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An Wasserflüssen Babylon (Reincken)
''An Wasserflüssen Babylon'' is a chorale fantasia for organ by Johann Adam Reincken, based on " An Wasserflüssen Babylon", a 16th-century Lutheran hymn by Wolfgang Dachstein. Reincken likely composed the fantasia in 1663, partly as a tribute to Heinrich Scheidemann, his tutor and predecessor as organist at St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg. With its 327 bars, it is the most extended repertoire piece of this kind. Reincken's setting is a significant representative of the north German style of organ music. History The text of Wolfgang Dachstein's " An Wasserflüssen Babylon" (By the Rivers of Babylon) is a paraphrase of Psalm 137 (), Jews lamenting their Babylonian captivity. Its hymn tune is in bar form: : The hymn was published in 1525, and was adopted in several major German hymnals by 1740. Heinrich Scheidemann can be considered the inventor of the chorale fantasia for organ, and, based on over fifteen attributable compositions, the most prolific contributor to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantasia (music)
A fantasia (; also English: ''fantasy'', ''fancy'', ''fantazy'', ''phantasy'', , ''Phantasie'', ) is a musical composition with roots in improvisation. The fantasia, like the impromptu, seldom follows the textbook rules of any strict musical form. History The term was first applied to music during the 16th century, at first to refer to the imaginative musical "''idea''" rather than to a particular compositional genre. Its earliest use as a title was in German keyboard manuscripts from before 1520, and by 1536 is found in printed tablatures from Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. From the outset, the fantasia had the sense of "the play of imaginative invention", particularly in lute or vihuela composers such as Francesco Canova da Milano and Luis de Milán. Its form and style consequently ranges from the freely improvisatory to the strictly contrapuntal, and also encompasses more or less standard sectional forms. One of the most important composers in the development of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the English musicologist Margaret Bent, "a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond.Margaret Bent,The Late-Medieval Motet in ''Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music'', edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows, 114–19 (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1992): 114. . The late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheo believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts". Etymology In the early 20th century, it was ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterpoint
In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ''punctus contra punctum'' meaning "point against point", i.e. "note against note". John Rahn describes counterpoint as follows: Counterpoint has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradition, strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, especially in the Baroque period. In Western pedagogy, counterpoint is taught through a system of species (see below). There are several different forms of counterpoint, including imitative counterpoint and free counterpoint. Imitative counterpoint involves the repetition of a main melodic idea across different vocal parts, with or without variation. Compositions written in free counterpoint often incorporate non-traditional harmonies and c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stollen (music)
Bar form (German: ''die Barform'' or ''der Bar'') is a musical form of the pattern AAB. Original use The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to refer to their songs and the songs of the predecessors, the minnesingers of the 12th to 14th century. In their work, a ''Bar'' is not a single stanza (which they called a ''Liet'' or ''Gesätz''); rather, it is the whole song. The word ''Bar'' is most likely a shortening of ''Barat'', denoting a skillful thrust in fencing. The term was used to refer to a particularly artful song – the type one composes in songwriters' guilds. The AAB pattern does, however, describe each stanza in a Meistersinger's ''Bar'', which is divided into two ''Stollen'' (A), which are collectively termed the ''Aufgesang'', followed by an ''Abgesang''. The musical form thus contains two repetitions of one melody (''Stollen'' – 'stanzas') followed by a different melody (''Abgesang'' – 'aft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fugue
In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). ) is a Counterpoint, contrapuntal, Polyphony, polyphonic Musical composition, compositional technique in two or more voice (music), voices, built on a Subject (music), subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (music), imitation (repetition at different pitches), which recurs frequently throughout the course of the composition. It is not to be confused with a ''fuguing tune'', which is a style of song popularized by and mostly limited to Music history of the United States, early American (i.e. shape note or "Sacred Harp") music and West gallery music, West Gallery music. A fugue usually has three main sections: an exposition (music), exposition, a development (music), development, and a final ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 typically ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alternatim
Alternatim refers to a technique of liturgical musical performance, especially in relationship to the Organ Mass, but also to the Hymns, Magnificat and ''Salve regina'' traditionally incorporated into the Vespers and other liturgies of the Catholic Church. A specific part of the Ordinary (liturgy), ordinary of the Mass (such as the Kyrie and the Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria) would be divided into ''versets''. Each verset would be performed antiphonally by two groups of singers, giving rise to polyphonic settings of half of the text. One of these groups may alternatively have consisted of a soloist, a group of instruments, or pipe organ, organ. The missing even- or odd-numbered verses were supplied by plainchant or, perhaps more commonly (to judge by the organ masses of Hans Buchner), by improvisations on the organ.. See also Arnaldo Morelli,The role of the organ in the performance practices of Italian sacred polyphony during the Cinquecento, ''American Institute of Musicology#Music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chorale Prelude
In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for pipe organ, organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque music, Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 (with a 47th unfinished work, unfinished) examples of the form in his Orgelbüchlein, along with multiple other works of the type in List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach#Chorale Preludes, other collections. Function The precise liturgical function of a chorale Prelude (music), prelude in the Baroque period is uncertain and is a subject of debate. One possibility is that they were used to introduce the hymn about to be sung by the congregation, usually in a Protestant, and originally in a Lutheran, church. This assumption may be valid for the shorter chorale preludes (Bach's setting of 'Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, for example), but many chorale preludes are very lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chorale Setting
Chorale settings refer to a wide variety of musical compositions, almost entirely of Protestant origin, which use a chorale as their basis. A chorale is a simple melody, often based on Gregorian chant, written for congregations to sing hymns. Chorale settings can be vocal, instrumental, or both. Although the bulk of them are German in origin, and predominantly baroque in style, chorale settings span many countries and musical periods. At their simplest and most common, chorale settings are plain chordal harmonisations with little or no localised ornamentation—typically one chord for each note of the chorale, although quicker passing and neighbour notes are almost never harmonised with a separate chord. The Protestant Reformation resulted in a significant change in musical practice in northern Europe. Plainchant, associated with the Catholic Church, was largely replaced with choral music sung in the vernacular language—usually German—and the corresponding musical forms fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stylus Fantasticus
The stylus fantasticus (or stylus phantasticus) is a style of early baroque music, especially for the instrumental music. Description and history The root of this music is organ toccatas and fantasias, particularly derived from those of Claudio Merulo (1533–1604), organist at St Mark's Basilica in Venice. A later practitioner in Rome was Girolamo Frescobaldi, and his German student Froberger took the style north with him. There were constant flows of Italian musicians north to Bavaria and Saxony, of German musicians south to Italy (such as Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Schütz), and of musicians who had careers in both Austria and Italy (such as Sances and Turini). The author, scientist and inventor, a true baroque polymath, Athanasius Kircher describes the stylus fantasticus in his book, ''Musurgia Universalis'': :"The fantastic style is especially suited to instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, neither to any words n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
