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A Study of Vocal Compositions for Two and Three Voices

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The harmonic effect of mediaeval polyphony; a study of vocal compositions for two and three voices Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Hollis, Esther Rasche, 1913- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 25/09/2021 20:53:17 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553501 THE HARMONIC EFFECT OF MEDIAEVAL POLYPHONY A STUDY OF VOCAL COMPOSITIONS FOR TWO AND THREE VOICES by Esther Hollis A T h e s is submitted to the faculty of the Department of Music in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music in the Graduate College University of Arizona 1940 A pproved: Director of Thesis D ate Z ^ e n r t " / 9 y a 2~ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction ......................................................................... ............................. 1 Contemporary Theory (1100 A. D. • 1300 A. D •)...... 6 Analysis of Two Part Com positions .............................. .... 9 Summary of Analyses of Two Part Compositions ...... 22 Analysis of Three Part Compositions .......... 27 Summary of Analyses of Three Part Com positions .................... 37 Conclusion . ....................................... 40 Bibliography k 'u eic Two P a r t C o m p o s itio n s . .... .... 43 Three Part Compositions ...................................................... 44 b General References . .. .. 45 13U7.il - 1- INTRCDUCTICK An Inquiry Into the musical thought of tte ^alSSle ages necessarily Involves some conjecture and speculation. The passing of centuries has sot up Inmanerable barriers, not only to the translation of dead music Into modern symbols, but more especially to the Interpretation m 2 understanding of that music as an emotional and artistic expression. It is difficult, if not impossible, to discard the rich and varied tonal experience of succeeding centuries when listening to the minimum of tonal m aterials employed In mediaeval music* It Is difficult to forget, even momentarily, the conventions of modem musical thought when listening to'an Immature music obviously composed with a different esthetic. It is not the purpose of this thesis to demonstrate either artistic merit or emotional significance but to study objectively the harmonic effects of certain representative specimens of mediaeval vocal polyphony, assuming that the aural experience of such harmonic effects, even though unrecognized as such, was a necessary preliminary to the harmonic accomplishments of later periods. The m aterials used as the basis of this study are the compositions for two and three voice parts reproduced as facsim iles and translated in E. de Coussemaber"s Hiatolre de 1 "Harmonle au Woven Age. ( See bibliography of music•) Certain other sources of aural experience prior to the development of polyphony in the tw elfth and thirteenth centuries, which^ though not in themselves giving rise to any notable develop! ments in the recorded history of harmony, have contributed to the total background of musical experience from which the harmonic consciousness emerged # These may bo summarized briefly as follows! 1* Sounds of man's natural environment distinguishable from noise • 2 * Overtones of a single instrumental note, 3 * Harmonic instruments (magadis)* 4. Vocal phenomena" price' :to the development of poly­ phony in the tw elfth and thirteenth centuries* While many of the sotmds known to prehistoric man were hardly distinguishable from nolee, other sounds of his natural environment were a direct source of Inspiration and object of imitation for his untutored artistic impulse, which, even in paleolithic times, had manifested itself In the invention of instrum ents. Prehistoric man listened to the wind vibrating through the dried river reeds and conceived the syrinx, or flute, the archetype of all wind instruments. The warrior warded off his enemy’s blow with a shield made of dried animal skins stretched tautly over a wooden frame, and heard the first rudimentary drum beat. The huntsman let fly an arrow and heard the musi­ cal twang of his bow string, the predecessor of harp, lute and psaltery, and of all plucked, stringed instruments A GeOLpin, F r a n c i s W. A Textbook of European Musical Instrum ents. Dutton & Co., N* Y« 1937 p» 37 - 3- Every note sounded upon these first imperfeot instrwm nts contained within itself a harmony of overtones, even as do notes sounded upon our present, improved instruments# Whether or not the prehistoric man or the musician of late antiquity ever consciously perceived the component parte of a single instrumental note, is not known# There is no evidence suf­ ficient to prove that early musicians listened with the interest and Intensity necessary to perceive the faint harmony of over­ tones# It is possible, however, to cite as evidence the re­ presentations in ancient bas-relief and frescoes of various instruments being played simultaneously. "The early musicians were not at all times intent upon the mere design which the plucked strings of their kit haras, harps or psalteries, or the long-drawn notes of their reed-pipes, wove rhythmically into melodies# As the finger plucked the string or the performer's breath thrilled through the tiny mouthpiece into the reed-pipe, a mass-chord of harmonic overtones rang out, f oil owed by the natural polyphony due to the pi ay of harmonies in varying rhythms and intensities • • . "1 Some contemporary m usic-historians have attempted a schematic explanation of the evolution of harmony, based upon the theory that all harmonic m aterials have been derived from the overt one a or parti ale of a single note. Superficially, there seems to be considerable favorable evidence. The first recorded harmony employed the octave or Interval between the first and second partlals of the harmonic series. The harmony of the octave, itself a natural harmony inherent in the multi­ 1 Settlesinger, Kathleen. The Significance of Musical Instruments In the Evolution of Music. Oxford History of Music, introductory Volume. p. 86 «*4"» voiced utterance of a people, Is as old as the human voice. It was not consciously perceived, however, until the fourth century, B. C., when It was observed by the Greeks, who called the harmony antluhonv to distinguish it from the homoohonr of voices in unison* The philosopher, A ristotle, askedl "Why Is symphonous singing (antiphony) more agree­ able than homophony? Is it not because antiphony is the consonance of the octave? For antiphony is bom of the voices of young boys and men whose notes are distant from each other as nete from hvoate.* (the highest and lowest notes of the octave scale)x The conscious artistic practice of the octave harmony, called magadizing. seems to have been named after the magadis, an Instrument capable of producing concords at the octave, of two kinds of tone, in im itation of vocal antiphony • Again A ristotle considers 8 "Why is the consonance of the octave the only one which is sung? for in fact this consonance is magadized, but not the others. Is it not because this consonance alone is antlphonous? For in the antiphones, when one of the two notes is sung, the same effect is produced as in the case of the other, so that a single sound of this consonance being sung, the entire consonance is sung; and when the two sounds are sung, or if one is taken by the voice and the other by the flute, the same effect is produced as if one were given alone. This why this consonance is the only one which is sung, because the antiphones have the sound of a single note ." 12 1 'Pindar, in his scolion to Hlero, describes the sound of the magadis as responsive because it gives a concord, at the octave of two kinds of tone, namely those of men and boys.* Athenaeus XIV 3 6 . From t h i s p a s s a g e we a l s o gather that the recognition of the octave was as old as Pindar, 1. e., 0 . 522 B. 0. Wooldrlge, Oxford History of music. Vol. I, p. 5, footnote. 2 Op, cit. p. 5, footnote. 'S~ During the time of Plutarch,, some three centuries after A ristotle,, the harmony of the fifth,, or the Interval lying between the second, and third partlals of the harmonic series,, and the harmony of the fourth, or the Interval lying between the third and fourth partlals of the harmonic series, were - ' -1 used In both vocal and Instrumental music. So far as Is known, the Intervals of the octave,, fifth , and fourth,, const!-. tuted the total of the Greek contribution to the art of harmony. Hot until the end of the ninth century, A. D.» was the harmony of the major third, or the interval lying betwamn the fourth and fifth partlals of the harmonic series, admitted to use by Huobald, a monk of St. Amand In Flanders. In order to avoid the trltone or "Devil in !.!uslc” Hucbald introduced the third in the occursuo or close of a composition otherwise written in the parallel fifths and fourths of strict organum* In the free organum of Guido of Arezzo In the succeeding cen­ tury, the harmony of the minor third, or the interval lying between the fifth and sixth partlals of the harmonic series, and the harmony of the major second, or the interval lying between the eigth and ninth partlals of the harmonic series, both described as discords, were used as passing Intervals be­ tween the concords of the octave, perfect fourth, and major t h i r d . Although the first five of these harmonies correspond with 1 Oouesemaker, E.
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