Music In Wester Civilization_Ch.1 & 2

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aulos

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an ancient Greek wind instrument played in pairs that produced a high, clear, penetrating sound

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chromatic genus

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a tetrachord employed by the ancient Greeks consisting of two semi-tones and a minor third

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chronos

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in ancient Greek musical notation the basic unit of time-a short value

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diatonic genus

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the basic genus within the ancient Greek musical system; reflects the primary tetrachord spanning the intervals S-T-T

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diseme

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in ancient Greek musical notation a long value of time-formed by two chronoi

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dithyramb

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in ancient Greece, a wild choral song, mingled with shouts, that honored Dionysus; a term applied today to any poem with these characteristics

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enharmonic genus

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a tetrachord found in ancient Greek music consisting of a major third and two quarter-tones; used for music demanding more subtle variations of pitch than that of the diatonic or chromatic genera

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Greater Perfect System

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the framework of the Greek two-octave scale formed by four tetrachords and the proslambanomenos

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kithara

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the largest of all ancient Greek string instruments (an especially large lyre) usually fitted with seven strings and a resonator of wood

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lyre

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in ancient Greece a medium-sized instrument usually fitted with seven strings of sheep gut and a resonator of turtle shell; plucked with a metal or bone plectrum and used most often to accompany a solo singer

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monochord

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a ancient device with a single string stretched over a wooden block and anchored at each end; distances were carefully measured on the string to correspond to specific pitches

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muses

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in ancient Greek mythology, the nine goddesses who attended Apollo and presided over the arts and sciences; root of our word "music"

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music of the spheres

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part of the ancient Greek world-view of music, which held that when the stars and planets rotated in balanced proportions they made heavenly music

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paean

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in ancient Greece, a hymn that celebrated the deeds of primary gods such as Zeus or Apollo; today any poetic hymn of praise

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proslambanomenos

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term used by the ancient Greeks to indicate the lowest sounding pitch in their Greater Perfect System

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skolion

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a song setting an aphoristic poem; the primary musical entertainment at an ancient Greek symposium

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symposium

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in ancient Greece, a tightly organized social gathering of adult male citizens for conversation and entertainment

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tetrachord

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a succession of four pitches

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tonos (pl., tonoi)

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ancient Greek term for a scale

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triseme

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a triple unit long value of time in ancient Greek musical notation- formed by three chronoi

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Ambrosian chant

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a body of chant created by Ambrose (340?-397 C.E.) for the church of Milan in northern Italy

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Byzantine chant

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the special dialect of chant developed by the Byzantine Church; it was eventually notated and a body of music theory emerged to explain it

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cantor

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the practitioner who performs music, as distinguished from the musicus; in a medieval monastery or nunnery the person specially trained to lead the music of the community who sat with one of the two groups and led the singing

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chant

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monophonic religious music that is sung in a house of worship

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Coptic chant

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the music of the Christian Church of Egypt, which still exists today, passed along for nearly 2000 years entirely by oral tradition

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Gallican chant

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the Christian music of early-medieval Gaul; it later mixed with chant coming from Rome and that fusion formed the basis of what we call Gregorian chant

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liturgy

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the collection of prayers, chants, readings, and ritual acts by which the theology of the church, or any organized religion, is practiced

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Mozarabic chant

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the old Christian church music as sung by Christians living in Spain under Moslem rule; survives today in more than twenty manuscripts but is nearly impossible to transcribe and perform

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musica humana

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music of the human body-one of the three harmonies Boethius posited as part of his cosmology of music

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musica instrumentalis

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earthly vocal and instrumental music-one of the three harmonies Boethius posited as part of his cosmology of music

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musica mundana

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music of the spheres- one of the three harmonies Boethius posited as part of his cosmology of music; the belief that all the universe resonates with music as sounding number

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musicus

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as defined by Boethius, the musicologist who studies and understands music; as distinguished from the cantor, who is a practitioner

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quadrivium

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the four scientific disciplines of the seven liberal arts-arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music- that used number and quantitative reasoning to arrive at the truth

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Roman chant

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the dialect of chant sung in the early churches of Rome; the principal repertory from which Gregorian chant would later emerge

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seven liberal arts

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a framework of seven intellectual disciplines set forth by Martianus Capella (c435 C.E.) composed of the trivium and the quadrivium

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tibia

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Roman name for the aulos

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trivium

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the three verbal disciplines of the seven liberal arts-grammar, logic, and rhetoric-which deal with language, logic, and oratory

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tuba

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Roman name for the trumpet; a long, straight instrument with a cylindrical bore and a bell at the end, which originated with the Etruscans