Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
MUS 371 T 2 no. 2
the second chapters of Music History Test 2
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1. The court of Burgundy and the Burgundian lands are important to music history in the 15th and 16th centuries for what two reasons? | First—The first court was an important center for the patronage of the arts, music in particular Second—within the Burgundian lands were born nearly all of the great polyphonic composers who flourished in the West between 1425 and 1550 |
| 2. Who were the two most famous musicians in the court of Burgundy at this time? Include their dates. | Guillaume Dufay (c1397-1474) and Gilles Binches (c1400-1460) |
| 3. Why was one of the composers in #2 pictured with an organ and the other with a harp? Which composer is with which instrument? | Dufay stands with the organ and Binchoise holds the harp. The organ suggests that he was primarily a church musician and the harp suggests that he was associated more with a worldly court. |
| 4. What kinds of music did Binchois compose? Include both sacred music and secular music, listing the forms he used for secular music. | Sacred: Masses, Motets, and simpler liturgical forms such as hymns. Secular: chanson (ballade, rondeau, or virelai) |
| 5. What is the dominant genre of secular music in the 15th century, what language is used, and in what countries is the genre found? | Polyphonic chanson is the dominant genre, French was the language used, and it was found in France, Spain, England, Italy and Germany. |
| 6. What is a rotulus, and how was it used? | A rotulus is an oblong sheet of paper or parchment and was the sheet music of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. |
| 7. What is a chansonnier? Be thorough in your description | A collected anthology of chansons. It might contain as few as twenty to as many as two hundred songs by many different composers. |
| 8. Binchois was a priest, yet he wrote nearly 60 chansons in one of the formes fixes that deal with love. Why were most composers of secular art music ordained? | They were ordained because the church still had a monopoly on formal education as well as on the secrets of musical notation. |
| 9. Binchois’s chanson Dueil angoisseus (Anguished mourning) has a text that laments a dead lover and music that seems cheerful. Why? | Musicians had not yet developed the convention that grief and pain were to be expressed musically by the minor mode and painful dissonances. |
| 10. What traits of the Ars subtilior (the late 14th century) are missing from music of this era, the second quarter of the 15th century? What is present instead? | Missing: rhythmic complexities and the rigid structure of isorythm Present instead: Simplicity and grace. |
| 11. What is another term for a Burgundian cadence? | Octave-leave cadence |
| 12. When and why did the authentic cadence (dominant to tonic) develop? | When: it arose in the mid-fifteenth century Why: partly as a desire for greater sonority and partly as a result of a part-writing constriction. |
| In the mid 15th century one could rise above humble,scandalous, roots. This depends on possessing measures of talent,intelect, discipline, and ambition. Guillaume Dufay was one such example in Europe. What did the Medici rulers in Florence call him? | The chief ornament of our age |
| Then some people gave parties or similar events as fund-raisers for political purposes or other reasons (for the cause of crusade). What was the name of the event staged by Duke Philip to advance the cause? | Feast of the Pheasant |
| 15. What is a motet-chanson? Describe it briefly, but don’t be too specific. | It is a four-voice lament that is a cross between a motet and chanson. |
| 16. More than 35 Masses are built on the secular tune L’Homme armé (The Armed Man). This practice continued into the 17th century, so it obviously was important. How is it that this secular song could find its way into the Mass? | Profane songs could be given sacred meanings. The Armed Man, the ultimate warrior, is Christ himself who, according to scripture, defeated the forces of evil by his act of sacrifice on the cross. |
| 17. What is a cantus firmus Mass, also known as a cyclic Mass? | Where the five movements of the Ordinary are unified by means of a single cantus firmus (a Latin adjective meaning “firm” or “well-estabilshed”. |
| 18. What is a cantus firmus? Include comments on the original sources of the tune. | A cantus firmus is a well established, previously existing melody, be it a sacred chant or a secular song. By employing one and the same cantus firmus in all five movements of the Ordinary of Mass. |
| 19. For what purpose did many composers of the era use retrograde motion? | They did it to symbolize Christian faith in the round-trip journey of the Lord: Christ (the Lamb of God, or “Agnus-dei”) journeyed to earth, descended into Hell to defeat the forces of Satan, and then returned to Heaven. |
| 20. What two genres were emphasized in the Burgundian court? | The chanson and the cantus firmus Mass |
| 21. What two composers probably invented the cantus firmus Mass? | English composers such as John Dunstaple and Leonel Power. |
| 22. The cantus firmus Mass replaced what other large-scale musical structure? | It replaced the isorhythmic motet as the large-scale musical structure in which a composer might demonstrate profound technical mastery. |
| Binchois, Dueil angoisseus. 23. What are the three structural parts of this chanson? Very briefly describe the function of each. | Top part: cantus Middle part: supporting tenor Bottom part: contratenor |
| Binchois, Dueil angoisseus 24. In the recording are the middle and bottom parts sung or played? If played, what type of instrument plays? | Middle part: Vielle Bottom part: Lute |
| 25. How many works did Dufay compose? What types of works did he compose? Be thorough in your answer. | More than two hundred musical works. Dufay’s oeuvre is equally secular songs in both French and Italian, monophonic “Gregorian” chants, small-scale liturgical pieces, old-style isorhythmic motets and new style cantus firmus Masses. |
| 26. What type of voice or instrument sings or plays the third staff up from the bottom, the only staff with a key signature? | The Clavichord was played on the bottom and the middle one was probably a supporting tenor. |
| Dufay, Kyrie of the Missa L’homme armé 27. Dufay’s Missa L’homme armé may be the first in a long series of Masses to use this secular tune. For what reason did composers use this tune for Masses even into the 17th century? | It encouraged every good Christian to put on spiritual armor and fight a daily battle against the sings of this world. |
| 1. How much music did Ockeghem write? Give the number of each genre. | 25 chansons, 6 motets, 15 Masses |
| 2. Why are Ockeghem’s chansons important? | They are important because as a group they show the first systematic attempt to structure compositions by using imitation. |
| 3. Why might the Renaissance era of music be called “the age of imitative counterpoint?” | It was the dominate texture of written polyphonic music. |
| 4. What work by what composer has been called the most extraordinary contrapuntal achievement of the 15th century? Give both its Latin and English titles. | Ockeghem’s ingenious constructions, however, is found in his Missa Prolationum (Mass of the Prolations). |
| 5. What is a mensuration canon? | It is one in which two voices perform the same music at different rates of speed; they start at the same time, but one moves through the notes faster. |
| 6. Define the three following contrapuntal terms | Retrograde—forward and backward Inversion—upside-down Retrograde inversion— upside-down and backward |
| 7. What was the title of the musical joke apparently written by Josquin des Prez? | “The French Song of Louis XI, King of France” |
| 8. Provide a brief, but thorough, definition of paraphrase technique. | A composer takes a pre-existing plainsong (Gregoian chant) and embellishes it somewhat, imparting to it a rhythmic profile; the elaborated chant then serves as the basic melodic material for a polyphonic composition. |
| 9. How are paraphrase technique and cantus firmus technique different? | Paraphrase technique: the ornamented chant can appear in any and all voices. Cantus firmus technique: the borrowed melody is usually placed in long notes in the tenor. |
| 10. What is a paraphrase Mass? | A Mass in which the movements are united by a single paraphrased chant. |
| 11. Philippe Basiron composed a setting Salve, Regina using paraphrase technique. According to your author, what is a great virtue of the work? | No matter how rich the supporting harmonies below, the borrowed melody is always clearly audible on top. |
| 12. What is it about imitation that it eliminates some voices that are active and others that are static? | By applying imitation to all the voices within a composition, stratification between voices was reduced; by its very nature imitation makes all vocal parts, if not exactly equal, at least rather similar in their melodic content and rhythmic activity. |
| Johannes Ockeghem, Prenez sur moi. 13. What was the concern of composers centering around or connected with Ockeghem? | They were concerned with giving structure to musical works large and small. |
| 14. The rules of counterpoint required consonances on strong beats. Which intervals were considered consonant? | Unison, fifth, octave, third and sixth |
| 1. In the 15th century, what cities formed the commercial center of northern Europe? What language was spoken there? | Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, Antwerp. The dominant language was Dutch. |
| 2. What was a choir school? Be sure to mention the sponsor and geographic location. | A school that took in boys at about the age of six, gave them an education with a strong emphasis on music and especially singing, and prepared them for a lifetime of service within the church. |
| 3. What remarkable fact might be attributable to the choir schools? | Most of the major composers of learned polyphony in western Europe during the period of 1425 and 1550 were born in the Burgundian Low Countries. |
| 4. List the ten composers your author says are part of the group known as the Franco-Flemish composers. Include their first names and dates. You may consult any reliable source. | Binchois, Dufay, Ockeghem, Busnoys, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez, Heinrich Issac, Cipriano de Rore, Adrian Willaert, and Orlande de Lasses. |
| 5. How old was Obrecht when he decided to take a position as magister cappellae for Duke Hercules d’Este in Italy? How did it end tragically? | He was either 47 or 48 years old. He died of the bubonic plague. |
| 6. What is a quodlibet and what is its literal meaning? | The literal meaning is “whatever you like”. When a several secular tunes are brought together, the process creates a genre of music called a quodlibet. |
| 7. What is a multiple cantus firmus Mass? | This results when two or more cantus firmi sound simultaneously or successively in a Mass. |
| 8. How much of what types (genres) of music did Obrecht compose? How many of his sacred works make use of the multiple cantus firmus technique? | Thirty chansons, thirty-four motets, and thirty-five Masses. About a dozen of his sacred works, both motet and Masses, make use of multiple cantus firmi. |
| 9. How many cantus firmi sound simultaneously in his Missa Sub tuum presidium? How many voices does it have, and why does it probably have that many? | Four to sing various cantus firmi sumulaneously and three to sing free counterpoint against them. (Perhaps it is not mere coincidence that the Mass concludes with seven voices, for seven was the symbolic number for Mary.) |
| 10. Wind players were used for what three typical purposes in the 15th century? What were their typical places from which they played? | Signal the approach of an invading army, salute a visiting nobleman, and herald an important announcement. They were played in the market square, from the city gates, from the belfry of the highest church, and from the balcony of the town hall. |
| 11. Instruments were classified as haut or bas, literally high or low. What musical interpretations do those terms receive? Be very clear as to which is which. | Haut—high— LOUD Bas—low— soft |
| 12. Which instruments were haut and which were bas? | Haut: trumpets, shawms, bagpipes, drums, and tambourine Bas: recorder, vielle, lute, harp, psaltery, portative organ, and harpsichord |
| 13. What was a basse danse? Include a description explaining why it is so named. | It was the principal aristocratic dance of court and city during the early Renaissance. As its name “low dance” suggests, that basse dase was a slow, stately dance in which the dancer’s feet glided close to the ground. |
| Anthology #52, Heinrich Isaac, La Spagna (p. 180) 14. What three instruments play this piece? Which instrument plays the tune? | Sackbut which is the lowest part playes the tune. Shawm is the middle part. Top part on a cornett. |
Created by:
playingnotes4him