Key Definitions in Music

Textures

• Textures define how melody and harmony are interwoven
  Music primarily utilizes monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic textures:
• Monophony: One single “voice” forming a melody, without pitches and variations added to the melody.
• Homophony: A main melody accompanied by played or sung variations, creating a harmony:
  • The melody is the “part you remember”; homophony is added with additional chords (think of a Mozart piece).
• Polyphony: Various melodies occurring at the same time; a melody and a countermelody.
  • ie the same lyrics staggered over time ( “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” ) or two independent melodies (Bach)
  • Often uses imitation (restatements of a melody)
    Other variations:
• Heterophony: Variations of the same melody;
• Homorhythm: When all melody and harmony moves with the same rhythmic pattern; the melody and harmony are different, but move on the same timing.

Basic Definitions for Melody

• Pitch: The high or low attribute of a sound.
• Melody: A line or tune in music comprised of different pitches with differing intervals.
• Intervals: The distance between two notes.
• Range: How many different notes are present in the melody, or the traveling distance between the pitches of the notes; wide or narrow range of notes
• phrase — a line of the melody (a line in the stanza)

melody

• conjunct — the intervals of the melody are close together, making it easy to sing and play
  • “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
• disjunct — the intervals of the melody are further apart and make it slightly more difficult to sing/play
  • “Star-Spangled Banner”
• melodies have different shapes; drawn with contours on sheets
  • wave-like — conjunct, narrow variations
    • “Ode to Joy”
    • may remain wave-like even when disjunct
  • descending — wider range, but may still be conjunct
    • “Joy to the World”
  • melodic motion
• cadence — a resting point in the music, such as at the end of a phrase
• countermelody — a melody that exists independent and against another melody

w1

• ancient greeks emphasized vocals – ethos
• christians – worry of sensuality
• greek healing properties to body and mind; divine
• plato thought set, non-evolving expectations/method
• rome conquering greece → adopted greek theory → modern widespread in western music theory
• most modern evolutions from medieval music
• medieval music had no separation between sacred and secular; music educated by church
• music in background idea from greek; seen esp. in movies
• well-educated and upper class people necessary to have musical education

ancient greek music

• monophonic
• sometimes embellished/punctuated with but not enhanced by instruments
• improvised (no system of written notation) based on prevailing style of the day
• melody and rhythm linked to ancient greek poetry
• words were considered the most important thing, and singing was constructed around it
• plato: song made up of speech, rhythm, and “harmony”
  • harmony: a sensible melody with an agreeable range of pitches
• lyric poem: sung to a lyre
• ethos: ethical character or manner of behavior
  • music was thought to influence ethos
  • mathematical relations behind musical relationships
  • aristotle’s theory of imitation: certain musical characteristics lead to human imitation of these characteristics
• balance music with gymnastics
  • gymnastics: athletics, preparing the body to allow the mind to receive information
• Pythagoras: music and numbers intertwined
  • rhythm and poetic meter interlinked
  • broke music down into ratio: intervals such as the octave (the same note eight notes apart, with one higher than the other; 2:1), the fifth (3:2), the fourth (4:3)
  • scales organized on these ideas: tetracords
• Aristoxenus, Cleonides theories
• tetracord: a four note section of a scale (seven notes or eight notes that end on the same pitch)
  • ancient: descending order scales
  • modern: ascending order
  • two tetracords placed together to create different combinations
  • only the outer notes of tetracords were fixed
  • position of inner notes determined genus of tetracords
    • diatonic
    • enharmonic
    • chromatic
• plato: beauty exists to remind of divine beauty
  • church music must be as beautiful as possible to inspire to think of the beauty of divinity
• boethius
  • most revered medieval musical theorist
  • numerical relationships in music
  • three types:
    • musica mundana: relationships that control the cosmos; unheard
    • musica humana: music of body and soul
    • musica instrumentalis: audible music
• words consisted of long or short syllables; meter/rhythm was based on the text
• instruments
  • aulos: double pipe
    • deer bone and mediterranean cane
    • single tube, wide bores
    • strength for outdoor accompaniment
    • narrow range; one note apart between pipe ranges; overlap, ability to perform dissonance vs. offset pipes
  • kithara: concert lyre
• homeric music: earliest possible reconstructed music
  • iliad

early christian church

• a capella: accompanied by no music; group of people singing at once
  • “in the manner of the chapel”
• chanting scripture
  • middle eastern scripture: hymns
• roman catholic mass
  • western music traditions; many originated from roman catholic mass
• chant
  • monophonic
  • sung mostly in Latin; regional chants in southern Europe, but most remaining chant is in Latin
    • most important; written down
  • non-metric: irregular “pulse”, freeform, text determines meter/rhythm
  • first kind of music formally preserved for history; notation was developed to preserve chant
    • crude, but origin of notation system

medieval music

sacred music

• gregorian chant
  • sacred style of singing used in medieval era
  • wide reaching
  • first style of notated written music; notation was devised for gregorian
  • text and performance of melody shaped by its use in the liturgy
• church calendar: organized by feast days, commendation, saint days, or days of christ
  • office and mass services celebrate calendar rituals
  • office: celebrated through the day, such as psalms, antiphons, lessons w/ responsories, hymns, prayers
  • mass: most important service; prayers, bible readings, psalm singing
• two parts of mass: proper and ordinary
  • proper changes from day-to-day; different calendar days
  • ordinary is constant for each mass; said thee same way each time
• mass was instructional and inspirational for illiterate
  • only people educated were people of the church: parishioners, priests, etc.
  • illiterate used stained glass picture bible stories
  • sung by soloists and choirs
  • singing carries through cathedrals
• mass includes an introductory section/ordinary
  • introit
  • kyrie
  • gloria
• mass followed by liturgy of the world
  • gradual
  • alleleuia
  • tract
  • credo
• conclude with liturgy of the eucharist
  • offertory
  • sanctus
  • onus day
  • communion
• words from roman liturgy wrriten by 8thc; music was passed via oral transmission
• rudimentary notation developed for uniformity
• gregorian chant named after pope gregory i
  • legend surrounding over holy spirit and gregory to whisper the chant in ear
• three main manners of singing chant
  • responsorial: call and response
  • antiphonal: alteration between groups
  • direct: single group
• three different styles of text settings
  • syllabic: one note per syllable
  • melismatic: several notes per syllable
    • melisma: decoration
  • pneumatic: partial melismatic, partial syllabic
• chant melodies reflect word inflection and rhythm
  • matches divisions in text/word
  • arch-like phrases; matches the natural inflection of speaking
    • rising, sustaining, falling
• simplest chants are recitation formulas: recite for recitation prayers and bible readings
• psalm tone: formula for singing psalms in the office
  • eight scales used in medieval times
  • one tone for each scale
  • tonus peligrinus: transitory tone that goes beyond the eight tones; “wandering tone”
• monks and nuns sang in two different groups for antiphonal
  • cantor sings both antiphon and psalm
• hymns usually strophic: one section repeats again
  • sung by office choir for each service
• office responsoriees: gradual, alleluia, offertorry aree all sung responsorily
  • melismatic; tended to be sung solo
• ordinary chants original

polyphony

• recorded polyphony: “old style” not attributed to any composer
• oral improvitory practice
• organum:
  • droning: use of a drone; final pitch is held by an instrument and/or voice of a group
  • parallel organum: original plainchant has one voice, while another voice sings fifth below in parallel motion
  • mixed/oblique organum: combination of droning/parallel: one sings plainchant, other voice alternates between droning and parallel organum
  • free organum: one voice sings plainchant, other sings variety of droning, parallel, and similar motions
• discant and florid organum: sing same melody at different rates
• notre dame polyphony: taught at notre dame
  • leonin and perotin
  • leonin: older and more commonly credited
  • perotin: expounded
  • magnus liber — great book
  • florid organum: plainchant melodies elongated through augmentation technique; multiple florid decorative parts above the plainchant

renaissance music

• Printing Press
  • gutenburg
  • 15th century
  • adaptable type was adapted to music notation, increasing popularity and accessibility
• organum developed need for notation; rhythmic modes and patterns were foundation
• development of meter: mensuration
• Josquin de Prez — most important of time
• 1450-1500
• Franco-Flemish composers
  • Ockhegem

Ockhegem

• French composer
• French royal court
• took accepted vocalist range and expanded it downward
  • lower singers sang lower, creating rich texture and opportunity
  • “expanded base downward”
• polyphonic, but full and uncomplicated music
  • easy to listen to

Josquin de Prez

• music was largely published by Petrucci
• longterm trending
• imitation
• all voices had equal importance in the music
  • importance was placed on each line rather than one line taking precedence
• like Machaut, wrote sacred and secular work

Odhekaton

• Petrucci published a lot of music; one of the most important, even if not first, volume, was the Odhekaton
• Odhekaton: polyphonic chanson volume
  • three-four voice chansons by Josquin, Ochekgem, Isaac, etc.
• more anthologies followed
  • shows development of voices (3 to 4) and richness, equality, texture (increased imitation and equality between voices)
  • imitation was the style of the time; polyphony was found across several generations
    • Ave Maria, sacred Josquin

Masses

• tenor mass: built on a single cantus firmus used as a basis for each section of the song
• cantus firmus mass: Gregorian chant is used only in the tenor voice
• paraphrase mass: Gregorian chant is layered across all voices, and voices are based on the pre-existing melody
• parody mass: an imitative mass whose voices are borrowed from a pre-existing polyphonic work
• naming masses based on mode/scale, the presence of a canon
  • missa sin nomine: no cantus firmus or structural features
  • canon: a structural element; “rule”; a unifying device for compositional masses in the 15th century
    • two or more voices derived from a single voice; two or more melodies derived from a single melody
    • several rules associated with use of canon
      • augmentation, diminishing