes (to avoid the tri-tone) lay outside the standard gamut. involved putting syllables mi and fa on notes where they wouldn’t normally go
cantus firmus
term introduced around 1270 to designate an existing melody, usually a plainchant, on which a new polyphonic work is based
L’homme armé
“L’homme armé” was a French secular song from the time of the Renaissance. Set in Dorian mode, it was the most popular tune used for musical settings of the Ordinary of the Mass: over 40 separate compositions entitled Missa L’homme armé survive from the period
Parody mass
or “imitation mass”. instead of using one voice as a cantus firmus, the composer borrow extsneively from all voices, which is why it’s called an imitation mass. typically teh resemblance to the model is strongest at the begining and end of each mvmt and the composer’s skill is demonstrated by the new combos and variations he can achieve with the borrowed material. used as such becuase the polyphony became much more complicated when using a motet or chanson in the late 15/16th centuries
Humanism
intellectual mvmt of the Renaissance came from the study of the humanities, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, moral philosophy, centered on Classical Latin and greek writings. believed they developed the invidicual’s mind, spirit and ethics. faith in the dignity and nobility of humans anad our capacity to imporive our condition through our own efforts.
Petrucci Odhecaton
Petrucci (1466-1539) in 1501 in Venice brought out the first colleciton of pholyphonic music printed entirely from movable type (One Hundred POlyphonic Songs), though actually contains only 96. Petrucci used a triple-impression process in which each sheet went through the press 3 times - 1 for staff lines, 1 for words and 1 for notes/florid initials.
Chanson
major innovation in the Arts Nova period was the development of polyphonic songs “chansons” in treble-dominated style. upper voice is the principal line and carries the text, called the treble or cantus, supported by a slower-moving tenor without text.
K. (Köchel)
Ludwig van Kochel, in 1862, whose “K” numbers are universally used to identify Mozart’s compositions. From 1-626.
musical texture
monophonic, polyphonic/counterpoint, homophonic (pop song), polyrhythmic. how thick the voicing is, etc.
critical edition of music
Scholarly or critical editions are music editions in which careful scholarship has been employed to ensure that the music contained within is as close to the composer’s original intentions as possible. Such editions are sometimes called urtext editions.
divertimento
entertainment music, mulitmovemnt piees for orchestra or combo of wind/string that include a mix of dances. used as background music but with an unaffected simplicity of both material and treatment. Eine kleine Nachtmusik is a good example.
cantible-cabaletta
Rossini’s newly designed aria structure - a slow, lyrical cantabile and a lively and brilliant cabaletta. cantabile - calm moods such as pensiveness, sadness or hope, and the cabaletta more active feelings such as anger or joy. part of all of the cabaletta is repeated with improvised embellishments. often also a tempo di mezzo (middle movement) which is usually a transition between
“The Mighty Five”
Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Admired western music but studied it on their own. often got together and playing through all the works, subjected to criticism and anaylsis in technical and creative aspects. musical foram, program music, vocal music and operatic form. Sought a fresh apporach in their own music
“Les Six”
Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, Tailleferre, Auric, Durey. French composers so named after “the mighty five” in Russia. absorbed the neoclassicism but sought to escapt the old plitical dichotomoies. Drew inspiration from Satie and were hailed by writer Cocteau who called for new music that would be fully French and anti-romantic in its clairty, accessibility and emotional restraint. They each wrote highly individual works taht drew on a wide range of influences.
Coloratura
started with Handel, is brilliant displays of florid ornamentation
Madrigal
14th century madrigal is a song for 2 or 3 voices without instrumental accompaniment. All the voices sing the same text, usually an idylic, pastoral, satirical or love poem. 16th century madrigal most important secular genre in Italy during Renaissance. Composers placed emphasis on enriching the meaning and impact of the text through musical setting. explored new effects of declamation, imagery, expressivity, characterization nd dramatization that paved the way for furture dramatic forms such as opera.
Madrigalism
striking musical images (preview to text painting), evoking the text almost literally, were so typical of madrigals that they became known as madrigalisms
Tablature
notational system that tells the player which strings to pluck and where to place the fingers on the strings, rather than indicating which pitches will result. (like the guitar). started with the lute in the 1600s
Pavane and galliard
Pavanne: a 16th century italian processional dance, with 3 repeated strains (such as Flow, my tears). Or, in France/English, slow dance in duple meter
Galliard: fast one in triple meter on the same tune.
always played together
Ricercare
type of prelude, means “to seek out” and “to attempt”, used as an improvisation, evolved into a motetlike succession of imitative sections. earliest ricercari, for lute, were brief and improvisatory, 1540, ricercare consisted of successive themes each developed in imitation and overlapping witht the next at the cadence - in effect, a textless imitative motet, but with embellishments that were typically instrumental. by the early 17th century, the ricerare was an extended fugal piece on a single subject.
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequeathed this manuscript collection to Cambridge University in 1816. It is now deposited in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. Although the word virginals or virginal (the plural form does not necessarily denote more than one instrument) is used today to refer to a specific instrument similar to a small, portable harpsichord, at the time of the book the word was used to denote virtually any keyboard instrument including the organ.
Prima practica, segunda practica
Monteverdi distinguished between a prima practice, the 16th century style of vocal polyphony by Zarlino and a segunda practica, mused by modern italians. They explained that in the first practice, music had to follow the rules and dominated the verbal text, whereas the second practice the text domintes the music, voice-leading rules can be broken and dissonances can be used more freely
Basso continuo
“continuous bass” the composer wrote out the moeldy and the bass line but leaft it to the performers to fill in teh appropriate chors or inner parts. typically played on harpsichord, organ lute or theorbo. later 17th century the viola de gamba reinforced the bass line.
Basso ostinato
a pattern in the bass that repeats while the melody above it changes.
Chaconne
vivacious dance-song imported from Latin America into Spian and then Italy. during Monteverd’s time
Passacaglia
ritornello improvsed over a simple cadential progression and played before and between strophes of a song. Earliest is Frescobaldi’s Partite sopra ciaccona
Concertato texture/style
Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo. The term derives from Italian concerto which means “playing together” —hence concertato means “in the style of a concerto.” In contemporary usage, the term is almost always used as an adjective, for example “three pieces from the set are in concertato style.”
Cantata
meaning “a piece to be sung” applied before 1620 to a published collection of arias in strophic variation form. by midcentury, it meant meant a secular composition with continuo, usually for solo voice on a lyrical or quask-dramatic text, consisting of several sections that include both recits and arias
oratorio
17th century rome, new genre of religious dramatic music emerged, combining narrative, dialogue and commentary.
