Friday, March 26, 2010

Marriage of Figaro

Opera buffa by Mozart
Premiere in 1786 at Imperial Court Theatre in Vienna

Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart

1756-1791
Born in Salzburg, Austria (died in Vienna)
Famous: His spontaneity when writing his music, beautiful melodies especially in operas
Family- musically talented
Toured around Europe at an early age by his father... no childhood?
Child Prodigy!
Taught music by his father
Worked for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg; did not like his treatment as a servant
Married and lived in Vienna
  • No dowry
  • Mozart- average pay
  • Extravagant spender->financial hardships

Teacher

Tidy scores

Climax of career- Opera The Marriage of Figaro

Freemason

Clemency of Titus opera did not impress people in Prague

The Magic Flute and Requiem written in his last year.

Majority of works composed for a certain occasion or purpose.

Works organized by: K.

Symphonies: Haffner (no. 35)

  • Haffner (no. 35)
  • The Linz (no. 36)
  • Jupiter (no . 41)
  • Choral works: Requiem, Grabmusik, and Davidde Penitente
  • Operas: Idomeneo, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute, Marriage of Figaro
  • Chamber music: Ein kleine nachtmusik- double string quartet
  • Keyboard: Fantasia in C Minor, piano sonatas

Operas: singspiel, buffa, and seria. Librettist: Lorenzo da Ponte (MOF, DG, CFT)

Great relationship between content and form as one relies upon the other.

Chromatic harmony->Beethoven

Franz Joseph Haydn

1732-1809
Austrian
Famous for his string quartets and symphonies (developed it)- most well known Classical composer during his life
Employed by Hungarian Esterhazy family as Kapellmeister ("music director") and stayed with them for almost 30 years.
Symphonies: Surprise, Military, Clock, Farewell, London.
14 masses (Lord Nelson Mass, Coronation Mass)
Oratorios: Creation, The Seasons
Operas: Armida
Keyboard sonatas
Secular choral music
Chamber music: "Russian" string quartet op. 33 no. 1
"The Joke" No. 2,
Piano trios and divertimentos
Haydn's sense of humor (Surprise symphony)
Tost Quartets
English sonata in C Major
Sturm und Drang
Keyboard Concerto in D Major
Some of his symphonies: Monothematicism- 1 theme lasting for the whole movement
Easily recognizable themes
Melody after human voice

The Creation

By Joseph Haydn
Oratorio
Instrumentation
Soprano, tenor, bass soloists and SATB chorus
Unknown librettist; Baron von Swieten translated the English libretto into German so that Haydn could use it.
Genesis chapter 1
Additional text: Milton's Paradise Lost epic poem (7th and 8th books)
Work originally written: 1798
Massive work!!!!!!!
Popular in its time!
3 angels describe 6 days of creation in recitative
*Praises God and portrays Haydn's optimism regarding Christianity!!!
Grand chorus of praise concludes each day.

Overture: Representation of Chaos-
  • Starts with resounding C chord with the absence of a third
  • We are clued in to C Minor, then A flat major
  • CHAOS- no recognizable key!

Part 1, scene 3:
Uriel's Recitative (no. 12)- "Let there be light"
recitativo secco, C Major
free rhythm to reflect words
Jubilant C Major!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4/4, Andante

Uriel's Recitative (no. 13)- "In splendour bright"
2/2, Andante, D Major, recitativo accompagnato

Chorus and Trio no. 14- "The Heavens are Telling"
C Major
Begins with chorus and full orchestra in a firm C Major opening. Half note at start of each bar- unity
Chordal
Homorhythmic- all voices are in motion simultaneously
First time trio sings- minor key
Chorus- major!
imitation, polyphonic
Clues listener into minor before end
Men and women separate in singing

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770-1827
Born in Bonn, Germany
Famous for his passion in his symphonies and music
Ludwig's father, Johann, a singer in the Court of the Archbishop of Cologne, drove his son fairly hard in his musical talents to become like Mozart, a child prodigy, but Ludwig's gifts needed a longer time to develop.
Sad childhood- cruel, alcoholic father who died when Beethoven was 18
Supported his family
Pupil of Haydn and accompanied him to Vienna, tired of being a "pupil of Haydn"
Stayed in Vienna rest of life, but also traveled
Impressed Mozart by playing
Respected throughout Europe, but strange and intense
Upon losing hearing and having a hard time with it at a retreat in Heiligenstadt in 1802, he resolved to still compose music and make it his happiness and salvation.
Aristocrat, noble admirers
Big funeral
Works organized by: opus numbers and WoO

Works:
9 symphonies (no. 3 Eroica and No. 9 Choral)
32 piano sonatas (Pathetique and Moonlight)
1 opera (Fidelio)
Overtures (Egmont, Leonore)
5 piano concertos (no. 5 Emperor)
Song cylce- An die ferne Geliebte ("To the distand beloved")
Choral music, (Missa Solemnis)

Wrote for himself
Displayed the artist's life as becoming property to mankind and a hero.
His music differed from the technical style of the Baroque period in some ways in relation to his regard for feeling in his music.
Transition from Classical to Romantic- more daring

Works:
Early Period until 1892-
generally within the boundaries of Classical customs set up by Mozart and Haydn.
Moonlight piano sonata, op. 27
Spring violin sonata, op. 24
Middle Period- 1802-1812
Experiments with new forms
Works on a huge scale
expanded customary forms
Apassionata Piano Sonata, op. 57
lyrical "Emperor" piano concerto, no. 5, op. 73
"Pastoral" Symphony no. 6, op. 68
Late Period0 1813-1827
Hearing failing
No interest of pleasing audience
Inward anguish, despair->hope
"Hammerklavier" Piano sonata, op. 106- MIGHTY
Choral Symphony no. 9, op. 125
Piano sonatas- New Testament
Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier- Old Testament
Beethoven wrote out cadenzas in "Emperor" concerto and that became a standard custom for composers.
Revolutionized string quartets-
first ones- traditional
later- revolutionized genres
1 opera- Fidelio
way to prove oneself to receive royal favor
Fidelio was initially criticizd as too bold and shrill
Revolutionized symphony form
-full orchestra, soloists, and chorus
Symphonies lasted for a long time!
Expanded coda- dramatic ending, not formal
Substituted graceful Minuet and Trio with the boyant and joyous Scherzo and Trio
Piano sonatas and string quartets- length increased
Wrote out cadenzas- leaving his own mark on places that were normally conducted by the performer
Frequently dedicated works to patrons on whom he leaned for commission for his works... BUT exterior powers did not control his ingenuity.

Sonata in d minor- L 413, K 9

By Domenico Scarlatti
Rounded binary (A-B+A)
6/8, Allegro
Begins in d minor, modulates to F Major (2nd theme and codetta with open cadence)
B- F major, LH arpeggiated chords played in a sequence that brings the music back to d minor (d minor until end)
Bridge and 2nd theme again
Coda- series of D octaves in LH for last 3 bars and a matching RH D that is trilled appropriately.

Domenico Scarlatti

1685-1757
Famous for keyboard sonatas- many composed for Queen of Spain, his employer
Italian
Keyboard writing- idiomatic, not singing style
Keyboard sonatas- rounded binary form

Dido and Aeneas

English opera in 3 acts (tragic opera style)
Basis in Aeneid, poem by ancient Roman poet Virgil
Librettist: Nahum Tate
Characters: Dido, Aeneas, Belinda, and Sorceress
Summary: Aeneas, Trojan prince, and Dido, widowed queen of Carthage, fall in love, but Aeneas is tricked by a sorceress and witches who compel Aeneas to leave Dido and sail to Italy. He leaves her and Dido commits suicide upon his departure and her death is grieved by a chorus of sorrowful cupids.

Act III, final scene
through composed, c minor, 4/4, Largo, sung by Dido
recitative secco, word painting, no metrical pulse, no repitition of text (LAMENT)

Aria: When I am laid on earth
Passacaglia: continuous variation with the basis on the ground bass (5 measures)
g minor, 3/2, Largo, sung by Dido, (LAMENT, before she kills herself)
Descending chromatic ground bass- Venetian
4-part string accompaniment
Scottish snap- (short-long)- English
Tension between Dido's melodic line and the rigid bass.

Chorus: With Drooping wings
Through composed, G minor, 4/4, Andante, Mixed Chorus, sung by cupids (comment on action)
Colla Parte- strings double the voice part (Baroque)

Henry Purcell

1659-1695 English
Worked for the Royal Family of England to his death.
5 semi-operas (masques): King Arthur, Dioclesian, The Fairy Queen, The Tempest, and The Indian Queen.
True opera (with music throughout it): Dido and Aeneas

Claudio Monteverdi

1567-1643
Italian
Famous for his innovative madrigals and operas.
Operas- first to use human figures instead of mythological/symbolic figures.
Wrote in two styles: prima prattica ("old style") and helped to invent a new style, seconda prattica ("modern style"),where the text took precedence over the music with its basis on recitative and basso continuo.

Water Music

By George Frederic Handel
"Consort of Musick"
French Orchestral dance suite (3 suites in all)
Full overture in two parts preceding a series of dances.
3 suites altogether have approximately 22 movements- F Major, D Major, G Major
International European spirit- a mixture of different European nationalities
Instrumentation: Trumpets, horns, bassoons, oboes, recorder, flute, and strings
Composed to accompany a royal barge voyage up the Thames to Chelsea (in London) with King George I.
May have been originally composed for in two independent concertos or orchestral suites for merely strings and woodwinds. Then Handel may have put these two pieces together and added the movements containing trumpets and horns to make it more fitting for an outdoor environment.
3rd suite- indoor

Suite no. 2 in D Major:

Allegro, Suite in D Major
Rounded Binary- A-B+A, 4/4
Opening theme in sec. A- Rising triads in trumpets followed by strings playing fast scales- D Major strongly established.
Sec. B- Brass and strings, same key,
Sec. A returns even grander
Seemingly Ending- 4 decisive chords, concluding in D Major
REAL ending- contrast with minor key, slower tempo, strings.
Continuo- modern recordings
Last chord on dominant- suspenseful

2nd movement: Hornpipe
Ternary (A-B-A), D Major, 3/2, Allegro
Opening Theme: Strings, trumpets repeat it
Syncopation and repeated notes, ornamentation,Call and Response
Sec. B- b minor, no brass, but strings, rhythmic motive from beginning
Sec. A- concludes with theme played tutti

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Coronation of Poppaea

By Monteverdi
Opera Seria
Soprano, alto, castrato, chorus for tenors and basses
Librettist: Giovanni Busenello
Characters:
Nero- Roman emperor, soprano (sometimes counter-tenor)
Poppaea- Nero's lover, soprano
Seneca- tutor and friend to Nero, philosopher, Bass
Ottavia- Nero's wife, Roman empress, soprano
Ottone (Otho)- Poppaea's husband, male alto
Drusilla- a lady of the court, soprano

Story has its basis in history instead of mythology.
Ritornello
Text- MOST IMPORTANT! drama and emotion
Montiverdi's style- freedom

Act III- scene 7
F Major modulates and ends in Bb major
4/4
Consuls and Tribunes singing during the crowning of Poppaea

Duet: Pur ti miro (I adore you)
A-B-B-A- lays foundation for A-B-A
G Major
12/8
Adagio
Nero and Poppaea
Imitation style
Word Painting
Eroticism


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Words from Handel

"My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better."
-Handel remarked after a performance of the Messiah

George Frederic Handel

(1685-1759)
Famous for oratorios
Seems to have originated English oratorio (choruses)
Judas Maccabeus
Israel in Egypt
Saul
Samson
Oratorio: Messiah
Orchestral suites: Water Music
Royal Fireworks Music
Composed over 100 cantatas
Instrumental music: organ concertos, one of earliest concertos that highlighted keyboard as solo instrument
Late Baroque Opera Seria:
Radamisto, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda

Operas: From customary schemes to handling aria, chorus, arioso, and recitative in a more dramatic, flexible way.

Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F Major- BWV 1047

Italian concerto grosso form
Concertino: Trumpet, recorder (or flute), oboe, violin
Despite the absence of a text, the instruments likely represent figures or symbols.
3 movements

First movement:
Allegro, Ritornello form, F Major
Rhythmic motive (JOYFUL!)
4 instruments of very different color and tone
Begins tutti
Trumpet's ritornello- unusual for unequal parts between instruments
Independence between parts

Second movement:
Andante, 3/4, d minor
Chamber movement
No trumpet, no tutti
Tierce de Picardie
Continuo

Third Movement:
Allegro assai, fugue, F Major
Solo trumpet accompanied merely by continuo cello
Fugal opening with long subjects for concertino
Tonic pedal at end
Independence of parts


Johann Sebastian Bach

(1685-1750)
Famous for composing fugues and embracing the equal temperament system
Harmonic architectures
A variety of elements in music from around Europe was reflected in Bach's music
Composed over 240 cantatas for church services

Cantata no. 80

By J. S. Bach
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
Sacred cantata
Instrumentation and 4 voices in addition to 4-part chorus
Psalm 46:1
Original chorale: By Martin Luther; melody (9 phrases long) used in half the mvmts.
8 movements

First movement: Chorale Fugue
Moderato, 4/4, D Major, Mixed Chorus with orchestration
Chorale motet
Combines cantus firmus technique with fugue forms, invention, and canon.

Second movement: Duet for soprano and bass
Allegretto, 4/4, D Major, oboe, violins (in unison), continuo
Duet for soprano (sings chorale melody) and bass
Polyphonic

Fifth movement: Chorale for unison chorus
Allegro, 6/8, D Major, orchestration (including taille- a tenor oboe)

Eighth movement: Chorale
Homophonic
4/4, D Major, Full Orchestration
Opening of original orchestration

Monday, March 22, 2010

A Beautiful Piece Played on 90.9

Luigi Boccherini
Symphony in D
German Chamber Academy
Conductor: Johannes Goritzki
Key: D
Opus #45
CPO #999178

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone

By John Farmer
English madrigal
Polyphonic
Paraphrase of Psalm 101
Word Painting

John Farmer

ca. 1570-1605
English
Diver and Sundry Waies of Two Parts in One- features cantus firmus and two-part canon
Faire Nymphs I heard one telling

Moro lasso, al mio duolo

"I am dying from my grief"
Italian madrigal
polyphonic
Countertenor (in modern times soprano): high male singing voice
Chromatic
Word painting-the musical picture of words in text as the music attempts to reflect the emotion in the text

Don Carlo Gesualdo

ca. 1566-1613
Italian Madrigals
Emotional music, unique chords and changes of tonality and harmony
Tetrachord- 4 descending notes with separations of tone, tone, semitone

Mass for Pope Marcellus

By Palestrina
"Gloria"
Through-composed
Soprano, alto, 2 tenors, 2 basses
Begins with a monophonic intonation, then the rest of the piece is polyphonic.
Music and text- equally important
Palestrina: "savior of Catholic music"

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

ca. 1525-1594
Italian
  • Masses: Mass for Pope Marcellus
  • Improperia
  • Motets, sacred madrigals, psalms, hymns
  • Prima Prattica: style with multiple equal vocal lines independent of one another in the absence of instrumental accompaniment.

Pavane "Mille Regretz" (From Danseyre)

Original composition by Josquin des Prez ("Thousand regrets")
SATB recorders (consort of recorders)
Musica ficta- an unwritten accidental (like Tierce Picardie)

Tylman Susato

Danseyre- Collection of popular dances, others' works modified by him (Mille Regretz)

Wrote chansons, motets, and masses

Created the first music printing company in the Low Countries in 1541

Ave Maria... Virgo Serena

By Josquin des Prez
Renaissance motet
Imitation
Opening and closing couplets with 5 quatrian stanzas
Contrast in musical texture

Question

Could you help me find a recording of the Royal Estampie no. 4?

Josquin des Prez

ca. 11440-1521

Wrote masses, motets, and secular songs in French and Italian
  • Missa Pange Lingua (cantus firmus)
  • Renaissance Motet: Chordal Declamation
  • French chansons: e.g. Milles Regretz
Developed imitaion
Expressive character in his music, duet writing, subtlety which is a feature of Franco-Flemish school

Puis qu'en oubli ("Let me not forget")

By Guillame de Machaut
Rondeau (a 14th century chanson)
Voice types: Tenor, counter-tenor, duplum
Polyphonic
Form:A-B-a-A-a-b-A-B
Text settings: syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic (depending on the voice)
Meter: 3/2 in modern transcription
Ars Nova: God's will and romantic love

Guillaume de Machaut

ca. 1300-1377
Medieval, French
Secular and sacred music
French Ars Nova, strophic motet form
42 balladesDame, de qui toute ma joie vient ("Lady, from whom all my joy comes"
isorthymic developments
Messe de Nostre Dame- polyphonic setting of ordinary mass
Poem: Remede de Fortune

Royal Estampie no. 4 (from Chansonnier du Roy, Songbook of the King)

Anonymous composer
Date of composition: Late 13th century
Middle Ages instrumental music
7 sections (called punctas)
Instrumentation: drum, shawms, pipe, rebec, vielles
Meter: 3/4
Tempo: Moderato
monophonic
Two endings in each section: open and closed.
Narrow melodic range
Chansonnier du Roy was a late 13th century compilation of troubadour and trouvere dances.

Moniot d'Arras

ca. 1213-1239
monk at the Abby of Arras located in France
Secular and sacred monophonic songs:
  • common with trouveres and troubadors, jeu parti highlighting dialogue between two poets (with alternating stanzas) on a part of courtly love
  • 15 monophonic chansons and 2 religious songs with their foundation on previous chansons
  • Example: Qui bien aime, a tart oublie

Ce fut en mai (In early May)

By Moniot d'Arras
Trouvere chanson
Strophic form, (A-A-B-B for every one of the 5 stanzas)
Tenor voice
Monophonic (with improvised accompanimen)
Syllabic
Probably a dulcimer, psaltery, and vielle, or a harp
Rhyme scheme: a-a-b a-a-b c-c-b c-c-b ( for each stanza)
6/8 time in modern transcriptions
Story: A destitute lover secretly watches a knight and his lady "in a loving encounter." Upon discovery, he narrates his sad story and receives consolation and a prayer for his happiness from the couple.
Marginal relationship between the music and the text, ordinary for chansons.
Instrumental accompaniment improvised interludes between the voices, doubled the voice, or supplied drones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixV1ktrbH0o

Hildegard von Bingen

(ca. 1098-1179)
Born in Rheinhesse
Exceeding most women and some men of her time
Served as a prioress (leader of nuns) under the jurisdiction of the abbot of St. Disibod
Wrote Scivias, writings of 26 visions
Compositions:
  • 77 chants, including Columba aspexit ("The dove looked in")
  • hymns
  • Ordo Virtutum, first musical play ever
  • Songs: Symphony of the harmony of heavenly revelation
  • "antiphons: one-line pieces (sometimes longer) made of freely composed text with melody sung before and after a psalm" (Linda Sheppard, Early Music, ca. 600-1825).

Saturday, March 13, 2010

O mitissima/Virgo/haec dies (3 texts used)

Anonymous composer
13th century motet
polytextual setting
three voices
Latin
no instrumentation
polyphonic
melismatic
discant style- Gregorian chant with only melody notated and improvised polyphony implied
ostinato in tenor- brief, repeated pattern designed to be performed in conjunction with a melody
repetition of rhythmic patterns

Questions

Are my notes concise and what you're looking for?
Also, should I know dates of most of the composers?
Could you help me find a recording of Haec Dies Organum from the Notre Dame school?

Leonin, Perotin, and Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame de Paris- first Gothic cathedral, 12th and 13th centuries: great intellectual centre for Europe.

Leonin- (~1135-1201), born in Paris, student and priest at Notre Dame, collection of organum with two-part, polyphonic settings of parts (responsorial chants) of mass (Magnus Liber Organi); precise time values in music

Perotin- Leonin's student, revised Magnus Liberi Organi, polyphony: added third and fourth vocal parts, two settings of Graduals for St. Stephen and Christmas in four parts

Haec Dies Organum- attributed to Notre Dame school, ~1200; polyphonic, melismatic, organum with two parts, organal style of writing, upper voice free, chant melody bottom

Haec Dies Chant

A responsorial, monophonic, melismatic chant from the Missa in Dominica Resurrectionis, for solo male voice and men's chorus in the Gradual section of the Mass Proper, sung at EAster Sunday service. Narrow range of melody, modal melody, unmeasured rhythm (free-verse rhythm)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Composers

Baroque-
Francesca Caccini (1587-c. 1640)- gifted in many different ways; composed monody, primary composer in northern Italy at the court of Tuscany. (Jeremy Yudkin)

Giovanni Bardi- effective in the development of opera; founder of Florentine Camerata in around 1573; a clan of people endeavoring to bring about the return of Greek drama and music of ancient times.

Guilio Caccini- member of Florentine Camerata

Jacopo Peri- "Italian composer noted for his contribution to the development of dramatic vocal style in early Baroque opera." (Britannica Online Encyclopedia)

Domenico Scarlatti- Italian composer, known for his 555 keyboard sonatas, that considerably extended the musical and technical potentialities of the harpsichord.

Alessandro Scarlatti- Italian composer of religious compositions and operas

Monday, March 8, 2010

List of Exam Terms

Terms from the exam:



Monody-a kind of music written for secular and sacred texts, meant for solo voice and basso continuo mimicking passionate talking with its natural rhythms. The freeness of the solo voice's range is one characteristic of monody.




Ground bass- Basso ostinato, a repeated pattern in the bass line serving as the accompaniment of the independent voices above it (lit. "persistent bass")




*Melismatic- a style of text setting in which a series of notes are set to only one syllable of text, often used in chants




Neumatic- a style of text setting in which two to four notes are set to a single syllable




Syllabic- a style of text setting in which each note is set to a single syllable of text




Cadenza- "a virtuosic solo passage in improvisatory style, found in concertos and arias" (Teh Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited; RCM Examinations, December 2008)




Musica Transalpina-"a collection of Italian madrigals published in England in 1588 with new English texts" (Frederick Harris)




*Cantus Firmus- "fixed melody"; "a fragment of pre-existing melody used as the structural basis for a polyphonic composition"; slow-moving basis with upper, faster melodies in counterpoint against it, often used in the time period from the 1300's and 1600's. (Dolmetsch online)




shawm- a Medieval wind instrument, an ancestor of the oboe




Polytextuality-"a Medieval practice in which two or more texts are sung simultaneously" (Frederick Harris)




Gloria- "second section of the Mass Ordinary" (Frederick Harris)




Ronde- "lively Renaissance 'round dance', associated with the outdoors" (Frederick Harris)




Rondeau- a fixed, brief poem having only two rhymes and containg ten, thirteen, or fifteen lines, ending each section with an abbreviated line acting as a refraincontaining ten, thirteen, or fifteen lines having merely two rhymes; in 13th century lasting at least to the 15th century. (Dolmetsch online)




Vielle-"a Medieval bowed-string instrument; the ancestor of the violin" (Frederick Harris)




Clausula- a brief composition in descant style from the medieval era; the clausula evolved into the thirteenth-century motetthe text contained one syllable or one or two words based on a fragment of Gregorian chant




Ars Nova- lit. "new art,"; French polyphonic composition in the 1300's (Frederick Harris)




Sturm und Drang- "'storm and stress''; an emotional, mighty movement in German literature of the late 1700's




Sackbut- "an early English brass instrument, and the forerunner to the trombone, featuring a slide" (Linda Sheppard, Early Music ca. 600-1825)




Ritornello-



Italian for a thing that returns; in a concerto, an orchestral passage that perpetually returns; "the solo instrument plays passages of contrasting material," called episodes, during the time between the displays of ritornello (Jeremy Yudkin, Understanding Music)



Ritornello form was employed in the first and third movements of a Baroque concerto and showed a contrast between the orchestra and the solo instrument(s) in a greatly organized fashion



Gradual- a section of the Mass Proper??



Musica enchiriadis- "an anonymous 9th century treatise containing the earliest recorded examples of polyphony" (Frederick Harris)



Chorale-"a hymn tune associated with German Protestantism" (Frederick Harris)



Estampie- "a poetic and musical genre, from the time of the troubadour, related to the sequence, it is sometimes found without words and is believed to have been danced. Eight examples of this form survive, all in a triple meter. An estampie consists of between 4 and 7 verses (calledpuncta); each verse is repeated, and all share the same alternate endings." (Dolmetsch online), a dance of courtly manner most likely with pairs dancing to the music of vielles



Bouree- "a French dance similar to the gavotte but beginning on the fourth beat (of four) rather than the third (of four) as in the gavotte" (Dolmetsch online)



Allemande- "a dance of German origin , performed by couples, with 4 moderate beats to the bar, although sometimes written as two longer beats in a bar, often the first movement in a suite of dances. The allemande is sometimes followed by an afterdance in triple time known as the tripla, proportz or in the seventeenth century, by the courante" (Dolmetsch online)



Minuet- "a graceful French dance in simple triple time often appearing as a section of extended works (e.g. dance suites) of the 17th- and 18th-centuries. Later minuets are generally quicker than the earlier form"



Alleluia- "a highly melismatic responsoral chant from the mass, traditionally the third element in the Proper of the Roman Catholic Mass" (Dolmetsch online)



Regal- Fitted with flue pipes in its later development, it began as a portable, small reed-organ; also "in the organ, a reed stop with short resonators" (Dolmetsch online)



Tabor- a small drum associated with the outdoors and still used today; used with the pipe as a set performed by one person as accompaniment for dancing.



Virginal- a plucked stringed keyboard instrument of the 16th and 17th centuries, often called 'virginals' or 'a pair of virginals' in England. The virginal is rectangular or polygonal in shape and is distinguished from the harpsichord by its strings being set at right angles to the keys, rather than parallel with them." (Dolmetsch online)



Harpsichord- "a large family of keyboard instruments, in which the strings are plucked by plectra, including also spinets and virginals" (Dolmetsch online)



Chordal Declamation-????



EXPLAIN!! Homophony- "a musical composition for 2 or more parts with a single melody line, all other parts serving as accompaniments with matching rhythm, i.e. homorhythmic" (Dolmetsch online)



Polyphony- the texture of music when two or more tones sound at the same time; polyphony is most often thought of with counterpoint, the juxtaposition of independent melodic lines. "In polyphonic music, two or more simultaneous melodic lines are perceived as independent even though they are related. In Western music polyphony typically includes a contrapuntal separation of melody and bass." (Britannica Online Encyclopedia, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/469009/polyphony)



Monophony- a musical texture with a single melodic line without accompaniment



Poppea- Coronation of Poppea, opera by Claudio Montiverdi; Poppea has its origin in Nero, the Roman emperor, and his love of the gorgeous courtier, Poppea. He eventually crowns Poppea as empress as he deposes the legal Roman empress, Ottavia, his wife; soprano character in opera, lover of Nero



Marcellina- a character in Mozart's opera buffa, The Marriage of Figaro; a housekeeper for the countess, with a soprano voice.



Cherubino- a character in Mozart's opera buffa, The Marriage of Figaro; the page who loves the Countess, with soprano voice



Susanna- ????



Cantata no. 80- Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott



Isorhythm- "'of equal rhythm,' and refers to a technique from late Middle Ages in which the main theme (cantus firmus) is repeated many times in the same rhythm, but with varying pitch" (Early Music), Often found in 14th century motets.



Duplum-????



Chordal Declamation-????


Thursday, March 4, 2010

A fantastic piece!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony no. 40 in G Major

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Hosanna- Soweto Gospel Choir

What a touching, worshipful piece of music! Please listen to this African song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2P70a7S4ks