Missa Caput Cantus Firmus

Throughout the history of music, there have been few styles that not only have opened doors to masterwork compositions in their own genres, but have also led the way to other musical techniques over the musical eras and one of these magical music styles is the motet. The motet can easily be confused with other musical structures but what separates the motet from other types of group-performance based styles of music is "a piece of music in several parts with words."1 This is the closest definition of motet as can be said without overgeneralization and will operate from the beginning of the 13th century well into the late 16th century and beyond. Some scholars

The Form and Tonal Structure of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, II. “Adagio cantabile”

The spanish ballad, or romancero, is a form of poetry which, closely linked to the medieval epic, is passed down by word of mouth and open to interpretation by the performers and audience. The ballad “Romance de Moraima” (or yo me era mora Moraima) is a romancero fronterizo which is relatively brief, and follows the standard octosyllabic structure. The ballad contains the key feature of assonating units, yet does not strictly rhyme with one vowel, i.e. ‘a’ but varies between ‘a’, ‘o’, and a paragogic ‘e’.

Historically in Bach’s day, toccatas often served as introductions Fugues, setting the stage for the complex and intricate composition to follow. “Fugue” can be described as a technique characterized by the overlapping repetition of a principal theme in different melodic lines (counterpoint) and hence the second part of Bach’s composition reflects the particular popularity of this form. Bach made much use of the fugue in his compositions in solo organ pieces as in this particular fugue, with its accompanying toccata, is his best known

When Bach was in Arnstadt when he was younger, the organ ordinarily lacked a 16-foot register on the keyboard; consequently, it sounds an octave lower than the normal 8-foot register. Accordingly, in order to create the effect, Bach used octave doubling; consequently, he continued the resounding effect of the opening bars; conversely, there is no octave doubling in any of Bach’s later organ works; moreover, the fugue sounds furious with its uninterrupted series of fast notes. Also, Bach felt embarrassed about his crude style, and he put the work aside; consequently, Bach lost a lot of his other early organ work completely. Conversely, the Tocca and the Fugue has an unstructured form, and that means that keyboard players can let their imagination run wild; as a result, Johann Gottfried Walther described the Toccata as a long piece in which both hands alternate, sometimes accompanied by long pedal notes. For this reason, Bach connected the Toccata’s freedom to the stylus phantasticus; moreover, stylus phantasticus was popular in North Germany from the seventeenth century; in addition, people described this style of composition as “freed from all constraint”. Moreover, it’s remarkable that Bach paired the toccata with the prelude and the fugue because it’s subject to strict compositional rules; nevertheless, the fugue derives its thematic material from the preceding part.

The dynamic increases to fortissimo at mm. 73 as the texture thins and harmony becomes very clear for a brief section. In this second closing theme G major, G augmented, and E minor7 in the bass are strongly arpeggiated before four octaves of C, D and G quickly reaffirm the key of G. This cadential crash is followed by some of the softest and lightest material of the whole movement, which due to the surrounding measures is proved to still be part of the second closing theme.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of spiritual music and the best­known 16th­century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He has had a marvelous influence on the development of church music, and his work has often been seen as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. Palestrina's masses show how his compositional style developed over time. One of the symbols of Palestrina's music is that dissonances are typically credited to the "weak" beats in a measure.This produced a smoother and more consonant type of polyphony which we now consider late Renaissance music, given Palestrina's position as Europe's leading composer. In this piece, Sicut Cervus,

After listening to Machaut, the music has wavelike melodies containing long melismas. The listener should hear three voices. Ma fin est mon commencement is a polyphonic chanson, which was heavily favored. Machauts work presents the listener with an enigmatic text as well as a musical structure that involves retrograde movement. Ma fin est mon commencement features two sections, A and B, and palindromes in voices. Each voice is distinct, as they do not imitate one another. The two sections, A and B, repeat, AbaAabAB. The harmony can be described as consonant with open, hollow cadences.

The longest fragment of Alcman consists of the hundred or so lines, complete or partial, of his parthenion or maiden song. It seems to have been sung by a choir of girls at a religious festival before dawn, competing in music and beauty with another choir… Its swift simplicity, brilliant images and melodic beauty convey the grace and gaiety of an archaic world. ‘’

The first is evident in m. 3, when the bass, tenor, and alto sing “Care”, and a c seventh diminished chord is sung. It then breaks off, and is resolved into a B major chord. Nevertheless, dissonance is portrayed in this word again when the soprano joins in at m. 7 and an augmented c triad is sung. This is significant in delineating the sadness of the piece. This first section continues with this technique, oscillating between dissonance and consonance. A highly consonant area is in the following section starting at m. 15, rightfully expressing the joy that music can bring. In m. 23, there is a dissonance for a one beat duration before the piece returns to the melancholic text. A dissonance is heard again in a c diminished chord between the top three parts in m. 26 in the word “deadly”, bringing back the text’s tension. The dissonances become less prevalent as the piece moves into the next section discussing happiness. Properly, the first part ends on a major chord, providing an uplifting end and supporting the triumphant mood the text brings.

2. Ordo Virtutum has a modal formulaic structure that works by an alternating solo and choral response, which is considered to be distinct to Hildegard’s compositions.

As I first examined this work, I could not focus on just one portion of it. Although each part tells its story, there it one overall explanation. As usual, I am drawn to the center of this piece which would be a man sitting in an oval like throne. With a closer look, I look at this man and see a cross behind him, with angelic figures in the background. I conclude this important

Music is constantly changing. The Baroque period (1600-1750) and the Classical period (1750-1820) have both differences and similarities in elements such as form, texture, and dynamics. I will be comparing the first movement of Spring from the Four Seasons composed by Antonio Vivaldi and the first movement of Symphony No. 5 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven. I will construct a stylistic comparison of the two compositions and their musical stylings with regard to the periods of music of which they belong.

Katherine Bergeron’s book, Voice Lessons: French Mélodie in the Belle Epoque, approaches French art song in a new and unique way, making it an invaluable resource for art song scholars and performers alike. Bergeron’s goals for this book are primarily abstract in nature; she aims to tell a story “about that French sound, both what it was and how it got that way” (viii). To achieve her vision, Bergeron examines the mélodie through a variety of different lenses, including musical, vocal, aural, linguistic, literary, scientific, philosophical, and cultural angles.

“The Rite of Spring” was written during the Modern Era of music. The characteristics of music during this period used nonsymmetrical patterns in the meter based on five, seven, eleven, or thirteen beats per measure. The meter could shift constantly changing the flow of the music. Composers started using sharply contrasting rhythms simultaneous , this is called polyrhythm. Early modern composers wrote melodies in relation to the instruments instead of the voice. Harmonies became more complex during this time. Composers used stacked chords adding as much as seven notes to one chord. These chords were highly dissonant and were known as polyharmony cords. These chords redefined the tonality and needed new ways of organization in music. These chords also could make distinctions with the dissonance and consonance in music.