Music History exam 1
Cards
Mass
The main roman catholic service or the music written for it consists of five large sections kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus, and angus dei
office
the eight daily sevices other than mass specified by the church
hymn
a simple religious song in several stanzas for congressional singing in church
gregorian chant
the form of chant used in the early church was monophony
sequence
in a melody a series of fragments identical except for their placement at successivley higher or lower pitch levels
strophic
a song in several stanzas with the same music sung for each stanza
troubadour
aristocratic poet musicians of the middle ages
organum
earliest polyphony in which two or more melodic lines are played or sung simultaneously
melismatic
passage of many notes sung to a single sylable
motet
sacred vocal composition early ones based on fragments of gregorian chants
isorhythm
in 14th century music the technique of repeating the identical rythm for each section of the composition while each of the pitches are altered
hockey
the alteraration of very short musical phrases or singles notes between two or more voices
imitation
a polyphonic musical texture in which the various melodic lines use approximatley the same themes
paraphrase
the modification and decoration of the plain chant melodies in early renaissance music
points of imitation
short passage of imitation based on a single theme or two used together
madrigal
main secular vocal genre of the renaissance
galliard
renaissance court dance in triple meter
basso coninuo
set of chords continuously underlying the melody in a piece of baroque music
tonality
the feeling of centrality of one note to a passage of music
counterpoint
the technique of writing polyphonic music
antiphonal
a genre of plain chant usualy showing a simple melodic style with very few melismas
opera
drama presented in music with characters singing rather than speaking
aria
a vocal number for solo singer and a ochestra generally in an opera anta or oratorio
recitative
a half singing half reciting style of presenting words in opera cantana oratorio following speech accents and rhythms closely
arioso
a singing style between recitative and aria
ground bass
a motive phrase or theme repeated over and over again within the bass
concerto grosso
main early baroque concerto for a group of solo insturments and a small orchestra
ritornello form
baroque musical form bassed on recurrences of ritornello which was the orchestral material at the beginning of a concerto grosso etc which always later in the piece
de capo
a direction to the performer to repeat the music from the beginning of the piece to a later point
fugue
composition written systematically on imitative polyphony usually with a single main theme
chorale
german for hymn also used for a four part harminozation of a lutherian hymn such as bach composed in his cantata 4 and other works
chorale prelude
an organ composition based on a chorale tune
cantanta
a composition in several movements for solo voices insturments and perhaps a chorus depends on the text cantantas are catergorized as secular
oratorio
long semidramatic piece on a religious subect for soloists chorus and orchestra
suite
a piece consisting of a series of dances

