Ambitus
Range (of chant)
Gallican Chant
French chant that incorporated elements of the Byzantine Empire
Improperia
“Teachings of the prophets”
a series of antiphons and responses, expressing the remonstrance of Jesus Christ with His people. Used in the 11’th and 12’th Centuries before being incorporated into the Roman Ordo in the 14’th Century. They are sung as part of the observance of the Passion, usually on the afternoon of Good Friday.
centonization
the process by which folk melodies are ‘woven’ into chant.
cantillation
a soloist singing a text
Antiphonal Psalmity
contains 2 choruses. the singing or musical playing of psalms by alternating groups of performers
Psalm
from Greek ‘psalm’ — poems sung to stringed instruments
150 in total
may have been played with harp, lyre, viols, etc.
early instruments
Rhombus — native American drum (also Greek) — 2.6mil.BC

Mammoth Ivory Flute — 67,000 years ago

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Pan Pipes (syrinx) — 30,000 years ago

rattle, slit drum — (TIME?)

Neanderthal
Neander Valley, Germany,

approx. 40,000 years ago

large skull and nasal cavity as well as a different vocal trat probably gave their voices higher pitch.

Greater-Perfect system
Greek Notation Sys.
Used letters A-P
2 octave system with 4 tetrachords and one additional note, called the “proslambanomenos”
Guido d’Arezzo
N. Italian monk (from Arrezo, ITA)
b. 995 in France
created a sight-singing system that uses interlocking hexachords

found a way to teach chant without using rote memorization

“Ut Queant Laxis Resonare Fabris”
Chant used as a sight singing tool by Guido d’Arezzo (b. 995.)

contains syllables still used in modern sight singing (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La)

Hucbald
French musician and theorist
840-930 AD
Wrote “De Harmonic Institutione” which is the first known discussion of music theory

classified church modes

contributed to early chant.

Aurelian of Rome
mid 9’th Century Cleric
possibly a monk?
wrote “Musica Diciplina,” the only surviving treatise on medieval music.
Alcuin
French, b. 1753 d. 1804
Musical advisor to Charlamagne
Wrote both “Sequence in honor of St. Michael” and “Writings on the Trinity”
Introduced the Feast of All Saints

May have written a book on liturgical modes.

Isidore de Seville
Wrote “Entymologies” and “De Ecclesiastics Officiis, both of which contained liturgical Music.
Boethius
b. 480 AD
Killed by Execution
Philosopher and Mathematician
Wrote “De Institutione Musica” or ‘Principles of music’
Built on Pythagorean theories of Music and Math
Pontificale
Services officiated by bishops
Liber Usualis
a book of commonly used Gregorian chants in the Catholic tradition, compiled by the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France.

contains chant for:
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei as well as the daily prayers of the church (Divine Office)

neumatic notation

antiphonale
Includes generically the antiphons and antiphonal chants sung by cantor, congregation, and choir at Mass (antiphonarium Missarum, or graduale) and at the canonical Hours ( antiphonarium officii); but now it refers only to the sung portions of the Divine Office or Breviary
Graduale
Mass chants and Music
sung after the reading or chanting of the Epistle and before the Alleluia, or, during penitential seasons

can also refer to a book collecting all the musical items of the Mass. The official such book for the Roman Rite is the Roman Gradual

Brevarium
contains texts for the offices

“a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office” (wikipedia).

Missale
book of prayer/ chant

“the liturgical book that contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.” (wikipedia).

Pythagoras
569 — 479 BC

found that music has mathematic principles

believed that musical intervals were somehow linked to planetary motion

“Doctrine of Ethos” states that music affects both Man and the Unverse, and that listening to certain kinds of music will being about changes in the individual.

heterophony
“a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time in multiple voices, each of which plays the melody differently, either in a different rhythm or tempo, or with various embellishments and elaborations.” (wikipedia)
Classical Age
325 — 450 BC

Monophonic, stresses conjunct motion

dithyram
6’th Century
1’st programmatic piece
Orpheus
Lute Player
“orpheus in the underworld” (think ‘devil went down to Georgia’)
lyre & kythera
5-7 strings, later 11 stings (including drone and sympathetic strings)

Accompanied singing and poetry (Greece)

Apollo
God of Music

Played Lyre

Conducted the MUSES — 9 goddesses of music.

Scholasticism
an intellectual Mvt. that revived ancient (Greek) thought and learning.

12’th Cen (Notre Dame School)

Orgamnum
Voice over a drone OR tenor Mvt. in 4’th of 5’ths

“a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages.” (wikipedia).

Modern Notation
Began to develop in the Notre Dame school
Notre Dame
took 100+ years to construct

first mass was celebrated in 1183

Rhythmic modes
devised to help sing longer lines
put into groups of 3 (mirrors the Holy Trinity)
Parallels with poetic meter
ligature
notational tool to show long and short
Long = long
Breve = short
Magnus Lieber Organi
1185
Written by Leonin (1135 — 1201)
credited with the creation of Organum Duplum
Perotin
Fixed, edited, and added voices to Organum
came up with Organum Triplum and Quadruplum

” He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style. He was one of very few composers of his day whose name has been preserved, and can be reliably attached to individual compositions; this is due to the testimony of an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV, who wrote about him and his predecessor Leonin.” (wikipedia).

Charlamagne
Coronated in 800 king of Holy Roman Empire

forward-thinking court

Ars Antiqua
refers to the music of Europe of the late Middle Ages between approximately 1170 and 1310, covering the period of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the subsequent years which saw the early development of the motet.

includes Leonin (late 12’th Century) and Perotin (1180-1220)

Motet
Polyphonic composition

began in 13’th Century as a coallation of the Oragnum and Clasula traditions began in the Notre Dame School.

normally consisted of a Sequence in Latin sung as a discant over a Cantus Firmus (typically a fragment of plainchant)

marked the beginning of counterpoint in Western music (wikipedia)

often in vernacular languages, or combinations of languages

Clausula
Discant (note against note) music that could be substituted into a previously composed liturgical composition.

rhythmic treatment of the tenor line, long melismas were often shortened.

*** contains an ACTIVE tenor line ***

Treatises W1 and F
surviving sections of Leonin’s “Magnus Liber Organi” (Organum Duplum)
Oblique, Parallel, and Contrary Organum
Oblique: upper voice moves, tenor holds

Parallel: voices move in parallel

Contrary: voices move in different directions

this led to more careful notatonal practices

Winchester Troper
11’th Cen. manuscript of liturgical music with “Heightened neumes,” which use different heights of each neume to show duration
Trope
added text to a mass Mvt.
Tract
a penitential Psalm used in Penetential mass, where one is called to be reflective etc.
Florid Organum
12’th Cen. “Aquitainian polyphony”

Long notes in Principal voice
chant-based — contained a drone-like tenor line.
Freely embellished: organum duplum

“The basic principle of florid organum is that there are anywhere from two to six notes in the organal voice sung over a single sustained note in the tenor.” (wikipedia).

Perfectio
rhythmic modes based in 3’s (after the holy trinity)
Stimmtausen
Voice exchange

trading the same melodic material between two voices directly after one another

Copula
organum in between parallel and discant styles.

sometimes used to connect movements of a mass.

Conductus
monophonic at first, then became polyphonic.

more active tenor

mainly secular

“The style of the conductus was usually rhythmic, as befitting music accompanying a procession, and almost always note-against-note. Stylistically it was utterly different from the other principal liturgical polyphonic form of the time, organum, in which the voices usually moved at different speeds; in conductus, the voices sang together, in a style also known as discant.” (wikipedia).

Perotin
1160 — 1230 composed conductus.

represented a departure from the liturgy (these were mainly secular songs)

french and Latin, often with 2 or 3 texts

Montpelier Codex
a collection of 300+ motets
macaronic
combining two texts from different languages (usu. latin and french)
Franco of Cologne
1250 — 1280 (active)
polyphonic motets
independent upper part
cuneiform tablets
4000 BC Mesopotamia

some mention Music

Diatonic scales
date back to Babylon
possibly influenced Greek theorists
Aulos
Lyre
Kithara
Aulos — used to worship Dionysus, goddess of fertility and wine.
Lyre — 7 strings, strummed with a pick
Kithara — large lyre, for processions and sacred ceremonies
monophonic
one line
most Greek music was monophonic, but musicians often accompanied their own singing (creating polyphony) or create variations on a melody (heterophony)
Plato
in the “Republic” used the term “melos” meaning ‘melody’ to mean a blend od text, rhythm, and simple harmony.

“music can distort one’s character. thus one should listen to appropriate music for one’s goals”

Aristotle
in “Poetics” he said that ‘there is no name for artful speech that does not include music’
harmonia
the unification of parts into an orderly whole.
reflects the belief that music reflects the order of the universe.
Claudius Ptolemy
127 — 48 BC
said that math and proportion are the underpinnings of Music. Also said that Music has to do with the alignment of the planets.
Doctrine of Ethos
Greek belief that music can affect one’s character and way of behaving
Aristoxenus
a pupil of Aristotle.
“Rhythmic Elements” (330 BC) — music is aligned with poetic rhythm.
Duration — “multiples of a basic unit of time” (Aristotle)

Harmonic Elements (300 BC)
2 kinds of speech:
1. continuous, voice slides up and down, as in speech
2. diastemic, voice moves in musical intervals
defined the terms ‘interval,’ and ‘scale’

tetrachord
“four strings”
4 notes spanning a perfect 4’th
1.) diatonic — STT (or BCDE)
2.) chromatic — TTS (or CDEF)
3.) enharmonic –TST (or DEFG)
Species of Octave in Ancient Greece (p. 17)
in the no sharp/no flat context
1.) Mixolydian — B to B
2.) Lydian — C to C
3.) Phrygian – D to D
4.) Dorian — E to E
5.) Hypodorian — F to F
6.) Hypophrygian — G to G
7. Hypodorian — A to A
the Epitaph of Seiklos
“the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world” (wikipedia).
Cantillation
chanting of sacred texts
Dialects of Chant
Chant from different regions

1. Gregorian
2. Byzantine
3. Ambrosian
4. Old Roman

Gregorian Chant
stems from 7’th Cen. papal choir, the “Schola Cantorum”
Ambrosian Chant
Attributed to St. Ambrosia, bishop of Milan 374-397
Similar to Roman chant
Boethius
480 –524
authority on Music in the middle ages
Wrote “De Institutione Musica”

Odd-numbered modes are AUTHENTIC
Even-numbered modes are PLAGAL

Heighted (diastemic) neumes
raised above/below the bass line (in an early 1 or 3 lined staff)
Solemses Monks
around 1903
wrote and collected a modern edition of chant using modern notation
used a 4-line staff, one line of which is either F or C
quilisma
a wavy line in an ascending neumatic interval denoting a scoop or vocal ornament
used widely by Hildegard Von Bingen
Tonaries
books of chants groupes by mode
Solmization
Guido d’Arezzo: invented for sight-singing
matched syllables to a pattern of tones and semitones
hexachords
only 3 semitones in chant:
E-F, B-C, A-Bb
the hexachord is a pattern of 6 solfege notes (Do-La) that occurs in 3 ways:
1.) Natural — Begins on C
2.) Hard — begins on G
3.) Soft — begins on F (with a Bb)

“Mutation” — changing from one hexachord to another

mutation
changing from one hexachord to another
Church Calendar
a cycle of commemorative stories, feasts, sermons etc. for each day of the year.
Mass
the most important service in the R.C. church
contains the Eucharist
Performed daily in convents/ Monasteries/ Large churches
and on sunday in all churches.
Mass Proper
varies from day to day
Ordinary Mass
does not change
Offices
christians gather and sing songs at 8 times in the day:
1. matins — midnight
2. lauds — sunrise
3. prime — 6:00
4. terce — 9:00
5. Sext — Non
6. nones — 3:00
7. Vespers –sunset
8. compline — 9:00

Prime through Nones are called the “little hours”

Order of Mass
A. Introductory Section: “(O)” denotes the ordinary (P.51)
1. Introit
2. (O) Kyrie
3. (O) Gloria
4. Collect
B. Liturgy of the Word
5. Epistle
6. Gradual
7. Alleluia (or tract)
8. Sequence (on major feasts)
9. Gospel
10. Sermon (optional)
11. (O) Credo
C. Liturgy of the Eucharist
12. Offeratory
13. (O) Prayers
14. Secret
15. Preface
16. (O) Sanctus
17. (O) Canon
18. (O) Lord’s Prayer
19. (O) Agnus Dei
20. Communion
21. Postcommunion
22. (O) Ite, Missa est
Introit
Psalm sung by choir
Kyrie
sung by choir
gloria
Sundays and Feast days
a praise to God that encapsulates the Trinity and asks for mercy
Gradual
From Latin “Gradus” — stairstep
soloist and choral response
melismatic
Cantor begins, Choir completes.
alleluia
“Praise God”
omitted in Lent
based on Psalm texts
Tract
From the Latin “tractus” meaning ‘drawn out’
Solemn
played during Lent
Longer
several verses of a Psalm set to Music
Sequence
(P. 62) from the Latin “sequentia” ‘something that follows’
popular in the late 9’th through the 12’th Cen’s
Set syllabically to a text mostly in couplets
Sung after the alleluia
melodic material sometimes drawn from the alleluia, but most melodies were new.
new texts were often written for sequence melodies.
Credo
a statement of faith summarizing Church Doctrine, telling the story of Jesus’ incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Offeratory
chant based on a psalm
sung by choir
Sanctus
dialogue between priest and choir
Agnus Dei
“Lamb of God”
Communion
sung by choir — based on a psalm
anitphon
a chant sung before/after a psalm
responsories
Musical responses.
(p. 51) “Bible readings with musical responses”
Canticles
poetic passages drawn from parts of the Bible (not Psalms)

also included misc. prayers

Liturgical Books
Missa — text for the mass
Gradual — chant for mass
Antiphoner — Antiphons for the R.C. Liturgy (wikipedia)
Breviary — text for the offices
Liber Usuales — Gradual + Antiphon
Responsorial
soloist alternates with Choir
Antiphonal
2 halves of choir alternate
3 types of text setting
1. syllabic — one note per syllable
2. neumatic — several notes per syllable
3. melismatic — many notes per syllable
recitation formulas
simple melodic outlines that can be used with many texts
Simplest chant
used for intoning prayers and Bible readings.
includes the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel
must be clear and without embellishment
mostly syllabic
chanted on a “Reciting Note” usu. A or C with small ornaments to show the ends of phrases.
predated the modal system
it had to be simple with a small ambitus b/c it was chanted by a priest/assistant, not a trained singer.
Psalm Tones
formulas for singing Psalms in the Office
can be adapted to any Psalm
there is one Psalm Tone for each of the 8 Liturgical modes
a ninth, archaic, mode had TWO reciting tones, giving it the moniker “Tonus Peregrinus” or ‘wandering tone’
Begins with an “Intonation” or a rising passage, then the Reciting Tone, and a “Mediant” or a cadence at the middle of each verse. Then back to the reciting tone before the “termination” or the final cadence.
Lesser Doxology
a formula of praise of the trinity sung to a Psalm Tone and printed as blank verses (without music attached) because it can be sung 8 different ways
Office Antiphons
AKA “Canticle”
not complete alone — preceded and followed by an antiphon
Cantor
leads church choir
strophic
several stanzas sung to the same music
Psalmody
singing psalms:
mass antiphons are more elaborate than the Office
Office responsories
Respond –> Verse –> full/partial respond
Sanctus
neumatic, repetitive text and repetitive music
Agnus Dei
Neumatic, states a prayer 3 times, altering words each time
Cycles
13’th Century: groupings of ordinary chants
Jubilus
a melisma added into an alleluia
Liturgical Drama
an elaborate play in Latin (catechistic)
not technically in the liturgy
linked to Bible and performed in church
contained processions and often ritualized actions
female parts sung by men
Hildegard Von Bingen
1098 — 1179
joined a convent to become educated
most of her compositions praise the Virgin Mary or various saints.
Melodies had wide ambitus (often above a P12’th), long melismas, and complicated use of melodic modes and patterns.
Von Bingen claimed she was divinely inspired to compose.
Wrote the “Ordo Virtutum,” (1151) a catechistic morality play with allegorical characters.
versus
latin song form. rhymed poetry sung monophonically
11’th — 13’th centuries
performed in Southern France
Conductus
Serous 12’th Cen. song
Rhymed, rhythmic text
set to new music, NOT BASED ON CHANT
in varnacular
Goliard Songs
medieval Latin song assiciated with wandering students, clerics, etc. called “goliards”
moralistic OR satirical OR love-based. Often about food, drink etc.
Vernacular Song
French, English, German, Italian, Spanish
(older forms of each)
Epic
a long, heroic narrative
Chanson de Geste
“song of deeds” an epic from Northern France
Song of Roland
around 1100 AD
about a battle between Charlemagne and Spanish muslims.
Bard
a poet/singer (celtic)
jongleurs
lower-class musicians (travelled in groups)
minstrel
more specialized musicians. Employed by the court and often travelling.
Troubadors
Poet-Composers in Southern france who spoke OCCITAN
Trouveres
Poet-Composers from Northern France who spoke Old French
Chanconniers
Troubadour Songbook
Minnesinger
a knightly poet/musician — 12’th –14’th Century Germany
Trobaritz
Female Troubadour
Vidas
“lives” fanciful (often completely fabricated) troubadour biographies
fin’ Amors
Occitan (troubadour) for “love,” which expands to mean “courtly love”
Fine Amour
Northern French (trouveres) for “Love,” expands to courtly Love
Troubadour melodies
strophic — each stanza has the same melody
mostly syllabic (contains groupetti)
narrow ambitus — conjunct motion
Mode 1 (dorian) and mode 7 (mixolydian) were common
Bernart de Ventadorn
a well-renowned Troubadour
his compositions often used AAB form.
Chantar
7-line stanzas
used the following pattern:
ab ab cdb (line)
A A B (phrase)

mostly stepwise, small ambitus
open to free rhythmic interpretation

Musical Plays
Included “Adan de la Halle” (1284) and “Jeu de Robin et de Marion” (the play of Robin and Marion”
King Richard I
allegedly wrote trouvere songs while awaiting rescue in a French prison
Minnelieder
German love songs
Crusade Song
exactly what it sounds like. Recounts experiences from the Crusades.
“palistinalied” a famous crusade song by “Walther von der Vogelweide,” the best-known Minnesinger
Laude
sacred Italian Monophony
evolved into 14’th century polyphany
composed in cities, rather than in courts.
sung at processions of religious penitence.
Contrafraternities
groups of citizens who came together for prayer and moral support. (Jesus’ book club)
Cantigas
Galic-Portuguese song in honor of the Virgin Mary

“cantigas de Santa Maria” a collection of about 400 cantigas praising Virgin Mary.

Hurdy-Gurdy
a 3-stringed vielle
Vielle
a fiddle, the principle bowed instrument of the medieval period.
predecessor to the violin.
5 strings, tunes in 4’ths or 5’ths
used drones
Psaltery
plucked strings over a wooden sounding board

ancestor to the piano/harpsichord

Transverse Flute
similar to modern flute, but made of wood/ivory and no keys
Shawm
medieval oboe
Pipe and Tabor
a whistle and drum
REALLY? that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.
Early Organs
1. Portative Organ
could be carried — player operated the bellows
2. Positive Organ
had to be placed on a table and required an assistant to pump the bellows.
Carole
a 12’th-14’th century French dance
only around 12 still exist
estampie
most common form of medieval dance
triple meter, short sections, often played twice with 2 different endings, with an “open” or incomplete cadence the 1’st time and a “closed” or final cadence at the end.
Organum
2+ voices dinging different notes in agreeable combinations according to given rules.
Mixed Parallel and Oblique organum
permits the following:
1. deviance from parallel motion to avoid tritones (when moving in 4’ths and 5’ths)
2. the bottom voice often does not move until it may move by 4’th or 5’th up or down.
Free Organum
the original voice had more freedom and prominance
Score Notation
polyphany: voices written above text.
Calusula
a seperate, self-contained section that may replace any part on the organum.
collated in large volumes by number (and referred to for the purposes of addition by these numbers)
Polytextuality
each line contains text from a different poem
the texts often interplayed, creating a subtextual message, often a satirical commentary on the Church or on Politics
English Motets
often added a 4’th voice for added texture
began adding sacle degrees 3 and 6 @ cadence points.