Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Music

Foundations of Renaissance Thought

Francesco Petrarch and Humanism

Why was Francesco Petrarch important? He was one of the primary promoters of Humanism. This movement introduced Anthropocentrism: the belief that the human being is the center of all things.

Erasmus of Rotterdam: Tolerance and Secularism

Who was Erasmus of Rotterdam? He was a Dutchman who defended religious tolerance and emphasized the importance of secular Christianity.

Baldassare Castiglione's Ideal Man

What were the ideas presented in the work of Baldassare Castiglione? The ideal of the knight and the cultured and educated man.

Medieval vs. Renaissance Ideals

Comparing Medieval and Renaissance ideas reveals fundamental shifts:

• Culture Development: Culture developed primarily in monasteries

Albéniz

Rhythm: Binary regular, constant 2/4. Allegro grazioso, moderately fast and graceful. Black note = unit. The right hand plays the melody with staccato eighth notes. These articulated sixteenth notes should sound like half notes going into silence.

The left-hand notes attack with a quaver on the strong part of the bar, quietly leaving the rest of each bar. The three thirty-second notes in the introduction function as arpeggios, and four processional rolls give way to the tune of "La Tarara."

Melody: The theme dominating Section A is taken from a very popular song. It has a symmetrical scheme. The melody is 16 measures long. The melody is anacrustic for joint degrees, overlooking the 2nd and 3rd. The staccato interpretation gives a blank... Continue reading "Albéniz's "Corpus Christi en Sevilla": Musical Analysis" »

Spanish Literature: From Renaissance to Baroque

Mannerism

As a movement of transition between the Renaissance and Baroque, Mannerism was used to define elaborate artists' works. This current arises as a reaction to classicism, characterized by the rejection of rigid rules and the free use of forms. Based on literary theory, a clear example is in the sonnets of Góngora and Lope.

Baroque

There was a great development of poetry. Everything could be poetic material. It is a poetry of contrasts because there is a meditative face, a difficult and misleading world, and almost every issue addressed from a mock perspective. Sonnet and romance are common forms.

The essential feature of the Baroque mentality is distrust in itself. Topics such as disappointment

Music Fundamentals: Understanding Sound

Understanding Sound Intensity

Intensity is the degree of force with which a sound is played.

Exploring Timbre

Sounds differ in timbre.

Musical Alterations: Sharps, Flats, and Naturals

Alterations are signs that change the pitch of a sound. These include:

• Sharp (#): Raises the pitch by one semitone.
• Flat (b): Lowers the pitch by one semitone.
• Natural (♮): Cancels a previous sharp or flat, restoring the original pitch.

The Role of Musical Rests

Silences (rests) are signs that represent the absence of sound for a specific duration.

Musical Notes and Their Duration

Figures (notes) are signs that represent the duration of sounds.

Prolonging Musical Notes: Ties, Dots, and Fermatas

Signs of prolongation include the tie (... Continue reading "Comprehensive Music Knowledge: Definitions, Instruments, History" »

Morphosyntactic Resources

• Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of each verse.
• Parallelism: Repetition of structures.
• Anadiplosis: Repetition of the last word at the end and beginning of a verse.
• Concatenation: Several anadiplosis in a row.
• Epanadiplosis: Repetition of a word at the beginning and end of the verse.
• Pun: Repetition of words by reversing the order.
• Chiasmus: Repetition in which there is a cross-distribution of elements in the same structure.
• Hyperbaton: Changing the natural order of a sentence.
• Pun: Repetition of words that sound alike, and at least one of which is composed of two terms.
• Epithet: Adjective that expresses a quality of the accompanying noun.
• Pleonasm: Redundancy through repetition, i.e., adding unnecessary terms.

**Literary Devices**

• Alliteration: The repetition of the same sounds.
• Anaphora: The repetition of a word or words at the beginning of each line or each prayer.
• Paronomasia: Aesthetic appeal is achieved by placing near paronym words and, almost always, alliteration.
• Epanadiplosis: Repeating the same word at the beginning and end of a verse, or a syntactic period, in prose.
• Hyperbaton: Disturbing the logic of the sentence.
• Parallelism: Repetition of syntactic structures or similar elements.
• Concatenation: When a syntactic structure starts with the same word that completed the previous structure.
• Metaphor: An identification that leads from the concrete and visual to the abstract and transcendent.
• Metaphorical language: Establishing an identity between

Romanticism and the Renaixença

Romanticism (from French: *roman* - novel) is based on overwhelming feelings. Born in Germany, [Romanticism] dislikes the climate where it lives and needs to flee. It is a period of cultural and artistic movements, [like] the Renaixença, Romanticism, and Realism. This movement swept across Europe in the early and late 19th century. 1833 is considered the starting point of the Renaixença, with the publication of Bonaventura Carles Aribau's ode, "La Pàtria" (The Homeland) in the journal *El Vapor*. It culminates with the restoration of the Jocs Florals (Floral Games). The term designates:

1. The period between Decadence and Modernism.
2. A cultural movement and nationalist awareness.

Key points highlighted include:

• Reconstructing

Understanding the Baroque Era

What Does "Baroque" Mean?

The term "Baroque" describes a period where artists and art forms were often characterized by their ornate and elaborate monuments. Key figures associated with this era include San Juan de la Cruz, Santa Teresa de Jesús, Luis de Góngora, and Francisco de Quevedo. Notable architectural examples include the Valladolid Cathedral and the Collegiate Monastery of San Isidro.

When Did the Baroque Period Begin and End?

The Baroque era typically spans from 1600 to 1750.

Baroque Vocal Music Forms

Forms of Organized Vocal Music: Religious and Profane

Baroque vocal music is broadly categorized into two forms:

• Profane: The opera, a baroque musical form that presents a narrative through sung drama.
• Religious:

Figures of Speech

Sound Devices:

• Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables.
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words.
• Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words.
• Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds.

Figurative Language:

• Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
• Anadiplosis: Repetition of the last word of one clause or verse at the beginning of the next.
• Antithesis: Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas.
• Apostrophe: Addressing an absent person, abstract idea, or inanimate object.
• Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between words or phrases.
• Chiasmus: Repetition of words in reverse order.
• Ellipsis: Omission of words

Literary Themes

Recurring themes in literature include:

• Carpe diem (seize the day): Encourages embracing the present moment.
• Collige, virgo, rosas (girl, gather roses): Advises young women to enjoy their youth.
• Beatus ille (blessed is he): Praises a life of tranquility away from societal pressures.
• Golden Mean: Advocates for moderation and balance.
• Locus amoenus (pleasant place): Describes an idyllic and beautiful landscape.
• Ubi sunt? (where are they?): Reflects on the passage of time and the loss of past figures.

Metrics in Poetry

Metrics involve counting syllables in verses. Examples include:

• Trisyllabic
• Tetrasyllabic
• Hexasyllabic
• Heptasyllabic
• Octosyllabic
• Enneasyllabic
• Decasyllabic
• Endecasyllabic
• Dodecasyllabic
• Tridecasyllabic
• Alexandrine
• Pentadecasyllabic
• Octometer

An... Continue reading "Literary Devices and Metrics in Poetry" »