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233 Cards in this Set
- Front
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One of earliest composers known by name.
Known for composing sequences. |
Notker Balbulus
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Frankish poet, musician, painter, sculptor, and composer of tropes.
Friend of Notker Balbulus. Melodies were "strange and easily recognizable." |
Tuotilo
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Developed solmization (ut, re, mi, etc.)
Created "Guidonian Hand," using different joints to signify various notes as memorization aid. |
Guido d'Arezzo
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French trouvere who wrote in every genre of the time.
One of few medieval musicians who wrote monophonic and polyphonic music. Composed musical play Jeu de Robin et de Marion. |
Adam de la Halle
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One of the finest troubadour poets.
18 of his melodies have survived, more than any other 12th cent. poet. 12 were chansons. Student of Eble II school, upholding idealistic view of courtly love. Only three were through-composed (most comprised of repeated sections) |
Bernart de Ventadorn
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Contenporaries called him ‘maestre del trobadors.’
77 poems have survived, only four with music. Of those, alba, Reis glorios, is probably the best known and justly admired of all troubadour songs in modern times |
Guiraut de Bornelh
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Most celebrated of German lyric poets. Composed Palästinalied.
Known as much for his political stance as his beautiful poems, as a staunch supporter of German independence over papal rule. |
Walter von der Vogelweide
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Meistersinger from Nuremberg.
Wrote over 6,000 poetic works. Wanted to make religious and secular knowledge available to masses. Made famous by Goethe and Wagner. |
Hans Sachs
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Jongleurs
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French medieval entertainer. A wandering minstrel.
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Goliardic poets
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Latin poets active in France, England, Germany, and northern Italy.
Wrote secular songs, but often with religious themes. Utilized Goliardic stanzas, with rhyming 13-syllable lines (7, then 6) |
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Troubadours
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Poet-musicians of noble birth.
From southern France and NE Spain. One of the earliest substantial literatures of western Europe. Most (9/10) without notated music, mostly performed in song, though. |
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Trouveres
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Successors to the Troubadours, generally in northern France.
Sometimes noble, but not always. Many of their works were written down, so the bulk of the literature remains intact. Most works were about idealized love. |
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Minnesinger
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German poet-singers of aristocratic birth.
Poetry reflects a social order of great refinement and education, dominated by a reverence for women, and generally expressed in the language of courtly love. Sometimes accompanied by professional minstrels. |
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Meistersinger
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German poet-musicians who formed a guild.
Usually not of aristocratic birth. Used sacred themes, as opposed to minnesingers, with hymnic lyrics and epic narrative poems. |
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Gregorian Chant
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Name associated with Roman plainchant.
Debate about which Gregory (Pope Gregory I or Pope Gregory II) it is ascribed to, but likely Gregory I. Reworking of Roman ecclesiastical song by Frankish cantors. |
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Antiphonal Psalmody
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Chanting psalmodic texts by alternating choirs with the addition of one or more refrains after each verse.
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Responsorial Psalmody
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Ancient practice of performing a psalmodic text with a congregational or choral refrain after each verse.
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Direct Psalmody
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The singing of a psalm without any textual additions or other alterations.
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Syllabic Setting
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Type of chant where there is one note for every syllable of text.
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Neumatic setting
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Type of chant where a small group of notes is sung to each syllable of text.
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Neume
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An early form of musical notation in plainchant.
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Jubilus
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A vocal elaboration on the final vowel of the alleluia that provides a strong impetus for musical form. Also a jubilant cry, often associated with farm workers.
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Liber Usualis
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Book issued by the Solesmes Monks in 1896 compiling the most important services of the Roman Catholic liturgy.
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Liturgical Drama
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Dramatic representations of biblical scenes or other morality plays. Hildegard's "Ordo Virtutum" is one of the most well known.
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Modal System
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The 8 church modes (4authentic and 4 plagal) making up the medieval plainchant repertory.
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Hexachord
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A collection of six ascending notes. Named ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la.
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Solmization
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The use of syllables in association with pitches as a mnemonic device. Guido d'Arrezo devised the first system of solmization.
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Gamut
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The full range of the notes of the Guidonian Hand, or all of the notes of the scale.
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Mutation
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In Solmization, switching from one hexachord to another.
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Chansonnier
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A manuscript or book whose content is comprised of Chansons.
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Roman Liturgy
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The liturgy utilized by the Roman Catholic Church, currently comprised in its most complete form in the Liber Usualis.
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Pastourelle
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French medieval song characterized by its pastoral theme.
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Lauda
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The principle form of non-liturgical religious song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance in Italy. Typically monophonic.
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Roman Mass
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The Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church.
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Sequence
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A type of hymn which began as one of the many forms of interpolation in the original liturgy of the Western Christian Church. Follow the Gradual and Alleluia.
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Trope
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Interpolations in plainsong words, resulting either in melisma on one note or a fragment of new melody. Practice flourished from 9th to 15th centuries, was abused, and finally banned by Tridentine reform.
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Antiphon
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A liturgical chant sung as the refrain to the verses of a psalm.
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Psalm Tones
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Plainchant recitation formulas for psalms.
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Estampie
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A dance and poetic form known in France in the 13th and 14th centuries. "Stamping dance" in French and "standing feet" in Italian.
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Conductus
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A medieval song with a serious, usually sacred, text in Latin verse. Believed to be sung while a lectionary was carried to the place appointed for reading.
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Chanson de geste
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An epic tale of heroism told to a very simple musical accompaniment.
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Cantigas
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A Spanish and Portuguese medieval monophonic song, as opposed to poems. The best surviving example is the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of about 400 cantigas about the Virgin Mary.
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Melismatic Setting
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A plainchant setting where extended groups of notes are set to a single syllable. Also known as florid setting.
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First great master of the Notre Dame school. Known for his organum style and for making a big book (magnus liber) of Mass and Office chants used at Notre Dame.
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Leonin
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Choirmaster of chapel on the site of the present Notre Dame cathedral. Leader of the Notre Dame school and composer of ars antiqua style. Also revised Leonin's Magnus Liber. Wrote organum triplum and quadruplum, organum is three or four parts.
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Perotin
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German theorist and composer who wrote "Ars cantus mensurabilis," which first proposed that duration should be indicated by different note shapes and not just by context.
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Franco of Cologne
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French theorist and composer who built upon Franco's mensuration theories by suggesting that the breve could be divided further than Franco suggested, in up to seven parts.
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Petrus de Cruce
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Most influential composer of the 14th century. First artistically significant composer of polyphonic music known by name. Had an immense output of music and poetry. Composed Messe de Nostre Dame. Wrote Remede de Fortune.
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Guillaume de Machaut
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Known more as a politician and diplomat than a composer, but his treatise Ars Nova (which is now known to be a compilation of his theories and those of his contemporaries) introduced new ideas of measuring rhythm.
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Phillipe de Vitry
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Leading composer of Italian Ars Nova. Blinded by smallpox at young age, but became prominent organist. More works of his survive than any of his contemporaries. Music characterized by its fluid melodiousness and rhythmic grace.
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Francesco Landini
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St. Martial
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Early church destroyed during the French Revolution whose library has provided the first florid organum and two-part polyphony. While comprised of expected Gregorian chant, also contained some locally composed melodies, including what some believe later became Parisian conductus.
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Santiago de Compostela
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Cathedral in northwest Spain that became an important shrine for pilgrimage. Became a center of a variety of types of music. Still flourishes today as Santiago University.
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Notre Dame
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A Parisian chapel that became associated with the Notre Dame school from 1150-1250. Transformed polyphony from a performance practice into a compositional practice. Set the groundwork for contrapuntal and rhythmic practice of next three centuries. Lenonin and Perotin famous Notre Dame composers.
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Avignon
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City in France which enjoyed a culturally (and financially) rich period during the 14th century. Composers wrote music for services as an excuse to try out the latest compositional techniques.
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Rhythmic Modes
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An early concept of rhythm whereby notes were performed in a particular pattern determined by which mode it was in.
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Musica Enchiriadis
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9th century treatise which is the earliest surviving source of polyphony.
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Vox principalis
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The principal voice in organum.
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Vox organalis
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The secondary voice in organum.
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Winchester Troper
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An early example of two-part organum comprised of two manuscripts dated circa 1000.
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Magnus Liber Organi
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The Great Book of Organum, of the Notre Dame school from c. 1170 and attributed to Lenonin (revised by Perotin), which is the most important surviving work of the period.
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Cantus firmus
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Meaning "fixed song," used in the 14th-17th centuries, it is the basis of polyphonic music and serves as the melody upon which all counterpoints are based.
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Isorhythm
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Principle whereby by the same rhythmic pattern appears in successive repetitions of the melody.
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Trecento
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Term referring to the 14th century in Italian cultural history. Saw an increase in the amount of secular and polyphonic music.
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Ars nova
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Treatise written by Phillipe de Vitry, also came to be known as a period of musical composition. Meaning "new art," it was contrasted with Ars antiqua or the "old style."
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Formes fixes
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The three main forms of the late medieval chanson; the Ballade, the Virelai, and the Rondeau.
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Roman de Fauvel
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A long poem by Gervais du Bus, completed in 1316. It is an allegorical satire on the Roman Church, the character of Fauvel being a horse. One of the 12 manuscripts contains numerous settings, including pieces by de Vitry and the Notre Dame repertory.
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Messe de Notre Dame
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Polyphonic mass composed by Machaut. Earliest complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass written by a single composer.
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Musica ficta
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Meaning "feigned music," the practice of sharping or flatting certain notes to avoid awkward or impermissible intervals.
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Mensural notation
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Basis of the modern form of notation and developed by Franco of Cologne. System whereby length of notes was determined by shape of the note and not by mode of the piece.
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Landini cadence
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Cadence named after Francesco Landini in which the 6th degree is inserted between the leading tone and the octave.
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Double leading tone cadence
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A three-part cadence in which two of the parts perform leading tones.
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Clausula
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The conclusion of a part of music which has come to be associated which a cadence. Also a polyphonic composition based on a portion of a chant.
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Organum
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A type of medieval polyphony, comprised of parallel and florid organum (the last sometimes referred to as free and melismatic organum).
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Parallel organum
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Organum in which parts are sung in parallel with each other, commonly in octaves, fourths, fifths, and unisons.
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Florid organum
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Ornamented organum where the vox organalis is a moving part set above a more static vox principalis, but when the extra notes are eliminated, you are left with octaves, fifths, fourths, and unisons.
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Stimmtausch
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Meaning voice exchanging, the practice of two voices of equal range alternating phrases.
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Motet
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A form of short unaccompanied choral music which superceded the Conductus. It was based on a pre‐existing melody and set of words to which other melodies and words were added in counterpoint.
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Hocket
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Practice in which rests were inserted into vocal parts, even in the middle of words, for expressive effect.
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Discant style
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A technique characterized by essentially note-against-note, contrary movement between the voices and the interchange of the consonances octave, 5th and 4th.
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Cauda
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A specific part of a Conductus coming at the penultimate syllable of each verse, taking the form of a lengthy counterpoint.
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Ballade
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One of the three formes fixes of 14th and 15th century chansons with three structurally identical stanzas each concluding with the same refrain line and each sung to the same music. An AAB form.
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Rondeau
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One of the formes fixes of 14th and 15th century chansons, although its structure was already established in the 13th century. It was a single-stanza poem of four couplets.
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Virelai
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One of the formes fixes of 14th and 15th century chansons. The musical form was AbbaA.
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Ballata
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One of the Italian secular forms of the 14th and 15th century. Form comprised of ripresa (refrain), two piedi, volta, and ripresa.
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Caccia
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One of the Italian secular forms of the 14th and 15th century. Meaning "chase," often about hunting and in canonic form.
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Madrigal
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One of the Italian forms of secular music in the 14th and 15th centuries. While initially sung in Italy, eventually became the most popular secular polyphonic form in Europe.
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Isorhythmic motet
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Motets in which isorhythms were used in all voices, not just in the cantus firmus.
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Leading English composer of first half of the 15th century. Wrote masses, isorhythmic motets, and probably first to write instrumental accompaniment for church music.
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John Dunstable
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Most acclaimed composer of 15th century. Among surviving works are masses, isorhytmmic motets, songs, hymn settings, and works in honor of Virgin Mary. Mostly associated with Burgunidan School, but never formally a member of that court.
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Guillaume Dufay
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Franco-Flemish composer, probably trained as a chorister. Leading member of the Burgundian School. No complete masses survive, just 28 mass movements, most surviving secular songs are rondeaux.
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Gilles Binchois
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Franco-Flemish composer whose styles was notes for contrapuntal richness. Not many surviving works. One of leading composers between Dufay and des Prez. Wrote one of the first parody masses.
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Johannes Ockeghem
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French composer who shared a penchant for elaborate melody, lively canon, and elaborate rhythms with Ockeghem. Most known for his chansons, of which 60 survive.
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Antoine Busnois
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Franco-Flemish composer who was the towering composer of the Renaissance. Little is known of his early years, but he spent the majority of his career at Notre Dame. Known for text depiction and text expression. He was widely imitated and his music was idiosyncratic, so it is difficult to determine what was his work and when he wrote it. Most of his music was the mass, the motet (50), and the French-texted chanson.
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Josquin des Prez
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Flemish composer who was a major composer of the des Prez era. Wrote 36 masses and many secular songs. Worked for Lorenzo de Medici and for Maximilian I. Wrote about 35 masses, 50 motets, and the Choralis Costantinus.
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Heinrich Isaac
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Wrote 30 mases, 28 motets, and secular songs. Used points of imitation more frequently than earlier composers. Used number significance and Kaballistic significance has been found in his structure. Often imitated other composers and music was described as boundlessly exuberant.
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Jakob Obrecht
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Burgundians
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Term associated with the musicians of the court of Burgundy, although misleading because many Burgundian composer (such as des Prez) were never members of that court. Significant musical school of the 15th and 16th centuries. Comprised Holland, Belgium, and northern France.
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Netherlanders
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The area that would later be called the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815-1830) inherited a rich cultural heritage from the region from the Renaissance and composers of the region were considered Netherlanders.
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Old Hall Manuscript
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Early 15th‐cent. coll. of church mus. found in the library of St Edmund's. It offers a valuable opportunity of studying the choral style of a period c. 1415.
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Plainsong Mass
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Monophonic mass
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Cantu firmus Mass
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Renaissance masses which shared a common musical theme, thereby making them one unified musical idea. Also called a cyclic mass.
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Parody Mass
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Mass which incorporated material derived from a motet, chanson, or madrigal. Nothing "parody-like" about it.
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Soggetto cavato
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Procedure utilized by Josquin des Prez and later named soggetto cavato by Zarlino. It is kind of a musical cryptogram where the vowels of the text are associated with notes of the Guidonian Hand.
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Musica reservata
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"Reserved music." A largely undefined term which appears to designate a particularly expressive style of composition, without unnecessary ornamentation, in which attention is paid to word-setting.
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Fauxbourdon
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"False bass." Method of singing improvised polyphony, often used by Burgundian composers. Plainsong melody accompanied by two lower parts, one a sixth and the other a fourth below the melody.
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Carol
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Songs, often with 2 or 3 voices, usually to a text about the birth of Christ. Early Carols were rounds.
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Canon
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Strictest form of contrapuntal imitation. Where one voice gives way to another which must, after an interval of time, imitate it exactly.
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Chanson
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Any sort of simple verse-repeating song, really an early kind of madrigal or ayre type.
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Influential in the development of monody and felt music should match the words it sets and should move the whole man. First works were madrigals, which were explorations of mood. Wrote only vocal works. Composed L'Orfeo.
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Claudio Monteverdi
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Pupil of Tallis of whom not much is known. Was a widely accomplished contrapuntist. Innovator of form and technique in his liturgical works. His music for virginals were significant because he developed variations.
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William Byrd
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Organist whose importance is as a highly skilled performer on and ingenious composer for the virginals, as in his Walsingham (30 vars. on a theme). He ranks as one of the founders of keyboard performance and the keyboard repertory.
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John Bull
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Greatest Spanish composer of the Renaissance, possibly studying with Palestrina. Most of his professional activity (at least in Rome) was as a priest and not a musician. Famous for his motets, one of which is O Magnum Mysterium.
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Tomas Victoria
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Italian madrigal composer whose life was surrounded in scandal after he assassinated his wife and her lover. Manic-depressive and masochistic at the end of his life. Explored ideas of chromaticism and dissonance. Stravinsky was fascinated by his music.
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Carlo Gesualdo
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Franco-Flemish composer who reportedly was kidnapped three times for the beauty of his voice as a child. Master of the chanson and madrigal. Involved with intellectuals, some of who were experimenting with chromaticism. Gathered large group of talented musicians, including the Gabriellis, for his capella. Largest collection of his works was the Magnum opus musicum.
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Orlando de Lasso
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Nephew of Andrea Gabrieli and his student. Associated with St. Marks and experimented with antiphonal music, most famous of which was his 2 Sacrae Symphonie.
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Giovanni Gabrieli
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Known primarily as a lutenist, but his music melodically and harmonically advanced the "art song."
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John Dowland
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Flemish composer, believed to have been pupil of Josquin de Prez. In court service of Charles V 1526 – 40; later worked at Tournai. Composed 160 motets, 10 masses, and 70 songs.
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Nicolas Gombert
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Maestro di cappella at St. Marks, raising Venice to prominence as a musical center. A many-sided composer but is famous especially for his church music, much of which is written in a highly individual and sonorous style that was eminently suitable for grand, solemn occasions
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Adrian Willaert
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Franco-Flemich composer who was first to set Dutch translations of the Psalms polyphonically. Wrote many motets, chansons (both bawdy and not-so), and numerous other types of music.
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Jacobus Clemens
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French composer who spent most of his career as choirmaster in Italy. Most known for his madrigals.
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Philippe Verdelot
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French composer and priest who wrote over 200 chansons, many masses, and motets.
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Claudin de Sermisy
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Wrote over 250 chansons, the majority of his output, and two parody masses based upon themes from his chansons. Known for using music to imitate birdsong, chattering women, and such.
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Clement Janequin
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German composer who spent much of his life in Poland. Not many of his works survive, but those that do show adaptability to changing stylistic trends.
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Heinrich Finck
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Leading German composer of his day. Composed many Lieder, motets, masses, and other works remarkable for expressive qualities.
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Ludwig Senfl
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Austrian organist who wrote much organ music, of which little survives.
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Paul Hofhaimer
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English composer and friend of William Byrd. Roman Catholic, but after Queen Elizabeth's ascension he wrote mostly secular music. Also one of the first to write English-language works for the new Protestant liturgy. Spem in alium, a 40-voice motet, was one of his most famous pieces.
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Thomas Tallis
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His treatise "Musica getutscht" (1511) is the oldest printed manual on musical instruments and provides much valuable information on their use in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
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Sebastian Virdung
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Italian theorist and maestro di cappella at St. Marks. Wrote "Le istitutioni harmoniche" (1558) which first suggested word-paintings, different emotional qualities of major and minor chords, and dividing scale into equal intervals, the basis for equal temperament.
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Gioseffo Zarlino
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Flemish composer who succeeded Willaert at St. Marks. Composed St. John Passion (1557) and many other motets and madrigals.
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Cipriano di Rore
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Most popular madrigal composer of his time. Known for his singing style and his fondness for drawing attention to each detail of the pastoral verse he chose
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Luca Marenzio
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Famous organist at St. Marks, serving with Andrea Gabrielli, and known especially for his toccattas, which led to Bach's. Also an influential music publisher in Venice.
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Claudio Merulo
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Italian composer who took his name from his birthplace, his music is marked by flowing, smooth lines and a rich beauty of sound in the way voices are blended. Known mainly for his masses and motets. Commissioned to revise official chant books after Council of Trent.
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
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A versatile all-rounder who wrote music in most of the major genres of the day but he is remembered today principally for his English-texted madrigals, and for his treatise "A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke" (1597). Also wrote a famous book of songs for voice and lute.
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Thomas Morley
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German composer who varied over a wide range of styles. As a theorist, he wrote "Syntagma musicum" (three parts, 1614–18), a detailed account of the forms, instruments (with descriptions and illustrations of those in contemporary use), and performance practices of his time, which is still of great historical significance.
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Michael Praetorius
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Venetians
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Brought about the end of the Renaissance and beginning of Baroque. After death of Pope Leo XII, Rome ceased to be musical center and Venice was one of new centers of music, but also because of St. Mark's.
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Virginalists and Madrigalists
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Composers who wrote primarily for the virginal (keyboard instrument) or who wrote primarily madrigals.
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Council of Trent
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Council of the Roman Catholic Church convened between 1545-1563, responsible for clarifying doctrine. Musically, condemned unintelligible or "impure" settings. Did not succeed in standardizing Roman chant.
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Dodecachordon
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Treatise on modal theory by Heinrich Glarean published in 1547. Introduced a new theory of 12 modes, with the addition of four modes, an Ionian, Hypoionian, Aeolian, and Hypoaeolian. Also contains works of Josquin, Ockegham, Isaac, and others.
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Musica transalpina
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First printed collection of Italian madrigals with English words. Very influential on English composers.
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Triumphes of Oriana
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A collection of 25 English madrigals for five and six voices by Morley, Weelkes, and 21 others, published by Morley in 1601. It is assumed to be in praise of Elizabeth I, each piece ending with the line ‘Long live fair Oriana’.
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Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
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Informal title given to the first collection of polyphonic music printed using movable type (Harmonice musices odhecaton A) issued in 1501 by Ottaviano Petrucci.
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Psalter
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A collection of English verse paraphrases of the psalms, intended to be sung.
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Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
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A manuscript which constitutes the largest single collection of Jacobean keyboard music (not only for the virginals), containing nearly 300 pieces.
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Sonata pian'e forte
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A work by Giovanni Gabrielli in 1597 for St. Mark's and written for 8 instruments. Part of the Sacrae symphonie.
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Madrigal
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Vocal style originated in Italy and later adopted in England. Usually secular text, but there are madrigali spirituali. Usually for several unaccompanied voices, but sometimes with instrumental accompaniment.
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Chorale
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The congregational hymn of the German Protestant church service. Since the Reformation, and particularly during the first 200 years of its existence, the chorale has provided raw material for a variety of compositional forms, including the chorale prelude, chorale motet, and chorale cantata.
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Frottola
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A secular song of the Italian Renaissance embracing a variety of poetic forms. It flourished at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th and was the most important stylistic development leading to the madrigal.
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Lauda
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The principal genre of non-liturgical religious song in Italy during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, the religious lauda enduring into the 19th century.
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Quodlibet
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Latin for "what you please." A composition in which well-known melodies and texts appear in successive or simultaneous combinations. Generally the quodlibet serves no higher purpose than that of humour or technical virtuosity, and may thus be distinguished from more serious works in which preexisting material has a constructive or symbolic function.
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Lied
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German word for song. The term is usually used to describe songs composed to a German poem of reasonably high literary aspirations.
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Ricercar
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A type of instrumental piece common during the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest were improvisatory in style, and often considered exercises for fingers, similar in that regard to modern-day etudes.
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Canzona
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A type of instrumental music of the 16th and 17th centuries that developed from the Netherlandish chanson.
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Toccata
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A piece intended primarily as a display of manual dexterity, often free in form and almost always for a solo keyboard instrument.
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Cori spezzati
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Italian for "broken choirs." Singers divided into distinct groups, sometimes placed in different parts of a building; also the technique of the music composed for them.
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Villancico
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A term first applied in the late 15th century to a Spanish vernacular musical and poetic form consisting of several stanzas (coplas) framed by a refrain (estribillo) at the beginning and end, giving an overall ABA structure.
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Basse-danse
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A French dance type which eventually became distinct. "Basse" means low, which either refers to peasants, or the fact that the dancers feet remained low to the ground, constituting something of a glide.
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Lute Song
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Along with the partsong and consort song, an accompanied song or ayre unique to England. In the lute-song the vocal line—mostly solo but sometimes duet—is dominant, unlike in the partsong and consort song.
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Ayre
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Medieval spelling of ‘Air’, a type of English song written by Dowland and others, less contrapuntal than a madrigal, being more like a strophic song, with vocal or instrumental (usually lute) accompaniment.
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Fantasia
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A term adopted in the Renaissance for an instrumental composition whose form and invention spring "solely from the fantasy and skill of the author who created it."
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One of the most important vocal composers of his time, both for his vocal music and his accompanying instrumental music. Wrote 9 books of madrigals as well as L'Orfeo.
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Claudio Monteverdi
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Member of the Florentine Cmareata. Italian composer, singer, teacher, and instrumentalist especially important for "Le nuove musiche," an epoch-making volume of solo songs with basso continuo, and for his essay prefacing it.
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Giulio Caccini
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Italian singer and composer (and possible member of the Florentine Camerata) whose main talent was for dramatic music. He collaborated with Jacopo Corsi and the poet Ottavio Rinuccini to produce the first dramatic work with continuous music, La Dafne.
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Jacopo Peri
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Italian composer who established the characteristic features of the Latin oratorio and was a prolific composer of motets and cantatas.
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Giacomo Carissimi
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Italian composer who was the most performed, and perhaps the most representative, composer of opera in the quarter-century after Monteverdi and was a leading figure, as both composer and performer, in Venetian musical life.
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Francesco Cavalli
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Famous Italian opera composer who also composed 61 cantatas. His ability to write attractive arias made it possible to produce his operas in countries where Italian was not the native tongue. Also a master of comic elements.
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Marc'Antonio Cesti
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Date and place of birth unknown. One of the great Baroque composers before Bach and known for reinstating the practice of staging ambitious musical performances for church services.
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Dietrich Buxtehude
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The greatest German composer of the 17th century and the first of international stature. Through the example of his compositions and through his teaching he played a major part in establishing the traditions of high craftsmanship and intellectual depth that marked the best of his nation’s music and musical thought for more than 250 years after his death.
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Heinrich Schutz
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Italian-born composer who moved to France and became a court composer to Louis XIV, ultimately writing 20 operas and ballets. Made French opera a popular art form.
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Jean-Baptiste Lully
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Italian composer important in development of opera and considered founder of so‐called Neapolitan school.
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Alessandro Scarlatti
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English composer and organist and while considered the greatest English opera composer, only wrote one opera, Dido and Aeneas.
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Henry Purcell
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Foremost German composer of the Baroque period. Wrote 60 operas in addition to church music, including Passions, oratorios, and cantatas.
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Reinhard Keiser
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One of the most important figures in the history of music, let alone the Baroque Period. Advocated Well-Temperament system of keyboard tuning. Wrote prodigiously for numerous keyboard instruments, as well as for voice and mixed instruments. Music fell out of favor upon his death, only to be rediscovered later. Works numbered as BWV (Bach-Werke Verzeichnis).
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Johann Sebastian Bach
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French composer and theorist. Compared with Gluck and Lully as pinnacles of pre-Revolutionary French opera. Significant contributions in keyboard music, as well. 4 tragedies en musique were Hippolyte at Aricie, Castor et Pollux, Dardanus, and Zoroastre).
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Jean Philippe Rameau
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Significant composer in all genres. Early life mainly operas, later making composing large-scale vocal works and invented the English oratorio. Major works included Messiah, Saul, Samson, Israel in Egypt, and 20 other oratorios, Gulios Cesare, Water Music, and Royal Fireworks Music.
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George Handel
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Florentine Camerata
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A group of humanists, poets, musicians, and intellectuals who gathered in Florence under the patronage of Count Giovanni de'Bardi to discuss and guide trends in the arts.
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Roman Opera
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School of opera in Baroque Rome noted for its high drama and plot twists. Also developed a system of tuning the lines of the recitative that more closely resembled speech.
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Venetian Opera
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Known for popularizing opera, building small opera houses and employing small orchestras in order to bring top vocal talent to the masses. Dawn of the age of the castrata and prima donna. Monteverdi belonged to this school.
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Neapolitan Opera
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Developed opera buffa, or comic opera. Greater insistence on acting and less on vocal virtuosity.
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Prima Prattica
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As opposed to secunda prattica, the stricter style of Palestrina and his Roman contemporaries.
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Secunda Prattica
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As opposed to prima prattica, the freer, more rhetorically expressive concertato style of the north Italian composers.
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Le Nuove Musiche
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Italian for "New Compositions." The title of Giulio Caccini's first collection of monodic songs, published in Florence in 1602.
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Doctrine of Affections
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A theory formulated in the 20th Century to described a Baroque concept styled after Greek and Latin orators suggesting that the text or mood (affect) of the music could best be captured by selecting the most appropriate key.
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Bel Canto
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Refers to the vocal style of Italian opera in the 18th and early 19th century. Includes perfect legato production throughout the range, the use of a light tone in the higher registers and agile and flexible delivery
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Gradus ad Parnassum
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J.J. Fux's treatise on Counterpoint, the bane of every first-year theory student's existence.
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Royal Academy of Music
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An association founded in London in 1718–19 to promote performances of Italian opera. Handel was the director and it gave first performances of many Handel operas.
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Monody
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Term embracing all styles of accompanied solo singing practiced in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
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Cantata (sacred and secular)
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A work for one or more voices and instrumental accompaniment. One of the most significant vocal styles of the Baroque Period aside from opera and oratorio.
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Baroque Motet
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Lost its place as a central music form in the Baroque Period, but became an important point of departure after integration of secunda prattica characteristics, giving birth to other forms such as the cantata.
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Baroque Mass
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The Mass continued to develop during the Baroque period, incorporating the elements of the region where a particular Mass was written, including opera-like settings, orchestral accompaniment, and soloists. Grew in size and scope during this period.
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Oratorio
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An extended musical setting of a sacred text made up of dramatic, narrative and contemplative elements.
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Passion
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The story of the crucifixion. Bach wrote two surviving settings.
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Opera Seria
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A term referring to Italian Baroque opera representing heroic or tragic subjects.
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Tragedie Lyrique
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Also Tragedie en musique. Important style of French Baroque opera. Characterized by five acts and a great dramatic intensity and seriousness of tone.
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Da Capo Aria
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A ternary vocal style prevalent in the Baroque era. First section stood on its own followed by a contrasting second section. The third section was usually not written out, but was a repeat of the first part.
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Opera-Ballet
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A genre of French lyric theater. A prologue followed by three or four acts (entrees), each with its own story and characters. Each entree contained its own divertissement of songs and dances.
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Recitativo secco
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The "dry" recitative, accompanied only by continuo.
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Recitativo Accompagnato
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Type of recitative which utilizes orchestral accompaniment.
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Arioso
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A style that is songlike, as opposed to declamatory. A short passage in a regular tempo in the middle or at the end of a recitative.
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Ground Bass
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Short thematic motif in bass which is constantly repeated with changing harmonies while upper parts proceed and vary.
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Italian composer and keyboard virtuoso. He was one of the greatest keyboard composers of the first half of the 17th century.
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Girolamo Frescobaldi
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German composer and organist. Considered the foremost keyboard composer of his time. Crafted a distinctive personal idiom from stylistic features of Italian, French and German keyboard music.
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Johann Jakob Froberger
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French composer and lutenist. Wrote Pièces de luth and the Livre de tablature, which gave instruction on how to play the lute. Often confused with his cousin Ennemod Gaultier.
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Denis Gaultier
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French composer and harpsichordist. Founder and most prominent member of the French classical school of harpsichord performance and composition.
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Jacques Champion de Chambonnieres
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Italian composer and violinist. While his music only tapped into three genres, solo sonata, trio sonata and concerto, he had a wide influence which affected form, style and instrumental technique for years.
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Arcangelo Corelli
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Italian composer who made a major contribution to the development of the instrumental concerto and to the Bolognese repertory for trumpet and strings.
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Giuseppe Torelli
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Composer, harpsichordist, and organist who wrote some of the finest music of the French classical school, and may be reckoned the most important musical figure in France between Lully and Rameau. Wrote L'art de toucher le clavecin (The Art of Playing Harpsichord).
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Francois Couperin
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Most prolific composer of his time and considered an important link between Baroque and Clasical periods. He also contributed significantly to Germany’s concert life and the fields of music publishing, music education and theory.
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Georg Telemann
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The most original and influential Italian composer of his generation, he laid the foundations for the mature Baroque concerto. His contributions to musical style, violin technique and the practice of orchestration were substantial, and he was a pioneer of orchestral programme music.
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Antonio Vivaldi
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Progressive German composer known mostly for organ and other keyboard music. Now also recognized as a leader in church and chamber music. Composed the most obnoxious Canon ever set to paper.
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Johann Pachelbel
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Trio Sonata
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A term applied to Baroque sonatas for two or three melody instruments and continuo.
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Concertato
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Refers to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo.
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Concerto
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Term referring to a piece for orchestra with individual or small group solo. In the Baroque period it began to refer to a three movement work.
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Orchestral Suite
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In the Baroque period, a group of pieces unified by key consisting of dances usually preceded by a prelude or overture.
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Temperament
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The general term referring to a method of tuning the notes in a scale away from the "natural" scale so every octave will sound the same.
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Partita
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A term used at different times for a variation, a piece, a set of Variations and a Suite or other multi-movement genres.
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Agrements
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A generic term for the ‘small ornaments’ found in 17th- and 18th-century French music.
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Style Brise
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A term used to denote the use of a broken, arpeggiated texture in music for plucked stringed instruments, particularly the lute, keyboard, or viol.
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Tablature
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A system of writing down music using a method other than musical notes on staves.
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Basso Continuo
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Figured bass part, often played on the lowest instrument.
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Fugue
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A type of contrapuntal composition in a fixed number of voices where the Subject is heard in each voice before Episodes and variations of the various parts alternate until the piece comes to a close.
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Suite
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Usually an orchestral piece in several movements. During Baroque period, typical Suite would have framework of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, with frequent interpolations of Minuet, Gavotte, Passepied, Bourrée, Musette, and Rigaudon.
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Toccata
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A piece intended primarily as a display of manual dexterity, often free in form and almost always for a solo keyboard instrument.
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French Overture
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A festive musical introduction for an opera, ballet or suite combining a slow opening, marked by stately dotted rhythms and suspensions, with a lively fugal second section.
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Italian Overture
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Openings to Italian operas, usually in three movements (fast-slow-fast). Often played independently of the opera as a concert piece.
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Sonata da Chiesa
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Church sonata. Like the sonata da camera, but of a more serious character appropriate to ecclesiastical surroundings.
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Sonata da Camera
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Chamber sonata. An instrumental form of the Baroque period in three or four movements, generally served as a domestic diversion or for formal entertainment in public settings.
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Chorale Prelude
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A generic term for any chorale setting for organ.
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Concerto Grosso
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A type of piece where a large group (concerto grosso) alternates with a smaller group (concertino).
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Stile Concitato
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In excited style. Style of baroque music in which dramatic expression and excitement were paramount. Term coined by Monteverdi.
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Chaconne
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Often alternated with Passacaglia, a piece in a triple meter founded on a Ground Bass.
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Passacaglia
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A form used interchangeably with Chaconne.
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Baroque Fantasia
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Retained the subjective licence of Renaissance Fantasia, and its formal and stylistic characteristics may consequently vary widely from free, improvisatory types to strictly contrapuntal and more or less standard sectional forms.
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Canzona
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Italian for "song." An arrangement of a polyphonic song, usually a French chanson
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Ricercar
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Instrumental pieces which consisted of highly embellished, unaccompanied melody, often containing many scalar passages, and were not very different from the early 16th-century prelude.
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