Ethnomusicologist
a music historian who specializes in ethnic music; a good example is Bela Bartok
What type of meter(s) did Native American music entail?
Steady duple or single meter
What kinds of percussion instruments did Native Americans use, and from what kinds of items were they made?
Rattles – gourds, tree bark, carbed wood, deer hooves, turtle shells, spider nests

Drums – framed, barrel, water

What does the word “Renaissance” mean in French?
rebirth
Where did the Renaissance primarily start?
Italy
Humanism
Commitment to independent reasoning and reliance on original sources; combined reasoning with empirical evidence
scholasticism
accumulation of wisdom through “disputation;” dependence on traditional written theories
What invention revolutionized the written word?
The printing press
What distinguished Protestant ideas from Catholic ideas?
Emphasis on an individual’s personal relationship with God

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Salvation based on faith rather than works

Worship is encouraged to be in the vernacular

For what revolutionary religious measure is King Henry VIII remembered?
Establishing the Church of England
Old Hall Manuscript
A collection of works from 1350 to 1420, containing the works of significant English composers John Dunstable and Leonel Power
How were Renaissance theorists different from Medieval theorists?
While Medieval theorists prioritized number and reason over sound, Renaissance theorists used judgment of the ear
“Liber de arte contrapuncti”
a book by Johannes Tinctoris in which he based his judgments on study of actual manuscripts; significantly, he identified a break in musical tradition that had occurred about 40 years before
Johannes Tinctoris
Renowned Renaissance composer and theorist who wrote “Liber de arte contrapuncti”
“contenance angloise”
English guise; term used to identify sonority
sonority
the consonance of a piece; primarily dominated by thirds, fifths and sixths
Name three major early Renaissance composers.
John Dunstable

Guillaume Du Fay

Johannes Ockeghem

fauxbourdon
a work in which there are three lines total, with one line unnotated and instead indicated as parallel to the top line, typically a 4th below
Faburden
a work in which there are interpolated lines above (parallel 4th above) AND below (3rd or 5th below) a preexisting melody.
cantus firmus
“fixed melody” used as the basis of compositions
Name characteristics of the motet.
Single text, direct connection between words and music

pervading imitation or imitative polyphony with all voices singing the same musical idea and equal in melody and rhythm

Self-contained sections

Paratactic form

Words nearly always religious

Paratactic form
Small units that are more/less independent from one another
tactus
steady pulse; interpreted as the standard human heart rate
Name the different categories of Renaissance Mass.
Cantus firmus, Canon, Imitation (Parody), Paraphrase
Define “cantus firmus” in terms of the category of Mass
in which a pre-existing melody is placed in the tenor
Canon
one of the notated voices generates a second voice
Imitation(Parody)
Incorporates all the voices of an existing work into a new work
Paraphrase
Borrowing an existing melodic idea from a different work
Motet
prayer set to music
What countries constituted the Protestant north?
Northern Germany, Scandinavia
What countries constituted the Catholic south?
Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland
musicus
someone who after careful investigation assumes the office of the “cantor” (performer)
Which composer was a transition composer between the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and why is he considered thus?
Du Fay; he alternated between plainchant and 3-voice polyphony
From what various sources were some of Mass’s cantus firmus created?
Plainchant, secular songs, random solmization syllables and soggetto cavato
Soggetto cavato
in which a musical idea is derived from a word or name
anthem
small-scale religious work similar to the motet but with religious text
mannerism
relationship between words and music
Name the characteristics of the Italian madrigal.
short composition

secular text

both homophony and imitative polyphony are used

words given more importance (word painting)

word painting
music to illustrate a word
In what types of settings were Italian madrigals performed?
Intimate settings such as after dinner

Large banquets and private homes

“The Triumphs of Oriana”
a collection of madrigals written for Queen Elizabeth I
What were the most known types of German secular works during the 16th century?
Tenorlied and Lied
Tenorlied
Polyphonic work
Lied
Monophonic work with no accompaniment
Who were the Meistersingers?
A German guild of well-schooled musical amateurs
Lute song
essentially strophic madrigals for voice and lute
For what was John Dowland particularly remembered?
Lute stuffs
chorales
congregational hymns
What is an anthem and what are its types?
English equivalent of the motet

Full anthem: chorus throughout
Verse anthem: alternates choral passages with passages for solo voices

Who was the Council of Trent and what actions did they take during the Renaissance?
a council that met to revise Catholic traditions

revised liturgy, purged the church of practices accrued of the centuries, eliminated a number of plainchants added in the Renaissance, discouraged use of secular music as a model for sacred music

Who is remembered as the master of 16th century counterpoint?
Palestrina
panconsonance
a harmonic idiom that makes ample use of triads and limits the use of dissonance considerably; Dunstable and his followers used this
cantilena motet
a motet featuring a florid, lyrical top voice over a pair of slower moving voices
isomelic
a melodic counterpart to the metrical patterns of isorhythm; varying on a melody
chansons
early Renaissance French secular songs
pervading imitation
a technique used by composers in the late 1400s in which a series of musical ideas are stated imitatively in all voices throughout an entire work or section of a work; requires all voices to sing essentially the same musical ideas.
point of imitation
distinct thematic unit in which all the voices of a polyphonic compositions take up more or less the same musical idea in succession
conjunct motion
stepwise progressions with only occasional leaps of more than a fifth; characterizes melody in Renaissance music
Cyclic Mass
a cycle of all movements of the Mass Ordinary integrated by a common cantus firmus or other musical devices
Who were the two main composers who started the writing of Cyclic Mass?
Leonel Power and John Dunstable
head motif
a thematic idea in multiple voices placed prominently at the beginning or section of a movement
Name the different techniques Josquin applied a cantus firmus to his works
Strict – in which the cantus firmus remained consistently in the tenor

Ostinato – in which the cantus firmus is repeated so consistently that it appears in at least one voice at all times

Free – in which the cantus firmus migrates from voice to voice or may drop out altogether from time to time

Paraphrase
in which an existing melodic idea is borrowed but is elaborated on freely by all voices in a new work
frottola
songs based on freely structured poems as well as poems in a variety of established Italian literary forms; avoids imitation and contrapuntal artifice
antiphonal
type of performance featuring repeated alternation between two voices or groups of voices
Name two major composers of the 15th and early 16th centuries who originated in England.
John Dunstable and Leonel Power
Name three major composers of the 15th and early 16th centuries from France.
– Gille Binchois
– Antoine Busnois
– *Johannes Ockeghem*
– *Johannes Tinctores*
– *Josquin des Prez*
– Jacob Obrecht
– Heinrich Isaac

*Starred names are the composers who relate more directly to our class*

lira da braccio
a large viol-like instrument held on the shoulder
crumhorn
a kind of J-shaped double-reed instrument
bladder pipe
a type of bagpipe
racket
forerunner of the bassoon, also known as the Wurstfagott or “sausage bassoon”
Ruckpositiv (Chair)
a separate set of pipes situated underneath or behind the organist; the most common additional register in the organ
positive organ
portable organ which rested on the floor or on the table while a second person worked the bellows, allowing the performer to play with both hands
What was the most common plucked stringed instrument in the Renaissance?
The lute
What were the two string families in the late 15th century?
The viol and violin families
viola da braccio
any viol meant to be played while being held in the arm
viola da gamba
any viol meant to be played between the legs or held upright on the lap
What differences are there between violins and viols?
Viols have sloped shoulders, flat backs, fretted fingerboards and six strings tuned to fourths save for a major third between the two middle strings. Viols were softer and were bowed underhand, unlike violins.
What types of recorders existed in the late 15th century?
Soprano, alto, tenor, bass and sopranino
What are the two principal double-reed instruments of the late 15th century?
The shawm and the crumhorn
What are two forerunners of the bassoon?
Curtal and racket
Describe the common instrumental ensemble in late 15th century Renaissance.
Small ensembles of matched instruments with different ranges
Basse danse
a slow, stately dance for couples, executed with smooth, gliding steps
Parisian Chanson
replaced rondeau; generally homorhythmic and dominated by the vertical sonorities of tonic, subdominant and dominant chords. Although they were notated polyphonically, the melodies were generally confined to the uppermost line.
madrigal
a secular vocal composition for three or more voices; a new type of polyphonic song
through-composed
in which each line of text is set to essentially new music; madrigals generally held this characteristic
villancico
principal genre of Renaissance Spanish song; poetic form equivalent to the French virelai (AbbaA)
intabulations
a term used to cover any arrangement of an existing vocal work for a plucked string instrument or keyboard
variations
instrumental compositions in which a given theme was restated with different shaping throughout a work
ricercar
a freely composed work that “seeks out” a particular mode or thematic idea; later became a means of contrapuntal exploration inherent in a theme or series of themes
toccata
a sectional, freely constructed work unrelated to any preexistent material
fantasia
a work that allows for free flights of the composer’s imaginative fantasy, utilizing intense thematic manipulation
Name some different types of 16th-century instrumental dance music.
– Pavane – slow, courtly dance in duple meter
– Passamezzo – similar to the pavane, but with a lighter step
– Bourree: lively dance in duple meter with a prominent upbeat at the beginning of each section
– Saltarello – lively dance that often follows a slower one
– Galliarde – like a saltarello but even more vigorous, with larger leaps by the dancers
– Volta – vigorous “turning” dance often in compound duple meter
– Branle – “line dance”
– Moresca – “Moorish dance”
– Rondo – “round dance”
Upon what structure were most 16th century instrumental dance pieces built?
Periodic phrase structure – all of these dances are built on this principle; that is, they consist of many modular units of equal length
reprise
large section in dance music to be repeated
syntactic form
in which a central idea is presented and varied over the course of an entire movement, in contrast to paratactic form
Mannerism (book definition)
term from art history that designates a style of painting and sculpture characterized by the use of distortion, exaggeration and unsettling juxtaposition; in music this applies to a small repertory of works which are characterized by a comparable process of distortion, including extreme dissonance, unusual harmonic progressions, and exaggerated word painting.
Musica reservata
music reserved for a select audience of elite noble-born or aristocratic listeners