WORKSHOP IV

TONAL COLOR THROUGH A STYLISTIC APPROACH:

Historical, compositional, and individual style influence tonal color. Attention to stylistic issues ensures a tone whose quality represents the musical/textual thought and character within each composition.

HISTORICAL, COMPOSITIONAL, AND INDIVIDUAL

Renaissance: A. Historical Style: Tone for 16th century syllabic style

Example 1: If ye love me Thomas Tallis

It is impossible to characterize an entire period by any particular tone. Therefore, consideration of one particular syllabic style represented in the early music of Thomas Tallis will serve as one example. The simplicity of style, equality of voices, and homogeneity of rhythm requires a tone pure in its beauty, but rich and resonant enough to fill a cathedral.

Historical Style: Tone for 16th century contrapuntal style

Example 2: Requiem Thomas Luis de Victoria

Victorian counterpoint is characterized by shorter motivic expressions than the longer Palestrinian counterpoint. The interplay of line becomes more passionate in timbre with a greater dynamic and tonal pallette.

B. Composer Style: The Influence of Line Functionality on Texture/Tone

Example 3: Gloria from Pope Marcellus Mass Palestrina

Every vocal line within Palestrinian counterpoint has function and that function changes from bar to bar depending on the texture and other musical elements.

Questions to ask:

How does the vocal line function? a. flourish or embellishment voice b. ensemble voice (duet, trio, etc) c. cadential voice d. underpining or harmonic support voice

How is function determined? a. melismatic passage; rhythmic diminution b. textural pairing of voices c. any cadential figure – suspension; under-third or leading tone cadences d. absence of 'active' rhythms; augmented rhythms 'evenness' of line

Example 4: Exultate justi Viadana

Sung example: Use of Kenesthetics in teaching style and tone based on line function.

C. Compositional Style: The English Anthem – Sectionalization by text, texture, and timbre

Example 5: When David Heard Tomkins

Baroque: A. Individual Style: Baroque counterpoint and Textural Balance

Example 6: Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden BWV 230 J. S. Bach

An ''accented-legato'' articulation is required to maintain the crispness and the rhythmic ''bounce.'' The complexity of Bachian counterpoint, as opposed to Handelian counterpoint, necessitates a lighter, more flexible tone to create space between the vocal lines and an agility between the imitative textures.

Example 7: Haste Thee Nymphs Handel

B. Compositional Style: Stile Antico – Harmonic Tension and Line Density

Example 8: Richte mich Gott Scheidt

Stile Antico vs. Style Moderno – More reserved tonal colors vs. More individual line color.

Example 9: Crucifixus Antonio Lotti

Sung Example: Layered suspensions create harmonic tensions. Singer's breath must increase in density to extend the Line.

Classic: A. Historical Style: Eighteenth Century Symmetry and Balance

Example 10: Ave Verum Corpus Mozart

The periodic phrase with corresponding antecendent and consequent structure require a balanced, arch-like phrase shape. Choral timbre must reflect the arsis and thesis that corresponds to the contour of the phrase shape.

Romantic: A. Compositional Style: Nineteenth Century Expression of Line, Word, and Texture

Example 11: Warum Brahms

The individaul expression of line and word suggests a tone intimately wed to each vocal line. Subservient to text and texture, the tone should be free and flexible to shape subtle nuance of word, line, or tempo change.

Example 12: Abendstandchen Brahms

Although the same composer, the homophonic texture and style of this piece demands a tone subjugated to the ensemble with less color and more blending attributes.

B. Individual Style: Neo-Renaissance Style in a Nineteenth-Century Harominc Vocabulary

Example 13: Nunc Dimittis Gustav Holst

Holst composed his Nunc in a very archaic model based on layered textures of late Renaissance composition, and the blocks of homophonic textures reminiscent of the Venetian School. However the tonal colors are rich in Romantic harmonies.

Example 14: Os Justi Anton Bruckner

Although the tonal approach is more in line with a purity of Renaissance line and ensemble, the harmonies dictate more color and thus the distinctive lines carry more body of color and richness than the Rensaissance counterpart motets.

Example 15: Lay a Garland Robert Pearsall

Pearsall embodied the Romantic spirit and yet his compositions were greatly influenced by the ''old styles.'' Lay a Garland represents an Elizabethean madrigal in Romantic guise. Consequently, tone and gesture must reflect a more reserved approach – quite similar to Lotti's Crucifixus, written almost 250 years earlier and itself, in the ''old style'' for its time.

Contemporary:

A. Compositional Style: Same Composer 'folk-like' vs. Neo-classical

Example 16: Pilon l'orge, from Sept Chansons Poulenc Clic, clac, dansez sabots, from Sept Chansons Poulenc

Richer more individual tonal colors based on 'solo' melodic lines as opposed to Poulenc's more common neo-classic style, evidence by his motets.

B. Compositional Style: Spirituals and Tonal Considerations

Example 17: Deep River Ringwald Example 18: Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel Hogan

These two spiritual arrangements demonstrate the tonal differences between a primarily harmonic based compostion and a rhythmic based composition.

C. Compositional Style: A Tonal Approach to the Contemporary 'Cluster Harmonists'

Example 19: Go lovely rose Eric Whitacre Example 20: Svete Tihiy from the All-Night Vigil Gretchaninoff

The 'Cluster Harmonists,' Eric Whitacre, Stephen Paulus, Morten Lauridsen and others, build color through diatonic chords laced with non-chord tones like 9ths, 11ths, 13ths. For the chords to properly balance, the singer's tone should contain less individual color and more of the fundamental. Consequently, all notes fitting within the triad should be equally balanced in volume and color and all non-chord tones, such as the 9th, should lightly color the chord but allow the triadic tones to shine through. The gesture required is often reserved, with a concentrated or focused center that suggests harmonic alignment.

Although not contemporary, the Gretchaninoff demonstrates the opposite approach Because almost all notes fit within the diatonic chord, overtones reinforce each other with greater frequency. Consequently, a richer color through each individual voice can be encouraged with greater vowel resonance.