True or False:
Composers of plainchant were mostly anonymous. They did not put their names on their music.
True
What does "polyphonic" mean?
Multiple different lines of music happening at the same time.
What is the difference between sacred and secular music?
Sacred - Religious Music
Secular - Non-Religious Music
What does "Melismatic" mean?
Syllables are sung over many different pitches.
What is a "Responsorial"
When a soloist alternates with a choir.
Describe "Gregorian Chant"
A type of plainchant that was the official music of the Roman Catholic Church.
(One line, a Capella, Latin, no rhythm)
Who was Hildegard Von Bingen
German nun who was the first woman composer to have musical works survive.
One of ten children, mystic, wrote about science as well
What does "Syllabic" mean?
A text setting in which every syllable gets on pitch.
What is a "neume"
Similar to our modern day 'note.'
What was the "liturgy?"
The standard spoken texts and music that make up a worship service.
Where were the "Troubadours" from?
Northern France
Most rhythms of the late middle ages were divided by this number, to represent the holy trinity.
Three
What does "Aurally" mean?
Secular music was passed on from person to person instead of through written music due to the populations illiteracy.
Where were the "Trouveres" from?
Southern France
French composer who wrote sacred and secular music. Had one of the largest surviving collections of music from the middle ages.
Where is the clef?
What does the * mean?
Change in voices
What does the | line mean?
End of a phrase of music
Name five different topics for songs in the middle ages?
Courtly love, unrequited love, religion, politics, war, satire.
Why was Pope Gregory I important?
Recognized the catholic church liturgy and established the Gregorian chant.
What was the schola cantorum?
A school were boys were taught to read and perform the chants for worship.
What was the Liber Usualis?
Collection of the most frequently used chants in the catholic liturgy.
In three sentences:
Explain why sacred music makes up the majority of surviving printed music from the middle ages?
Few people were literate but literacy was more common in churches because priests and monks (the clergy) were able to read and write.
Because the common person was alliterate, they could not write down the words or melodies to songs and chants.
In three sentences:
By the end of the middle ages, what musical elements were present that were not there in the beginning of the era?
Composers were experimenting with polyphony.
There were measured rhythms and note values.
Music was in other meters besides in 3/4
Syncopation
Adding instruments
Explain how the troubadors, trouvers, and mistrels were important?
Music was made up of topics from the time period. Courtly love, unrequited love, politics, war, satire, etc.
Important sources of information and shared information with different places.