Messiah, Hallelujah Course
– George Frederic Handel
– Baroque
– Monophony, homophony, and polyphony
– Oratorio
Oratorio
Sacred or religious music of the Baroque era – basically an opera on a religious subject. No grand stage, performance orientated.
Julius Caesar – La Guistizia
– George Frederic Handel
– Baroque
– In Da Capo Form
– Opera Aria
– Non-imitative Polyphony
Aria
A set piece for a solo singer that has much more musical elaboration – emotional
Da Capo Form
– Typical of Baroque Opera Aria
– A B A
Accompanied Recitative
Recitatives accompanied by orchestra or one kind or another
Recitative
Technique of declaming words musically in a heightened, theatrical matter. Plot specific.
Secco Recitative
Recitative with continuo accompaniment
Opera Seria
Serious opera – designed to stir up powerful emotions, plot was usually derived from ancient history.
Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, Air
– J.S. Bach
– Air
– Baroque
– Walking Bass
– In French Overture style, B is in imitative polyphony
French Overture
The special preparatory number prior to a dance suite.
Overture
a general term for any substantial piece of music introducing a play, opera or ballet.
– In A B A’ pattern
Binary Form
a a b b
typical of Baroqeu Dance Form
Suite
A genre of dance, it is a collection of miscellaneous dances together
Stylized Dances
Dances meant to be listened to, not danced to.
Fugue
is a polyphonic composition for a fixed number of instrumental lines or voices – usually 3 or 4 – built on a single theme. This theme is called the
subject – it appears again and again.
– Systemized imitative polyphony
Exposition
The fugue begins with an exposition, in which all the voices present the subject in an orderly, standardized way.
Subject Entries
After the exposition, the subject enters at intervals, these are called subjct entries.
Episodes
The passages of music separating the later subject entries are called episodes.
The Art of the Fugue, Contrapunctus 4
– J.S. Bach
– Fugue
– Baroque
– Imitative Polyphony
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
– J.S. Bach
– Congerto Grosso
– Ritornellos
– Non imitative polyphony
– Baroque
Variation Form
Entail the successive, uninterrupted repetition of one clearly defined melodic unit, with changes that rouse the listener’s interest w/o ever losing touch with the original unit. Systematic.
Basso Ostinato
Persistent bass
Ground bass
Repeating bass figure in Baroque Variation Form
Concerto
Contrast between an orchestra and a soloist
Concerto Grosso
Contrast between an orchestra and a small group of soloists
Movement
A self contained section of music that is part of a larger work
1st – bright, extroverted
2nd – gentler, slower, more emotion
3rd – fast again, sometimes faster than the first
Ritornello
Concerto movements are often in ritornello form, the name of the orchestral music that starts the movement off. Contrast is back to the concerto, and ritornello form focuses on contrast between two musical ideas – one of the orchestra one of the soloist(s).
La Stravaganza I
– Vivaldi
– Baroque
– First movement – faster, extroverted
– Concerto – Ritornello
La Stravaganza II
– Vivaldi, 2nd movement, slower, more gentle
– Baroque
– in Ground bass form
– Conterto – Baroque Variation Form
Ornamentation
Improvising melodic extras in the aria
Standard texture of Baroque music is?
Polyphonic
Continuo aka figured bass.
The continuo is a bass part that is always linked to a series of chords, usually played by the harpischord or organ, or lute.
Walking Bass
Feature that hammers the home beat – moves absolutely in even notes, usually 8ths or quarters
Dido and Aeneas, Act III
– Henry Purcell
– Opera
– Baroque
– Chorus is in style typical of the madrigal – homophony and imitative polyphony w/ word painting
– Recitative
– Aria – built over slow ground bass
Opera
Drama presented in music, with characters singing instead of speaking- often called the most characteristic art from of hte Baroque period.
Functional Harmony
Composers developed a new way of handling hte chords so that their interrelation was felt to b e more logical, or at least more coherent. Each chord now assumed a special role, or function, in relation to the tonic chord. Purpose + predictable.
O Magnum Mysterium
– Giovanni Gabrieli
– Baroque
– Motet
– Written for the X-Mas season
– Polyphonic
Kemp’s Jig
– Anonymous
– Renaissance
– in simple dance tune, a a b form
– recorder, viol, lute
– ornaments are piled on
Madrigal
A short composition set to a one-stanze poem – typically a love poem – in imitative polyphony and homomphony
As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending
– Thomas Weelkes
– Renaissance
– Madrigal
– Full of word painting and declamation
Motet
a sacred vocal composition. Early motets were based on fragments of gregorian chant. – Homophony and imitative polyphony
Typical high renaissance texture?
Homophony and imitative polyphony
Pope Marcellus Mass, from the Gloria
– Palestrina
– Renaissance
– Mass
– Qui Tollis
– Manly homophony, some polyphony
– 6 person vocals, semichoirs
Pange Lingua Mass, from the Gloria
– Josquin Desprez
– Renaissance
– Mostly imitative polyphony, some homophony – used to give sense of communal worship
– 4 person vocals, semichiors
Word painting
Matching music to the meaning of the words “high” vs “low”
Declamation
made sure that words were sung to rhythms and melodies that approximated normal speech
Point of Imitation
a brief passage of imitative polyphony covering one short phrase of a compositions verbal text and using a single musical motive.
Pange Lingua Mass, from Kyrie
– Josquin Desprez
– Renaissance
– Mass
– Non-imitative and imitative polyphony
Hymn
a simply religious song, sang ina few stanzas, used for congregation
Hymn
a simply religious song, sang ina few stanzas, used for congregation
Ave Maris Stella
– Guillaume Dufay
– Renaissance
– Harmonized Hymn
– Homophony
Homophony began in the…
Renaissance
Quant en Moi
– Mauchet
– Motet
– Middle Ages
– Non-imitative poloyphony
– Hocket, isorhythmic motet
Isorhythm
technique of writing successive lengthy passages in identical rhythms but with distinct melodies
Isorhythmic Motet
Motets that employ isorhythm
Motet
Upper lines are given their own words – a new sort of polyphony expaned from organum
Alleluia. Diffusa est Gratia
– Perotin
– Middle ages
– Organum
– a section is plainchant therefore monophonic, b section is non imitative polyphony
– our first example of polyphony
Cantus Firmus
Original plainchant that forms the basis of a new composition
Organum
Earliest type of polyphony, it is based on cantus firmus, added another melody in counterpoint
La Dousa Votz
– Bernart de Ventadorn
– Middle ages
– Troubador Song
– Homophony – singer + accompaniment
– strophic form A A A…
In Paradisum
– Anonymous
– Middle ages
– Gregorian antiphon
– Monophonic
antiphon
a genre of plainchant usually showing a simple melodic style with few melismas
Reciting Tone
the pitch on which the text is sung, it is held except for small variations. In gregorian recitation
2 Characteristics of Plainchant
1 – all nonmetrical – no clearly established meter, therefore free rhythm
2 – not constured in major/minor system
according to medievil modes
Medieval modes are…
D-DORIAN
E-PHRYGIAN
G-MIXOLYDIAN
F-LYDIAN
Plainchant
the official music of the catholic church in the middle ages.
The standard five polyphonic sections of hte renaissance mass
Kyria
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Angus Dei
Ordinary
Parts of the catholic mass that use the same text throughout the year
Hocket
Alternation of short melodic phrases or notes
Melisma
Many consecutive notes sung with one syllable/vowel