Renaissance Counterpoint in Theory and Practice: A Case Study · Renaissance Counterpoint in Theory...
Transcript of Renaissance Counterpoint in Theory and Practice: A Case Study · Renaissance Counterpoint in Theory...
RenaissanceCounterpointinTheoryandPractice:ACaseStudy
ClaireArthur,[email protected]
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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CorpusAnalysis
• Palestrina’s104masses(707movements)
• Vertically“slice”themusicatanynewattack(salamislicing)
• Foreachpairofvoicesintexture,lookatasliding2-slicewindow
andcalculateallhorizontalandverticalintervals(2-gram)
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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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• 8voicetextureallowsforgreaternumberofintervallicrelationshipsthanisaffordedbya3voicetexture• Unevendistributionofvocaltexturesincorpus:
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WhatDoWeNeedtoConsider?
CorpusResultsa
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VLPatternsthatneveroccur:
0/6
VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:
0/6
(Patternwithlowestnumberof
occurrences:46!)
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
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: [email protected]
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WhichPatternsareMost/LeastCommon?• Althoughthereare3,326unique voice-leadingpatterns,450ofthemaccountforthevoice-leadingin90%ofthecorpus
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37CorpusResultsaVoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”
Outof1,612totaldirectintervals…
…1,483accountedforbyVicentino’srules