Musical
Characteristics
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Gothic Era
- Vocal music organized according to text
- Considerable use of contrary motion and elaborate melismaticism
- Vocal characteristics present in instrumental music
- Rhythmic
modes utilized to solve rhythm problems
- Harmony was a result of polyphonic
texture, not chords
- Texture was vastly polyphonic (3- and 4-part)
- Instruments were used to double vocal parts
- Mensural
notation remained in use until around 1600
- Troubadors appear in Germany and call themselves minnesingers
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Ars Antiqua (1175-1315)
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Ars Nova (1315-1430)
- Musical leadership shared by France and Italy
- Tempus
Imperfectum is most common
- Rhythmic modes abandoned for more complex, diversified rhythms
- More secular than sacred
- Cantus
firmus was less often used
- Landini
Cadence
- 5-line staff is common
- Thirds and sixths treated as dissonances
- Mannered notation used
- Italian style differed in that:
- It did not employ cantus firmus
- Was less rhythmically complex
- Employed simpler textures
- Introduced a characteristic florid vocal style
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Genre and Forms
- Plainsong
- Plainsong Mass
- Plainsong Passion
- Sequence/Trope (Dies Irae)
- Organum
- Parallel/Strict
- Free
- Melismatic
- Notre Dame/Measured
- Liturgical Drama
- Monophonic Conductus
- Minnelied
- Leise
- Clausula
- Rota
- Laude
- Laudi Spirituali
- Carol
- estampie, danse royale, istanpitta
- Polyphonic Conductus
- Cantiga
- Motet (isorhythmic)
- Hocket
- Rondeau
- Virelai
- Ballade
- Madrigal
- Caccia
- Ballata
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Theorists, Treatises and Collections
- Leonin
(ca 1163-1190) Great master of the Ars Antiqua and Notre
Dame; helped establish the rules for polyphony which led to
counterpoint
- Perotin
(ca 13th c.) Great master of the Ars Antiqua and Notre Dame;
helped establish the rules for polyphony which led to counterpoint
- Franco of Cologne (ca 1250)
Theorist and musician; devised rules for a system of notation known
as Franconian Notation; Ars cantus mensurabilis
- Marchetto di Padova (ca 1250 - ca 1325) Professor at
the university in Padua; Pomerian - first to establish the
acceptance of tempus imperfectum
- Philippe
de Vitry (1291-1361) Ars Nova
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Composers and Major Works
- Santiago di compostela
- St. Martial manuscripts
- Summer is icumen in - most famous rota; composer is
anonymous
- Cantigas de Santa Maria (ca 1250-1280) collection by
Alfonso el Sabio
- Jacopone
da Todi (1230-1306) most important composer of laudi; the "Stabat
mater dalorosa" is attributed to him
- Robertsbridge codex (ca 1325)
- Guillaume
de Machaut (ca 1300-1377) primary French composer of the
Ars Nova' poet, notary and secretary; wrote the first polyphonic
(4-voice) setting of the complete Mass by a single composer (Messe
de Notre Dame-1360)
- Francesco
Landini (1325-1397) primary Italian composer of the Ars Nova
- John
Dunstable (ca 1380-1453) primary English composer of the
Ars Nova; made use of the declamatory motet
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Hymnology
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