Music 101 Midterm #1

Irregular

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Giovanni Palestrina

1525-1594; was born just outside Rome and worked in the Holy City all his life. Part of the Late Renaissance Music and wrote the Pope Marcellus Mass which was supposed to have convinced the pope and his council that composers of complicated polyphonic church music could still set the sacred words clearly enough that the congregation could hear them.

Meter

A background of stressed and unstressed beats in a simple, regular, repeating pattern

Genre

A general category of music determined partly by the number and kind of instruments or voices involved, and partly by its form, style, or purpose. "Opera," "symphonic poem," and "sonata" are all examples of genres

Antiphon

A genre of plainchant usually in a simple melodic style with very few melismas.

Recitation

A genre of plainchant where the pitch in which the text is sung, is repeated again and again except for small, formulaic variations at beginnings and ends of phrases. Gives the singers time for a breath

Gloria

A long hymn, beginning: "Glory to God in the highest"

Monophony

A musical texture involving a single melodic line, as in Gregorian chant: as opposed to polyphony

Homophony

A musical texture that involves only one melody of real interest, combined with chords of other subsidiary sounds

Troubadour Songs

A noble or wealthy person who wrote secular music and lyrics; lust and unrequited love are popular subject matters; troubadours are usually educated; the songs usually have rhythm.

Non-imitative Polyphony

A polyphonic musical texture in which the melodic lines are essentially different from one another

Imitative Polyphony

A polyphonic musical texture in which the various melodic lines use approximately the same themes

Credo

A recital of the Christian's list of beliefs, beginning: "I believe in one God, the Father almighty"

Kyrie

A simple prayer: "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy"

Drone

A single two-note chord running continuously; were sometimes used to accompany plainchant

Pavan

A solemn dance in the Renaissance in duple meter, with the participants stepping and stopping formally and is usually paired with the Galliard

Galliard

A type of dance in the Renaissance that is usually paired with the pavan; it is a faster dance in triple meter

Sequence

A type of plainchant in which successive phrases of text receive nearly identical melodic treatment

Ornamentation

Adding of fast notes and vocal effects (such as trills) to a melody, making it more florid and expressive. It is typically improvised in the music of all cultures, but in Western music is often written out

Agnus Dei

Another simple prayer: "Lamb of God...have mercy on us"

Sanctus

Another, shorter hymn: "Holy holy, holy, Lord God of hosts"

High Renaissance Style

Around 1500 a new style that emerged for Masses, motets, and chansons that was a careful blend of two kinds of musical texture, imitative counterpoint and homophony.

Italian Madrigal

Around 1530; a short composition set to a one-stanza poem, typically a love poem, with a rapid turnover of ideas and images. Ideally it is sung by one singer per part, with rapid turnover of sections in imitative polyphony or homophony. Uses both declamation and word painting

a capella

Choral music for voices alone, without instruments

Melisma/Melismatic

In vocal music, a passage of many notes sung to a single syllable

Gregorian Chant/Plainchant

It is called "plain" because it is unaccompanied, monophonic (one-line) music for voices. And it is called "gregorian" after the famous pope and church father Gregory I. They are typically nonmetrical and are constructed in the medieval modes rather than major and minor modes of today

Secular Music

Music not of the church; non-sacred

Word-painting

Musical illustration of the meaning of a word or short verbal phrase

Polyphony

Musical texture in which two or more melodic lines are played or sung simultaneously: as opposed to homophony or monophony

Duple Meter

One beat is heavy another is light (2/4 or 4/4 time) ex: Praise to the Man

Triple Meter

One heavy beat followed by two light beats (3/4 time) ex: Come follow me

Thomas Weelkes

One of the best composers of madrigals in English. Contributed to the Triumphs of Oriana. He nearly always has his words sung in rhythms that would seem quite natural if the words were spoken. Was very fond of puns such as singing the word long with extremely drawn out notes

Improvisation

Required by many Renaissance and Baroque pianists/keyboardists in such things as the Basso Continuo

English Madrigal

Same as Italian Madrigal's only said in English. Very popular during the time of Queen Elizabeth I

Organum

Same syllables at the same time; earliest example of church polyphony; all organum are non-imitative polyphony. Consists of a traditional plainchant melody to which a composer/singer/improviser has added another melody, sung simultaneously to the same words.

Form

The "shape" of a piece of music

Texture

The blend of the various sounds and melodies lines occurring simultaneously in a piece

Tonality/Tonic

The feeling of centrality of one note (and its chord) to a passage of music

Hildegard of Bingen

The first compiler of Gregorian chants, she composed plainchant melodies in her own highly individual style to go with poems that she wrote for special services at the convent of Binge, in western Germany, under her charge as abbess. Composed "Columbia aspexit" in honor of a now-forgotten saint, St. Maximinus

Mass

The main Roman Catholic service; or the music written for it. The musical Mass consists of five large sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei

paraphrase

The modification and decoration of plainchant melodies in early Renaissance music

Dance Music

The most widespread of Renaissance instrumental genres; The music was written in easy-to-follow phrases, almost always four to eight bars long. Ending with especially clear cadences, the phrases were each played twice in succession. Consisted of the Pavan, Galliard, Allemand, Courante, Bouree, Jig, and Saltarello

Cadence

The notes or chords (or the whole short passage) ending a section of music with a feeling of conclusiveness. The term can be applied to phrases, sections of works, or complete works or movements

Nonmetrical

The rhythms suggest no underlying patter of strong and weak beats. Ex: Gregorian Chants

Tone color/timbre

The sonorous quality of a particular instrument, voice, or combination of instruments or voice

Tempo

The speed of music, the rate at which the accented and unaccented beats of the meter follow one another

Dynamics

The volume of sound; the loudness or softness of a musical passage

Declamation

The way words are set to music, in terms of rhythm, accent, ect.

Compound Meter

When the main beats in Duple and Triple meter can be divided into three smaller beats (6/8 time) Ex: Silent Night

Medieval Modes

When the scale is organized not around C or A, but around D, E, F, or G. The essential difference between the modern major and minor modes comes in the different arrangement of half steps and whole steps in their scales. The medieval modes provide four additional arrangements.

Middle Ages

aka Dark Ages: 450-1450, made up mostly of plainchant, and Gregorian Chant