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35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Medieval Period/Middle Ages Dates + Major Traits |
450 - 1450 AD (1000 years); things moved very slowly and few changes occurred over a long period of time; mainly Roman Catholic music sung in churches |
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Alleluia Vidimus Stellam |
900 AD; monophonic; resonant; straight tone (no vibrato); few dynamics; "We Have Seen His Star" |
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"A capella" literal and modern meaning |
"At chapel"; no accompaniment |
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Gregorian Chant |
based on Church modes; based on Latin scriptures; no meter (little sense of beat); small range; quite repetitive; melismatic; named after Pope Gregory I (the Great) |
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Melismatic |
many notes per syllable |
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When did musical notation come about? What was the impact of this? |
ca 900 AD; it had originally been passed down by oral tradition; chant became more sophisticated |
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Cantus Firmus |
The original Gregorian chant; firm, sacred, original melody that cannot be changed; "fixed song" |
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Four"-Phonic" Textures |
monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic |
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Texture with a single melody? |
monophonic |
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Texture with a single melody and a chordal accompaniment? |
homophonic |
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Texture with 2 or more melodies? What was medieval polyphony like? |
polyphonic; hollow and thin with few triads |
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Texture with ornamentation and improvisation of different sorts |
heterophonic |
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How did scales come to be in the Middle Ages? |
the clergy insisted that A4/d5/tritone is DEVIL'S INTERVAL and never used it; they modified scales so that the fourth scale degree is raised and tritones are avoided |
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Name of bottom voice singing Cantus Firmus? What does the name mean? |
Tener; "to hold" |
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Hildegard von Bingen |
1098 - 1179; led a LONG comfy life in a convent in Germany-- first female composer; only known composer of chant; had flashing "visions" that would cause her to pass out for a whole day sometimes (now known as seizure; then they thought she was having visions of God); very well-respected and thought to be a link between the people and God |
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O successores |
"You successors"; by Hildegard of Bingen; an expressive example of Gregorian chant; sung by the female nuns in Hildegard's convent; meaning = a praise of the successors/followers of Christ; Hildegard claimed the words came to her in a vision; a larger pitch range, more words, wider leaps, a greater feeling of motion |
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Ars Antique |
Old art |
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Ars Nova (the book) |
"New Art"; a book by Phillip de Vitry; changed musical style in final century of the Middle Ages; covered rhythmic notation very thoroughly; led to much more syncopation; led to writing in meters other than 3 |
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Leonin and Perotin |
two notable choirmasters and composers at the SCHOOL OF NOTRE DAME; first musicians to use measured rhythm (definite time values and clearly defined MEASURES); most beats were subdivided into threes (symbol of the Holy Trinity) |
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Troubadores/Trouvères |
French landowning nobles who composed most secular songs surviving in decipherable notation between the 1100s and 1200s; wrote songs about unrequited love and chivalry; nobles had clerics write their songs down |
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Why are there much more lasting religious songs than secular songs from the Middle Ages? |
Because most secular people could not write or transcribe music, whereas most clergy was educated and could |
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Jongleurs (minstrels) |
performed music and acrobatics in castles, taverns, and town squares; had no civil rights and were on the lowest social level; sang songs written by others; played instrumental dances on harps, fiddles, and lutes |
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Organum |
medieval music that consists of Gregorian chant and one or more additional melodic lines |
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Three Types of Organum |
Parallel, Free, Parallel |
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Parallel Organum |
2 or more voices moving at the same time; stay the same distance apart (mostly P4 and P5)
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Free Organum |
2 or more voices move at the same time, but can move towards or away from each other |
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Melismatic Organum |
aka florid organum; ca. 1100; bottom voice sings original Gregorian chant in very long note values; upper voices sing lots of notes against the cantus firmus |
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Ars Nova (the style) |
freer voices; more complex; more syncopated |
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Phillip de Vitry |
composer and music theorist; much of his music was lost; wrote the book "Ars Nova" |
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Isorhythm |
a rhythmic motif that repeats and into which notes of the melody are placed; created by Phillip de Vitry |
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Drone |
long held note; aka pedal point |
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Bernat de Ventadorn |
ca. 1150-1180; a Troubador he wrote "Canvei la lauzet mover"; |
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"Motet": French meaning and modern definition |
"word"; organum with NEW WORDS in the upper voices (originally, all the voice parts had been singing the same words) |
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Guillaume de Machaut |
wrote "Quant en moy" (an isorhythmic motet); also wrote "Ma fin est mon commencement" (a rondeau that ends where it begins); he wrote the first known polyphonic setting of the mass ordinary |
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Mass Ordinary definition and 5 parts |
the mass part that is sung every day; Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Del |