Download Chapter 8

Prelude
• The Reformation was a revolt against the
spiritual leadership of Rome.
– Martin Luther initiated the movement in Germany
(1517).
– Calvin and his followers: France, the Low
Countries, and Switzerland
– Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in
England.
– Attitudes towards music varied in each of the
reform movements.
Lutheran Church
• The Lutheran Church initially maintained ties
to the Catholic service.
– Some music kept the original Latin texts.
– Other melodies had Latin texts translated into
German.
– Contrafactum: new texts fitted to old melodies
Lutheran Church
• Chorale
– Strophic hymn intended to be sung by the
congregation in unison
– Some tunes were borrowed; others were newly
composed.
– Chorales became source material for later
Lutheran composers, such as J. S. Bach.
Other Protestant Churches
• Calvinists distrusted the allure of music.
– They prohibited the singing of texts not found in
the Bible.
– Only notable contribution: rhymed metrical
translations of the Book of Psalms set to music,
either newly-composed or borrowed
– Psalm tunes were rarely expanded into larger
musical works.
Other Protestant Churches
• Anglican Church
– Created by Henry VIII
after separation from
Rome in 1534.
– The split was more
political than religious.
– The music retained
Catholic traditions,
except that English
replaced Latin.
Counter-Reformation
• Movement in Catholic Church to win back
those who left
– Numerous liturgical reforms resulted.
– The role of polyphonic music in the church was
reaffirmed.
Counter-Reformation
• Palestrina
– He captured the essence of the musical CounterReformation.
– His style became a model for church-music
composition and is used by students of
counterpoint even today.
THE MUSIC OF THE REFORMATION
IN GERMANY
Martin Luther
• A singer, composer, and great admirer of Josquin
• He believed in the educational and ethical powers
of music.
• He wanted the congregation to participate in the
services.
• He retained some aspects of the Catholic liturgy,
but altered others.
• Much of the service was translated into German,
but some portions remained in Latin.
Music in the Church
• Large churches with trained choirs kept much
of the Latin liturgy and its polyphonic music.
• Smaller churches adopted a German Mass,
published by Luther in 1526.
– It followed the main outline of the Roman Mass.
– Most elements of the Proper and Ordinary were
replaced with chorales.
Chorales
• Through chorales (hymns), the congregation
learned the tenets of their faith and
celebrated religious holidays.
• Chorales originally had only a text and a tune.
• Characteristics
– Simple, metrical tunes
– Rhyming verses
– Easily memorized
Chorales
• The majority of chorale tunes were adapted from
preexisting sources.
– The Easter sequence Victimae paschali laudes became
Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ lay in the bonds of
death).
– Isaac’s Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen became O
Welt, ich muss dich lassen (O world, I must leave you).
– The hymn Veni redemptor gentium attributed to St.
Ambrose, became Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.
Chorales
• Newly-composed chorales
– Luther encouraged the composition of new tunes
and texts and wrote some himself.
– Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A sturdy fortress is
our God), Luther’s best-known chorale, became
the anthem of the Reformation
Luther, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
Polyphonic chorale settings
• Three types of settings
– German lied technique: unaltered chorale tune in
long notes in the tenor surrounded by three or
more parts, as seen in the works of Johann Walter
– Franco-Flemish motet style: each phrase is treated
in imitation
– Chordal style: tune in soprano; this became the
preferred setting
Polyphonic chorale settings
• The choir often alternated chorale stanzas in
four parts with unaccompanied unison verses
sung by the congregation.
Polyphonic chorale settings
• Later developments
– The organ played harmony while the congregation
sang all of the verses.
– Trained choirs sang more elaborate treatments of the
chorale.
– Chorale motets—free polyphonic compositions built
on a chorale—appeared by the end of the century.
– Organists used chorale tunes for improvisations.
– These tendencies culminate in the music of J. S. Bach.
REFORMATION CHURCH MUSIC
OUTSIDE GERMANY
Calvinism
• John Calvin (1509–1564) rejected the Catholic
liturgy.
– He believed that music might lead people astray.
– Musical instruments and polyphonic music were
forbidden.
– Psalms sung to monophonic tunes was the only
music allowed in church.
Calvinism
• The tunes appeared in collections called
Psalters.
• The principal French Psalter (1562)
– All 150 psalm texts were translated into strophic,
rhyming, and metrical verse.
– Loys Bourgeois (ca. 1510–ca. 1561) selected or
composed the melodies.
– Melodies move mostly by step.
– Psalm 134 is known as “Old Hundredth.”
“Old Hundredth”
Calvinism
• Polyphonic psalm settings
– For devotional use at home, polyphony was
allowed.
– Many had four or more parts, with the tune in the
soprano or tenor.
– Settings were often in chordal style, but some had
more elaborate motet-like arrangements.
Calvinism
• Leading composers of polyphonic settings
– Claude Goudimel (ca. 1520–1572), France
– Claude Le Jeune (ca. 1528–1600), France
– Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621),
Netherlands
Calvinism
• Influence of the French Psalter
– Translations of the Psalter appeared in many
countries.
– Other Reformed Churches, including the Lutheran
Church, adapted Psalter melodies for their own
services.
– The French Psalter influenced the English Psalter
and the Psalter brought to New England by the
Pilgrims in 1620.
Anglican Church
• Most of the English polyphonic music from this
period is sacred.
• After the break with Rome, traditional Latin
motets and masses continued to be written.
• General qualities of English polyphony
–
–
–
–
Full textures
Strong feeling for the harmonic dimension of music
Textural variety through contrasting voice groups
Long melismas in all voices, resulting in passages of
extraordinary beauty and expressiveness
Anglican Church
• Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505–1585)
– Leading English composer in the middle of the
century
– Composed Latin masses and hymns
– Also composed Anglican service music in English
– His style weds the melody to the natural inflection
of speech.
Anglican Church
• Principal forms of Anglican music: the Service
and the anthem
– A complete Service is equivalent to the Catholic
Mass, Matins, and Vespers.
– Music for a Great Service is contrapuntal and
melismatic.
– Music for a Short Service is chordal and syllabic.
– Example: Great Service of William Byrd
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION
Council of Trent (1545–1563)
• Series of meetings held in Trent (Northern Italy)
to purge the Church of abuses and laxities
• Complaints about music
–
–
–
–
–
Secular cantus firmi
Complicated polyphony that obscured words
Bad pronunciation
Irreverent musicians
Use of instruments
• The final decision was vague, leaving it to bishops
to regulate music.
Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490–1562)
• Flemish composers remained prominent
throughout Europe.
• Willaert was among the best-known composers
of his time.
• He held several positions in Italy.
– Director of music at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice for
thirty-five years
– He trained many eminent musicians, including Zarlino,
Cipriano de Rore, and Nicola Vicentino.
• Willaert carefully molded his music to the
pronunciation of the words.
GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA
PALESTRINA (1525/6–1594)
Reputation
• Credited with saving polyphony
– According to legend, his Pope Marcellus Mass
proved that sacred words could be intelligible in
polyphonic music.
– Palestrina said that the mass was composed “in a
new manner.”
– The six-voice mass is reverent and attentive to the
words.
Reputation
• Palestrina’s style is the
first in Western music
to have been
consciously preserved
and imitated.
• Few composers before
Bach are as well-known
today.
Mass types
• Half of his works are parody masses.
• Several use the old-fashioned cantus-firmus
method, including two on the L’homme armé
melody.
• He composed a small number of canonic
masses.
• He wrote six free masses, including the Pope
Marcellus Mass.
Pope Marcellus Mass, first Agnus Dei
• The melodies are similar to chant
– Stepwise motion
– Few repeated notes
– The range is limited to a ninth.
– Melodies often form an arch.
– Leaps are followed by notes in the reverse
direction.
Pope Marcellus Mass, first Agnus Dei
Pope Marcellus Mass, first Agnus Dei
• Diatonic modes are maintained, and
chromaticism is rare.
• Each phrase has its own motive that is treated
in overlapping points of imitation.
• Overall unity
– Systematic repetition of phrases
– Cadences on scale degrees that define the mode
Contrapuntal analysis, m. 10-15
Pope Marcellus Mass, Credo
• Attention to text setting is clear.
• Voices often pronounce a phrase together
rather than in staggered polyphony.
• Variety is achieved by dividing the choir into
smaller groups.
• Use of the full six voices is reserved for
climactic passages or significant words.
PALESTRINA’S CONTEMPORARIES
Tomás Luís de Victoria (1548–1611)
• The most famous Spanish composer of the
sixteenth century, he composed sacred music
exclusively.
• Influence of Palestrina
– Victoria spent two decades in Rome, where he
probably knew Palestrina.
– He was the first Spanish composer to master
Palestrina’s style.
Tomás Luís de Victoria (1548–1611)
• Differences from Palestrina
– Greater expressive intensity
– More chromatic
– Example: O magnum mysterium often has the
sixth degree lowered and the seventh raised.
O magnum mysterium
Tomás Luís de Victoria (1548–1611)
• Missa O magnum mysterium
– A parody mass based on his own motet
– The Kyrie begins with an exact quotation of the
motet’s imitation.
– Each movement reworks the original and in a new
way.
Orlande de Lassus (1532–1594)
• The last of the long line
of Franco-Flemish
composers, he traveled
extensively.
• Differences from
Palestrina
– He wrote many secular
works.
– Was an advocate of
emotional and pictorial
text expression
Orlande de Lassus (1532–1594)
• By age twenty-four he had published books of
sacred and secular music.
• Cum essem parvulus (1579)
– Six-voice motet composed to words from St. Paul’s
first epistle to the Corinthians.
– Text “When I was a child” with simple, childlike
setting
– Throughout, the words prompt every musical gesture.
• Lassus influenced later German composers.
William Byrd (ca. 1540–1623)
• The most important English composer of the
Renaissance
• Probably studied with Thomas Tallis
• Although a Catholic, he served the Church of
England as organist and choirmaster and
composed in all the Anglican genres.
William Byrd (ca. 1540–1623)
• Sing joyfully unto God
– Anthem for six voices
– Points of imitation open the work.
– Homophonic declamation used sparingly (e.g., at
“Blow the trumpet”)
– Bass motion a fifth down or a fourth up for
cadences
– Passages in imitation vary the intervals and
rhythm.
William Byrd (ca. 1540–1623)
• By the 1590s he was composing for Catholics
worshiping in secret.
• He composed three masses, one each for
three, four, and five voices.
• Gradualia (1605 and 1607)
– Two books
– Polyphonic settings of the complete Mass Proper
for the Church year.
This concludes the presentation slides for
Chapter 8: Sacred Music in the Era of the
Reformation
For more, visit our online StudySpace at:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/concise-history-western-music4/