MUS-319 Test 2

• Anglican Church: The official Church of England created by King Henry VIII after separating from the Catholic Church in 1534.

  
  

• Anthem: A sacred polyphonic choral setting in English used in the Anglican liturgy, analogous to the Latin motet.

  
  

• Calvinism: A Protestant movement led by Jean Calvin emphasizing strict liturgical simplicity, congregational singing of unembellished metrical psalms, and the rejection of elaborate polyphony in church.

  
  

• Cantus Firmus: A pre-existing melody (drawn from plainchant or secular song) placed in the tenor as the structural foundation for a polyphonic composition.

  
  

• Concerto delle Donne: A famous ensemble of professional female court singers in late-16th-century Ferrara known for their high virtuosity and expressive solo/ensemble singing.

  
  

• Consort: An instrumental ensemble of the 16th and 17th centuries. A whole consort uses instruments from the same family (e.g., all viols); a mixed/broken consort combines instruments from different families.

  
  

• Contenance Angloise: The "English guise/manner"—a 15th-century term describing the distinctive English sound imported to continental Europe, characterized by full sonorities, sweet harmonies, and pervasive 3rds and 6ths.

  
  

• Council of Trent (1545–1563): An ecumenical council of the Catholic Church convened as part of the Counter-Reformation; it sought to reform church music by banning secular cantus firmi, demanding clear text intelligibility, and restricting overly complex polyphony.

  
  

• Counter-Reformation: The Catholic Church’s internal reform movement in response to the Protestant Reformation, aiming to restore spiritual devotion, liturgical purity, and musical clarity.

  
  

• Court Chapel: A mobile or permanent institution of professional musicians (singers, instrumentalists, and composers) employed by a monarch, prince, or noble court (e.g., the Duchy of Burgundy).

  
  

• Deudsche Messe: Martin Luther’s German Mass (1526), designed for smaller or vernacular churches, replacing traditional Latin Mass chants with German hymns and chorales.

  
  

• Duchy of Burgundy: A wealthy 15th-century political territory (spanning eastern France and the Low Countries) whose court was a primary center for early Renaissance polyphony under composers like Du Fay and Binchois.

  
  

• Faburden / Fauxbourdon:

  • Faburden (English): Improvised 3-voice polyphony where a chant in the middle voice is doubled a 4th above and a 3rd below.

    
    

  • Fauxbourdon (Continental): Composition technique where the chant is placed in the top voice (cantus) with a bottom voice moving mostly in 6ths/octaves, and an unwritten middle voice improvised a 4th below the top voice.

    
    

• Formes Fixes: Standardized French poetic and musical structures dominant in the 14th and 15th centuries: Rondeau (ABaAabABABaAabAB), Ballade (aabCaabC), and Virelai (AbbaAAbbaA).

  
  

• Frottola: A light, strophic, 4-part Italian secular song of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, featuring top-voice melody and homophonic chordal rhythm.

  
  

• Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (1501): The first book of polyphonic music printed from movable type, published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci.

  
  

• Humanism: A Renaissance intellectual movement focused on classical antiquity, human potential, rhetoric, individual expression, and a closer relationship between music and text.

  
  

• Intabulation: An arrangement of a vocal work (chanson, motet, madrigal) re-notated into tablature for solo lutenist, keyboardist, or vihuelist.

  
  

• Intermedio: A dramatic, musical, and visual spectacle performed between the acts of a spoken play at Renaissance court weddings and celebrations.

  
  

• L'homme armé: A popular 15th-century French secular song whose tune was used as a cantus firmus for dozens of Renaissance Mass settings.

  
  

• Lutheranism: The Protestant movement founded by Martin Luther, promoting congregational singing in the vernacular (German) through strophic chorales.

  
  

• Madrigalism: Word-painting techniques in 16th-century madrigals where musical figures visually or audibly mimic specific textual words (e.g., rapid ascending notes for "climbing", pauses for "death").

  
  

• Mensuration Canon: A canon in which two or more voices sing the same musical line simultaneously at different speeds or metric proportions (e.g., Ockeghem's Missa prolationum).

  
  

• Missa Prolationum: A landmark Mass setting by Johannes Ockeghem constructed entirely using mensuration canons across all four voice parts.

  
  

• Motto Mass: A cyclic Mass setting where every movement begins with the exact same melodic motive or head-motive (head-motive Mass).

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• Musica Reservata: A late-16th-century term describing emotionally intense, chromatic, highly expressive music composed for select, connoisseur audiences.

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• Musica Transalpina (1588): A collection of Italian madrigals translated into English, published in London by Nicholas Yonge, which ignited the English Madrigal boom.

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• Musique Mesurée: A late-16th-century French style of quantitative vocal composition pioneered by Jean-Antoine de Baïf and Claude Le Jeune, matching long and short text syllables to exact long and short note durations.

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• Oriana: The poetic name representing Queen Elizabeth I in Thomas Morley’s famous madrigal anthology The Triumphes of Oriana (1601).

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• Palestrina Style: The late-16th-century polyphonic style developed by Palestrina, characterized by smooth, stepwise melodic contours, controlled dissonance preparation and resolution, clear text declamation, and triadic harmony.

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• Point of Imitation: A structural passage in polyphonic music where a single musical theme/phrase is introduced successively across all voice parts.

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• Psalter: A printed book containing metrical translations of the Psalms set to simple, strophic melodies for congregational worship.

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• Reformation: The 16th-century religious movement that split Western Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism, profoundly altering church music styles and liturgies across Europe.

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• Renaissance: The cultural and historical era (c. 1400–1600) marked by a "rebirth" of classical antiquity, humanist philosophy, expanded polyphonic techniques, and international musical styles.

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• Tablature: A system of notation for plucked or keyboard instruments (lute, vihuela, organ) that uses numbers, letters, or visual diagrams on lines to show finger placement rather than abstract pitch names.

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Important People

• Pierre Attaingnant (c. 1494–1552): Major French music publisher in Paris who popularized the cost-effective single-impression printing technique.

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• William Byrd (c. 1540–1623): Leading English Catholic composer of the Elizabethan era; wrote Anglican anthems, Latin motets, keyboard variations, and held a royal printing patent with Tallis.

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• Jean Calvin (1509–1564): Protestant reformer who established Calvinism in Geneva, restricting church music strictly to monophonic, congregational metrical psalms.

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• Guillaume Du Fay (c. 1397–1474): Preeminent Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance; synthesized English, French, and Italian styles in motets, chansons, and cantus-firmus Masses.

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• John Dowland (1563–1626): Leading English lutenist and composer celebrated for his melos-driven lute songs (e.g., Flow, my tears).

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• John Dunstable (c. 1390–1453): English composer who worked in France, bringing the sweet Contenance Angloise and triadic harmonies to the European continent.

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• Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1555–1612): Venetian organist and composer at St. Mark's Basilica known for grand polychoral compositions and specified instrumental scoring.

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• Carlo Gesualdo (1566–1613): Italian nobleman and composer famous for his extreme, highly chromatic late Renaissance madrigals.

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• Henry Tudor / Henry VIII (1491–1547): King of England who broke with Rome in 1534 to establish the Anglican Church, prompting the creation of English-language sacred genres.

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• Josquin Des Prez (c. 1450–1521): Master Franco-Flemish composer of the High Renaissance; perfected points of imitation, text depiction, and expressive humanistic motets.

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• Clément Janequin (c. 1485–1558): French composer renowned for programmatically descriptive Parisian chansons featuring vocal imitations of battles, birdsong, and street cries.

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• Claude Le Jeune (1528–1600): Primary composer of musique mesurée, setting quantitative French verse with strict long/short note values.

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• Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594): Prolific Franco-Flemish composer active in Munich; mastered all major sacred and secular genres in Latin, French, Italian, and German.

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• Martin Luther (1483–1546): German monk who launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517; valued music highly and created the Lutheran chorale for congregational worship.

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• Luca Marenzio (1553–1599): Italian madrigalist celebrated for his refined, expressive word-painting and virtuoso chromatic madrigals.

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• Thomas Morley (1557–1602): English composer, theorist, and publisher; authored A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597) and published light balletts and madrigals.

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• Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410–1497): Franco-Flemish master known for dense, bass-rich polyphony and extraordinary contrapuntal feats like the Missa prolationum.

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• Ottaviano Petrucci (1466–1539): Venetian printer who produced the first printed polyphonic music book (Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A, 1501) using a triple-impression method.

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• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525–1594): Italian master of Counter-Reformation sacred music whose balanced, transparent polyphonic style became the ideal model for Catholic church music.

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• Claudin de Sermisy (c. 1490–1562): Primary French composer of light, homophonic Parisian chansons (e.g., Tant que vivray).

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• Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585): Foremost English sacred composer who served under four monarchs; wrote Latin motets and English anthems, holding a joint print monopoly with Byrd.

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• Thomas Weelkes (c. 1576–1623): English madrigalist known for vivid, imaginative word-painting (e.g., As Vesta was).

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• Adrian Willaert (c. 1490–1562): Franco-Flemish maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s in Venice; trained key Italian theorists/composers (Zarlino) and pioneered polychoral techniques