Vocab - Antiquity through Renaissance

Question 1

symposium

Answer 1

In ancient Greece, a tightly organized social gathering of adult male citizens for conversation and entertainment.

Question 2

seven liberal arts

Answer 2

A framework of seven intellectual disciplines composed of the trivium and the quadrivium.

Question 3

trivium

Answer 3

The three verbal disciplines of the seven liberal arts - grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Question 4

quadrivium

Answer 4

The four scientific disciplines - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music - of the seven liberal arts that used number and quantitative reasoning to arrive at the truth.

Question 5

Pythagorean tuning

Answer 5

Setting the pitches of a scale according to mathematically exact octaves, fifths, and fourth (not thirds and sixths)

Question 6

proslambanomenos

Answer 6

The Greek name for the lowest sounding A on the bass clef staff.

Question 7

tonos

Answer 7

Greek word for scale

Question 8

De institutione musica

Answer 8

Fundamentals of Music written by Boethius. This became the required school text for music theory.

Question 9

musica mundana

Answer 9

music of the spheres

Question 10

musica humana

Answer 10

music of the human body

Question 11

musica instrumentalis

Answer 11

earthly vocal and instrumental music

Question 12

canonical hours

Answer 12

A set of eight periods of worship occurring throughout the day.

Question 13

Vespers

Answer 13

Late afternoon service that was most important for music history. It involved singing psalms and hymn as well as the Magnificat (a text used by composers throughout history).

Question 14

antiphonal singing

Answer 14

Music performance in which a divided choir alternately sings back and forth.

Question 15

antiphon

Answer 15

A short chant, specific to the day, that came before the psalm and was repeated after it.

Question 16

syllabic chant

Answer 16

one note for each syllable of text

Question 17

neumatic chant

Answer 17

3-5 notes for each syllable of text

Question 18

melismatic chant

Answer 18

many notes per syllable of text. (melisma = lenghty vocal phrase setting a single syllable)

Question 19

De Musica

Answer 19

"On Music", written by John of St. Gall around 1100. The treatise set for eight church modes in a system with numbers to which were added Greek names. The eight modes were presented in four pairs:
Dorian
Phyrgian
Lydian
Mixolydian

Question 20

authentic mode vs. plagal mode

Answer 20

Plagal modes are all a fourth below their authentic counterpart.

Question 21

nota

Answer 21

A symbol on a line or space representing a single, precise pitch.

Question 22

Guidonian hand

Answer 22

A system that used the joints of each finger to designate the notes of a scale. Most church music was taught by hand in the Middle Ages.

Question 23

diabolus in musica

Answer 23

“Devil in music”, refers to a tritone.

Question 24

troubadour and trobairitz

Answer 24

Poet-musicians from Southern France (men and women respectively)

Question 25

trouvere

Answer 25

Poet-musicians from Northern France.

Question 26

Minnesinger

Answer 26

German poet-musicians. They wrote Minnesang (song of love).

Question 27

vox principalis & vox organalis

Answer 27

The principal voice (pre-existing chant) and original voice (a newly created line to be added to the chant).

Question 28

oblique motion

Answer 28

Organum with one voice repeating or sustaining a pitch while another moves away or toward it.

Question 29

Musica enchiriadis (Music Handbook)

Answer 29

A music theory treatise written by Abbot Hoger that was the first documented appearance of polyphonic music.

Question 30

Liber usualis

Answer 30

A modern edition of plainchant that uses chant neumes.

Question 31

Strophic form

Answer 31

A song form in which the music composed for the initial stanza of text is repeated for each additional stanza.

Question 32

solmization

Answer 32

A system of associating each note of a scale with a particular syllable (solfege).

Question 33

organum purum

Answer 33

A style of older sustained-tone organum that Leonius wrote in.

Florid two-voice organum.

Question 34

mensural notation

Answer 34

Symbol-specific notation.

Created by Franco in the late 13th century.

Question 35

isorhythm

Answer 35

Same rhythm. A rhythmic pattern repeated again and again in a line, usually in the tenor.

Question 36

formes fixes

Answer 36

“fixed forms” - secular art songs with prescribed form. All voices are newly composed.

Question 37

musica ficta

Answer 37

13th-early 14th century

Any accidentals not originally including in the Guidonian system, which originally included only Bb as a chromatic pitch.

Question 38

Trecento

Answer 38

The century of the 1300’s, when arts flourished in France.

Squarcialupi Codex contained over 350 compositions from this era.

Question 39

chanson

Answer 39

French word for song. A single volume with copies of chansons is called a chansonnier.

Question 40

Burgundian cadence

Answer 40

“Octave leap cadence”

When three voices are present and the contratenor jumps an octave to fill in the texture of the final chord.

Question 41

cantus firmus

Answer 41

Latin adjective meaning “firm” or “well-established”.

Question 42

text painting

Answer 42

Also called word painting.

Using chord shifts, musical repetition, controlled dissonance, and abrupt textural changes to highlight the meaning of the text.

Popular in madrigals.