Numerical Ratios Pythagoras:
- Octave - 7:3 - Fifth - 2:1 - Fourth - 5:2
- Octave - 2:1 - Fifth - 3:2 - Fourth - 4:3
- Octave - 6:3 - Fifth - 1:1 - Fourth - 3:4
- Octave - 5:4 - Fifth - 5:3 - Fourth - 4:1
Doctrine of Imitation:
Aristotle postulated that the music an individual composed reflected their true selves.\
Plato believed that athletics caused an individual to demonstrate brutal behaviors
Plaot believed that this world was an imitation of the real world of the forms
Outlined by Aristotle in his Politics (character of the person imitated character of the music listened to)
Guido of Arezzo invented solmization to help with sight-singing – syllables representing sequence of whole and half steps in notes C-D-E-F-G-A (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la). Derived syllables from hymn “Ut queant laxis.”
Music of the Cosmos: Musica
Trope:
Expanded on an existing chant by 1) adding new words and new music; 2) adding just new music by extending melismas or adding notes to preexisting melodies; 3) adding just new words to preexisting melismas (called prosula). All tropes banned by Council of Trent in the 16th c.
Syllabic musical setting of a sacred text sung after the Alleluia. Originally thought to have originated as a prosula of the jubilus. Notker Balbulus from the 9th-10th c. a known composer of sequences. All but four sequences banned by Council of Trent (most famous of the four include “Victimae Paschali Laudes” for Easter and the “Dies Irae” or “Day of wrath” for the Requiem mass).
Tradition began with troubadours in southern France with the langue d’oc
cadence in which the upper voice ascends a third to its final note while the tenor descends by step (aka the under-third cadence). Landini did not invent cadence, but first to use it consistently. Became commonplace in late 14th- and early 15th-c. Italian and French music (15th c. = blending of national traditions and loss of unique Italian Trecento musical style).
Franconian notation: New system of notation devised by composer and theorist Franco of Cologne called Franconian notation. New format of notation--as opposed to the previous score notation--in which voice parts separated to not waste valuable parchment with the long-held notes in the tenor.
French for “hiccup”, frequently used in isorhythmic works – two voices trade notes in a melody, with one resting while the other sings.
Called a:
Double Leading Tone Cadence
Cadence in which bottom voice moves down a whole tone and both upper notes raised to resolve upward by a half step, was a characteristic sound of the time period.
Cadence in which the upper voice ascends a third to its final note while the tenor descends by step (aka the under-third cadence)
Upper voices move together in same rhythm with accompaniment in the lower voices
Successive notes in semitone relationship; previously most music diatonic
: voices imitate or echo a musical phrase in another voice at a different pitch
: Upper voices move together in same rhythm with accompaniment in the lower voices
Contenance Angloise:
“English quality”
Uses 9ths to accompany minor 3rds
little dissonance
simple melodies
regular phrases
syllabic text-setting
homorhythmic textures
Ascribed to Wipo of Burgundy
hocket between tenor and counter tenor
Thirds and sixths in parallel motion
Quadruplum
Isorythm
Chromaticism
Syllabic
: Syllabic musical setting of a sacred text sung after the Alleluia. Originally thought to have originated as a prosula of the jubilus. Notker Balbulus from the 9th-10th c. a known composer of sequences. All but four sequences banned by Council of Trent (most famous of the four include “Victimae Paschali Laudes” for Easter and the “Dies Irae” or “Day of wrath” for the Requiem mass).
Tradition began with troubadours in southern France with the langue
Northern France tradition began with the trouvères in the langue d’oïl (after the regional words for “yes”) (vernacular song)
A was a type of organ that was light enough to travel wiith
“New Art”, a new musical style inaugurated in part by French composer and poet Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361).
Ars Nova
Ars Subtilor
Contenance Angloise
Ite, missa est
: New style of secular music that emerged in the later 14th c. in southern France and northern Italy. Genre consisted mainly of polyphonic songs in the formes fixes, especially ballades. Called Ars subtilior (the more subtle manner or the subtler art) because of the refined style of these songs and the composers’ willingness to push musical possibilities to new extremes. Phrase derived in part from writings of composer and theorist Philippus de Caserta at the court of Avignon. Rhythmic complexity – Caserta and others developed new notational signs and practices for more complex rhythms, including voices in contrasting meters, beats subdivided in multiple different ways, and syncopations. Rhythmic complexity of this music would not be matched until the 20th c.
: Several manuscripts preserve polyphonic secular song from after 1330, namely the Squarcialupi Codex (copied much later from 1410-15).
– a collection of 25 madrigals by different composers compiled by Morley, with each madrigal ending with the words “Long live the fair Oriana” (previously thought to refer to Queen Elizabeth).
Principal form of improvisatory keyboard music in the second half of the 16th c., “to touch”
Ricercare
Toccata
Canzona
Prelude
Chorale: a style of harmonization influenced by Calvinist psalm tunes in which chorales have the main melody in the highest voice and are accompanied by block chords; after 1600, organ played all voice parts while congregation sang main melody.
(“first practice,” the 16th-c. style of vocal polyphony in which counterpoint rules held precedence over the text)
(“second practice,” the modern style in which composers may stray from previous 16th-c. norms and employ dissonance more freely for purposes of text expression).
