Components of the Mass as a Musical Form

19 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Liturgy, Music

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Andreas Scholl, David Bižić, Fauré, JSBach, Mass, Pergolesi, Requiem, sacred music

Missel dominicain

Ordinary of the Mass or Eucharist

Proper of the mass or Eucharist

Ordinary (in bold) & Proper of the mass

Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Sequence (on major feasts), Gospel, Sermon, Credo, Offertory, Prayers, Secret, Preface, Canon, Sanctus, Pater noster (The Lord’s Prayer), Agnus Dei, Communion, Postcommunion, Ite missa est

Mass as a Musical Form

parts sung by the choir:
Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, [Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Sequence], Credo, Offertory, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, [Communion], Ite missa est
parts intoned:
Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Preface, Pater Noster (The Lord’s Prayer), Post Communion
parts spoken:
Sermon, Prayer (Confiteor), Secret, Canon

Requiem* mass:

Introit, Kyrie eleison, Gradual, Tract, Sequence, Offertory, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Communion, Pie Jesu, Libera me, In paradisum.

*Requiem mass

The Last Supper, Bouveret

—ooo—

J. S. Bach – Bist Du bei mir, Andreas Scholl
Fauré – Requiem: Libera me, David Bižić
Pergolesi – Stabat Mater

(Please click on the title to hear the music.)

—ooo—

Counterpoint & Harmony: examples

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Gilles Binchois, Guillaume Dufay, homophonic, monophic, Mozart, polyphonic, Requiem, Thomas Tallis

Guillaume Dufay & Gilles Binchois

Polyphony was invented by the Greeks. It is part of Western Europe’s Græco-Roman heritage. Guillaume Dufay (August 5, 1397 – November 27, 1474), Gilles Binchois (c. 1400 – 20 September 1460), and Johannes Ockeghem (1410–1425 Belgium – February 1497) contributed to the development of polyphony (Franco-Flemish school).

The examples I have used below are taken from Wikipedia and YouTube. (Please donate to Wikipedia. Small donations add up.)

* * *

Monophonic music

one voice (that could constitute the cantus firmus, or melody, of a piece to which voices would be added)
eight “measures”

* * *

Homophonic music

four voices (polyphonic)
sung simultaneously

Thomas Tallis "If ye love me"

Homophony in Tallis’s (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) “If ye love me,” composed in 1549. The four voices move together using the same rhythm, and the relationship between them creates chords: the excerpt begins and ends with an F major triad. (Wikipedia)

* * *

Contrapuntal polyphony

Four voices
polyphonic, but not chordal (not played simultaneously)

Fugue bar

Above is a bar, or measure, taken from J.S. Bach‘s “Fugue No.17 in A flat”, BWV 862, from Das Wohltemperierte Clavier (Part I), a famous example of contrapuntal polyphony. (Wikipedia)

The numbers indicate finguering. They do not refer to the position of the chord: root position and inversions. During the baroque period, it was not unusual simply to provide musicians with a figured bass from which they “realized” the chords.