Development of Polyphony in the Middle Ages

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key concepts, genres, theorists, and terminology related to the development of polyphony during the Middle Ages.

Monophony

A musical texture consisting of a single melodic line with no accompanying harmony.

Musical Texture

The interweaving of melodic and harmonic elements in a musical composition.

Heterophony

A musical texture featuring the simultaneous performance of slightly different versions of the same melody by two or more performers.

Homophony

A musical texture with a primary melodic line supported by chordal accompaniment, or with a rhythmic structure where all parts move together in the same rhythm.

Polyphony

A musical texture combining several simultaneous independent melodic lines, each retaining its own individual character.

Organum

The earliest form of polyphonic music, meaning 'organized music,' originating from adding a voice to existing chant.

Vox principalis

The original plainchant melody line in early organum.

Vox organalis

The added companion voice in organum, originally placed a 4th or 5th below the original chant line.

Punctus contra punctum

A note-against-note polyphonic style where each note in one part is matched by a note in another part.

Oblique motion

A polyphonic melodic progression in which one voice remains stationary on a single pitch while another voice moves upward or downward.

Musica enchiriadis

A French musical treatise from c. 900 ('Music Handbook') containing parallel organum, which serves as the earliest recorded example of written polyphony.

Free organum

An 11th-century style of organum characterized by independent, often contrary movement between voices, with the vox principalis shifting to the bottom line.

Melismatic organum

A 12th-century style of organum featuring a slow-moving tenor chant voice underneath a florid, rhythmically active upper voice (duplum).

Discant style

A style of polyphony featuring note-against-note motion between voices; the term was first defined by Johannes de Garlandia.

Cantus firmus

Meaning 'fixed melody,' a pre-existing chant melody that serves as the structural foundation of a polyphonic composition.

St. Martial School

A center of musical composition in Limoges, France (also known as Aquitainian), prominent for developing melismatic organum and discant style.

Romanesque Architecture

A medieval cathedral style characterized by rounded arches, heavy barrel roof vaults, thick walls, small open windows, and a massiveness in construction.

Gothic Architecture

A medieval cathedral style featuring pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses, slender columns, and large stained-glass windows emphasizing height and light.

Roof Vault Types

Structural ceiling designs used in medieval architecture, including barrel vaults, groin vaults, rib vaults, and fan vaults.

Scholasticism

A medieval learning method based on Aristotelian logic that resolves ideological contradictions through debate, dialogue, and reasoned discourse.

Léonin

The first named composer of polyphonic music (fl. 1169–1201), based at Notre Dame in Paris, who compiled the Magnus liber organi.

Magnus liber organi

Meaning 'Great Book of Organum,' a collection of 2-part polyphonic organal settings written for the solo portions of responsorial chants across the church liturgical year.

Anonymous IV

A late 13th-century music theorist, likely an English student in Paris, whose writings provide historic detail about Notre Dame composers Léonin and Pérotin.

Pérotin

A Notre Dame composer (fl. 1198–1236) who expanded polyphony to 3 and 4 voices (triplum and quadruplum) and composed substitute clausulae.

The Six Rhythmic Modes

The first Western rhythmic notation system since antiquity, which used standardized long and short metric patterns (analogous to poetic meters) suited for 6/8 time.

Ordines

Phrases constructed from repeating modal units in Notre Dame rhythmic notation.

Discant clausula

A self-contained section of organum written in discant style using rhythmic modes, positioned over melismatic sections of chant.

Substitute clausula

A newly composed discant section, notably created by Pérotin, designed to replace Léonin's original clausulae in the Magnus liber organi.

Polyphonic Conductus

A non-liturgical polyphonic piece set to original, rhymed Latin poetry, using a note-against-note texture in 2–3 voices without a sacred chant tenor.

Cauda

An extensive melismatic passage positioned at the conclusion of a conductus.

Medieval Motet

A genre developed by adding new upper-voice texts (Latin or French) above an existing discant clausula tenor, performed as an independent secular or sacred piece.

Tenor

The foundational voice in a medieval motet or organum that holds the pre-existing chant line in long notes

Johannes de Grocheo

A French music theorist (c. 1255–c. 1320) who wrote Ars musicae, dividing music into Musica vulgaris, Musica mensurabilis, and Musica ecclesiastica.

Franco of Cologne

A 13th-century theorist who authored Ars cantus mensurabilis, introducing notation where note duration was represented directly by note shape.

Petrus de Cruce

A late 13th-century composer who refined notation by subdividing the breve into up to nine equal parts, introducing smaller values like the minim and semiminim.

Hocket

A musical technique (from Latin hoquetus, meaning 'hiccup') where two voices rapidly alternate rests and notes to create an interlocking melodic line.

Choirbook

A large-format manuscript made of vellum, positioned on a central stand so an entire choir could read their respective voice parts from a single book.

Codex Calixtinus

An important 12th-century manuscript from Santiago de Compostela (also named Liber Sancti Jacobi) containing musical settings for pilgrims and early 3-part polyphony.