YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION
YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION
30 JULIE E. CUMMING per aliam, nunc per unam coniunctionem, nunc per aliam, nunc cum syncopius, nunc sine syncopis, nunc cum fugis, nunc sine fugis, nunc cum pausis, nunc sine pausis, nunc diminutive, nunc plane, aut componat aut concinnat. Now by one quantity, then by another, now by one perfection, then by another, now by one proportion, then by another, now by one conjunction, then by another, now with syncopations, then without syncopations, now with fugae, then without fugae, now with pauses, then without pauses, now diminished, now as written. Tinctoris’s aesthetic of varietas therefore valued constant variety of melody, rhythm, and counterpoint. Repetition of material in one or more voices was avoided or concealed. Like many other mid-fifteenth-century motets, Flos de spina (Example 2) embodies this aesthetic. The only music that is repeated is the imitative passages enclosed in boxes. Every other bar has a different rhythm; melodic contour is continually changing and varying. 16 Late-fifteenth-century imitative polyphony, in contrast, embraces repetition. In his dictionary Tinctoris defines fuga as ‘the identity of the parts of a line (cantus) as to the value, name, form, and sometimes placement of notes and rests’. 17 For Tinctoris, therefore, fuga means repetition: either in a single line, or in different voices. Josquin in particular is known for his literal repetition of motives and duos, and for his sequential repetition of contrapuntal blocks. Let us look at Ave Maria (Example 1) again. Here only passages that are not repeated are enclosed in boxes. Practically every element in the piece is repeated, either in another voice (imitation and parallel motion) or in the same voice (free repetition or sequence) or both (celestia, bar 22, harmonic sequence with canon). Sometimes the element that is repeated is a single line; most of the time it is a two-voice contrapuntal combination. This is especially clear in the repeated duos, but it is also true for overlapping imitative textures (thus the contrapuntal combination between the soprano and alto in bar 2 is repeated between the alto and tenor in bar 3 and the tenor and bass in bar 4). Even when one voice has free 16 This constantly varied endlessly evolving style, in which no two bars have the same rhythm probably comes out of English music. See M. BENT, Dunstaple, (Oxford Studies of Composers, 17), London 1981, p. 36: “each successive bar in a phrase has a different rhythm”. Thomas Brothers describes how Du Fay adopted this style in the 1430s in combination with the new ‘lyric top voice’in: T. BROTHERS, Contenance angloise and Accidentals in Some Motets by Du Fay, in Plainsong and Medieval Music, pp. 28–35. See also CUMMING, The Motet in the Age of Du Fay, pp. 91–95, 193, 244–245. 17 TINCTORIS, Terminorum Musicae Diffinitorium, C. PARRISH ed. and transl., London, 1963, p. 3, s.v. ‘fuga’: Fuga est idemtitas partium cantus quo ad valorem, nomen, formam, et interdum quo ad locum tonarum et pausarum suarum. The English translation is by Peter Schubert, who brought this passage to my attention. See P. SCHUBERT, Counterpoint Pedagogy in the Renaissance, in T. CHRIS- TENSEN ed., The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, Cambridge, 2002, p. 511.
FROM VARIETY TO REPETITION: THE BIRTH OF IMITATIVE POLYPHONY counterpoint against repeated material in other voices the tendency is to repeat melodic material: thus in bars 10–11 the soprano repeats its descending scale when the tenor imitates (repeats) the alto line. This is exactly the kind of thing against which Tinctoris inveighed. Not only is there a lot of repetition, but the repetition is meant to be obvious. The time interval of imitation is long enough so that we can hear the element to be repeated; the repeated motive is associated with repeated text set syllabically; the texture is reduced to allow the voices to come out clearly. What is new here is not just the use of imitation – it is the audible and even obsessive repetition of musical material at every possible opportunity. It is this new style, in which repetition – of melodic material and of contrapuntal combinations – comes to be the primary way of constructing a work, that I wish to explain. I suggest that several different interconnecting forces in late fifteenth-century music combined to effect this change in the motet: (1) movement down in the genre hierarchy; (2) a new kind of motet with a new kind of text; and (3) a new kind of patron. THE GENRE HIERARCHY In the Terminorum musicae diffinitorium Tinctoris established a threefold genre hierarchy of chanson (cantus parvus), motet (cantus mediocris) and Mass (cantus magnus): 18 Cantilena est cantus parvus, cui verba cuiuslibet materiae sed frequentius amatoriae supponuntur. A cantilena is a small piece which is set to a text on any kind of subject, but more often to an amatory one. Motetum est cantus mediocris, cui verba cuiusvis materiae sed frequentius divinae supponuntur. A motet is a composition of moderate length, to which words of any kind are set, but more often those of a sacred nature. Missa est cantus magnus cui verba Kyrie, Et in terra, Patrem, Sanctus, et Agnus, et interdum caeterae partes a pluribus canendae supponuntur, quae ab aliis officium dicitur. 18 See TINCTORIS, Terminorum Musicae Diffinitorium, pp. 12–13, 42–43, 40–41. 31
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FROM VARIETY TO REPETITION: <strong>THE</strong> BIRTH <strong>OF</strong> IMITATIVE POLYPHONY<br />
counterpoint against repeated material in other voices the tendency is to repeat<br />
melodic material: thus in bars 10–11 the soprano repeats its descending scale when<br />
the tenor imitates (repeats) the alto line. This is exactly the kind of thing against which<br />
Tinctoris inveighed.<br />
Not only is there a lot of repetition, but the repetition is meant to be obvious.<br />
The time interval of imitation is long enough so that we can hear the element to be<br />
repeated; the repeated motive is associated with repeated text set syllabically; the<br />
texture is reduced to allow the voices to come out clearly. What is new here is not<br />
just the use of imitation – it is the audible and even obsessive repetition of musical<br />
material at every possible opportunity.<br />
It is this new style, in which repetition – of melodic material and of contrapuntal<br />
combinations – comes to be the primary way of constructing a work, that I wish to<br />
explain. I suggest that several different interconnecting forces in late fifteenth-century<br />
music combined to effect this change in the motet: (1) movement down in the<br />
genre hierarchy; (2) a new kind of motet with a new kind of text; and (3) a new kind<br />
of patron.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> GENRE HIERARCHY<br />
In the Terminorum musicae diffinitorium Tinctoris established a threefold genre hierarchy<br />
of chanson (cantus parvus), motet (cantus mediocris) and Mass (cantus magnus): 18<br />
Cantilena est cantus parvus, cui verba cuiuslibet materiae sed frequentius<br />
amatoriae supponuntur.<br />
A cantilena is a small piece which is set to a text on any kind of subject, but<br />
more often to an amatory one.<br />
Motetum est cantus mediocris, cui verba cuiusvis materiae sed frequentius<br />
divinae supponuntur.<br />
A motet is a composition of moderate length, to which words of any kind<br />
are set, but more often those of a sacred nature.<br />
Missa est cantus magnus cui verba Kyrie, Et in terra, Patrem, Sanctus, et<br />
Agnus, et interdum caeterae partes a pluribus canendae supponuntur, quae<br />
ab aliis officium dicitur.<br />
18 See TINCTORIS, Terminorum Musicae Diffinitorium, pp. 12–13, 42–43, 40–41.<br />
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