Frederick Chopin (1810-1849) was a Romantic composer of Polish nationality. Within the 10th and 11th centuries, composers started setting sacred texts polyphonically (i.e., with more than one melody on the identical time). Leonin (c. 1135- c. 1200) wrote polyphonic settings of the texts sung on crucial events of the Christian 12 months, reminiscent of Christmas and Easter. He did this by significantly slowing down an current plainchant, and including to it a brand new, more quickly flowing musical line at a better pitch. This technique was referred to as organum; the slowed-down plainchant was called the tenor. Some sections of Leonin’s polyphony were sped up and rhythmicized; later composers added the words of devotional poems to Leonin’s notes. This instance makes use of the Alleluia pascha nostrum plainchant as its tenor; it was sung as part of Easter services on the spectacular Gothic cathedral Notre Dame of Paris.
From about 1530 to 1600, the pre-eminent form of secular vocal music in Europe was the madrigal. The madrigal usually set a poem in Italian (later, often in English) with an intense emotional solid. The setting was usually for four or 5 voices with no instrumental accompaniment, although devices were in all probability added in efficiency at instances. Jacques Arcadelt (c. 1500-1568) was a Frenchman, but wrote madrigals in the Italian metropolis of Florence. The most famous example of his work is Il bianco e dolce cigno.
Timbre refers to the high quality of musical sounds. Timbre lets you distinguish a saxophone from a flute, for instance, even when both devices are taking part in the same notes. Timbre additionally means that you can hear the difference between solo singers and a choir of singers.