Exam Review

• musical instrument families

  strings, keyboard, percussion, and brass
• tempo


  speed of the beat
• accelerando


  getting faster
• ritardando


  getting slower
• dynamics

  volume of music
• forte

  loud
• piano

  soft or not loud
• crescendo

  getting louder
• decrescendo


  getting softer
• pitch


  the highness or lowness of a note
• intervals


  distance between two notes
• rhythm


  the duration or length of sound and silences
• texture


  the number of sounds
• monophonic


  1 sound
• homophonic

  2 sound but 1 is an accompaniment
• polyphonic

  3 plus sounds or imitation
• Gregorian chant

  usually men; one melody line; sacred music
• Hildegard von Bingen


  first woman composer; composed Gregorian chant; nun from Germany; O successores
• Beatriz Countess of Dia


  troubadour; noblewoman; lute and vocal line (soprano); A Chantar
• troubadour

  poet/composer from south France
• minstrels


  lowest social rank
• estampie

  instrumental dance music
• measured rhythm


  invented by Leonin and Perotin, rhythm is now notated
• mass ordinary

  invented by Machaut. 5 songs set to prayers
• Machaut


  wrote both secular and sacred music, rondeau and mass ordinary
• rondeau


  secular music set to specific melodies that align with the poetry "mis" and "mant"
• parallel motion

  two melody lines move at the same interval; used in organum (gregorian chant + parallel motion)
• Josquin Desprez

  wrote madrigals and motets; Ave Maria and El Grillo
• Palestrina


  Italian composer; only wrote sacred music; Pope Marcellus Mass; 100+ masses
• John Dowland

  wrote lute songs; "flow my tears"
• Thomas Weelkes


  wrote madrigals; "As Vesta was Descending"
• motet


  sacred music not set to the 5 prayers of the mass
• madrigals

  acappella, choral, secular, sung usually by noble people, polyphonic
• lute songs

  homophonic; secular songs, normally about love, John Dowland
• Council of Trent

  1500s
• stropic

  words change but music is repetitive; lute song
• through composed

  both words and music change throughout; madrigals