History of Western Music up to 1750

antiphon

(1) A LITURGICAL CHANR that precedes and follows a PSALM or CANTICLE in the OFFICE. (2) In the MASS, a chant originally associated with ANTIPHONAL PSALMODY; specifically, the COMMUNION and the first and final portion of the INTROIT

Ballade

(1) FRENCH FORME FIXE, normally in three stanzas, in which each stanza has the musical FORM aabC and ends with a Refrain (C). (2) Instrumental piece inspired by the GENRE of narrative poetry

Diatonic

(1) In Ancient Greek music, adjective describing a TETRACHORD with two WHOLE TONES and one SEMITONE. (2) Name for a SCALE that includes five whole tones and two semitones, where the semitones are separated by two or three whole tones. (3) Adjective describing a MELODY, CHORD, or passage based exclusively on a single diatonic scale.

Disjunct

(1) In Ancient Greek music, adjective used to describe the relationship between two TETRACHORDS when the bottom NOTE of one is a WHOLE TONE above the top note of the other. (2) Of a MELODY, consisting mostly of skips (thirds) and leaps (larger INTERVALS) rather than STEPS

Conjunct

(1) In Ancient Greek, music, adjective used to describe the relationship between two TETRACHORDS when the bottom NOTE of one is the same as the top note of the other. (2) Of a MELODY, consisting mostly of STEPS.

Burden

(1) In English medical POLYPHONY, the lowest voice. (2) In the English CAROL, the REFRAIN.

Enharmonic

(1) In ancient Greek music, adjective describing a TETRACHORD comprising a major third and two quarter tones, or a MELODY that uses such tetrachords. (2) Adjective describing the relationship between two pitches that are notated differently but sound alike when played, such as G# and Ab

Chant

(1) Unison unaccompanied song, particularly that of the Latin LITURGY (also called PLAINCHANT). (2) The repertory of unaccompanied liturgical songs of a particular RITE.

allemande

(French for "German dance") Highly stylized DANCE in BINARY FORM, in moderately slow quadruple METER with almost continuous movement, beginning with an upbeat. Popular during the RENAISSANCE and BAROQUE; appearing ofter as the first dance in SUITE

Contenance angloise

(French, "English guise") Characteristic quality of early-fifteenth-century English music, makes by pervasive CONSONANCE with frequent use of HARMONIC thirds and sixths, often in parallel motion.

air de cour

(French, "court air") Type of song for voice and accompaniment, prominent in France from about 1580 through the seventeenth century.

Basse danse

(French, "low dance") Type of stately couple DANCE of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries

Bas

(French, "low"; pronounced BAH) In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, term for soft instruments such as VIELLES and HARPS. See HAUT

Chanson de geste

(French, "song of deeds") Type of medieval French epic recounting the deeds of national heroes, sung in MELODIC formulas

chanson

(French, "song"; pronounced shah-SONH) Secular song with French words: used especially for POLYPHONIC songs of the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries

chansonniers

(French, "songbook") Manuscript collection of secular songs with French words: used both for collections of MONOPHONIC TROUBADOUR and TROUVERE songs and for collections of POLYPHONIC songs

Alto

(From altus) (1) Relatively low female voice, or high male voice. (2) Part for such a voice in an ENSEMBLE work

Echos

(Greek: pl. echoi) One of the eight MODES associated with BYZANTINE CHANT

Cadenzas

(Italian, "cadence") Highly embellished passage, often IMPROVISED, at an important CADENCE, usually occurring just before the end of a piece or section

Basso continuo

(Italian, "continuous bass") (1) system of NOTATION and performance practice, used in the BAROQUE PERIOD, in which an instrumental BASS line is written out and one or more players of keyboard, LUTE, or similar instruments fill in the HARMONY with appropriate CHORDS or IMPROVISED MELODIC lines. (2) The bass line itself

Caccia

(Italian, "hunt"; pronounced CAH-cha; pl. cacce) Fourteenth-century Italian FORM featuring two voices in CANON over a free untested TENOR

Balletto

(Italian, "little dance") Sixteenth-century Italian (and late English) song Genre in a simple, dancelike, HOMOPHONIC style with repeated sections and "fa-la-la" refrains.

Canzonetta, canzonet

(Italian, "little song") Sixteenth-century Italian (and later English) song GENRE in a simple, mostly HOMOPHONIC style. Diminutive of CANZONA

alta

(Italian, "loud") Fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century term form ENSEMBLE of HAUT instruments, usually two or three SHAWMS and a SACKBUT

Canzona (canzon)

(Italian, "song") (1) Sixteenth-century Italian GENRE, and instrumental work adapted from a CHANSON or composed in a similar style. (2) In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an instrumental work in several contrasting sections, of which the first and some of the others are in IMITATIVE COUNTERPOINT

canon

(LATIN, "rule") (1) Rule for performing music, particularly for deriving more than one voice from a single line of notated music, as when several voices of time or singing at different speeds simultaneously. (2) COMPOSITION in which the voices enter successively at determined pitch and time intervals, all performing the same MELODY

Color

(Latin rhetorical term for ornament, particularly repetition, pronounced KOH-lor) In an ISORHYTHMIC COMPOSTITION, a repeated MELODIC pattern, as opposed to the repeating rhythmic pattern (the TALEA)

Contratenor altus, contratenor bassus

(Latin) In fifteenth-century POLYPHONY, CONTRATENOR parts that lie relatively high (ALTUS) or low (BASSUS) in comparison to the TENOR. Often simply written as "altus" or "basses," these are the ancestors of the vocal ranges ALTO and BASS

Credo

(Latin, "I believe") Third of the five major musical items in the MASS ORDINARY, a creed or statement of faith

Agnus Dei

(Latin, "Lamb of God") Fifth of the five major musical items in the MASS ORDINARY, based on a litany

Clausula

(Latin, "clause," pl. clausulae) In NOTRE DAME POLYPHONY, a self-contained section of an ORGANUM that closes with a CADENCE

Contrafactum

(Latin, "counterfeit"; pl. contrafacta) The practice of replacing the text of a vocal work with a new text while the music remains essentially the same; or the resulting piece

Cantus firmus

(Latin, "fixed melody") An existing MELODY, often taken from a GREGORIAN CHANT, on which a new POLYPHONIC work is based: used especially for melodies presented in long notes

altus

(Latin, "high") In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century POLYPHONY, a part in a RANGE between the TENOR and the SUPERIUS; originally CONTRATENOR ALTUS

Bassus

(Latin, "low") In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century POLYPHONY, the lowest part; originally CONTRATENOR BASSUS

cantus

(Latin, "melody") In POLYPHONY of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, the highest voice, especially the texted voice in a polyphonic song

Ars Subtilior

(Latin, "more subtle art") Style of POLYPHONY from the late fourteenth or very early fifteenth centuries in southern France and northern Italy, distinguished by extreme complexity in rhythm and NOTATION

Ars nova

(Latin, "new art") Style of POLYPHONY from fourteenth-century France, distinguished from earlier styles by a new system of rhythmic NOTATION that allowed duple or triple division of NOTE values, SYNCOPATION, and great rhythmic flexibility.

Discant

(Latin, "singing apart") (1) Twelfth-century style of POLYPHONY in which the upper voice or voices have about one to three NOTES for each note of the lower voice (2) TREBLE part.

Cantilenas

(Latin, "song") POLYPHONIC song not based on a CANTUS FIRMUS; used especially for polyphonic songs by English composers of the late thirteenth through early fifteenth centuries

Cauda

(Latin, "tail";pl. caudae) MELISMATIC passage in a POLYPHONIC CONDUCTUS

bass

(from BASSUS) (1) The lowest part in an ENSEMBLE work. (2) Low male voice. (3) Low instrument, especially the string bass or bass VIOL.

motet

(from French mot, "word") Polyphonic vocal composition; the specific meaning changes over time. the earliest motets add text to an existing discant clausula. Thirteenth-century motets feature one or more voices, each with its own sacred or secular text in Latin or French, above a tenor drawn from chant or other melody. Most fourteenth- and some of the fifteenth-century motets feature isorhythm and may include a contratener. From the fifteenth century on, any polyphonic setting of a Latin text (other than a Mass) could be called a motet; from the late sixteenth century on, the term was also applied to sacred compositions German and later in other languages.

Chromatic

(from Greek chroma, "color") (1) In Ancient Greek music, adjective describing a TETRACHORD comprising a minor third and two SEMITONES, or a MELODY that uses two or more successive semitones in the same direction, a SCALE consisting exclusively of semitones, an INTERVAL or CHORD that draws NOTES from more than one DIATONIC scale, or music that uses many such melodies or chords

Ballata

(from Italian Ballard, "to dance"; pl. ballet) Fourteenth-century Italian song GENRE with the FORM AbbaA, in which A is the ripresa or REFRAIN, and the single stanza consists of two pied (bb) and a Volta (a) sung to the music of the ripresa

Concertato medium or concerto style

(from Italian concertare, "to reach agreement") In seventeenth-century music, the combination of voices with one or more instruments, where the instruments do not simply double the voices but play independent parts

Breves

(from Latin breves, "short") In medieval and RENAISSANCE systems of RHYTHMIC NOTATION, a NOTE that is normally equal to half or a third of a LONG

Cantonal style

(from Latin cantonal, "songbook") Manner of setting CHORALES in CHORDAL HOMOPHONU with the MELODY in the highest voice

Duplum

(from Latin duplex, "double") In POLYPHONY if the late twelfth through fourteenth centuries, second voice from the bottom in a four-voice TEXTURE, above the TENOR

Baroque period

(from Portuguese barranco, "a misshapen pearl") PERIOD of music history from about 1600 to about 1750, overlapping the late Renaissance and early CLASSIC periods

Chorale

(pronounced ko-RAL) STROPHIC HYMN in the Lutheran tradition, intended to be sung by the congregation

Authentic mode

A MODE (2) in which the RANGE normally extends from a STEP below the FINAL to an octave above it. See also PLAGAL MODE

anthem

A PLOYPHONIC sacred work in English for Anglican religious services

Equal Temperament

A TEMPERAMENT in which the octave is divided into twelve equal SEMITONES. This is the most commonly used tuning for Western music today.

Cycles

A group of related works, comprising MOVEMENTS of a single larger entity. Examples include cycles of CHANTS for the MASS ORDINARY, consisting of one setting each of the KYRIE, GLORIA, SANCTUS, and AGNUS DEI (and sometimes also Ite, missa est); the POLYPHONIC MASS cycle of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries; and the song cycle of the nineteenth century.

Chapel

A group of salaried musicians and clerics employed by a ruler, nobleman, church official, or other patron, who officiate at the furnish music for religious services

Conductus

A serious medieval song, MONOPHONIC or POLYPHONIC setting a rhymed, rhythmic Latin poem

Antiphonal

Adjective describing a manner of performance in which two or more groups alternate

aulos

Ancient Greek reed instrument, usually played in pairs

Benefice

Appointment granting a priest a stipend to perform certain duties, often with permission to pay another a lesser amount to perform those duties and keep the difference; used to supplement pay for CHAPEL musicians in the RENAISSANCE

Continuo

BASSO CONTINUO

Double leading-tone cadence

CADENCE popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which the bottom voice moves down a WHOLE TONE and the upper voices move up a SEMITONE, forming a major third and major sixth expanding to an open fifth and octave

Chorale motets

CHORALE setting in the style of a sixteenth-century writer

Cantillation

Chanting of a sacred text by a solo singer, particularly in the Jewish synagogue.

Concerted madrigal

Early-seventeenth-century type of MADRIGAL for one or more voices accompanied by BASSO CONTINUO and in sone cases by other instruments

Consort

English name (current ca. 1575-1700) for a group of instruments

air

English or French song for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment, setting rhymed poetry, often STROPHIC, and usually in the METER of a DANCE.

Carol

English song, usually on a religious subject, with several stanzas and a BURDEN, or REFRAIN. From the fifteenth century on, most are POLYPHONIC

Clavecin

French term for HARPSICHORD

Canticles

HYM-like or PSALM-like passage from a part of the Bible other than the BOOK of Psalms.

Church Calendar

In a Christian RITE, the schedule of days commemorating special events, individuals, or times of year

ballets

In the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France, an entertainment in which both professionals and guests danced; later, a stage work danced by professionals.

Continuo instruments

Instruments used to REALIZE a BASSO CONTINUO< such as HARPSICHORD, organ, LUTE, or THEORBO

Alleluia

Item from the MASS PROPER, sung just before the Gospel reading, comprising a RESPOND to the text "Alleluia," a verse, and a repetition of the respond. CHANT alleluias are normally MELISMATIC in style and sung in a RESPONSORIAL manner, one or more soloists alternating with choir

Communion

Item in the MASS PROPER, originally sung during communion, comprising an ANTIPHON without verses

Clavichord

Keyboard instrument popular between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The loudness, which depends on the force with which a brass blade strikes the strings, is under the direct control of the player

Cantiga

Medieval MONOPHONIC song in Spanish or Portuguese

Carole

Medieval circle or line dance, or the MONOPHONIC song that accompanied it

Bards

Medieval poet-singer, especially of epics.

Chamber music

Music for a small ENSEMBLE

Drone

NOTE or notes sustained throughout an entire piece or section

Chamber

One of the three divisions of musicians at court, serving the ruler's personal needs and family with music for relatively small ENSEMBLES and audiences. Compare CHAPEL

Cantus-firmus/Imitation mass

POLYPHONIC MASS in which each MOVEMENT is based on the same polyphonic work, Ising that work's tenor (sometimes the SUPERIUS) as a CANTUS FIRMUS, normally in the tenor, and borrowing some elements from the other voices of the model to use in the other voices of the mass

Cantus-firmus mass

POLYPHONIC MASS in which the same CANTUS FIRMUS is used in each MOVEMENT, normally in the TENOR

Direct

Pertaining to a manner of performing CHANT without alteration between groups (see ANTIPHONAL) or between soloist and group (see RESPONSORIAL).

Consort song

RENAISSANCE English GENRE of song for voice accompanied by a CONSORT of VIOLS

Crumhorn

RENAISSANCE wind instrument, with a double reed enclosed in a cap so the player's lips do not touch the reed.

Bar form

SONG FORM in which the first section of MELODY is sung twice with different texts (the two Stollen) and the remainder (the Abgesang) is sung once.

Courtly love

See FINE AMOUR

Clos

See OPEN and CLOSED ENDING

Aquitanian polyphony

Style of POLYPHONY from the twelfth century, encompassing both DISCANT and FLORID ORGANUM

Canso

TROUBADOUR song about FINE AMOUR (courtly love).

Composition

The act or process of creating new pieces of music, or a piece that results from this process and is substantially similar each time it is performed: usually distinguishes from IMPROVISATION and performance

Counterpoint

The combination of two or more simultaneous MELODIC lines according to a set of rules

Cornetts

Wind instrument of hollowed-out wood or ivory, with finger holes and a cup mouthpiece, blown like a brass instrument

affections

objectified or archetypal emotions or states of mind, such as sadness, joy, fear, or wonder; once goal of much Baroque music was to arouse the affections

melismatic

of a melody, having many melismas

lyre

plucked string instrument with a resonating soundbox, two arms, crossbar, and strings that run parallel to the soundboard over a bridge and attach to the crossbar

Byzantine Chant

the repertoire of ecclesiastical CHANT used in the BYZANTINE RITE and in the modern Greek Orthodox Church

augmentation

the uniform lengthening of a MELODY using longer NOTE values, for example by doubling the length of each note