Chapter 15

Question 1

basso ostinato

Answer 1

Short pattern in bass that repeats while melody above changes
Commonly used in laments (descending tetrachords)
Most are triple or compound meter
2, 4, or 8 measures long
Also called “ground bass”

like a bass riff

Question 2

cantata

Answer 2

Vocal chamber work with a lyrical or quasi-dramatic text

Secular composition for solo voice with continuo, with sections like recitatives, arias (and chorus only in later works)

Later genre of Lutheran church music, combining poetic texts with texts from chorales or the Bible, when Bach transformed it

Question 3

Carissimi

Answer 3

wrote Historia di Jephte (ca. 1648). Oratorio, same structure as opera. lamenting

Question 4

chamber music

Answer 4

A form of music written for a small group, which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber.

Question 5

clavichord

Answer 5

Strings activated by small metal rods called “tangents”
Very quiet instrument, like a small piano. for practicing

Question 6

Frescobaldi

Answer 6

Tocatta no. 3.
a. best-known for his keyboard music
b. organist at St. Peter’s in Rome, 1608
c. published keyboard collections dedicated to various patrons
d. keyboard music model for later composers

Question 7

fugue

Answer 7

composition or section of composition in strict imitative counterpoint, based on a single subject (begins with successive statements of subject)

Question 8

harpsichord

Answer 8

Stringed keyboard instrument; metal strings plucked with plectrum attached to keys
LEADING COMPOSERS: François Couperin, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre
What is style brisé?

Question 9

lament

Answer 9

basso ostinato commonly used in laments. descending tetrachords. words are held to stress them

Question 10

notes inegales

Answer 10

used in France. 8th notes turn into dotted 8th notes. etc. like swing almost

Question 11

oratorio

Answer 11

Religious dramatic music combining narrative, dialogue, and commentary through arias, recitatives, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental music
like an unstaged opera
usually religious or biblical subject
In vernacular (Italian) or Latin

Question 12

ornmentation or embellishment

Answer 12

trills, turns, appoggiaturas, mordents, cadenzas, scales, arpeggio passages
varied from one generation to another and from country to country

composer would write bass line and melody. improvised other stuff.

EXAMPLE: France used notes inègales and overdotting in the Baroque period

Question 13

organ

Answer 13

Many different sizes
Pipes are like an ensemble of wind instruments
Stops enable air to be funneled through specific pipe groups
LEADING COMPOSERS: Dietrich Buxtehude and J.S. Bach

Question 14

overdotting

Answer 14

used in France. if there is a dot written, it is played as if there is another dot. dotted half note turns into double dotted half note etc

Question 15

polychoral motet

Answer 15

2 or more choirs, vocal soloists, instrumental ensembles, one or more organs playing continuo
b. In ecclesiis (NAWM 78), published 1615

Question 16

sacred concerto

Answer 16

in catholic church: sacred concertos incorporated basso continuo, concertato medium, monody, operatic styles

Question 17

Schutz

Answer 17

Pioneering German composer
Combined Italian dramatic musical style with German text (infl. by Monteverdi)
Composed large and small-scale concertos (infl. by Gabrieli)

Question 18

Stile antico

Answer 18

in the catholic church: old style based on Palestrina’s counterpoint. Conveys authority and solemnity.

Question 19

Stile moderno

Answer 19

in the catholic church: New theatrical stryle inspired by development of opera. Conveys emotion. Basso continuo, concertato, monody, operatic styles.

Question 20

Stozzi

Answer 20

Lagrime mie (1659)a. born in Venice, daughter of poet, librettist Giulio Strozzi
d. among most prolific composers of vocal chamber music of the century

Question 21

Style brise

Answer 21

a style written for the harpsichord with the decay in mind. means “broken style”. lots of broken chords and trills and ornamentation. constant motion.

Question 22

toccata

Answer 22

TOCCATA: for keyboard or lute, improvisatory, may include imitative (fugal) sections or serve as a prelude to a fugue (late Baroque: toccata split into toccata and fugue)