praxis

Question 1

Characteristics of Medieval Era

Answer 1

Dominated by vocal music. Sacred Music: Gregorian Chant and Masses. Secular Music: for dance and entertainment (Troubadours/Trouvères)

Question 2

Gregorian Chant

Answer 2

melodies that were free flowing with no distinct meter, melismatic, largely monophonic, and sung by unaccompanied voice or choir

Question 3

Organum

Answer 3

an early form of polyphony in which voices are sung in parallel motion

Question 4

Masses

Answer 4

important religious ritual and featured non-imitative polyphony

Question 5

Motet

Answer 5

polyphonic music that was both sacred and secular; major musical form of the Medieval and Renaissance periods that emerged from medieval organum and clausulae.

Question 6

Secular Music (Troubadours and Trouvères)

Answer 6

drone accompaniment, regular meter, syncopations, polyphony, and harmony; by the end of Medieval era became the driving force of musical development

Question 7

Musical Importance of the Mass

Answer 7

one of the most important services of the Roman Catholic Church; driving force of musical development in the Medieval and Renaissance eras. The liturgy of the Ordinary was most often set to music. By the Renaissance era; polyphony was common, musical notation had been refined, and complete masses were written by a single composer (e.g. Machaut’s Mess de Notre Dame). By the twentieth century the genre declined.

Question 8

The Sections within the Ordinary of a Mass

Answer 8

Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei