CANON. A term describing a kind of imitation in polyphonic music. In informal usage, canon or canonic imitation refers to the most common situation, the exact duplication of a leading voice by a follower at a given time interval, e. g., a round like Frere Jacques. In more formal usage, canon is a rule whereby one or more unnotated following voices are derived from a notated voice, e. g., Fuga in diapente (derived voice proceeds at the interval of a fifth below the given voice); or in the 15th century often in playful terms, e. g., Vous jeunerez les quatre temps (derived voice rests four breve measures before following); or Cancer eat plenus sed redeat medius (derived voice performs the given voice in retrograde motion, then returns from the end back to the beginning in halved rhythmic values).
COUNTERPOINT. Polyphony; the term derives from punctus contra punctum, note against note, by extension melody against melody.
IMITATION. “Imitation” or “melodic imitation” is a technique of polyphonic music involving successive, overlapping statements of a melodic contour by two or more voices.
LIGATURE. A symbol of musical notation encompassing several notes, all sung to the same syllable. The interpretation of rhythmic values in the rhythmic modes depends on certain regularly recurring patterns of ligatures.
MELISMA. In music, a style of text setting that involves singing several pitches to a single syllable. Melismatic text setting is the opposite of syllabic text setting.
MODE. In medieval music theory, “mode” refers according to context either to the church modes or to the rhythmic modes. The medieval church modes can be epitomized as a series of eight scales, two for each of the four final pitches D, E, F, and G, one (authentic) extending above the final, the other (plagal) centered on the final. Some medieval theorists discuss modes in terms of species of the fourth, fifth, or octave, i. e., the particular pattern of tones and semitones that fill those intervals.
MONOCHORD. A simple musical instrument for the examination of musical intervals and tuning, constructed of a single string stretched between two points with a movable bridge.
MONODY. Monophonic vocal music, either plainchant or secular monophony.
MONOPHONY. Music composed of a single line or melody; monophonic music.
PLAINCHANT; PLAINSONG. The monophonic melodies of the church; Gregorian chant.
POLYPHONY. Music composed of several simultaneously sounding lines; polyphonic music.
PROPORTION. A property of musical rhythm exploiting fractional relationships of durations within a voice or between voices. Proportional rhythmic relationships are particularly important in 15th-century music.
SOLFEGE; SOLMIZATION. A teaching tool attributed to Guido d’Arezzo (early 11th c.). Overlapping scales of six notes, which were named after the initial syllables of the first six lines of the hymn Ut queant laxis/Resonare fibris (Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La), helped beginners learn to sing. The note names of this system were used in the West throughout the Middle Ages and beyond.
TETRACHORD. In medieval music theory, a scale segment of four notes. The three possible patterns of tones and semitones within a tetrachord (T-S-T; S-T-T; T-T-S) were significant in some descriptions of the church modes.
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