Medieval period music history

500AD-1100AD

Romanesque Period

1100AD-1400AD

Gothic

Feudal System

serfs are allegiant to landowners, landowners to the lords, and the lords to the king

Dark Ages

Another term for the Middle Ages

Romanesque

"Of the Romans"

Flying buttress

an arched stone support on the outside of buildings, which allows builders to construct higher walls

Gargoyles

a grotesque carved human or animal face or figure projecting from the gutter of a building, typically acting as a spout to carry water clear of a wall.

Oral tradition

music that passes by word of mouth from one generation to the next.

liturgical music

Religious music directly tied to mass parts

Hours of the Divine Office

round-the-clock series of services

Catholic Mass

The Roman Catholic Eucharistic ceremony, in which bread and wine are eaten as the body and blood of Christ; celebrated in Latin until 1965 and in local languages since then

Ordinary Mass

Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei

Proper Mass

Introit, Gruadual, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion

Neumes

early musical notation signs; square notes

Plainchant

Unaccompanied, monophonic music, without fixed rhythm or meter, such as Gregorian chant

monophonic

one melody

syllabic

one note per syllable

melismatic

many notes per syllable

secular

Non-religious

polyphony

Music with two or more melodies blended together.

troubadours

a musician-poet from southern France

trouveres

a musician-poet from northern France

Courtly Love

a woman is unattainable and the lover pines away

Le Chastelain de Couci

Trouvere

Beatriz de Dia

A famous French woman troubadour

strophic

describes a song where the stanzas are all sung to the same music

Leonin

first composer of polyphonic music

Perotin

Leonin's student who introduces 3 and 4 parts to the standard 2-part organum.

Organum

Medieval polyphony that consists of Gregorian chant and one or more additional melodic lines

Magnus Liber Organi

Great Book of Polyphony

Rebec

Medieval bowed-string instrument

Lute

medieval plucked string instrument

Recorder

woodwind instrument commonly used in the Middle Ages

Tambourine

Percussion instrument consisting of a small round drum with metal plates inserted in its rim; played by striking or shaking.

Guillaume de Machaut

the most important composer of the 14th century, worked in Paris, wrote sacred and secular compositions.

Rondeau

Setting of a poem that has a two-line refrain.

The refrain comes in at the beginning and the

end and partially in the middle.

Ars Nova

New Art: style of polyphony from 14th century France, distinguished from earlier styles by a new system of rhythmic notation that allowed duple or triple division of note values, syncopation, and great rhythmic flexibility

Tempus Perfectum

"Perfect Time" referring to triple meter representing the holy trinity

Three Italian Poetic-Musical Forms

Madrigal, Caccia, Ballata

Madrigal

A secular song for 2 or 3 voices that was about love or beauty of nature

Caccia

A song where the two upper voices entered separately singing the exact same melody, similar to a round today.

Ballata

an Italian poetic and musical form that originated as a song to accompany dancing

Francesco Landini

the most celebrated Italian composer of the 14th century, wrote 140 Ballata

Pope

Head of the Roman Catholic Church

The Great Schism

The separation of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church (1054 CE). Two popes were ruling simultaneously. One in Rome, Italy and the other in Avignon, France