A Cappella Research Paper

The Opera is described as the relationship between words and music. Opera is dramatic staged secular vocal work with orchestral accompaniment .Consisting of alternating recitatives, arias, and chorus numbers. Soloists, solo ensembles, choruses, dancing, dramatic action, costumes, staging are all components of opera. It was important because it added interest in dramas and music and it created interest is homophonic texture. Cantata was another important Baroque style. Cantata extended solo or choral work. It was created for Lutheran worship service. Cantatas include harmonized chorales, polyphonic choruses, arias, recitatives, solo ensembles, and instrumental accompaniment. Oratorio is dramatic work for chorus, solo voices, and orchestra. It is similar to cantata except it is longer and to a larger scale. Most were based on biblical texts to teach and entertain. Chamber music works for solo instruments performing together in small ensembles. Trio Sonatas were important chamber music pieces during the Baroque Period. Church sonatas would be performed in church. Chamber sonatas were meant for concert performance. Finally, orchestra varied in size and instrumentation. This style was favored by royalty and wealthy families. Most court orchestra were made up only bowed stringed instruments although woodwinds and others were gradually

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Church of England was using new music and hymns that would still be used today. According to “Elizabethan”, this time was the “high point in the English Liturgical Style”. The Mass Ordinary was created in the fifteenth century. There are five sections that go in a cycle basing each movement on the same musical material. The five sections, according to Raeburn, include Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei (11). For more somber religious events, such as funerals, a requiem mass would be used. This mass was relatively peaceful and the melody would tend to wander. Ongaro tells un in his book “Music of the Renaissance” that choirs in this era had up to sixteen members that would dance, sing, and act (32). Religious music was the work of many composers that would give us hymns and musical works that we use

Show Choir is an elective class that integrates choreography into the choral experience. A varied repertoire of 2 and 3 part music is memorized, choreographed and then performed in a concert setting. Vocal technique, developing the ensemble and dance are the main emphasis of this class. Various

  Comments: Question 17. Question : The practice of __________was adopted by congregations in which a more or less musically literate leader sang one line of the psalm, which the congregation then repeated in unison.

The next piece I would chose is Notre Dame School: Gaude Maria Virgo. In this piece, it is sung in a cappella with a rhythmic mode. What caught my attention in this piece is the different voices singing at different pitches. The voices in this song are layered also making it a polyphony until the end when everybody joins together to make it a monophonic texture. When I listen

medieval noble houses got bored with listening to work created in monasteries. The people of the time became more interested in music that told stories. Songs were created by the finest troubadours try and let citizens know about the crusades. Almost all songs talked

In the antebellum South of the 1840s, there were three very popular genres of music: stage music, parlor music, and sacred music. Elements of all three of these genres are still emphasized in today’s music curriculum. Although these genres as Dusenbery knew them are no longer popular, they’ve slowly evolved into today’s music. Music theatre has replaced stage music, pop music has replaced parlor music, and sacred music has evolved into modern worship music. Although the average WVU students no longer dance to a fiddle on Friday nights, they do however flock to clubs where different music warrants similar social experiences. Perhaps the only true difference between music then and now is the prominence of religion. As more defining lines were drawn between church and state, the popularity of religious and sacred music greatly diminished. During Dusenbery’s time, religious music like Sacred Harp were incredibly popular in the south. It’s very likely that many students participated in Sacred Harp sings throughout their years at UNC. No religious music holds this level of importance in today’s music

The Medieval period began in 500 A.D. and ended in 1450 A.D. During this time in particular, the Catholic Church had significant influence on how music was used and created. Sacred music, for example, was most prevalent because of this. Due to the religious nature of this period, music in the church had to adhere to very specific regulations, some of which included prayers such as plainchants or Gregorian chants. A single melody without harmony, or one musical part sung together in unison, is called a Monophonic melody, which was sung primarily by monks. Some time later, around 900 A.D., the using of two melodic lines was permitted by the church, this music was called organum. A low, continuous note called a drone, was sung at the same time as the main melody. The two melodies were often moving in contrasting motion to each other. By the Late-Medieval period, 1100 A.D., the music of the church had shifted from monophonic to more polyphonic, often two or more varying parts.

From 1400 to 1600 A.D., the Renaissance was a period of a rediscovery of Greek ideals for musicians to explore possibilities of their art. It was during this time that ideas were able to better circulate, because individualism began to increase, and the printing of music helped to preserve and distribute musical ideas (History). Also, as opposed to the medieval period, the Renaissance began to expand upon the type of sound that was created by adding the voices of women in choirs, as well as expanding instrumental music. The texture of music also began to change, with homophonic and polyphonic compositions. Sacred vocal polyphony was used rather than monophony in the form of masses and motets, while secular pieces also included madrigals and songs. Instrumental pieces usually were short during this time, and were for dancing (History).

Ragtime American culture involves myriads of customs and traditions inherent exclusively to the USA. Except for religion, clothes, behavior, beliefs, or food, which define culture as a unique phenomenon, music enormously contributes to its existence in any period of the nation’s development. Early American music is famous for a distinctive genre popular during the mid-1890s, called ragtime, notable for its special syncopation and composers. Ragtime used to be a solely American style of musical works composed of three or four strikingly different sections, in other words, strains, one of which was 16 or 32 measures in length. Due to an astonishing syncopation, namely replacement of the beat from its regular course of meter, ragtime compositions became both threatening and thrilling to the American youngsters.

​ Life in the Middle Ages revolved around the Church, which was the Roman Catholic. So, we can imagine early music was pretty much from church. Every morning at 9 o’clock was Mass, a significant ceremony done to commemorate the Last Supper. At this church service, the music was the Gregorian Chant. The Gregorian chant is performed in the Latin language, unison voice and accompanied by no instruments which was believed that the text of the song which carried the divine message from God was more important. The music was just to help you get to a spiritual place (Wright, 4-1a).

The oratorio and cantata of the eighteenth century were both linked, unlike opera, to religious themes. Although intended for very different uses and circumstances of performance, all three genres contained musical commalities. Not surprisingly, the three genres would

A cappella originally started in the Renaissance Era. Songs written for the religion the song is about, ws found. They examined it, and they saw that they wrote their songs were written for a cappella. Many religions were using a cappella to sing their hymns. Religions like Christianity, Catholicism. Judaism, and even Muslim. The term A Cappella originally means “As in the church” (For A Cappella) But today when we hear a cappella, we think of music with no instruments. People believe that if we sing a cappella when we sing our hymns, that it is a more efficient way to worship our god(s). Christian a cappella had started later years of the 15th century. Due to most religions not using instruments at all in their worship hymns, a cappella became known as the music without instruments.

The early music of this period was monophonic, it only had one line of melody without any harmony or accompaniment but had Gregorian chant, which came with religious music.

The masses in the religious services had to be sung a cappella in this specific order or it was considered a disgrace and ruined the sacred pieces. The high priests of the Catholic churches were very strict on how the sacred music was sung and preserved.