Three musical elements that stood out to me while listening to these examples were melody, harmony, and texture. Melody is known as a unit of pitches sounded in succession (one after another). Harmony is the sounding of two or more pitches at the same time. Texture refers to how different musical parts fit together. The two listening examples that stood out to me were, Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Missa cum Jubilo: Kyrie by Anonymous.
Once I listened to, Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass by Giovanni, the first element I thought of was the harmony between the high pitched voices accompanied by the lower-pitched voices in the background. While closely listening to the voices that correlate with each other we get a sense of a type of consonant, which includes men and women singing. Consonant refers to the pleasing sound of two or more pitches. Giovanni uses a single melody accompanied by the range of pitches used at the same time. The melody provides a scale that forms the basis of melody gaps between pitches known as the major (bright) and minor (dark). Finding the texture in this piece wasn’t easy. After closely listening, I came to the conclusion that it must be a polyphony because of the different lines being sung simultaneously. This musical piece is sung in a church and if we listen closely we are able to hear the echo of the voices within the church.
Listening to the second musical piece, Missa cum Jubilo: Kyrie by Anonymous is also a song that would be sung at a church. The composer of this piece includes men with low pitched voices harmonizing together the type of melody they are providing. The range of the pitches throughout most of the song repeats and it includes conjunct and disjunct distances. This piece gives off mysterious and dark feelings. The harmony between these voices is very dissonant. Its texture is a type of monophony because it involves men singing the same type of musical line over and over again.
I also listened to the two pieces (Kyrie) and thought(in my opinion) rather than “mysterious and dark” it had more of the feeling you get when you walk into a church, a deep feeling yes, but light not dark. We both liked the songs however, concluding it’s a consonant. I liked how you noticed the echo of the voices in the song.
I liked how you mentioned that the first thing you noticed when listening to Kyrie was the harmony between the high and lower background pitches, as that stood out to me as well, and I believe to be the most prevalent part of the piece. I also found it really interesting how you referred to the echo of the voices that you hear within the church. I personally did not hear that the first time, but went back to re-listen after reading your blog and was able to pick up on it!