medieval and Renaissance period

Middle Ages (Medieval)

Refers to the period from c.450-1450 AD characterized by monophonic music.

Monophonic

Music consisting of a single melodic line without accompaniment.

Gregorian Chant

Also known as Roman Chant, named after Pope Gregory I, characterized by monophonic, unaccompanied singing in Latin.

Sacred Music

Early Christian music often labeled as liturgical or ecclesiastical.

Troubadours

Musicians from Southern France who were the first to use songs in the vernacular and focused on love lyrics.

Trouveres

Musicians from Northern France who imitated the Troubadours, with more sophisticated music and love lyrics.

Minnesinger

German musicians inspired by Troubadours and Trouveres, known for more narrative texts.

Organum

A vertical broadening of chant by adding a second part to plainsong, initially moving in parallel at specific intervals.

Polyphony

Musical texture consisting of multiple independent melodic lines.

Melismatic Organum

A style of organum associated with the School of St. Martial at Limoges, where plainsong was in the lowest voice.

Matins

One of the Canonical Hours celebrated at midnight.

Vespers

One of the Canonical Hours celebrated at 6 pm or sunset, popular and often set to music.

Compline

The Canonical Hour celebrated at 9 pm, before retiring for the night.

Plainsong (tenor)

Lowest voice in medieval music

Tenor

Voice known as tenere in Latin, meaning 'to hold'; voice that is prolonged

Melismatic

Style with many notes per syllable

Consonants

Intervals at which the Tenor note begins and changes, including unison, octaves, 5ths, and 4ths

Notre Dame Organum

Organum written by composers of the Notre Dame School in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, known as measured organum

Rhythmic modes

Used in Notre Dame Organum, based on the pulse of 3 parts or underlying pulse of 3, including Trochaic, Iambic, Dactylic, Anapestic, Spondaic, and Tribrachic

Ars Nova

French music label for the first half of the 14th Century, meaning 'New Art'

Music Ficta

Term in the 14th Century meaning 'false music'; the placement of accidentals above affected notes

Madrigal

One of the first polyphonic forms in Italy, consisting of 2 voices with pastoral, love-oriented, satirical, or idyllic poems as lyrics

Caccia

Italian form with three voices, two in a canon at the unison, and a third as a free supporting instrumental part

Landini Cadence

Musical cadence where the leading tone moves to the 6th scale degree before resolving to the tonic

Gymel

Early English harmonic practice using parallel 3rds and 6ths

Fauxbourdon

Known as 'False Bass', a musical technique in three voices with a cantus firmus in the upper voice

First Inversion Chords

Succession of chords formed in Fauxbourdon

Printing Press

Invention by Gutenberg in 1450, making music more readily available in the Renaissance Period

Four voice texture

Became prominent, known as Familiar or Chordal Style

Bass

Lowest sounding voice, added as the 4th voice before composers wrote for Soprano, Alto, and Tenor ranges

Mass

Polyphonic settings

Motet

Flemish motet choral setting of a Latin religious text, with more imitation than earlier motets

SIXTEENTH CENTURY - Renaissance

Mainly vocal polyphony period with a rise of instrumental music

Luca Marenzio

Leading madrigalist of the 16th century

Carlo Gesualdo

Used meter changes and colorful harmonies in madrigals

Adriano Banchieri

Composer of comic madrigals

Orlando di Lasso

Chief among international composers in 16th Century German music, wrote lied in the manner of the Italian Madrigal with equal parts, imitation, and interplay of motives

16th Century English music

Madrigals with greater attention to musical structure, light and humorous in spirit, with pastoral themes and composers like Thomas Morley, John Wilbye, Thomas Weelkes, John Bennet, and John Farmer

Lute songs

Solo songs with lute or viol accompaniment, flourished in England with composers like John Dowland and Thomas Campion

Consort songs

Solo songs or duets with accompaniment of a consort of viols, later a chorus, with composers like William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons

Martin Luther

Wrote Deutsch Messe, important contribution to church music with Strophic Congregational hymn

Jean Calvin

In France, created Psalter with rhymed metrical translations of Psalms

The Council of Trent

Council held in Trent to purify church music, influenced by Jacobus de Kerle and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Wrote the Mass of Pope Marcellus, known as the 'Prince of Music' and 'savior of church music'

Instrumental Music of the Renaissance

Written for dance music, patterned after vocal forms, with groups of instruments like Consorts, Loud and Soft instruments, and Wind and Stringed instruments

Andrea Gabrieli

Composer of the Renaissance period

Giovanni Gabrieli

Nephew of Andrea Gabrieli, a composer of the Renaissance period

John Dowland

Composer of the Renaissance period

Michael Praetorius

Composer of the Renaissance period

Johann Schein

Composer of the Renaissance period