Exam 2 - Music History

Chorale

Strophic hymn in the Lutheran tradition, intended to be sung by the congregation

Contrafactum

The practice of replacing the text of a vocal work with a new text whole the music remains essentially the same; or the resulting piece

Metrical Psalm

Metric, rhymed, and strophic vernacular translation of a Psalm, sung to a relatively simple melody that repeats for each strophe. 

Anthem

A polyphonic sacred work in English for Anglican religious services.

Service

A setting of Anglican service music, encompassing specific portions of Matins, Holy Communion, and Evensong. A Great Service is a melismatic contrapuntal setting of these texts; a Short service sets the same text in syllabic, chordal style. 

Chorale Motet

Chorale setting in the style of a 16th century motet

Cantional style

Manner of setting chorales in chordal homophony with the melody in the highest voice

Psalters

A published collection of metrical Psalms

Council of Trent and music

A church council that met at Trent to consider how to respond to the Reformation

Cambiata

A motion in the melody that is moving down a third

Consort

English name for a group of instrument

Lute

Plucked string instrument popular from the late Middle Ages through the Baroque period, typically pear- or almond-shaped with a rounded back, flat fingerboard, frets, and one single and five double strings

Viol/viola da gamba

Bowed, fretted string instrument popular from the mid-fifteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, held between the legs. 

Clavichord

Keyboard instruments popular between the 15th and 18th centuries. The loudness, which depends on the force with which a brass blade strikes the strings, is under the direct control of the player. 

Harpsichord

Keyboard instrument in use between the 15th-18th centuries. It was distinguished from the clavichord and the piano by the fact that its strings were plucked, not struck

Virginal

English name for harpsichord, used for all types until the 17th century, and a type of harpsichord that is small enough to place on a table, with a single keyboard and strings running at right angle to the keys rather than parallel with them as in larger harpsichords.

Clavecin

French term for harpsichord

Basse danse

Type of stately couple dance of the 16th and early 17th centuries

Pavane

16th-century dance in slow duple meter with three repeated sections (AABBCC). Often followed by a galliard.

Galliard

16th century dance in fast triple meter, often paired with the pavane in the same form. (AABBCC)

Moresca

Lively dance associated with the Moors of Spain and northern Africa, which was only performed by men.

Allemande

Highly stylized dance in binary form, in moderately slow quadruple meter with almost continuous movement, beginning with an upbeat. Popular through the Renaissance and Baroque; often appearing as the first dance in a suite.

Theme

May be a melody, a bass line, a harmonic plan, or other musical subject

Ostinato

Short musical patter that is repeated persistently throughout a piece or section. 

Intabulations

Arrangement of a vocal piece for lute or keyboard, typically written in tablature. 

Variation form

Form that presents an uninterrupted series of variants on a theme.

Prelude

Introductory piece for solo instrument, often in the style of an improvisation, or introductory movement in a multimovement work such as an opera or suite.

Fantasia

Instrumental composition that resembles an improvisation or lacks a strict form. Imitative instrumental piece on a single subject.

Ricercare

In the early to mid 16th century, a prelude in the style of an improvisation. More than one subject in imitation.

Toccata

Piece of keyboard instrument or Lute resembling an improvisation that may include imitative sections or may serve as a prelude to an independent fugue.

Canzona

16th century Italian genre, an instrumental work adapted from a chanson or composed in a similar style. an Instrumental work in several contrasting sections, of which the first and some of the others are in imitative counterpoint.

Church of St. Mark in Venice

Beginning in 1568, a permanent ensemble of first-rate instrumentalists was assembled, centering on cornetts and sackbuts but including violin and dulcian, forerunner of the bassoon.

Ensemble Canzona

Sonata

Baroque

Affections

Prima Pratica

Seconda Pratica

Basson contiuno

Theorbo

Figured Bass

Realization

Concertato Medium

Concerted Madrigal

Sacred concerto

Mean tone Temperament

Equal temperament

Measure

Ornamentation/ornaments

Cadenza

Tonality/tonal

Opera

Libertto

Pastoral Drama

Madrigal comedy/cycle

Intermedio

Monody

Solo Madrigal

Recitative style

Sinfonia

Ritornello

Strophic variation

Arioso

Castrati

Impresario

Diva

Prima donna