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LISTENING GUIDE

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)Plainchant hymn, Pange Lingua

Date of composition: Thirteenth centuryChoirDuration: 2:24

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Pan ge lin gua glo ri o si Cor po ris my ste ri um,

San gui nis que pre ti o si, Quem in mun di pre ti um

Fruc tus ven tris ge ne ro si Rex ef fu dit gen ti um.

The Pange Lingua hymn was written by Thomas Aquinas, one of the foremost scholars andtheologians of the late Middle Ages. The hymn is strophic: All four stanzas are sung to the samemusic. Each stanza has six lines, and they seem to fall into pairs. The chant is in the E (Phrygian)mode, but the only line that ends on E is the last one. This gives the music a sense of continuity untilthe end. The chant is almost entirely syllabic, and the text urges praise for the miracle of Christ’sbirth and death.

We will listen to all four stanzas, but what is important here is the music; therefore, the entire textis not given. Remember: All four stanzas have exactly the same music.

CD TIME LISTEN FOR

29 (29) 0:00 Stanza 1 (“Pange lingua . . . ”)

0:33 Stanza 2 (“Nobis datus . . . ”)

1:04 Stanza 3 (“In supremae . . . ”)

1:39 Stanza 4 (“Verbum caro . . . ”)

2:12 “Amen”

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LISTENING GUIDEJosquin Desprez (c. 1440–1521)Kyrie from the Pange Lingua Mass

Date of composition: c. 1520Sopranos, altos, tenors, bassesDuration: 2:51

All of the three basic characteristics of Josquin’s style that we have discussed may beheard in the opening Kyrie of Josquin’s Pange Lingua Mass:

1. Simple imitation: A point of imitation introduces each short melodic phrase.2. Overlapping cadences: Just as the first group is completing its phrase and moving into a

cadence, a second group enters, and so on.3. Paired imitation: One pair of voices sings a phrase of imitation, then another pair enters.

Let us first look at the phrase that provides the material for the first point of imitation. It isderived from the first phrase of the plainchant hymn. Notice, however, that Josquin adds a shortturning passage between the last two notes to provide intensity and drive to the cadence. Notice, too,the rhythm that Josquin has applied to the notes. It starts out with long notes (which stress the char-acteristic E–F half step of the Phrygian mode) and increases in motion until just before the end. Themeter of this music is also very flexible. Composers of this era did not use measures or bar lines

TENORS

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(as you can see from the facsimile of the original score). This creates a very fluid sound without theregularly recurring accents that occur in later music.

The movement as a whole has three main sections:

1. Kyrie eleison.2. Christe eleison.3. Kyrie eleison.

Each section begins with a new point of imitation, and all are derived from the original hymn.The “Christe” section is based on the third and fourth lines of the hymn, the final “Kyrie” sectionon the fifth and sixth lines. Toward the end of the last section, Josquin adds new rhythmic materialto create a strong drive to the final cadence.

CD TIME LISTEN FOR

30 (30) 0:00 Kyrie eleison (Based on opening of hymn melody.) Tenors and basses; cadence overlaps with entry of altos. Sopranos enter before final cadence.

0:45 Christe eleison (Based on lines 3 and 4 of hymn melody.) Paired imitation, overlapping entries.

2:02 Kyrie eleison (Based on lines 5 and 6 of hymn melody.) Sopranos, altos, tenors, basses enter in turn; increase in activity before final cadence.

THE LATE RENAISSANCEThe sixteenth century was a time of remarkable musical

achievements. The balance, beauty, and exquisite sound

of imitative polyphony were fully explored by com-

posers throughout Europe. In addition, composers

began to use more homophonic texture—chordal

harmonies—in their compositions. There are few

greater contrasts in music than that between imitative

polyphony, with its emphasis on individual melodies

that overlap, and homophony, with its emphasis on

chordal harmonies, and Renaissance composers from

Josquin onward took full advantage of this contrast.

They alternated and interwove the two styles in their

compositions to achieve ever greater variety of texture

and to underscore the meaning of their texts.

In fact, the development of music during the

Renaissance is marked by this increasing focus on

expressing the text. During the sixteenth century, the

combination of a high degree of technical accom-

plishment and a new interest in text expression led to

the creation of some of the most beautiful works in

the history of music. Masses, motets, and secular

songs were created by composers throughout

Europe—in France and Germany, the Netherlands,

Spain, Poland, and England. But probably the main

center of musical activity was Italy.

Italy was the focal point of the Roman Catholic move-

ment known as the Counter-Reformation, which began

partly in reaction to the Protestant Reformation and

partly as the result of a genuine desire to reform the

Catholic Church from within. The Counter-Reformation

had important consequences for music, as we will see.

One technical change that may be noticed in late

Renaissance music is the sound of the last chord at the

end of sections. Until this time, final chords contained

only the “perfect” intervals (octaves and fifths). But in

the late Renaissance, composers began to think that

final chords should present the fullest sound possible

and, therefore, should include the third, as well as the

root, the fifth, and the octave of the chord. You can

clearly hear the difference between a piece that ends

with the open sound of an octave and a fifth and a piece

that ends with a full chord. (Compare the ending sound

of the Machaut song in the previous chapter with the

sound at the end of the following Palestrina motet.)

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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594)Motet, Exsultate Deo

Date of composition: 1584Sopranos, altos I, altos II, tenors, bassesDuration: 2:24

The motet Exsultate Deo was first published in Palestrina’s fifth book of motets in 1584.This book contains twenty-one motets written for five voices. The text is from Psalm 81. Palestrinauses only the first three lines of the psalm.

Exsultate Deo adiutori nostro, Sing out in praise of God our refuge, iubilate Deo Iacob. acclaim the God of Jacob.

Sumite psalmum et date tympanum, Raise a melody; beat the drum, psalterium iucundum cum cithara. play the tuneful lyre and harp.

Buccinate in neomenia tuba, Blow the trumpet at the new moon, insigni die solemnitatis vestrae. and blow it at the full moon on the day of your

solemn feast.

In his setting, Palestrina concentrates only on these exuberant openingverses of the psalm, rather than the fierce later ones. The music is brightand joyful, filled with dotted rhythms and running eighth-note patterns,which help to enliven the work. In addition, the composer uses someword-painting (echoing the meaning of words in music), such as on theopening word “Exsultate,” where the musical line rises triumphantly.

With five independent musical lines, the number of possible combinations is large, and Palest-rina constantly varies the texture of his music. The clearest examples of this variation are when thesopranos drop out briefly, leaving only the lower voices, or (on the words “psalterium iucundum”—“tuneful lyre”) when only three voices are sounding. Exsultate Deo is full of imitation, but Palestrinapoints up the entrance of new lines of text by having them sung homophonically by a pair of voices,which adds an underlying structure to the work as a whole. Cleverly, he departs from this techniquetoward the end of the motet on the words “Buccinate” (“blow”) and “tuba” (“trumpet”), where thereis very close imitation, suggesting the echoing of trumpet blasts.

This performance is by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, England. This choir, which hasbeen in continuous existence since the early sixteenth century, is made up of the same distribution ofvoices as it was originally: sixteen boys and twelve men. So all the high voices you hear are those of boys.

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CD TIME LISTEN FOR

31 (31) 0:00 Exsultate Deo Sing out in praise of [Imitation in pair of upper voicesadiutori nostro, God our refuge, alone; rising line on “Exsultate.”]

0:11 [Pair of lower voices. Cadence in all five voices; overlaps with:]

0:28 iubilate Deo Iacob. acclaim the God of [Many entries, suggestingJacob. a crowd “acclaiming.”]

0:37 [Lower voices.]

0:49 Sumite psalmum et Raise a melody; beat [Quite homophonic, becoming date tympanum, the drum, more imitative. Note dotted

rhythm on “tympanum.”]

1:04 psalterium iucundum play the tuneful lyre [Elaborate flowering of the voicescum cithara. and harp. on “iucundum” (“tuneful”).]

32 (32) 0:00 Buccinate in Blow the trumpet [Multiple echoes on “Buccinate;” neomenia tuba, at the new moon, homophonic climax on “neomenia.”]

0:13 [Running echoes on “tuba.”]

0:23 insigni die and blow it at the full [Slower, lower, more “solemn.”]solemnitatis moon on the day ofvestrae. your solemn feast.

The MadrigalAs we have seen, matching the words of the text with a

musical setting that expresses their meaning was a pri-

mary concern of late Renaissance composers. The

madrigal is the musical genre that demonstrates this

desire most colorfully.

The madrigal flourished in the courtly atmosphere

of Italian aristocratic families. The poetry is

serious and elegant, with a sonorous beauty of

its own. And the music is carefully designed to

reflect the text.

Composers used a variety of techniques to

bring out the meaning of the words they set. In

general, the same mixture of chordal textures

and imitative polyphony was used in madrigals

as in motets, but composers went much further

in their search for direct expression. If the text

had words such as “rising,” “flying,” or “soar-

ing,” then the music would have fast upward

scales. “Peace” and “happiness” might be set to

sweet major chords, “agony” and “despair” to wrench-

ing dissonances. In fact, contrasts of this kind—

between happiness and despair, for example—often

appeared in madrigal texts within the same poem. This

contrast is known as antithesis, and it presented ideal

musical opportunities for madrigal composers. A sigh

might be represented by a sudden, short pause—to be

In his book, Morley

provides a detailed

description of the way to

write a madrigal. He then

concludes: “Keeping

these rules, you shall

have a perfect agreement

and, as it were, an

harmonical consent

betwixt the matter and

the music.”

The title page to ThomasMorley’s A Plaine andEasie Introduction toPracticall Musicke,printed in 1597.

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LISTENING GUIDE

Thomas Morley (1557–1602)Two English Madrigals

Date of composition: 1595

Two sopranos (Sweet Nymph Come to Thy Lover);two baritones (Fire and Lightning)

Duration: 2:31

The texts for these short pieces were probably written by Morley himself. Each one con-tains picturesque images, which the music captures beautifully. The first madrigal, Sweet Nymph,compares the lover, singing his song to his beloved, to a nightingale, a favorite image for composers.The second, Fire and Lightning, uses the imagery of thunder and storms to describe the “stormy”nature of love. It is lively and frenetic, with a kicker at the end. Both are primarily imitative, withvery close imitation in some sections to liven up the proceedings or to intensify the sound. The verylast line of Fire and Lightning is suddenly homophonic to draw attention to the sting at the end. Thislast line also exploits antithesis (“fair”/“spiteful”) to make its effect.

Both madrigals have such short texts that there are many repetitions of each phrase, and you willhear many instances of word-painting. The fine performances here are by students Sarah Pelletierand Suzanne Ehly, sopranos, and faculty members William Sharp and Mark Aliapoulios, baritones,of the Boston University School for the Arts.

CD TIME LISTEN FOR

33 (33) 0:00 Sweet nymph come to thy lover, Imitation.

0:12 Lo here alone our loves we Touches of homophony onmay discover, “Lo here alone.”

0:20 (Repeat of first two lines)

0:39 Where the sweet nightingale Imitation; high notes andwith wanton gloses, close harmony on “gloses” [trills].

0:49 Hark, her love too discloses. High notes, very close imitation,especially last time through.

1:03 (Repeat of last two lines)

34 (34) 0:00 Fire and lightning from heaven fall Lively; very close imitation.

0:08 And sweetly enflame that heart Smooth descending scales onwith love arightful, “sweetly.”

0:16 (Repeat of first two lines)

0:31 Of Flora my delightful, Scales in opposite direction on “delightful.”

0:45 So fair but yet so spiteful. Last time through: homophonic, close pungent harmony, dissonance on “spite-,”incomplete sound on “ful.”

0:47 (Repeat of last two lines)

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Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1555–1612)Canzona Duodecimi Toni

Date of composition: 1597

Two brass choirs

Duration: 3:53

This work by Giovanni Gabrieli is divided into several sections and contrasts two brass“choirs,” which are heard in dialogue. As in Josquin’s Pange Lingua Mass, the music is pushed for-ward by overlapping cadences, one choir beginning as the previous choir ends. Sometimes the twochoirs play together. The piece features dynamic contrasts of loud and soft, which are characteristicof late Renaissance and early Baroque music. A special effect involving dynamic contrast is “echo,”in which the exact repetition of a phrase at a lower volume suggests distance.

The canzona is full of varied rhythmic patterns, but the most pervasive is the “canzona rhythm,”LONG-short-short (h q q ), which you will hear throughout the piece, in fast and slow tempos.

CD TIME LISTEN FOR

Introduction

35 (35) 0:00 Both brass choirs. Fairly slow, medium loud; canzona rhythm is prominent.

Section 1

36 (36) 0:15 Choir I. Faster tempo, same musical motive and rhythm, fastertempo, homophonic.

0:20 Choir II, growing louder.

0:27 Both choirs, loud, featuring flourishes by trumpets in imitation; cadence.

Section 2

37 (37) 0:43 Second idea, quieter, mostly homophonic, echoes, passages of imitationbetween choirs, lively rhythms; cadence.

Section 3

38 (38) 1:26 Third idea, loud, mostly homophonic, echoes, both choirs.

1:43 Trumpet flourishes, cadence.

1:49 Canzona rhythm; close imitation, cadence.

Section 4

39 (39) 2:10 Fourth idea, quiet, canzona rhythm, lots of imitation between choirs,cadence.

2:35 Multiple echoes, from loud to soft, between choirs; crescendo . . .

3:02 Final idea, both choirs loud, leading to big climax.

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LISTENING GUIDE

Tielman Susato (fl. 1543–1561)Ronde and Saltarelle

Date of composition: 1551

Recorders and percussion

Duration: 1:52

This example is a dance pair written by the Flemish composer and publisher TielmanSusato. The ronde and saltarelle are both Renaissance dances in binary form. On the repeats, themelodies are occasionally ornamented with trills and decorative figures.

The two dances use the same melody, but the ronde is in duple meter, whereas the saltarelle is intriple meter; the effect of the meter change is dramatic.

CD TIME LISTEN FOR

Ronde[duple meter: recorders and drum]

(40) 0:00 First phrase:

0:14 Repeat (ornamented)

0:29 Second phrase (higher):

0:36 Repeat (ornamented)

Saltarelle[triple meter: recorders and tambourine]

(41) 0:43 First phrase:

1:05 Repeat (ornamented)

1:26 Second phrase (higher):

1:37 Repeat (ornamented)

etc.

etc.

etc.

etc.

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