Meane
Meane (sometimes spelled mean) is a vocal music term used by English composers of polyphonic choral music during the English pre-Reformation and Reformation eras. At this time choral music written for the Church of England was often voiced in 5 parts, with MAATB (Meane, Alto, Alto, Tenor, Bass) or TrMATB (Treble, Meane, Alto, Tenor, Bass) being frequent voicings utilized by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and their contemporaries. The meane part was typically sung by boys whose voices were not as high as a treble or boy soprano but were not as low as a countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a .... Occasionally the meane line would be sung by a combination of treble and countertenor voices. References Voice types Pitch (music) Musical terminology Choral music V ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Treble Voice
A treble voice is a voice which takes the treble part. In the absence of a separate descant part, this is normally the highest- pitched part, and otherwise the second highest. The term is most often used today within the context of choral music in reference to youthful singers. The American Choral Directors Association defines a treble as "a singer, both male and female, ages eight to sixteen". While the term treble is gender neutral, the term is widely used in place of the term boy soprano within the United Kingdom. The term became widely used by English composers of polyphonic choral music during the English pre-Reformation and Reformation eras. At this time choral music written for the Church of England was often voiced in five parts with TrMATB (Treble, Meane, Alto, Tenor, Bass) being one of the most common voicings utilized by Thomas Tallis and his contemporaries. In the Baroque era the term treble was used differently than it is today. The term was used in operas, cantata ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vocal Music
Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered to be instrumental music (e.g. the wordless women's choir in the final movement of Holst's symphonic work '' The Planets'') as is music without singing. Music without any non-vocal instrumental accompaniment is referred to as ''a cappella''. Vocal music typically features sung words called lyrics, although there are notable examples of vocal music that are performed using non-linguistic syllables, sounds, or noises, sometimes as musical onomatopoeia, such as jazz scat singing. A short piece of vocal music with lyrics is broadly termed a song, although in different styles of music, it may be called an aria or hymn. Vocal music often has a sequence of sustained pitches that rise an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Church Of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, tradition, with foundational doctrines being contained in the ''Thirty-nine Articles'' and ''The Books of Homilies''. The Church traces its history to the Christian hierarchy recorded as existing in the Roman Britain, Roman province of Britain by the 3rd century and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kingdom of Kent, Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. Its members are called ''Anglicans''. In 1534, the Church of England renounced the authority of the Papacy under the direction of Henry VIII, beginning the English Reformation. The guiding theologian that shaped Anglican doctrine was the Reformer Thomas Cranmer, who developed the Church of England's liturgical text, the ''Book of Common Prayer''. Papal authority was Second Statute of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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William Byrd
William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He is often considered along with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as one of England's most important composers of early music. Byrd wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and Consort of instruments, consort music. He produced sacred music for Church of England, Anglican services, but during the 1570s became a Roman Catholic, and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life. Life Birth and background Richard Byrd of Ingatestone, Essex, the paternal grandfather of Thomas Byrd, probably moved to City of London, London in the 15th century. Thereafter succeeding generations of the Byrd family are described as gentlemen. Wil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis (; also Tallys or Talles; 23 November 1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one of England's greatest composers, and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. Life Youth As no records about the birth, family or childhood of Thomas Tallis exist, almost nothing is known about his early life or origins. Historians have calculated that he was born in the early part of the 16th century, towards the end of the reign of Henry VII of England, and estimates for the year of his birth range from 1500 to 1520. His only known relative was a cousin called John Sayer. As the surnames ''Sayer'' and ''Tallis'' both have strong connections with Kent, Thomas Tallis is usually thought to have been born somewhere in the county. [Baidu]   |
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Boy Soprano
A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with a voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America too) no matter how old. Origins In the Anglican and English Catholic liturgical traditions (in which girls and women did not sing in church choirs), young male choristers were normally referred to as "trebles" rather than as boy sopranos, but today the term "boy trebles" is increasingly common (girls with high voices are trebles too). The term "treble" derives from the Latin ', used in 13th and 14th century motets to indicate the third and highest range, which was sung above the tenor part (which carried the tune) and the alto part. Another term for that range is '. The term "treble" itself was first used in the 15th century. Trebles have an average range of A3 to F5 (220–700 Hz). The term ''boy soprano'' originated with Henry Stephen C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Countertenor
A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a specific kind of countertenor) may match the soprano's range of around C4 to C6.A sopranist is a term, widely used falsely, used to describe a countertenor whose vocal range is so high it is equivalent to that of a soprano. Countertenors often have tenor or baritone chest voices, but sing in falsetto or head voice much more often than they do in their chest voice. The nature of the countertenor voice has radically changed throughout musical history, from a modal voice, to a modal and falsetto voice, to the primarily falsetto voice that is denoted by the term today. This is partly because of changes in human physiology ( increase in body height) and partly because of fluctuations in pitch. The term first came into use in England during ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Voice Types
A voice type is a classification of the human singing voice into perceivable categories or groups. Particular human singing voices are identified as having certain qualities or characteristics of vocal range, vocal weight, tessitura, vocal timbre, and vocal transition points ('' passaggio''), such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal register. A singer's voice type is identified by a process known as voice classification, by which the human voice is evaluated and thereby designated into a particular voice type. The discipline of voice classification developed within European classical music and is not generally applicable to other forms of singing. Voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. Several different voice classification systems are available to identify voice types, including the German '' Fach'' system and the choral mus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pitch (music)
Pitch is a perception, perceptual property that allows sounds to be ordered on a frequency-related scale (music), scale, or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melody, melodies. Pitch is a major auditory system, auditory attribute of musical tones, along with duration (music), duration, loudness, and timbre. Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property; it is a subjective Psychoacoustics, psychoacoustical attribute of sound. Historically, the study of pitch and pitch perception has been a central problem in psychoacoustics, and has been instrumental in forming and testing theories of sound representation, processing, and perception in the auditory system. Perception Pitch and frequency Pitch is an auditory sensation in which a listener assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on their percep ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Musical Terminology
A variety of musical terms is encountered in Sheet music, printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms Italian musical terms used in English, are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from the original or current Italian meanings. Most of the other terms are taken from French language, French and German language, German, indicated by ''Fr.'' and ''Ger.'', respectively. Unless specified, the terms are Italian or English. The list can never be complete: some terms are common, and others are used only occasionally, and new ones are coined from time to time. Some composers prefer terms from their own language rather than the standard terms listed here. 0–9 ; 1 : "sifflet" or one foot organ stop ; I : usually for Violin family, orchestral string instruments, used to indicate that the player should play the passage on the highest-pitched, thinnest ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Choral Music
A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words is the music performed by the ensemble. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures. The term ''choir'' is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the quire), whereas a ''chorus'' performs in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is not rigid. Choirs may sing without instruments, or accompanied by a piano, accordion, pipe organ, a small ensemble, or an orchestra. A choir can be a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks of the "woodwind choir" of an orchestra, or different "choirs" o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |