Brandon Bedore

Listening Journals
For my first listening journal, I chose the Gloria from the Mass for Christmas Day. This
is a monophonic chant set in the sacred Latin. Chants were used to put the scared text of a mass
to highlight these special moments. It is a Gregorian chant, which is falsely based on Pope
Gregory who is accredited with their usage. The piece starts with a single voice singing a line
and then the rest of the congregation joins in. This was not actually sung by the lay people
because they were not allowed to participate at this point; it was just the monks and priests. It is
nuematic as most of the syllables have four to five notes per but there are instances of a
mellismatic feel near the end of a phrase. It is unaccompanied because at this time pagan music
featured instruments so to distance themselves from that practice, the church had all of the chants
sung without accompaniment.
This week I listened to the De ma dame vient/ Dieus, comment porrie/Omnes motet by
Adam de la Halle. A motet is described as a piece with two or more independent voices set in the
vernacular and Latin. The top two voices, also known as the Triplum and Motetus respectively,
are set in the vernacular, which in this case is French, and the tenor is in the traditional Latin
chant. Each voices have a different song, which makes understanding the text next to impossible.
The piece also features lines taken from popular literature that the people of the time would
recognize. The piece is syllabic in the top two voices with instances of nuematic rhythm and the
tenor is living up to its name by holding long notes. It does not feature many moments when the
voices are singing together but the piece is polyphonic nonetheless. The tenor is by far the part
that stands out the most due to the volume and uncomplicated lyrics. This probably served the
piece well because the chant would be the line everyone would know from masses.

The next piece I chose was the Agnus Dei from the Pope Marcellus Mass written by
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina the alleged savior of polyphony. Therefore, the piece is
obviously polyphonic. On top of this, it also has an isorhytmic feel because the voices move
together rather than all at once in independent lines like in a motet. It has a very sacred feeling to
it, as it is a part of the mass, but more so because it is purely sacred text and it lacks the secular
feel that the previous motet I wrote about had. This piece was also written during the Ars Nova,
which, placed and emphasis on textual clarity and faith in humanity. This is shown by the voices
all singing the same text and staying for the most part together rhythmically. The piece also
featured more voices than previous pieces and the tenor is no longer the lowest voice. This piece
begins to follow the rules of counterpoint where the feel of cadences start to arise and
dissonances are prepared for to keep within a loosely established key or tonal center.
The final piece I listened to was the Cruda Amarilli by Monteverdi. We discussed this
piece in class that broke the rules of counterpoint with the unresolved dissonance on the word
Cruda. This sparked the rise of the Seconda Practicum where counterpoint could be broken in
service of the text whereas previously it was the other way around. This is also an instance of
text painting because the harsh dissonance on the word Cruda helps the listener better
understand the feeling and tone of that word. The notes also descend when the singers say the
Latin word for descend. The piece was written during the Humanism movement so it is
polyphonic and isorythmic in order to maintain text clarity. There are vocal groupings between
the voices and each group has instances of imitation from the previous group. This continues
until the end when they all unite when they are praising. The piece features six voices which is
also a development from the more four voiced setting of the past.