Choral Lit Genre definitions

Anthem

A composition to an English religious text, particularly associated with the Church of England, with words selected from Holy Scripture or the Liturgy. Musically they are more elaborate and varied than the psalm or hymn tune. The term also has evolved into a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a certain group of people.

Antiphons

Grew out of the Jewish service. A response, usually sung in Gregorian Chant, to a psalm or part of a religious service such as Vespers or Mass. Some of them became noted chants such as the introit, offertory, and communion.

Antiphonal

A piece of music performed by semi-independent choirs interacting with one another, often singing alternate musical phrases.

Marion Antiphons

Antiphons written to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, including Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Maria, Regina Coeli, and Salve Regina.

Ballad

A story in a song, usually a narrative song of a poem, usually foreshortened alternation 4 and 3 stress lines and simple repeating rhymes, and often a refrain. If it is based on a political or religious theme, it may them be a version of a hymn.

Ballade

One of the French formes fixes with the musical form AAB.

Ballata

One of the 14th century formes fixes with the musical form ABaAabAB.

Balletti

A 16th century Italian secular choral form characterized by a "fa-la" refrain, as composed by Gastoldi.

Broadway

Theatrical productions produced in one of thirty-nine professional New York theaters.

Canon (rota or round)

usage meaning deriving one or more voices from a single given voice; the second voice derived from the first; a fuga or (flight) was what we term them today

Mensuration Canon

A canon involving two voices moving at different rates of speed through augmentation and diminution.

Retrograde Canon

A canon also known as "cancrizons" or crab canon.

types of canons used

Inverted, retrograde (“cancrizons” or crab), mensuration which is 2 voices moving at different rates of speed (augemntation and diminution), and double (2 being performed at the same time)

Cantata

A vocal composition accompanied by instruments and generally containing more than one movement.

Canticle

A scriptural hymn text similar to a psalm in form, with the most notable being the Magnificat (Luke I: 46-55).

Canzon and Canzonetta

A popular Italian vocal composition originating around 1560 that was always secular, and generally involved pastoral, irreverent, or erotic subjects. The rhyme and stanza schemes of the poems were varied but always included a final “punch line.” The early ones were for 3 unaccompanied voices. However, this genre quickly shunned to contrapuntal complexity.

Catch

A type of round or canon at the unison. That is, a musical composition in which 2 or more voices (usually at least 3) repeatedly sing the same melody, beginning at different times. Generally, they have a secular theme, though many collections included devotional rounds and canons.

Chanson

Refers to any song with French words, specifically a polyphonic French song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Early ones tended to be in one of the forme fixes, ballade, rondeau, or virelai.

Chant

Traditional unison melody of both the Eastern and Western churches, also called plainsong.

Choral Symphony

A symphony that includes parts for a chorus or solo voices.

Chorale

Polyphonic settings of plainsong in the German Roman Catholic liturgy, or a German Protestant hymn adapted or copied from plainsong or secular melody for unison congregational singing.

Chorale Motet

A vocal work, often with instrumental doubling, where the chorale melody serves as a cantus firmus or a basis for fugal imitation.

Clausula

A 13th century polyphonic genre featuring two parts, often with organum under a free moving part above, in discant style. (meaning, all parts in rhythmic modes)

Conductus

A 13th century polyphonic genre that is through composed.

Evensong

Canticles or liturgy for evening prayer sung in a metrical style, such as the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis.

Fauxbourdon

Polyphonic treatment of a plainsong with the cantus firmus in the top voice, or a simple means of harmonizing plainsong using exact duplication of the upper part at a given interval below.

Frottola

An Italian song of the 15th and 16th centuries characterized by a dominant melody accompanied by two or three lower parts, either vocal or instrumental.

Glee

A part song with usually 3 to 4 voice parts that was popular in England in the 18th century.

Hymn

A song of praise to God, often poetic and strophic in nature.

Lamentations

Settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah for use during Holy Week services, where each verse includes the Hebrew letter names and can be found in simple polyphonic settings

Lauda “canticle, hymn of praise”

A type of Italian poetry or a nonliturgical devotional song in praise of the Virgin Mary, Christ, or the saints.

Litany

A set of prayers recited by a leader alternating with responses by the congregation, often set in a plainsong form.

Madrigal

A form of vocal chamber music originating in northern Italy during the 14th century as a Forme Fixe with AAB form, which flourished anew in the 16th century and ultimately achieved an international status in the late 16th and early 17th centuries

Magnificat

In Christianity, the hymn of praise by Mary, the mother of Jesus, found in Luke 1:46-55 and incorporated into liturgical services of the Western churches (at vespers) and of the Eastern Orthodox churches (at the morning services)

Mass

The celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic church. The term mass is derived from the rite’s Latin formula of dismissal, Ite, missa est (“Go it is ended”). According to Roman Catholic teaching, the mass is a memorial in which the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are sacramentally reenacted.

As a musical form, it is a multi-movement form, generally consisting of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Treatment and forces utilized changed within each historical period.

Motet

A choral composition, usually on a religious text (grew out of the clausula)

Odes (Birthday)

A ceremonious lyric poem on an occasion of dignity uniting personal emotion and universal themes are united. The form is usually marked by exalted feeling and style, varying line length, and complex stanza forms. The term ode derives from a Greek word alluding to a choric song, usually accompanied by a dance.

Oratorio

A large-scale musical composition on a sacred or semisacred subject for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. The text is usually based on scripture, and the narration necessary to move from scene to scene is supplied by recitatives sung by various voices to prepare the way for airs and choruses.

Part Songs

An unaccompanied homophonic song for three or more voices.

Passion

A setting of Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi according to one of the four gospel writer/evangelists.

Psalm Settings

Psalms that have been set to music since their inception. In the medieval church, they were used 3 main ways: interspersed with lessons, antiphonal singing and responsorial singing. Because of their free musical composition, he early motets (e.g. Josquin) with texts taken from the psalms were probably not used in the liturgy. In the 17th cent, the texts received more focus and were used for more extensive motet writing and anthems. More recent settings tend to be more suited for the concert setting.

Requiem (Missa pro defunctis)

Mass for the Dead in which joyful parts of the Ordinary (Gloria and Credo) are omitted, and commonly included texts include Introit, Kyrie, Gradual, Tract, Dies Irae, Sequence, Offertory, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and Communion. Some additional texts include Libera me, In paradisum, and Pie Jesu.

Service

The group of musical settings of canticles, prescribed morning and evening prayers, and communion found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Although each canticle is referred to by its Latin incipit, all of the text is sung in English. Some of the more well-known composers include: Byrd, Morley, Purcell, Handel, Vaughan Williams, and Britten.

Spiritual

A form of “Negro” music that was largely misrepresented and misunderstood until after the Civil War when the Fisk University choir, directed by George L. White, sang their “gospel” music throughout the U.S. The name “spiritual” came from the commonly religious focused and Christian based nature of the music.

Stabat Mater (There stood the Mother grieving)

After becoming established a devotion on the sorrows of Mary, it spread across Europe and eventually became the feast of Compassion by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727. This feast was celebrated on the Friday after the Passion, but in 1814, a second time of feasting was established called the feast of Dolours (Sorrows) now celebrated on Sept. 15. The text itself is based on several passages of Scripture: John 19:25, Zacharias 13:6, II Cor. 4:10, and Gal. 6:17

Te Deum ("We praise Thee, O God")

In the Roman Catholic liturgy, this text usually replaces the last responsory of Matins on feast days and Sundays. It is a song of praise and rejoicing and known as the hymn of Thanksgiving. During the 17th century it was used for many joyous, non-religious occasions, and was often composed in a grandiose and festive style.

Vespers

The sixth of the seven canonical hours, including five psalms, each with an antiphon, hymn, and the Magnificat. It is the only Office for which music other than Gregorian Chant is omitted. These evening psalms were often set with four-voice harmony, often in the form of a motet.

Villanella (peasant song)

A 16th-century vocal music type originated in Naples and that, in both text and music, represents a sharp contrast to—probably a reaction against—the refinements of the contemporary madrigal. Commonly using parallel fifths, the idea of this spread throughout Europe and was used for drinking songs and jesting songs. Four subspecies are the greghesa, giustiniana, mascherata, and moresca.

Virelai

One of the 14th century formes fixes with the form ABaAabAB.