The “Agnus Dei” of Guillaume Machaut’s Notre Dame Mass was created in the Medieval Time Period; it was the first polyphonic setting of mass by one composer. It was polyphonic because it used four voices, two tenors and two basses. It used one lower voice and a form of ABA. This piece used Timbre instruments such as brass. This piece by Guillaume Machaut used a triple meter and consisted of complex syncopation and rhythm. The two upper parts of this piece are active rhythmically while the two lower parts are longer in note values. Guillaume de Machaut was a brilliant poet and musician who was born in France. He loved to travel and wrote many songs consisting of love. During the 1960’s the “Kyrie” of Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass, was played
Throughout Bernard's collection of sermons, he justifies the central concerns of the “Song of Songs” within his selected works. He develops a creed of mystical contemplation, meditation, and personal joining with God. Bernard using an allegorical approach, he wrote about the “Song of Songs” and his sermons creating the metaphor of the church, stressing the importance of love in knowing service to God. “Song of Songs” has many interpretations within the love poem, and Bernard conveys them on discussing what the “Song of Songs” is, dives into what the kisses are that indicate the progression on the soul, describes who the four kinds of spirits are, and identifies the bride and Bridegroom.
The novel The Natural is written by Bernard Malamud. Bernard was a famous author mainly known for writing short stories and novels. He was considered one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century. Bernard was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants and he had a brother named Eugene. Unfortunately, Malamud entered his adolescence when the Great Depression began. The Natural is one of his more famous books, which was written in 1952. This novel is about a baseball prodigy named Roy Hobbs. He has a bat that he made himself, which he calls Wonderboy. Roy plans to join the major leagues and break all the records. However, his plans are put on hold when a woman he meets shoots. After fifteen years after the tragedy Roy goes back to baseball and is drafted to the New York Knights. Along his journey to becoming a superstar he is distracted from his goal by the women in his life. The Natural is very much similar to the mythological story of Perceval, the Story of the Holy Grail. Roy Hobbs is comparable to Perceval, Pop Fisher to the Fisher King and the pennant to the Holy Grail.
“For over one thousand years the official music of the Roman Catholic church had been Gregorian Chant, which consists of melody set to sacred Latin texts and sung without accompaniment” (Kamien 67). The credit for developing Gregorian chant music, also known as plain...
Despite its non-Italian origins and because of its timing and specific achievements in the portrayal of the human form, emotions, and artistic balance, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” can be considered a natural representative of the culmination of the transition from the learning process of the Early Renaissance to the perfect execution of the High Renaissance.
The isorhythmic motet is a compositional style that emerged from the movement Ars Nova in the fourteenth century. It is defined based on the use of a talea, a repeated rhythmic pattern, to the main melody of a motet that is the color or the melodic pattern. Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume Machaut are the two most representative composers of this music style. Both composers wrote sacred and secular music in a variety of styles. For the purpose of analysis, the pieces Cum statua/Hugo, Hugo/Magister invidie composed by Philippe de Vitry in 1320 and Felix virgo / Inviolata / Ad Te Suspiramus composed by Guillaume de Machaut in 1360 will serve as a subject of comparison and contrast to determine the characteristics of isorhythmic motet from
John Dowland (1563-1626) was a composer of Renaissance England and considered one of the most prolific and well-known composers of English lute song. A composer and accomplished lutenist, he is probably the most well traveled English composer of his time. Through his travels he was exposed to the musical elements of his Italian, French and German contemporaries. He developed his own musical language, in which he created a unique style for the lute song. As a composer, he focused on the development of melodic material and was able to elegantly blend words and music with a wide range of emotion and technique. For the purpose of this document we will focus on the influence of his Italian travels. John Dowland’s use of chromaticism in his lute songs as can be directly associated with such as “All ye whom love or fortune.” In these pieces, we can see the influence on this genre through his travels to Italy and encounters with such composers as Marenzio.
In his Earlier Rule, Francis encouraged the friars to preach through their actions rather than their words (Let all the brothers, however preach by their deeds). For Francis, gestures and symbols were as important as the words themselves. In the Franciscan sources, Francis depended as much on dramatic gestures and images as he did upon words he spoke (or didn’t speak) to preach his message. The meal at the Greccio provides an excellent example of how Francis used both of these elements, as well as words to make manifest “sermon”. This paper will examine this Greccio meal through the lens of two sources, the earlier Assisi Compilation and the later work, The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul by Thomas of Celano. The Greccio meal will be compared and contrasted in these two sources, especially with regards to the significance of Francis unspoken actions within these writings. For Francis, actions did indeed speak louder than words.
It was an early age when Monteverdi’s career began, he then published his first pieces, and this was based on as a collection of three-voice motets, at the age of fifteen. It was by 1591, when he went to Mantua as a musician for the Gonzaga court, by then he had already published books of “spiritual madrigals” in 1583, then another canzonettas in 1584, by 1587 and 1590 he published his first two books of “madrigals.” It was in Mantua he continued writing madrigals, and then in 1607 he produced his first work in the new genre of opera, the setting was of Orfeo. 1613, he was then appointed maestro di cappella at ST. Mark’s Cathedral which was held in Venice. Monteverdi had remained in Venice for the rest of his life, writing music in all different kinds of genres, including his final opera, “incoronaszione di Poppea in 1642.
Beneath Christina Rossetti’s poetry, a subtext of conflict between the world of temptation and the divine kingdom exists. Hugely aware of her own and others desires and downfalls, her poetry is riddled with fear, guilt and condemnation; however, her works are not two dimensional and encompass a myriad of human concerns, expanding beyond the melancholy to explore love and fulfilment. The poem ‘Amor Mundi’ commences with a melodic, almost seductively smooth rhythm. The easy rhythm of ‘going’, ‘flowing’ and ‘blowing’ mirrors the decent of the two speakers as they seem to effortlessly proceed along the ‘downhill path’. The downhill path is further exemplified as effortless and desirable as it offers an escape from the uphill path.
In the opening of the ballade, marked Largo in 4/4, a low C2 octave claimed by both hands ascends rhythmically by eighth notes through the Neapolitan (A-flat) of the intended key of G minor to a high C6 and descends through a written diminuendo into F-sharp, the leading tone of G minor. As the opening statement descends, its message is interrupted by a three beat rest which halts on a dubious E-flat Major 7 chord. This chord is carried into the start of the moderato section as a low D2 evokes the underlying quality of the moderato now in 6/4. The rhythm of the 6/4 meter suggests a latent waltz-like quality that is only reinforced by the offbeat chords. Further evidence of this waltz-like quality exists in the the portamento style writing of the offbeat chords. While the rhythm of the 6/4 meter suggests a latent waltz-like quality, in each offbeat chord, the quarter notes are slurred under the portame...
Baroque music is characterized by its development of tonality, elaborate use of ornamentation, application of figured bass, and the expression of single affections. A considerable philosophical current that shaped baroque music is the interest in Renaissance ideas that spawn from ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered music to be an instrument of communication that could easily stimulate any emotion in its listeners. Therefore, musicians became progressively knowledgeable of the power one’s composition could have on its audiences’ emotions. Because of this, one of the primary goals of baroque art and music was to provoke emotion in the listener, which is closely connected to the “doctrine of affections”. This doctrine, derived from ancient theories of rhetoric and oratory, was the theory that a single piece of art or a single movement of music should express one single emotion. Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Ma...
The link between music and art, in de Maistre’s case, is very different from that of Kandinsky’s art. Whereas Kandinsky was thought to have a natural proclivity to experiencing sound and colour simultaneously, de Maistre took a far more intentional, systematic
Music throughout the ages has changed dramatically. Starting in the Medieval period, from 400-1475, music was in the form of what is called the Gregorian chant. Instruments were very rarely used at this time. Since songs during this period were either troubadour or trouvere these chants had no real harmony. One example of this type of medieval composition is “Viderunt Omnes” by Leoninus. Like most Gregorian chants the texture of this piece is monophonic and polyphonic. “Viderunt Omnes” is a typical Gregorian chant in that it uses diatonic, not chromatic notes of the scale. Musical compositions during the Medieval period was made mostly by members of the church for the church. It was and is a very slow and steady movement that was meant to create a feeling of peace for worship purposes.
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
Anthony, James R., H. Wiley Hitchcock, Edward Higginbottom, Graham Sadler, Albert Cohen. “French Baroque Masters.” The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. W.W. Norton and Company, 1986. p. 1-63