Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Music Terminology

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XXX
Jacopo Peri 1561-1633
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Jacopo Peri (1561-1633): Birth of the Opera
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The music you are listening to is "Se In Questo Scolorito" by Giulio Romolo Caccini. Caccini's music is second to Peri's music (modeled by Claudio Monteverdi) as "Seconda prattica". This music was considered to be the beginning of modern opera, as now poetry could be set to music with a new, Humanist theory of rhetoric tacens, and not the old, inflexible, strictly hierarchical Scholastic view of reality.

Some music terminology defined: 1
  1. accent marks : Click for explanation
  2. agogic : An accent of emphasis gained by increasing duration of a note, thus slowing tempo.
  3. anabasis (also, see catabasis) : a gradual ascent in emphasis
  4. anti-accent marks : Click for explanation
  5. ballata : melodic song forms,
    1. French: aab
    2. German bar: aab
    3. Italian ballata: AbbaA
    4. rondeau: ABaAaBAB
    5. verelai: AbbaA
  6. barzellatta : scansion ("^" for stressed syllable, "/" for unstressed syllable):
    Trochee foot: /^
    trochaic octameter: {/^}8 = /^ /^ /^ /^ /^ /^ /^ /^
  7. caesura : a pause that typically takes place half way through a hendecasyllabic line.
  8. cantus : Click for explanation
    cantus firmis
    cantus durus
    cantus mollis
    cantus naturalis
  9. catabasis (also, see anabasis) : a gradual descent in emphasis
  10. chiavette : Click for explanation
  11. dialephic : each vowel is pronounced separately
  12. frottola : secular song. 4-voice polyphony or one singer, 3 instrument voices. Preceeded madrigal
    (aristocratic: Gonzagga, Ferrara, Urbino courts). Included strambotto, oda, barzelletta
  13. hemistich : Breaking lines of poetry into halves
  14. hendecasyllable (endecasillabo) : 11 syllables (Italian poetry is of this form, ie: Dante, Petrarca, Aristo, Tasso) 2
  15. homophony : Click for explanation
  16. melisma : Click for explanation
  17. pathopoeia : Pathos, figures of speech that move by use of emotions
  18. peripateia : Reversal of circumstances (turning point)
  19. polyphony : Click for explanation
  20. psilometria : poetry meant to be recited, not sung (recititivo, not aria)
  21. ritornello : A...A (example: AbcdefA, start is repeated at the end - true for ALL palindromes)
  22. rubato : The expressive (affetuoso) freedom gained by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of tempo (at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor)
  23. strambotti : verse form composed of a single stanza of 6 or 8 hendecasyllable lines. Variations as follows,
    1. Sicilian octave: ab ab ab ab
    2. Ottava rima: ab ab ab cc
    3. Rispetto: ab ab cc dd
    4. terza rima: aba bcb cdc ded ... (chained tercets)
    5. sonnets:
      abba abba (palindromic, with subpalindromes)
      cde cde
      cdc cdc (palindromic, with subpalindromes)
      cdc dcd (subpalindromes)
  24. synaleptic : In Latin, vowel condensation. Let vα represent vowel α, then when vowels are adjacent, end of word ω1v1, start of word v2ω2, then the vowels are condensed: ω1v1 • v2ω2 = ω1vαω2

Rhetorical Figures used in Music 3

abruptio Breaking off.
anabasis An ascent in scale.
anadiplosis Repitition of a ending clause pattern at the beginning of another clause.
anaphora Repitition of a group of notes at the beginning of successive clauses.
anastrophe Inversion of the usual order of notes.
anticlimax Arrangement of groups of notes in decreasing order of intensity.
anthiteton Juxtaposition of opposite meanings (counterpoint, rhythm, harmony).
antithesis Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas.
aposiopesis A pause (breakin off) in musical speech of affect (emotion).
apposition The placing of two elemets side by side, such that the second element defines the first element.
cacophony Juxtaposition of notes that produces a harsh sound (durezze).
catabasis A descending scale.
chiasmus Order of notes in one phrase, is repeated in another phrase, but inverted in the other phrase.
circumlocution "Playing around" a theme by subsituting or adding notes.
climax Arrangement of notes in increasing order of intensity.
commoratio Repitition of an idea.
ellipsis Omission of a cadence.
epanalepsis Repitition of the initial notes of a phrase at the end of the phrase (partially palindromic: a ... a').
epistrophe Repitition of the same group of notes at the end of successive phrases. See "anaphora".
euphony A pleasant sounding exclamation (affective), using a note which is a third or a fourth below.
irony Music that has a meaning (textual) that is opposite to the affect of the music.
isocolon Parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses.
hypotyposis A lively description of an action, event, person or an emotion.
onomatopoeia Notes that imitate a real sound (birds, chirps, rippling water, rustling leaves, etc.)
parallelism Use of similar structures in two or more clauses.
paraprosdokian An unexpected ending or truncation of a clause. For example, a "
paronomasia In music, the repitition of a musical idea with the same notes, but with a few alterations (melodic, dynamic, rhythmic).
parrhesia In music, "durezze" (dissonances).
passus duriusculus "Strange" or unusual intervals or chords, such as a seventh, an augmented second, fourth, or fifth.
polyptoton Repitition of notes or musical patterns from the same theme in a different context.
symploce Simultaneous use of anphora and epistrophe. "a .... b", in successive phrases as "a .... b".
suspension Delayed resolution.
suspiratio A phrase that imitates an affective "sigh".
tmesis Two contiguous phrases separated by a pause (may function as a "suspiratio").
1 Abramov-van Rijk, Elena; "Parlar cantando: The practice of reciting verses in Italy from 1300 to 1600", Peter Lang, New York, 2009
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2 Unfortunately, hendecasyllabic (Italian) poetry doesn't divide nicely into halves. Hendecasyllabic poetry is often viewed as follows:
  1. Minor hendecasyllabic: quinario (5 syllables) + settenario (6 syllables)
  2. Major hendecasyllabic: settenario (6 syllables) + quinario (5 syllables)
Latin often places stress on the penultimate syllable, thus in hendecasyllabic poetry: / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /     Stress on the penultimate syllable is shown here in red.
Thus Dante uses hendecasyllabic lines in each line, stanzas in Terza rima as: aba bcb cdc ded efe etc., each three lines with palindromic symmetry, each triplet chained to the next triplet. This meter that works in poetry, works in music and dance.
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3 Laurin, Anna Paradiso; "Classical Rhetoric in Baroque Music", Konstnärlig Masterexamen, Institution för klassisk musik" (KMH), pp. XXXV-XXXVII

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