Engaged Listening

Title: Amicus meus osculi me tradidit signo

Composer: Tomas Luis de Victoria
Artist (if known): Not available

Musical Elements
Rhythm & Tempo:
The rhythm is long, with minimal rests, pulsing at times. The tempo is slow for
most part, but accelerates from time to time

rhythm: even, uneven, long,

rests, duple, triple, quadruple
pulsing, driving, repeated,
the syncopation

Melody:
The pitch is mixed in range, ascending and descending throughout the piece.
The melody itself is in an arch pattern, with very long phrases

Harmony & Texture

The piece is monophonic, and uses dissonance at first before reaching a
resolution. The texture is, rather paradoxically, both dense and light, sparse and
thick, because of the many voices
Tonality:
The tone is somber, probably in a minor scale
Dynamics & Articulation:

tempo: slow, fast, frantic, pea

moderate, accel., a tempo, ri

pitch- treble, bass, high, low,

mixed range, ascending,
descending,

melody-conjunct, disjunct, ste

leaps, short or long phrases,
wave, vivid motif, theme

harmony-melody, accompani
rich, sparse, monophonic,
polyphonic, homophonic,
consonance, dissonance, blo
chords, broken chords, resol

texture-dense, thin, thick, me

heavy, light, sparse. few/man
instruments
tonality-major, minor, combo,
changing, indistinct, bright, h
dark, somber, other

dynamics-loud, soft, mezzo,

crescendo, decrescendo

The song is soft, growing louder as the piece goes on. It incorporates crescendos articulation-staccato, clipped
and decrescendos throughout. The whole piece is in legato, smooth flowing, with smooth
little contrast
large contrasts, little contrast
Timbre:
The timbre is breathy, but deep. Airy but still heavy.
Form & Structure:
Theres a specific pattern/theme that repeats throughout. The structure,
therefore, is more binary.

bright, brilliant, clear, deep, h

warm, reedy, thin, breathy, pi
harsh, mellow, dark, light, air

theme, section, A, B, C..., ph

verse, strophic, binary, ternar
antecedent, consequent,
restatement, introduction, bri

Context:

place and time

This song is the 4h of the Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday,

meaning it has a liturgical feel. It was written, probably, in Spain in the middle of
the 1400s to the early1600s

Personal Response
Physical:
The music made me feel calm, and so it relaxed my body.

How did the m

affect my bod

How would I
characterize
sound of the
my ears?

Emotional:

How did the m

make me fee

Again, the music made me feel calm; however the overall mood of it was one of awe. This
piece should most likely be used in churches.

What mood d
music create

What activity
this music re

Intellectual:

What mental
did the music
mind?

Is there a spe
memory I ass
with this mus

The image of people in a church is the mental image that came into mind when I heard this.
A specific memory that pops up is that of my time in a Catholic all-girls school, where masses
What else did
were held during the whole week.

about as I
concentrated
music?

Overall Perception
Two-word Description:
Airy, awe-inspiring
Rating:

Ill give this piece a 4, since I somewhat enjoyed it, but it isnt really my type of music.

Describe the m
using only two
descriptive wor

Rate the music

give a reason fo
rating.

5 - Greatly enjoye
4 - Somewhat en
3 - Neither enjoye
disliked
2 - Somewhat dis
1 - Greatly dislike