Download Chapter 6

Concise History of Western Music
Fourth Edition
Chapter 6
Music of Franco-Flemish
Composers, 1450-1520
By Barbara Russano Hanning
Based on J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J.
Grout, and Claude V. Palisca, A History of
Western Music, Eighth Edition
© 2010, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
PRELUDE
Prelude
• Antiquity influenced the Renaissance greatly
but had a limited effect on music.
– No music was known from ancient Greece and
Rome.
– Music from antiquity was understood only
through writings.
– Contemporaries were disappointed that “modern”
music did not have the power described by Greek
writers.
Renaissance style
• The Renaissance was more of a general cultural
movement than a compositional technique.
• Music changed rapidly, making a uniform style
difficult to define.
• The style of the Burgundian regions spread to
other areas of western Europe.
• Depending on where they were born, northern
composers were known by several descriptions.
– French
– Franco-Flemish
– Netherlandish
Renaissance style
• Each generation built on the accomplishments
of the previous one.
• A large number of first-rank composers were
active around 1500, including Josquin des
Prez, one of the most highly renowned
composers of all time.
THE MUSICAL CULTURE OF THE
RENAISSANCE
Music theory
• Students studied Boethius as early as 1424.
• Greek treatises were brought to the West
from Byzantium.
Music theory
• Heinrich Glarean (1488–1563) added four new
modes.
– Aeolian and Hypoaeolian with finals on A
– Ionian and Hypoionian with finals on C
– These additions reconciled traditional theory with
current practice.
• Theories were adjusted to incorporate
harmonies with thirds and sixths.
Counterpoint
• New rules were created for the treatment of
dissonances, leading to a new style of
counterpoint.
• Tinctoris, Liber de arte contrapuncti (A Book on
the art of counterpoint, 1477)
– A Flemish composer, Tinctoris settled in Naples.
– He suggested that nothing written before 1430 was
worth hearing.
– He developed strict rules for treatment of dissonance.
Counterpoint
• Gioseffo Zarlino, in Le institutioni harmoniche
(Harmonic foundations, 1558), refined and
synthesized theories on counterpoint.
Words and music
• Humanists believed that music and words draw
strength and meaning from each other.
• Greeks inspired both poets and composers.
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Poets were concerned with the sound of their verses.
Composers expressed the content of the text.
Music followed the grammatical structure of the text.
Music followed the natural accentuation of syllables.
The printing press
• Books and treatises
spread the ideas of
antiquity.
• Music was put in the
hands of a great
number of people.
Preeminence of Italy
• The region was close to the source of ancient
learning.
• Wealthy families supported secular music.
NORTHERN COMPOSERS: THE
GENERATION AFTER DU FAY
Jean de Ockeghem (ca. 1420–1497)
• While most northern composers spent some
time in Italy, Ockeghem was known in that
region by reputation only.
• Humanist Cosimo Bartoli said that Ockeghem
“rediscovered music” and compared him to
Donatello.
Ockeghem’s masses
• Ockeghem composed thirteen masses
• General characteristics
– Four voices of similar character
– Contrapuntal texture
– The bass line extended lower, creating a darker
and fuller tone.
Ockeghem’s masses
• Tenor masses
– A single cantus firmus is used as the basis for
every movement.
– The cantus firmus is placed in the tenor line.
– Ockeghem’s Missa De plus en plus takes its cantus
firmus from the tenor part of the chanson by
Binchois
Ockeghem’s masses
• Cyclic masses
– All of the ordinary movements of the mass are
unified musically.
– Tenor masses are a type of cyclic mass, since all
movements have the same cantus firmus.
Ockeghem’s masses
• Masses without a cantus firmus have a variety
of names.
– Titles may come from the mode (e.g. Missa quinti
toni, “Mass in mode 5”)
– Missa mi-mi is named after the first two notes of
the bass.
– Structural features: Missa prolationum and Missa
cuiusvis toni
– No distinctive quality: Missa sine nomine (“Mass
without a name”)
Canons
• Device in which new parts are derived from an
original part
• Composers wrote two or more lines with
instructions on how to create other lines.
Canons
• The instructions are the canon, meaning “rule” or
“law.”
– Instructions indicate when the new voices should
enter.
– New voices could start on the same or a different
pitch.
– The intervals of a new voice could be inverted.
– A new voice could be the melody sung backward, in a
retrograde or cancrizans (“crab”) canon.
– Voices could move at different speeds, in a
mensuration canon.
– Musicians valued puzzle canons for ingenuity and skill.
Canons
• Ockegehm Missa prolationum, Kyrie 1
– Two voices are written, but it is sung with four
using prolation canons.
– Each of the two parts has two clefs and
mensuration signs, allowing two voices to sing
each line at a different pitch and meter.
Secular music
• Chansons from 1460–1480 used more
imitative counterpoint than before.
• Ockeghem and Busnoys (ca. 1430–1492) still
made use of the formes fixes.
– The rondeau remained common.
– The ballade and virelai declined.
• Chansons were popular and supplied material
for masses.
Secular music
• Je ne puis vivre by Busnoys
– Smooth, arching melody employing a wide range
– Constantly changing rhythms
– Imitation between tenor and cantus over free
counterpoint in the contratenor
– The contratenor is more singable than in Du Fay’s
style.
THE NEXT GENERATION: JOSQUIN
AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
The Next Generation
• The next generation modeled its works on
those of Ockeghem.
• Typical career of composers born at
midcentury:
– Early musical training took place in the Low
Countries.
– Traveled widely, working throughout Europe,
often in Italy
The Next Generation
• Jacob Obrecht (1457/8–
1505)
– Born in Dutch town of
Bergen op Zoom
– Died of the plague in
Italy while working in
Ferrara
The Next Generation
• Henricus (Heinrich) Isaac (ca. 1450–1517)
– Flemish composer
– Ended career in Italy serving the Medici family
The Next Generation
• Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450–1521)
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Most influential composer of his time
Probably born in northern France
Served in the chapel of the duke of Anjou in the 1470s
Worked in Milan, at the Sistine Chapel in Rome, in
France, and for the Duke of Ferrara
– He left Ferrara in 1504, possibly to escape the plague,
and took a position at the church of Notre Dame at
Condé-surl’Escaut, where he remained until his death.
Northern and southern
• Their music combines northern and southern
qualities.
Northern and southern
• Northern
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Serious tone
Formal structure
Intricate polyphony
Subtly flowing rhythms
• Southern
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Spontaneity
Simple structures
Homophonic texture
Dancelike rhythms
Clearly articulated
phrases
Secular music
• Odhecaton
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Published in Italy by Petrucci
First printed anthology of chansons
Music dates from about 1470 to 1500
Composers include those from the late Burgundian
era and from the new generation
– Two more volumes followed, indicating the popularity
of northern composers.
– More than half of the chansons are for three voices
and are written in older styles.
Secular music
• New style
– Four-voice chansons have a full sound and use
imitative counterpoint.
– They exhibit a clear harmonic structure.
– Duple meter replaces the triple meter of the
Burgundians.
JOSQUIN DES PREZ
Secular music
• Abandoned the formes fixes
• Strophic texts from simple four- or five-line
poems
• The texture is unified by imitation; all voices are
equal.
• Mille regretz (A thousand regrets) attributed to
Josquin
– The voices are similar, creating a homogeneous
texture.
– Homophony and imitation alternate.
– Each phrase of text receives its own treatment.
Motets
• Josquin’s preference for motets was unusual
at the time.
• He set the words carefully to communicate
the meaning of the text.
– His syllabic setting was more direct than
Ockeghem’s.
– Phrases of text were presented as uninterrupted
thoughts.
– Chansons were used as models for text setting.
Motets
• Ave Maria . . . virgo serena (Hail Mary . . . serene
Virgin)
– One of his earliest and most popular motets (1485)
– The text defines the musical sections, with each
couplet or strophe treated uniquely.
– Overlapping points of imitation create unity; before
the last voice has finished a phrase, a different voice
begins a new phrase with new text.
– Words are declaimed naturally; some have their
meaning reinforced by a suitable musical gesture.
Masses
• Many are conservative.
• The majority uses a secular tune as a cantus
firmus.
• Technical ingenuity is prevalent.
– Missa L’homme armé super voces musicales
transposes the tune to successive degrees of the scale
and concludes with a mensuration canon.
– Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae, written in honor of the
duke of Ferrara, uses a cantus firmus drawn from the
vowels in the name of his patron, a technique called
soggetto cavato dalle vocali.
Masses
• Parody
– Instead of borrowing a single melody (as in a
cantus firmus mass), a parody mass borrows
extensively from all voices of a model.
– The resemblance is strongest at the beginning and
end of each movement.
– The parody mass replaced the cantus firmus mass
as the dominant type around 1520.
Masses
• Paraphrase
– Instead of using a melody as a cantus firmus, the
melody is paraphrased in all four voices in each
movement.
– Like the parody mass, the paraphrase mass
creates a unified work, which is still considered to
be a cyclic mass.
– Missa Pange lingua, one of Josquin’s last masses,
is based on the plainchant hymn Pange lingua
gloriosi.
Additional Art for Chapter 6
Figure 6.1
Example 6.1a
Example 6.1b
Figure 6.6
Figure 6.7
Example 6.2
Figure 6.10
This concludes the presentation slides for
Chapter 6: Music of Franco-Flemish Composers,
1450-1520
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