QUEENSLAND ACADEMY—SCIENCE MATHEMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY

Listening Portfolio

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Trio Sonata 3

Concerto Grosso 4

Madrigal 6

Ballet 7

Mass 9

Motet 10

Gregorian Chant/Plainchant 11

Chanson 12

Organum 13

TRIO SONATA A foundation of the concerto grosso, the trio sonata is able to be split

into two ‘sub-categories’, and came into development in the

Baroque era, and was popular in the 17th and 18th century. It differs

from the unaccompanied and accompanied solo sonatas in the sense

that it is written in three parts; for two solo melodic instruments and

basso continuo.

The most common instrumentation for the trio sonata and is

composed of two violins, a cello, and a harpsichord or similar chordal

instrument such as an organ or a lute.

Some well-known works in

the form of trio sonatas

include:

Op. 1, 12 sonatas da

chiesa, trio sonatas for

2 violins and continuo

(Corelli)

Trio Sonata in D Minor

(Telemann)

Trio Sonata, Op. 5,

No. 2, HWV 397

(Handel)

Concerto Grosso

The concerto grosso was developed in the late 17th century during the Baroque period. It is a multi-movement work,

usually in three movements, in ABA from. That contrasts the different textures of a small group of soloists with the remainder of the ensemble (usually when 2-4 soloists were present, there were 8-10 instrumentalists in the tutti section). There are two distinct forms of the concerto grosso; the concerto da chiesa and concerto da cam-era. The concerto da chiesa (church concert) altered between fast and slow movements, and was often

the more polyphonic of the two. The concerto da camera on the other hand, was a chamber con-cert that generally incorporated preludes and transitioned into popular dance forms. Some famous concerto grossi in-clude: Brandenburg Concertos

(Bach) Concerto Grosso in d minor,

Op. 3, no. 11 (Vivaldi) Concerto grosso Op. 6, no. 2

in F Major (Corelli)

Madrigal

“A complex polyphonic unaccom-panied vocal piece on a secular text developed especially in the 16th and 17th centuries” (Mirriam-Webster)

Most frequently written for 3-6 voices, gener-ally in Italian, and incorporated the idea of passages in which the music assigned to a particular word ex-presses it’s meaning, referred to as word-painting or madrigal-isms. Late madrigalists were particularly in-genious with these, for example setting riso (smile) to a passage of quick, running notes in order to imitate laugh-ter, or sospiro (sigh) to a note which falls to

Another note below. The most prominent figures in these ideas include Carlo Gesualdo and Claudio Monte-verdi, who also inte-grated basso continuo into the form. Well-known madrigals include: Combattimento di

T a n c r e d i e C l o r i n d a (Monterverdi)

Missa La Dolce Vista, Phillipe de Monte

BalletT The ballet is a light, homophonic, strophic song for

three or more signers. It is generally composed of

dance-like rhythms, and distinguished by its ‘fa-la’ re-

frains, which incorporates some imitation and rhythmic

disjunction.

Examples include :

My bonny lass she smileth (Thomas Morley)

Mass

A mass is a choral composition, and is a form of sacred music. Most are settings of the liturgy (used in the Roman Catholic Church) and are in Latin. They can either be sung a capella or accompanied. The two principal groups of pieces include: The Ordinary, which is composed by texts that are repeated in all the masses and follows the following form: Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus Benedictus Agus Dei The Proprium, constituted by pieces that are sung according to the feast that is cele-brated Introit (chant of entrance to initiate the celebration) Gradual, Hallelujah or Tract (after the readings) Offertory (to accompany the procession of the gifts) Communion Well-known works in the Baroque and Romantic periods include: Mass in B minor (J.S. Bach) Requiem (Giuseppe Verdi) Messa (Puccini)

Gregorian Chant The Gregorian chant is also referred to as a form of a plainchant, and traditionally accom-

panied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services and performed by choirs of men

and boys in churches.

They are generally organised into eight modes each defined by their final (ending note),

dominant (secondary pitch used as the reciting tone), and ambitus (range of pitches in the

melody). Reciting tones are used to which the other notes of the melodies revolve. They are

generally classified under two categories; recitatives and free melodies.

Gregorian chants are able to be sung in a number of different ways, the most straightfor-

ward of these being syllabic, meaning on each syllable is sung to a single tone. Therefore,

the simpler of chants are mostly syllabic throughout with slight variations where two or

more notes are sung on one syllable.

Melodically, Gregorian chants were usually sung in unison and generally move with step-

wise motion, with few skips of thirds or more (which are more common in other forms of

plainchant such as the Ambrosian chant). Rhythmically, they do not have a specific beat or

regular metric accent, with the lyrics determining the melodic contour and phrasing.

Examples of Gregorian chants include:

Victimae paschal laudes (Ascribed to Wipo of Burgundy)

A motet is a polyphonic choral composition, first aris-ing in the 13th century. It can be divided into three different categories in correspondence to its histori-cal period: Medieval motet (c. 1220-1450) Flemish motet (1450-1600) Baroque motet (1600-1750) In the 14th and 15th centuries motets tended to be isorhythmic in nature (employing repeated rhythmic patterns in all voices). By the time of the Renais-sance period, the motet had developed to become a polyphonic music setting that is at times, in imitative counterpoint, and were sacred madrigals. Examples of motets include: In ecclesiis (Gabrieli) O magnum mysterium (Victoria) Quam pulchra es (Dunstable)

CHANSON The chanson is a secular piece of music that is usually polyphonic, set to

French lyrics.

They began as epic poems, with simple monophonic melodies, which later de-

veloped to become the ‘Burgundian Chanson’, which appeared in the Middle

Ages and Renaissance. These were in either ballade (a one-movement piece),

rondeau (set to French poetry with 15 rhymes on 2 rhymes) or virelai (ABBA

form, similar to a rondeau, with 2 rhymes in each stanza) form fixes.

Examples of chansons include:

Rose, liz, printeps, verdure (Guillaume de Machaut)

Resvillies vous (Du Fay)

Revecy venir du printans (Le Jeune)

“Developed in the Middle Ages, an organum is a

plainchant melody with at least one added

voice to enhance the harmony of the song.

These melodies had harmonies that were either 4

or 5 notes apart (i.e. in perfect 4ths and 5ths).”

The four types of organums include:

Parallel organum—consists of two voice parts moving in

parallel motion a 4th or 5th apart

Converging parallel organum-two voices beginning on a

unison pitch, then whilst one remains stationary the other

moves to an interval of a 4th. Both voices then proceed to

move and converge back to a unison pitch at the conclu-

sion of each phrase

Melismatic organum—uses the „tenor‟ in long held notes

above which another melody is added

Free organum—more developed, and makes use of me-

lodic independence and contrary motion in the voice

parts

Examples include:

Viderunt omnes (Leoninus)

Alleluia Justus ut palma (from Ad organum

faciendum)

References

"Baroque trio sonatas."Classical Music - Streaming Classical Music.

N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Aug. 2010. <http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/

blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.550377&catNum=5 >

"Madrigal (music)." Main Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2010.

<http://www.fact-index.com/m/ma/madrigal__muic>

"Music of the Baroque Era."Augusta State University . N.p., n.d.

Web. 14 Sept. 2010. <http://www.aug.edu/

~cshotwel/4350.Baroquetraits.html >

"Music History." History of Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2010.

<http://www.grolsons.com/da/mh.html>

"Characteristics of Gregorian Chant." Interletras - Bogota, Colombia.

N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. <http://interletras.com/canticum/

characteristic_eng.html>