Music Appreciation: quiz

A cappella

for voices alone.

Chanson

A secular song

Non avrà ma' piet

Composed by Landini - a Ballata in the trecento style

Liturgy

The parts and order of the mass.

Guillaume de Machaut

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377). The most important composer and poet and the greatest practitioner of tArs Nova. He also had an equally distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. He exercised a profound influence on his contemporaries and later artists. The Ars nova style is nowhere more perfectly displayed than in his considerable body music. He was born in France to a middle class family, educated as a cleric and later took holy Orders. He served under the king of Bohemia as a clerk, and spent the remainder of his life as a canon in Reims. Machaut was among the first composers to compile his complete works and to discuss his working methods, both signs of his self-awareness as a creator. The strong support of his patrons gave him the resources to supervise several illuminated manuscripts of his work. This attitude, though commonplace today, was very uncommon during this time. His most famous work was "Messe de Nostre Dame" (Mass of our lady). This was one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the mass ordinary rather than in plainchant, and the first polyphonic Mass to be written by a single composer (previously the different components of the Mass were assembled from different composers). (The ordinary consists of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei) This, together with its innovative rhythmical techniques, makes it a milestone in the evolution of the Mass as a musical form in its own right. The work was composed in 1360's for performance at a mass for the Virgin Mary celebrated at Reims every Saturday. After his death an oration fro Machaut's soul was added to the service, and the work was performed well into the fifteenth century. Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame is, deservedly, the best-known composition of the entire age. Unique to this mass is the use of isorhythmic technique. Isorhythm is the repetition in a voice part, usually the tenor of an extended pattern of duration throughout a section or an entire composition.

Rhythmic Modes

One of six rhythms used with chants to allow polyphony to exist.

Oral transmission

The transmission of information verbally from person to person. This can result in variations in the information.

The Offices

A Series of services celebrated in monastaries and convents that marked the hours of the day.

Melisma

A florid group of notes on one syllable.

Gregorian Chant (plainchant)

A monophonic melodic line that follows the inflection of the latin text it uses. The melody generally rises up to a pitch then after repeated syllables falls. It generally moves in a stepwise motion. There are more than a thousand. The settings are: Syllabic- one note sung to each note. Neumatic- small groups of notes up to five or six sung to a single syllable. Mellismatic - long groups of notes sung to one syllable.

Motet

A new genre in the early 13th century by adding newly written Latin words to the upper voices of chant. the text was religious at first, but gradually secular text were added.

Ars Nova

A new style of composition that flourished in France that is more refined and complex than the old style Ars Antiqua. The advent of rhythmic notation made this possible. Included secular and religious music. Ars Nova flourished from roughly the Roman De Fauvel (1310-14) and the death of Machaut (1377). Also includes Francisco Landini.

Roman De Fauvel

An allegorical narrative poem satirizing corruption in politics and the church, probably written as a warning to the king of France. Though forbidden it was enjoyed in high political circles at court. Fauvel, a donkey who rises from the stable to a powerful position, symbolizes a world turned upside down, in which the king outranks the pope and France is defiled. Fauvel embodies the sins represented by the letters of his name: Flattery, Avarice, villainy, Varietè (fickleness), Envy, Lâcheté (cowardice).

Odhecaton

An anthology of polyphonic music pub. in 1501 by Petrucci. This was the first instance in which polyphonic music was printed using movable type. Included in the Odhecaton is a wide variety of fifteenth-century music. 96 pieces are present and (mostly French chansons). The technique used a process of three printings, lining up the parchment to print the lines of the staves, a second to print the text, and a third to print the notes and the florid initials.

Carlo Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo (1561-1613) One of the most colorful figures in music history, He was the prince of Venosa. He is unusual among composers because he was an aristocrat, and it was rare for nobility to compose or to seek publication for their music. He was also a murderer. When he discovered his wife in bed with her lover he killed them both. He survived the scandal to marry Leonora D'Este, the niece of the duke of Ferrara. In his madrigals Gesualdo preferred modern poems full of strong images that provided opportunities for amplification through music. He dramatized and intensified the poetry through sharp contrasts between diatonic chromatic passages. Dissonance and consonance, chordal and imitative textures, slow moving contrasted with active rhythms creates brilliant musical images. Example: Belta, Poi Che T'Assenti

Rose liz Printemps verdure

Composed by Machaut - 1300's - a polyphonic chanson (secular song) called a rondeau. In the Ars Nova style.

Council of Trent

Council of Trent - (1545-1563) Part of the Counter-Reformation, held to formulate and give official sanction to measures for purging the church of abuses and laxities. Concerning church music, complaints were heard regarding its frequently secular spirit, excessive complexity which obscured the words, bad pronunciation, carelessness, and irreverent attitude of the singers. However, the pronouncement of the Council was extremely general, and touched on no technical points: neither polyphony nor the imitation of secular models was specifically forbidden.

Reformation

Drew on humanism, printing and the creation of new repertories alike. The Application of humanist principles to study of the bible led Martin Luther and others to challenge church doctrines. The resulting reformation beginning in 1517 ended a century of church since the resolution of the Great Schism. The instigator of the reformation was Martin Luther (1483-1546) a professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg.When much of northern Europe split from the roman church to become Lutheran, Calvinist or Anglican, each branch of the church developed its own music for services. The catholic response, know as the counter reformation, produced some of the most glorious music of the century and one of its composers, Palestrina became the model for counter point for generations to come.

Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli 1555-1612 Giovanni Gabrieli was one of the leading composers of the late Renaissance and early baroque periods. Though known today primarily for his instrumental works but equally accomplished in sacred music. Little is known about his early live and training. In his teens and early twenties he was in the service of Duke Albrecht V in Munich, where he studied with Lassus. In 1585 he won appointment as seconda organist at St. Marks serving alongside his uncle Andrea Gabrieli until the latter's death that august. At St. marks he was the main composer of ceremonial music, producing about one hundred motets, most for multiple choirs. As second organist Gabrieli supervised the instrumentalists, and his canzonas and sonata were no doubt written for them. He wrote over 100 motets, 30 madrigals, 37 canzonas, 7 sonatas and 35 organ works. The rich musical environment of Venice shaped the music of Gabrieli. The glory of Venetian church music is manifest in its polychordal motets, works for two or more choirs. Though other composers had written for multiple groups in Venice poychoral music was a regular diet. Gabrieli wrote for two, three, four and sometimes five choruses, mingled with instruments of diverse timbres, answering each other antiphonally. The Venetian Sonata (Italian for sounded) consisted of a series of sections each based on a different subject or variant on a single subject. They were used at mass or vespers and introductions or postludes to accompany significant rituals. Example: Sonata pian'e forte

Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina (1525-1594) - Palestrina was renowned especially for his masses and motets. He was named after his presumed birthplace, a small town near Rome. He served as a choirboy and received his musical education at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. After seven years as organist and choirmaster in Palestrina he returned to Rome under the patronage of Pope Julius III. He spent most of his life in Rome. He briefly sane in the papal chapel but had to relinquish the honor because he was married. His works in clued 104 masses, over 300 motets, 35 Magnificats, and over 100 other works. Palestrina has been called "the Prince of Music" and his works "absolute perfection" of church style. His sober elegant music captured the essence of the catholic response to the reformation in polyphony of utter purity. Yet his music is also remarkably varied in its melodies, rhythms, textures and sonorities making his music profoundly satisfying to the listener. Palestrina strove to accentuate the words correctly and make them intelligible in accordance with the goals of reformers. His melodies have quality almost like plainchant, influenced by the chants he often used in his masses and motets. The smooth diatonic lines and discreet handling of dissonance give Palestrina's music transparency and serenity.According to a legend already circulation soon after his death, Palestrina saved polyphony from condemnation by the council of Trent by composing a six-voice mass that was reverent in sprit and did not obscure the words. The work was called the Pope Marcellus Mass published in Palestrina's second book of Masses in 1567. While the legend is probably false, Palestrina noted in his dedication to the collection that the masses it contained were written "in an new manner". Example: Pope Marcellus Mass "Agnus Dei

Guillaume Dufay

Guillaume Dufay - 1397-1474 Dufay was the leading composer of his time and one of the most widely traveled. Patrons competed for his services, and the positions he held in Italy, France and the Lowlands acquainted him with a wide range of musicians and styles. He excelled in every genre, and his music was known and sung throughout Europe. The son of a priest and an unmarried woman, Dufay was born in modern day Belgium. He trained in music and grammar in the Cathedral school of Cambrai in northern France, where he became a choirboy in 1409. In 1418 he entered the service of Carlo Maltaseta at Rimini. He returned north in 1424 then worked for Cardinal Aleman in Bologna where he became a priest. Dufay served two periods in the papal chapel; in 1428-33 at Rome and again in 1435-37 during the pope's exile in Florence and Bologna. Alternating with his service to the pope, he served at the court of Amadeuse VIII duke of Savoy. In 1439 he returned to Cambrai and served as an administrator at the Cambrai Cathedral and enjoyed an honorary appointment to the chapel of Duke Philip the Good. Dufay returned to Savoy as an honorary chapel master to duke Louis. He spent his last years at Cambrai as canon of the cathedral living in his own house and enjoy in considerable wealth. His works include at lest 6 masses, 35 other mass movements, 4 Magnificats, 60 hymns, 24 motets and over one hundred secular songs. Example: Se La face ay pale (Ballade) Example: Nuper rosarum Flores (Motet)

Jacques Arcadelt

Jacques Arcadelt (1507- 1568) a Franco Flemish composer who worked in Florence and Rome for almost three decades.The master of madrigal composers. Example: Il bianco e dolce Cigno

Josquin des Prez

Josquin des Prez - (1450-1521) Josquin is regarded as the greatest composer of his time. His motets, masses, and songs wee widely sung, praised, and emulated in his lifetime and for decades after his death. Josquin's early life is undocumented, but he was probably born near St. Quentin. He served in the chapel of René, the duke of Anjou in the late 1470's. After the duke's death he transferred to the service of King Louis XI at sainte Chapelle in Paris. Josquin spent much of his career in Italy serving the Sforza family the rulers of Milan from 1484-89, and in the Sistine chapel in Rome 1498-95. He was appointed maestro di Capella to duke Erclole I d'Este in Ferrara in 1503 at the highest salary in the history of the chapel. He earned 200 ducats (about ½ million by our standards) for one year. For the remainder of his life he was provost at the church of Notre Dame. He composed at least 18 masses, over 50 motets, about 65 chansons and other works. Josquin was especially renowned for reflecting the meaning of the words in two ways: through text depiction using gestures in the music to reinforce the images in the text and through text expression, conveying through music the emotions suggested by the text. In the Ave Maria one of his most popular works, the music is crafted to fit the text. He gives each segment a unique musical treatment so that the texture is constantly changing to fit the text. Example: Ave Maria

Martin Luther

Martin Luther - (1483-1546) The instigator of the reformation. A professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg. His approach to theology was influenced by his humanistic education, which taught him to rely on reason, on direct experience and on his own reading of Scripture rather than on received authority. This led Luther to conclude that god's justice consists not in rewarding people for good deeds or punishing for their sins, but in offering salvation through faith alone. His view contradicted catholic doctrine, which held that religious rituals, penance and good works were necessary for the absolution of sin. Luther insisted that this authority was derived for scriptures so that if a belief or practice had no basis in the bible it could not be true. This went against the Catholic Church, which had developed a rich tapestry of teachings, and practices that rested on tradition rather than scripture. One such practice was the sale of indulgences; credits for good deeds done by others which one could be purchased to reduce the punishment for sin. This practice raised money for the church by had no spiritual basis. On October 31, 1517 he posted on a church door in Wittenberg a list of ninety-five theses opposing indulgences and the doctrine that lay behind them and challenging the pope's rule in granting them. He sent a copy to his bishop hoping to start a dialogue to lead to reform in the church bur received no reply. When pressed to recant he instead affirmed the primacy of scripture of the catholic hierarchy. He was charged with heresy in 1519 and excommunicated in 1520. By then Luther had numerous followers in German Universities and among the populous. He organized a new evangelical church known as the Lutheran church. In creating his church, Luther sought to give the people a larger role. He made the services easier to understand. He also employed a good deal of catholic music, both chant and polyphony. Music assumed a central position in the Lutheran church because of Luther's own appreciation for it. He was a singer, played the flute and lute, a composer, and greatly admired Franco-Flemish polyphony. He believed strongly in the education and ethical power of music. Through singing together worshipers could unite in proclaiming their faith and praise to god. For these reasons he wanted the entire congregation to sing in the services.

The Mass

One of two services in the church. The mass is divided into two parts: The Ordinary - The parts of the mass that remain the same. The Proper - the parts of the mas that change from week to week depending on the feast being celebrated.

Troubadours and Trouveres

Performers traveling from court to court performing a popular repertoire of songs. Allen De La Halle is the most famous. In Germany these singers were called Minnesingers. These songs focused on love and everday life.

Pope Gregory I

Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great (590-604) is the namesake of Gregorian chant, and is attributed with creating plainchant,but there is no evidence that he played any part in composing or standardizing chant. The legend arose that the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove dictated the chants to Gregory.

Hildegard of Bingen.

The earliest known woman composer. (1098-1179). She was born to a noble family in the Rhine region of Germany. Consecrated to the church at age eight, she took vows at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg, becoming a prioress in 1136. In 1150 she became abbess after founding her own convent after a vision. Famous for her prophecies Hildegard corresponded with emperors, Kings, Popes and bishops. Her prose writings include Scivias (know the Ways) an account of twenty-six vision and her books on science and healing. She also wrote religious poems as well as prose and by 1140 was setting them to music. Her "Ordo Virtutum" (the virtues 1151) is the earliest surviving music drama not attached to the liturgy. She claimed her writings and music were divinely inspired.

Medieval Instruments

included the hammered dulcimer the lute, the flute, shawms, sackbut, Cornetto, the organ (large or grand, portative and positive). Instruments were divided into catagories by volume: soft (bas) for indoor music and loud (haut) for outdoor music.

The Madrigal

The most enduring secular form of the sixteenth century was the madrigal. What made the madrigal so appealing in its time and so influential on later generations was the emphasis composers placed on enriching the meaning and impact of the text through the musical setting. In the madrigal composers explored new effects of declamation, imagery, expressivity, characterization and dramatization that paved the way for future dramatic forms such as opera. Though the madrigal Italy became the leader in Europe and music for the first time in history. The term madrigal was used from about 1530 on for musical settings of Italian poetry of various types. Most madrigal text consists of a single stanza with a moderate number of seven or eleven syllables lines and a standard rhyme scheme. There are no refrains or repeated lines, distinguishing it from earlier forms. Composers frequently chose texts by major poets including Petrarch. Most were written for four voices but by the mid century five voices were common.

Humanism

The strongest intellectual movement of the renaissance was humanism, the study of the humanities, things pertaining to human knowledge. This was different from the middle ages where the emphasis of learning was on scripture, the philosophy of Aristotle and the development of the several liberal arts. Humanists sought to revive ancient learning, emphasizing the study of the seven liberal arts (the arts a free person needed to master to go on in life: measuring arts: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, and the language arts: Grammar, logic and rhetoric (persuasive speech). These humanist studies were centered on classical Latin and Greek writings. They believed these subjects developed the individual's mind, spirit, and ethics, and prepared students for lives of virtue and service. Humanists had faith in the Christian doctrine and the dignity and nobility of humans. They studied people like Cicero, poetry, history and ethics. The people of the renaissance wanted to harness the power of rhetoric. These studies gradually became the center of intellectual life and of the university curriculum. Human reason and capacity to understand reality through senses. Improvement of conditions through individual efforts. The role of the church was not diminished but rather the church borrowed from classical sources, sponsored classical studies, and supported thinkers, artist and musicians. These new opinions exercised their effect on music both directly and indirectly. The focus of the humanist on rhetoric- the art of oratory, including the ability to persuade listeners and to organize a speech in a coherent manner influenced composers to apply ideas from rhetoric in their music; a movement, which gathered strength during this period and remained forceful for centuries.The traditional connection of music to mathematics did not disappear but the immediate perception of music and the ways it resembled language became increasing important. Thus music moved gradually from the measuring arts to the rhetorical arts.

Renaissance

The term Renaissance is French for "rebirth" and the historians of Literature, art and music began using the term for the period loosely identified between 1400 and 1600. This idea of rebirth is consistent with the aims of scholars and artists to restore the learning, ideals and values of ancient Greece and Rome. One key to the developments in music in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lies in musician's training, employment and travels. Court chapels, groups of salaried musicians and clerics that were associated with a ruler rather than with a particular building, sprang up all over Europe in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. King Louis IX of France and King Edward I of England established the first chapels in the thirteenth century. After the mid fourteenth century the fashion spread to other aristocrats and church leaders. Members of the chapel served as performers, composers and scribes, furnishing music for church services. The presence at courts of musicians from many lands allowed composers and performers to learn styles and genres current in other regions. Many composers changed their place of service, exposing the to many types of music. The exchange of national styles, traditions and ideas fostered the development of an international style in the fifteenth century, synthesizing elements from English, French and Italian Traditions. The synthesis of this style was the watershed event that set the music of the fifteenth century apart from others.

Monody

The use of a single melodic line with no accompaniment. Gregorian chant is monody.

Polyphony

The use of two or more pitches at the same time. The concept originated at Notre Dame.

William Byrd

William Byrd (1540-1623) -The leading English composer in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Although a catholic, Byrd served the Church of England and was a member of the royal chapel. In addition to secular vocal and instrumental music he wrote both Anglican service music and Latin masses and motets. Byrd composed in all the forms of Anglican Church music, including a great service, three short services, psalms, full anthems and verse anthems. He was the first English composer to absorb continental imitative techniques and apply them imaginatively and without constraint. He was probably a student of Thomas Tallis and a choirboy with the chapel royal in London under both protestant and catholic rulers. In 1575 he and Tallis were granted a twenty-one year monopoly for the printing of music in England. In trouble at times for his catholic belief, Byrd nonetheless composed Latin masses and motets for catholic use alongside his less controversial music. That he avoided repercussions for his catholic writings is a sign of how valuable his music was to the Anglican Church and to the reputation of England. Example: Sing Joyfully to the Lord This composition is an anthem (the English version of the motet.

Leonin

composer at Notre Dame 1150-1200?. considered the principal creator of polyphony in chant through the use of rhythmic modes.

Adam De La Halle

one of the last and most famous of the Trouveres. He composed "Robins m'aime". The piece was written around 1284 and is part of the rich tradition of the Trouveres.

Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of our lady).

• His most famous work was Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of our lady). This was one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the mass ordinary rather than in plainchant, and the first polyphonic Mass to be written by a single composer (previously the different components of the Mass were assembled from different composers). (The ordinary consists of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei) • This, together with its innovative rhythmical techniques, makes it a milestone in the evolution of the Mass as a musical form in its own right. • The work was composed in 1360's for performance at a mass for the Virgin Mary celebrated at Reims every Saturday. • After his death an oration fro Machaut's soul was added to the service, and the work was performed well into the fifteenth century. • Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame is, deservedly, the best-known composition of the entire age. • Unique to this mass is the use of isorhythmic technique. Isorhythm is the repetition in a voice part, usually the tenor of an extended pattern of duration throughout a section or an entire composition. • The Kyrie of the mass uses the technique, and though hearing the isorhythm is difficult it is easy to see in the score.