Dictionary of Music - Birding America

236 medleyNOTABLE MEDIEVAL MUSICIANS (continued)Musician Origin/Active in Noted forNotker Balbulus (c. 840–912) Switzerland/St. Gall Sequences.Walter Odington (fl. 1298–1316) England Treatise (Summa de Speculationemusicae).Oswald von Wolkenstein (c. 1377–1445) Austria/South TyrolOne of last minnesingers; monophonic andpolyphonic songs.Paolo Tenorista (Paolo da Firenze) Italy/Florence, Rome Two-part madrigals, two- and three-part(died c. 1419)ballate; treatise on counterpoint.Perotin (fl. c. 1200)* France/Paris Successor of Leonin; three- and four-partorgana and clausulae.Pierre de la Croix (Petrus de Cruce) France/Paris Motets; introduced freer rhythms.(fl. c. 1290)Leonel Power (c. 1370–c. 1445) England/Canterbury Paired Mass movements, cantus firmusMasses, motets.Thibaut IV, Count of Champagne France/Champagne, Navarre Outstanding trouvère; chansons in alland King of Navarre (1201–1253)forms.Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361)* France/Champagne, Paris, Helped establish mensural notation in trea-Avignontise Ars nova; introduced isorhythmicmotets.Walther von der Vogelheide Germany/Austria, Tyrol Leading minnesinger; political and moral-(c. 1170–1228)istic songs as well as love songs.William IX, Count of Poitiers, Southern France First known troubadour.Duke of Aquitaine (1071–1127)Wolfram von Eschenbach Germany/Bavaria Famous minnesinger.(fl. 1160–c. 1220)* See separate article on this composer for more information.medley A group of familiar tunes played one afteranother, loosely linked together. Medleys generallyare associated with popular music, as in a medley of“show tunes” assembled from various musicalcomedies. The overtures of numerous nineteenthcenturyoperas are actually medleys, consisting of agroup of arias and other pieces from the opera that isto follow, but arranged for instruments. Nearly all ofthe Gilbert and Sullivan operettas open with such amedley overture, which was popular also with suchFrench opera composers as Daniel François EspritAuber (1782–1871) and François Adrien Boïeldieu(1755–1834). See also PASTICCIO.mehr (mer) German: “more.” A word used insuch musical terms as mehr betont (“moreaccented”), or mehr bewegt (“more lively”).Meistersinger (mī′stər zing ′′ər) German:“master singer.” A master of one of the Germanguilds of poets and musicians that flourished inmost major German towns from about 1450 to1600. The Meistersinger were mostly middle-classtradespeople, and they strove to continue the greattradition of the MINNESINGERS, the aristocraticmusicians of the late Middle Ages. To this end theMeistersinger organized schools, set up a series oftests and contests, and divided their members intodifferent classes according to ability, the highestrank being Meister, or “master.” The Meistersingerwrote both the words and music of their songs, generallyin the same BAR FORM that had been used bythe minnesingers. The music was monophonic (hadonly one voice-part) and in fairly free rhythm thattended to follow the rhythm of the words. Melismas