Western Music Exam 1 (TERMS)

• Pythagoras: ancient 6th century Greek mathematician and philosopher who gave the identification of the mathematical relationships underlying the harmonic series
• Plato: philosopher who defined music as consisting of [words, harmony, and rhythm], contributed to the doctrine of ethos, and roots were in mathematics and abstract thinking
• Aristotle: philosopher who defined music as consisting of [words, melody, and rhythm], contributed to the doctrine of ethos, and roots were human action (mimesis) & knowledge should come through reasoned discourse
• Mimesis: The idea that art (including music) imitates or represents aspects of human action
• Ethos: refers to the doctrine of ethos that the belief that music can powerfully affect human character and behavior
• Apollonian, Dionysian: Apollonian refers to art that is abstract and appeals to the intellect, while Dionysian refers to art that arouses strong emotions
• Catharsis: The emotional release or purification experienced through art
• Kithara, Lyre: refers to stringed instruments that were associated with the cult of Apollo
• Aulos: a double-reeded musical instrument that is associated with the God Dionysus
• Harmonia: can mean mode, meaning it is the concept of musical harmony or the combination of different tones
• Heterophony: a texture that is simultaneous variations of a single melody by different performers
• Tonos: The ancient Greek term for a musical mode or scale
• Greater Perfect System: The tonal pitch spectrum in Greek musical theory that is set the tetrachords consecutively so that they formed two pairs of conjunct fourths separated by a whole tone
• Tetrachord: considered the fundamental scalar unit of Greek music theory, it is a series of four consecutive pitches spanning a fourth
• Genus: A classification of ancient Greek musical scales based on their intervals
• Diatonic: refers to a type of genus where the fourth is divided into the semitone first then the two whole tones
• Chromatic: refers to a type of genus where the fourth is divided into two semitones first then an augmented whole tone
• Enharmonic: refers to a type of genus where the fourth is divided into a ditone (two identical tones) followed by a major third
• Martianus Capella: an author who considered music was one of the mathematical liberal arts, being known as the quadrivium
• Trivium, Quadrivium: Trivium refers to the three language arts [grammar, style, and logic], while Quadrivium refers to the four mathematical disciplines [basic mathematics, plane geometry, music, and astronomy]
• Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius: discussed music in his treatise De institutione musica (Institution of Music), and had contributions to musica mundana, musica humana, and musica instrumentalis
• De institutione musica: Boethius’ organization of music that covered topics of the ancient ideas about music
• Musica speculativa: refers to "speculative" or "reflective" music because by its harmonic proportions music reflects mathematical principles, (study of acoustics, tuning systems, and mathematical relationships between notes)
• Musica practica: refers to “Practical” music because it involves the performance and composition of music (melody, harmony, rhythm, and form)
• Musicus, Cantor: Musicus refers to a musician, while Cantor refers to singer
• Musica mundana: Boethius' way of classifying music with this one being the music of the spheres referring to the harmony of the universe
• Musica humana: Boethius' way of classifying music with this one being human music referring to the music that gave harmony to human existence
• Musica instrumentalis: Boethius' way of classifying music with this one incorporated all sounding music, including singing
• Edict of Milan: passed by the emperor Constantine, it began religious toleration of Christianity from allowing religious freedom
• St. Augustine: a bishop who recognized the power of music to fire devotion, especially that of the newer and weaker minds among the faithful, and wrote “Confessions” with his struggles
• Psalm: refers to the sacred songs or poems used in worship, from one of the biblical hymns collected in the Book of Psalms
• Canticle: refers to other poems that are sung in a specific book in the Bible, but outside the book of Psalms
• Hymn: considered nonscriptural songs, a simpler and more popular genre than the psalms and canticles
• Direct, Responsorial, Antiphonal: Direct is singing solo or unison performance of the music, Responsorial is singing which a solo singer or leader performed verses of the text and the entire congregation answered, and Antiphonal dividing the singers into two groups and have them sing in alternation
• Mode: another word for “hamornia”, it is the theoretical framework to explain pitch organization of other chants
• Byzantine: refers to the empire that their Church developed a repertoire of elaborate musical composition, and by the 8th century, music theorists organized the tonal structures of Byzantine church music on the basis of a modal system
• Kontakion: resembled a long, poetic sermon on a biblical text & syllabic
• Kanon: refers to a complicated, multisectional piece based on a series of nine biblical canticles & syllabic
• Echos: refers to a system of musical modes used in Byzantine chant, which the complete system incorporated eight different echoi, classified in two series of four
• Old Roman: the religious and musical tradition of Rome itself