10 February 2008
Late Renaissance
In these pieces I want you to listen for the way the text is set. As you can see from the documents of the Council of Trent, the Catholic church, owing to the newfound interest in humanism, grew particularly interested in the clear presentation of the text. Think about the way the music fits the text and vice versa, especially in regard to the Palestrina work - the piece which by legend, though not by history, is given credit for "saving" music.
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In Palestrina's Credo specifically, it is clear that the voices are very tightly structured, and their relationships are such that although no one voice dominates, the melodies are audible. Palestrina supposedly saved music by striking a compromise between the Church's desire to respect the integrity of the text while maintaining his own desire to utilize polyphony in his music. As the documented facts show, the Church was in the process of reform anyway due to England's founding of the Anglican church. Additionally, Palestrina wrote his Credo as a direct result of his meeting with Pope Marcellus, so it is not surprising that it was adopted.
Palestrina's Credo sounds a lot like the typical church music that one is accustomed to today, as opposed to the Eastern-sounding pieces. It was nice to hear the phrases repeated several times, I'm not sure how this would have sounded under cathedral acoustics, but it's certainly easier to follow the text as such. Also it sounded happier, perhaps it was more consistently written in a major key, if they existed back then?
i thought the josquin piece 'sanctus' (i hope the one on music hum reserves was the right one) was very refreshing to listen to. the cantus firmus is replaced by a moving bass line that's in constant dialogue with the higher voice, and all throughout there is constant imitation. this is one step further than the isorhythmic motets we heard before, because here the imitation is not just in rhythm but in the melodic intervals of phrases.
The Council of Trent had a particular vicious summation of music - "howling, bellowing and stammering, so that they more nearly resemble cats in January than flowers in May." - after reading this, I am most interested to see how the musical features reflect the influence of Renaissance humanism - how exactly does the repetition of words 'save' music?
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