Midterm All Terms Flashcards
two or more melodic lines combined
polyphony
melody with supporting harmony
homophony
all voices move in same rhythm
homorhythmic
melodic idea presented then restated in another voice; may be brief, or may last entire work; common unifying technique in polyphony
imitation
strict imitation; each voice enters in succession with the same melody
canon
perpetual canon - never ending
round
organizing principle in music; work’s structure or shape; repetition and contrast; unity and variety
form
only some aspects of music altered
variation
same melody with each stanza of text
strophic
no main section of music or text repeated
through-composed
made-up syllables, wordless vocables
scat singing
wordless vocal melody, singing on a neutral vowel
vocalize
music for worship, religious
sacred
language of Roman Catholic church; Medieval and Renaissance language of learning
Latin
nonreligious music; sung in the vernacular
secular
words and music that recur after each stanza
refrain/chorus
each syllable gets one note
syllabic
single syllable elongated by many notes
melismatic
a few notes to each syllable
neumatic
music pictorializes a word; emphasizes text
word-painting
performing forces of diverse instruments
heterogenous
strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion
orchestra
performing forces of the same timbre
homogenous
c.400 - 1450
Middle Ages
c.1450 - 1600
Renaissance
c.1600 - 1750
Baroque
c.1750 - 1825
Classical
c.1820 - 1900
Romantic
c.1890 - 1915
Post-Romantic Impressionist
r. 590-604; codified church music, liturgy; credited with more than 3000 Gregorian melodies
Pope Gregory the Great
single-line melody, monophonic texture, Latin text, non-metric, avoids wide leaps, gentle contours, oral tradition, early notation with neumes, modal scales
plainchant/Gregorian chant
most solemn ritual of the church, reenactment of Christ’s Last Supper, contains variable and fixed portions
Catholic Mass
first prayer in the Ordinary of the Mass, only text in Greek, prayer for mercy, three lines long, invokes the Trinity
Kyrie
main melodic idea used as a building block in construction of a larger work
theme
Earliest kind of polyphonic music, which developed from the custom of adding voices above a plainchant; they first ran parallel to the chant at the interval of a fifth or fourth and later moved more freely
organum
Medieval poet-musicians in southern France.
troubadours
Medieval poet-musicians in northern France
trouvères
The set order of religious services and the structure of each service, within a particular denomination (e.g., Roman Catholic)
liturgy
Scale or sequence of notes used as the basis for a composition
mode
Based on principles of major-minor tonality, as distinct from modal.
tonal
Sections of the Roman Catholic Mass that vary from day to day throughout the church year according to the liturgical occasion, as distinct from the Ordinary, in which they remain the same.
Proper
Sections of the Roman Catholic Mass that remain the same from day to day throughout the church year, as distinct from the Proper, which changes daily according to the liturgical occasion
Ordinary
Performance style in which an ensemble is divided into two or more groups, performing in alternation and then together.
antiphonal
Large work for orchestra, generally in three or four movements
symphony
Performing forces employed in a certain musical work.
medium
A number, often part of the title of a piece, designating the work in chronological relationship to other works by the same composer.
opus number
The interweaving of melodic (horizontal) and harmonic (vertical) elements in the musical fabric.
texture
Texture in which two or more voices (or parts) elaborate the same melody simultaneously, often the result of improvisation.
heterophonic
Musical expansion of a theme by varying its melodic outline, harmony, or rhythm.
thematic development
Restatement of an idea or motive at a different pitch level.
sequence
Short melodic or rhythmic idea; the smallest fragment of a theme that forms a melodic-harmonic-rhythmic unit.
motive
Performance style with a singing leader who is imitated by a chorus of followers
call-response
A short melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic pattern that is repeated throughout a work or a section.
ostinato
Complete, self-contained part within a larger musical work.
movement
A unit or verse of poetry; also a stanza.
strophe
Ensemble music for up to about ten players, with one player to a part.
chamber music
A chamber group comprised of a soloist with piano. Also, in the Baroque period, a sonata for a melody instrument and basso continuo.
duo sonata
Polyphonic form popular in the Baroque era, in which one or more themes are developed by imitative counterpoint.
fugue
French monophonic or polyphonic song, especially of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, set to either courtly or popular poetry.
chanson
Musical form in which the first section recurs several times, usually in the tonic. In the Classical multimovement cycle, it appears as the last movement in various forms, such as A-B-A-B-A, A-B-A-C-A, and A-B-A-C-A-B-A
rondo
A form of English street song, popular from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Ballads are characterized by narrative content and strophic form.
ballad
A striking effect designed to depict the meaning of the text in vocal music; found in many madrigals and other genres of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.
madrigalism
Renaissance secular work (originating in Italy) for voices, with or without instruments, set to a short, lyric love poem; also popular in England.
madrigal
“Fixed melody,” usually of very long notes, often based on a fragment of Gregorian chant, that served as the structural basis for a polyphonic composition, particularly in the Renaissance.
cantus firmus
