Download Chapter II Rhythm and Accent

Sixteenth Century Polyphony
Chapter II: Rhythm & Accent (con’t)
1
Chapter II
Rhythm and Accent (continued)
Continuing the analysis of Sicut rosa, compare these four settings of odorem:
Setting 1
Setting 2
Setting 3
Setting 4
In the first three settings, the verbal accent on do- is supported gracefully by
musical means, but in the last setting the agogic accent on o, supported by tonic
accent could overshadow the verbal accent on do- causing it to be sung:
Sixteenth Century Polyphony
Chapter II: Rhythm & Accent (con’t)
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However the melismatic support of do- could justify a quite different interpretation
in which the agogic plus tonic accent on o is suppressed to the point of being a
mere anacrusis:
In the longer melismas, a five-beat stretch seems to be the usual limit of a line
“floating” without accents. Lassus nearly always provides some feature of stress
on the sixth beat which can be touched lightly so as not to obstruct the flow:
In the bass setting of this same word, the scale-passage is shorter. Here, one
can either follow the tenor model or (preferably) the whole can be ‘floated’ in a 5beat group:
or
An exception: At the end of Ipsa te cogat pietas Lassus has a melisma
beginning with seven beats of quarter-notes and in the lower voice nine beats of
quarter-notes. One has the choice of attempting to “float” these unusually long
passages without accent, or make some provision like the following, determined
by the unusual sequential figure of four notes:
Sixteenth Century Polyphony
Chapter II: Rhythm & Accent (con’t)
3
(insert example 2.6 here)
In this music, accents are not percussive. The sung accent is made by a kind of
pressing or leaning on the note, a gentle increase in volume. The degree of
stress can be varied for expressive reasons, and it may be that some accents on
big numerals are generally weightier than those on the small.
Assignment
1) Mark in accents (VATMC) and beat-numerals in Oculus non vidit.
O-cu-lus non vi-dit,
Nec au-ris au-di-vet,
Nec in cor ho-mi-nes a-scen-dit,
Quae prae-pa-ra-vit de-us his,
Qui di-li-gunt il-lum.
Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor hath arisen in the heart of man
what the Lord hath prepared
For those who love Him.
2) Sing the piece while conducting the accent patterns. Begin to memorize this
piece. You will be expected to write it out from memory in a few weeks.