Music History Quiz #2

Front 1

Medieval Period/Middle Ages Dates + Major Traits

Back 1

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

Front 2

Alleluia Vidimus Stellam

Back 2

900 AD; monophonic; resonant; straight tone (no vibrato); few dynamics; "We Have Seen His Star"

Front 3

"A capella" literal and modern meaning

Back 3

"At chapel"; no accompaniment

Front 4

Gregorian Chant

Back 4

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)

Front 5

Melismatic

Back 5

many notes per syllable

Front 6

When did musical notation come about? What was the impact of this?

Back 6

ca 900 AD; it had originally been passed down by oral tradition; chant became more sophisticated

Front 7

Cantus Firmus

Back 7

The original Gregorian chant; firm, sacred, original melody that cannot be changed; "fixed song"

Front 8

Four"-Phonic" Textures

Back 8

monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic

Front 9

Texture with a single melody?

Back 9

monophonic

Front 10

Texture with a single melody and a chordal accompaniment?

Back 10

homophonic

Front 11

Texture with 2 or more melodies? What was medieval polyphony like?

Back 11

polyphonic; hollow and thin with few triads

Front 12

Texture with ornamentation and improvisation of different sorts

Back 12

heterophonic

Front 13

How did scales come to be in the Middle Ages?

Back 13

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

Front 14

Name of bottom voice singing Cantus Firmus? What does the name mean?

Back 14

Tener; "to hold"

Front 15

Hildegard von Bingen

Back 15

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

Front 16

O successores

Back 16

"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

Front 17

Ars Antique

Back 17

Old art

Front 18

Ars Nova (the book)

Back 18

"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

Front 19

Leonin and Perotin

Back 19

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)

Front 20

Troubadores/Trouvères

Back 20

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

Front 21

Why are there much more lasting religious songs than secular songs from the Middle Ages?

Back 21

Because most secular people could not write or transcribe music, whereas most clergy was educated and could

Front 22

Jongleurs (minstrels)

Back 22

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

Front 23

Organum

Back 23

medieval music that consists of Gregorian chant and one or more additional melodic lines

Front 24

Three Types of Organum

Back 24

Parallel, Free, Parallel

Front 25

Parallel Organum

Back 25

2 or more voices moving at the same time; stay the same distance apart (mostly P4 and P5)

Front 26

Free Organum

Back 26

2 or more voices move at the same time, but can move towards or away from each other

Front 27

Melismatic Organum

Back 27

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

Front 28

Ars Nova (the style)

Back 28

freer voices; more complex; more syncopated

Front 29

Phillip de Vitry

Back 29

composer and music theorist; much of his music was lost; wrote the book "Ars Nova"

Front 30

Isorhythm

Back 30

a rhythmic motif that repeats and into which notes of the melody are placed; created by Phillip de Vitry

Front 31

Drone

Back 31

long held note; aka pedal point

Front 32

Bernat de Ventadorn

Back 32

ca. 1150-1180; a Troubador he wrote "Canvei la lauzet mover";

Front 33

"Motet": French meaning and modern definition

Back 33

"word"; organum with NEW WORDS in the upper voices (originally, all the voice parts had been singing the same words)

Front 34

Guillaume de Machaut

Back 34

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

Front 35

Mass Ordinary definition and 5 parts

Back 35

the mass part that is sung every day; Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Del