Select One Musical Work from the Period 1100-1500 and Discuss Its Musical Background, Function and Characteristics.

Although art and music before the Enlightenment era provided an outlet for emotionally intense and dramatic performances which people looked to for entertainment, the Enlightenment period in Europe from the 16th to 18th centuries created a turning point for art and music by adding a level of complexity, a sense of balance, and by incorporating ideas from reality into the art piece which embellished the fine arts genre throughout Europe.

The Renaissance and Baroque era entailed very different characteristics, due to the Renaissance composers writing more freely and being more individual then those of the Baroque era where they followed more ‘rules’ and experimented less. This essay will show the difference in two pieces by different composers, even though they were written less than a century apart.

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.

H. Wildanuer Music 101 - Mr. Gesin Mid-term Short Essay Responses 3. Medieval and Renaissance culture varied in many ways, aside from the differing music. In the Medieval age (the time between the 5th and 15th century), the church controlled many things, not only music. The church was in charge of education, the church also dominated politics. People very much feared God. Whereas in the Renaissance (15th and 17th century) the state ruled over the church. People in the Renaissance believed that God wasn’t some fearsome being, instead they believed more in logical and practical thinking.

CSET “Mi Chacra” “Mi Chacra” consist of 14 complex measures written in treble clef that is written in common time or also known as 4/4 time. The song is in the key of F major and uses a lowest range of C and highest of the D. “Mi Chacra” has a 7 note range and has 4 beats per measure. The song has many different types of notes. The song has quartered notes, dotted quarters, eighth notes, half notes, quarter rest and eighth note rest and an anacrusis. The anacrusis is located in measure nine and twelve which could make the last lines harder to learn for certain students. “Mi Chacra” has repetitive notes, rhythm and at the end of each phrase line animal noises.

The Italian composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani was one of the few women who could compose well known music during the Baroque Era. Religious wars were raging on across Europe, and many of Cozzolani’s musical pieces focus on religion and musical dialogues, which portrayed notable religious scenes from the bible (Forney,

The analysis of the aria “Lascia ch'io pianga” by Haendel according to the thorough bass method, shows us how the composer refer in this piece to the typical compositional procedures of baroque music.

Historical and Musical events before the 1600 during the medieval and renaissance time Historical • 1487 Battle of Stoke • 1500 Pharaoh Thutmose III was born • 1509 Henry VII Dies • 1536 Anne Boylen was Executed • 1587 Mary, Queen of scots Dies Musical • 1452 Birth of Leonardo Da Vinci • 1538Various tunings were recorded by Juan Bermudo • 1598 The first Italian opera is produced:

Donna Anna, Donna Elvira & Zerlino Mozart's Don Giovanni The choice of the “Three women of Don Giovanni” can give a good understanding of the type of music which was used to create an opera in the 18th century Italy. The opera buffa was a comic opera with a funny story line and light music. Mozart wrote at different levels.

Calixta As the Ideal Woman of the 1800's in At The Cadian Ball by Kate Chopin

Throughout the early years of music there were numerous examples of different forms of music that were on the rise while others were deemed to be ushered out. As these new styles of music were becoming more popular they had to fight against groups and individuals that were resisting the

Medieval music is characterized by its heavy use of monophonic texture. An example of a form of music that made extensive use of monophonic texture during the medieval age is Plainchant. Plainchant consists of just the human voice singing simple melodies with no musical accompaniment. Medieval music was not entirely

The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music.

An aria from Barbiere that incorporates many of the typical buffa elements is 'La calunnia é un venticello' from the first act. Often called the 'Calumny aria', La calunnia is the first aria sung by the unscrupulous music teacher, Don Basilio. He sings to Bartolo about defaming Almaviva through calumny, malicious lies. The aria opens slowly, softly in D major as Basilio describes his slander as a gentle breeze which begins to gather force. Rossini's orchestration embodies this concept, as a simple ascending scale in thirds begins in the strings. The pianissimo marking gives way to piano as the pattern moves to a phrase in b minor. The tune continues to meander through tonalities until it arrives back in D major. Basilio reiterates that his lies “gather

Melodies for texts of the liturgy of the early Western Church were Another method that was used in enriching a melody was by doubling it through the use of parallel consonant intervals. This practice was already employed in the ninth century treatises ‘Musica enchiriadis’ and ‘Scolica enchiriadis’, and the term organum was adopted for several styles of polyphony illustrating two or more voices singing different notes in pleasing combinations according to the set system. The various styles of organum – such as parallel organum, mixed parallel and oblique organum, and free organum – illustrated in ‘Musica enchiriadis’ were ways for singers to embellish chant in performance based on given rules for developing added voices from the chant. Guido of Arezzo described organum in his ‘Micrologus’, allowing a range of choices that could result in a variety of organal voices merging oblique and parallel motion. In most cases, these organal voices were composed orally, either improvised by a soloist or rehearsed beforehand.