Dictionary of Music - Birding America

218 litanyLiszt’s piano compositions include his HungarianRhapsodies (probably his most famous works),three books of Années de Pélérinage (“Years of Pilgrimage”),three nocturnes called Liebestraum, twopiano concertos, Valse Impromptu, Valses Caprices,twelve Grandes Études de Paganini, the MephistoWaltz (originally for orchestra), and the terribly difficultÉtudes d’exécution transcendantes (“TranscendentalEtudes”).litany In the Roman Catholic rite, a solemn prayerto God, to the Virgin Mary, or to the saints, which issung by the priest and answered by the congregationwith Kyrie eleison (“Lord, have mercy”) or a similarresponse. One such litany, the Litaniae Lauretanae(“Litanies of Loreto”), has been set to music bynumerous composers, among them Lasso, Palestrina,Tallis, and Mozart. The Anglican Church uses alitany based on that of the Roman Catholic Churchwith an English text.liturgical drama A dramatic presentation of areligious story, usually but not always based on theBible and either wholly or partly sung, that was performedin conjunction with Roman Catholic servicesfrom the tenth to sixteenth centuries, and perhapslonger. The text was nearly always entirely inLatin, and the plays were performed by clerics in achurch, usually with one or another Office (mostoften Matins, Lauds, or Vespers) or, occasionally,before a Mass. The earliest such dramas that survive,more or less complete with music, text, andperformance directions, date from the tenth century.Most by far concern Christmas and Easter—that is,the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus—butother Bible stories were also acted out, as were themiracles of the saints. Beginning as simple dialogues,liturgical drama evolved into fairly longplays performed with costumes and scenery. In thetwelfth and thirteenth centuries the texts wereincreasingly revised into rhymed poems, and consequentlyboth text and music strayed further and furtherfrom their original liturgical roots (Gregorianchant). However, the music, like chant, remainedmonophonic, that is, a series of solo songs. Amongthe most complex works, displaying a considerablevariety of poetic forms and musical settings, is thePlay of Daniel, which also was the first such dramato be revived by modern performers (in the midtwentiethcentury). No new liturgical dramas appearto have been composed after the thirteenth century,when they were replaced by mystery and moralityplays, written in the vernacular and performed outsidethe church, but the older liturgical dramas continuedto be performed until at least the sixteenthcentury.lituus (lit′yoo — əs) pl. litui (lit′yoo — ī′′) Latin. 1 Atrumpet used by the ancient Romans, who may havetaken it over from the Etruscans. The lituus consistedof a long, slender tube of bronze with a cylindricalbore, ending in a turned-up bell. Picturesshow that it was used as a military instrument, generallyin pairs. 2 From the sixteenth to seventeenthcenturies, the name was used for the crumhorn,which resembled it in shape, and also for the cornett.3 In the eighteenth century, the name might beapplied to any brass instrument, such as a tenorhorn.liuto (lē oo — ′tô). The Italian word for LUTE.live electronic music Music played and/or createdon electronic equipment in live performance.John CAGE is generally considered the originator ofsuch music, and his Cartridge Music (1960), inwhich several performers apply phonograph cartridgesand contact microphones to various objects,the first such work. Live electronic music becameimportant in the 1960s, when groups appearedusing both conventional and electronic instruments,sometimes including synthesizers, withmeans of amplifying and otherwise altering andcreating sounds. With the improvement andincreased availability of various kinds of SYNTHE-SIZER the genre came into its own. An importantelement in live electronic music is improvisation.Although the composer usually specifies at leastsome elements of the composition, the performersrespond to one another during performance,thereby introducing new, unforeseen elements.Also, they may employ electronic equipment thatitself responds to the performance; for example,when certain pitches are sounded, a microcomputer