Download Singing Renaissance Music From Partbooks

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