-S-7 STYLIST IC EVOLUT ION OF TIE MOTET THROUGH THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY WITH EMPHASIS ON THE STYLE OF PALESTRINA THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State Teachers College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Merl V. Cornelius, B. M. Denton, Texas August, 1948 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . , . iv i PREFACE 0 . 9 . * * 0 0 . * * . * * * V Chapter I.RELIGIOUS MONODY . 1 II. RELIGIOUS POLYPHONY THROUGH TfE THIRTEENTH CENTURY . - + . * * * . 10 III* THE MOTET IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES . * -. * * * * . 20 Isorhythmic Motet Burgundian School Flemish School IV. A SKETCH OF PALESTRINA'S LIFE GIVING DATES OF HIS . IOTETS . - 9 . 30 V.OTHE STYLEJOFPALESTRINA. - -- ... '.. 36 Notation Welody Rhythm and. Meter Harmony Dissonance Counterpoint Vocal Style Form VI. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF ASSUIPTA EST MARIA BY PALESTRINA. .. 50 Form Thematic Procedure Music Ficta Cadence Melody Dissonance Rhythm and Meter Vocal Style APPENDIX. * . 0 0 9 - * . - - - 0 - - * . * . * . 63 BIBLIOGRAPHY. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . * . 92 0 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Staff and Clefs Used in Gregorian Notation . 3 2. Single Notes in Gregorian Notation . 3 3. Neumes . * . * , * * * . * . * . * * 4 4. Ecclesiastical Lodes . 5 5. Rhythmic Modes of Thirteenth Century . 13 6. elodic Motives Used in Thirteenth Century v4otets . - - - ** * * * * * * . * . 15 7. Usual Clef Arrangement in the Sixteenth - *. 36 Century .* . - - . * * 8. Transposition Clefs Used in the Sixteenth Century . - * . - -* . *. 36 9. Comparison of Melodic Outlines of Gregorian Chant and Palestrina . 39 iv PREFACE The mass and the motet are the most important musical components of the Catholic liturgy. The development of vocal polyphony in the Medieval Period culminated in the perfection of these fory s in the sixteenth century. The purpose of this thesis is to give an account of the development of religious monody and polyphony that led to the inception of the motet in the early part of the thirteenth century; to show the development of the motet through the sixteenth century; to give a more detailed analysis of the style of Palestrina; and to emphasize the analysis with a stylistic examination of a Palestrina motet. V CHAPTER I RELIGIOUS MONODY The body of religious music, known as plainchant, or more specifically, Gregorian Chant, enjoys one of the longest continuous histories accorded to any one form. Some contro- versy exists concerning the origin of the chant. One school of thought favors the Greek influence, and another adduces the chant to the tradition of the Jewish Synagogue.1 There is also considerable controversy concerning the rhythm of the chant. In this thesis the findings of the Solesmes School will be taken, for the most part, as final, because their interpretation was made the official view of the Catholic Church by the Motu ropriq of Pope Pius X in 1903; hence, the Solesmes concept is the only one that has utilized its findings in satisfactory performance. The return to medieval tradition of the chant is recognized by lay scholars as the product of Solesmes efforts.2 Sunol, one of the Solesmes scholars, divides the history of Gregorian Chant into four periods,3 formation, perfection, decadence and revival. The first period of formation extended 1W. Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, p. 309. Ibid.,p. 310. 3 G. Sunol, Textbook of Gregorian Chant, p. 173. 1 2 from 312 A. D. to the pontificate of Pope Gregory (590-604). Pope Gregory accomplished the organization and codification of the existing chant, hence, it bears his name. The second period, 604-1200 A. D. was characterized by the dissemination of the chant and establishing schools, notably those at Metz, Germany, and Saint Gaul, France. In the eleventh century the monk, Guido d'Arezzo, perfected the four-line staff which is still in use today in chant notation. Guido is also appar- ently the first to use solmisgtion in the Christian era in a 4 practical way. The period of decline extended from 1200 to 1850. The Medicean Edition of the chant, published in 1614, destroyed the integrity of the melodies. The chant also suffered because of the increasing popularity of polyphony, and in the latter part of the period, because of .the increas- ing tendency toward florid and operatic styles of composition. The last period began about 1850 and extends to the present. During this period scholars, both religious and lay, have attempted to restore to the chant its original tradition and integrity. It is the Benedictines of Solesmes that receive credit for the instigation of this revival. The school has been under the leadership of Dom Gueranger (1805- 1875), Dom Pothier (1835-1923), and Dom Mocquereau (1849-1930).5 Their present leader is Dom Gajard. 4 G. Reese, Music in the Middle A , p. 151. 5W. Apel, 2. cit., p. 68. 0, 3 Modern staff notation of Gregorian chant has been in general use since the fourteenth century. However, the notes had assumed the shapes shown below during the latter part of the twelfth century.6 Since it is still in use today, it is relatively easy to find texts and other books giving ample information on this notation. The staff contains four lines using a movable "do" clef on either of the top two lines and sometimes on the third line, the "fa" clef on third line and occasionally on the top line as shown in Figure 1. Am Fig. l.--Staff and clefs used in Gregorian notation The chant uses variously shaped notes, all equal in time value, regardless of shape. (Other considerations alter their duration,) The punctum is the only note used alone when only one notA is given to one syllable. (See Figure 2) The function of the liquescent is to facilitate pronunciation on the part of the singer, particularly, the diphthongs and the consonants m, n , and 1. Punc tum Rhombus Virga ILiqueseent J Fig. 2.--Single notes in Gregorian notation 6 Reese, _. cit., p. 275. 4 In addition to these single notes there are other notational signs called neumes (Figure 3). Poiv'-fieiw7Pj Ps;ri c-cidl'& q'//A? Msubcqs Ch,,rc5 T'iIs #'stte as 0' fA6 e'ef /C 4(s cm cus -r- q I- M t s eo Fig. 3.--Neumes The notes in the neumes all have equal value, with the exception of the two or three"notes preceding a quilisma (.4 ) which are slightly retarded, and the second note of the salicus which is always prolonged. 7 The origin of plainsong notation is a matter of conjec- ture. Reese believes this notation originated in the Greek and Latin grammatical accents. The tonic accent , indi- cating an elevation in voice, became the virga; the grave accent t\t, indicating a lowering of the voice, became the punctum.8 The development of the staff as a device to indicate the intervals followed an erratic pattern of experimental efforts. For the most part these efforts were concerned with the use of Greek and Latin letters in conjunction with the neumes without the aid of' a staff. The modern staff had its 7 A. Klarmann, Gregorian Chant, p. 16. 8Reese, . cit., p. 132. 5 beginning about the first of the eleventh century. A red line was used to indicate "F". -Later another line was added to indicate "0". With these resources Guido dArezzo perfected the staff. It was not universally employed until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The melodic framework of the Gregorian chant is based on the Ecclesiastical modal system. This system of eight modes "seems to have appeared as early as the time of Pope Gregory, 9 the Great." These modes had the form shown in Figure 4. FM r xo) e F/e) b n, Fig. 4 .--Ecclesiastical modes The difference between a mode and its hypo, or dominant mode, is the range and the dominant. There are also certain melodic idiomatic characteristics of each mode, which are the 9 K. Jeppesen, Counterpoint, p. 59. 6 result of efforts to avoid the tritone.10 There are four types of Gregorian chant: (1) psalmocic, in which many syllables are on the pitch; (2) neumatie, in which one syllable is on a group of notes or a neume; (3) syllabic, in which one syllable has one note; (4) melismatic, in which one syllable had many notes. (See Appendix, Examples 1-4.) In the Ordinary of the Mass the "Kyrie" is neumatic or moderately melismatic; the "Gloria" and "Credo" are psalmodio. The "Sanctus," as a whole, is either syllabic or moderately neumatic, but the first of the tree utterances of the word "Sanctus" is often treated melismatically. The "Agnus Dei" is either syllabic or moderately neumatic.ll' What follows is a brief resume of the theory of rhythm of the chant as conceived by Dom Mocquerpau, as leader of the Solesmes 1 2 school, and by Dom Gajard, the present choir- master at Solesmes. The rhythmic divisions are the time groups, binary and ternary, the incise, member, phrase and period. All the notes are of the same duration unless altered by one of the following signs: the horizontal episma (-) retards the note or groups it affects; the dot (o) which usually doubles, sometimes triples the note it follows; the vertical episma (i) 10 Reese points out that these formulas are a better aid in determining the mode than scale structure. Reese, p. cit., pp. 183-184. 12D. Gajard, Th Rhythm of the Plainsong, pp. 1-67. 7 which marks the ictus, and the quilisma (*) which retards the note which precedes it. Rhythm, or movement, is achieved by alternate arsis, or rise, and thesis, or fall. Both the text and melody possess these characteristics of rhythm. The arsic-thesic pattern of the text may or may not coincide with those of the melody.