Unit 5: Dance Music Flashcards
(30 cards)
Sacred vocal music was notated largely by _
Church musicians and literate monks
Church musicians and literate monks saw themselbes as
custodians of liturgical music
instrumental music was often performed by people who were
less educated and even literate; they saw no need to “preserve” the music that the created and performed
Mostly, the Church saw instruments as
part of the secular world, having no place in the performance of sacred music
The one exception (of instruments) throughout history has been the
organ; it has played a central role in liturgical music
there is a substantial legacy of notated _ form the Middle Ages in the form of both sacred and secular manuscripts
vocal music
(in the Middle Ages) _ was not notated
instrumental music
instrumental music was typically not documented (in the Middle Ages) for a variety of reasons, such as:
- instruments were not standardized
- with the exception of the organ, the use of instruments was not encouraged in the Roman Catholic Church
- instrumental music was passed down through an oral tradition
- musicians were trained to improvise and to play by rote rather than to rely on written music
- notating music was time-consuming, costly, and not considered necessary or important in a largely illiterate society
In the Middle Ages, instrumental music fulfilled specific roles and functions in society, which included:
- accompanying singers
- providing dance music
- playing fanfares and processions for public and civic functions
- providing music for military campaigns
(During the Middle Ages) Instruments were designated according to practical considerations that included
- volume capacity
- tone quality
- appropriate venue for use
(During the Midde Ages) Instruments were classified as either
- “indoor”
- “outdoor”
Despite these classifications (in the Middle Ages), it was not uncommon to
combinei ndoor and outdoor instruments together in a single performace
Many of these instruments were made in various sizes to
accomodate different registers - larger instruments predocued lower pithes while smaller instruments produced higher pitches
In most world cultures, dancing has been a
popular form of entertainment enjoyed by all social classes
In aristocratic circles, the tradition of courtly dancing provided the opprtunity for men and women to
interact socially
For Medieval musicians, providing music to accompany dancing was closely tied to the art of
improvisation
Dance music is the most appropriate starting point for tracing the developent of
instrumental music in the Western tradition
Dance Music background and origins
- based on a tradition of improvisation
- functional music: instrumentalists provided music for socal dance; later stylized dances were created (for listening only)
- earliest notated examples come from the 13th century
Dance Music characteristic features
- earliest examples were monophonic in texture, ased on mdal melodies
- accompaniments were often improvised rather than notated
- estampie, saltarello, rondo, and basse dance were the earliest types
- formal structure weas oftn sectional to allow for flexibility in the length of the dance
Cahnsonnier du Roy
- French for “Songbook of the King”
- anonymous 13th-century French manuscript
- contains troubadour and trouvère songs as well as eight monophonic ances, including “Royal Estampie No.4”
bas
- French for “low,” indicating a low level of volume (soft)
- a Medieval designation for indoor instruments
- includes dulcimer, lute, psaltery, rebec, recorder, vielle
haut
- French for “high,” indicating a high level of volume (loud)
- Medieval designation for outdoor isntruments
- includes cornetto, crumhorn, sackbut, shawm
estampie
- one of the earliest Medieval dances
- stately character
- involves elaborate body movements
- danced by couples
heterophony
- simultaneous variation involving 2 or more voices or instruments playing the same melody in more than 1 way at the same time
- one part plays the original melody; the added voices are often improvised
