Music History : E1
Organal voice
A part that moves in exact parallel motion of 5th below the original chant melody
How many voices are used in organum quadruplum?
4
How many services are celebrated daily in the Divine Office ? Which 3 are most important liturgically and musically ?
8 services with Matins, Lauds, Vespers being the most important
Discant
A style of polyphony where bottom parts are more at the same rate , with one to three notes in the upper part for each note of the lower voice.
Organum
A style of song where two or more voices singing different notes in agreeable combinations according to given rules.
Psalms
A sung poem of praise to God, normally from the Hebrew book of psalms. Also used in early christian services.
Guidonian chord
A mnemonic device used for locating the pitches of the system of hexachords by pointing to the joints of the left hand.
Musica enchiriadas
A music treatises that was well known and includes instruction in the theory of practice of church music / organum.
Rondo Form
ABaabAB
Hildegard of Bingen
An abbess, writer, composer who was the best known woman composer for sacred monophony with music and words.
Jubilus
An effusive melisma normally performed at the end of an alleluia and used to express joy beyond words.
Chant: Gallic
Songs in Ireland / parts of Britain
Trouvere
Poet composers in Northern France who language was Old French
Troubadour
Poet composers in Southern France whose language was Occitan
Canticles
Poetic passages from parts of the Bible
Chant: Mozarabic
Songs in Spain
Chant : Ambrosian
Songs of the Milanese rite based on bishop of Milan from 374 to 397
Adam de la Halle
The first vernacular poet composer who complete works were collected on manuscript.
Briefly describe the difficulties entailed in singing parallel organum at a 4th below the principal voice.
The fourths normally were augmented creating tritones which were against the treatise. This prevented the organal voice from moving and thus staying on one note.
De institutione musica
The fundamentals of music written by Boethuis that describes music in relation to numbers and treats it like a quadrivium.
Church calendar
a cycle in the christian church that commemorated each event or saint with a feast each year.
Liturgical dramas
a dialogue added to the liturgy with the music consisting of chants strung together and sung by males even for women roles.
Nother Ballbulus
a frankish monk known for being the most famous early write of sequence texts who learned to write words syllabically under long melismas.
Sequence
a genre of chant that was sung after Alleluia and set syllabically to text that was mostly in couplets.
Ut queant laxis
a hymn that began on notes that ascended in order that inspired the names of the syllable steps.
Polyphony
a piece of music in which voices sing their independent parts
What are 3 ways in which a trope expanded existing chant?
adding new words and music before or in between phrases, melody only by extending melismas or adding new ones, and text only set to existing melodies.
Tetrachord
in ancient Greek music theory, the tetrachord is a collection of four notes spanning the interval of fourth.
What are the 3 types of troubadour songs?
Canso : love song Sirventes: song of service Pastorela: knight attempts to seduce shepherdess
Ordo virtutum
Hildegard of Bingen 1151 Sacred music drama Stylistic: begins with chorus, multiple phrases begin with rising 5th, melody unfolds in varied stream Historical: Written by a woman and promotes the use and role of woman in the play by having female characters restore the fallen. Females voices with drone
What were some benefits of Guidonia notation?
It allowed scribes to notate pitch and intervals precisely , so it was easier to memorize.
Neumes
earliest music notation, placed above words to indicate melodic gesture for each syllable
The rise of written polyphony inaugurated 4 concepts that became distinguishing characteristics of Western Music. What are these 4 concepts?
1. Counterpoint: combination of multiple independent lines 2. Harmony: regulation of simultaneous sounds; music theorists begin to think vertically 3. Centrality of Notation 4. Composition as distinct from performance
List and define Beothiu's three types of music.
1. Musica mundana - music of the universe 2. Musica humana- human music 3. Musica instrumnetalis- instrumental music ( can be with voices)
Our knowledge of early music-making is based off of what four types of evidence?
1. Physical remains, including musical instruments 2. Images of musicians and instruments 3. Writings about music and musicians 4. Notated music
Rhythmic modes
1st notation since Ancient Greece to indicate duration a musical notation developed by Notre Dame that contains 6 basic rhythmic patterns. Switched to discount so chant will move faster More dissonances
What are 3 styles of Text setting
1. Syllabic : almost every syllable has a single note 2. Neumatic : Syllables carry 1 to 6 neumes 3. Melismatic: long melismas ( happens in jubilation)
Describe two ways in which ancient Greek music theory influenced the medieval understanding of music.
1. System of modes that were identified by numbers 2. The names for the modes except medieval theorists mixed the names up.
Guido of Arezzo "Micrologus"
11th century practical guide for singers that covers notes, intervals, scales, modes, melodic composition, improvised polyphony. Developed to aid sight singing Assigned solemnization syllables - C,D,E,F,G,A 3 Half steps in chant- E-F, B natural- C, A- Bb Helped students identity the half steps
Heightened Neumes
11th century where gnomes were placed at varying heights to show intervals and overall contour.
Chansonniers
A manuscript anthology that preserved troubadour and trouvere songs.
Mutation
A process that describes the changing of hexachords where a shared note was begun and left by the other hexachord. Natural- C-D-E-F-G-A Hard- G-A-B natural- C-D-E Soft- F-G-A-Bb-C-D
Ordo virtutum ( Hint made that its on the test)
A sacred music drama known as Hildegard's most extended musical work since it showed her style of expansive and individual melodies.
Epitaph of Seikilos
Anonymous 100 Song Stylistic : Texture/ instrumentation: monophonic song Melody: spans an octave , emphasizes intervals of fourths & fifths , uses a Greek species ( akin to a major scale with lowered seventh) Rhythm : 3 rhythmic values (in modern notation: eighth, quarter, dotted-quarter), corresponding with weak / strong word accents. Structure: four phrases, corresponding with four lines of poetry Perfomance notes: a lyre plays the song once by itself; then female vocalist, doubled by lyre, sings the four phrases of the song. Historical context: It is the earliest musical work that survives in its entirety and that we can confidently translate into modern notation. The song is chiseled on a tombstone in memory of a deceased man, Seikilos. Reflecting the ancient Greek doctrine of imitation ( which holds that music can affect the ethical character of its listener) , the song uses a tons ( or pitch collection) associated with emotional moderation. Reflecting the ancient Greek belief in the union between music and text, the rhythm, melody, and phrasing of the song closely follow the poetry.
Jubilemus, exultemus
Anonymous 1100 Aquitiane Polyphony Stylistic: Internal rhymes in verses, used discount and florid organum style, uses a lot of contrary motion, rhythm treated freely. Historical: One of the first pieces of polyphony in the oral tradition written down on record.
Alleluie Justus ut palma from Ad organmun faciendum
Anonymous 1100 Note against note organum Stylistic: organelle voice sings one note per each note in chant, uses parallel / oblique/contrary/ and similar motion, perfect consonance Historical: The composer based his organum odd of the descriptions of how to sing and compose an organum in Ad organum Faciendum. It also introduces Note against note organum.
Organa from Musica enchiriadis
Anonymous 850-890 Organum Stylistic: Parallel - 5th below, same melody, simple, if 4th below in Rex , then a lot of oblique motion Historical: From widely read handbook and showed new notation.
Music enchiriadis
Anonymous 9th century treatise that described the 8 modes, provides exercises for locating semitones in chant, and explains how consonances are used in polyphony.
Name 3 kinds of secular musicians active in the Middle ages and the regions in which they were active.
Bards ( Celtic lands) Jongleurs( traveled , mostly France) Minstrels ( France)
What are three important concepts in Ancient Greek Music Theory?
Aristoxenus ( early music theorist) Tetrachord and Genus - a collection of 4 notes , spanning the intervals of fourths, subdivided differently into 3 genera ( diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic) Greater Perfect System - a 2 octave pitch collection built from conjoint and disjunct tetrachords Species of Consonances: different ways of ordering semitones and whole tones within the consonant intervals of a perfect fourth, fifth, octave- given names referring to ethnic regions of Ancient Greece.
Liturgy
Body of texts and ritual actions assigned to each service.
How were chant melodies transmitted before notation was developed? How was notation useful?
Chant melodies were transmitted orally through church music. Notation was for teaching and specifying melodies.
Antiphon
Chant sung before and after each psalm
Describe the poetic theme of courtly love commonly used by troubadours and trouveres.
Courtly love was where the lover adored a woman, normally another man's wife, from a distance so she was depicted as unattainable.
List all eight church modes with their accompanying final reciting tone.
Dorian- Final : D, RT: A Hypodorian- F:D , RT: B b Phrygian- F:E , RT: B Hypophrygian- F:E , RT: C Lydian - F:F, RT:C Hypolydian- F:F , RT: D Mixolydian- F: G, RT:D Hypomixolydian- F:G, RT: E Authentic - Higher mode , Plagal (Hypo)- lower mode Reciting tone - accented tone in the chant A- Go up 5th ( except B go to C) P- go down a 3rd
Rules of St.Benedict
Gave order to monasteries. A set of instructions in the Roman church that describes how to run a monastery.
How did the church benefit from its alliance with the Frankish Kings?
Gregorian chant became unified and spread because of the Frankish Kings.
Why is the Credo almost always set in syllabic style?
Had a syllabic style because it has the longest text and since it had a statement to faith , it was the last reassigned to the choir.
In many of the chants derived from responsorial or direct psalmody, we can see the hallmarks or solo performance. What are these?
Hallmarks of solo performances are long virtuosic melismas that show off the voice and passages that resemble improvised embellishment of a simple melodic line.
Describe the difference between organum style and discount style in Notre Dame polyphony.
In organum style , the tenor acted like a drone while the upper voice sings the melismas , moving stepwise, clashing with the tenor , and irregular intervals on cadences. In discount style, both voices move in modal rhythm with phrases being shorter.
Guido of Arezzo
Invented the staff of four lines.
What are the 5 main musical portions of the Mass ordinary?
Kyrie: short and repetitive: " Kyrie eleison" 3x, " Christe eleison 3x, " Kyrie" 3x. Gloria:long text, most settings are neumatic Credo: longest text, most settings are syllabic Sanctus: begins with "Sanctus" 3x, textual repetition often means melodic repetition Agnus Dei: States prayer 3x, alternating words on the 3rd repetition
Aquitanian Polyphony
Orante type of polyphony that was copied in aquitanian notation and has a different settings of chant. Organelle voice up top, no rhythm, and different notation.
Types of Trouvere songs?
Narrative genres more important Pastourelle: emphasizes rustic manners
Chant: Old Roman
Old chant from 11th / 12th century Rome
Note against Note organum
Organelle voice is more independent and promenade Added voice lies above chant rather than below Organal voice moves against principal voice, most note for note, in mixture of oblique, parallel or similar motion.
3 Different styles of organum in the 12th century?
Parallel organum ( music enchiriadis) , mixed and oblique organum ( Micrologus) , Note against note ( Ad organum faciendum). A little later.... Discount / florid organum ( Aquitanian)
Who was Pythagoras and what was his contribution to ancient music theory?
Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who was credited with discovering the numerical proportions of the octave (2:1) , fifth (3:2), and fourth (4:3). This was important not just for acoustics but also for the ancient medieval associations between music and numbers.
Describe several ways in which the different styles of text setting can be used to add emphasis to the chant text.
Recitation formulas were used to project the words clearly as that melodies were highly syllabic. Psalm tones was a formula for singing psalms in Office and designed to be adapted for psalm. Each mode has one psalm tone. Each psalm tone has a rising notice , intonation, in the 1st verse, a cadence mediant in the middle verse, and a final cadence , termination for the last verse.
What are the 3 manners of chant performance?
Responsorial: Soloist alternates with choir or congregation Antiphonal: 2 groups or halves of the choir alternate Direct: Singing without alteration
Rite
Schedule ( church calendar) of days commemorating special events , individuals, or times of year.
What musical characteristics do troubadour and trouser songs have in common with Gregorian chant?
Strophic, phrases arched, mostly stepwise motion, and transmitted orally.
Solmization
Syllables that were inspired by Ut quant axis to help locate semitones in a chant used to teach the pattern of whole and half steps.
Hymns
Sung at every Office service Communal, strophic, same meter, office only
Proper of the Ordinary
Texts for parts of the mass that remain the same.
Proper of the mass
Texts for parts of the mass that vary from day to day.
What are characteristics of Greece and early music?
The 1st culture to notate Importance of math and the connection to music ( ratios, numbers) Text, harmonia, rhythm create music when combined Ratios -> music can affect moral of character (ethos) . Doctrine of limitation Aulos , single reed, god- Dynesus- wine & fertility Lyre, 7 strings, pick, god- Apollo- god of light
Name one way in which ancient Greece has been influential on Western music.
The Greeks put forth an acoustical theory founded on science and a well-developed music theory. Greek theorists first defined concepts such as note, interval , scale, and octave species, which are still in use today.
How does the liturgical function of an antiphon relate to its shape and manner of performance?
The antiphon text is centered are the person or event commemorated that day. The mode of antiphon would also be the mode of the psalm tone. Antiphonies were performed in medieval times with two choirs alternating . Antiphons were usually simple and syllabic, sung everyday.
Benart de Ventadorn
The most well known and influential troubadour who brought the tradition to North France and inspired trouvere songs.
Musicians at Notre Dame developed the first notation since Ancient Greece to indicate duration. Describe the notation they used.
The new notation used a combination of note groups ( ligatures), to indicate different patterns of long notes ( longs) and short notes ( breves) known as rhythmic modes.
What are 3 new types of chant served as additions to the authorized liturgy?
Tropes, sequences, and liturgical dramas
Mass for Christmas Day
Unknown 4th-7th century Gregorian Chant Mass Stylistic : Chant of Mass Proper- decorate recitation, centers around single note with embellishing gestures, drawn off melodic motives of common Chants of Mass Ordinary- individual melodies, distinctive motives, stepwise motion, little recitation Historical : Celebrates Christmas Day, one of the most important days in church calendar. Takes place within 3 masses throughout the day with the last one being Vespers.
Hymn Christe Redemptor omnium
Unknown 530 Gregorian Hymn Stylistic : Strophic, simple 2 notes per syllable, choir sang together, mode1, 7 stances (4 lines each), rise and fall shape. Historical: Sung at Vespers on Christmas day to welcome the birth of Jesus. Hearing: Rise and Fall, Full choir
Chants from Vespers for Christmas Day Antiphon Tecum principium and psalm Dixit Dominus
Unknown 530 Gregorian chant Stylistic: antiphon- soloist and choir alternates , choir sings ending, Simple/ syllabic- used to communicate text, mode 1 Historical: 1st Psalm with an antiphon performance in the Office . Celebrates Jesus's birth during vespers service , sung after psalm.
Tropes on Puer natus
Unknown Late 10th century Texted trope ( liturgical drama) Stylistic : texted trope, melodic reoccurrence to show dialogue, words set stage for introit. Historical: It's one of the oldest and widely disseminated liturgical dramas. Describes midwives caring for Christ ask the shepherds who they seek. Female/ Male Voices
Mass for Christmas Day Gradual : Viderunt Omnes
Unknown Middle Ages Gregorian Chant Stylistic : highly melismatic , solos from choir, mode 5 Historical : part of mass that celebrates the birth of Jesus. One of the first to use Guodonian notation Soloist then choir enters.
Victimae paschali laudes
Unknown ( Ascribed to Wipo of Burgundy) first half 11th century Sequence Stylistic: increased number of syllables at beginning, Original form : AA, BB, CC , internal rhymes and phrases Historical context: One of very few sequences not eliminated by council of Trent, but was changed so jews were not blamed for Jesus's death.
Briefly describe the significance of Hildegard of Bingen's achievements when considering her role as a woman in the medieval church?
Women were normally silenced in church, so the fact that Hildegard was a successful prioress and abbess as well as a write and composer is extremely significant. She was the first successful woman composer , best known for sacred monophony.
Pope Gregory the Great
Wrote books of liturgical texts and repertory of chant.
Liber usualis
a book known as the book of common use that contains the most often used texts and chants used for the mass and Office. Mass Missal: contains texts Gradual: contains chants Office Breviary: contains texts for office. Antiphoner: contains chants for office.
Estampie
a medieval form of dance music at two different endings in dance music : open - incomplete cadence or closed - full cadence.
Magnus liber organi
a treatise that describes the creation of polyphony at Notre Dame and the two musicians associated with it.
trope
a type of chant that expanded the existing chant by adding new words and music , adding melody only, or adding text only.
Reciting tone
is a note in chant which is either the most frequent or prominent in a phase that it is centered.
Lyre
is a plucked string instrument that was widely used in ancient Greece; it was associated with Apollo and accompanied singing , dancing, and the recitation of epic poetry.
Harmonia
is an ancient Greek concept that describes the " unification of parts in an orderly whole". For example, intervals , scales, rhythms, and melodies unite to produce music. This musical union reflects the greater order of the universe as reflected in the concept of "harmony of the spheres".
Ethos
is an ancient Greek concept that describes the ethical character and demeanor of a person. Through the doctrine of imitation, music can affect a listener's ethos.
Responseries
musical responses to Biblical readings