Music History Notes

Josquin Desprez

  • Mille regretz (1520): A four-part chanson, one of Josquin's most performed works.

    • Texture: Alternates between homophony and imitation.
    • Voice Combinations: Uses varying combinations of 2, 3, or 4 voices.
    • Text Reflection: The texture mirrors the text. For instance, "jay si grand dueil" (I feel so much sadness) is set in four-part homophony.

  • Ave Maria…virgo serena (1480-85): One of Josquin’s earliest and most popular motets.

    • Words: Drawn from three different texts, all addressed to the Virgin Mary.
    • Text Depiction: One of the first pieces to use music to depict the meaning of the text.
    • Texture: The closing prayer is set in chordal homophony, capturing the simplicity of the prayer.

  • Missa Pange lingua: Kyrie and part of Credo (1515): One of Josquin’s last masses.

    • Paraphrase Mass: Based on a plainchant hymn that is paraphrased in all four voices, leading to points of imitation and thus is named paraphrase mass.

Jacques Arcadelt

  • Il bianco e dolce cigno (1538): An early madrigal.
    • Style: Blends homophony with occasional imitation.
    • Text: Contrasts a swan's sorrowful death with the speaker's joyful "death" of love, possibly alluding to Neoplatonic ideas of love as a form of dying and rebirth, or even sexual climax ("the little death").
    • Musical Depiction: The swan's demise is depicted with a plaintive rising and falling half step.
    • "Mille mort' il dì": The concluding line (“with a thousand deaths a day I would be content”) is vividly portrayed through multiple imitative entrances, suggesting the repeated act of "death".

Luca Marenzio

  • Solo e pensoso (1590s): A middle madrigal.
    • Style: Known for artistic depiction of contrasting emotions and visual details.
    • Text: Based on a Petrarch sonnet, portraying a solitary, pensive poet walking slowly.
    • Musical Representation: The opening image is achieved in the top voice through a striking, slow chromatic ascent spanning over an octave, moving by half steps each measure. The words "flee" and "escape" are musically represented by rapid, imitative figures.

Carlo Gesualdo

  • “Io parto” e non più dissi (1600): A late madrigal.
    • Style: Favored modern poems with strong imagery, amplified musically through dramatic contrasts.
    • Musical contrasts: Sharp juxtapositions of diatonic and chromatic passages, dissonance and consonance, chordal and imitative textures, and varied rhythms.
    • Text setting: Often fragmented poetic lines to highlight impactful words with vivid musical depictions.
    • Example: Slow, chromatic, and dissonant chordal music portrays a woman's lament. The lover's revival ("vivo son") is depicted with faster, diatonic, and imitative figures.

Claudin de Sermisy

  • Tant que vivray (1527): A Parisian Chanson.
    • Style: Lighthearted and optimistic approach to love poetry, departing from traditional courtly love themes, similar to a frottola or villancico.
    • Melody: Resides in the top voice, supported by harmonies mainly consisting of thirds and fifths, with occasional sixths above the bass.
    • Texture: The four voices largely declaim the text homophonically, resulting in accented dissonances at cadences.
    • Rhythm: Opens with a common long-short-short rhythm.
    • Poetic Structure: The ends of poetic lines are emphasized by longer notes or repeated notes, highlighting the poem's structure.

Thomas Morley

  • Sing we and chant it (1595): A Ballett.
    • Style: Models Gastoldi's "A lieta vita."
    • Structure: Strophic with two repeated sections (AABB).
    • Texture: Each section starts with homophonic settings of couplets and ends with a "fa-la-la" refrain.
    • Musical elements: Borrows rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic elements from Gastoldi but enriches the "fa-la-la" refrains with contrasting rhythms, brief imitation, and motivic interplay between voices.

Thomas Weelkes

  • As Vesta was (1601): A madrigal.
    • Style: Prime example of word painting.
    • Text illustration: Ascending scales for "ascending," descending scales for "descending" and "running down," a high melodic point for "hill," and varying numbers of voices for "alone," "two by two," "three by three," and "together."
    • "Long live fair Oriana": The final phrase is treated with a motive repeated nearly fifty times across all voices and transpositions, creating the effect of a vast crowd's acclamation. This passage also features augmentations of the motive to four and eight times its original length.

John Dowland

  • Flow, my tears (1600): A lute song.
    • Structure: Structured as a pavane, an Italian processional dance with three repeated strains (aabbCC).
    • Word Painting: The repetition inherent in this form limits detailed word painting.
    • Melancholy: Captures the dark and sorrowful mood of the poetry.
    • Lachrimae: The opening motive of Lachrimae (another pavane) which is the basis for the entire piece is a stepwise descent through a fourth that suggests a falling tear.

Loys Bourgeois

  • Psalm 134 (Or sus, serviteurs du Seigneur) (1551): A metrical psalm.
    • Context: Rise of Calvinism, which favored congregational singing and rejected anything elaborate.
    • Metrical Psalm: A translation of a psalm into the vernacular with imposed metric, rhymed, and strophic elements.

Thomas Tallis

  • If ye love me (1546-48): An anthem.
    • Context: Composed for the new English liturgy.
    • Style: Balances clarity of text with musical beauty and variety.
    • Structure: Written for a four-part choir of men and boys.
    • Texture: Begins with simple homophony followed by four short, distinct points of imitation.
    • Text Setting: Syllabic and closely aligns with the natural rhythm of spoken English.
    • Melody: Each phrase in every vocal part is melodically appealing and feels natural for singers.

William Byrd

  • Sing joyfully unto God (1580s-1590s): An anthem.
    • Style: Integrates Continental imitative techniques.
    • Structure: Features a dynamic succession of points of imitation, interspersed with occasional homophony.
    • Imitation: Byrd handles the imitation with freedom, often varying intervals and rhythms within the imitative passages.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

  • Pope Marcellus Mass: Excerpts (1560):
    • Legend: Composed to demonstrate that a polyphonic mass could set the words clearly and save polyphonic music from condemnation by the Church.
    • Melody: Resembles plainchant, with long-breathed, rhythmically varied, easily singable lines that trace a natural, elegant curve.
    • Voice Movement: Moves mostly by step, with few repeated notes. Most leaps greater than a third are smoothed over by a step in the opposite direction.

Tomas Luis de Victoria

  • O magnum mysterium: Excerpts (1580s):
    • Missa O magnum mysterium: An imitation mass based on his own motet of the same name.
    • Brevity: Mass movements are relatively brief, characteristic of Spanish masses.
    • Reuse of Material: Each movement reworks different passages and motives from the motet, demonstrating the Renaissance value of variety in polyphonic mass cycles.
    • Kyrie: Retains the paired entrances of the motet but transforms them from near-exact imitation into a dialogue of varied subjects.
    • Gloria: Presents a tapestry of motives from various parts of the motet.
    • Sanctus: Begins with a new variation of the motet's opening.

Orlando de Lassus

  • Cum essem parvulus: A motet.
    • Compositions: Most celebrated are his motets, where his interpretation of the text dictates both form and detail.
    • Text Setting: Based on 1 Corinthians 13:11-13, vividly illustrating the text.
    • Musical Depiction: The opening phrase, "When I was a child," is set as a duet in the highest voices, representing childhood through a thin texture and high range. The line "Now we see as if through a mirror in riddles" is depicted with enigmatic counterpoint featuring suspensions and a brief mirror figure. The eventual "face to face" vision is portrayed with a striking, fully homophonic passage.

Tielman Susato

  • Dances from Danserye (1551):
    • Dances included: pavane, the galliard, and the moresca.
    • Pavane: A stately dance in AABBCC form.
    • Galliard: Follows the same form as the pavane but with a much more lively feeling.
    • Moresca: A lively dance, often associated with the Moors of Spain and northern Africa.

Anthony Holborne

  • The Night Watch; The Fairieround (1599):
    • Abstract Dances: Composed for amateur musicians to play for their own enjoyment.
    • The Fairie-round: A galliard.
    • The Night Watch: An almain, a stately duple-meter couple dance that begins with an upbeat.
    • Stylized Dance Music: Their inherent musical complexity places them in the realm of stylized dance music, offering entertainment and engagement for performers and listeners alike, rather than serving as practical music for dancing.

Luis de Narvaez

  • ex. From Los seys libros del Delphin (1538):
    • Intabulations: Arrangements of vocal compositions for instruments, particularly lute and keyboard.
    • Creative Reimagining: These arrangements necessitated a creative reimagining of the original vocal lines.
    • Version of Josquin's Mille Regretz: Retained the original four-voice structure while introducing embellishments like runs and turns, referred to as "divisions" or "diminutions."

William Byrd

  • John come kiss me now (1600):
    • Variations: Byrd's variations on the popular song.
    • Melody: The original melody remains consistently present throughout each variation.
    • Variation: Focus lies in the surrounding musical texture.
    • Rhythmic Pace: Exhibits a gradual acceleration in rhythmic pace, progressing from quarter notes to eighth and then sixteenth notes, culminating in three variations featuring triplets and sextuplets.

Giovanni Gabrieli

  • Canzon septimi toni a 8, from Sacrae symphoniae (1597):

    • Divided Choirs: Extended the concept of divided choirs to instrumental music.
    • Structure: Features a succession of contrasting sections, incorporating both imitative and more homophonic textures.
    • Instrumental Groups: Engage in alternating long passages and more rapid dialogues, uniting for combined playing, particularly at the conclusion.
    • Recurring Refrain: The structure of the canzona is defined by a recurring refrain, which includes a section in triple meter and appears three times throughout the piece.

  • In ecclesiis (1610):

    • Polychoral Motets: Composed for St. Mark's in Venice and the confraternity of San Rocco, which included multiple choirs, vocal soloists, instrumental ensembles, and continuo organs.
    • Monumental Sacred Concerto: Combines four vocal soloists, a four-part chorus, a six-part instrumental ensemble, and organs in a vibrant mix of musical styles.

Claudio Monteverdi

  • Cruda Amarilli (Late 1590s):

    • Rule Breaking: Stands as a prime example of composers intentionally breaking musical rules for expressive purposes, specifically to underscore the poetic text.
    • Dissonances: Showcases numerous dissonances that deliberately violate the strict conventions of counterpoint.

  • L’Orfeo (1607):

    • Modeled on Peri’s Euridice: Expanded its range of styles and genres to shape the music and drama.
    • Libretto: The librettist, Alessandro Striggio, structured the opera into five acts, each featuring a song by Orfeo and concluding with a chorus commenting on the events, similar to Greek tragedy.
    • Musical Expertise: Monteverdi brought his madrigal expertise in expressive text setting and dramatic intensity to the opera and used a larger, more varied instrumental ensemble than Peri

  • L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642):

    • Masterpiece: Often considered Monteverdi’s masterpiece, excelling in its portrayal of human character and emotions.
    • Dramatic Skill: Showcases Monteverdi’s dramatic skill through the frequent shifting of styles—recitative, dialogue, arias, and ariosos.

Guilio Caccini

  • Vedrò 'l mio sol (1590):
    • Text Setting: Caccini set each line of poetry as a separate phrase ending in a cadence, shaping his melody to the natural accentuation of the text.
    • Embellishments: He wrote into the music the kind of embellishments that singers would usually have added in performance.
    • Camerata Goals: He placed ornaments to enhance the message of the text, not just to display vocal virtuosity.

Jacopo Peri

  • Le musiche sopra l’Euridice: Excerpts (1600):
    • Contrasting Monody: Illustrates contrasting types of monody used by Peri.
    • Tirsi’s aria: Sets a short lyric poem with music that is rhythmic and tuneful, resembling a canzonetta or dance song.
    • Sinfonia: Introduced by a brief sinfonia, a term used throughout the seventeenth century for an abstract ensemble piece, especially one that serves as a prelude.

Barbara Strozzi

  • Lagrime mie (1650s):
    • Solo Cantata: Exemplifies the solo cantata with its succession of recitative, arioso, and aria sections.
    • Themes: Focuses on themes of unrequited love.
    • Musical elements: Uses frequent changes in style and figuration to capture the text's diverse moods and imagery.

Heinrich Schütz

  • Saul, was verfolgst du mich, in Symphoniae sacrae III (1632):
    • Sacred Concerto: Combines Gabrieli's polychoral style with Monteverdi's and Grandi's expressive dissonance and modern style.
    • Biblical Story: Depicts the biblical story of Saul's conversion.

Girolamo Frescobaldi

  • Toccata No. 3 (1615, rev. 1637):
    • Genre: Exemplified the toccata genre
    • Short, varied sections: Showcasing distinct musical figures and alternating between virtuosic passages and imitative voice leading.
    • Harmony: Sections conclude with intentionally weak cadences to maintain forward motion until the final resolution.
    • Performance Practice: Frescobaldi allowed for the independent performance of sections and improvisation at suitable cadences.

Biagio Marini

  • Sonata IV per il violin per sonar con due corde (1626):
    • Early Sonata: Stands as an early example of the 17th-century sonata, particularly "instrumental monody."
    • Idiomatic Violin Techniques: Features contrasting sections rich in idiomatic violin techniques such as large leaps, double stops, runs, trills, and embellishments.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

  • Armide (1686):
    • French Overtures: Served to herald the arrival of King Louis and establish a grand atmosphere.
    • French Overture Structure: Followed a consistent two-section structure, each repeated. The initial section was characterized by a majestic, homophonic texture featuring dotted rhythms and upward rushing figures. The subsequent section adopted a faster tempo and opened with imitative counterpoint, often concluding with a return to the tempo and musical ideas of the first section.
    • Divertissement: Demons disguised as pastoral figures perform vocal solos and choruses celebrating love, interspersed with instrumental dances.

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre

  • Suite No. 3 in A Minor, from Pièces de clavecin (1687):
    • Dance suites: Each dance possessing a distinct character and emotional quality derived from its meter, tempo, rhythmic patterns, and national origin.
    • Keyboard suites: The familiar steps and cultural associations of these dances informed the rhythm and overall style of the music.

Denis Gaultier

  • La Coque e virtuose (1650):
    • Lute Dances: Exemplified by La coquette virtuoso, a courante in binary form and moderate triple meter.
    • Style luthé: Demonstrates the style luthé through its frequent broken chords, which are presented with varied arpeggiation and embellishments, creating a fluctuating surface over a clear harmonic progression.

Henry Purcell

  • Dido and Aeneas (1687-88):

    • Concise Operatic Masterpiece: Featuring only four main roles and a performance time of approximately one hour.

    • Inspiration from Blow: Drew inspiration from John Blow's Venus and Adonis, blending elements of the English masque with characteristics of French and Italian opera.

    • Structure: Exhibits structural similarities to Lully's operas, particularly in its overture and homophonic choruses, as well as its typical scene progression from solo singing and chorus to a dance.

  • Italian Influence: The inclusion of several arias, a feature uncommon in French opera or English masques.

Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco

  • La púrpura de la rosa (1701):
    • First Opera in the New World: The first opera produced in the New World (Lima, 1701).
    • Spanish Trait: A distinctly Spanish trait is the setting of dialogue as strophic songs rather than recitative.
    • Spanish Continuo: The Spanish continuo of harps, guitars, and viols, contrasting with the Italian and French preference for lute or keyboard.

Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla

  • Albricias pastores (1653):
    • Christmas Villancico: Exemplifies the vibrant musical landscape of Spanish America.
    • Double-Choir Villancico: With alternating and dialoguing passages between the two choirs, uniting in the estribillo and then taking turns in the coplas.
    • Musical Combination: Masterfully blends lively popular dance rhythms with sophisticated church music techniques, including divided choirs and imitative polyphony.

Arcangelo Corelli

  • Trio Sonata in D Major, Op. 3, No. 2 (1680s):
    • Structure: Follows a four-movement structure: slow-fast-slow-fast.
      movement{1}- slow, contrapuntal and solemn movement{2}- Allegro, features imitation, with an active bass line.
      movement{3}- slow, lyrical operatic duet in triple meter. In major keys, typically in the relative minor, ending with a Phrygian cadence. movement{4}- fast movement, dance like gigue in binary form with imitative counterpoint, often including inversions of the subject.

Georg Philipp Telemann

  • Paris Quartet No. 1 in G Major (Concerto primo), TWV 43:G1, movements 3–5 (1730):
    • Scoring: Gives the viola da gamba an independent and soloistic role alongside the flute and violin, with all three instruments sharing thematic material.