The Middle Ages

Question 1

antiphonal singing

Answer 1

A style of performance where two or more groups alternate

Question 2

Ars Nova

Answer 2

Style of polyphony from 14th century France, distinguished from earlier styles by a new system of rhythmic notation that allowed duple or triple division of note values, syncopation, and great rhythmic flexibility.

Question 3

ballade

Answer 3

French form fixe, normally in 3 stanzas, in which each stanza has the musical form aab and ends with a refrain.

Question 4

ballata

Answer 4

14th century Italian song genre with the form AbbaA, in which A is the ripresa or refrain and the single stanza consists of two pied (bb) and a volta (a) sung to the music of the ripresa.

Question 5

cantus firmus

Answer 5

An existing melody, often taken from a gregorian chant, on which a new polyphonic work is based.

Question 6

chanson

Answer 6

Secular song with French words; used especially for polyphonic songs of the 14th-16th centuries.

Question 7

clausula

Answer 7

In Notre Dame polyphony, a self contained section of an organum that closes with a cadence.

Question 8

discant

Answer 8

12th century style of polyphony in which the upper voice or voices have about 1-3 notes for each note of the lower voice.

Question 9

drone

Answer 9

note or notes sustained throughout an entire piece or section of a piece.

Question 10

duplum

Answer 10

In polyphony from the late 12th-14th centuries 2nd voice from the bottom in a 4 voice texture, above the tenor.

Question 11

triplum

Answer 11

(a) In polyphony from the late 12th-14th centuries 3rd voice from the bottom in a 3 or 4 voice texture, added to a tenor and a duplum.
(b) In Notre Dame polyphony, an organum in three voices.

Question 12

formes fixes

Answer 12

Schemes of poetic and musical repetition, each featuring a refrain, used in late medieval and 15th century French chansons; in particular, the ballade, rondeau, and virelai.

Question 13

Introit

Answer 13

First item in the Mass Proper, originally sung for the entrance procession, comprising an antiphon, psalm verse, lesser doxology, and reprise of the antiphon.

Question 14

isorhythmic

Answer 14

Repetition in a voice part (usually the tenor) of an extended pattern of durations throughout a section or an entire composition.

Question 15

Landini cadence

Answer 15

At the end of a line, the progression from a major sixth to the octave, ornamented by a lower neighbor leaping up a third in the top voice. Used in the music of the leading composer of the trecento, Francesco Landini.

Question 16

melisma

Answer 16

a long melodic passage sung to a single syllable of text.

Question 17

Minnesinger

Answer 17

a poet composer of medieval Germany who wrote monophonic songs, particularly about love, in Middle High German.

Question 18

rhythmic modes

Answer 18

System of six durational patterns (for example, mode 1, long-short) used in polyphony of the late 12th-13th centuries, used as the basis of the rhythmic notation of the Notre Dame composers.

Question 19

monophony

Answer 19

Music or musical texture consisting of unaccompanied melody.

Question 20

motet

Answer 20

Polyphonic vocal composition. Early motets add a text to an existing discant clausula. 13th century motets feature one or more voices. each with its own sacred or secular text in Latin or French, above a tenor drawn from a chant or other melody. Most 14th century and some 15th century motets feature isorhythm and may include a contra tenor.

Question 21

musica ficta

Answer 21

(a) In early music, notes outside the standard gamut, which excluded all flatted and sharped notes except Bb.
(b) In polyphony of the 14th-16th centuries, the practice of raising or lowering by a semitone the pitch of a written note, particularly at a cadence, for the sake of smoother harmony or motion of the parts.

Question 22

neumes

Answer 22

Signs used in notation of chant to indicate a certain number of notes and general melodic direction (in early forms of notation) or particular pitches (in later forms)

Question 23

Notre Dame School

Answer 23

Style of polyphony from the late 12th and 13th centuries, associated with the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

Question 24

Offertory

Answer 24

Item in the Mass Proper, sung while the communion is prepared, comprising a respond without verses.

Question 25

Office

Answer 25

A series of 8 prayer services of the Roman Church, celebrated daily at specified times, especially in monasteries and convents; also, any one of those services.

Question 26

Ordinary

Answer 26

Texts of the Mass that remain the same on most or all days of the Church calendar although the tunes may change.

Question 27

plainsong, plainchant

Answer 27

A unison unaccompanied song, particularly a liturgical song to a Latin text.

Question 28

polyphony

Answer 28

Music or musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody.

Question 29

Proper

Answer 29

Texts of the Mass that are assigned to a particular day in the Church calendar.

Question 30

Psalm tones

Answer 30

A melodic formula for singing psalms in the Office. There is one psalm tone for each mode.

Question 31

responsorial singing

Answer 31

A manner of performing chant in which a soloist alternates with a group.

Question 32

rondeau

Answer 32

French form fixe with a single stanza and the musical form ABaAabAB, with capital letters indicating lines of refrain and lowercase letters indicating new text set to music from the refrain.

Question 33

strophic

Answer 33

Of a poem, consisting of two or more stanzas that are equivalent in form and can each be sung to the same melody; of a vocal work, consisting of a strophic poem set to the same music for each stanza.

Question 34

syllabic

Answer 34

Having (or tending to have) one note sung to each syllable of text.

Question 35

tenor

Answer 35

(a) In a mode or chant, the reciting tone. (b) In polyphony of the 12th and 13th centuries, the voice part that has the chant or other borrowed melody, often in long held notes.

Question 36

trope

Answer 36

Addition to an existing chant, consisting of (a) words and melody. (b) a melisma or (c) words only, set to an existing melisma or other melody.

Question 37

troubadour

Answer 37

A poet-composer of southern France who wrote monophonic songs in Occitan in the 12th or 13th century.

Question 38

trouvére

Answer 38

A poet-composer of northern France who wrote monophonic songs in Old French in the 12th or 13th century.

Question 39

virelai

Answer 39

French form fixe in the pattern A bba A bba A bba A, in which a refrain (A) alternates with stanzas with the musical form bra, the a using the same music as the refrain.