History of Keyboard Music: Antiquity to the 18th Century

Flashcards covering key concepts, instruments, genres, and composers in early keyboard music from Antiquity through the late 18th century based on the provided lecture notes.

What are the four main types of acoustic keyboard instruments described in early keyboard music history?

The organ (sound produced by vibrating air columns in pipes), the clavichord (strings struck by tangents), the harpsichord family (strings plucked), and the piano (strings struck by hammers).

What is tablature, and how does it differ from standard musical staff notation?

Tablature is a specifically instrumental notation that employs letters and numerals to refer to pitches, scale steps, or fingerings rather than using notes on a traditional musical staff.

What are intabulations (also known as intavolaturas)?

They are keyboard (or lute/guitar) transcriptions and arrangements of polyphonic vocal or ensemble compositions.

Who composed the 1452 keyboard collection Fundamentum organisandi?

Conrad Paumann (ca. 1413–1473).

What terms were used in 16th-century Spain and England for variation sets based on popular tunes or dance melodies?

In Spain, they were called diferencias (utilizing figurative ornamentation called glosa); in England, they were cultivated as virginal music operating on a ground (basso ostinato).

What formal structure typically characterizes the toccatas of Claudio Merulo?

A ternary formal scheme consisting of an opening section with massive chords and brilliant scales, a middle section featuring imitative counterpoint, and a virtuoso concluding section in the opening style.

What do the terms 'durezze' and 'ligature' refer to in Girolamo Frescobaldi's Toccata di durezze e ligature?

'Durezze' refers to harsh dissonances and 'ligature' refers to tied notes.

What was the vocal origin of the keyboard canzona francese?

It developed from keyboard intabulations (transcriptions) of popular French polyphonic chansons that featured contrapuntal imitation and light character.

What is a keyboard capriccio in the 17th century?

An imitative contrapuntal genre characterized by sudden contrasts, chromaticism, and often serving as a vehicle for program music representing explicit extra-musical themes.

What is the literal meaning of the Italian term 'ricercar', and how did the genre's style evolve?

'Ricercar' means 'to search' or 'seek out.' It began as a free, figurative preludial form before evolving into a strict, sectionally organized imitative contrapuntal composition.

Which 1624 publication by Samuel Scheidt was the first major work to use the term 'fugue' for keyboard compositions in the modern sense?

Tabulatura nova, Part Three.

What became the standard sequence of four core dances in the German keyboard suite by the late 17th century?

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue.

What is the style brisé in French harpsichord music?

A technique adapted from lute music involving broken-chord arpeggiated patterns that create the texture and illusion of contrapuntal voice-leading.

What is a tombeau in French keyboard literature?

A solemn, restrained instrumental lament written to commemorate the death of a revered individual or colleague.

Which German composer authored the Biblical Sonatas (Musicalische Vorstellung einiger biblischen Historien) published in 1700?

Johann Kuhnau.

What is the organization of J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846–893)?

It consists of two books (Part I from 1722–1723 and Part II from ca. 1744), each containing 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys arranged consecutively in ascending chromatic order.

What four parts comprise J. S. Bach's Clavier-Übung?

Part I (1731): Six Partitas (BWV 825–830); Part II (1735): Italian Concerto (BWV 971) and French Overture (BWV 831); Part III (1739): Organ music; Part IV (1741): Goldberg Variations (BWV 988).

What Latin acrostic forms the title word RICERCAR in J. S. Bach's The Musical Offering (BWV 1079)?

Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta ('At the King's command, the theme and the rest worked out in canonic form').

Which historical piano action mechanism is depicted in this diagram created around 1700?

Bartolomeo Cristofori's piano action mechanism (gravicembalo col piano e forte), featuring a dual-hammer setup with a hopper/escapement and check mechanism.

What are the two 18th-century piano action mechanisms shown in diagrams A and B?

Diagram A is Stein's Viennese Action (Prellmechanik with escapement), and Diagram B is Broadwood's English Action (double-action Stossmechanik with escapement).

What main structural form (forma bipartita) dominates the approximately 560 keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti?

Binary form with a double-bar near the midpoint, where each half is repeated and tonal closure is re-established in the second half.

What are acciaccature in the context of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas?

Dissonant appoggiaturas or crushed tone-clusters played on the beat, used to imitate the percussive strumming style of the Spanish guitar.

What expressive aesthetic movement in 18th-century Germany is strongly associated with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's clavichord music and free fantasias?

Empfindsamkeit (the 'sensitive' or 'expressive' style), which viewed music as the 'language of emotion' (Sprache der Empfindung).

What two-part pedagogical keyboard treatise was written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in 1753 and 1762?

Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen (Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments).

What is an accompanied keyboard sonata?

A popular late 18th-century genre consisting of a main keyboard sonata with an accompanying part for another instrument (like violin or flute) that primarily doubled the keyboard's voice parts.

What were the defining characteristics of the 16th-century keyboard fantasia, and which composers were prominent in its early development?

It was a strict imitative contrapuntal genre virtually identical to the ricercar, cultivated by composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Orlando Gibbons.

Which German manuscript represents the earliest known use of the term 'fantasia' for keyboard music?

The keyboard tablature of Hans Kotter (ca. 1513–1514).

What was the Spanish equivalent of the 16th-century imitative keyboard fantasia, and who was its most prominent composer?

The tiento, cultivated prominently by Antonio de Cabezón.

What distinct musical features are combined in J. S. Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor (BWV 903)?

Rhapsodic tempo and key changes, vocal recitative-like passages, and a chromatic fugal finale.

How is the 18th-century 'free fantasia' described in the theoretical writings and compositions of C. P. E. Bach?

An unmeasured, unbarred (senza misura) improvisational genre that moves freely through diverse key modulations, dynamic contrasts, and varied figurations.

Which 1787 keyboard work by C. P. E. Bach carries the expressive subtitle 'C. P. E. Bach's Empfindungen'?

The Fantasia in F-sharp minor (H. 300/Wq. 67).