Elements of music

Melody
The line or tune in music
Unique contour: how the melody moves up and down, and range
Interval: the distance between 2 pitches
Conjunct melodies: created by small, connected intervals. Ex:
Ode to Joy
Disjunct melodies: lots of leaps and skips. Wide ranging. Ex:
star-spangled banner
Rhythm and meter
Rhythm: created through patterns of long and short sounds and
silences
Beat: the basic unit of rhythm, a regular pulse that divides time
into equal segments
Meter: an organization of strong and weak beats
Meter is organized and expressed by measures
Simple meters: duple, triple, and quadruple
Compound meters: divide the beat in groups of three (6, 9, 12
(like the nocturne in e flat)). So if its in 6, its like its in 2, only
its further divided. (so more phrases)
Additive meter: irregular groups of 2s and 3s
Nonmetric: music without a strong sense of beat or meter;
obscured pulse
Harmony
Describes the vertical events in music, or how they sound
together
Chord: the simultaneous sounding of 3 or more pitches
Most western music based on major or minor scales
Scale: particular sequence of pitches
Dissonance: created by an unstable or discordant combination
of tones
Consonance: occurs with a resolution of dissonance, producing
a stable or restful sound
Texture
Refers to the interweaving of the melodic lines without harmony
in music
Monophony: the simplest texture, single-voiced without
accompaniment
Polyphony: a many-voiced texture based in counterpoint, one
line set against another. Voices remain equal, both their own
ideas that work together. Ex: Bachs inventions

Homophony: one melodic voice is prominent over the

accompanying lines or voices. Like in a song with
accompaniment
Homorhythmic: a type of homophonic texture in which all
voices move together and with the same words: Ex: Handels
Hallelujah Chorus
Imitation: a common unifying technique in polyphony, is when
one melodic idea is presented in one voice, then restated in
another. Ex: rounds and canons

Form
The organizing principle in music; basic elements include
repetition, contrast, and variation
Strophic form: common in songs, features repeated music for
each stanza
Binary form: A-B
Ternary Form: A-B-A
Theme: a melodic idea in a large-scale work, often broken down
into small fragments and developed
Improvisation: music created spontaneously
Large scale compositions are divided into sections, or
movements
Antiquity through the early middle ages
Pythagoras
discovered numerical relationships governing the basic
intervals of music. Credited with discovering the ratio for
the consonances (octave 2:1, fifth 3:2, and fourth 4:3)
Pythagorean tuning is based on the perfect consonance of
the fifth
harmony of the spheres: an inaudible harmony founded
on the basic musical proportions
Early association between astronomy and music
To Plato, enjoying music for mere pleasure was bad.
Ethos: the power of music to influence the hearers
emotions, behaviors, and even morals
Common people vs cultured
Modes have certain effects
Music had an established order: hymns were only for the
gods, laments were only for sadness, etc. Each type had a
structure and you werent supposed to interchange them.
For the modes of music are never disturbed without
unsettling of the most fundamental political and social
conventions
music is a reflection of the harmony of creation

Aristotle: music useful for education, ritual, and ALSO

entertainment and relaxation
Study of music is a rational science, because the mind is
nobler than the body
Boethius (480-524): Roman philosopher-statesman
Wrote de institutione musica: the most influential music
text of the middle ages
Musica mundana: music of the universe
Musica humana: music of the human being
Musica instrumentalis: music created by instruments
3 relations to the musical art:
instrumentalist/singer/performer
composer
Judge/critic
Quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy
Trivium: grammar, logic, rhetoric. Studied only so one could
tackle loftier subjects (quadrivium)
The mass
Principal service of the Roman Catholic Church
Influenced by a combination of the rituals of the Jewish
Synagogue and the Jewish Temple
Proper prayers: texts that vary from day to day throughout
the church year
Ordinary: texts that remain the same (Kyrie, Gloria, credo,
Sanctus/Benedictus, Angus Dei)
Chant origins
Developed from ancient Hebrew, Greek, Armenian, Syrian,
and Byzantine oral traditions
Gregorian chant: fusion of Old Roman and Frankish chant
Pope Gregory the Great: had a literary interest in chant.
Collected old Roman chant.
Charlemagne: interested in importing Roman rite (including
chant) throughout the Holy Roman Empire in order to unify
the empire
Gregorian Chant survives today in the collection known as
the Liber Usualis
Characteristics of plainsong
Monophonic
Notated using neumes (little squiggles above the
words. Still kinda oral tradition)
Nonmetric
Three classes:

Syllabic: one note sung to one syllable

Neumatic: small groups of up to 5 or 6 notes per
syllable
Melismatic: long groups of notes set to
modal: using modes, scale patterns used throughout
the middle ages and the renaissance and even into
the baroque, precede the dominance of the
major/minor system
Late middle ages and the ars antiqua
the pattern of music history
experimentation: disorganized, oddities, sometimes
bizarre, manneristic
Organization: sorting out good from bad, new forms, order
applied
Codification: rule-based, universal application, elegance,
leading to parody, decadence
Reform and renewal: revolution, reassessment, rejection,
critical retention, leading to experimentation towards
something new, discovery
Whole cycle starts again
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1079): the height of plainsong
German Abbess
Gifted with divine visions the divine light
One of the largest bodies of music by a medieval composer
Supervised the copying of her music into collections
Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum: collection of
77 monophonic chants (the harmony of the spheres,
brought into music)
Ordo virtutum (Order of the Virtues): liturgical drama,
earliest morality play: depicts struggle between the virtues
and the devil over a human soul
Notre Dame and the Rise of Polyphony
Cathedral built between 1163-1345 AD
Coincided with a great flourishing at the University, elevating
Paris as the musical capital of the world in the 12th century
Organum: earliest type of polyphony: one, two, or three voices
where added to a pre-existing chant
Style features perfect intervals prominently: unison, fourth, fifth,
octaves
Types
Parallel (so 2 voices, a set interval apart)
Free: Structure much more free

Melismatic: long complicated harmony on top of a simple

melody
Rhythmic modes: a fixed pattern of long and short sounds
derived from poetry. Power of three
Leonin: first composer of organum known by name and the
leader of the Notre Dame school
Magnus liber organi: collection of organum in two voices
spanning the entire year
Perotin: expanded the magnus liber organi to include 3 and 4
voice organum
Anonymous IV: an English student visiting the Notre Dame
school. Wrote about Leonin and Perotin around 1280.
Then composers started to add texts to he textless voices of the
organum
Sometimes each vocal line had a different text
Gave rise to a new development: a genre called the motet, from
the French word mot
The influence of organum
Debussy: French impressionistic composer and pianist
La Cathdral Engloutie: Prelude for piano
Based on the legend of Ys
Intentionally mimics the parallel motion of organum along with
the harmonies based on fourths, fifths, and octaves
Late middle ages and the Ars Nova
Secular music in the middle ages
French nobles created the first large body of secular songs
surviving in decipherable notation
Post-musicians performed at court and where calledtroubadours (Southern France)/trouvres (northern
france)/minnesingers (Germany)
Themes: unrequited love, crusaders, dance
A verse without music is a mill without water
Wandering minstrels, jongleurs, performed music and
acrobatics in cities
Played instrumental dances such as the Estampie, popular
in France, Spain, and Italy (monophonic line notated, no
instrument specified)
Goliards
Clergy in training at universities in France, Germany, Spain,
Italy, and England
Carmina burana: most important collection of Goliard
songs: discovered in the Benedictine monastery of
Benediktbeuern, Bavaria

Themes of morals, critiues of the church, lamentations,

spring, pastorals, and love
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
1936 setting of some of the Goliard poems found in
the Carmina burana manuscript
Large scale work for vocal soloists, choir, and
orchestra
Syllabic text declamation
Repeated rhythmic patterns: ostinatos
3 Strops showing a highly repetitive form
Wheel of fate supes important theme
Secular polyphony in England
Sumer is icumen in
Round
Influence of rhythmic modes: long, short, long, short
Instrumental coda features shawm (type of
instrument from the middle east), which would evolve
into the oboe
Composed around 1250 at the abbey in Reading,
England
Sacred latin text- Perspice Cristicola: reflection of
crucifiction
So theres one line thats secular text, but below it
theres sacred text. So double usage
Events impacting the 14th century
Black Death
100 years war
Great Schism: 1378-1418: a division of the Catholic Church
between multiple popes reigning in France and Rome
Ars nova
Franco of Cologne (1250-1280): developed a system of notating
precise durations/rhythmic notation
Also allowed for values to be divided into 2s and 3s
Philippe de Vitry: wrote a music treatise, Ars Nova, describing the
new way to measure time and labeled the previous era Ars
Antiqua
Featured polyphonic secular songs, chansons, set to fixed poetic
forms, forme fixe: Rondeau (ABaAabAB), Ballade (aabC), Virelai
(AbbaA)
Ars nova in Italy
Francesco Landini: Florence, Italy

Blind from childhood, but famous organist, poet, scholar, and

inventor
Most celebrated Italian composer of the 14th century
Even has a cadence named after him
Ars nova in France
Guillaume de Machaut
Studied theology and served various royal families such as
Charles, duke of Normandy, and John, king of Bohemia
Later end of life was spent as a canon at Reims Cathedral
Around age 60 he fell in love with Peronne, a beautiful young
noble woman
Foremost composer of the Ars Nova
Messe de Nostre Dame
Composed by Machaut
Considered the finest composition of the Middle Ages
First polyphonic treatment of the entire mass ordinary by a
known composer
Composed for four voices with the Kyrie, Sanctus, Sanctus, and
Agnus Dei based on pre-existing chants found in the tenor
Rhythmic complexity increased by repeated pattern and motives
(isorhythm)
Harmony includes stark dissonances, hollow-sounding chords,
and full triads
Brahms and Gaudiamus igatur
School song that dates back to 1287
Brahms quotes this and other drinking songs in his Academic
Festival Overture
The Renaissance: Humanism and the Reformation
1400-1600
Originates in Italy but spreads to affect all of Europe
Characterized by visionaries such as Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, Christopher Columbus, Johannes Gutenberg, and
Martin Luther
Humanism
Dominant intellectual movement of Renaissance
Focus on human life and accomplishment
Renewed interest in Ancient Greece and Rome (Raphaels
school of Athens)
Characteristics of Renaissance music
Vocal music continues to dominate instrumental focus

Emphasized the MEANING and EMOTION of the text. Music

must express the words (before, the music itself didnt really
have anything to do with what they were singing)
Word painting
Emphasis on POLYPHONY and IMITATION
Richer harmonies incorporating the third and full triads with
controlled dissonances, contenance angloise
Golden age of a cappella choral music
Gently flowing rhythms with changes between duple and
triple meters
Melodies usually CONJUNCT and SCALAR
John Dunstable
English composer, mathematician, and astronomer
Served several royal families such as John, Duke of Bedford,
which resulted in travels to Normandy on the continent
Influenced the Burgundian School including Guillaume Dufay
with the English style or contenance angloise
Guillaume Dufay
Leading composer of his time
Associated chiefly with the Cathedral of Cambrai in Northern
France
Traveled to Italy to serve in the Papal Choir in Florence
Served at the court of Burgundy under the rule of Duke
Philip The Good
Dies a wealthy man
Lhomme arm
Popular anonymous French chanson
Used by Dufay and others as a cantus firmus (fixed song
used as a framework for a polyphonic composition) for over
40 masses
Josquin des Prez
Most influential composer of the high renaissance
French born, traveled to Italy only to return to France near
the end of his life
Served serveral notable courts, Cardinal Sforza dn Duke
Ercole dEste in Ferrara
1489: member of the papal choir in Rome
The reformation
Begins with martin luthers posting on the 95 theses in 1517
Many of Luthers reforms regarded music: congregational
participation, use of the vernacular, tunes easily learned and
sung

Gives rise to the Lutheran chorale: newly written texts. Many

Luther wrote himself
Einfeste Burg (A mighty fortress)
Music and text created by martin luther
Strophic form
Bar form (AAB), common form of chorales
Originally sung monophonically, but later harmonized
polyphonically
The Genevan Psalter (1539)
John Calvin: Swiss reformer and theologian
Proposed rigorous reforms as compared to luther: eliminate
Latin completely, only allow unaccompanied singing in the
vernacular (also no polyphony), only allow Psalms to be sung
Led to the creation of the Psalm tune
Louis Bourgeous: composed the most famous psalm tune:
Old Hundred
The Renaissance: counter-reformation and madrigals
Catholic churchs response to the protestant church
Council of Trent: supes important event. Met for 25 sessions
during 1545-1563. Formulated response to and condemnations
against the Protestant heresies, defined Catholic doctrines and
statements, abolished abuses of power and corruptions of the
liturgy. Issued a canon banishing music of a lascivious or
impure nature. Insisted that the text be intelligible (no more
complex weaving of polyphony. Make it understandable)
Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, a member of the commission of
Cardinals, was the archpriest of San Maria Maggiore where
Palestrina was choir master.
Warning against melismatic passages, encouraged correct Latin
accentuation
Palestrina
Organist and choir master for various churches including St.
Peters in Rome
Sang as part of the choir in Sistine chapel, dismissed for
being married
Composed mostly SACRED music
Palestrina style immortalized by Johann joseph Fux
Flow of music is not rigid or static
Conjunct melodies
Leaps are small and immediately countered by conjunct
motion in opposite direction
Dissonances fall on weak beats or are immediately
resolved

Renaissance madrigal
Most important type of secular music during the era
Originated in Italy around 1520
Cultivated aristocrats and learned people
Appeaered in France as the Parisian and Programmatic
chanson
England went crazy over madrigals; hundreds composed
between 1588 and 1624
Characterized by VIVID WORD PAINTING, unusual harmonies,
extreme VOCAL INDEPENDENCE, alternations between
homophony and polyphony
Madrigals in France
Clment Janequin
French composer who imitated birdcalls, street cries , and
the sounds of battle
Composed over 250 chansons
Carlo Gesualdo
Composed church and music madrigals
Madrigals push the art form to an advanced level
Innovative developments in chromaticism and harmony is
not matched until the late 1800s
Renaissance instrumental music
Not as important as vocal music
Relegated to dance music; few solo instrumental forms did
develop such as music for solo lute and solo keyboard
Mostly homophonic, duple, short predictable phrases
Each dance in AABB form
Ronde form
Pointing towards Baroque
Venice became the center of instrumental and vocal music
Cathedral of San Marco was focal point where the Venetian
School developed under composers
Led to works for multiple choirs and groups of instruments\
Baroque
Equal temperament system: fixed tuned system (like the piano)
where everything isnt tuned perfectly, but you can play everything
in any key
Doctrine of the affections: each key has a certain mood or certain
quality. Ex: D Major= joy
Rondo alla turca
ABCBAB+ coda form

Opening section alternates with new musical material. Thats

why a rondo is a rondo. Great device for improvisation
Beethoven
Before, exposition and recapitulation longest part, development
supes short
Beethoven was like yah no and made the development much
longer
Romantic things
Through-composed Lied: a Lied without any real form. More like
storytelling
Piano super important in lieds
Schumanns In the Lovely Month of May is strophic. Same
music used. All that changes is the text
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, Agnus Dei