Monophony
Consisting of a single unaccompanied melodic line.
Gregorian Chant
Also known as plainchant, comes from broadening meaning of text, from Pope Gregory who was standardizing liturgy
Antiphonal singing
Chant sung before and after a song. * used in the OFFICE. Matins includes nine Great Responsories, and several other office services include a Short Responsory.
Responsorial singing
Soloist sings, responded by the choir. * used in the OFFICE. Matins includes nine Great Responsories, and several other office services include a Short Responsory.
Psalm tone
Series of tones of five elements –antiphon, intonation, tenor, mediation, termination. A MELODIC formula for singing PSALMS in the OFFICE. There is one psalm tone for each MODE.
Antiphon
a manner of performance in which two or more groups alternate
Trope
Addition to an existing CHANT, consisting of (1) words and MELODY; (2) a MELISMA; or (3) words only, set to an existing melisma or other melody.
Sequence
Put text to melisma, edited to jubilus of Alleluia *A category of Latin CHANT that follows the ALLELUIA in some MASSES.
Litugical drama
Chants strum together to teach a scriptural text or concept. *Dialogue on a sacred subject, set to music and usually performed with action, and linked to the LITURGY.
Vox principalis
Original chant
Vox organalis
Typically voiced a 4th below the chant
Tenor
Principle voice who held the chant as other lines made polyphony with it *(1) In a MODE or CHANT, the RECITING TONE. (2) In POLYPHONY of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the voice part that has the chant or other borrowed MELODY, often in long-held NOTES
Polyphony
Music or musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody
Discant
Note-against-note occurring against tenor, generally faster than other parts of the organum. *Twelfth-century style of POLYPHONY in which the upper voice or voices have about one to three NOTES for each note of the lower voice.
Clausula
Section of music written in discant *In NOTRE DAME POLYPHONY, a self-contained section of an ORGANUM that closes with a CADENCE.
Organum
Earliest polyphony we know of, in which harmony is set a 4th below the original chant. *A piece, whether IMPROVISED or written, in one of those styles, in which one voice is drawn from a CHANT.
Florid organum
Twelfth-century style of two-voice POLYPHONY in which the lower voice sustains relatively long NOTES while the upper voice sings note-groups of varying length above each note of the lower voice