SACRED music: music for a religious purpose
SECULAR music: music for a non-religious purpose
MONOPHONY: music with a single melody or voice at a time [SG]
PLAINCHANT or GREGORIAN CHANT: sacred unaccompanied monophony sung in Latin
MELISMA: the setting of one syllable to many notes (adj: MELISMATIC) [SG]
SYLLABIC: opposite of melismatic, setting of one note per syllable
ICTUS: the slow, steady beat of a medieval or Renaissance piece
METER: the number of beats subdividing an ictus [SG], e.g. duple meter [SG], triple meter [SG]
LITURGY: the set text for a religious service (adj: LITURGICAL)
NEUMES: earliest form of notation for chant
POLYPHONY: music with several independent melodies or voices at once [SG]
ORGANUM: medieval polyphony where one voice is plainchant
COUNTERPOINT: polyphony written in accordance with various sets of rules [SG]
FLORID counterpoint: elaborate, with many voices or intricate rhythms
ORGANUM: medieval polyphony where one voice is plainchant
PARALLEL organum: simplest organum where interval is fixed (usually a fifth)
CANTUS FIRMUS: slow chant on which counterpoint is based in organum [SG]
TENOR: voice singing the cantus firmus
DUPLUM, TRIPLUM, QUADRUPLUM: names of the additional voices in organum
PURE (or SUSTAINED-NOTE) organum: 2-part organum with slow cantus
DISCANT: more florid organum with faster melismatic cantus, regular rhythm
RHYTHMIC MODES: discant rhythms possible to write in early medieval notation