For short answer questions consider for example: Who was the most famous French composer of the 14th century and for what was he famous?
Answer: Machaut was famous for the first complete polyphonic setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by one composer.
1)What 5th-century medieval theorist wrote a music treatise based on classical Greek music theory? What was it called and what was its most important contribution to music theory of the Middle Ages?
2)Name the two composers from Notre Dame in Paris who wrote organum in the 12th and 13th centuries and how did organum enhance the monophonic Gregorian chant and when was it used?
3)Who was the best known of the composers of the Italian Quattrocento period. What was the musical form for which he was most famous and describe it briefly: its genre and purpose.
4)Name three types of “forms fixes” compositions from Medieval France citing their purpose and content and by whom they were composed.
5)Who is the most famous composer cited in the Old Hall Manuscript? Where was it from and describe briefly the term faburden.
6)Franco-Flemish composers dominated the 15th century. Name at least two, where they were from, and their contributions to the Polyphonic Mass and the French Chanson.
7)16th-century music was dominated by the Reformation of Martin Luther. How did he make the Bible more accessible to the congregations of the German Lutheran church as well as their participation in the Lutheran Mass.
8)How did Palestrina aid in the preservation of the polyphonic Mass as part of the Counter Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church in light of Martin Luther’s innovations? What changes did he make to the old contrapuntal style to make the words more understandable? Refer to his Pope Marcellus Mass.
9)There was a resurgence of the Italian Madrigal in the 16th century. Who were two of its main composers and what were two stylistic features they used. Think of poetry and expression.
10)Which were the two most important music publishers of the early 16th century in Italy and in France; and how did their publications influence the proliferation of music at that time?
11)England was noted for its version of the Italian Madrigal in the 16th century. Name two composers of the English Madrigal and describe briefly the subject/s and style.
12)Name the most important musical treatise of the 14th century, it’s possible author, and one of its major contributions to music notation
13)Medieval music was noted for its transformation from monophonic chant to organum to the motet with the unifying factor being chant. Explain briefly how chant was the organizing factor in the development of these additions. Mention parallel organum, sustained note organum, discant, and motet style
14)Paragraph Essay:
Western Music is basically an outgrowth of the development of music in the Christian Churches from its basis in Hebrew chant and its theoretical structure based on the Greek musical theory of Aristoxenus as interpreted by 5th-century theorist, Boethius from variations of simple chant through organum, motet, polyphonic Mass and motet, and finally the polychoral music of St. Mark’s in Venice. Describe the high points of this development, including composers, styles, national influences. Also describe how notation developed from neumatic to the printed music of Petrucci and others.
15)Paragraph Essay:
Secular music did have a place in song and dance from the Middle Ages on. Mention some of the types of monophonic songs of France during that time and how they were transformed into polyphonic chansons by Machaut and later by 15th-century Flemish composers. Also describe how the madrigal developed in Trecento Italy and reappeared in the 16th century both in Italy and England. How did the gradual introduction of instruments as replacement for voice parts in these songs culminate in the grand choral music of Venice to lead music into the Baroque Period?
