Mass analysis: Renaissance Theory Versus Practice in ... · Choosing a Renaissance Composer. Corpus...
Transcript of Mass analysis: Renaissance Theory Versus Practice in ... · Choosing a Renaissance Composer. Corpus...
Massanalysis:RenaissanceTheoryVersusPracticeinPalestrina’sSacredWorks
Claire Arthur, McGill [email protected]
NECMTApril 7, 2018
VS.
Research Question
HowwelldotheoreticaltreatisesaccuratelyreflectmusicalpracticesintheRenaissance?
(Especiallywithregardtocounterpointandvoice-leading)
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Research Question
…morespecifically:
• Arethemultitudeofspecificrules laidoutbyRenaissancetheoriststrulyconsistentwiththemusicalpracticesofthetime?
• Inhindsight,couldtheseruleshavebeensummarizedbyafewcoreprinciples(muchlikemodernvoice-leadingpedagogy)?
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Choosing a Renaissance Treatise
Nicola Vicentino:‘Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice’ (1555)
• Numerousofexamplesoftwo-partcounterpoint
• Specifiestheminimumnumberofvoicesforeach
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(1511– c.1575)
Vicentino (1558); Book II, Chapter 29, “On Various Steps and LeapsPlaced Above and Below, Ascending and Descending Together.”
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Narrowing the Scope of “Contrapuntal Practice”
• Onlyexamplesmovingtoperfectintervals
• Anyexampleintwo-partcounterpointwithnorhythmicinterpretationgiven
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• Book II full of similar examples
Vicentino’s Rules7
• Catalogued 54 such rules (excluding “a 2”)
Vicentino’s Rules8
• Rules sorted according to “rule class”
Vicentino’s Rules9
Vicentino’s Rules10
• PalestrinawidelyheldasexemplarofRenaissancecontrapuntalstyle
(massesconvenientlyalreadysymbolicallyencoded!)
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Choosing a Renaissance Composer
Corpus
• GiovanniPalestrina’scompletesetofmasses:
• 104masses(707movements)• 3-8voices• Eachpart(musically)asinglestream
Palestrina(1525– 1594)
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• Howeachnotegotthere(whatprecededit?)
• Whatcontrapuntalrelationsarehappeningatthesametimeagainstanyothervoice?
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Corpus
Palestrina(1525– 1594)
• Vertically“slice”themusicatanynewattack(onsetslice)
• Foreachpairofvoicesintexture,lookatasliding2-slicewindowandcalculateallhorizontalandverticalintervals(2-gram)
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Corpus
Palestrina(1525– 1594)
P5 P5
-P4
-P4
Any2-voicepolyphonic“antecedent-consequent”motioniscaptured(referredtoasa“2-gram”)
Parsing and Querying15
Assumptions
• Compoundverticalintervalsreducedtotheirsimplecounterparts(horizontalintervalswerenot)
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Assumptions
• Compoundverticalintervalsreducedtotheirsimplecounterparts(horizontalintervalswerenot)
• Exampleswrittenwithparticularpitchclassescanbethoughtofasequally‘good/bad’iftransposed(i.e.focusonintervalcontent)
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Cantus
Alto
Tenor
Bass
measures: 1 2 3 4 5
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Exampleof“SalamiSlicing”
2-gram
StringRepresentation:“V1,m1,m2,V2”
(Antecedent)(Consequent)
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Computational Analysis• 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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Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices21
Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices22
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
Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices26
• 8voicetextureallowsforgreaternumberofintervallicrelationshipsthanisaffordedbya3voicetexture• Unevendistributionofvocaltexturesincorpus:
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WhatDoWeNeedtoConsider?
CorpusResultsa
VLPatternsthatneveroccur:
0/10
VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:
1/10
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CorpusResultsa
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Rulesneverrealized:0/10
Rulesrealizedonlyonce:
1/10
CorpusResultsa
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Rulesneverrealized:0/10
Rulesrealizedonlyonce:
1/10
Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor8+voices:31
CorpusResultsa
VLPatternsthatneveroccur:
0/10
VLPatternsthatoccuronlyonce:
1/10
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Corpus Resultsa
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Rulesneverrealized:2/13
Rulesrealizedonlyonce:
3/13
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!)
• IfPalestrina’swritingwasconsistentwithVicentino’s rules,weshouldexpectagraphofhiscompositonal usagetolooksomethinglikethis:
36Corpus Resultsa
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VoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”
Corpus Resultsa
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 40
• InstancesofDirectIntervals:
1,609
• InstancesofParallelPerfectIntervals:
154
41ParallelandDirectPerfectIntervals
Summary
• GuidelinesproposedbyVicentino arenotterriblyconsistentwithmusicalpractice;rulesappeartoostrict.• (e.g.,‘a8’progressionsfoundintexturesfor3-7voices)
• Realizationofrulesbecomeincreasinglyrareasnumericlabelincreases.
• “Poorer”progressionsmorelikelytobe“hidden”inthickertextures.
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What’s next?
• Deriveunderlyingprinciplesfromananalysisofseveral“similar”rulesbyVicentino?
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Vicentino: Increasingly “bad” counterpoint (thirds to perfect intervals)
What’s next?
• Deriveunderlyingprinciplesfromananalysisofseveral“similar”rulesbyVicentino?
• ComparisonofVicentino’s “good/bad”voiceleadingtoPalestrina’s“common/rare”usagetouncoverotherrulesorprinciples?
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N=2,073 N=1,658 N=883 N=311 N=147
N=112 N=773 N=1,786 N=1,085 N=124
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Vicentino,Chapter2.1(leavingtheunison)
Palestrina(otherwaysofleavingtheunison)
N=1,290 N=2,994 N=1,603 N=945 N=280 N=48 N=114
ThankYou!
Special thanks to Peter Schubert and Julie Cumming
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WhichPatternsareMost/LeastCommon?• Althoughthereare3,326unique voice-leadingpatterns,450ofthemaccountforthevoice-leadingin90%ofthecorpus
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Vicentino’s VoiceLeadingRulesfor5+voices49
ExamplesofDirectPerfectIntervals50
CorpusResultsa
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VoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”
52CorpusResultsaVoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”
Outof1,612totaldirectintervals…
…1,483accountedforbyVicentino’srules
53CorpusResultsaVoiceLeadingPatternsGroupedBy“RuleClass”