MUS 380 Exam 2

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Approximate dates for the Medieval period

Approximate dates for the Medieval period

1350-1450

General characteristics of Gregorian chant/plainchant

Monophonic, usually stepwise with occasional leaps, set to religious texts, usually syllabic

Texture (Monophony, Homophony, Polyphony)

• Monophony: Single melody without accompaniment.

• Homophony: Melody with harmonic accompaniment.

• Polyphony: Multiple independent melodies simultaneously.

Text setting (Syllabic, Neumatic, Melismatic)

syllabic - one note per syllable in each word
nuematic - a small group of notes is sung to a single syllable of text.
melismatic - a single syllable of text is stretched over many notes.

Two services of the Christian Church and explain them

Mass and Offices

Mass Proper performed music that was seasonal and would only change for that

Mass Ordinary never changed music

Names of groups of secular musicians and what they were

Troubadours/Trouvères - french love singers

(Courtly love) - Courtly love became a common theme in troubadour and trouvère poetry, as well as in courtly music, where composers and poets would create works that idealized the beloved and expressed the emotions of longing, loyalty, and admiration.

Minnesingers - german love singers

Joungulers - Traveling entertainer musicians

Tropes

An expansion of exisition chant - could take something syllabic and make it mellismatic

Types of Organum and describe them

• Florid Organum: Upper voice moves freely over sustained lower voice.

• Melismatic Organum: Upper voice sings many notes per syllable over held chant.

• Discant Style: Voices move together in similar rhythms.

Cantus firmus

A short melodic line that is the basis of a full composition

What was the Notre Dame School and what was the system of rhythmn they used?

A gathering place of musicains - Rhythmic modes

Who were Leonin and Perotin

Leonin (1150 - 1200) - Priest and a poet-musician

Perotin, trained as a singer under Leonin
3-4 voice organum and substitue clausula

Clausula leading to the development of the motet

A clausula was a polyphonic section of organum. When composers added new texts to the upper voices, it evolved into the motet,

Formes fixes

1 Rondo
2 Vivrelai
3 Ballade

Three major types of Italian polyphony

Madrigal - Two voices without tenor, Idyllic, amorous, or pastorale subject and aab form

Ballata - Use of cantilina style which was where one voice was doing a lot while two tenor voices moved much more slowly Form AbbaA

Caccia - Exployed the procedure of canon usually about hunting or fishing usually 2 voices

General developments, leading composers, and characteristics of music of the Ars Nova including Isorhythm (Talea and Color)

More complex rhythms, more independent voices, and new composition techniques, use of isorhythm - repeated rhythmic pattern under melody

Vitry, Machaut, and Landini

Strophic form

Repeated music material with different text

Musica ficta

Accidentals written above the music instead of in the staff or key signature

Hocket

Voices sharing a melody but only one voice sings at a time, passing it around making it sound like one voice

Influence of the Hundred Years War on music of France and England

fostering national identity, encouraging the development of polyphony, and promoting cultural exchange between the two nations.

Fifteenth-century methods for providing unity for Mass settings

Motto opening - Head motive in an opening mass. each movement opens similarly

Cantus Firmus Mass - a type of mass where the same pre-existing melody, known as the cantus firmus, is used as the structural basis for all the movements of the mass

Use of texture in Josquin’s music

Imitation - like a canon, different lines repeating same material at different intervals and times

Paried Imitation - top two voices share the line

Examples of Josquin’s 3 ways of ingenuity in setting the mass ordinary

Soggetto cavato - A Subject that is drawn from vowels


Paraphrase mass - Mass where a pre-existing melody, like plainchant, is ornamented in all voice parts

Imitation mass - Mass that norrows polyphonic secions from another piece, reworking its texture and harmonies

Missa Pange Lingua was a parahrase mass

General biography of Josquin as example of Franco-Flemish composers’ travels and work

Born in France in 1440
Studied with Okaghem
Travled to Italy and served in the Sisteine Chapel
Then left to go back to birthplace due to the plague

Canon

A rule or instruction for realizing several parts from one that is notated

Names and primary contributions of each generation of Franco-Flemish composers

• Guillaume Dufay (1st Gen): Ars Nova bridge, sacred polyphony

• Johannes Ockeghem (2nd Gen): Counterpoint mastery, low range

• Josquin des Prez (3rd Gen): Expressive polyphony, text clarity

• Adrian Willaert (4th Gen): Polychoral style, madrigals

• Cipriano de Rore (5th Gen): Chromaticism, emotional madrigals

• Orlande de Lassus (6th Gen): Versatility, sacred secular

Rise of national styles during the sixteenth century

• Lied: German song

• Chanson: French secular

• Frottola: Italian light

• English madrigal: Word painting

• Italian madrigal: Expressive text

Madrigalisms and through-composed form

Madrigalisms are musical devices that reflect the literal meaning of the text, commonly found in madrigals, while the through-composed form allows each section of music to develop without repeating sections, enhancing expressive word painting.

Lute song

Written by John Dowland, corresponds with the decline of madrigals

Consort and “broken” consort

Consort - a different way of saying instrumentation - this was a full family of instruments

Broken Consort - a group of different instruments

Major categories of sixteenth-century instrumental music (including understanding of stylized dances, binary form, names of improvisatory-style pieces, ricercare, canzona)

• Stylized Dances: Instrumental dance forms, often in binary form (AABB).

• Improvisatory Pieces: Free-form, virtuosic works (e.g., toccata, prelude).

• Ricercare: Imitative, counterpoint-heavy precursor to the fugue.

• Canzona: Rhythmic, sectional, contrapuntal instrumental piece.

• Variations: Theme with changing melodic or harmonic elaborations.

Music of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation (including understanding of chorale, contrafactum, types of settings of chorales in multiple voices, Calvin, the Anglican Church, and the influence of the Council of Trent)

• Chorale: Lutheran hymn, simple and congregational.

• Contrafactum: Sacred texts set to existing tunes.

• Chorale settings: Polyphonic arrangements of chorales for multiple voices.

• Calvin: Advocated psalm singing in simple, unaccompanied form.

• Anglican Church: Adopted English anthems, service music.

• Council of Trent: Simplified music, clearer text for Catholic reform.

Specific characteristics of Palestrina’s music and characteristics of his music that make it a model for the Counter-Reformation

Even musical flow, seldom disturbed by drastic

Long-breathed melodies with individual voices in stepwise motion, often in an arch, easily singable.


Careful, Rigorous treatment of dissonance and little use of chromatic inflection - this reflects Counter-Reformation's call for music that was pure, because it avoids excessive complexity or harshness that could distract from the sacred nature of the text.

Influence of Petrucci and Attaingnant

Petrucci pioneered polyphonic printing with movable type, while Attaingnant advanced it with single-impression printing, making music more widely accessible.

Gradus ad Parnassum

a famous treatise on counterpoint, teaching step-by-step mastery of composition techniques.

1. How did composers of religious music during the Medieval and Renaissance show ingenuity and creativity in writing works for the church?

Motto opening, adapted pre-exsisting material by varying whats written, also known as troping

2. Describe ways in which a Lutheran composer might create settings of chorales for multiple voices.

Lutheran composers used harmonized, polyphonic, or cantus firmus-based chorale settings.

3. How did early Medieval musicians express “glory to God” when using a monophonic setting?

Melismatic Settings - The flowing, unmeasured rhythm mirrored the timeless, infinite nature of divine worship.

4. How did the definition of motet change from the Medieval to the Renaissance?

Medieval motets were sacred, polyphonic, often based on chant; Renaissance motets emphasized text expression and secular themes.

5. How did composers use structure to achieve their goals (psalm tone, formes fixes, isorhythmic motet, the Gloria movement of Dufay’s Missa Se la face ay pale, canon, Italian madrigals, Renaissance dance music)

Composers used structure for accessibility, unity, expression, and audience engagement.

6. Describe the gradual increase in the number of voices used from the early Medieval period through the Renaissance

Gregorian Chant, Minnesingers, Trouvers, more voices then added with Organum, and then perotin adds a 3rd voice in motet, and then josquin’s ave maria adds a 4th, then the piece Birds Sing adds up to 6 voices.