Music History Genres

Genres:

  • five main movements of  Mass Ordinary

    • kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus, agnus dei

  • musically significant sections of Mass Proper

    • antiphons, offertory, communion

  • significant services and components within services of the Office

    • vespers

  • describe compositional techniques at work in different polyphonic Mass Ordinary settings

    • plainsong mass: parallel movements of plainchant reused (Machaut)

    • cantus firmus mass: monophonic source, one line of music, in tenor voice and build texture around, same music in all movements

    • paraphrase mass: monophonic source used in imitative counterpoint (multiple voices)

      • Josequin mass does this

    • imitation pass (parody mass): polyphonic model and takes aspect of multiple voices and uses it in multiple settings (Thomas’s victoria, Dufay Missa)

  • conventional attributes of other important sacred and secular genres

    • antiphon: chant sung before and after the psalm

      • varies each day of the church calendar

      • soloist/choir

    • hymn

      • form: a a a

      • strophic

    • sequence

      • form: a bb cc dd ee … n

      • sung after Alleluia

      • 9th-13th century popular

      • syllabic, couplet text

    • medieval secular songs

      • ballade

        • form: aabC

        • two couplets w/same music (aa), contrasting music (b), refrain ©

        • often two sections will have different endings

      • virelai

        • form: AbbaA

        • three stanzas (bba) preceded and followed w/a refrain (A)

      • rondeau

        • form: AbaAabAB

        • one stanza (a) with various refrains (AB or A [half refrain])

      • madrigal

        • form: a a a a … b

        • two/three voices w/out instrumental accompaniment

        • 2+ three-line stanza and a ritornello (closing two-lined stanza set to music with a different meter)

      • ballata

        • form: AbbaA

        • popular after madrigal and caccia

        • represa [refrain] (A), two piedi [couplets] (bb), volta [closing lines] (a)

      • caccia

        • Italian form, 14th century

        • two voices in canon over a free untexted tenor in slower motion

    • medieval motet

      • one or more voices with their own text above a tenor (drawn on chant/melody)

      • isorhythm: repetition in a voice, usually tenor, of an extended pattern of duration throughout a section or entire composition

    • polyphonic chansons (Burgundian, Franco-Flemish, Parisian)

      • secular song spoken in French

      • cantus (treble) principle voice, slow-moving tenor

      • Burgundian

        • most often stylized to love poems

        • follows form of a rondeau

      • Franco-Flemish

        • contrapuntal chanson

      • Parisian

    • Renaissance motet

      • isorhythmic motet

    • Renaissance madrigal

    • lute song: English solo w/lute accompaniment

    • chorale (16th C. Lutheran)

      • Lutheran tradition, sung by congregation

      • metric, rhymed, strophic poem and melody sung in unison

    • anthem

      • sacred work in English for Anglican services

      • polyphonic work, sung in English by the choir

    • instrumental genres

      • variations

      • prelude

      • toccata

      • ricercare

      • canzona

      • sonata