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Renaissance
DMA Terms
107
Music
Graduate
05/24/2011

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Term
humanism
Definition
Renaissance intellectual movement. The study of humanities, things pertaining to human knowledge. Sought to revive ancient learning, emphasized the study of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy, centering on classical Latin and greek writings. They believed these subjects developed the individuals mind, spirit and ethics and prepared students for livis of virtue and service. Had faith in the dignity and nobility of humans and  in our capacity to improve our condition through our own efforts.
Term
imatative counterpoint
Definition
voices imitate or echo a motive or phrase in ahother voice. Emerged during Renaissance.
Term
homophony
Definition
All voices move together in essentially the same rhythm. The lower parts accompanying the cantus awith consonant sonorities. Contrary to imitative counterpoint where each voice imitates the motives of another.
Term
Pythagorean intonation
Definition
Used throughout the middle ages, all fourths and fifths were perfectly tuned. In this system thirds and sixths had complex ratios that made them dissonant by difinitions and out of tune to the ear.
Term
Just intonation
Definition
Around 1300 The English theorist Walter Odington observed that the major and minor third could be considered consonances, since they approach the simple ratios 5:4 and 6:5 and were often tuned to those ratios in performance. This laid the foundation for recognizing thirds and siths as consonances in theory and in practice. Bartolome Ramis de Pareia, a Spanish mathmatician and music theorist residing in Italy proposed a tuning system that produced perfectly tuned third and sixths.
Term
mean-tone temperments
Definition
Compromising tuning which came about in the sixteenth century in which the fifths were tuned small so that the major thirds cold sound well, and the black keys were tuned to C#,Eb,F# G# and Bb. making available most of the notes then in use. This eventually became known today as equal temperament.
Term
Franchino Goffurio
Definition
Wrote treatises which were the most influential of his time, reviving Greek ideas and stimulating new thought on matters such as the modes, consonance, and dissonance, the elements and scope of the tonal system, tuning, the relation fo music and words and the harmony of music aof the human body and mind and the cosmos.
Term
Heinrich Careanus
Definition
Wrote book Dodekachordon (Twelve-String Lyre) added four new modes to the traditional eight, using names of ancient Greek tonoi: Aeolian and Hypoaeolian with the final on A, and Ionian and Hypoionian withthe final on C. With these additions, he made the theory of the modes more consistaent with the current practice of composers, who frequently employed tonal centers on A and C.
Term
The contenance angloise
Definition
English quality refered to by martin Le Franc. It consisted especially in the frequent use of harmonic thirds and sixths, often n parallel motion, resulting in pervasive consonance with few dissonances. Other distinctions were relatively simple melodies, regular phrasing, primarily syllabic text-setting, and homorhythmic textures.
Term
faburden
Definition
contrapuntal style in which a plainchant in the middle vioce was joined by an upper voice a perfect fourth abouve it and a lower voice siging mostly in parallel thirds below it, beginning each phrase and ending phrases and most words on a fifth below. Was first referred to by name in about 1430 but was used earlier and it continued to be practiced until the English Reformation over a century later.
Term
Cantilenas
Definition
Characteristic consonances of Faburden were also found in more sophisticated genres of English polyphony. An ancestor of the conductus, were freely composed, mostly homorhythmic settings of Latin texts but not based on chant. Parallel 6/3 chords are intersperesed with other consonant sonorities in a texture as appealing as faburden but more varied. The most elevated genre was the motet with the isorhythmic motet gradually replacing other types by 1400s.
Term
carol
Definition
polyphonic English genre. a monophonic dance-song with alternating solo and choral sections. The fifteenth century version was a two or three part setting of a pem in English, Latin or a miture of both. Most were religious subjects, particularly the Christmas season and the Vigin Mary. Consists of a number of stanzas, all sung to the same music, and a burden (refrain) with its own musical phrase, sung at the beginning and then repeated after each stanza.
Term
John Dunstable
Definition
English composer of first half of 15th century. Known for isorhythmic motets, Mass Ordinary sections, settings of chant, free settings of liturgical texts, and secular songs. Most famous motet is a four part work that combines the hymn Veni creator spiritus and the sequence Veni sancte spiritus. Most numerous were his three part sacred pieces settings of antiphons, hymns, mass sections and other liturgical or biblical texts.
Term
paraphrase
Definition
15th century technique which the melody is given a rhythm and ornamented by adding notes around those of the chant. Technique used by Dunstable.
Term
Philip the Bold
Definition
First Duke of Burgundy in late 14th and early 15 centuries. Established a chapel in 1384 and it soon became one of Europes largest and most resplendent.
Term
Philip the Good
Definition
Succeeded Philip the bold. Aquired twenty three singers in the Burgundian chapel and surpassed only by the king of England's chapel.
Term
Burgundian  chapel
Definition

Duke's chapel in Burgandy, France. 

 

By 1445 had aquired twenty three singers and was surpassed only  by the king of Englands chapel in singers. At first musicians were recruited chiefly from norther France. But because Philip the Good and his successor, Charles the Bold resided in the north rather than in Dijon, most of their musicians came from Flanders and the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). Maintained a band of minstrels - players of trumpets, drums, vielle, lut, harp organ, bagpipes and shawms. many of these musicianos came not only from France but Italy, Germany and Purtugal.

Term
Burgundian Chanson
Definition
in the 15th century the term chanson encompassed any polyphonic setting of a French secular poem. Chansons most often set styliized love poems in the courly tradition of fin amour and most followed the form of the rondeau (ABaAabAB). Ballades were written for ceremonial occasions but gradually went out of fashion. Binchois was themost important compser of the court of Philip the Good and leading composer of this genre.
Term
Binchois
Definition
In the 15th century, was most important composer at the court of Philip the Good and was particularly esteemed for his chansons know as the Burgundian chanson.
Term
hemiola
Definition
Most compositions from the 15th century are in the equivalent of either 3/4 or 6/8 meter, duple meter was used mainly in subdivisions of longer works to provide contrast. In many of the chansons of this era, this effect is created by cross rhythms creating 3/4 and 6/8 in two seperate voices at the same time.
Term
Guillaume Du Fay
Definition
The most famous composer of the 15th century. He was associated with the Burgundian court, although his appointment to the ducal chapel was probably honorary. His music represents well the international style of the mid 15th century. This is evident by his chansons.
Term
fauxbourdon
Definition
Dufay and other continental composers of the second quart of the 15th century became fascinated with successions of thirds and sixths influenced by the music imported from England.  Du Fay and other continental composers used this technique probably inspired by English fashion. Only the cantus and tenor were written out, moving mostly in parallel sixths, ending each phrase on an octave.
Term
plainsong mass
Definition
term used when a composer based each movement on an existing chant which gained coherence because the borrowed melodies were all liturgically appropriate, although not necessarily related musically.
Term
motto mass
Definition
Using the same thematic material in all movements of the mass. A frequent strategy was to begin each movement with the same melodic mtive in one or all voices called a head motive as a primary linking device.
Term
cantus -firmus mass
Definition
Or tenor mass. The use of a head motive was soon combied with another way of linking movements: constructing each one around the same cantus firmus, normally placed in the tenor.Enlish composers wrote the earliest such masses but the practice was quickly adopted on the Continent.
Term
cantus firmus/imatation mass
Definition
Often composers used the tenor of a polyphonic chanson and when they did so, they typically borrowed some elements from the other voices as well. Gets name also becuse it imitates more than one voice of the source. The mass usually derived its name from the borrowed melody.                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Term
L homme arme
Definition
One of the most frequently used melodies of 15th century. Most major composers for more than a century including Du Fay, Ockeghem, Josquin and Palestrina wrote at least one of these.
Term
Contratenor Bassus
Definition
Early cantus firmus masses were forthree voices. Placing the borrowed melody in the tenor followed the motet tradition but created compositional problems. The sound ideal of the fifteeth century needed the lower voice to function as a harmonic foundation, particularly at cadences. Putting the chant in the lower voice limited the composer's ability to provide such a foundation. The solution was to add a part below the tenor. This part translates (lower contratenor).
Term
Contratenor altus
Definition
Alto. Added by composers during the 15th century above the tenor. With a contratenor bassus added at the same time. It added a better harmonic texture especially at cadences.
Term
superius
Definition
Meaning highest. Added to the cantus firmus mass during the 15th century for the highest voice. Was also called disantus. The term was later called by the Italian term, soprano.
Term
Se la face ay pale
Definition
Most celebrated cantus firmus written by Du Fay during the 15th century. Du fay aplied the method of the isorhythmic motet on a larger scale. He used the tenor of his own ballade by the same name in the tenor of the mass. He borrowed portions of the ballade in all voices making this a cantus firmus imatation mass.
Term
Jean de Ockeghem
Definition
One of the most renowned musician of the generation after Du Fay along with Busnoys. He served the kings of France for almost half a century.
Term
Antoine Busnoys
Definition
jServed Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgandy, and Maximilian of Hapsburg. Was the most proific and widely praised chanson composer of his time. Was most renowned musician of the generation after Du Fay along with Okeghem.
Term
Music of Okeghem and Busnoys
Definition
Blended traditional and now features of chansons with longer breathed melodies, increased use of imitation, greater equality between voices and more frequent use of duple meter. These became very popular. Their masses overlapped the works of Du Fay and all three influenced each other. Their masses covered a wider range than that of Du Fay. Used primarily cantus firmus and motto masses.
Term
canon
Definition
Deriving two or more voices from a single notated voice. The instruction or rule by which these further parts were derived were also given this term. the rule might instruct the second voice to sing the same melody starting a certain number of bets or measures after the origianl at the same or a different pitch, as in the kind most familiar today. The second voice might be the inversion of the first (moving by the same intervals but in the oposite direction), or it might be the original voice in retrograde (backwards).
Term
mensuration canon
Definition
a canon which voices move at different rates of speed by using different mensuration signs. Each movement is also a double canon, with tow canons sung or palyed simultaneously. Used in the 15th Century.
Term
double canon
Definition
Associated with mensuration canon. Each movement has two canons sung or played simultaneously.
Term
Jacob Obrecht
Definition

Dutch composer wrote twenty-eight motets, and several chansons, songs in Dutch and instrumental pieces. Each mass is based on a cantus firmus but he treated the borrowed material in a great variety of ways.

Used imitation more frequently and extensively than did earlier composers by the use of point of imitation having several voices enter at different times at different octaves followed by free counterpoint.

Term
Henricus Isaac
Definition
Worked for Lorenzo de medici in Florence and Maximilian I at Vienna and Insbruck. Was familiar with Italian and German music as well as French. Adapted Italian style for some of his German Lieder using homophonic textures.
Term
Josquin Des Prez
Definition

Petrucci, (first printer of polyphonic music) pubished three books of his masses. Considered the best of the composers of the time. Martin Luther said that he is the master of the notes They must do as he wills. Used text depiction and text expression in his motets.

Used imitation mass and created technique called paraphrase mass.

Term
text depiction
Definition
Technique which was prevalent in Josquin's motets reflecting the meaning of the words in musical gestures. He also used text expression to convey emotions through the music which was suggested by the text.
Term
text expression
Definition
Josquin was first to use this technique in motets. The conveying  through music the emotions suggested by the text. This along with text depiction, expressing the meaning of words through musical gestures, were considered to have been first used by Josquin.
Term
paraphrase mass
Definition
First seen in Josquin's later mass. It is based on theplainchant. Instead of using the hymn melody as a contus firmus, parts of it are found in all fur voices, in whole ori part in each movement. Phrases from the hymn melody are adapted as motives that are treated in points of imitation, or occasionally in homophonic declamation.
Term
chorale
Definition

Congregational hymn sung in the Lutheran Church. Was used to increase worshiper's participation through music. While these are known today in four part harmonized settings, the originally were only a metric, rhymed, strophic poem and a melody in simple rhythm sung in unison, without harmonization or accompaniment.

Sources came from adaptations of Gregorian chant, existing German devotional songs, secular songs given new word (contrafactum) and new compositions.

Term
contrafactum
Definition
Using secualr songs and giving them new sacred words. Technique used in creating the first chorales inorder to distribute music into the early Luthern church as quickly as possible.
Term
chorale motet
Definition
Technique used by Luther's colaborator Johann Walter to create a more elaborate setting for a chorale. Borrowed techniques from the Franco-Flemish motet such as cantus-firmus, imitation and paraphrase.
Term
cantional style
Definition
taken from the meaning (songbook), these were charals with the tune in the hiest voice, accompanied by block chords with little contrapuntal figuration.
Term
Cantionale
Definition
Lutheran songe book of chorale collections. Although such pieces could be sung in parts, it was customary for the organ to play all four parts while the congregation sang all the verses of the tune.
Term
metrical psalms
Definition
Calvin insisted that only biblical texts particularly those from psalms be sung in the the church. Psalms had verses of various lengths making it difficult for congregational singing. Metric, rhymed, strophic translations of psalms in the vernacular helped to set these psalms to newly composed melodies or tunes adapted from chant.
Term
psalters
Definition
Published collection of metrical psalms by Calvin. Published several in French and later Dutch, English, and Scottish.
Term
John Taverner
Definition
leading English composer of sacred music int he early 16th century. His mases and motets exemplify he English preference for long melismas, full textures and cantus firmus structures.
Term
Thomas Tallis
Definition
Most important English composer of mid 16th century of sacred music. Latin masses, hymns and English service music that reflect a religious and political upheaval in England during his lifetime.
Term
Service
Definition
After England adopted English as the primary liturgical language this form of music was adopted along with the anthem. This consisted of the music for certain portions of Matins. A contrapuntal and melismatic setting in these portions of Martins is called a Great _______. A Short ______ sets the same texts but ina syllabic, chordal style.
Term
Anthem
Definition
Corresponds to a Latin motet. It is a polyphonic work in English, usually sung by the choir near the end of Martins or Evensong. Many are set tets for the Bible or Book of Comon Prayer. A Full ________ is for unaccompanied choir in contrapuntal style. A Verse ________ employs one or more solo voices with organ or viol accompaniment, alternating with passages for full choir doubled by instruments.
Term
Great Service
Definition
Anglican (English) Music Used in Matins, Holy Communion and Evensong. is contrapuntal and melismatic setting of these portions.
Term
Short Service
Definition
Anglican (English church) music. sets the same text of the  Great  Service but in a syllabic, chordal style.
Term
full anthem
Definition
In English church. is for unaccompanied choir in contrapuntal style. Sets texts from the Bible or Book of Common Prayer.
Term
verse anthem
Definition
English Church music. Sets texts from the Bible or Book of Common Prayer. Employs one or more solo voices with organ or viol accompaniment, alternating with passages for full choir doubled by instruments.
Term
William Byrd
Definition
Leading English composer in the late 16th century. Was Catholic but served the Church of England (Anglican) and was a member of the royal chapel. Wrote secular vocal and instrumental music as well as Anglican service musica and Latin masses and motets.
Term
Council of Trent
Definition

Met between 1545 - 1563 in northern Italy to consider how to respond to the Reformation. Reaffirmed the doctrines and practices that Luther and Calvin had attacked and passed measures aimed at purghing the Churches abuses and laxities.

Church music took up only a small part of the meetings. A part of the move to suppress variantion oin local practices in favor of a uniform liturgy, tropes and most sequences were eliminated, leaing only four of the most widely used sequences. Some reformers sought to restrict polyphonic music, complaining that basing a mass on a secular chanson profaned the liturgy or that complicated polyphony made it impossible to understand the words. Some sought to eliminate polyphonic music for convents entirely. Others argued strongly for retaining music without restrictions, noting that it had been part of Christian workship from the beginning.

In the end little about music was said. The only policy adopted regarding music was to let them keep away from churches compositions in which there is an intergmingling of the lascivious or impure, whether by instrument or by voice.

Term
Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina
Definition

Began the controversy around the intelligibility of words in his polyphonic music. He was the leading Italian composer of church music in the 16th cenury. According to a legend already circulating soon after his death, Palestrina saved polyphony from  condemnation by the Council of Trent by composing a six voice mass that was reverent in spirit and did not obscure the words; Pop Marcellus mass, published in Palestrinas Second Book of masses in 1567.

His style was the first in the history of Western music to be consciously preserved and imitated as a model in later ages. 17th and 18th century composers and theorists looked to him as the ideal of the stile antico.

Term
cambiata
Definition
means changed. Technique used by Palestrina where a voice skips by a third, from a dissonance to a consonance instead of resolving by step.
Term
stil antico
Definition
Meaning old style. Referrences to this style is associated with the music of Palestrina by 17th and 18th century composers.
Term
Tomas Luis de Victoria
Definition
The most famous Spanish composer of the 16th century. Spent 2 decades in Rome where he probably studied with Palestrina. First Spanish composer to master Palestrina style.
Term
Orlando Di Lasso
Definition
Chief among Franco-Flemish composers in Germany. ranked with Palestrina among the great composers of sacred music inthe 16th century however he also wrote secular music.. Was advocate of text depiction and expression.
Term
villancico
Definition

Spanish song popular in the late 15th century. The texts wee usually on rustic or popular subjects composed forthe aristocracy. short, strophic , syllabic and mostly homophonic, they reflect a growing preference for simplicity and for what were considered more authentic representations of Spanish culture in reaction to the more complex French chanson and its Spanish relative the cancion.

The form varied in its details but always included the (estribillo) or refrain and one or more (coplas) stanzas. the stanzas typically begin with a new section (mudaza meaning change) with two statements of a contrasting idea conclude with a return to the music of the refrain.

Term
Frottola
Definition
italian counterpart to the villancico. A four part strophic song set syllabically and homophonically with the melody in the upper voice, marked rhythmic patterns and simple diatonic harmonies. Late 15th century. A tune for singing the petry , marking the end of each line with a cadence with the lower parts providing a harmonic foundation.
Term
16th Century Madrigal
Definition
Most important 16th century Italian genre as well as entire Renaissance. Consisted of single stanza with a moderate number of seven or eleven syllable lins and either a standard or free rhyme scheme. No refrains or repeated lines, distinguishing the sixteenth century form from the 14th century form. The only connection between the two is in name only. The 16th century style is through-composed. Early forms were for 4 voices and later on were for 6 or more voices.
Term
Villanella
Definition
Written alongside the madrigal. Italian compsers cultivated this lighter kind of song. A lively strophic piece in homophonic style, usualy for three voices. First appeared in mid 16th century. Use of parallel fifths and other harmonic crudities suggesting a rustic character and sometimes mocking of the sophisticated mdrigals was common.
Term
conzonetta (conzonette, pl)
Definition
Late 16th century Italian genre meaning (little song). Written in a vivacious, homophonic style with simple harmonies and evenly phrased sections that were often repeated. Leading composer of this style and balletti was Giacomo Gastoldi. Both genre were imitated by Germany and England.
Term
balletto (balletti, pl)
Definition
Late 16th century Italian genre meaning little dance. Written in a vivacious, homophonic style, with simple harmonies and evenly phrased sections that were often repeated. intended for dancing as well as singing or playing. Identifieable byther dancelike rhythms and "fa-la-la" refrains. Leading composer of conzonette and this was Giacomo Gastoldi. Both genres were imitated by Germany and England.
Term
madrigalism
Definition
The use of word painting using discriptive musical gestures and emotions creating striking impages and evoking the text almost literally.
Term
Carlo Gesualdo
Definition
Aristocrat who wrote madrigals. Dramatized and ntesified the petry through sharp cntrast between diatonic and chromatic passages, dissonance and consonance, chordal and imitative textures  and slow moving and active rhythms. Discovered his wife in bed with her lover and killed them both.
Term
Cladin de Sermisy
Definition
One of two principal compsers in Attaingnat's early chanson collections. The other is Clement Janequin. Several of his chansons were so popular that they were reprinted for decades and adapted into mny new forms, form dance melodies to psalm tunes.
Term
Clement Janequin
Definition

One of two principal composers in Attaingnant's early chanson collections. The other is Claudin de Sermisy.

Wrote many kinds of chanson, including lyrical love songs, narrative songs, and bawdy songs. He was particulary celebrated for his descriptive chansons, which feature imitation pof bird calls, hunting calls, street cries and sounds of war.

Term
musique mesuree
Definition
measured music. Late 16th century style of text setting by French composers, especially in chansons, in which stressed syllables are given longer notes than unstressed syllables (usually twice as long).
Term
air de cour
Definition
(court air). Musique mesuree was too artificial to become popular but the experiment introduced irregular rhythms for this genre. This is a genre of song for voice and accompaniment which became the dominant type of French vocal music in the late 16th century.
Term
consort song
Definition
Originated from manuscripts from the reign of Henry VIII containing a variety of songs and instrumental pieces in three  and four parts that reflect many facets of court life. A distinctively English genre for voice accompanied by a consort of viols. The master of the this genre was William Byrd who raised the technical level of the medium with skillful imitative counterpoint in his collection Psalmes, Sonets and Songs (1588).
Term
consort
Definition
A group of instruments from the same family. Developed as a genre in late 16th century.
Term
Musica transalpina
Definition
Collecdtion of Italian madrigals translated into English. The athology encompassed the repertory sung by gentlemen and merchants who met daily at the home of Nicholas Yonge. This and similar collectins created a vogue for singing madrgals, which spurred native composers to cash in on the trend by writing their own. Leading English madrigalist inclde, Thomas Morley, Thomas Weelkes and John Wilbye.
Term
Thomas Morley
Definition

Contemparary of Weelkes and Wilbye. Alongside his madrigals he wrote conzonets and ballets, borrowing the Italian genres of conaonetta and balletto.

Wrote treatis, A plaine and easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke. where he describled the madrigal, conzonet, ballett and other vocal and instrumental genres. Was a manual  that amimed at the broad public interested in music, inviting the most unleararned amateur to pick it up and learn about music.

Term
The triumphes of Oriana
Definition
Collection by Morley of twenty five madrigals by twenty three composers in honor of Queen Elizabeth, including Thomas Weelkes' As Vesta was Decending.  After each adrigal in Morleys collection ends with the word Long live fair Oriana, a name often applied to Queen Elizabeth.
Term
lute song
Definition
Song for lute and voice. Reflects the overall mood, with much less word painting than is typical of madrigals. The lute accompaniments always subordinate to the vocal melody, have some rhythmic an melodic independence. Leading composer of this genre was John dowland and thomas Campion.
Term
Musica getutscht
Definition
First instructional book discussing pitch, tuning and the art of embellishing a melodic line as well as about instruments themselves by Sabastian Virdung. Early 16th century.
Term
sackbut
Definition
Renaissance instrument. Early form of the trombone.
Term
crumhorn
Definition
Renaissance instrument. Double reed enclosed in a capso the player's lips do not touch it, producing a sound like a soft bagpipe.
Term
16th century lute
Definition
Popular in most Renaissance households in the sixteenth century. One of the oldest instruments, introduced by the Arabs into Spain. Pear-shaped with a round back, flat fingerboard and pegbox. One single and five double strings, usually tuned G C F A D G whcih were plucked with the fingers. frets made of strips fo leather wound around the neck.
Term
vihuela
Definition
Close relation to the lute. Spanish instrument which had a flat back and guitar shaped body. Renaissance instrument.
Term
viol or viola da gamba
Definition
was developed in Spain int he mid 15th century and was taken up by Italian musicians a generation later. Quickly becam the leading bowed string instrument on the 16th century. Had a consort of three most common sizes, a bass, tenor and treble. held the insrument between the leg. Term means leg. The tone played without vibrato was more delicate and less penetrating than a modern violin or cello.
Term
violin
Definition
cousin to the viol, bowed fretless instrument tuned in fifths and was descendant of the medieval fiddle. First appered in the early sixteenth century as a three string instrument used primariy to accompany dancing. During the 17th century, it and its relatives, the viola and violon cello gradually displaced the viols, in part because of their brighter tone.
Term
Renaissance Organ
Definition
changed over time as builders added stopes with distinctive timbres, many resembling wind instruments.  By about 1500 the large ones in churches were essentially like the instrument we know today, although the pedal keyboard was employed only in Germany and the Low Contries and was adopted much later in other countries.
Term
Clavichord
Definition
One of two types of main keyboard instruments of the Rennaissance. The other is the harpsichord. This was a solo instrument suitable for small rooms. Sound is generated by pressing a key which raises a brass blade that strikes a string making it vibrate and remains in tact with it, sustaining the tone until the player releases the key. The tone is very soft but within limits the performer can control the volume and even effect a vibrato by chaning pressure on the key.
Term
Harpsichord
Definition
One of two main keyboards of the Renaissance. Served both solo and ensemble playing in spaces of moderate size. Came in different shapes and sizes and had various names including verginal in England, clavecin in France and clavicembalo in Italy. The tone was more robust than a clavichord but could not be shaded by varying the pressure ont he key. The sound is generated by pressing a key that moves a quill tht plucks the string rather than striking it.
Term

Types of Instrumental Music

Renaissance

Definition

Dance music

Arrangements of vocal music

Settins of existing melodies

Variations

Abstract instrumental works

Term
Basse danse
Definition
low dance. A stately couple dance marked by gracefully raising and lowering the body. It featured five diffent kinds of steps in various combinations, including the branle, a sideways step.
Term
branle
Definition
a sideways step dance. Part of the basse danse (low dance).  In the early sixteple and simple were sedate sixteenth century, this dance became an independent dance, with three varieties: the ___ duple and the ____ simple were sedate duple-time dances.
Term
branle gay
Definition
a lively triple time dance. Attaignant's second collection of Danseries a 4 parties (Dances in Four parts) opens with a basse danse and includes one of these dances.
Term
Pavane
Definition
Renaissance musicians often grouped dances in pairs or threes. A favorite cobination ws a slow dance in duple meter followed by a fast one in triple meter on the same tune. This is usually grouped with the galliard in sixteenth century France and England. A stately dance in three repeated strains.
Term
intabulations
Definition
Lutenists and keyboard players made arrangements of vocal pieces, either improvised or written down. These arrangements were often written in tablature and became know as this term.
Term
Abstract instrumental works
Definition
Include prelude, fantasia or ricercare and toccata. The prelude, fantasia or recercare were introductory pieces for keyboard and lute. Compositions that resembled the practice of musicians when they improvised to introduce a song, to fill time during a church service, to establish the mode of a subsequent chant or hymn, to test the tuning of a lute or to entertain themselves ro an audience.
Term
prelude, fantasia or ricercare
Definition
Improvisational keyboard and lute works not based on any preexisting melody that unfold freely, with varying textures and msical ideas. They served the same function as an introduction to a speech, preparing the listener and establishing the tonality for what followed.
Term
toccata
Definition
The chief form of keyboard music in improvisatory style during the second half of the 16th century. The name form the Italian toccare (to touch) refers to touching the keys, reminding us of the players body and actions rather than a disembodied play of sound. The organist Claudio Merulo exemplify the genre.
Term
ricercare or ricercar
Definition
A type of prelude of 16th century evolved into a moterlike succession of imitative sections. The term is an italian verb meaning both to seekout or to attempt and its application to music probably comes from lutenists jargon for picking out notes on the instrument and testing the tuning. When transferred to the keyboard the genre acqauired occasional passages of imitation. By 1540 it consisted of successive themes each developed in imitation and overlapping with the next at the cadence in effect a textless imitative motet but with embellishments that were typically instrumental.
Term
Canzona or canzon
Definition
16th century Italian instrumental genre. Became one of the leading genres of contrapuntal instrumental music in the late century, alongside the fantasia and ricercare, but had a different origin. The earliest pieces were intabulations of French chansons, after which they were named. By midcentury composers such as Girolamo Cavazzoni werre writing thoroughly reworked chansons, as in an imitation mass movement, rather than simply embellishing them.
Term
Polychoral motets
Definition
works written for two or more choirs. From before the time of Willaert, composers were writing music for divided choir but Gabrieli took this genre to new heights with up to five choruses each with a different combination of high and low voices, mingled with instruments of diverse timbres.
Term
sonatas
Definition
Began in Venice. was a clse relative of the canzona consistng of a series of sections each based on a different subject or on variants of a single subject. Used at mass or Vespers as introductions or postldes or to accompany significant rituals.
Term
concerto delle donne
Definition

(women's ensemble)

Established by Due Alfonso D' Este. A groulp of trained singers 1580. Their performances at court alone or with maile singers, attracted so much attention and praise that the Gonzagas of Mantua and the Medici of Florence formed ensembles to rival that of Ferrara.  Introduced vocal ornaments and dramatized the words with appropriate gestures.

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