Terms/Names Flashcards
Guido of Arezzo
music theorist of the Medieval era. He is regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) that replaced neumatic notation and the use of the “ut–re–mi–fa–so–la” (do–re–mi–fa–so–la) mnemonic (solmization). (Middle Ages) (1000AD)
Church modes
A Gregorian mode (or church mode) is one of the systems of pitch organization used to describe Gregorian chant. (Middle Ages)
Solmization
System of designating musical notes by syllable names. Thought to be invented by Guido of Arezzo (Middle Ages)
hexachord
The hexachord as a mnemonic device was first described by Guido of Arezzo. In each hexachord, all adjacent pitches are a whole tone apart, except for the middle two, which are separated by a semitone. These six pitches are named ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la, with the semitone between mi and fa. (Middle Ages) Later redefined for 20th century use by Allen Forte.
Mass, Proper
part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date, either representing an observance within the Liturgical Year, or of a particular saint or significant event. (Middle Ages-present)
Mass, Ordinary
Part of the Christian liturgy that remains fairly constant throughout the year. (Middle Ages-Present)
Neume
A neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. It was placed above a syllable to indicate pitch hight (Middle Ages)
Sequence
the immediate restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch (Baroque-Present)
Hymn
type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος (hymnos), which means “a song of praise.” (Middle Ages)
Requiem Mass
Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons. Also used as a basis for many non-religious works. (Middle Ages-present)
Dies irae
(Day of Wrath) is a thirteenth century Latin hymn attributed to either Thomas of Celano of the Franciscan Order (1200 – c. 1265)[1] or to Latino Malabranca Orsini (+1294), lector at the Dominican studium at Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome. Later Became became a sequence in the liturgy of the Requiem Mass. (Middle Ages-Present)
Troubadour & trouvères
Performers/composers of the Middle Ages performing for the aristocratic part of society.
Organum
a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages.
Rhythmic Mode
set patterns of long and short durations (or rhythms). The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note (as is the case with more recent European musical notation), but rather by its position within a group of notes written as a single figure called a “ligature”, and by the position of the ligature relative to other ligatures. (Middle Ages)
Magnus Liber organi
Magnus Liber Organi (Latin for “Great Book of Organum”) is a compilation of the medieval music known as organum.
Motet
Word that is applied to a number of highly varied secular choral musical compositions. (Common during middle ages and renaissance and baroque with Bach…but used even today.
Ars nova
musical style which flourished in France and the Burgundian Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages: more particularly, in the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel (1310 – 1314) and the death of the composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377. Generally thought of as polyphonic music of the 14th Century.
Isorhythm
a musical technique that arranges a fixed pattern of pitches with a repeating rhythmic pattern. in works by modern composers such as Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, and George Crumb (Middle Ages)
Formes fixes: Ballade, Virelai, Rondeau
the three fourteenth- and fifteenth-centuries French poetic forms: the ballade, rondeau and virelai. Each was also a musical form, generally a chanson, and all consisted of a complex pattern of repetition of verses and a refrain with musical content in two main sections. Machaut wrote a number of them. (Middle Ages)
Caccia
one of the principal Italian musical forms of the 14th century. It consisted of two voices in strict canon at the unison (i.e., in strict melodic imitation at the same pitch), and often of a non-canonic third part, composed of long notes that underlay the canonic voices, followed by a ritornello. (Middle Age)
Musica Ficta
Renaissance - term referring to altering a pitch by a half step in order to enhance color. This differed from the musica recta described by guido de Arezzo’s hexachord system.
Cantus firmus
a cantus firmus (“fixed song”) is a pre-existing melody (plainchant normally) forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. (Middle Ages)
L’homme armé
a French secular song from the time of the Renaissance. 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
Mass in which movements are based on a single secular polyphonic model such as a motet or madrigal. all voices may be used and reworked. Josquin des Prez (Renaissance)
Humanism
A cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasized secular concerns and sought to revive the culture of ancient Greece and Rome.
Petrucci
an Italian printer. A total of 61 music publications by Petrucci are known. By far the most fruitful period of his life for publishing music was the period between 1501 and 1509, during which he published the three volumes of chansons (the Odhecaton being the first), 16 books of masses, five books of motets, 11 anthologies of frottole and six books of music for lute. The last publication is dated 1520. (Renaissance)
Chanson
In its typical specialized usage, the word chanson refers to a secular polyphonic French song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. (of popular origin or newly composed) Early chansons tended to be in one of the formes fixes—ballade, rondeau or virelai (Middle Ages/Renaissance)
K. (Köchel)
The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K. or KV. For example, Mozart’s Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel’s counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed. (Later Romantic/Post-Romantic)
Musical texture
Texture describes the complexity of a musical composition. The word texture is used because adding different layers or elements to music creates a musical “tapestry.” Texture can be simple or elaborate, and is described with the following terms:
Monophonic: A single line of melody.
Biphonic: Two different, simultaneous melodies.
Heterophonic: A slightly elaborated melody with one or two voices; some intervals.
Homophonic: A single line of melody with chords or accompaniment (see concerto).
Polyphonic: A composition with many voices and harmonies.
critical edition of music
an edition that most closely represents the composer’s original score
divertimento
from the Italian divertire — to amuse) is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted (as a result of being played at social functions) and it is generally composed for a small ensemble. (high baroque/classical)
cantabile-cabaletta
the two-part musical form particularly favored for arias in 19th century Italian opera. Cantabile - songlike section and cabaletta is the animated section
“The Mighty Five”
The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful, The Mighty Five, or The Mighty Coterie (Russian: Могучая кучка, Moguchaya kuchka), refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin. The group had the aim of producing a specifically Russian kind of art music, rather than one that imitated older European music or relied on European-style conservatory training. (Later Romantic, Post-Romantic)
“Les six”
Les Six is a name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "Les cinq Russes, les six Français et M. Satie" (Comoedia, 16 January 1920) to a group of six French composers working in Montparnasse. Their music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and the impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Georges Auric (1899–1983) Louis Durey (1888–1979) Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983)
Madrigal
secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six.
Madrigalism
Renaissance practice of using “word painting” (altering mood or tone) in madrigals, a musical form where the accompaniment is designed to highlight the poetic verses. (Renaissance/Early Baroque)
Tablature
a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. (Originated in Middle Age, but is still used today.
Pavane and galliard
Two dance forms that were generally paired together. Pavane (slow, stately, in duple meter) then Galliard which was a lively triple meter dance (Renaissance into the Baroque)
Ricercare
(type of prelude) a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. Has been used many ways, but it is typically thought of as an early fugue using long note lengths.
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
a primary source of keyboard music from the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequeathed this manuscript collection to Cambridge University in 1816.
Prima pratica
refers to early Baroque music which looks more to the style of Palestrina, or the style codified by Gioseffo Zarlino, than to more “modern” styles. (Early Baroque)
Seconda pratica
literally “second practice”, is the counterpart to prima pratica and is more commonly referred to as Stile moderno. The term “Seconda prattica” was coined by Claudio Monteverdi to distance his music from that of e.g. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Gioseffo Zarlino and describes early music of the Baroque period which encouraged more freedom from the rigorous limitations of dissonances and counterpoint characteristic of the prima prattica. (Early Baroque)
Basso continuo
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note. The performer improvised a part based on this notation.
Basso ostinato
Ground bass or basso ostinato (obstinate bass) is a type of variation form in which a bassline, or harmonic pattern (see Chaconne; also common in Elizabethan England as Grounde) is repeated as the basis of a piece underneath variations. (Early and Middle Baroque)
