Understanding Music Test Two

What are the important fundamentals of Medieval Music?

- Based on modes (not modern scales) - plainchant (gregorian chant) sung in unison - Polyphonic music became more popular, even in church (especially in the Notre Dame Cathedral ) - secular music is important: - instruments varied: vocal music is more prominent though

Who is a famous composer of the mid renaissance? What are characteristics of their music?

- Famous composer: Joaquin Des Prez - Characteristics of josquins music: -Point of imitation - overlapping cadences - paired imitation

Mid Renaissance:

- Famous composer: Joaquin Des Prez - Masses, motets, and secular song - Characteristics of josquins music: -Point of imitation - overlapping cadences - paired imitation

What is musical borrowing?

- In the Renaissance, composers borrowed musical material from each other, it was a sign of respect - Composers borrowed from lots of different genres too, including plainchant, popular songs, motets, or their own pieces

What are characteristics of Renaissance Music?

- Smoother - More homogenous (less contrast) - frequent use of imitative techniques - Types of composition: Liturgical music, motets and secular music - important composers : Guillaume du Fay, John Dunstable

Renaissance

- There was a new focus on individual achievement--> this led to an intellectual movement called Humanism - There was a greater focus on the daily world than on the spiritual afterlife - widespread mingling of cultures --> in result of easier travel coupled with freshly invented printing device

The Renaissance Mass

- elements: (kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus and Angus Dei) will eventually be galvanized into purely musical form away from its religious origins - Mass will become one of the longest enduring forms. even today composers still write sacred music following these mass elements

What are important characteristics of Plainchant?

- flowing rhythm-> no clear or defined beat - a single musical line without harmony - use modes instead of scales

Late Renaissance:

- ideal composer of the catholic church was Palestrina - his music is characterized by great balance, careful control of dissonances, evens, clarity, and perfect text setting

What is the Cathedral? Where is the Cathedral located? Why was it important?

- located in Notre Dame in Paris France - most important canter for polyphonic music in the 12th and 13th centuries

Describe the Middle Ages:

- society was organized through a rigid class system called feudalism -The Roman Catholic Church was important -great technological advances - We are left with evidence (tapestry, paintings etc.) that show that people from every class enjoyed music. - The only write evidence is from Catholic Church all others were passed down by ear

what are the basics of Renaissance music?

- sounds smooth and homogenous - Harmony primarily based on modes(not modern scales yet) - most prominent feature is imitation - Vocal genres: Mass movements, motets, secular songs, and madrigals - motets and madrigals use word- painting

Where is secular music performed? By whom?

- troubadours and trouvères played a crucial role in the development of this music - Beatriz de Dia and Guillaume de Machaut are important composers - in french court

What are the different ways the text can be set in a Plainchant?

1. syllabic: one note for every syllable of text 2. Melismatic: Large number of notes sung in one syllable 3. Nematic: in between the first two, small number of notes sung between a single syllable

When was the Renaissance? What were the three notable changes? what does Renaissance mean?

1400-1600 renaissance means rebirth There were three notable changes: 1. more focus on individual achievement 2. more focus on the real world opposed to focusing on spirits 3. wide spread of mingling european countries due to transportation and the new printing system

What is Imitative polyphony?

16 th century emphasizes the overlapping of two individual lines Melodic lines sounding together with the same or quite similar melodies at staggered time intervals

What do we know about medieval technology?

6th century: the heavy wooden play was invented, this enabled lots of land to be cultivated leading to increased food production and life span 8th century: safer oceangoing ships were invented, lead to viking raids on Scandinavia, and changed racial, cultural and linguistic makeup of Europe stirrups also invented, allowed men to ride horses in war, started the class of knights Latter in the middle ages the spinning wheel, wheel barrow, mechanical clock and eyeglasses were invented

What are characteristics of a madrigal?

A song for two or three unaccompanied voices,A short poem, often about love, suitable for being set to music

Where is liturgical music performed? By whom?

Church. by monastaries

Did women in the Middle Ages have equality?

In this era women had great equality in all ways, and women of all classes proton in music in different ways,

What is caccia?

Italian song, means "hunt" so most of the time the songs are centered around hunting and outdoor scenes. it also means round which means the voices of the song sing the same thing, but they start at different times. It gives the feel that the melodies

Who were two famous artist from the renaissance?

Leonardo Da Venci and Michelangelo

Which famous artists lived in the Renaissance?

Leonardo Da Venci, Michelangelo

Who are important composers of Notre Dame?

Leoninus and Perotinus

How was society organized in the Middle Ages?

through a rigid class system called feudalism

Who was the top pick for composers of the late renaissance?

Palestrina his music is characterized by great balance, careful control of dissonances, evens, clarity, and perfect text setting

Secular vs Sacred (liturgical)

Sacred: - pertains to God - heaven and spiritual - doesn't change - made to be used in the church Secular: - pertains to human beings - physical - it evolves - is used outside of the church

What is Sacred Music?

Sung by monasteries with no congregation, they sung because it was their duty to God, Music designed to be used in the Roman Catholic Church

What was the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages?

The spread of Christianity lead to the spread of learning. Most artistic endeavors were inspired, encouraged, and paid for by the Church. It is where medieval art is concentrated.

What are trouveres?

They are the same thing as a troubadour but are in Northern France

What is Madrigal?

Thomas Morley was a famous English Madrigalist of the Renaissance

Most surviving music from the medieval time is ______ music and comes from the ________ or _______.

Vocal, Church, troubadours

lute

a plucked instrument smilar to a guitar, heard in the Guillaume De Machaut along with a voice and a recorder

What is rondeau?

a poem that has a two-line refrain or chorus (printed in italics). The refrain comes at the beginning and the end, and its first line comes in the middle of the poem, too.

What is Vielle?

a bowed instrument,equivalent to the fiddle with 5 strings. A popular string instrument with troubadours and jongleurs. The body was carved out of a single piece of wood about 16 inches long. The Vielle was from France and is now obsolete.

Rondeau

a poem that has a two-line refrain or chorus (printed in italics). The refrain comes at the beginning and the end, and its first line comes in the middle of the poem, too. its a fixed form of music or poetry in the form, consists of only two rhymes

Caccia

a type of Italian song, means "hunt" so often the songs are centered around different hunting scenes, also means "round" meaning that the voices sing the same music but begin at different times giving the impression that the melody is chasing itself, usually two voices sing along with an instrument

What is madrigal?

a type of secular song made in Italy. Secular pieces of music made for small groups of people usually unaccompanied. Topics were love, nature and sometimes war battles.

Beatriz De Dia

an example of a woman producing troubadour music, she created a strophic piece(the same music is repeated in all stanzas of the poem), Sung in the language of southern France called Occitan, contains 5 stanzas and a two line ending, in this song she is addressing her lover who has scorned her, and dressed her pain she has for the way he has mistreated her

What is a mode?

an important part of Plainchant creating variety, like colors used in painting, replaces normal scales of music, 4 main modes D,E,F and G. no one mode sounds like another

nature of the renaissance in terms of renewal of interest in philosophy of ancient Greece and rome

deliberately modeled themselves after the ancient Greeks and Romans—in their feeling of individual and collective responsibility; in their embracing of education; and, most important, in their sense of the enduring human value in the arts. The Renaissance was a time of remarkable artistic and scientific accomplishments

word-painting

madrigalist used this to wring out every ounce of feeling out of the text. echo the meaning of words through music. Writing music that reflects the literal meaning of the text.

What is secular?

means being separate from (not associated or concerned with) religion. In the West, secular music developed in the Medieval period and was used in the Renaissance. Swaying authority from the Church that focused more on Common Law influenced all aspects of Medieval life, including music. Secular music in the Middle Ages included love songs, political satire, dances, and dramatic works.

What is Plainchant?

melodies ranging from very simple to very complex, but all designed to be sung by a group in unison, with no harmony and no accompaniment. This music is based on the modes, which are different from our modern scales.

Who writes most of the music played in church?

monks, most music remain anonymous , each chant has to be preformed on a specific date on the christian calendar

The Renaissance made people feel like they were.....

mor in control of their own destinies

What is Gloria?

music for the glory of God alone

What is liturgical?

music made for church setting typically in mass

What is credo?

one of the 5 sections of mass,is a statement of religious belief, typically the longest part of mass

What is Agnus Dei?

one of the five sections of mass. begins with the words "lamb of God".

What is Sanctus?

one of the sections of mass, "holy holy holy".he Sanctus forms the conclusion of the variable part of the prayer called the Preface.

What is lute?

plucked instrument similar to a guitar, has a long neck bearing frets and a rounded body with a flat front that is shaped like a halved egg.

what is a troubadour?

poet-musicians who composed songs for performance in the many small aristocratic courts of southern France. (In northern France, such musicians were called trouvères.) Troubadours and trouvères wrote their own poetry and music, and the subjects they favored were love, duty, friendship, ceremony, and poetry itself. Their primary topic was love.

Counter-Reformation

pot primarily about music, but music played a part in the group of church reformers. I was a Catholic surge. They wanted internal reformation. because they feared they were drifting to far away from Catholicism

What does The Renaissance mean?

rebirth

What does the Renaissance symbolize?

remarkably scientific and musical acomplishments

What is Secular Music?

rise of this kind of music occurred in the 12th century, began when the troubadours were active, it is music not associated with religion, it can cover any topic such as love, friendships etc

canzona

serious contrapuntal instrumental piece based on the style of secular songs. The master of the canzona was Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1555-1612), an organist and composer at St. Mark's Church in Venice. Italian instrumental music. a song like instrumental music.

What is text-painting(word-painting)? what does it consist of?

technique used almost always in madrigal writing.

What is feudalism?

the dominant rigid system set in place in Europe in the Middle Ages, people worked and fought for nobles who gave them protection and the use of land in return,

What is Mass: Kyrie?

the first sung prayer of the Mass ordinary. It is usually (but not always) part of any musical setting of the Mass. Kyrie movements often have an ternary (ABA) musical structure that reflects the symmetrical structure of the text. Musical settings exist in styles ranging from Gregorian chant to Folk.

What is Plainchant?

the vocal music for church services in the Middle Ages, it is also known as the "gregorian chant" named after the famous Pope Gregory I, it is monophonic(only one line of music is preformed at a time, several people may sing one line in unison but they will sing in only one note), It can vary :The number of singers can change, or the text can be set in different ways, the most important thing is that it is set using melodic modes

What are Troubadours?

they are poet-musicians that wrote compositions for performances in the small courts in France, They wrote poetry and music on topics, the topics they favored were love, duty, friendship, and ceremony. Their favorite topic was love. Typically the love songs were about their "ideal woman" which is an unattainable person, some women troubadours wrote these songs about men as well

Counterpoint

two or more music lines interweaving, synonym to polyphonic music

What is strophic?

uses the same melody repeated over and over, with different text for each repetition. The song may include a refrain, or chorus. In the refrain the same text is sung to the same melody for each repetition. This most frequently occurs at the end of the song, but refrains may be used at the beginning or in the middle of the song as well.

What years did the Middle Ages occur?

years 400-1400 historians divide it up into two parts... 1. early period (400-1000) 2. Later period (1000-1400)