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| A poem of praise to God, one of 150 in the Book of Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Christian Old Testament). Singing psalms was a central part of Jewish, Christian, Catholic, and Protestant worship. |
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| Chanting of a sacred text by a solo singer, particularly in the Jewish synagogue. |
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| The set of practices that defines a particular Christian tradition, including a CHURCH CALENDAR, a LITURGY, and a repertory of CHANT. |
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| In a Christian RITE, the schedule of days commemorating special events, individuals, or times of year. |
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| The prescribed body of texts to be spoken or sung and ritual actions to be performed in a religious service. |
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| A unison unaccompanied song, particularly a LITURGICAL song to a Latin text. |
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| (1) Unison unaccompanied song, particularly that of the Latin LITURGY (also called PLAINCHANT). (2) The repertory of unaccompanied liturgical songs of a particular RITE. |
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| One of the repertories of ecclesiastical CHANT, including GREGORIAN, BYZANTINE, AMBROSIAN, and OLD ROMAN CHANT. |
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| The repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT used in the Roman Catholic Church. |
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| The repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT used in the Byzantine RITE and in the modern Greek Orthodox Church. |
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| A repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT preserved in eleventh- and twelfth-century manuscripts from Rome representing a local tradition; a near relative of GREGORIAN CHANT. |
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| (Greek; pl. echoi) One of the eight MODES associated with BYZANTINE CHANT. |
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| (from Latin cento, "patchwork") A process of composing a new MELODY by combining standard MOTIVES and formulas, used in BYZANTINE CHANT. |
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| A repertory of ecclesiastical CHANT used in Milan. |
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| A system for writing down musical sounds, or the process of writing down music. The principal notation systems of European music use a staff of lines and signs that define the pitch, duration, and other qualities of sound. |
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| A sign used in NOTATION of CHANT to indicate a certain number of NOTES and general MELODIC direction (in early forms of notation) or particular pitches (in later forms). |
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| In an early form of NOTATION, NEUMES arranged so that their relative height indicated higher or lower pitch. Also called DIASTEMATIC neumes. |
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| Having to do with INTERVALS. In diastematic motion, the voice moves between sustained pitches separated by discrete intervals; in diastematic NOTATION, the approximate intervals are indicated by relative height (see HEIGHTED NEUMES). |
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| (Latin, 'music of the universe,' 'human music,' and 'instrumental music') Three kinds of music identified by Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524), respectively the 'music' or numerical relationships governing the movement of stars, planets, and the seasons; the 'music' that harmonizes the human body and soul and their parts; and audible music produced by voices or instruments. |
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| (Latin, 'music of the universe,' 'human music,' and 'instrumental music') Three kinds of music identified by Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524), respectively the 'music' or numerical relationships governing the movement of stars, planets, and the seasons; the 'music' that harmonizes the human body and soul and their parts; and audible music produced by voices or instruments. |
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Definition
| (Latin, 'music of the universe,' 'human music,' and 'instrumental music') Three kinds of music identified by Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524), respectively the 'music' or numerical relationships governing the movement of stars, planets, and the seasons; the 'music' that harmonizes the human body and soul and their parts; and audible music produced by voices or instruments. |
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| (1) A SCALE or MELODY type, identified by the particular INTERVALLIC relationships among the NOTES in the mode. (2) In particular, one of the eight scale or melody types recognized by church musicians and theorists beginning in the Middle Ages, distinguished from one another by the arrangement of WHOLE TONES and SEMITONES around the FINAL, by the RANGE relative to the final, and by the position of the TENOR or RECITING TONE. (3) RHYTHMIC MODE. See also MODE, TIME, AND PROLATION. |
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| The main NOTE in a MODE; the normal closing note of a CHANT in that mode. |
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| A span of NOTES, as in the range of a MELODY or of a MODE. |
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| (from Latin tenere, "to hold") (1) In a MODE or CHANT, the RECITING TONE. (2) In POLYPHONY of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the voice part that has the chant or other borrowed MELODY, often in long-held NOTES. (3) Male voice of a relatively high range. |
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| A MODE (2) in which the RANGE normally extends from a STEP below the FINAL to an octave above it. See also PLAGAL MODE. |
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| A MODE (2) in a which the RANGE normally extends from a fourth (or fifth) below the FINAL to a fifth or sixth above it. See also AUTHENTIC MODE. |
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| (also called TENOR) The second most important NOTE in a MODE (after the FINAL), often emphasized in CHANT and used for reciting text in a PSALM TONE. |
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| A method of assigning syllables to STEPS in a SCALE, used to make it easier to identify and sing the WHOLE TONES and SEMITONES in a MELODY. |
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| (from Greek, 'six strings') (1) A set of six pitches. (2) In medieval and RENAISSANCE SOLMIZATION, the six NOTES represented by the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, which could be transposed to three positions: the 'natural' hexachord, C-D-E-F-G-A; the "hard" hexachord, G-A-B-C-D-E; and the 'soft' hexachord, F-G-A-B-C-D. (3) In TWELVE-TONE theory, the first six or last six notes in the ROW. |
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| In SOLMIZATION, the process of changing from one HEXACHORD to another. |
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