Monophony (monophonic)
A musical texture involving a single melodic line (Ex. Gregorian Chant)
Plainchant
Unaccompanied, monophonic music, without fixed rhythm or meter (Ex. Gregorian Chant)
Dorian Mode
A mode built off of the second major scale degree.
Phrygian Mode
A mode built off of the third major scale degree.
Lydian Mode
A mode built off of the fourth major scale degree.
Mixolydian Mode
A mode built off of the fifth major scale degree.
Reciting Tone
Especially in chant, the single note used for musical “recitation”, with brief melodic formulas for beginning and ending.
Antiphon
A genre of plainchaint usually showing a simple melodic style with very few melismas.
Sequence
A series of fragments identical except for the placement at successfully higher or lower pitch levels.
Qur’anic Recitation
An Islamic tradition in which the revelations of the prophet Muhammad gathered in the Qu’ran (or Koran) are chanted in Arabic.
Azan
An Islamic call to worship, issued five times daily by a muezzin
Mele Pule
Hawaiian prayer song
Polyphonic (Polyphonic)
Musical texture containing two or more melodic lines occurring simultaneously.
organum
The earliest genre of medieval polyphonic music
Ars nova
“the old technique” of 13th-century organum and the new polyphonic music of the 14th century
motet
A sacred vocal composition. Early motets were based on fragments of Gregorian chant
isorhythm
In 14th-century music, the technique of repeating the identical rhythm for each section of a composition, while the pitches are altered
Isorhythmic motet
Motet using isorhythms (see isorhythm)
hocket
The alternation of very short melodic phrases, or single notes, between two or more voices
Homophony
A musical texture that involves only one melody of real interest, combined with chords or other subsidary sounds (Think chorale)
Homophony
A musical texture that involves only one melody of real interest, combined with chords or other subsidary sounds (Think chorale)
Hymn
A simple religious song in several stanzas, for congregational singing in church
Mass
The main Roman Catholic service; or te music written for it.
Mass
The main Roman Catholic service; or te music written for it.
5 Parts of an ordinary mass:
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei (Pg. 80)
Cantus firmus
borrowed melody that is used for new polyphonic compositions
St Marks Cathedral
Site of beginnings of early polyphonic choral musc
Gabrieli’s Symphonie sacre
Influential text of early polyphony/polychoral style
oratorio
Long semidramatic piece on a religious subject for soloists, chorus, and orchestra
Recitative
A half-singing, half-reciting style of presenting words in opera, cantata, oratorio, etc., following speech accents and speech rhythms closely.
Aria
A vocal number for solo singer and orchestra, genrally in an opera, cantata, or oratorio
Church cantata
a cantata with religious words