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Catholic Word of the Day: ARS ANTIQUA. 10-21-10
CatholicReference.net ^ | 10-21-10 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

Posted on 10/21/2010 9:37:26 AM PDT by Salvation

Featured Term (selected at random):

ARS ANTIQUA

Music of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholic; catholiclist; music
Although I love music, I have no idea of which composers, music etc. this definition is speaking.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

Obviously, where we get the word, "aria"?

1 posted on 10/21/2010 9:37:27 AM PDT by Salvation
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To: JRandomFreeper; Allegra; SuziQ; BlackVeil; Straight Vermonter; Cronos; SumProVita; ...

Catholic Word of the Day – links will be provided later by another FReeper.

 

Calvinism/Armianism

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Ars Antiqua

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 posted on 10/21/2010 9:38:59 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: AnAmericanMother; Desdemona; sitetest; Tax-chick

You music expertise urges me to ask for your comments and additions!


3 posted on 10/21/2010 9:40:53 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

4 posted on 10/21/2010 9:42:02 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: Salvation

From Wikipedia:

Ars antiqua, also called ars veterum or ars vetus, refers to the music of Europe of the late Middle Ages between approximately 1170 and 1310, covering the period of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the subsequent years which saw the early development of the motet. Usually the term is restricted to sacred music, excluding the secular song of the troubadours and trouvères; however sometimes the term is used more loosely to mean all European music of the thirteenth century and slightly before. The term ars antiqua is used in opposition to ars nova, which refers to the period of musical activity between approximately 1310 and 1375.

Almost all composers of the ars antiqua are anonymous. Léonin (fl. late 12th century) and Pérotin (fl. c.1180 – c.1220) were the two composers known by name from the Notre Dame school; in the subsequent period, Petrus de Cruce, a composer of motets, is one of the few whose name has been preserved.

In music theory the ars antiqua period saw several advances over previous practice, most of them in conception and notation of rhythm.


5 posted on 10/21/2010 10:15:41 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Making the best of every virtue and vice.)
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To: Salvation
As a matter of fact, our parish music director included the Ars Antiqua composers in his survey of Western Church Music (for which I received one college credit! with which I can do nothing!)

Basically this style of music grew out of chant. Singers started by singing the chant melody in octaves (pretty inevitable when men and boys sang together), then started singing the same melody in parallel but on a fourth or fifth interval (this is sometimes called "parallel organum". Then composers invented the idea of counterpoint by taking the original chant melody and singing it v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y in one voice part (the cantus firmus, usually carried by the tenors), and singing variations (usually a completely different melody or intensely ornamented versions of the cantus firmus) on top of it.

Leading exponents of this style hung around Paris, particularly the Cathedral of Notre Dame and its choir school. Many of the compositions we have are anonymous, but the best known composers of the period are Leonin and Perotin (who always seem to be bracketed together like Abbott & Costello), Franco of Cologne, Pierre de la Croix, and a German abbess, St. Hildegard of Bingen.

Here are some examples. It sounds very weird to modern ears -- the Ars Nova that came immediately afterwards was one of the big watersheds in music history:

Leonin, O dulce lignum

Perotin, Organum 4 Vocum

Anonymous, Alleluia/Ave Maria

St. Hildegard of Bingen, "Qui Sunt Hic" from Ordo Virtutem ("The Play of Virtues", an early morality play)

6 posted on 10/21/2010 10:16:32 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Salvation

Aside from church music, it’s very difficult to find musical pieces this old. My college choir did one in Polish, and there are a few troubador songs for which melodies are guessed at.


7 posted on 10/21/2010 10:20:04 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Making the best of every virtue and vice.)
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To: All

Calvinism/Arianism

Aseity

Humanism

Murder

Luna

Meta-Ousiosis

Renunciation

I.H.S

Peace of the Church

Bilocation

Marriage Bond

Epikeia

Scapular Medal

Clandestinity

Donatism

Sign

Altar Bread

Curse

Chrismation

Religious State

Clerics of the Pontifical Chapel

Nehemiah

Age of Reason

Formal Cause

Monarchianism

Longinus

Giants

Born Again

Christians in Israel

Liturgy of the Hours

Chantry Schools

Allegorical Sense

Ruthenian Rite

Sarum Rite Gorgias
Aureole

Hospitaliers

Epistle to Titus Ars Antiqua

Links to older "Word of the Day" threads.

8 posted on 10/21/2010 12:22:39 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: JoeProBono; AnAmericanMother; Tax-chick

Thanks for the additions. I was lost as to the ancient music.


9 posted on 10/21/2010 5:45:12 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

10 posted on 10/21/2010 6:10:34 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: JoeProBono
Both those albums seem to be employing "Ars Antiqua" in its looser sense -- 'old music' being anything before the 18th century, apparently. Heinrich Biber was a 17th century composer.

The problem is, "old" keeps changing. We are anxiously awaiting the day when "On Eagles Wings" and "Here I Am Lord" become 'old music', never to be seen again ever. But I bet by 2075 somebody will be doing a centennial revival.

11 posted on 10/21/2010 7:31:46 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Tax-chick
That's 'cause the monks were the only ones with sense enough to write their stuff down. The troubadours built on the sand, in a sense. At least they wrote down the words.

We do have popular songs that found their way into church music as the underlying basis for early polyphonic masses . . . the most famous one comes from a later period, early 15th or possibly late 14th century:

L'homme armé "The armed man, the armed man should be feared. Everywhere it has been proclaimed, that each man should arm himself with a coat of iron mail."

Guillaume DuFay, one of the great composers of the 15th century, wrote a Mass based on this melody (so did about half the composers of the time, it seems - there are over 40 settings based on the tune). See if you can pick it out of the Kyrie:

DuFay: Missa l'Homme Armé: Kyrie

Johannes Ockhegem: Missa l'Homme Armé: Kyrie

The third of the great trinity of composers of the fifteenth century was Josquin des Prez - usually just known as "Josquin".

Josquin: Missa l'Homme Armé: Kyrie

Josquin also wrote one of the sweetest and saddest laments ever sung, for his master Ockhegem.

La Déploracion de Johannes Ockheghem

Translation provided in the comments below by yrs truly.

12 posted on 10/21/2010 7:52:09 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Tax-chick
A more period-correct performance of the "Déploration" - with a different and more poetic (but somewhat less accurate) translation . . .

Nymphes des bois

A perfectly period-correct performance would have a very nasal tone . . . think country Sacred Harp singing in the Appalachians . . . but as our music director says, nobody could stand it. I'll settle for no vibrato!

13 posted on 10/21/2010 7:58:28 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

I like it. Bill turned up and said, “The electric guitar kicks in at :40, right?” and then Elen arrived, “Is this all they do?” I’m reminded of Anoreth’s telling the Greek Orthodox that they needed to “update.”


14 posted on 10/22/2010 4:59:53 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Making the best of every virtue and vice.)
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To: Tax-chick
I like it too, although it's very different.

It is an absolute nightmare to sing. Intervals don't work the way we're used to, tempi are strange, harmonies don't sound "right" to our 21st century ears.

Parish choir did the Josquin "Tu pauperum refugium" awhile back. Drove us nuts. I finally found a decent performance online (but a horrible recording with cellphones and squeaks and all sorts of awful stuff in the background) here.

My husband is the backup guitarist for our "Youth Mass Combo" - he's an old rocker (and a pretty good one) who dabbles in classical guitar, and he can't stand the stuff they play. He says it's not good rock, not good pop, and not good church music either. I never go to hear him because I would point and laugh. It really is very dated 70s pop, and not the best the 70s had to offer either.

15 posted on 10/22/2010 10:34:27 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

We’ll have a capella ladies’ Spanish choir on Sunday. DP will be in Myrtle Beach, the alternate musician’s wife is having a baby shower, and the occasional substitute guitarist caught me looking at him last week and zipped out of the church before I could catch him!


16 posted on 10/22/2010 1:59:23 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Making the best of every virtue and vice.)
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