Medieval Music
Renaissance Music
Instruments of the Era
Sacred vs. Secular
Musical Forms & Innovations
100

This type of monophonic chant was widely used in Medieval churches.

What is Gregorian Chant?

100

The Renaissance period roughly spanned these two centuries.

What are the 15th and 16th centuries?

100

This ancestor of the modern violin was used in both the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

What is the viol?

100

Music intended for church or religious services is called this.

What is sacred music?

100

This is the main musical form used in Medieval church services.

What is the mass?

200

Medieval music often used modes rather than this modern system.

What is the major/minor scale system?

200

This texture, where multiple independent melodies are sung at the same time, was common in Renaissance choral music.

What is Polyphony?

200

A common keyboard instrument of the Renaissance that plucked strings rather than striking them.

What is the harpsichord?

200

Non-religious music is known by this term.

What is Secular Music?

200

This type of Renaissance composition set a short religious text to music, not part of the Mass.

What is a motet?

300

This group of traveling musicians entertained with songs and poems

Who were troubadours or trouvères?

300

This composer is considered the master of Renaissance sacred music, especially known for his masses and motets.

Who is Palestrina?

300

This portable keyboard instrument used bellows to create sound.

What is the portative organ?

300

The Mass and the Motet are examples of this type of music.

What is sacred music?

300

This musical technique uses music to reflect the meaning of the words (e.g., high notes for “heaven”).

What is word painting?

400

The earliest form of written music used these marks to indicate pitch.

What are Neumes? 

400

The invention of this device helped spread music and ideas during the Renaissance.

What is the printing press?

400

This early brass instrument is considered a predecessor to the modern trombone.

What is the sackbut?

400

Renaissance dances like the pavane and galliard fall under this category.

What is secular music?

400

Renaissance composers often wrote in this texture, meaning a single melody with accompaniment was becoming more common.

What is homophony?
500

This French composer of the 14th century wrote both sacred and secular music and is known for the "Messe de Nostre Dame."

Who is Guillaume de Machaut?

500

This style of secular vocal music often included word painting and originated in Italy and England.

What is the madrigal?

500

The recorder was popular in Renaissance music and differs from this modern instrument often confused with it.

What is the flute?

500

This Renaissance composer wrote both sacred and secular works, including "As Vesta Was Descending."

Who is Thomas Weelkes?

500

This early form of notation developed during the Renaissance allowed rhythm to be more precisely written down.

What is mensural notation?

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