What to hand in for Encounter 2?—

• Part I: A one-page summary of your presentation notes and a bibliography in MLA format with at least six sources (due on the day of the presentation).
• Part IIa: 3 possible paper topics.
• Part IIb: Printout of first page from a full-text article found using a RILM database search.
• Part IIc: Printout of a web page you might use for your final paper (first page only!) AND your written evaluation of that web page.
• For the evaluation, print the Susan Beck web page (see below), write answers to all of her questions, and tell me if this is a good source or not.
• Listening: Nothing to hand in for the listening assignment. The Unit Exam will test you on this material.

Readings—

• Burkholder, J. Peter, A History of Western Music, 10th edition
•  Chapter 5—Polyphony through the Thirteenth Century, p. 80-105
•  Chapter 6—New Developments in the Fourteenth Century, p. 106-133
• Burkholder, J. Peter, Norton Anthology of Western Music, 8th edition, Vol. 1 (NAWM)
• NAWM 14-28, pp. 73-176
• Brown, Howard Mayer, Performance Practice: Music before 1600 (RESERVE)
• Instruments, pp. 15-23 required (pp. 23-32 offer details about specific medieval instruments)
• Also available in Encounter Readings for Encounter 2 in the Assignment Resources module.
• Fenlon, Iain, ed., The Renaissance
• Chapter VIII, “The Habsburg Courts in the Netherlands and Austria 1477-1530”
• Also available in Encounter Readings for Encounter 3 in the Assignment Resources module.
• Knighton, Tess and David Fallows, eds., Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music (RESERVE)
• The Medieval Fiddle: Reflections of a Performer, pp. 138-142
• Also available in Encounter Readings for Encounter 2 in the Assignment Resources module.
• McKinnon, James, ed., Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History, Vol. 2: The Early Christian Period and the Latin Middle Ages (RESERVE)
• Franco of Cologne, Ars cantus mensurabilis, editor’s intro and Parts 4 & 5, pp. 116-117, 119-124
• Also available in Encounter Readings for Encounter 2 in the Assignment Resources module.
• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (library copy or Grove Music Online)
• “Chanson” article (Part 2. 1420 to about 1525)
• Weiss, Piero and Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents (RESERVE)
• Music in Courtly Life, pp. 55-59
• Also available in Encounter Readings for Encounter 2 in the Assignment Resources module.

I. Group Presentation 2
Medieval Polyphony & the Ars Nova—The Burgundian Court

• Group I—NAWM 20c, Anonymous, Super te/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus—Wednesday, September 23
• Group II—NAWM 24, Philippe de Vitry, Cum statua/Hugo, Hugo/Magister invidie—Friday, September 25
• Group III—NAWM 27, Guillaume de Machaut, Rose, liz, printemps, verdure—Monday, September 28
• Group IV—NAWM 23, Anonymous, Sumer is icumen in—Friday, October 2
• Group V—NAWM 34, Gilles Binchois, De plus en plus—Monday, October 5

Each group will give a 10-minute Powerpoint presentation on their assigned piece. Ideally, you will play the piece for the class, talk about the piece, and then play it again at the end. Each presentation will cover whatever seems most important, but be sure to include the following items:

Questions for every group:

• Who is the composer? (could be Anonymous)
• Where would this music be performed?
• Who would perform it? Who would be there to listen? Who would not be there?
• Who would benefit or profit from the performance?
• What function would this work serve in the performance context?
• What is the genre?
• How does this work compare with other works in the same genre?
• What features of this work are unique or unusual?
• What style is used?
• How does this work use the elements of music?
• Describe how this work uses melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, texture, color (timbre), form, text setting, and so on.
• What scale (mode) is this work based on? What pitches are emphasized?
• Which elements are typical of the style? Which are not?
• Describe the form (sections, phrase relationships, and so on).
• What performances practices would be used in singing and/or playing this piece?

• Groups I & II—What type of motet is your work (Notre Dame? Franconian? Ars Nova?)? How can you tell? Analyze its use of talea and color. Describe the amount of rhythmic independence between voices (which part moves fastest, slowest, etc.).
• Groups III & V—Read about the formes fixes in the textbook. Which of the three types is used in your chanson, ballade, rondeau, or virelai? Describe the verse/refrain scheme used in your song. Describe how treble-dominated texture is used in your song.
• Group IV—What makes this work a rota? What makes this work a motet? What features of this work are unusual for the time period? Describe the amount of rhythmic independence between voices (which part moves fastest, slowest, etc.). Do any rhythmic patterns used here remind you of Notre Dame school rhythmic modes? Explain.

• an article from the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Oxford/Grove Music Online)
• relevant materials from the Readings list above
• a period history (a comprehensive book covering the history of music in a particular era)
• a book or article on performance practice
• a scholarly journal article on your topic
• books/ebooks that deal with your topic

One designated group member will email me the Powerpoint document on the day of the presentation.

Thinking about Elements of Music

• Melody—high or low? moves by step or leap? wide or narrow range? regular or uneven phrase lengths? melodic shape and contour?
• Texture—how many things going on simultaneously? monophonic? polyphonic (with imitation?)? homophonic (homorhythmic or melody & accompaniment?)?
• Rhythm—clear beat or not? meter? tempo? rhythmic patterns? syncopation? how does time pass?
• Color—specific instrumental colors? high, medium, or low register? interesting color combinations? overall color? articulation (legato, staccato, etc.)? attack, sustain, and decay characteristics?
• Harmony—diatonic or chromatic? scale type? stable or unstable? simple (triads) or complex chords? consonant or dissonant?
• Dynamics—loud or soft? accents? sudden or gradual changes?
• Form—repetition? contrast? return? variation? overall shape? specific forms?

II. Preparation for the Final Paper

IIa. Possible Paper Topics

Return to top

IIb. Journal Articles & Online Databases

When you find an article, print out only the first page to hand in. Some articles may yield only a RILM abstract, so keep searching till you find an article where full text is available. Print out the first page of that article (or save the 1st page as PDF) and turn it in with this Encounter.

• For each article you select, take a quick look at the Source Evaluation and Credibility web page on the library web site. Write a note at the top of the one-page printout for each article telling me if that article comes from a journal that is Scholarly/Academic, Popular, or Trade/Professional.

Thinking ahead to the next step—As you search for more periodical articles and books, decide which topic you really want to do most. If you can’t find any books or articles on your 1st choice topic, you might need to give it up and choose one of the other topics. Place interlibrary loan orders NOW for any articles our library does not carry.

IIc. Web Searches

Now do Web searches for information about the paper topics you listed above. Start by “googling” the title of your chosen musical work. If you don’t get any “hits” that way, try the composer’s name, the composer’s patron (employer), the genre, or other relevant terms. You may find many relevant pages, but for the purposes of this assignment, pick one especially useful-looking Web page that deals with your topic(s). Then evaluate that Web page in two steps:

1. Directly on the Beck printout, write brief answers to all of Beck’s questions (18 in all).
2. Add another sentence or two explaining why this Web page is acceptable or unacceptable as a bibliographic source.

NB—Any Web page you put in the bibliography for your research projects or the end-of-semester paper must meet Beck’s criteria!

Also NB—If a Web page does not provide different or more detailed information than you find in the Grove Music Online article, i.e., if there is no “value added,” don’t use it!

Listening Assignment 2

Medieval Polyphony & the Ars Nova

Study Questions

The best way to do well on quizzes, exams, and other assignments in this course is to know the assigned listening well. Listen to each work below as often as you can, study the scores, and learn what the NAWM notes say about each one. For each work you want to be able to answer the following Study Questions:

• What is the genre?
• What is its form?
• What is the name of the style in which it is written?
• How does this work use the elements of music? What features of the work are typical of the style? What features are not?
• To answer this, look at the ways these works use melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, texture, color (timbre), form, text setting, and so on
• How does the work compare with other works in the listening assignment (especially those in the same genre)?
• What features of the work are unique or unusual?
• For this encounter:
  • Pay special attention to the different types of organum—simple, mixed parallel & oblique, free, discant, and florid—including the musical differences between them and the order in which they appeared historically. Consider elements such as melodic and rhythmic independence between voices, the role of improvisation vs. composition, number of voices, and so on.
  • What is the relationship between rhythm and notation in the development of organum and motet?
  • In the motets, pay special attention to the development of talea, color, and the amount of rhythmic independence between voices.
  • In polyphonic secular songs of Machaut and Caserta, pay special attention to the use of formes fixes. Do your best to pick out verse and refrain relationships in each type.
  • What is treble-dominated texture, where does it first emerge, and in which works do we hear it most clearly?
  • What is the Ars Nova and does music of this era differ from earlier polyphonic music?

In some cases, additional Study Questions below will draw attention to particularly interesting, unique features of particular works. These Study Questions, NAWM scores, and recordings together will help you prepare for the Middle Ages Unit Exam. They require no written report.

Notes on the Middle Ages Unit Exam

• Type of organum (parallel organum, mixed parallel & oblique organum, free organum, florid organum, or discant)
• The type(s) of contrapuntal motion used (parallel? oblique? similar? contrary?)
• Rhythmic relationship between the voices (how many notes in the top voice for each note in the bottom voice? is it metric or not? any rhythmic modes used?)
• Reasons for your answers

Before you listen, use Encounter 2 readings to guide your understanding of characteristic features of this music and the composers and works on the Listening List below. Pay special attention to pp. 80-96 in the textbook for background information on the early history of polyphony as well as definitions and details relating to the specific organum types listed immediately above. Challenge yourself to identify these features when looking at the score and listening. For all NAWM works, you really want to read the NAWM notes, listen to the recording, and follow the score.

Listening List

Early Organum

A1) NAWM 14—Organa from Musica enchiriadis

• NAWM 14a—Tu Patris sempiternus (parallel organum)
• NAWM 14b—Sit gloria domini (parallel organum)
• NAWM 14c—Rex caeli domine (mixed parallel & oblique organum)

A2) NAWM 15—Alleluia Justus ut palma (free organum from Ad organum faciendum)

A3) The Age of Cathedrals CD (RESERVE)—MCD T374a

• Benedicamus Domino/Humane prolis (Aquitanian florid organum)—track 7
• Alternate Recording: See Encounter Listening in the Assignment Resources module.

Study Questions on A1-A3:

1. Compare Alleluia Justus ut palma with the plainchant Alleluia from NAWM 3. How does the addition of polyphony change the feel of the Alleluia? Is there a connection between the usual responsorial performance of the plainchant Alleluia and the specific places where polyphony is added in NAWM 15? Explain.

Notre Dame Polyphony

B1) NAWM 17—Leoninus, Viderunt omnes (organum duplum)

B2) NAWM 18a—Clausulae on Dominus from Viderunt omnes (discant)

• Dominus, clausula No. 26

B3) Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin DVD—RESERVE VIDEO 782.3222 H654

• Perotinus, Viderunt omnes (organum quadruplum)—DVD Chapter 28
• Alternate Recording: NAWM 19—Perotinus, Viderunt omnes

Study Questions on B1-B3:

1. Notre Dame organum typically alternates between three different textures: florid organum, discant, and plainchant. How does florid organum differ from discant? What are the rhythmic and melodic differences between the two. In which of these sections can you feel a sense of meter most clearly? Do any particular rhythmic modes stand out? How do these metered rhythms compare with chant rhythm? How does the overall character of each example differ from earlier organum?
2. Compare Leoninus’s Viderunt omnes with the NAWM 3d plainchant Gradual. Is there a connection between the usual responsorial performance of the plainchant Gradual and the specific places where Leoninus adds polyphony? Explain. How does Leoninuds’s Viderunt omnes compare with the earlier Alleluia Justus ut palma in this regard?

The 13th Century Motet

C1) NAWM 20—Motets on Tenor Dominus

• NAWM 20a—Factum est salutare/Dominus (Notre Dame motet)
• NAWM 20c—Super te/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus (Notre Dame motet)

C2) NAWM 21—Adam de la Halle, De ma dame vient/Dieus, comment porroie/Omnes (Franconian motet)

C3) NAWM 22—Petrus de Cruce, Aucuns ont trouvé/Lonc tans/Annuntiantes (Petronian motet)

C4) NAWM 23—Sumer is icumen in (English rota)

Study Questions on C1-C4:

1. Read pages 116-117 and 119-124 in Volume 2 of Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History (see RESERVE or Encounter Readings in BlackBoard). This excerpt from Franco of Cologne’s Ars cantus mensurabilis describes the note shapes that form the basis of Franco’s new system of rhythmic notation. How did these note shapes revolutionize music notation from 1260 on?
2. Take a careful look at the tenor line in NAWM 21 & 22. In the Adam de la Halle motet, can you find a repeating rhythmic pattern? A repeating pitch pattern? How long are these patterns? Can you find these in the Petrus de Cruce motet?

Ars Nova Motets

D1) NAWM 24—Philippe de Vitry, Cum statua/Hugo, Hugo/Magister invidie (Ars Nova motet)

D2) Machaut Motets CD—Blackboard RESERVE

• Machaut, Trop plus est belle/Biauté paree/Je ne sui mie certeins (Ars Nova motet)
• See Encounter Listening in the Assignment Resources module.
• Alternate Recording: The Art of Courtly Love CD—RESERVE MCD E12a

Study Questions on D1-D2:

1. Could you discover talea and color as you followed the score for NAWM 24? Are talea and color the same or different in length? Explain.

Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame

E1) Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame/Le Voir Dit CD—RESERVE MCD G957M

• Messe de Nostre Dame (Isorhythmic Mass)
• Kyrie, track 1
• Gloria, track 2
• NOTE: The NAWM 25 recording is also excellent, but the RESERVE recording was done in in Machaut’s home cathedral in Rheims! For any of these recordings, use the NAWM score as you listen.
• Alternate Recording: Naxos Music Library 8.553833—Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame—tracks 1-2—Accessible via the library Music Databases page
• Alternate Recording: NAWM 25

Study Questions on E1:

1. Follow the NAWM 25 score as you listen to the Kyrie and Gloria. Can you find talea and color in both movements (in the score)? Is there anything unusual about Machaut’s use of isorhythm? Explain. Does the use of four voices make this work richer?

French Secular Polyphony—The 14th Century Formes fixes

F1) NAWM 26—Guillaume de Machaut, Douce dame jolie (French virelai)

F2) NAWM 27—Guillaume de Machaut, Rose, liz, printemps, verdure (French rondeau)

F3) NAWM 28—Philippus de Caserta, En remirant vo douce pourtraiture (Ars Subtilior ballade)

Study Questions on F1-F3:

1. How many large sections are there in each piece? How do virelai, rondeau, and ballade forms work? Can you follow the rhythms in NAWM 28? What is the Ars Subtilior all about?

Extra Credit Listening Ideas—

• MCD T374a—The Age of Cathedrals (Theater of Voices)
• MCD E59e—École de Notre-Dame (Ensemble Organum)
• MCD M489—The Medieval Experience (Monks & Troubadours), CD1 (13th century motets on tracks 3, 5, 10, 14 & 16)
• VIDEO 782.3222 H654—Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin DVD
• MCD E12a—The Art of Courtly Love (Early Music Consort of London), CD1 (all); CD2, tracks 1-9
• MCD D489 1998—Development of Western Music Recordings (DWMA), 3rd edition, Volume I, CD1-CD2
• DWMA 40—Philippe de Vitry, Detractor est/Qui secuntur/Verbum iniquum (Ars Nova Motet)—CD2, track 11
• DWMA 42—Guillaume de Machaut, Ma fin est mon commencement (French rondeau)—CD2, track 13