Music history Exam 3

Renaissance

"rebirth" of learning, ideals, and values of ancient Greek/Rome
a time of developing late Medieval ideas and new innovations

imitation (imitative counterpoint)

one voice presents melodic idea and after time, idea gets passed around to other voices; only small amount of notes

homophony

everyone singing in same rhythms and words

humanism

a Renaissance intellectual movement that revived ancient learning and focused on developing the individual mind/spirit. Had in creased interest in human reason/senses (along with divine authority). Led to recovering Greek theoretical writings in music and applying ideas on oratory/rhetoric to musical expression

chapel (in music)

group of musicians/clerics associated with a ruler, as well as a physical spaces; Includes performers, composers, scribes

contenance angloise

"English Manner" of music including:
pervasive consonance and little dissonance
moving away from 14th c. rhythmic complexity
harmonic 3rds and 6ths in parallel motion
full triads
syllabic text setting
simple melodies, clear phrases

faburden

improvised polyphony around a chant by adding two voices a fourth above and third below (6/3 chords) and bottom voice dropping to form octaves at cadences

fauxbourdon

Continental style of polyphony in the early Renaissance, in which cantus firmus melody and harmonizations a fourth and sixth below

cantilena

homorhythmic settings of Latin texts, not chant-based

Old Hall Manuscript

major source of early Renaissance English music containing 148 pieces of mass movements in score format
includes composer names (Henry V)
english influences: complexity (canons, 5 voice pieces, descant, 3 voice with parallel 6/3)
french influences: isorhythm

carol

song with refrain for ensemble and strophes for soloists

motet (in 15th century)

(aka cantilena) any setting of liturgical text in contemporary style

Burgundian lands

parts of eastern/northern France, low countries

chanson

french setting of secular poem that later become dominant form of secular music; more than 400 from the 15th century
often uses formes fixes with cantus-tenor foundation and harmonic filler contratenor
subjects of fine amour still common

Burgundian cadence

octave leap; predecessor to later V-I cadence

mass cycle

A polyphonic setting of the ordinary of the mass [Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei] mass organized with musical and liturgical coherence. Often commissioned for specific occasions

plainsong mass

movements based on chant for a specific liturgical day
coherent liturgically, but not related musically

motto mass

movements linked by common opening melodic motive

head motive

Beginning each movement with the same melodic motive, in one or all voices.

cantus firmus mass

movements linked by common cantus firmus (usually in tenor)
principal style of later 15th c.
cantus firmus in long notes, may use isorhythm

canon (as words, not music)

a rule for deriving two voices from a single written part

augmentation

The uniform lengthening of a melody using longer note values, for example by doubling the length of each note

retrograde

taking a piece and doing it backwards

acrostic

used in 15th c. Renaissance music in which a song in which certain letters in each line form a word or words.

mensuration canon

two voices perform same music, but at different speeds
different mensuration signs change note values
music as "brainteaser": puzzles for performers to solve

points of imitation

passage in a polyphonic work in which two or more parts enter in imitation

Lieder

song with German words, whether monophonic, polyphonic, or for voice with accompaniment; used especially for polyphonic songs in the Renaissance

Choralis Constantinus

A collection of over 350 polyphonic motets (using Gregorian chant as the cantus firmus) written by the German composer Heinrich Isaac and his pupil Ludwig Senfl.

paraphrase mass

polyphonic mass in which each movement is based on the same monophonic melody, normally a chant, which is paraphrased in most or all voices rather than being used as a cantus firmus in one voice

imitation mass

polyphonic mass in which each movement is based on the same polyphonic model, normally a chanson or motet, and all voices of the model are used in the mass, but none is used as a cantus firmus

soggetto cavato

a Renaissance technique of creating a melody by associating syllables in a verbal phrase with the solemnization syllables they most closely resemble (using someone's name)