16th Century Counterpoint

Die Handschrift Hs. Mus. 18746 in 5 Stimmbüchern, datiert 1523 und heute in der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, ist die früheste aktuell bekannte Sammlung ausschließlich 5 - stimmiger weltlicher Musik, dennoch relativ unbeachtet. Unter den 56 Kompositionen befindet sich eine signifikant große Anzahl an Wiederbearbeitungen ursprünglich 3 - stimmiger Chansons (Art - Song - Reworkings). Wiederum unter diesen fallen die 7 Bearbeitungen von “Fors seullement” am Ende der Handschrift auf. Ziel der Arbeit ist ein tiefer gehendes Verständnis der Kompositionsweise dieser Stücke. Dafür werden Techniken für die Entstehung von Art - Song - Reworkings erklärt und anhand von Gioseffo Zarlinos “Institutii Harmoniche” (1558) Kriterien für die Stücke, insbesondere für Komposition mit 5 und mehr Stimmen, erarbeitet. Darauf basieren die folgenden Analysen der Stücke, hauptsächlich nach Kadenzen, Modi, cantus firmus - Behandlung und Imitation. Die 7 Kompositionen sind sehr vielfältig und befinden sich auch nach der Analyse nicht eindeutig zuzuordnen im Spannungsfeld zwischen der im 15. Jahrhundert aufblühenden Praxis Chansons zu bearbeiten und einer moderneren Kompositionsweise, die in Theorie und Praxis ab der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts zu finden ist.
 
(incl. Transkriptionen in Partiturform und korrigierten Facsimiles) 

Complete transcription and reconstruction of the canon a13 for Christ and his Twelve Disciples on the Apostles Creed. This piece is found in both the Eton Choirbook and the Baldwin Manuscript. This edition contained both the fully realized canon as well as a modern reconstruction of the original monophonic version of the canon, as found in the manuscripts.

For a recording with a score animation see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBu66rLAv7I

A transcription of Leonin's "Viderunt Omnes" (c. mid to late 12th century), showing excerpts of the original two sources with comparative variations and a modern transcription.

For a recording and score-video see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p9WQlyVPrA

A Prolation Canon for three voices by Johannes Ciconia (c. 1370 – 1412). this piece is a unique example of irregular prolation from the French Ars Subtilior. Utilizing a 4:3:1 proportion, this piece creates an interesting rhythmic phasing effect between the triplum and the cantus (top two voices) nearly 600  years before the 20th century composer Steve Reich popularized such musical textures. Check out the score in motion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrOEOuwYy3M

A critical and performance edition of Alexander Agricola's chanson "De tous biens plaine" for three voices. The cantus firmus of the tenor is extracted from Hayne Van Ghizeghem's (c. 1445 – 1476 to 1497) eponymous chanson.

The text of the first verse is underlaid in this edition, though only the first few words actually appear in the manuscript. The complete text as found in a number of Ghizeghem's sources with a complete translation is given at the end.

It seems unlikely that the outer voices should be sung, given their continual motion, frequent awkward leaps, and extreme ambitus.  However, the inner voice certainly could be sung.

Read online to see the complete examples:

https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.3/mto.20.26.3.remes.html

ABSTRACT: This article provides the first English translation of a little-known manuscript treatise by the central-German composer and Capellmeister, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749), titled Kürzer und gründliche Unterricht (Brief and Thorough Instruction, ca. 1719-49). Stölzel's method frames speculative theory (trias harmonica and the tabula tradition) practically in terms of thoroughbass in order to provide simple instruction on how to invent the bass and middle voices to an original chorale melody. In the second half of the treatise, Stölzel uses thoroughbass to describe not only harmony, but also counterpoint. He does so by explaining various dissonant intervallic constellations in terms of the traditional terms "agent" and "patient," which describe the two voices involved in a dissonant syncopatio. Stölzel's treatise thus has both historical and practical value, since his method of chorale harmonization can provide welcome guidance for today's students and pedagogues.

A non-barred critical transcription of Alexander Agricola's motet-chanson "Belles sur toutes - Tota pulchra es" from Florence, Bibliotea del Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini,  MS 2439 ff. 63v-64r.

For a recording of the music with a score-video see link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2N_Ru9xjuA

This century we are assisting very revolutionary changes in culture, philosophy and knowledge. Are we going through a new renaissance? This was the slogan of a symposium in Amsterdam Netherlands, 21th January 2017. Dutch playwright, philosopher and controversialist Coornhert (1522-90) showed us with his teachings of perfectibility a way of rebirth which is still current. He describes this as a genuine killing of humankind's evil being and calling forth of God's good life in the human being who is sincerely aiming at perfection.

This is a threefold transcription of Baude Cordier's "circle canon," two versions in rondeau form and one in perpetual canon. Included with the music transcriptions are full translations from Medieval French to English of all the accompanying texts as well as an English text underlay for the music.

Also included is a full explanation of the various mensurations and colorations that appear in the piece.

The design of the scores attempts to illustrate the rondeau form overlaying the canonic conceit.

For a score animation with the transcription and original manuscript, see this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaeOWdXM4Pg

A pedagogical transcription of Richard Sampson's (attr.) motet in double canon, "Salve radix," written to celebrate the union of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon and the birth of their daughter, Mary.

For a video with recording accompanying the modern transcription with side-by-side animated original notated music see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9wl1XqV6Nk

https://theleupoldfoundation.org/product/remes-derek-the-art-of-preluding-deconstructing-and-reconstructing-the-preludes-in-j-s-bachs-well-tempered-clavier-volume-i-ii/

According to J. S. Bach, the fundamental principles of composition are derived from thoroughbass and the keyboard—The Art of Preluding: Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Preludes in J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier I & II demonstrates how. Each prelude is furnished with a reductive analysis of its thoroughbass background and voice-leading patterns. Following this deconstruction phase, a simplified figured bassline is presented to aid the reader in reconstructing an original work using Bach’s harmonic framework. To facilitate comparison, all preludes are transposed either to C major (Vol. 1) or A minor (Vol. 2). An extensive preface, which is divided between Vols. 1 and 2, provides the reader with detailed guidance and historical context. Finally, various appendices present C. P. E. Bach’s rule-of-the octave harmonizations and modulations, which played a central role in his understanding of improvisation. This historically oriented, pedagogical, and practical work will thus be of value particularly to teachers, students, and performers interested in eighteenth-century music.

Please visit <derekremes.com/publications/> to download Vol. 2: Examples, Appendices, and Bibliography. (The file is too large for the Academia website.)

The present work investigates the compositional pedagogy of J. S. Bach and his circle. According to Bach, the Fundamental-Regeln (fundamental principles) of composition are derived from thoroughbass and the keyboard. I have discovered that, in an autograph manuscript likely used in  his lessons, Bach used the words licentia and fundamental to rationalize a contrapuntal phenomenon known as anticipationes transitus in precisely the same manner as J. D. Heinichen did in his treatise, Der General-Bass in der Composition (1728). Given that Bach knew Heinichen’s treatise and that both men associate thoroughbass with composition, this study posits that Bach’s Fundamental-Regeln are related to Heinichen’s rationalization of modern contrapuntal licenses in relation to a “fundamental,” stile antico background. Additional support for linking Bach and Heinichen comes from my discovery that the anonymous “Vorschriften und Grundsätze” (1738), which originates from Bach’s circle, includes the same table of “fundamental” thoroughbass figures as Heinichen’s earlier 1711 treatise. For these reasons, Heinichen’s conception of thoroughbass, which differs significantly from late-eighteenth-century thoroughbass theory, plays a foundational role in this reconstruction of compositional pedagogy in Bach’s circle.

Based on an account by C. P. E. Bach, his father’s teaching involved three topic areas: thoroughbass, chorale, and fugue, each of which receives a chapter in this study. Chapter One argues that the primary reason thoroughbass emerged in Germany c.1700 as the dominant pedagogical and compositional method is that thoroughbass promotes an understanding of compositional relationships in a manner that tablature does not. Bach may have attributed such significance to thoroughbass because it enables a single player to control a polyphonic texture in real time through the simplification, synthesis, and embodiment of traditional contrapuntal teachings. Chapter one also explores the two most significant aspects of Heinichen’s thoroughbass theory: what I call “contrapuntal function” and “scale-degree function,” which are combined in Heinichen’s method of improvising a prelude. Next, Chapter Two explores the implications of the recent attribution of the Sibley Chorale Book to Bach’s circle and calls for a greater awareness of a generic distinction between chorale harmonization in the ornate, four-part, vocal Choralgesang style and the simpler, thoroughbass- and keyboard-centered Choralgesang style, which is in essence only two-voice (soprano and bass). A growing body of sources from Bach’s circle containing multiple basslines under each chorale support the hypothesis that Bach’s teaching also included this technique. Finally, Chapter Three begins by examining the relationship between chorale and fugue and by suggesting a possible pedagogical method of transitioning between the two. Next, thoroughbass fugues from Bach’s circle are explored, including two such works that Bach apparently used in lessons. Chapter Three closes with an investigation of the techniques of invertible counterpoint and canon as they relate to Bach’s teaching and presents some of their underlying principles in mathematical form.

Pervasive imitation became the dominant musical texture in sacred music of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 1 In pervasive imitation all of the voices are involved in repeating the same melodic material, and many or all of the phrases in the work begin with imitation. We will take a look at imitation in the early fifteenth century, and then focus on how pervasive imitation developed from the mid-to the late fifteenth century. Most of our examples are motets, since their position in the middle of the genre hierarchy, between chansons and masses, makes them resemble both, as Cumming has shown. 2 We will show how some patterns arise out of improvised practices, and tally imi-tative patterns in the section openings of the first five Petrucci motet prints, considering the contrapuntal constraints of imitative textures, with respect to both time and pitch intervals of imitation. Our conclusions reveal a surprising consistency of techniques in the late fifteenth century, and clear differences from imitation as used both earlier and later. This snapshot of an emerging musical style is of particular interest because this was a period when the aesthetic aims of variety and complexity were giving way to those of intelligi-bility and accessibility. 3 Imitative music is different from free counterpoint in that the consequent voice has to do what the lead voice did some time interval earlier, and the lead voice, if it continues, has to accommodate the consequent voice (i.e., follow the rules of counterpoint). In looking for patterns of imitation, the elements that we must consider are the pitch interval of imitation between voices, the time interval of imitation between voices, and the continuation of the lead voice (whether or not this continuation is repeated in the second voice). While some Uses of Imitation, " 269: he comments that in the early sixteenth century " consistency and simplicity of musical means were now preferred over complexity and variety. " [200]

The present database UUPart, also called The Uppsala Partimento Database, represents the work of cataloguing and linking the repertoire of the Italian partimento for the time span roughly between 1700 and 1850. Initially, it was developed as a research tool at a doctoral dissertation project called "Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples," recently published as nr. 25 in the series Studia Musicologica Upsaliensia of the Swedish publisher Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.

Through an identification string of the first ten pitches, UUPart facilitates the searching and identification of concordant sources within the repertoire of the Italian partimento. For a list of sources of this database, click here.

You can search for a partimento by using the "Partimento Note String" scroll bar on top of the search menu, or you can enter a number of pitches manually in the fields "begins with" or "contains." Click search to find the matching partimenti. The content of a source can be investigated by scrolling the "RISM Siglum / call number" list.

Citations of The Uppsala Partimento Database UUPart should be made in the same style as for printed books in a series. It should include the URL, followed by the date of access. We provide the following as a model:

Peter van Tour. UUPart, The Uppsala Partimento Database. Compiled and edited by Peter van Tour. Launched 2015, Uppsala. http://www2.musik.uu.se/UUPart/UUPart.php; accessed 9 May 2015.

Purcell’s sacred vocal music contains some of the most personal and expressive works in the composer’s entire output. Its harmonic and formal structures are rich and varied and, at different stages, show influences ranging from Gibbons to Blow to various ‘Italian’ masters. In describing such features, one is faced with the choice of whether to approach the music using analytical terminology which Purcell himself would have understood or to, conversely, to describe the music in terms which are more coherent to a present day musician. Another option is to use seventeenth-century terminology for certain concepts and to use alternative descriptions where there is a lack of contemporaneous theory to accurately express others. Purcell’s concept of key and scale can be understood by adopting this latter approach. While the content of historical treatises makes it possible for us to acquaint ourselves with terms which were used to describe basic musical concepts, there is something of a terminological lacuna regarding the description of intricate harmonic detail and form. Hence, there is a need to expand and add to this basic musical vocabulary in order to give Purcell’s music the level of attention required.
Within the context of detailed analyses, in this case the Funeral Sentences and Te Deum and Jubilate, such expansions of terminology can also provide valuable insights into questions regarding textual uncertainties and the features of Purcell’s compositional style. From the same approach, influences can be detected (such as that of Lully’s) which have not previously been explored. There is also much to be learned about Purcell’s harmonic practice from a detailed study of temperament. General theories relating to which keys sounded ‘in-tune’ in mean-tone tuning can be shown to relater closely to those keys Purcell favoured. In the case of the sacred music written for domestic performance, the utilisation of extreme, ‘out-of-tune’ keys sets it quite apart from that music which was written for the church.

For an audio-video animation of the manuscript with the modern transcription see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO56v7qltNo

An edition of the anonymous labyrinthine ballade on three canons, "En la maison Dedalus" (In the House of Dedalus) from the Berkeley Manuscript.

This edition includes a modern transcription of the music, the original manuscript excerpted, poetic and literal translations of the text, reconstruction of the 11-tier labyrinth upon which the music is overlain, and pedagogical materials/explanations of the musical and poetic medieval Ballade forme-fixe.

This study situates theories of movable counterpoint by the Russian composer and theorist Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856–1915) against current scholarship on Renaissance music. Analytical approaches that draw upon Taneyev’s theories can lead to rich insights into the inner workings of Renaissance counterpoint, most especially processes that have hitherto escaped attention. Through reference to specific repertoire examples discussed in recent scholarship, the present study demonstrates how Taneyev’s methodology and terminology can provide a basis for systematic identification of key procedures prevalent in Renaissance music. This study also considers how knowledge of Taneyev’s work can inform an approach that points to new possibilities for analyzing contrapuntal processes that operate across fifteenth- and sixteenth-century music.

A transcription of a lesser known masterpiece from the early 16th century. The only known work by composer Johannes Mittner, this Mass, and particularly its Sanctus movement, demonstrates one of the largest mensuration canons from the Renaissance - five voices from one.

For a audio-visual animation with recording see the link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCe7WGoJVLI

Johannes Mittner: Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarae, Sanctus
Sanctus a4,
Pleni sunt coeli a2,
Osanna I a5 mensuration canon,
Benedictus a4
Osanna II a3

Authors such as Knud Jeppesen, with his work on Palestrina (The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance), and Harold K. Andrews (The Technique of Byrd’s Vocal Polyphony) have proposed taxonomies for Renaissance music, based primarily on dissonance treatment. However, there has been much less discussion in the literature of formal issues in Renaissance music: which types of musical material characterize openings, and which suggest development or continuation. This approach recalls William Caplin’s analytic method in Classical Form, in which he shows how each small musical unit has a particular formal function in creating the overall shape of a composition.

Peter N. Schubert’s work in this area, in his article “A Lesson from Lassus: Form in the Duos of 1577,” and his text, Modal Counterpoint: Renaissance Style, is a point of departure for the current study. In his text, Schubert identifies “presentation types,” brief imitative or non-imitative musical units that characterize openings, loosely analogous to Caplin’s “basic idea.” In Schubert’s article, he describes how Renaissance composers employed varied repetition of these openings to create longer formal units. Similarly, Jessie Ann Owens, in Composers at Work, has noted how Renaissance composers design short, multi-voiced “modules,” around which they construct longer formal units (such “modules” recall Joseph Kerman’s notion of  “cell technique,” first expounded in “Old and New in Byrd’s Cantiones Sacrae”). These authors proceed from the assumption that Renaissance composers did indeed concern themselves with form, insofar as they strove toward designing long, musically unified sections from a brief opening idea.

Schubert’s work focuses on presentation types that are possible in a thin texture, namely, the imitative duo and the non-imitative module. Schubert also discusses imitative presentation in three or more voices, which he defines as a canon (an imitative duo with extra voices added at a consistent time interval of imitation). However, Schubert domits certain other possibilities in three or more voices, in which characteristics of the imitative module and non-imitative duo are blended into a hybrid presentation type. This paper, extending Schubert’s principles, proposes additional presentation types with which Byrd can begin a formal unit. These types, beginning with Schubert’s original three (imitative duo, non-imitative module and canon), will be examined, starting with presentation types in two voices, and proceeding through more intricate types in three and four voices. To list two of many possible hybrids that blend features of Schubert’s three presentation types: in a three-voice texture, two of the voices could form an imitative duo while a third voice provides homophonic support (semi-imitative presentation). Similarly, in four voices, a supporting part could underpin a three-voice canon (accompanied canon).

After introducing these presentation types, I will demonstrate how William Byrd distinguishes between opening gestures of varying musical weight and formal location in a composition by the kind of presentation type he uses to begin a formal unit. Byrd uses a limited number of presentation types at the beginning of a composition, but permits a wider range of initiating possibilities later in a work. Still other presentation types are unlikely to occur as beginnings at all, but rather arise from later variation and development of material whose initial presentation had been straightforward.

A feature of hybrid presentation types that is significant for their formal shape is their tendency to combine elements of presentation with elements of development. For example, a three-voice canon could combine the presentation of an imitative duo (formed by the first two entries) with its immediate transposed repetition (created by the second and third entries). This blending of beginning and middle (development) characteristics is a unique feature of Renaissance style that makes problematic the establishment of fixed categories of presentation and continuation, a problem that less often arises in post-Renaissance music. In Byrd’s music, and by extension, that of his contemporaries, the musical surface demands a more flexible approach in determining points of demarcation between formal building blocks: often, the opening presentational unit will blend imperceptibly with its subsequent continuation.

Finally, I will show how the developmental procedures inherent in hybrid presentation types points toward certain variation techniques (transposition, invertible counterpoint, textural thickening) that Byrd employs to develop his musical ideas. Using examples from Byrd’s three sets of Cantiones Sacrae (published 1575, 1589 and 1591), I will illustrate how a Renaissance composer can vary and expand initiating units to create a long span of musical material. I will furthermore show how this progression of material divides into presentation, continuation and conclusion units, based on the contrapuntal techniques that the composer uses in each of these three formal locations.

In diesem kompakten Band über die Kompositionstechnik des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts – als »Prima prattica«, »Stile antico« oder »Stylus gravis« bezeichnet – wird erklärt, wie Josquin, di Lasso, Palestrina u.a. komponiert haben und was die zeitgenössischen Musiktheoretiker dazu zu sagen hatten. Dazu zeigt Kontrapunkt I satztechnische Phänomene auf und veranschaulicht sie nicht nur mit zahlreichen berühmten Beispielen aus der Musikgeschichte, sondern auch mit hier erstmals neu gesetzten Exempeln aus historischen Lehrbüchern.

A modern edition of Nathaniel Giles (1558 - 1633/34) mensural bicinia, "Miserere," on 38 rhythmic proportions from the "Baldwin Commonplace Book" (1594). For a recording and animated score-video see this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRMx9koROOI

For a video animation of this piece see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm6WqK3cr_8

This is a pedagogical edition of Senleches' famous piece of augenmusik, "La Harpe de Mellodie" from the 14th century. Find herein complete explanations of all parts of the piece (pictorial, poetical, musical, formal, etc.). Complete translations of all texts are provided along with an explanation of translations methodology and problems. Complete high-resolution graphics of the two sources are included with two different possible realizations of the riddle canon.

A non-barred critical transcription of Alexander Agricola's contrafacta motet, "Virgo sub ethereis" (Source: Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, MS 40021 ff. 131v-132r) as derived from his "Comme femme desconfortée".

For a video of the score with a performance recording see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_nnTzNXeUY

In the introduction of the paper, the components of tonality, its emergence in the Renaissance period and also important concepts from the tonal theories of last three centuries will be explained, in order to provide a background for the theory.
The next chapter, which constitutes the main body of the study, is the presentation of the octatonic system. The construction of the system from components like tritone and minor third relationship, its connection with the concept of function and diatonicism will be explained in detail. After that, analytical examples from the common practice period will be presented in order to demonstrate the approach of the theory for typical tonal idioms.
In the third chapter, the system will be applied to musical examples from Guillaume de Machaut, Alexander Agricola, Pierluigi da Palestrina, Carlo Gesualdo, Claudio Monteverdi, Giacomo Carissimi and Arcangelo Corelli, in order to investigate the relationship between harmonic motion and the emergence of tonality.
In the final chapter, the evaluation of the theory will be made, in the context of the preliminaries from the first chapter also with the data from the analyses.

Edición facsímil del Libro llamado Arte de tañes fantasía de fray Tomás de Santa María (1565), según los ejemplares conservados en la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Barcelona (A-P6, 0700CM-4125-(V.1) y Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid (M-15088), con estudio preliminar de Luis Antonio González Marín

An original Compendium of baroque and classical voice-leading patterns offers a wealth of historically informed teaching materials for today's pedagogues. Drawing from recent scholarly trends in the German-language music-theoretical community, the historical approach offered here is at odds with many aspects of current Anglo-American music theory pedagogy. Chief among these is the absence of any reference to Roman numerals, chordal roots, or chordal inversion in the Compendium. Instead, a thoroughbass-centered approach is favored, in which the scale degree of the bassline is the primary analytical annotation. This encourages contrapuntal, rather than harmonic, considerations to come to the fore. The voice-leading patterns are divided into three categories: cadences, rules of the octave, and sequences. Each patterns is given in C-major and A-minor in a variety of upper-voice spacings. The student internalizes these patterns by playing, singing, and transposing them at the keyboard. Thus, the Compendium takes a decidedly practical, and less discursive approach than many current textbooks on baroque music.

This essay is a detailed analysis of the four-voice motet “De Profundis.” This work, usually attributed to Josquin, is a setting of the opening verses of Psalm 130. The analysis will first consider the motet’s formal design, its modal structure, and its cadential points. We will then examine the motet’s contrapuntal devices, and its reuse of motivic material. Finally, we will explore its pitch content, both at the surface and at deeper levels of structure. To this end, I have developed a form of reductive analysis based upon (primarily) stepwise connections between perfect vertical intervals (PVIs), intervals that have significance for modal definition in Renaissance style.

[Complete Dissertation]
Abstract
Interval-succession treatises convey idiomatic polyphony by explaining what vertical intervals between two voices could follow one another in improvisation and counterpoint, as connected by specified melodic motions. They were the primary means of the transmission of contrapuntal teaching in treatises for centuries. This dissertation is the first to take a comprehensive, computer-assisted approach to the study of these treatises’ numerous examples. I focus on the interval-succession lists in book I of Johannes Tinctoris’s Liber de arte contrapuncti (1477), and in book II of Pietro Pontio’s Ragionamento di musica (1588). By comparing Tinctoris’s list of 768 interval successions to the theoretical list of all the successions that follow his five explicitly-stated voice-leading principles, I refute the commonly-held misconception that Tinctoris’s list is exhaustive. In my examination of the 167 interval successions that respect all of Tinctoris’s explicit constraints, yet that he omits from his list, I uncover nine tacit voice-leading principles that all of Tinctoris’s successions respect despite the fact that he does not explicitly state them.
This study is also the first in-depth examination of the contrapuntal teaching found in Pontio’s list of 123 interval successions. I draw attention to the multitude of contextual enrichments that he brings to the theoretical genre, the most significant of which is the inclusion of dissonance directly into interval-succession theory. I expose the tacit theoretical assumptions and analytical methods that are apparent in his interval-succession examples when considered together as a coherent whole. Well-known for the numerous repertoire references that Pontio makes to his own and other composers’ works, I show that his approach to interval-succession theory is more akin to teaching through the use of commonplaces than through the memorization of tables of numerous examples. My examination of Tinctoris and Pontio’s interval-succession treatises culminates in a comparison of their theoretical and pedagogic approaches. An appendix provides a transcription of all the examples from book II of Pontio’s treatise.
I draw on these newly-uncovered facets of Tinctoris and Pontio’s intervallic thinking and some important concepts from Nicola Vicentino and Joachim Burmeister’s treatises to problematize the discernment of structural tones in a contrapuntal passage. These authors highlight important points to consider, but do not offer a viable approach to counterpoint reduction. I develop Ruth DeFord’s (2015) theoretical discussions of her terms “compositional tactus” and “contrapuntal rhythm” into a historically-informed method of determining the structural tones of Renaissance counterpoint. An automated implementation of this approach, which I call the dynamic-offset method, can be used to reduce a contrapuntal passage, or to more generally characterize its rhythmic profile. It is made freely available online as part of the VIS Framework (Vertical Interval Successions) for music analysis of scores in symbolic notation. This music-analysis framework is a tool open to music researchers looking to make empirical observations about a piece or corpus of music. By taking my research on Renaissance interval-succession treatises into account in the computational tools I have created, my research findings and new analysis methods are made available to other researchers both in written form in my dissertation, and as computational tools in the VIS Framework.

Résumé
Les traités de suites d’intervalles enseignent les idiomes de la polyphonie en expliquant les intervalles pouvant s’enchaîner dans l’improvisation et dans la composition, telles que connectées par des mouvements mélodiques précis. Ces traités ont été, pendant des siècles, le principal moyen de transmettre l’art du contrepoint. Cette thèse est la première à adopter une approche systématique et assistée par l’ordinateur pour l’analyse des nombreux exemples de ces traités. Mon étude porte spécifiquement sur les listes de suites d’intervalles incluses dans le premier livre du Liber de arte contrapuncti (1477) de Johannes Tinctoris, et dans le deuxième livre de Ragionamento di musica (1588) de Pietro Pontio. En comparant la liste des 768 suites d’intervalles de Tinctoris à la liste théorique de toutes les suites qui respectent ses cinq principes de maniement de voix explicitement développés dans son traité, je réfute l’idée fausse mais courante que son inventaire est exhaustif. Dans mon analyse des 167 enchaînements d’intervalles qui se conforment à toutes les contraintes explicites de Tinctoris mais qu’il a omis de sa liste, j’ai découvert dix principes tacites de maniement des voix que toutes ses suites d’intervalles respectent, bien qu’il ne les mentionne pas explicitement.
Cette étude constitue le premier examen en profondeur de l’enseignement pédagogique fait à partir de la liste des 123 suites d’intervalles identifiées par Pontio. Je souligne la multitude d’enrichissements contextuels qu’il apporte au genre théorique, le plus important étant l’inclusion de la dissonance directement dans sa théorie des suites d’intervalles. J’expose les suppositions tacites de son approche et de ses méthodes d’analyse qui sont apparentes dans ses exemples de suites intervalliques lorsque considérées comme un tout cohérent. Bien connu pour les nombreuses références à ses propres œuvres et à celles d’autres compositeurs, je montre que l’approche de Pontio concernant la théorie des suites d’intervalles est plus semblable à l’enseignement avec des lieux communs qu’à celui fondé dans la mémorisation de tables de nombreux exemples. Mon examen des traités de suites d’intervalles de Tinctoris et Pontio aboutit ainsi à une comparaison de leurs approches théoriques et pédagogiques. Une annexe fournit une transcription de tous les exemples du deuxième livre du traité de Pontio.
Je puise dans ces facettes nouvellement découvertes de la pensée intervallique de Tinctoris et Pontio et dans les traités de Nicola Vicentino et Joachim Burmeister afin de problématiser le discernement des notes structurales dans un passage de contrepoint. Ces auteurs soulignent beaucoup d’éléments importants à considérer, sans toutefois offrir une approche viable pour la réduction contrapuntique. Je développe la discussion théorique de Ruth DeFord (2015) à propos de ses termes « tactus de composition » et « rythme contrapuntique » en utilisant une méthode historiquement informée qui détermine les notes structurales dans le contrepoint de la Renaissance. Une mise en œuvre automatisée de cette approche, que j’appelle le « dynamic-offset method », peut être employée pour réduire un passage contrapuntique, ou pour caractériser son profil rythmique de façon plus générale. Cet outil est librement disponible en tant que partie du VIS Framework pour l’analyse musicale d’œuvres en notation symbolique. Ce logiciel d’analyse est mis à la disposition des chercheurs en musique qui souhaitent faire des observations empiriques à propos d’un morceau ou d’un corpus. En prenant en compte ma recherche sur les traités de suites d’intervalles de la Renaissance dans la création de ces outils d’analyse, mes conclusions et nouvelles méthodes d’analyses sont disponibles aux autres chercheurs dans cette thèse, et aussi comme outils numériques dans le VIS Framework.

Though Europe through the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries is often characterized by the aesthetic and political revolution of Humanism, there were other aesthetic trends counter to this resurgence of Classical culture. While many artistic European minds were enraptured with the rebirth and development of Greek art, math, and philosophy, some continued to find expression in reinventing and redefining Gothic aesthetics, carried forwards from the late Middle Ages. There is no better case for this than in the work of composer Alexander Agricola and painter Hieronymus Bosch. While we know very little about both of these men, their work is monumental, respected, and very odd. Bosch’s art is in the vein of a late Medieval practice, featuring rudimentary perspective and an overwhelming sense of hidden symbolism, often verging on the grotesque. In the same regard, we see Medievalisms in Agricola’s rhizomic counterpoint, bizarre form, and complicated polyrhythmic conceits.

These two artists stand as paragons for a pan-European cultural rejection to the revolution of Humanism during the Renaissance. Since the seminal 19th century survey of Renaissance music by musicologist August Wilhelm Ambros, Agricola’s work has been mostly relegated to the historical periphery as an anomaly, since it did not clearly conform to Humanist expectations of of the era. However, Ambros’s critique of Agricola’s music stands against all documented evidence from Agricola’s life, which attests to this composer’s fame and prominence, surpassed only by Josquin DesPrez according to the contemporary music theorists and composer Johannes Tinctoris. Upon closer inspection across artistic disciplines and national boundaries, Agricola’s and Bosch’s atypical aesthetic reveals itself as a cultural zeitgeist paralleling, if not countering, the revolutions of Humanism, intentionally exploring the incommensurate, arcane, surly, grotesque, and gothic side of European culture at the dawn of the early modern age.

In attempting to determine how Johann Sebastian Bach taught composition, this article draws on recent archival discoveries to claim that it was not the ornamented, vocal Choralgesänge, but the simpler, thoroughbass-centered Choralbuch style that played a central role in Bach’s pedagogy. Fascinatingly, many newly-rediscovered chorale books from Bach’s milieu contain multiple basses under each melody, suggesting that Bach too may have employed this technique. What theoretical perspectives shall we bring to bear on this long-lost multiple-bass chorale tradition? This article asserts that it is a fallacy to assume that any pattern-yielding methodology offers a valid window into Bach’s teaching. Rather, an attempt is made to recover modes of music-theoretical understanding that existed contemporaneously with Bach. Such a coterminous theoretical “paratext” potentially offers more insight into Bach’s pedagogy because it establishes a horizon of possibilities from which we can draw when examining multiple-bass composition. Foremost within this paratextual horizon is the centrality of thoroughbass for Bach’s understanding of composition. In particular, Bach was immersed in the pre-Rameau thoroughbass tradition as represented by the writings of Johann David Heinichen. In contrast to many modern harmonic perspectives, chordal roots and root progressions played little to no role in the pre-Rameau thoroughbass tradition. Dissonance was understood not harmonically, but dyadically in terms of syncopatio (suspension) and transitus (passing and neighbor) figures. Drawing from a variety of sources from Bach’s circle, particularly those of his pupil, Johann Christian Kittel, this article posits that Bach may have understood multiple-bass chorale harmonization in terms of interlocking clausulae – that is, as a series of overlapping cadential modules. In sum, this article contributes to an ongoing revisionist project of recent years that aims to elevate early eighteenth-century thoroughbass from mere “pre-theoretical” accompaniment practice to its true place as the theoretical and practical basis of compositional understanding in Bach’s day.

In der Absicht zu rekonstruieren, wie Johann Sebastian Bach Komposition unterrichtete, und ausgehend von Archivfunden aus jüngster Zeit stellt dieser Artikel die Behauptung auf, dass nicht die reich ausgestalteten, vokalen Choralgesänge, sondern der einfachere, generalbassbasierte Choralbuch-Stil in Bachs Pädagogik eine zentrale Rolle spielte. Faszinierenderweise enthalten viele neu aufgefundene Choralbücher aus Bachs Umfeld mehrere Bassstimmen unter jeder Melodie, was nahelegt, dass auch Bach diese Technik angewandt haben könnte. Welche theoretischen Perspektiven sind aus dieser lange Zeit aus dem Blick geratenen Tradition des Choralsatzes mit multiplen Bässen abzuleiten? Dieser Artikel bezweifelt, dass eine auf historisch späteren Denkweisen basierende Methodik tragfähige Perspektiven auf Bachs Unterricht gewähren kann. Stattdessen wird versucht, musiktheoretische Konzepte nutzbar zu machen, die aus Bachs Zeit stammen. Solch zeitgenössischer theoretischer »Paratext« bietet möglicherweise einen besseren Einblick in Bachs Pädagogik, da er einen Horizont von Möglichkeiten bietet, auf die man sich bei der Betrachtung der Komposition mit multiplen Bässen beziehen kann. Besonders wichtig ist die zentrale Rolle, die innerhalb dieses paratextuellen Horizonts der Generalbass für Bachs Verständnis von Komposition spielt. Insbesondere war Bach von der vor-Rameau’schen Generalbasstradition geprägt, wie sie in den Schriften Johann David Heinichens repräsentiert ist. Anders als viele moderne, von der Harmonielehre informierte Zugänge spielten Akkordgrundtöne und Grundtonfortschreitungen in der vor-Rameau’schen Generalbasstradition kaum eine bzw. gar keine Rolle. Die Dissonanz wurde nicht harmonisch, sondern als zweistimmiges Phänomen, als syncopatio (Vorhalt) oder transitus (Durchgang oder Nebennote) verstanden. Auf der Grundlage einer Auswahl von Quellen aus Bachs Umkreis, besonders denen seines Schülers Johann Christian Kittel, postuliert dieser Artikel, dass Bach die auf multiplen Bassstimmen basierende Choralharmonisierung im Sinne ineinandergreifender Klauselkombinationen, also als eine Folge einander überlappender Kadenzmodule verstanden haben könnte. Im Ergebnis trägt dieser Artikel zu einem seit einigen Jahren laufenden Projekt bei, das darauf abzielt, den Generalbass des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts vom Status einer bloßen ‚vor-theoretischen‘ Begleitpraxis zu befreien und ihn in seiner wahren Bedeutung zu würdigen, die ihm als der theoretischen und praktischen Grundlage des Verständnisses von Komposition zur Bach-Zeit zukommt.

This is the full text and map book (image document separate from and attached to the end of the text) of my undergraduate Bachelor's thesis completed and defended in May 2010. I received high honors and the Alumni Award in the History of Art for this project.

En los primeros meses de 1585, el predicador y sacerdote italiano Giovenale Ancina escribió un laudatorio epigrama dirigido al duque de Saboya, Carlos Manuel I, en el que solicitaba que admitiese la última publicación que Tomás Luis de Victoria le ofrecía, los "Motecta festorum totius anni" (Roma, 1585; RISM V1433). El epigrama de Ancina exhibía todas las convenciones del género encomiástico y no tendría mayor interés si no fuera porque entre las alabanzas a Victoria señalaba que, pese a su juventud, ya era venerado en Roma y popular en el resto de Italia y hasta en las Indias.
Pese a la temprana y publicitaria referencia de Ancina, la relación de Victoria con el Nuevo Mundo ha permanecido sumida en el más profundo de los silencios. Con el propósito de arrojar algo de luz sobre esta faceta poco conocida, este trabajo aborda la fortuna de Victoria en las Indias -tal y como en su época se llamaba al continente recién descubierto-, analizando la circulación de sus libros impresos, la recepción e integración de su obra en distintos contextos litúrgicos y ceremoniales por medio de copias manuscritas, la influencia del legado victoriano en los compositores locales y su revival en el marco de la reforma decimonónica de la música sacra, que también llegó al Nuevo Mundo. Analizando la dimensión americana del compositor, este ensayo aspira a completar la visión de uno de los compositores españoles más internacionales del siglo XVI.

In this chapter I will examine the significance and extent of extempore polyphonies in Spain during the Renaissance period, studying their diffusion as a daily practice, and their place in the musical training of young singers. The first part of the chapter will be centered on the practice and transmission of contrapunto, usually learned and performed “por razón”, that is, according to the rules of music, within Spanish capillas musicales. The second part of the chapter is concerned with the other tradition of oral polyphony, often learned and performed “por uso”, which was frequently called “cantar fabordón”.

http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/01/20/em.cau145.full.pdf+html

The Renaissance theory, transmission and practices of extempore counterpoint have been increasingly attracting the attention of scholars over the last few decades. Within the Spanish musical tradition, a variety of historical sources, such as counterpoint treatises and actas capitulares, are providing an insight into how these crafts were actually taught and performed by learned musicians and singers in chapels. In addition to this tradition of extempore contrapunto, which I define as the ‘learned oral tradition of polyphonic music’, some Spanish sources suggest the existence of an ‘unlearned oral tradition of polyphonic music’, usually performed by non-professional musicians and by men and women without any formal notion of music theory. The music of this ‘unlearned’ tradition was often considered an essentially ‘artless’ repertory and was related, to some extent, to the term ‘fabordón’. While the skills necessary to sing extempore contrapunto were formally studied by professional musicians and practised in chapels, the unlearned tradition of polyphony, that is the capacity to perform simple consonances within a chordal and homophonic style on an existing tune or cantus firmus, was generally transmitted and sung by ear (‘por uso’). It can be seen as belonging to the oral tradition of common people who sung profane or devotional polyphonic songs ‘by ear’, but was also employed in churches where singers, monks and clergymen were accustomed to sing the psalm tones ‘a fabordón’. In this article I examine the various sources that describe this unlearned oral tradition of polyphonic music.

http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/01/20/em.cau145.full.pdf+html

Este estudio es el tercero de una serie de catálogos dedicados a las pinturas murales de la Edad Moderna que se localizan en templos rurales de ambos lados de la frontera de España y Portugal. El primero de ellos, en el año 2012, tuvo por objeto la comarca zamorana de Sayago y fue realizado por Ana González Obeso y Raquel del Cura. En 2018, en el marco del proyecto “Patrimonio Cultural en Común”, cofinanciado por fondos europeos del programa INTERREG-V-A de Cooperación Transfronteriza España-Portugal (POCTEP 2014-2020),  de la mano de Sergio Pérez Martín el estudio se extendió a las comarcas vecinas del noroeste de Salamanca. Dentro de ese proyecto de cooperación europea este mismo autor ha abierto el foco al resto de las comarcas occidentales de Zamora con el fin de recopilar los ejemplos, algo más aislados, existentes en esos territorios, que participan de las mimas características que los ya estudiados tanto en Castilla y León como en Portugal. El catálogo recoge un total de ocho templos zamoranos de las comarcas de Alba, Aliste, Carballeda y Sayago precedido de un estudio de caracterización y contexto que tiene en cuenta los resultados de todos los trabajos anteriores.