Medieval Polyphony Research Articles

Machaut and the ‘Critical’ Phase of Medieval Polyphony

Machaut and the ‘Critical’ Phase of Medieval Polyphony

French and English Polyphony of the 13th and 14th Centuries. Style and Notation

Tonal aspects of 13th-century English polyphony cantilena and discant in 14th-century English polyphony the question of Perotin's Oeuvre and dates the medieval motet the medieval hocket in practice and theory the early motets of Philippe de Vitry English polyphony in the Morgan Library Manuscript consonance and rhythm in the organum of the 12th and 13th centuries sine littera and cum littera in medieval polyphony style and technique in datable polyphonic Notre-Dame conductus conductus and modal rhythm the earliest phases of measured polyphony rithmus additions and corrections.

Remembering the Annunciation in Medieval Polyphony

Il est difficle de reunir le repertoire de musique polyphonique consacre a la fete de l'Annonciation, notamment pour les XIII e et XIV e siecles. C'est pourtant parmi les fetes mariales la plus celebree des le V e siecle de notre ere en Occident. L'A. tente donc de retracer les contours de ce repertoire en examinant d'abord le theme de l'Annonciation dans la culture medievale, puis en l'examinant dans la liturgie de la meme epoque. Il s'appuie enfin sur les decouvertes les plus recentes en matiere d'histoire de la liturgie consacree a cette fete mariale

Two unnoticed pieces of medieval polyphony

The two pieces introduced and briefly discussed in this article have so far remained unnoticed because of the manner of their notation. In each case pieces of two-voice polyphony were notated with the two voices separate, instead of in the score notation which has been usual since, roughly, the second half of the twelfth century. In the one case, the sequence Magnus deus in universa terra in a manuscript from Marchiennes of the fourteenth century, a second voice was added at the back of the book in which the usual melody had already been recorded. In the other case, the song Ad honorem regis summi in the so-called Codex Calixtinus, the two voices are notated successively, verse 1 of the text being given with the first voice, verse 2 with the second voice.

Topical content in Mozart's keyboard sonatas

I shall consider here the role of topical content in the rhetoric of Classic music, using Mozart's keyboard sonatas by way of illustration. The term 'topic' here signifies a subject to be incorporated in a discourse. A topic can be a style, a type, a figure, a process or a plan of action. Topics can be intra-musical-elements of the language of music-or extra-musical taken from other media of expression. The connection between these two aspects of topical content has a long history. Music, in its relationship to the temporal artspoetry, drama and choreography-has been something of a chameleon, if not an actual parasite. Throughout its history Western music has repeatedly been taken up by the language and theatrical arts as a means of intensification, to elevate and sustain the effect of the word or gesture. But as music joins with word or gesture it gradually incorporates its own syntax, its idiomatic elaborations to the point that the word or gesture is absorbed into the play of musical rhetoric, especially in extensions and elaborations. The actual presence of the 'host' (that is, the word or gesture) disappears, but its configuration remains in the contour and the form of the music-a process comparable to the shape that is given to the finished jewel in the lost wax process. This back-and-forth process, in which music is borrowed and then takes over, finally to be simplified once again when it becomes too elaborate, has taken place a number of times-in plainsong, in medieval polyphony, in the Renaissance motet and madrigal, and in Italian opera of the 18th and 19th centuries. These processes bespeak apt connections between music and other media of expression, both in syntactic ways and in the sense of what is being communicated. The influences work in both directions-from the image, gesture or idea to musical syntax and vice versa. That is, musical syntax can enhance the word or gesture; on the other hand, the suggestion or the implication of the image, word or gesture can give colour and enriched content to musical syntax. The syntactical make-up of Classic music lends itself aptly to the interplay of musical processes and topical references. In the Classic style, the precise trim of cadential formulas, rhythmic groupings, clear articulations, transparent textures and orderly key schemes allow a composer to etch sharply with figures that are neatly and closely spaced, to spin out a rhetoric that is essentially comic and witty in its underlying tone. This attitude is embodied particularly in the rapid shifts of topic, of affective stance, that are so often heard in late 18thcentury music. Wilhelm Fischer characterized Classic music as incorporating contrast on the smallest scale.' A biting comment on an aria of Paisiello in 1778 is addressed to the prevailing Italian penchant for mixing topics. The writer, Goudar, says:

Lost Books of Polyphony in England: A List to 1500

Books of medieval polyphony were relatively short-lived by comparison with other forms of book. Once their contents had become outdated, they were often broken up and used as scrap parchment. The debris from a few of these books survives in bindings and as wrappers for documents. The evidence for the existence of others must be sought in medieval administrative records: wills drawn up by individuals, documents emanating from royal and noble households and, above all, the financial and administrative acta of the greater churches. From these materials it is possible to hint at the scale of past losses and to recover, from titles quoted in full or in part, information about small sections of vanished repertories. It is possible also to trace patterns in the ownership and dissemination of written polyphony and to identify something of the structure and dynamics of its production.

Medieval Polyphony in a Cividale Manuscript

Medieval Polyphony in a Cividale Manuscript

Primer primitivnega srednjeveškega večglasja iz Kranja

Primer primitivnega srednjeveškega večglasja iz Kranja

New and Little-Known Fragments of English Medieval Polyphony

New and Little-Known Fragments of English Medieval Polyphony

New and Little-Known Fragments of English Medieval Polyphony

New and Little-Known Fragments of English Medieval Polyphony

A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD MOTET

THE main outlines of medieval polyphony have already been well mapped out, but there are many concrete historical facts still to be unearthed before we can be sure that we have a positive and firm basis on which to interpret these facts in terms of the period as a whole, and in terms of music as an aspect of humanistic studies. Recently, when I was transcribing the Latin motets of Wolfenbiittel 1099 (x 2o6),' I was puzzled by some stylistic features of'Homo, mundi paleas' (fo. I9I). First, the tenor, which is written in threeligature groups throughout, has one apparent exception-the first ordo of two simplices followed by the second of a four-ligature group. This is not surprising in itself, but in this case it has produced a few harmonic peculiarities with the motetus. Secondly, the tenor has only a passing resemblance to the succession of notes usually associated with the incipit 'Et gaudebit'. Scribal error could account for these anomalies, but emendation in the case of a single text would merely be conjecture. Thirdly, the motet has many features in common with the group of Latin motets that are contrafacta of French motets to be found in this manuscript, as well as in the Chansonnier Noailles,2 the Manuscrit du Roi3 and the Montpellier manuscript,4 and differs from the motets originally composed to Latin words. Accordingly, I assumed that this motet was a contrafactum of a French motet now lost. The text only partly tropes the chant text: 'Alleluia: Non vos relinquam orphanos; vado et venio ad nos et gaudebit cor vestrum' with the word 'gaudeas', whereas other motets of the same period would use 'gaudebit'. This would not affect the rhythm of the text, although it would affect its grammatical structure. There is, however, a word towards the end of the text that is frequently troped in the motets of the period, and acting on a hint published by Clemens Blume in his edition of the text in I9o6,5 I checked the tenor of this motet against the well-known tenor 'Et florebit'. It was not surprising to find that the tenor is not 'Et gaudebit' but 'Et florebit'. The scribe had either confused the two similar words or had only partly recog-

Discant, Counterpoint, and Harmony

Research Article| April 01 1962 Discant, Counterpoint, and Harmony Richard L. Crocker Richard L. Crocker Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (1962) 15 (1): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/830051 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Richard L. Crocker; Discant, Counterpoint, and Harmony. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 1962; 15 (1): 1–21. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/830051 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1962 The American Musicological Society Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Review: Medieval Polyphony in the Bodleian Library by Dom Anselm Hughes

Review: Medieval Polyphony in the Bodleian Library by Dom Anselm Hughes

‘Medieval Polyphony in the Bodleian Library’

‘Medieval Polyphony in the Bodleian Library’