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Designation attached to a three-voice Gloria in manuscript F-APT 16bis; the piece is also transmitted in I-IV 115. The Apt manuscript is now thought to contain music from the court of the antipopes at Avignon in the late 14th century. It is not clear whether the word refers to the name of a composer or to something else; it is now known that ‘Bararipton’ was a mnemonic used in medieval logic for one of the categories of syllogisms. However, any possible musical meaning of the word remains a mystery.

The Gloria seems to be in discant style, with text underlay following the typical French pronunciation of Latin. The lower parts are rhythmically linked and run both in parallel and in contrary motion. The preponderance of 8-5 and 5-3 chords is interrupted, sometimes at closing cadences, by 6-3 chords. Likewise, the sequence of 8-5–6-3–8-5 chords often gives way to parallel 5ths between cantus and contratenor. (The Gloria is ed. in PSFM, 1st ser., x, ...

(fl Castleton, Derbys., 1723–53). English psalmodist and ?composer. In 1723 he published the first edition of A Book of Psalmody in conjunction with John Barber. A second edition, by Robert Barber alone, followed in 1733, and a third, entitled David’s Harp Well Tuned, in 1753. He also published The Psalm Singer’s Choice Companion in 1727. A Book of Psalmody enjoyed a good deal of popularity in the north Midlands. It was similar to other parochial collections, and most of its contents were derivative. The second edition, however, had a remarkable feature: it included, as well as chants for the canticles, a complete musical setting of Morning Prayer, litany and ante-communion on cathedral lines, but for alto, tenor and bass only. Barber made it clear on the title-page that this was designed for ‘our Country Churches’. He thus brought to its logical conclusion the trend begun by Henry Playford, who published anthems for parish church use in ...

A style of unaccompanied singing that originated in the USA in the late 19th century. It is characterized by four-part harmony using chords that contain tritones. Dominant and diminished 7th chords, as well as half-diminished 7th and augmented 6th chords, are used, but major 7ths, flattened 9ths and chords of the 13th are considered stylistically inappropriate, as are non-chord notes. The melody is carried by the ‘lead’ (second) tenor, while the first tenor harmonizes above; the bass provides the foundation, and the baritone completes the harmony, frequently crossing above the melody. Chord progressions known as ‘swipes’ often compensate for the lack of instrumental accompaniment (ex.1).

The barbershop quartet movement, which flourished between about 1895 and 1930, was given impetus by the fledgling recording industry. Performances by such professional groups as the Manhansett, Haydn, American and Peerless quartets became widely available and gave rise to the formation of thousands of amateur groups throughout the country during the movement’s peak years (...

American barbershop quartet singing is characterized by homophonic, close-harmony, four-part arrangements, either improvised or prepared in advance, with the melody performed by the second tenor, or “lead.” Harmonies emphasize circle of fifth progressions, often with added sevenths. Modern performers use just intonation, allowing the overtones produced by the singers to reinforce one another, creating chords that “ring” or “expand.” Both arrangements and performance practices favor the prolonging, or “worship,” of such chords. To vary the homophonic texture of their arrangements and create novel harmonies, barbershop groups often add “snakes” or “swipes” in which one or more non-melody voices change pitch, thereby altering the chord. The style emerged in 1880s and was popular among diverse amateur and professional groups across the United States between 1890 and 1910.

The core barbershop repertory was composed during the Tin Pan Alley era (1890–1930). Lyrics in these songs address, often nostalgically, the social norms and iconic places of Victorian America, including Victorian courtship rituals, same-sex camaraderie, fashions, inventions, small towns, and street corners....

(Fr.; It. barcarola)

Title given to pieces that imitate or suggest the songs (barcarole) sung by Venetian gondoliers as they propel their boats through the water. These songs were already widely known in the 18th century: in The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771), Burney reported that they were ‘so celebrated that every musical collector of taste in Europe is well furnished with them’. A basic feature of the barcarolle is the time signature, 6/8, with a marked lilting rhythm depicting the movement of the boat.

The barcarolle has been much used in Romantic opera, where it has a sentimental, even melancholy atmosphere: the most famous example is that by Offenbach in Act 2 of Les contes d’Hoffmann. Schubert frequently used the barcarolle lilt in his songs: though neither given the name nor associated with Venice, Auf dem Wasser zu singen (d774) and Des Fischers Liebesglück...

(1) Known in the USA in association with celebrations to mark the building of a new barn and derived from the schottische, it became popular in England around the late 1880s originally in conjunction with the tune Dancing in the Barn and later with the Pas de quatre by Meyer Lutz, and by the 1920s had become a progressive dance. By the 1960s the term had been adopted as a general description of social country dancing which, by this stage, also included elements of the ‘old time’ dance repertory.

(2) Originally an American rural meeting for dancing, held in a barn or similar large building. After 1920 the term designated variety radio programmes of folk-like entertainment; the first programme so described was broadcast on radio station WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas (1923), though many southern radio stations had presented programmes of country music in previous years. By 1949...

Originally a rural meeting for dancing held in a barn or similar large building. From the 1920s the term was used to designate variety radio programs of rural, folk-like entertainment, although artists frequently performed a wide range of musics from old-time fiddling and ballads to contemporary popular songs and blues. The first program so described was broadcast on the radio station WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1923, although many Southern radio stations had presented similar programs the previous year. The most important of the broadcast barn dances were the WLS Barn Dance (later National Barn Dance, Chicago, 1924–70) and the WSM Barn Dance (Nashville, from 1925), which as the Grand Ole Opry became the longest-running radio program in the United States; both were started by George D. Hay. Other programs included the Renfro Valley Barn Dance (WLW, Cincinnati, from 1937), the Tennessee Barn Dance (WNOX, Knoxville, TN, from ...

A style of piano playing that originated among black American blues musicians in the early 20th century. It was first practised in the makeshift saloons of lumber camps in the South and is related to Boogie-woogie, which it may have preceded as a blues piano style (see Blues, §4). Barrelhouse was played in regular 4/4 metre, whereas boogie developed as fast music largely of eight beats to the bar. Ragtime bass figures or the heavy left-hand vamp known as ‘stomping’ were often employed with occasional walking bass variations. Characteristic early recordings are Barrel House Man (1927, Para.) by the Texas pianist Will Ezell, The Dirty Dozen by Speckled Red (Rufus Perryman) (1929, Bruns.) and Soon This Morning by Charlie Spand (1929, Para.); Perryman and Spand worked in Detroit after leaving the South. Diggin’ My Potatoes (1939, Bb), by Washboard Sam with Joshua Altheimer on piano, and ...

[bariera, sabra]

A 16th- and early 17th-century dance found in lute and guitar tablatures. As described in Caroso’s dance manuals Il ballarino (1581) and Nobiltà di dame (1600) and in Cesare Negri’s dance treatise Le gratie d’amore (1602), it is representative of a battle. The music is based on the second part of Janequin’s La guerre, which begins ‘Fan frere le le lan fan’. This is a parody of a trumpet call, and it may be the trumpet call rather than Janequin’s music that recurs so often in the barriera dance. A sbara was performed at the wedding of Francesco de’ Medici and Bianca Cappello in 1579 and another at the wedding of Ferdinando de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine in 1589. The guitar tablatures of the early 17th century reduce Janequin's original music to the standard chord-strumming technique of the rasgueado style of guitar playing of the period, but, unusually, adding one melodic note....

(It.: ‘jest’)

Of the different verse forms set by frottola composers, the barzelletta appears to have been the most popular, especially in earlier publications (until about 1510). Whereas the term ‘frottola’ is generic, referring to a variety of prosodic types, in its specific meaning it is usually synonymous with the barzelletta, as suggested by Petrucci’s fourth book, Strambotti, ode, frottole [= barzellette], sonetti (RISM 1505⁵), or Antico’s third book, Canzoni, sonetti, strambotti et frottole [= barzellette] (1513¹). The barzelletta normally scans in trochaic metre, with eight syllables per line (trochaic ottonario), and consists of two sections: ripresa, four lines that rhyme as abba or abab; and stanza, six or eight lines in the order of two mutazioni or piedi (pairs of lines with identical rhymes) and a volta (a couplet or quatrain, whose last line generally rhymes with the first of the ripresa). A six-line stanza is likely to rhyme as ...

(Fr.; It. bassadanza)

The principal court dance during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. It reached a height of cultivation during the 15th century and disappeared after the middle of the 16th century. The musical practice that grew up around it served as a proving ground for many early instrumental techniques such as improvisations over a ground, variations and the forming of suite-like combinations.

While no pre-15th-century documents describing steps and music have been found, the name of the dance was cited as early as 1340 by the troubadour Raimond de Cornet, who wrote of ‘cansos e bassas dansas’. In a poem of about 1415 Alain Chartier described

Ses fais comme la dance basse,

Puis va avant, et puis rapasse,

Puis retourne, puis oultrepasse.

The character of the dance is implicit in its name, which betokened a dance low to the ground, generally lacking the more rapid movements and leaps characteristic of the ‘alta dansa’ or ‘saltarello’. Combination of these two types to form a varied pair can be documented throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages. The classic phase of the form corresponds to the heyday of the Burgundian court under Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. The main source preserving the Burgundian repertory is the Brussels Basse Danse manuscript (...

Compositions descriptive of battles form a minor but distinctive category of 16th-century music, both vocal and instrumental, with a sporadic continuation, mainly instrumental, down to the early 19th century. The Italian term ‘battaglia’ has sometimes been applied to the whole of this repertory, but the composers themselves generally used titles in their own languages (Fr. guerre, bataille; Ger. Schlacht; Sp. batalla). This article deals with musical representations of battles, rather than the music that might have accompanied actual battles (for which see Military calls). Battle-pieces do, however, incorporate fragments of military music from time to time, such as the ‘tan-ta-ra, tan-ta-ra’ motif in Byrd's keyboard work The Battle; the words are written in the manuscript (My Ladye Nevells Booke, 1591) just before ‘the battels be joyned’.

Some of the typical devices of battle music – rallying-cries, imitations of fanfares – are anticipated in 14th-century cacce (see HAM, i, no.52), and in chansons such as the four-part ...

Program music depicting battles. While such works as Ludwig van Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory are usually regarded as lacking in taste, this important genre was as ubiquitous as the more exalted sonata in the 19th century. Compositions commemorating famous land or naval battles normally appeared shortly after the event to take advantage of the public’s interest. Louis-Emmanuel Jadin’s La Grande Bataille d’Austerliz was published in Philadelphia less than two years after Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous 1805 victory. Alphonse Leduc published his dance quadrilles commemorating battles of the Crimean War in Paris and London within months of the event. With no copyright laws, publishers apparently did not hesitate to recycle other works. In 1797 James Hewitt published The Battle of Trenton, celebrating George Washington’s victory in 1776. Taking Natale Corri’s Siege and Surrender of Valenciennes published in Edinburgh around 1792, Hewitt changed the programmatic references, substituted Washington’s March for Corri’s general march, Yankee Doodle...

A style of British pop music developed in the early 1960s; it was significant as the first time musicians of that country had created their own sound, rather than imitating the US originals. In Liverpool, Merseybeat was spearheaded by the Beatles, whose early style grafted onto a skiffle base the instrumental and vocal textures, melodic structures, syncopated rhythms and responsorial vocal styles of early rock and roll, the modality and verse–refrain form of Anglo-Celtic folk song, and some ornamental chromaticisms and triadic parallelisms from late 19th-century European harmony. Other leading exponents included Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Searchers. The Beatles’ insistence on writing their own material was a novel redivision of labour which has had lasting consequences. In London an alternative approach was dominated by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Who, in which a narrower amalgam was found, with the skiffle and rock and roll foundation partly replaced by a harder-edged rhythm and blues sound, in a selfconscious attempt at authenticity. In the USA the term ‘British invasion’ is preferred to ‘beat’, calling attention to the flood of such bands as these into the US market during the period ...

A versicle sung at the end of all canonical hours except Matins, at the close of Mass in place of the Ite missa est in penitential seasons, and following the commemorations after Vespers and Lauds. It was performed by a soloist (or group of soloists), and its choral response, ‘Deo gratias’, was set to the same music.

The Benedicamus seems to have emerged as a distinct portion of the liturgy in Carolingian Francia. A late 8th-century customary, Memoriale qualiter, shows that the versicle served as the closing sentence for meal times (Hallinger, 1963), and liturgical commentator Amalarius of Metz in his early 9th-century discussion of the Offices (see Hanssens) treats it as commonplace.

The earliest melodies for the monophonic Benedicamus are scattered among patristic manuscripts from the late 10th century; later the tunes appear in more organized fashion in tropers, prosers and graduals. By the 13th century the number of collections devoted to the ...

[Canticle of the Three Children, Song of the Three Young Men]

One of the biblical canticles (‘Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord’) sung in Eastern and Western liturgies. The canticle was known in the medieval West as ‘benedictiones’ because of the constant repetition of the exhortation ‘benedicite’ (‘bless’). The text is a Greek interpolation in the third chapter of the book of Daniel (Apocrypha), which narrates the story of the miraculous survival of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace prepared as a punishment for their refusal to worship the golden image of King Nebuchadnezzar. (The Vulgate equivalents of their Hebrew names are Ananias, Mishael and Azarias; see Daniel i.6–7.) The interpolation includes the prayer of Azarias (iii.26–45), beginning (in its Latin version) ‘Benedictus es Domine Deus patrum nostrorum … qui iustus es’ and the song of the Young Men, divided into two sections (iii.52–6 and 57–90), beginning ‘Benedictus es Domine Deus patrum nostrorum … et benedictum nomen’ and ‘Benedicite omnia opera’ respectively. The latter calls upon all creation to bless the Lord, an exhortation answered by the refrain ‘laudate et superexaltate eum in saecula’ (‘praise and exalt him forever’). For Western liturgical use ‘laudate’ was replaced by ‘hymnum dicite’....