Sacred vs. Secular
This type of music was used for entertainment and dancing rather than worship.
What is Secular music?
This term describes a single, monophonic melody sung without any instrumental accompaniment.
What is Plainchant (or Gregorian Chant)?
This 14th-century "superstar" composed the first complete polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary.
Who is Guillaume de Machaut?
This term refers to the transition from single-line melodies to complex, multi-part harmonies.
What is polyphony?
The Medieval era spans nearly a millennium, from the fall of Rome to the dawn of this period.
What is the Renaissance?
While Sacred music was primarily performed by monks and nuns, these traveling performers handled Secular music.
Who are Troubadours (or Trouveres/Minstrels)?
In terms of texture, Gregorian chant is always this, meaning it consists of just one melody line.
What is monophonic?
This abbess and mystic was the first "named" composer in Western history with a large body of surviving work.
Who is Hildegard von Bingen?
This early form of polyphony began by adding a second voice to an existing Gregorian chant.
What is Organum?
This Hildegard von Bingen composition is considered an early "morality play" set to music.
What is Ordo Virtutum?
This was the primary language for Sacred music during the Medieval era.
What is Latin?
Early square musical notes used to write down chant on a four-line staff were called this.
What are neumes?
These two composers from the School of Notre Dame revolutionized music around 1200 by adding more voices and rhythm.
Who are Leonin and Perotin?
This 14th-century movement, meaning "New Art," saw music become increasingly complex and mathematical.
What is Ars Nova?
Unlike traditional chant, Hildegard's melodies were unique because they featured these types of large melodic intervals.
What are leaps?
Secular music used instruments like lutes and drums, but Sacred music was performed in this vocal-only style.
What is A Cappella?
Unlike modern music, Gregorian chant has this type of rhythm, meaning it has no steady "beat" or meter.
What is flexible rhythm?
Hildegard von Bingen was known by this title, referring to the region where she lived.
What is the Sybil of the Rhine?
This polyphonic vocal work often featured different texts being sung simultaneously in different voices.
What is a Motet?
This specific setting of the Mass by Machaut is titled the Messe de Nostre Dame.
What is the Mass Ordinary?
The primary patron of the arts, this organization is the reason most surviving medieval music is religious.
What is the Church?
This is the specific melodic motion characteristic of chant, featuring a narrow range.
What is step-wise motion?
Machaut composed this famous crab canon based on a palindrome.
What is "Ma fin est mon commencement"?
In early organum, the second voice moved in this specific way relative to the original chant.
What is parallel?
This major musical invention of the Medieval era allows us to still read and play this music today.
What is musical notation (or the staff)?