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The role music plays in religion
Relationship between religion and music
Relationship between religion and music
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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 …show more content…
the fourteenth century. The motet is an invention that came from the thirteenth century and evolved during the fourteenth century.
In this style of composition, it was very common for composers to use a Gregorian chant as a base to compose original pieces. As a general rule, the tenor voice sang the Gregorian chant, and the upper voices have new original material. Machaut followed this line by putting the chant Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes on the tenor voice in his piece; whereas, Philippe De Vitry composed original music for all voices. Although the piece by De Vitry is called a motet, it might be just labeled as a polyphonic composition since all the voices have original music.
Themes in both pieces differ even though they are related to a religious subject. There is a biblical context in both pieces. For instance, Guillaume Machaut expresses devotion to the Virgin Mary in the lyrics. To illustrate, the composer wrote the following text for the motetus voice:
The lyrics are very straightforward, and all the voices have similar texts which are dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Then, the poetry written on the piece by De Vitry has some biblical context as well; however, it seems to be more about a personal argument.
In either case, both pieces agree with the concept of a motet because although this music style was more expected to be heard in churches, it started as a composition of secular
music. Then, the beginnings of the pieces are very different as well. Machaut’s piece begins with a melody sung by the triplum voice introducing the first text Felix Virgo in a style of monophony until measure eleven where the motetus voice starts the second text Inviolata. This first melodic phrase in this piece has a long melisma and gradually it became a more neumatic melody. On the other hand, De Vitry starts his piece with polyphony right away. Both examples are shown below: This case shows the personal characteristics of both composers when working with the same music style. Medieval motets usually contained three voices. De Vitry continued with this tradition in his piece. However, Machaut used four voices in his motet, which are the tenor, contratenor, motetus and triplum. The tenor and contratenor voices are related to each other by a kind of call and response form or antiphonal style. There is an elision between both voices; that is, one voice sings a note and before it is finished the other voice comes to sing. Also, the contratenor has the isorhythmic patterns related to the melody in the tenor voice. The Isorhythmic patterns divisions are different in both musical pieces. In De Vitry’s piece the color of 24 pitches is repeated three times and each color has three repeated rhythmic patterns. Further, Machaut’s piece contains three segments of talea with 16 notes for one melodic statement or color of 48 pitches and the color is repeated twice. This results in six repeated rhythmic patterns in the piece. The significant difference between both pieces is the note's value. For De Vitry’s piece the values of the notes never change; however, in Machaut’s piece there is a diminution of note values and from measure 149 the piece moves faster. Another feature in isorhythmic motets is the use a hocket that is an alternation between the upper voices. This feature can be found in both pieces. Machaut added a hocket in the upper voice from measure 149 and on. Similarly, in the De Vitry’s piece the hocket is labeled more clear and easier to listen to. Here, the upper voices alternate pitches creating a rhythmic pattern.
This does not make up for the lack of other poetic elements, and the simplicity of the writing. The differences between the two pieces is still very vass. The two pieces have two totally different objectives, which makes them have different writing styles. Claire Dederer writes “Song lyrics do a fine imitation of poetry, but they’re not quite the same thing. Lyrics are a vessel, designed to hold a singer’s voice.
In terms of the technical differences between the art music of early times and that of the modern period (i.e., after 1600) we can identify five specific features that make post-1600 styles in music sound more or less "familiar."
For example, one line, “Soon our pilgrimage will cease; Soon our happy hearts will quiver, with the melody of peace,” which is saying that one day we will die, and you can’t stop that. “Lay we every burden down; Grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and a crown,” also reveals that you should appreciate what we’ve had, and what was given to us. This song is telling you, in every line, that you can’t live forever, but appreciate what you have, while you
These two pieces of music are considered Secular music, which is defined in the Webster’s Dictinary as “of” or relating to worldly things as distinguished from things relating to church or religion; not sacred or religious.
“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...
In order to fully encapsulate Leonardo’s conquest of the almighty heavens it would only be fitting to have the text set to a full orchestra accompanied by a SATB choir. This is the only combination of instrumentation and vocals that will fully capture the piece’s dramatic story (save a Wagnarian music drama). A full orchestra is a glorious medium that can be used to accommodate the full range of emotions embodied in the poem because of the breadth of orchestral timbre. In parallel with the orchestra, a four-person choir is ideal for the lyrical expression of the poem due to the wide range of notes that can be sung by the soprano, the bass and everyone in between. The parts of the poem sung by the full choir would be done in an imitative polyphony texture utilizing malismas on the repeated line “Leonardo, Leonardo, viene á volare” to accentuate the fact that this line is a “siren-song” sung by “the very air itself.” However, the majority of the text would be sung by the tenor to give the piece a story telling quality, with the rest of the choir chiming in for the Italian parts. This will serve to emphasize the contrast between English and Italian that Sylvestri creates in his poem. It seems appropriate to have the orchestra and choir perform a through-composed setting with a change in music for each st...
As in the virelais, one found two types of melody. One is pure and another one is folksong like, the other synthetic and similar to melismatic, decorated line of the ballades. The typical trochaic major Prolation of the Vitry and Machaut motets occurs notably in two works. It seem that Machaut work is ongoing. His biggest goal was to develop “ballades”, which symbolized in his Rondeaux and Virelais. The twenty-three motets found in traditional pattern and them three all written in France and Latin word. Therefore, Machauts started with traditional form of polyphony music, only to realize that it will be unnecessary to have more than one voice singing text in love song. Machaut show complete master of subtleties of the late Ars Nova. It was in the direction of rhythmic and extreme syncopation the late fourteenth century. The Ars nova had tremendous impact on his history of the music. Phillip De Virty would be large influence on the next generation of the composers. Especially Guilllame De Machaut. The new notation system would spread throughout Europe and eventually began to develop in to the modern musical notation system that used today”. Therefore, Phillip de Vitry and Guillaume De Machaut play huge rules in Ars Nova
Both poems where written in the Anglo-Saxton era in Old English and later translated into English. As well as both poems being written in the same time period, they are both elegiac poems, meaning they are poignant and mournful.
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.
Mary has been often a figure in Christianity; she was a disciple of Jesus Christ, who also watched his death and later resurrection. Throughout the song it explores Mary’s relationship and also faith towards Jesus before his crucifixion. While there is no official video to accompany this song, there is a fan made video which matches the overall theme of the song. Mary is deep in grief and must overcome that of a broken heart, having to stay strong by keeping faith towards her lover, Jesus Christ, which Mary displays throughout the song and parts of the fan-made music video. While the video is not a direct telling of the lyric’s story, it still keeps the main theme of keeping faith and dealing with grief of Jesus’s
When considering the structure of the poems, they are similar in that they are both written loosely in iambic pentameter. Also, they both have a notable structured rhyme scheme.
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
These two poems, despite of its differences are still unified under the same author who laments about the same subject. Secondly, both poem are examples of Petrarchan sonnets meaning they have an octet and sestet. Lastly, both poems utilize the same thematic values that a man’s infatuation leads to duplicity in a woman.
In the beginning of the first Gregorian plainchant, I feel my heart slowly ascends into the air with the music and harmonies, but towards the latter portion of the chant, the ascending feeling changes to a much stronger and forceful push that seems like it will never settle, as if I am not allowed to go back to where I came from or who I was before. The second Gregorian plainchant seems like it is sang by someone who has been through certain hardships, recovered from it, and is now helping others to get back on their feet. It gives me the vibe that I am not alone in whatever I am having a hard time with right now and can find support through this music. Both of these "sounds" remind me of religious ceremonies and, coming from a non-religious background, I don’t really feel a powerful connection to, perhaps, the first plainchant, which has a more holy tone than the second one. The background harmony that joins the main singer makes the second plainchant more down-to-earth than the first plainchant because, now, instead of having only one person to seek support from, I have a group of people to turn to.
Although, in 'A Dirge' they lack different morals. This is a poem unlike the other one. But 'A Dirge' is a poem talking how the world is crying and the tears are tears of vain. Also that the wind is moaning, and too full of grief to sing a song.