A new style of composition that flourished in France that is more refined and complex than the old style Ars Antiqua. The advent of rhythmic notation made this possible. Included secular and religious music. Ars Nova flourished from roughly the Roman De Fauvel (1310-14) and the death of Machaut (1377). Also includes Francisco Landini.

A secular song

A monophonic melodic line that follows the inflection of the latin text it uses. The melody generally rises up to a pitch then after repeated syllables falls. It generally moves in a stepwise motion. There are more than a thousand.

The settings are: Syllabic- one note sung to each note. Neumatic- small groups of notes up to five or six sung to a single syllable. Mellismatic – long groups of notes sung to one syllable.

one of the last and most famous of the Trouveres. He composed “Robins m’aime”. The piece was written around 1284 and is part of the rich tradition of the Trouveres.

The earliest known woman composer. (1098-1179). She was born to a noble family in the Rhine region of Germany. Consecrated to the church at age eight, she took vows at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg, becoming a prioress in 1136. In 1150 she became abbess after founding her own convent after a vision.Famous for her prophecies Hildegard corresponded with emperors, Kings, Popes and bishops. Her prose writings include Scivias (know the Ways) an account of twenty-six vision and her books on science and healing.She also wrote religious poems as well as prose and by 1140 was setting them to music.

Her “Ordo Virtutum” (the virtues 1151) is the earliest surviving music drama not attached to the liturgy. She claimed her writings and music were divinely inspired.

composer at Notre Dame 1150-1200?. considered the principal creator of polyphony in chant through the use of rhythmic modes.

The parts and order of the mass.

One of two services in the church. The mass is divided into two parts:The Ordinary – The parts of the mass that remain the same.The Proper – the parts of the mas that change from week to week depending on the feast being celebrated.

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377). The most important composer and poet and the greatest practitioner of tArs Nova. He also had an equally distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. He exercised a profound influence on his contemporaries and later artists.

The Ars nova style is nowhere more perfectly displayed than in his considerable body music.He was born in France to a middle class family, educated as a cleric and later took holy Orders. He served under the king of Bohemia as a clerk, and spent the remainder of his life as a canon in Reims.Machaut was among the first composers to compile his complete works and to discuss his working methods, both signs of his self-awareness as a creator. The strong support of his patrons gave him the resources to supervise several illuminated manuscripts of his work. This attitude, though commonplace today, was very uncommon during this time.His most famous work was “Messe de Nostre Dame” (Mass of our lady). This was one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the mass ordinary rather than in plainchant, and the first polyphonic Mass to be written by a single composer (previously the different components of the Mass were assembled from different composers).

(The ordinary consists of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei)This, together with its innovative rhythmical techniques, makes it a milestone in the evolution of the Mass as a musical form in its own right. The work was composed in 1360’s for performance at a mass for the Virgin Mary celebrated at Reims every Saturday.After his death an oration fro Machaut’s soul was added to the service, and the work was performed well into the fifteenth century.Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame is, deservedly, the best-known composition of the entire age.

Unique to this mass is the use of isorhythmic technique. Isorhythm is the repetition in a voice part, usually the tenor of an extended pattern of duration throughout a section or an entire composition.

included the hammered dulcimer the lute, the flute, shawms, sackbut, Cornetto, the organ (large or grand, portative and positive). Instruments were divided into catagories by volume: soft (bas) for indoor music and loud (haut) for outdoor music.

The use of a single melodic line with no accompaniment. Gregorian chant is monody.

A new genre in the early 13th century by adding newly written Latin words to the upper voices of chant. the text was religious at first, but gradually secular text were added.

A Series of services celebrated in monastaries and convents that marked the hours of the day.

The transmission of information verbally from person to person. This can result in variations in the information.

The use of two or more pitches at the same time. The concept originated at Notre Dame.

One of six rhythms used with chants to allow polyphony to exist.

An allegorical narrative poem satirizing corruption in politics and the church, probably written as a warning to the king of France. Though forbidden it was enjoyed in high political circles at court. Fauvel, a donkey who rises from the stable to a powerful position, symbolizes a world turned upside down, in which the king outranks the pope and France is defiled. Fauvel embodies the sins represented by the letters of his name: Flattery, Avarice, villainy, Varietè (fickleness), Envy, Lâcheté (cowardice).

Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great (590-604) is the namesake of Gregorian chant, and is attributed with creating plainchant,but there is no evidence that he played any part in composing or standardizing chant. The legend arose that the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove dictated the chants to Gregory.

Performers traveling from court to court performing a popular repertoire of songs. Allen De La Halle is the most famous. In Germany these singers were called Minnesingers. These songs focused on love and everday life.

Composed by Machaut – 1300’s – a polyphonic chanson (secular song) called a rondeau. In the Ars Nova style.

Composed by Landini – a Ballata in the trecento style

• His most famous work was Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of our lady).

This was one of the earliest polyphonic settings of the mass ordinary rather than in plainchant, and the first polyphonic Mass to be written by a single composer (previously the different components of the Mass were assembled from different composers). (The ordinary consists of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei)• This, together with its innovative rhythmical techniques, makes it a milestone in the evolution of the Mass as a musical form in its own right. • The work was composed in 1360’s for performance at a mass for the Virgin Mary celebrated at Reims every Saturday.

• After his death an oration fro Machaut’s soul was added to the service, and the work was performed well into the fifteenth century. • Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame is, deservedly, the best-known composition of the entire age. • Unique to this mass is the use of isorhythmic technique. Isorhythm is the repetition in a voice part, usually the tenor of an extended pattern of duration throughout a section or an entire composition. • The Kyrie of the mass uses the technique, and though hearing the isorhythm is difficult it is easy to see in the score.

The term Renaissance is French for “rebirth” and the historians of Literature, art and music began using the term for the period loosely identified between 1400 and 1600. This idea of rebirth is consistent with the aims of scholars and artists to restore the learning, ideals and values of ancient Greece and Rome.

One key to the developments in music in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lies in musician’s training, employment and travels. Court chapels, groups of salaried musicians and clerics that were associated with a ruler rather than with a particular building, sprang up all over Europe in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.King Louis IX of France and King Edward I of England established the first chapels in the thirteenth century.After the mid fourteenth century the fashion spread to other aristocrats and church leaders. Members of the chapel served as performers, composers and scribes, furnishing music for church services.

The presence at courts of musicians from many lands allowed composers and performers to learn styles and genres current in other regions. Many composers changed their place of service, exposing the to many types of music. The exchange of national styles, traditions and ideas fostered the development of an international style in the fifteenth century, synthesizing elements from English, French and Italian Traditions. The synthesis of this style was the watershed event that set the music of the fifteenth century apart from others.

The strongest intellectual movement of the renaissance was humanism, the study of the humanities, things pertaining to human knowledge.

This was different from the middle ages where the emphasis of learning was on scripture, the philosophy of Aristotle and the development of the several liberal arts. Humanists sought to revive ancient learning, emphasizing the study of the seven liberal arts (the arts a free person needed to master to go on in life: measuring arts: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, and the language arts: Grammar, logic and rhetoric (persuasive speech). These humanist studies were centered on classical Latin and Greek writings. They believed these subjects developed the individual’s mind, spirit, and ethics, and prepared students for lives of virtue and service. Humanists had faith in the Christian doctrine and the dignity and nobility of humans.

They studied people like Cicero, poetry, history and ethics. The people of the renaissance wanted to harness the power of rhetoric. These studies gradually became the center of intellectual life and of the university curriculum. Human reason and capacity to understand reality through senses.

Improvement of conditions through individual efforts. The role of the church was not diminished but rather the church borrowed from classical sources, sponsored classical studies, and supported thinkers, artist and musicians. These new opinions exercised their effect on music both directly and indirectly.

The focus of the humanist on rhetoric- the art of oratory, including the ability to persuade listeners and to organize a speech in a coherent manner influenced composers to apply ideas from rhetoric in their music; a movement, which gathered strength during this period and remained forceful for centuries.The traditional connection of music to mathematics did not disappear but the immediate perception of music and the ways it resembled language became increasing important. Thus music moved gradually from the measuring arts to the rhetorical arts.

An anthology of polyphonic music pub. in 1501 by Petrucci.

This was the first instance in which polyphonic music was printed using movable type. Included in the Odhecaton is a wide variety of fifteenth-century music. 96 pieces are present and (mostly French chansons). The technique used a process of three printings, lining up the parchment to print the lines of the staves, a second to print the text, and a third to print the notes and the florid initials.

Drew on humanism, printing and the creation of new repertories alike. The Application of humanist principles to study of the bible led Martin Luther and others to challenge church doctrines. The resulting reformation beginning in 1517 ended a century of church since the resolution of the Great Schism.

The instigator of the reformation was Martin Luther (1483-1546) a professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg.When much of northern Europe split from the roman church to become Lutheran, Calvinist or Anglican, each branch of the church developed its own music for services.The catholic response, know as the counter reformation, produced some of the most glorious music of the century and one of its composers, Palestrina became the model for counter point for generations to come.

Martin Luther – (1483-1546) The instigator of the reformation.

A professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg. His approach to theology was influenced by his humanistic education, which taught him to rely on reason, on direct experience and on his own reading of Scripture rather than on received authority. This led Luther to conclude that god’s justice consists not in rewarding people for good deeds or punishing for their sins, but in offering salvation through faith alone. His view contradicted catholic doctrine, which held that religious rituals, penance and good works were necessary for the absolution of sin. Luther insisted that this authority was derived for scriptures so that if a belief or practice had no basis in the bible it could not be true. This went against the Catholic Church, which had developed a rich tapestry of teachings, and practices that rested on tradition rather than scripture.

One such practice was the sale of indulgences; credits for good deeds done by others which one could be purchased to reduce the punishment for sin. This practice raised money for the church by had no spiritual basis. On October 31, 1517 he posted on a church door in Wittenberg a list of ninety-five theses opposing indulgences and the doctrine that lay behind them and challenging the pope’s rule in granting them. He sent a copy to his bishop hoping to start a dialogue to lead to reform in the church bur received no reply. When pressed to recant he instead affirmed the primacy of scripture of the catholic hierarchy. He was charged with heresy in 1519 and excommunicated in 1520. By then Luther had numerous followers in German Universities and among the populous.

He organized a new evangelical church known as the Lutheran church. In creating his church, Luther sought to give the people a larger role. He made the services easier to understand. He also employed a good deal of catholic music, both chant and polyphony.

Music assumed a central position in the Lutheran church because of Luther’s own appreciation for it. He was a singer, played the flute and lute, a composer, and greatly admired Franco-Flemish polyphony. He believed strongly in the education and ethical power of music.

Through singing together worshipers could unite in proclaiming their faith and praise to god. For these reasons he wanted the entire congregation to sing in the services.

Council of Trent – (1545-1563) Part of the Counter-Reformation, held to formulate and give official sanction to measures for purging the church of abuses and laxities. Concerning church music, complaints were heard regarding its frequently secular spirit, excessive complexity which obscured the words, bad pronunciation, carelessness, and irreverent attitude of the singers. However, the pronouncement of the Council was extremely general, and touched on no technical points: neither polyphony nor the imitation of secular models was specifically forbidden.

Guillaume Dufay – 1397-1474 Dufay was the leading composer of his time and one of the most widely traveled. Patrons competed for his services, and the positions he held in Italy, France and the Lowlands acquainted him with a wide range of musicians and styles.

He excelled in every genre, and his music was known and sung throughout Europe. The son of a priest and an unmarried woman, Dufay was born in modern day Belgium. He trained in music and grammar in the Cathedral school of Cambrai in northern France, where he became a choirboy in 1409.

In 1418 he entered the service of Carlo Maltaseta at Rimini. He returned north in 1424 then worked for Cardinal Aleman in Bologna where he became a priest. Dufay served two periods in the papal chapel; in 1428-33 at Rome and again in 1435-37 during the pope’s exile in Florence and Bologna. Alternating with his service to the pope, he served at the court of Amadeuse VIII duke of Savoy.

In 1439 he returned to Cambrai and served as an administrator at the Cambrai Cathedral and enjoyed an honorary appointment to the chapel of Duke Philip the Good. Dufay returned to Savoy as an honorary chapel master to duke Louis. He spent his last years at Cambrai as canon of the cathedral living in his own house and enjoy in considerable wealth. His works include at lest 6 masses, 35 other mass movements, 4 Magnificats, 60 hymns, 24 motets and over one hundred secular songs. Example: Se La face ay pale (Ballade) Example: Nuper rosarum Flores (Motet)

Josquin des Prez – (1450-1521) Josquin is regarded as the greatest composer of his time.

His motets, masses, and songs wee widely sung, praised, and emulated in his lifetime and for decades after his death. Josquin’s early life is undocumented, but he was probably born near St. Quentin.

He served in the chapel of René, the duke of Anjou in the late 1470’s. After the duke’s death he transferred to the service of King Louis XI at sainte Chapelle in Paris. Josquin spent much of his career in Italy serving the Sforza family the rulers of Milan from 1484-89, and in the Sistine chapel in Rome 1498-95. He was appointed maestro di Capella to duke Erclole I d’Este in Ferrara in 1503 at the highest salary in the history of the chapel. He earned 200 ducats (about ½ million by our standards) for one year. For the remainder of his life he was provost at the church of Notre Dame. He composed at least 18 masses, over 50 motets, about 65 chansons and other works.

Josquin was especially renowned for reflecting the meaning of the words in two ways: through text depiction using gestures in the music to reinforce the images in the text and through text expression, conveying through music the emotions suggested by the text. In the Ave Maria one of his most popular works, the music is crafted to fit the text. He gives each segment a unique musical treatment so that the texture is constantly changing to fit the text. Example: Ave Maria

William Byrd (1540-1623) -The leading English composer in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Although a catholic, Byrd served the Church of England and was a member of the royal chapel.

In addition to secular vocal and instrumental music he wrote both Anglican service music and Latin masses and motets. Byrd composed in all the forms of Anglican Church music, including a great service, three short services, psalms, full anthems and verse anthems. He was the first English composer to absorb continental imitative techniques and apply them imaginatively and without constraint. He was probably a student of Thomas Tallis and a choirboy with the chapel royal in London under both protestant and catholic rulers. In 1575 he and Tallis were granted a twenty-one year monopoly for the printing of music in England. In trouble at times for his catholic belief, Byrd nonetheless composed Latin masses and motets for catholic use alongside his less controversial music. That he avoided repercussions for his catholic writings is a sign of how valuable his music was to the Anglican Church and to the reputation of England.Example: Sing Joyfully to the Lord This composition is an anthem (the English version of the motet.

Giovanni Gabrieli 1555-1612 Giovanni Gabrieli was one of the leading composers of the late Renaissance and early baroque periods. Though known today primarily for his instrumental works but equally accomplished in sacred music. Little is known about his early live and training.

In his teens and early twenties he was in the service of Duke Albrecht V in Munich, where he studied with Lassus. In 1585 he won appointment as seconda organist at St. Marks serving alongside his uncle Andrea Gabrieli until the latter’s death that august.

At St. marks he was the main composer of ceremonial music, producing about one hundred motets, most for multiple choirs. As second organist Gabrieli supervised the instrumentalists, and his canzonas and sonata were no doubt written for them. He wrote over 100 motets, 30 madrigals, 37 canzonas, 7 sonatas and 35 organ works. The rich musical environment of Venice shaped the music of Gabrieli.

The glory of Venetian church music is manifest in its polychordal motets, works for two or more choirs.Though other composers had written for multiple groups in Venice poychoral music was a regular diet.Gabrieli wrote for two, three, four and sometimes five choruses, mingled with instruments of diverse timbres, answering each other antiphonally.The Venetian Sonata (Italian for sounded) consisted of a series of sections each based on a different subject or variant on a single subject.

They were used at mass or vespers and introductions or postludes to accompany significant rituals.Example: Sonata pian’e forte

Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina (1525-1594) – Palestrina was renowned especially for his masses and motets. He was named after his presumed birthplace, a small town near Rome. He served as a choirboy and received his musical education at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. After seven years as organist and choirmaster in Palestrina he returned to Rome under the patronage of Pope Julius III.

He spent most of his life in Rome. He briefly sane in the papal chapel but had to relinquish the honor because he was married. His works in clued 104 masses, over 300 motets, 35 Magnificats, and over 100 other works. Palestrina has been called “the Prince of Music” and his works “absolute perfection” of church style.His sober elegant music captured the essence of the catholic response to the reformation in polyphony of utter purity.Yet his music is also remarkably varied in its melodies, rhythms, textures and sonorities making his music profoundly satisfying to the listener.Palestrina strove to accentuate the words correctly and make them intelligible in accordance with the goals of reformers.His melodies have quality almost like plainchant, influenced by the chants he often used in his masses and motets.

The smooth diatonic lines and discreet handling of dissonance give Palestrina’s music transparency and serenity.According to a legend already circulation soon after his death, Palestrina saved polyphony from condemnation by the council of Trent by composing a six-voice mass that was reverent in sprit and did not obscure the words. The work was called the Pope Marcellus Mass published in Palestrina’s second book of Masses in 1567. While the legend is probably false, Palestrina noted in his dedication to the collection that the masses it contained were written “in an new manner”. Example: Pope Marcellus Mass “Agnus Dei

Carlo Gesualdo (1561-1613) One of the most colorful figures in music history, He was the prince of Venosa. He is unusual among composers because he was an aristocrat, and it was rare for nobility to compose or to seek publication for their music. He was also a murderer.

When he discovered his wife in bed with her lover he killed them both. He survived the scandal to marry Leonora D’Este, the niece of the duke of Ferrara. In his madrigals Gesualdo preferred modern poems full of strong images that provided opportunities for amplification through music. He dramatized and intensified the poetry through sharp contrasts between diatonic chromatic passages.

Dissonance and consonance, chordal and imitative textures, slow moving contrasted with active rhythms creates brilliant musical images. Example: Belta, Poi Che T’Assenti

Jacques Arcadelt (1507- 1568) a Franco Flemish composer who worked in Florence and Rome for almost three decades.The master of madrigal composers. Example: Il bianco e dolce Cigno

The most enduring secular form of the sixteenth century was the madrigal.

What made the madrigal so appealing in its time and so influential on later generations was the emphasis composers placed on enriching the meaning and impact of the text through the musical setting. In the madrigal composers explored new effects of declamation, imagery, expressivity, characterization and dramatization that paved the way for future dramatic forms such as opera. Though the madrigal Italy became the leader in Europe and music for the first time in history. The term madrigal was used from about 1530 on for musical settings of Italian poetry of various types. Most madrigal text consists of a single stanza with a moderate number of seven or eleven syllables lines and a standard rhyme scheme.

There are no refrains or repeated lines, distinguishing it from earlier forms. Composers frequently chose texts by major poets including Petrarch. Most were written for four voices but by the mid century five voices were common.

for voices alone.

A florid group of notes on one syllable.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) participated in most significant trends in modern music during his lifetime, wrote some of the most enduring music of the century and had an enormous influence on four generations of composers. He was born near St. Petersburg in Russia to a well-to-d musical family. He began piano lesson a t age nine and studied music theory in his later teens, but never attended conservatory. His most important teacher was Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1906 he married his cousin Catherine. Stravinsky demonstrated his command of the rich colorful styles, which was part of Rimsky-Korsakoff’s in his early works, which impressed Sergey Diaghilev who commissioned Stravinsky to write for the Ballets Russes. These Ballets made Stravinsky famous and are still his most popular works.

The three ballets, the firebird (1910) Petrushka (1911-12) and the Rite of Spring (1911- 13) were all commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the ballets Russes in Paris.The firebird, based on Russian folk tales, stems from the Russian nationalist tradition and especially for the exoticism of Rimsky Korsakov. Through out the work humans are characterized by diatonic music while the supernatural creatures and places are in octatonic or chromatic realms, following the tradition set by Rimsky Korsakov.

Tin pan alley: is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue in New York.

The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan.

Musical: The musical comedy or musical featured songs and dance numbers in the styles drawn from popular music in the context of a spoken play with a comic or romantic plot. George M.

Cohen is credited with one of the earliest and most popular Musicals “Little Johnny Jones”.

Motion Pictures: Moving Pictures shows began to compete with live theatre in the 1890s and became enormously popular in the 20th century. Films were silent until the late 1920s but were always accompanied by music just as dance and other spectacles had been.

The first such display was Emile Reynaud’s Pantomimes Lumineuses (Luminous Mime shows 1892). The music covered up the noise of the projector, provided continuity to the scenes and shots, evoked appropriate moods and marked dramatic events. The music was often improvised from the piano or organ, and this became a career for many musicians in the first part of the century.Because the music affected the audience’s reactions to the movie and thus it profitability filmmakers made efforts to standardize the music for their films.Beginning in 1909 studios issued cue sheets that showed the sequence of scenes and events in a movie and suggested appropriate music.

Anthologies of music appropriate for each cut were published. The first film score was Saint Saens score for L’assassinant du duc de guise 1908.

William Grant Still (1895-1978) – His African American symphony (1930) was the first symphonic work to be performed by a major orchestra. The symphony encompasses African American music elements within the traditional framework of a European four-movement symphony. It uses elements of call response, syncopation, dialogue between groups of instruments in a jazz arrangement and unique timbres such as mutes in the brass instruments.

Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American” (1930) was the first symphony written by an African American.It was premiered in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Aaron Copland (1900 -1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music.He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as “the Dean of American Composers”.He is best known to the public for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately more accessible style than his earlier pieces, including the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, Rodeo and his Fanfare for the Common Man.The open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are archetypical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. However, he wrote music in different styles at different periods of his life: his early works incorporated jazz or avant-garde elements whereas his later music incorporated serial techniques.

In addition to his ballets and orchestral works he produced music in many other genres including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores.

Appalachian Spring is a modern score composed by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite.The ballet, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon commission of choreographer and dancer Martha Graham with funds from the Coolidge Foundation headed by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge; it premiered on Monday, October 30, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his achievement. Known as the Shaker Melody, Shaker Song, and the Shaker Hymn, the music Copland based his ending variations on, was actually called Simple Gifts.

Louis Armstrong, one of the great jazz trumpet performers and jazz personalities moved to Chicago in the early 1922 to join trumpeter King Oliver’s group. he recorded his hot five and hot seven sides with pickup bands.

These recordings demonstrate Armstrong at his best.The band was made up mostly of musicians from King Oliver’s Creole Jazz BandThe first version of the band featured Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo and Louis’s wife, Lil Hardin-Armstrong on piano.These were informal settings that all concerned remember as a good time.Louis picked all the musicians that he wanted to play on the sessions and the record company generally left them alone to do what they wanted.”Heebie Jeebies” written by Boyd.The Recording on Okeh Records by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five includes a famous chorus in which Louis does scat singing, which many believe is the first example of improvised jazz singing.A popular legend (apparently originating from a 1930s claim by Richard M.

Jones) says that Louis Armstrong dropped his lyric sheet while recording the song and for lack of words to sing, began to improvise and therefore created the technique of scat.This story, though indeed popular is disputable; the experts have come to the consensus that it is untrue.

Mamie Smith: Considered the first recorded blues singer..The original Mamie Smith recording was in 1920, of “Crazy Blues.

” General Phonograph Corp, OKeH’s manufacturer used Smith’s success as the press to cultivate the new market.

Edward “Duke’ Ellington. (1899-1874).bEllington came from an upper middleclass family in Washington DC and decided on the piano instead of accepting a painting scholarship to college.He copied the great New York players like Willy “the lion” smith and became the leader and composer at the famous “Cotton Club”.With the help of John Hammond the promoter and Composer Billy Strayhorn his band became the premier jazz group in the United States in the late 1920’s and 30’s.The Ellington sound is best heard on two recordings, his solo rendition of one of his most famous compositions “black Beauty” 1929, and Take the A Train.

Jazz: is a genre of music that originated in New Orleans during the late 19th and early 20th century.

It emerged in the form of independent popular musical styles. Jazz spans a period of over 100 years and encompasses a range of music from ragtime and blues to the present day, and has proved to be very difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, and syncopation, as well as aspects of European harmony, american popular music.

The birth of Jazz in the multicultural society of America has led intellectuals from around the world to hail Jazz as “one of America’s original art forms”. The first jazz album recorded was Livery Stable Blues” By the original Dixieland jazz band.(1917)

Vernacular: Popular music of the day, as opposed to “classical” music.

Stephen Foster (1826-1864) – Stephen Collins Foster, known as “the father of American music”, was an American songwriter primarily known for his parlor and minstrel music. Foster wrote over 200 songs. He composed many songs that are still popular today including Beautiful Dreamer, Camptown Races, I Dream of Jeanie, My Old Kentucky Home.

March – A band composition that contains a number of sections called “strains” which are repeated. The march usually modulates adding one flat half way through.

These compositions tend to be rousing uplifting musical numbers, often with a patriotic theme. They often have a section before the last strain called the “dogfight” which transitions into the last strain. Sousa, Filmore, and King were great march composers.

John Philip Sousa (1854-1942) – John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known primarily for American military and patriotic marches. He began his career in the military. His band toured the United States and Europe and He was known as the “March King”. The music performed by the American brass bands was a mixture of fashionable pieces such as polkas, galops, quadrilles, and waltzes composed by both European and American composers. Patriotic selections and marches by American composers were thrown in for good measure.

The most substantial repertoire consisted of light classics such as overtures by Verdi or Rossini.

The Mighty Five- a group of Russian composers who banded together in the 1860’s in response to the old-fashioned teaching of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The group included Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Musorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

All but Balakirev, the leader and founder of the group, had unconventional training; they used folksongs and folk-tales in their music, with prominent modal elements. The group did not stay together long, as they really had no unity of style or doctrine; each moved on in different directions.

Gilbert & Sullivan- composers of English operettas which proved to be the most distinctive English musical dramas of the century. Sullivan (1842-1900) was an English music student who studied at the Leipzig conservatory at the same time as Grieg. In 1875 he first entered into partnership with W.S.

Gilbert to wrote an one-act “afterpiece” to an Offenbach opera. Broad parody and witty absurditites in Gilbert’s texts are matched by Sullivan’s array of borrowed and adapted styles (ranging from Handelian recitative to Gounod-like sentimental airs, to Italian bel canto styles). These two men almost single-handedly created the tradition of the English operetta

Operetta- This developed as a separate genre in the 19th century. (In the 17th and 18th century, it was simply a small scale opera.) The originator is Offenbach. It is a popular form of entertainment made of spoken dialogue, song, and dance. Other operettas are Strauss Die Fledermaus.

Gilbert and Sullivan is English operetta.

Lietmotif-a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation. This is a primary feature of the music of Wagner and exists today in film music.

Richard Wagner-(1813-1883). Composer. Receptive to literary, philosophical and political as well as musical influences, he began as the author and composer of operas in the German Romantic manner, enlarged the expressive powers of the genre with Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, and created a new synthesis of music and drama on the largest scale in his vast tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, as well as in Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal. The difficulty of staging these adequately prompted him to construct the theatre at Bayreuth that is still used for the presentation of his works under ideal conditions. His expressive recourses included an increased and more refined use of a greatly augmented orchestra, the training of a more dramatically powerful kind of singer, the extension of thematic and motivic development to assure a newly important, imaginative and structural role, and a widened range of chromatic harmony. He pursued his artistic aims with ruthless determination in his public and private life as well as in his many critical and theoretical writings. The most controversial figure of the 19th century, initiating and generating vigorous polemics, he is now accepted as one of the outstanding composers in the history of music, one whose works may be said to crown the musical achievements of German Romanticism.

Gioachino Rossini(1792-1868) One of the greatest composers of Italian opera buffa.

He influenced Schubert, Weber, and Meyerbeer. He began the trend against singer improvisation by writing out vocal ornaments. He wrote 37 operas. His style features memorable melodies with simple accompaniment, extreme contrast,s orchestral color (the orchestra often has the melody while voices declaims in recitative style), and his famed crescendo (progressive addition of parts and dynamics, repetitions of a phrase at a higher pitch level). Rossini was important for raising the orchestral standard throughout Italy and brought the freedom of opera buffa to opera seria. His one grand opera is William Tell. He composed the Barber of Seville in two weeks.

Bel Canto- In Italian this literally means “beautiful singing.

” It is a term which applies to 18th-century vocal technique, with its emphasis on beauty of sound and brilliance of performance rather than dramatic expression or romantic emotion. Its early development is closely tied up with Italian opera seria (Scarlatti, Jomelli, et al). This term has also been used to apply to the compositional styles of Rossi and Carissimi, who cultivated a simple, melodious vocal style of songlike quality, without virtuoso coloraturas. Finally, the term also applies to the compositional style of the 19th-century Italian bel canto composers – Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti.

Symphonie fantastique: Berlioz’s cyclic program symphony which includes the recurring idée fixe (see above) and the use of the Dies irae. Typical of the 19th century, the subject material is taken from the dream. The first movement is a modified sonata form; the second is a waltz; the third is a pastorale (an Adagio in two-part form); the fourth is the March to the Scaffold; and the fifth is an introduction and Allegro, which uses the various themes and the Dies irae, first singly and then in combination (as in the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony). Unity is achieved both through the recurring theme and through the evolution of the dramatic idea of the program.

idée fixe – Berlioz’s term for the recurring musical idea linking the several movements of his Symphonie fantastique and associated in its program with the image of the beloved.

The Symphony – An Orchestral work of four movements; the first movement usually in sonata allegro form, followed by an Andante movement; a Minuet/trio or scherzo, and a final allegro movement. Composers considered the symphony the highest form of instrumental composition.

mazurka -A Polish dance, in 3/4 meter, with a strong accent on the second or third beat of the measure. The mazurka spread throught western Europe in the mid-18th century, becoming immensely popular; a dance by four, eight, or twelve couples. In the 19th century the rhythms of tje mazurka attracted composers simply as an instrumental form. The most famous mazurkas are the fifty-two written by Chopin for piano; others were written by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, and Mussorgsky.

Nationalism – A widespread movement of the 19th century that emphasized national musical characteristics, especially as found in a country’s folk songs, dances, and legends.

The movement was associated with the political nationalism of 19th-century Europe, particularly in such countries as Russia, Bohemia (now a part of Czechoslovakia), Norway, Finland, Hungary, Rumania, Spain, and England. The earliest important example is Glinka’s opera, A Life for the Czar, completed in 1836;

Franz Schubert- (1797-1828). An Austrian composer who is remembered for his songs, symphonies, chamber music, and piano works, which show a remarkable gift for creating lovely melodies. He wrote some of the finest examples of the Lied ever written, among them “Gretchen am Spinnrade’, “Dear Erlkönig,” and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise. In terrible poverty, he composed more than six humdred songs, eight symphonies, a great deal of chamber music, and many works for piano including piano duets.

Lied/Lieder – 19th c. composers preferred a new type of song which was long and often involved alternating narrative and dialogue, romantic adventure, and supernatural incidents. The greater length of the ballads necessitated greater variety of themes and textures, and thus some means of imposing unity on the whole. The contrasts of mood and the movement of the story were captured and enhanced by the music. The piano part rose in prominence, sharing the task of portraying the text. Schubert is considered the first master of the Lied. The Erlkönig is an example of a Lied.

Ludwig Van Beethoven – (1770-1827) Composer born in Bonn; later lived in Vienna. He took some composition lessons with Haydn and Albrechtsberger, and perhaps a few with Mozart. He was known for his talent in improvising on the piano. He started to lose his hearing in 1801, which led him to write the Heiligenstadt Testament. Traditionally, his works have been divided into three periods: Early (-1801), including op. 18 string quartets, the Pathetique sonata (op.

13), and First and Second Symphonies; Middle or “Heroic” (1802-1811), characterized by larger scope and scale, including the “Eroica” Symphony (No. 3), the Fourth through Sixth Symphonies, the Waldstein sonata (op. 53), the triple concerto, and his only opera, Fidelio (text by Sonnleithner); and Late, “transcendental,” or “spiritual” (1812-1827), including the Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, the Diabelli Variations, the Hammerklavier sonata (op.

106), string quartets opp. 127-135, and Missa Solemnis. Along with nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 15 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas, 10 violin sonatas, and 5 cello sonatas, he wrote vocal music, music for wind band, a wind octet, and a “Battle Symphony” Wellington’s Victory (op. 91, 1813).

Sonata Form – (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century (the early Classical period).

the form starts with a repeated Exposition section, a development/transitional section and a recapitulation section.

Opera buffa – (Comic opera) The opera reforms of the early 18th century removed the comic scenes from operas and made them independent works. The intermezzi became opera buffa, a genre separate from opera seria. Distinct musical procedures emerged that point the way from Baroque to Classical, like basing a piece on short motives that could be easily repeated or interrupted. Unlike opera seria, opera buffa uses duets, trios, quartets, and larger ensembles. National variety of comic opera are Italian opera buffa, French Opéra comique, and German Singspiel.

Examples of opera buffa are Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tutte.

• Ludwig Van Beethoven – (1770-1827) Composer born in Bonn; later lived in Vienna. He took some composition lessons with Haydn and Albrechtsberger, and perhaps a few with Mozart.

He was known for his talent in improvising on the piano. His patrons included Viennese aristocrats such as Prince Karl Lichnowsky and Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz. He started to lose his hearing in 1801, which led him to write the Heiligenstadt Testament. Traditionally, his works have been divided into three periods: Early (-1801), including op. 18 string quartets, the Pathetique sonata (op. 13), and First and Second Symphonies; Middle or “Heroic” (1802-1811), characterized by larger scope and scale, including the “Eroica” Symphony (No.

3), the Fourth through Sixth Symphonies, the Waldstein sonata (op. 53), the triple concerto, and his only opera, Fidelio (text by Sonnleithner); and Late, “transcendental,” or “spiritual” (1812-1827), including the Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, the Diabelli Variations, the Hammerklavier sonata (op. 106), string quartets opp. 127-135, and Missa Solemnis.

Along with nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 15 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas, 10 violin sonatas, and 5 cello sonatas, he wrote vocal music, music for wind band, a wind octet, and a “Battle Symphony” Wellington’s Victory (op. 91, 1813).

Wolfgang Mozart – (1756-1791) At the age of four he could learn a piece of music in half an hour. At five he was playing the clavier incredibly well. At six he began composing, writing his first symphonies at the age of eight. He was constantly traveling all over Europe with his father, Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), a violinist, minor composer and Vice-Kapellmeister at the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg. The musical feats and tricks of young Wolfgang were exhibited to the courts (beginning in Munich in 1762), to musical academicians, and to the public. Between the ages of seven and fifteen, the young Mozart spent half of his time on tour.

During these tours, Mozart heard, absorbed, and learned various European musical idioms, eventually crystallizing his own mature style. Mozart is probably the only composer in history to have written undisputed masterworks in virtually every musical genre of his age. His serenades, divertimenti and dances, written on request for the entertainment and outdoor parties of the nobility, have become synonomous with the Classical “age of elegance,” and are perhaps best exemplified by the well-known Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A little night music).The influence of Mozart on the composers that followed cannot be emphasized too strongly. He was idolized by such late nineteenth century composers

• Instruments that came to the fore in the classical period – the pianoforte and the clarinet

Age of enlightenment – An elite cultural movement in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in Church and state.

Philosophers of the movement included Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) John Locke (1632-1704) Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

Alberti Bass – A broken rhythmic chordal accompaniment used extensively in the classical period to extend periods of static harmony.

Empfindesamer stil (The sentimental style) – characterized by: Surprising turns of harmony, Chromatism, Nervous rhythms, Rhapsodically free, speech-like melodies. CPE Bach was a leading composer in this style

Elements of the classical style – lyrical melodydiatonic structureHomophonic textureRhythmic regularity Galant style- the combination of the above characteristics in music.

Sonata – In the Baroque, the term “sonata” was applied to a variety of works for solo instrument such as keyboard or violin, and for groups of instruments. Mid baroque era the term sonata underwent a change in usage, coming to mean a chamber-music genre for either a solo instrument (usually a violin or keyboard) with continuo. Corelli was the Baroque composer considered the father of the sonata.

Seconda Prattica – (Late 16th, Early 17th C’s.) The term coined by Monteverdi’s brother for the new concerns regarding music’s relation to text. In the “prima prattica” (first practice), perfection of harmony ws considered above the importance of text (e.g. Ockeghem, Josquin, de la Rue, Mouton, Crecquillon, Gombert, others). Seconda prattica’s goal was to make the words the master of the music and not its servant. It is chiefly concerned with the expressive setting of the text. This practice raised music and text (songs, motets, madrigals) to new levels of expression.

This is demonstrated in Monteverdi’s Cruda amarilli 1605.

Program Music (B) – Music meant to elicit a response, an event, a scene, or feeling from the listener.

Prelude and fugue (B) – A set of two pieces related to each other.

The prelude is a freeform piece, which is based on an expansion of a melodic or rhythmic figure, followed by an imitative fugue.

Oratorio – is an extended musical drama with a text based on religious subject matter. The oratorio originated in the 17th century as a dramatic work on a sacred subject that, like opera, is fully sung but is not normally stages or acted, and is not part of the church service. Most oratorios place special emphasis on narration, on contemplation, and, particularly in the 18th, 19th, and 20thcenturies, on extensive use of a chorus.

Opera vs. OratorioStaging/lighting No staging and lightingCostumes No costumesLack of chorus Uses a chorusNo narrator Uses a narratorSubject (secular) Subject (sacred)Venue (theatre) Venue (oratory)High cost Relative low costExpensive talent Inexpensive talent

Ornamentation – was often used to enhance performances, Soloists were expected to add ornamentation, which included trills turns appoggiaturas and mordents. More extended embellishments such as scales arpeggios were added to create a free and elaborate paraphrase of the written line. This included cadenza elaborates passages decoration the important cadences in and aria.

OPERA- the most important genre of the Baroque era. It is a large-scale drama that combines poetry, acting, scenery and costumes with singing and instrumental music. The principal vocal components of opera are the recitative and aria. Opera also includes ensemble numbers, such as duets trios and quartets and choruses.

The composer composes the music and the librettist writes the text. (masque in England).

Monody – – A solo song with instrumental accompaniment. A product of the second practice, the work was meant to emphasize the text.

This was considered by the preeminent minds of the time to be the way the Greeks had performed music and drama.

Lament – A repeated descending bass figure in a minor key similar to a Passicagila representing sadness or woe (Dido’s lament is a great example).

French overture – The opening of an opera, usually divided into two sections with a coda end section reprising the first section. The second section was usually imitative and often in a compound or triple feel.

Figured Bass – A shorthand devised by musicians which allowed musicians to create an accompaniment. The bass part or Basso Continuo was usually played by the harpsichord and often another low-pitched instrument.

Doctrine of Affections – Composers of the baroque period sought to enable or arouse the affections that are emotions such as sadness joy anger love fear excitement or wonder. The affections were thought of as relative staple states of the soul each caused bad a certain combination of spirits or “Humors” within the body.

Da Capo Aria – A typical form of Aria in three parts which became the predominant form for arias.

ABA: like the ternary. This contrasts with the simple arias of earlier composers like Monteverdi. Text falls into two stanzas designated A and B. Each stanza is a distinctive musical style set to 6 to 8 lines of poetry. There is often an instrumental component called the ritornello, which is played as an introduction and as an interlude between stanzas.

The repeat of the A section provided symmetry that was desired by the baroque composers. These pieces became compositions within themselves. The singer would often embellish the repeated A section.

Chorale Prelude (B) – short organ works elaborating on a chorale melody.

Continuo instruments – Instruments that played the bass and filler parts in performance. These included the harpsichord, Theo organ the lute, the Therobo, the bass line often supported by a viola de gamba cello or bassoon. The numeric notation of this harmony is called figured bass.

Concerto – A musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which (usually) one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra.

the idea is that the two parts in a concerto, the soloist and the orchestra, alternate episodes of opposition, cooperation, and independence in the creation of the music flow. There are usually three movements. Vivaldi was the Baroque composer known for Concertos.

Solo Concerto (B) – is one instrument set against the orchestra. A Concerto Grosso is a small group of soloists against the orchestra.

Chromatism – was used to express intense emotions in vocal works to express harmonic exploration in instrumental piece and to create distinctive subject for treatment in imitative counterpoint. Harmonically driven counterpoint also reflected the treble/bass seconda practica.

Concertato style – the combining of voices with instruments of various types

Cantata – Multi-movement works with solo arias, recitatives, and chorus on a liturgical subject. Cantatas were Lutheran. Bach wrote 5 sets of cantatas for every Sunday in the church calendar. It was an important part of the church service relating to the readings of the week. At it height it had 5 to 8 movements. Ideally, a cantata text started with an Old Testament quotation related to the readings, and reflected both the Epistle and the Gospel.

Basso continuo – the composers writes out the melody and bass and the performer fills out the missing parts.

Baroque Era (1600-1750) saw changes in the world that would affect the next 400 years. From discoveries about the solar to the inventing of calculus, the notions of political equality to the economic system of capitalism Europe in the 1600’s laid the groundwork for scientific and social developments that would influence generations to come.This also holds true in music. The familiar musical genres invented in the seventeenth century include opera, oratorio, cantata, overture, concerto, solo sonata, trio sonata, the keyboard sonata, the suite, fugue chaconne and passacaglia. During the 17th century Italian composers created the first recitatives, musicians in Paris and Rome organized the first orchestras, Venetian singers became the first divas, an entrepreneur in London invented the idea of public concerts, and a French girl became the first celebrated child protegy. Composers in the 17th century responded to their contemporary’s interest in spectacle, theater, and drama by creating music that was more dramatic and spectacular then before. This highly expressive style that was developed also found its way into the music for religious services forever changing the character of church and into instrumental music which began for the first time to rival vocal music in importance and emotional content. The system of tonality, or in other words the concept of major and minor, emerged from the system of modes to become the new language of music, with pieces centered around a central pitch, and remained the predominant language for three centuries. In other words practically everything we take for granted begin and was developed in the 17th century.

Baroque Chorale (sometimes know as a Bach Chorale- A hymn tune sung in four-part harmony, often at the end of a cantata. Lutheran in nature. The melody was in the soprano, and was written in a basic homorhythm style.