RenaissanceCounterpointinTheoryandPractice:ACaseStudy

ClaireArthur,McGillUniversityclaire.arthur@mcgill.ca

SIMSSAXIIWorkshopAugust7,2017

ResearchQuestion

HowwelldotheoreticaltreatisesaccuratelyreflectmusicalpracticeintheRenaissance?

(Specificallywithregardtocounterpointandvoice-leading)

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ChoosingaRenaissanceTreatise

Nicola Vicentino:‘Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice’ (1555)

• Hundredsofexamplesoftwo-partcounterpoint• Specifiestheminimumnumberofvoicesforeach

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Vicentino (1558); Book II, Chapter 29, “On Various Steps and LeapsPlaced Above and Below, Ascending and Descending Together.”

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• PalestrinawidelyheldasexemplarofRenaissancecontrapuntalstyle• Masseswrittenforbetween3and8voices

(massesconvenientlyalreadysymbolicallyencoded!)

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ChoosingaRenaissanceComposer

NarrowingtheScopeof“ContrapuntalPractice”

• Onlyexamplesmovingtoperfectintervals• Anyexampleintwo-partcounterpointwithnorhythmicinterpretationgiven• Onlyprohibitions(i.e.‘good’voiceleadingexcluded)

Total:54examples

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CorpusAnalysis

• Palestrina’s104masses(707movements)

• Vertically“slice”themusicatanynewattack(salamislicing)

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Cantus

Alto

Tenor

Bass

measures: 1 2 3 4 5

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Exampleof“SalamiSlicing”

CorpusAnalysis

• Palestrina’s104masses(707movements)

• Vertically“slice”themusicatanynewattack(salamislicing)

• Foreachpairofvoicesintexture,lookatasliding2-slicewindow

andcalculateallhorizontalandverticalintervals(2-gram)

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2-gram

StringRepresentation:“V1,m1,m2,V2”

(Antecedent)(Consequent)

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ComputationalAnalysis

• Each2-gramgetsenteredintoalargetablewiththefollowinginformationattached:

• The 2 voices (parts) participating in the 2-gram

• Pitches that generate the 2-gram

• Mass and movement title

• Beat and measure position

• The resulting type of motion (contrary, oblique, etc.)

• Total number of voices in the texture at each moment

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Assumptions

• Compoundverticalintervalsreducedtotheirsimplecounterparts(horizontalintervalswerenot)

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Assumptions

• Compoundverticalintervalsreducedtotheirsimplecounterparts(horizontalintervalswerenot)

• Exampleswrittenwithparticularpitchclassescanbethoughtofasequally‘bad’iftransposed(i.e.focusonintervalcontent)

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Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices14

Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices15

Instancesofsingle“a5”rule:m3-P8-m3P8

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Instancesofsingle“a5”rule:m3-P8-m3P8

Nasce laGioia,Benedictus:

Open5th (G-D)

Octaves(allG)

ORegem Coeli,Gloria:

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Dm

Dm

• 8voicetextureallowsforgreaternumberofintervallicrelationshipsthanisaffordedbya3voicetexture• Unevendistributionofvocaltexturesincorpus:

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WhatDoWeNeedtoConsider?

Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices20

CorpusResultsa

VLPatternsthatneveroccur:

0/10

VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:

1/10

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CorpusResultsa

VLPatternsthatneveroccur:

0/10

VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:

1/10

22

CorpusResultsa

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VLPatternsthatneveroccur:

3/13

VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:

2/13

P8,P5,-P4,P1

CorpusResultsa

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VLPatternsthatneveroccur:

0/6

VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:

0/6

(Patternwithlowestnumberof

occurrences:46!)

CorpusResultsa

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VoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”

ParallelandDirectPerfectIntervals

• Parallelanddirectperfectintervalsrepresentinstancesofso-called“hard”and“soft”rules,respectively

• Modernformulationsofthisrulevary

• Themostcommonversion:• Twovoicesmustnotmoveinsimilarmotionintoaperfectintervalunlesstheupper-mostvoicemovesbystep.

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Vicentino’s GuidelinesinProse

• Clearprohibitionagainstparalleloctavesandfifths

• Nodirectinstructiononbothvoicesleapingintoperfectinterval.

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ParallelandDirectPerfectIntervals 28

• InstancesofDirectIntervals:

1,609

• InstancesofParallelPerfectIntervals:

154

29ParallelandDirectPerfectIntervals

Conclusion

• Bythepresentdefinitions,itappearsPalestrina’svoiceleadingisnotexactlyconsistentwiththespecificguidelinesofferedbyVicentino

• However,thereisageneraltrendwhere“poorer”progressionsbecomeincreasinglyrare,andmorelikelytobe“hidden”inthickertextures

• Nosuchthingasa“hard”rule?(Evenparallelsoccur)

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ThankYou!

Special thanks to Peter Schubert and Julie Cumming for their expertise

Extra-special thanks to Cory McKay for presenting my research on my behalf!

Questions or comments? Email: claire.arthur@mcgill.ca

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WhichPatternsareMost/LeastCommon?• Althoughthereare3,326unique voice-leadingpatterns,450ofthemaccountforthevoice-leadingin90%ofthecorpus

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Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices33

Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor8+voices:34

ExamplesofDirectPerfectIntervals35

CorpusResultsa

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VoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”

37CorpusResultsaVoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”

Outof1,612totaldirectintervals…

…1,483accountedforbyVicentino’srules

38CorpusResultsaVoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”