Additional Requirements for Level 8 Theory

Music History: Expanding Musical Horizons

An Introduction to the Music of the Medieval Era (ca 476 – ca 1450)
Listening: Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen, Scene 4: Quae es, aut unde venis?

Introduction/Basic Information:

Saint Hildegard (1098-1179) was the founder and first abbess of the Benedictine community in Bingen,
Germany. She was given to the Church at a young age to live a spiritual life. She was most famous during
her time as a visionary, prophet and religious speaker. She was a prolific writer and well-known
composer, including seventy liturgical songs and the Ordo Virtutum, the first known morality play.

Ordo Virtutum (Latin for Order of the Virtues) is an allegorical morality play (or a religious musical
drama) by Hidegard von Bingen, composed c. 1151. The story is about the struggle for a human soul
between the Virtues and the Devil, divided into 5 scenes. It is written in dramatic verse and contains 82
different melodies which are set more syllabically (meaning one-note per syllable) that Hildegard’s
liturgical songs. All parts are sung in plainchant except that of the Devil (which only yells or grunts: is
incapable of producing heavenly melody). There is an alternation between solo and chorus parts, as well
as between melismatic (many-notes per syllable) and syllabic lines.

- Composer: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

- Composition Date: c. 1151
- Period/Era: Medieval (ca 476 – ca 1450)
- Type of piece/Genre: scared morality play (collection of monophonic chants)
- Instrumentation/Performing Forces: solo female voice (The Soul; soprano), female chorus (The
Virtues; and the Souls), male chorus (Patriarchs and Prophets), male voice (The Devil)
- Associated style traits: plainchant, monophonic texture, syllabic vs. melismatic text-setting.

Vocabulary:

 plainchant: a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church
developed in the 9th and 10th centuries.
 monophonic texture: a musical texture consisting of a single melody sung by a single singer or
chorus without instrumental/harmonic accompaniment.

Listening: Sumer Is Icumen In (“Reading Rota”), Anonymous, 13th century

Introduction/Basic Information:

“Sumer Is Icumen In” (roughly translates to “summer has arrived”) is a medieval English round or rota
(or canon) of the mid-13th century. This rota is the oldest known musical composition featuring six-part
polyphony. The song is composed in the Wessex dialect of Middle English. The composer’s identity is
unknown today. To perform the round, one singer begins the song, and a second starts singing the
beginning just as the first got to the point marked with the red cross in the manuscript.
 - Composer: Anonymous, 13th-c.
- Composition Date: Unknown, only surviving manuscript was copied between 1261-1264
- Period/Era: Medieval (ca 476 – ca 1450)
- Type of Piece/Genre: Rota or round; secular partsong
- Instrumentation/Performing Forces: voices in six-parts (four voices singing the same melody one
after and another, accompanied by two lower voices)
- Associated style traits: polyphonic texture, canon, ostinato

Vocabulary:

 canon: a contrapuntal and polyphonic composition which employs a melody with one or more
imitations
 ostinato: (from Latin for ‘obstinate’) a motif or phrase that continually repeats in the same
musical voice, usually at the same pitch; could be a repetition of rhythm and/or melody.
 polyphonic texture: a musical texture consisting or two or more simultaneous lines of
independent melody.


Listening: El grillo, by Josquin des Prez

Introduction/Basic Information:

El grillo (Italian for ‘the Cricket’) is a frottola – a secular song consisting of a refrain, with simple
homophonic texture (a single melodic line supported by harmonic accompaniment in other voices) – by
Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/1455 – 1521), a French composer of the Renaissance. The lyrics speak of the
‘splendid singer’, the Cricket (inspired by Josquin’s friend singer Carlo Grillo) who sings for a long time in
one place, not like the birds who fly off after a short song. The song include examples of word painting:
two voices literally “hold a long note” as suggested by the text; pairs of voices playfully alternate their
calls for the Cricket to “laugh, sing, and drink.”

Vocabulary:

 frottola: an Italian secular song popular in the late 15th and early 16th century; usually composed
for four voice parts with the melody in the top line (homophonic texture). Instrumental
accompaniment may have been used. Ancestor of the Italian madrigal.
 word painting: a musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song.
For example, ascending scale would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would
accompany lyrics about death.

Global Music Styles

Listening: the Javanese gamelan “Kaboran (Gamelan Prawa)”

Vocabulary:

 gamelan:
 metallophones:
Listening: the raga in Indian music “Evening Raga: Bhopali”

Vocabulary:

 raga: (literally, coloring, tingeing, dyeing) can be considered the melodic mode or scale using in
Indian classical music. Each raga consists of four or more notes, and are the basis of melodic
structure and motifs. Each raga also contains specific symbolic, emotional, or natural
association.
 tala: (literally, clap/tapping one’s hand on one’s arm, a musical measure’) a rhythmic pattern in
Indian classical music
 sitar: a plucked stringed instrument used in Hindustani (northern Indian) classical music.