___________________________________ Jon Hurty is Director of Choral Activities at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. 1

Singing Renaissance Music From Partbooks by Jon Hurty

Many musicians, scholars, and editors find that the use of modern format scores with bar

lines compromises successful rehearsal and performance of Renaissance choral music. This

article deals with the use of partbooks for performance of Renaissance choral music and issues

relating to rhythm, phrasing, and notational layout.

Current Editing Procedures and the Bar Line

Facsimile editions are reprints of the original performing materials that include old note

and rest symbols, clefs, and text underlay. These editions require singers and conductors to learn

the notation systems in use during the Renaissance. Using facsimile editions for rehearsal and

performance may seem an attractive option especially to scholars, but problems such as

accessibility and intelligibility of the sources and basic knowledge of the symbols remain.

Figure 1. Morley, Agnus Dei

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One solution, suggested by early music editor and performer Bruno Turner, is for

publishers to print facsimiles of choirbooks or partbooks along with edited scores. The facsimiles

could be used for performance or for reference in rehearsals.i

On the other end of the spectrum are scores that are excessively edited and contain no

indication of what is editorial and what is primary source material. While this seems a rather

archaic practice, many editions are still published this way.

Between these two extremes lie what are often referred to as scholarly editions that

usually indicate clearly what is original and what is editorial. The music appears in score, and the

issue of bar lines is usually addressed in one of four ways:

1. They are included as in normal modern scores.

2. Mensurstriche are used. These editions include bar lines that extend between the

individual staves but not through the staff itself. Scholars have been using this type of bar

line since 1922.ii In recent years, Mensurstriche have become more common in modern

performing editions.

Figure 2. William Byrd, Haec Dies

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3. A “varia-bar system” is employed. The system, found in editions by James McKelvy,

includes bar lines within individual voice lines that do not necessarily line up with bar

lines in other voices. An example is McKelvy's edition of Victoria's Gloria in excelsis

Deo.iii Edward Lowinsky indicates that this system was first proposed by early advocates

of irregular barring but was impractical and confusing.iv

Figure 3. Victoria, Gloria in excelsis Deo

4. No bar lines are used at all. An example is Lawrence Doebler's edition of Jacob Handl's

Ecce sacerdos magnus.v

Figure 4. Jacob Handl, Ecce sacerdos magnus

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Of the scores containing bar lines that coincide in all voices (types 1 and 2 above), there

is disagreement over how they should be employed. Editors in one camp feel that the music

should be rebarred so that the notes fit into metrically accented patterns based on the text or

musical content. The other camp feels that bar lines should follow the original mensural notation

(i.e., only changing from duple to triple bars or vice versa when the mensural signs change).

In his essay on Renaissance phrasing, Dennis Shrock argues against the concept of

rebarring. He suggests that while the motivation for such a practice is understandable it does a

disservice to phrasing. However, rather than discard the modern score and bar lines, Shrock

suggests that it is appropriate for twentieth-century musicians to use editions in which the

mensuration signs are transcribed in modern meter signatures. vi While discussing the overall

concept of phrasing, he comments that modern musicians often limit stress in performance to

word or syllable stress and articulation of short rhythmic patterns rather than considering the

overall hierarchy of design in the text and musical phrases.vii This argument, taken to its extent,

could also be used to support the view that bar lines (with their regular succession of strong and

weak beats) should not be included in twentieth-century editions of Renaissance music.

Twentieth-century Versus Renaissance Concepts of Meter and the Measure

Our modern theoretical and subconscious understanding of the measure as having distinct

accents does not allow for proper interpretation of the flexible phrase structures of Renaissance

music. No matter how hard we may try, it is nearly impossible for us to look at a measure

without our twentieth-century conception of metrical stress.

While regularity of pulse is indeed an important feature of Renaissance music, the

concept of metrical stress as found in modern measures is foreign to the Renaissance musician.

Renaissance writers define tactus in terms of duration rather than stress of a pulse. Sebald

Heyden writes:

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What is tactus? It is a movement or stroking motion of a finger fitting the value of all notes and rests into an equally divided temporal beat. The tactus therefore defines very accurately the temporal value of every note and rest.viii

Twentieth-century musicologist Curt Sachs states:

Far from beating out the constituent elements of a measure in the sense of modern conducting, as one-two-three or one-two-three-four, the tactus was always composed of two beats only, one up, one down. Modern Musicians take the sequence down-and-up for granted. But sixteenth-century men disagree (without giving any importance to this disagreement): some describe the movement as down-and-up, and some as up-and-down. This proves once more that the two beats were quite even without any stress on the first note, although the beat “which strikes up high does not have anything to hit against, as that which strikes below. . . . Both of them are struck with equality, that is, the low golpe [beat] is not struck more forcefully than the high, or vice versa.”ix

Renaissance Concept of Syncopation

Syncopation was frequently discussed in Renaissance treatises, but it carried a different

connotation than our modern definition. While twentieth-century theorists emphasize the idea of

syncopation as an accent against the normal beat or measure, Renaissance writers only discuss

syncopation against the tactus. Sebald Heyden writes in 1540:

What is Syncopation? Syncopation is generally considered to occur whenever the mensural values of semibreves are sung for some time in opposition to the uniform movement of the tactus. Our brief advice here concerning this disparity is as follows: while singing do not allow the note values to return to agreement with the tactus, but persist vigorously in the disparity until the notes are reconciled to the tactus, for such a disparity hardly ever extends beyond the second or third tempus.x

Thus, while the Renaissance conception of syncopation does not imply the strong accent

we equate with the term in the twentieth century, it does imply note values in opposition to a

regular recurring pulse. This seems to support the argument against rebarring Renaissance music

and suggests that instead the regular recurrance of the tactus should be maintained in

performance.

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A Proposed Solution

The concept of using partbooks for performance of Renaissance music has been

suggested by many scholars and musicians.xi Why then, is the partbook not employed in current

performances? Original instruments are used regularly by modern musicians, and new and better

editions of choral works are constantly being produced.

Some reasons for not using partbooks might include the following:

1). Arguments that bar lines are acceptable. Some scholars have taken the position that the

modern bar line is the same, or almost the same, as the concept of tactus. Therefore, there

is no need to use partbooks.xii

2). Lack of knowledge about partbooks. While the matter has been introduced to choral

musicians, many choral methods books ignore the subject completely.

3). Lack of editions. Since almost no modern editions of partbooks are published, it is almost

impossible for choral conductors to find useful performing materials.

4). Fear. Even if partbook editions were available, many musicians may consider them to be

impractical and too difficult to use.

5). Loss of rhythmic or harmonic clarity. Some suggest that by not being able to see the

vertical construction of the composition, singers will not be able to sing with rhythmic

precision or they will have tuning problems because they cannot see the vertical

structures of chords.

The first suggestion, that bar lines are synonymous or very similar to the Renaissance

concept of tactus is fallacious since bar lines have a distinct modern connotation different from

that of tactus. Furthermore, the fact that Renaissance singers sang almost exclusively from

partbooks is a valid reason for the use of modern partbooks.

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The issues of lack of editions and lack of knowledge are real problems that must be

addressed. Partbooks will not be used until editors and publishers begin making partbooks

available to conductors and singers.

The issue of rhythmic clarity will be resolved when conductors begin to use partbooks

and find that they produce better results since singers must listen and concentrate more than

when using traditional scores.xiii It is important, however, to ensure that performing editions are

properly prepared for successful results and that conductors know some basics about how to use

them.

The best and probably most practical solution is a format that includes an edited partbook

for each voice part and a full score for the conductor. This arrangement has historical precedence

in the Renaissance. The German composer and musician Adam Gumpelzhaimer (1559–1625)

used two manuscript scores in his work at St. Anne Church in Augsburg. Written notations in the

manuscripts indicate that he used them as conducting scores while the singers used printed or

written out partbooks.xiv

In the following edition of an excerpt from Thomas Morley's Agnus Dei xv the semibreve

has been transcribed as a half-note. Bar lines have not been included in the partbook notation, but

the conductor's score employs dotted Mensurstriche to help in showing vertical alignment. The

Mensurstriche do not indicate stress or accent. Accidentals are placed only before the notes to

which they apply. This helps to diminish the effect of the bar line and show that each note has its

own space in the horizontal flow of the music. Rests are transcribed with their corresponding

signs but no rest is longer than the equivalent of a modern whole rest.xvi Dynamics have not been

added, clefs have been modernized, and the pitch has been lowered by one step. A piano

reduction has been included with the full score.

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Conducting and Rehearsal Techniques

Rehearsal letters are probably the most important practical element added to the score

and partbooks. For rehearsal purposes, places must be identified in the score where all voice

parts begin a note or rest at the same time. These places occur in polyphonic music more

frequently at cadences than at the beginnings of phrases. Therefore, singers and conductors must

become used to the idea of beginning at the end of a phrase and going through the next, rather

than beginning with the first note of a phrase. When particular notes need to be discussed, the

number of notes before or after a letter is a fairly quick way to find the place in question. The

conductor should give clear and concise verbal directions or mark the partbooks with rhythmic

groupings, overall phrase structures, and textual stresses for each voice part. The singers will

then need to take responsibility for those elements as the conductor shows the regularity of the

tactus with a simple down-up or up-down motion. This two-part motion is not synonymous with

a 2/4 beat pattern. Rather, it is a continuous gesture, creating two equally stressed pulses.

Morley's use of the mensuration sign c indicates tactus at the semibreve. Therefore, each half

note in this edition receives one full up-down or down-up motion, and each pulse is represented

by quarter note. Therefore, each quarter note gets an up or down pulse of equal stress at a

comfortable tempo of m.m = 60–80.

The excerpt can be reproduced by individuals who would like to try out the concepts

presented. This piece was selected because it is contrapuntal, accessible to both high school and

college level choirs, and the text is fairly simple. It will provide an opportunity for conductors

and singers at a variety of levels to put themselves in the shoes of the Renaissance performer and

judge the results for themselves.

i Tess Knighton and David Fallows, eds., Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music (New York: Schirmer

Books, 1992), 254. ii Edward E. Lowinsky, “Early Scores in Manuscript,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 13 (1960):

156.

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iii Thomás Luis de Victoria, Gloria in excelsis Deo, James McKelvy, ed. (Champaign, Illinois: Mark Foster Music,

1969). iv Lowinsky, 159. v Jacob Handl, Ecce sacerdos magnus, Lawrence Doebler, ed. (Dayton, Ohio: Roger Dean Pub. Co., 1994).

Triangles have been placed in the score above certain voice parts to indicate triple rhythmic groups. Doebler

suggests in the editor's notes that the conductor should conduct in unobtrusive groups of three quarter notes

when a triangle appears in one voice and could also alternate between conducting quarter and half notes. vi Dennis Shrock, “Phrasing in Music of the Renaissance Era,” in Choral Essays: A Tribute to Roger Wagner, ed.

William Wells Belan (San Carlos, California: Thomas House Publications, 1993), 133–134. Shrock indicates

that bar lines were used quite extensively throughout the sixteenth century. These issues are also discussed at

length in Lowinsky's article on early scores (see note 2). While it is clear from the sources that scores were

used in the sixteenth century for study, composition, keyboard performance, and even conducting, they were

not normally used by singers for performance. vii Ibid., 153-54. viii Sebald Heyden, De arte canendi (Nürnberg, 1540), trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and

Documents, no. 26 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1972), 53. Other Renaissance writers who discuss

tactus in terms of duration rather than stress are Johannes Cochlaeus, Tetrachordum Musices (Nürnberg, 1511),

trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and Documents, no. 23 (n.p.: American Institute of

Musicology, 1970), 68; Heinrich Glarean, Dodecachordon (Basel, 1547), trans. Clement A. Miller,

Musicological Studies and Documents, no. 6 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1965), 232; and Thomas

Morley, A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music (London, 1597), ed. R. Alec Harmon (New York:

W. W. Norton, 1973), 19. ix Curt Sachs, Rhythm and Tempo (New York: W. W. Norton, 1953), 217–18. In a footnote attached to the above

quote, Sachs cites seven Renaissance writers who indicate the movement is down-up and eight writers who

indicate the movement is up-down. The final quote within Sach’s quote is from Thomás Sancta Maria, El arte

de tañer (Valladolid, 1565). x Heyden, 96. Other Renaissance writers who make similar statements regarding syncopation include Cochlaeus, 73;

Franchinus Gaffurius, Practica Musicae (1496), trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and

Documents, no. 20 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1968), 113; Glarean, 238; Pietro Aaron,

Toscanello in Musica I (1523), trans. Peter Bergquist (Colorado Springs: Colorado College Music Press,

1970), 49–50; and Hieronymus Cardanus, Writings on Music, trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies

and Documents, no. 32 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1973), 136. xi For example, see Kenneth Butcher and Donald Studebaker, “Choral Part-books Then and Now,” Choral Journal

26 (September 1985): 19–21. The article gives a brief history of partbooks and describes an experiment by two

choirs–one using partbooks, the other using a normal choral score for the preparation of a Renaissance

madrigal. xii Lowinsky and Shrock. xiii The experiment conducted by Butcher and Studebaker using partbooks (see note 11) had a positive result. This

author also has used partbooks in rehearsal and performance–with high school, undergraduate choirs, and

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graduate conducting students. In all instances, the positive musical benefits and excellent pedagogical

experience were noticed by participants. xiv Lowinsky, 145–46. xv Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (London: 1597). xvi This will allow singers to count more easily when they are not singing. Even with modern scores, singers tend to

be more cognizant of rhythm when they are actually singing, so the small rest values will encourage them to

keep their concentration and remain focused on the pulse.