Notre Dame Organum sets the solo sections of the responsorial chants of the Mass and Office. The organum is highly melismatic; can be for 2, 3, or 4 voices; chant is always in the lowest voice called the Tenor. Long held notes in the Tenor except for places where a melisma appears in the chant (see Clausula below).
What does the term organum mean?
Definition of organum
1 : early polyphony of the late Middle Ages that consists of one or more voice parts accompanying the cantus firmus often in parallel motion at a fourth, fifth, or octave above or below also : a composition in this style. 2 : organon.
What is an organum in music?
organum, plural Organa, originally, any musical instrument (later in particular an organ); the term attained its lasting sense, however, during the Middle Ages in reference to a polyphonic (many-voiced) setting, in certain specific styles, of Gregorian chant.
What was the purpose of organum?
Organum (/ˈɔːrɡənəm/) is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages.
What are the 3 types of organum?
#1 – Strict Simple Organum #2 – Strict Composite Organum #3 – Modified Parallel Organum #4 – Free Organum These examples come from the CD set of the Stolba Music History textbook.
What period is organum?
Medieval
Organum is a genre of Medieval polyphonic music (music with two or more simultaneous, different voice parts) that reached the peak of its sophistication during the late 1100s-early 1200s in France.
What is organa plainchant?
Plural: organa. -Léonin and Pérotin. –Polyphonic work of the 9th-12th centuries consisting of an original plainchant melody in one voice along with at least one additional voice above or below. -based on original plainchant pieces. -earliest form of polyphonic compositions.
What is a melismatic melody?
Melisma (Greek: μέλισμα, melisma, song, air, melody; from μέλος, melos, song, melody, plural: melismata) is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession.
What does a organum sound like?
Quote from the video:
Youtube quote: It's called an octave because in church music at the time there were only eight notes to choose from. On the white notes of a modern keyboard the two lines of voices are eight notes apart.
What is an organum how did it lead to polyphony in vocal music?
In Organum, a preexistent chant is embellished by the addition of other voices singing different music. When music is made up of people singing or playing different lines at the same time, it is said to be polyphonic.
What is Notre Dame polyphony?
The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names have come down to us from this time are Léonin and Pérotin.
What is discant style?
1a : a melody or counterpoint sung above the plainsong of the tenor. b : the art of composing or improvising contrapuntal part music also : the music so composed or improvised.
What is melismatic organum in music?
More specifically, the word organum refers to a polyphonic style of sacred chanting that flourished in Europe from 8th to 13th century and the term melismatic indicates a vocal line in which there are several notes sung on the same syllable (melisma).
Is organum a type of polyphony?
Two main types of polyphony were organum and the motet.
What does note against note mean?
The most elementary technique of counterpoint is the note-against-note, where each note in the accompaniment is added against one particular note of Cantus Firmus. Principally, there are 4 major aspects of adding a note in the accompaniment according the counterpoint: 1.
What does two flats in front of a note mean?
double flat
An accidental sign consisting of two flat symbols (♭♭) that lower a note by two half steps (two semitones). The double flat symbol alters the pitch of the note to which it is attached as well as any subsequent occurrence of the same note (identical line or space) in the same measure.
What does this piano symbol mean?
Dynamics are notated in music with the letters p for piano, m for mezzo and f for forte. Piano means a quieter dynamic than mezzo piano and forte means to play with a louder dynamic that than mezzo forte.
