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Vespers (Monteverdi)
''Vespro della Beata Vergine'' (''Vespers for the Blessed Virgin''), SV 206, is a musical setting by Claudio Monteverdi of the evening vespers on Marian feasts, scored for soloists, choirs, and orchestra. It is an ambitious work in scope and in its variety of style and scoring, and has a duration of around 90 minutes. Published in Venice (with a dedication to Pope Paul V dated 1 September 1610) as ("Mass for the Most Holy Virgin for six voices, and Vespers for several voices with some sacred songs, suitable for chapels and ducal chambers"), it is sometimes called Monteverdi's ''Vespers of 1610''. Monteverdi composed the music while musician and composer for the Gonzagas, the dukes of Mantua. The libretto is compiled from several Latin Biblical and liturgical texts. The thirteen movements include the introductory ''Deus in adiutorium'', five Psalms, four ''concertato'' motets and a vocal sonata on the " Sancta Maria" litany, several differently scored stanzas of the hymn "Ave ...
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Vespers
Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern), Lutheranism, Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer times, fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , meaning "evening". Vespers typically follows a set order that focuses on the performance of psalms and other biblical canticles. Eastern Orthodox services advertised as 'vespers' often conclude with compline, especially the all-night vigil. Performing these services together without break was also a common practice in medieval Europe, especially secular churches and cathedrals. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became evensong in modern English. The term is now usually applied to the Anglican variant of the service that combines vespers with compline, following the conception of early sixteenth-century worshippers that conce ...
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Deus In Adiutorium
"Deus, in adiutorium meum intende", with the response "Domine, ad adiuvandum me festina" (respectively, "O God, come to my assistance" and "O , make haste to help me") are the first verse of Psalm 70 (Psalm 69 in the Vulgate): "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; Make haste to help me, O ."; '' ’Ĕlōhîm lə-haṣṣîlênî YHWH lə-‘ezrāṯî ḥūšāh''. In this form they are a traditional Latin Christian prayer. These words form the introductory prayer to every Hour of the Roman, Ambrosian, and monastic Breviaries, except during the last three days of Holy Week, and in the Office of the Dead. While these are recited or sung, all present bless themselves with the sign of the cross. Tradition says that Benedict of Nursia introduced this custom into the monastic Office, heavily influenced by the writings of Saint John Cassian. Saint Gregory the Great extended it to all the Roman churches. Saint John Cassian (Coll., X, 10) wrote that from the earliest Christian times the m ...
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Cornett
The cornett, cornetto, or zink is an early wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to be confused with the modern cornet. The sound of the cornett is produced by lip vibrations against a cup mouthpiece, similar to modern brass instruments. A cornett consists of a conical wooden pipe covered in leather, is about long, and has finger holes and a small horn, ivory, or bone mouthpiece. The range is from A3 to A5, however the bottom note can be lipped as far as G3 and a good player can get up to E6. Construction The ordinary treble cornett is made by splitting a length of wood and gouging out the two halves to make the gently conical, curved bore. The halves are then glued together, and the outside planed to an octagonal cross section, the whole being bound in thin black leather. Six front finger holes and a thumb hole on the back (like on ...
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Cantus Firmus
In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect treatment of ''cantus'' as a second- rather than a fourth-declension noun) can also be found. The Italian is often used instead: (and the plural in Italian is ). History The term first appears in theoretical writings early in the 13th century (e.g., Boncampagno da Signa, ''Rhetorica novissima'', 1235). The earliest polyphonic compositions almost always involved a cantus firmus, typically a Gregorian chant, although by convention the term is not applied to music written before the 14th century. The earliest surviving polyphonic compositions, in the ''Musica enchiriadis'' (around 900 AD), contain the chant in the top voice, and the newly composed part underneath; however, this usage changed around 1100, after which the cantus firmus typicall ...
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Prima Pratica
''Stile antico'' (literally "ancient style", ), is a term describing a manner of musical composition from the sixteenth century onwards that was historically conscious, as opposed to '' stile moderno'', which adhered to more modern trends. ''Prima pratica'' (Italian, 'first practice') refers to early Baroque music which looks more to the style of Palestrina, or the style codified by Gioseffo Zarlino, than to more "modern" styles. It is contrasted with ''seconda pratica'' music. These terms are synonymous to ''stile antico'' and ''stile moderno'', respectively. History ''Stile antico'' has been associated with composers of the high Baroque and early Classical periods of music, in which composers used controlled dissonance and modal effects and avoided overtly instrumental textures and lavish ornamentation, to imitate the compositional style of the late Renaissance. ''Stile antico'' was deemed appropriate in the conservative confines of church music, or as a compositional exerci ...
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Origins Of Opera
The art form known as ''opera'' originated in Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though it drew upon older traditions of medieval and Renaissance courtly entertainment. The word ''opera'', meaning "work" in Italian, was first used in the modern musical and theatrical sense in 1639 and soon spread to the other European languages. The earliest operas were modest productions compared to other Renaissance forms of sung drama, but they soon became more lavish and took on the spectacular stagings of the earlier genre known as intermedio. ''Dafne'' by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today, although with only five instrumental parts it was much more like a chamber opera than either the preceding intermedi or the operas of Claudio Monteverdi a few years later. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the " Camerata". Significantly, ''Dafne'' was an ...
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Seconda Pratica
Seconda pratica, Italian for "second practice", is the counterpart to prima pratica and is sometimes referred to as Stile moderno. The term "Seconda pratica" first appeared in 1603 in Giovanni Artusi's book ''Seconda Parte dell'Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica'' (''The Second Part of The Artusi, or, Imperfections of Modern Music''), where it is attributed to a certain L'Ottuso Accademico. In the first part of ''The Artusi'' (1600), Artusi had severely criticized several unpublished madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi. In the second part of this work, L'Ottuso Accademico, whose identity is unknown, defends Monteverdi and others "who have embraced this new second practice". Monteverdi adopted the term to distance some of his music from that of e.g. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Gioseffo Zarlino and to describe early music of the Baroque period which encouraged more freedom from the rigorous limitations of dissonances and counterpoint characteristic of the prima ...
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Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of the Old Roman chant and Gallican chant. Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, and finally 12 modes. Typical melodic features include a characteristic ambitus, and also characteristic intervallic patterns relative to a referential mode final, incipits and cadences, the use of reciting tones at a particular distance from the final, around which the other notes of the melody revolve, and a vocabulary of musical motifs woven together through a process called centonization to create families of related ch ...
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Antiphons
An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently in Ambrosian chant, but they are used widely in Gregorian chant as well. They may be used during Mass, for the Introit, the Offertory or the Communion. They may also be used in the Liturgy of the Hours, typically for Lauds or Vespers. They should not be confused with Marian antiphons or processional antiphons. When a chant consists of alternating verses (usually sung by a cantor) and responds (usually sung by the congregation), a refrain is needed. The looser term antiphony is generally used for any call and response style of singing, such as the kirtan or the sea shanty and other work songs, and songs and worship in African and African-American culture. Antiphonal music is that performed by two choirs in interaction, often si ...
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Ave Maris Stella
"Ave maris stella" (Latin for 'Hail, star of the sea') is a medieval Marian hymn, usually sung at Vespers. It was especially popular in the Middle Ages and has been used by many composers as the basis of other compositions. Background Authorship of the original hymn has been attributed to several people, including Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century), Saint Venantius Fortunatus (6th century) and Hermannus Contractus (11th century). Probably originating in the 9th century, it appears as a 10th century addition in two 9th-century manuscripts, one from Salzburg now in Vienna and the other still at the Abbey of Saint Gall. Its frequent occurrence in the Divine Office made it popular in the Middle Ages, many other hymns being founded upon it. The "Ave maris stella" was highly influential in presenting Mary as a merciful and loving Mother. "Much of its charm is due to its simplicity". The title " Star of the Sea" is one of the oldest and most widespread titles applied to Mary. The hymn ...
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Stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and Metre (poetry), metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. There are many different : Stanzaic form, forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains. Other forms are more complex, such as the Spenserian stanza. Fixed verse, Fixed verse poems, such as sestinas, can be defined by the number and form of their stanzas. The stanza has also been known by terms such as ''batch'', ''fit'', and ''stave''. The term ''stanza'' has a similar meaning to ''strophe'', though ''strophe'' sometimes refers to an irregular set of lines, as opposed to regular, rhymed stanzas. Even though the term "stanza" is taken from Italian, in the Italian language the word "strofa" is more commonly used. In music, groups of ...
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Litany Of Loreto
The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Marian litany originally approved in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V. It is also known as the Litany of Loreto (Latin: ''Litaniæ lauretanæ''), after its first-known place of origin, the Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto (Italy), where its usage was recorded as early as 1558. The litany contains many of the titles used formally and informally for the Virgin Mary, and would often be recited as a call and response chant in a group setting. The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary has also been set to music by composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who composed two settings), Jan Dismas Zelenka, Joseph Auer, and Johannes Habert. A partial indulgence is granted to those who recite this litany. Background According to ''Directory on Popular Piety'': Litanies are to be found among the prayers to the Blessed Virgin recommended by the Magisterium. These consist in a long series of invocations of ...
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