Leading tones in Cantus Firmi and the early L'homme Armé tradition

Studi Musicali

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 17-55

  Dumitrescu, Thedor ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61449559737     PISSN: 03917789     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. e siècle, Sprimont, 2000, p. 11). The realization of pitch content involves the use of non-default recta notes as well as ficta where the implications of early staff notation differ from those of today.
2. The following important studies of the past several decades, for example, differ significantly in their views: GASTON ALLAIRE, The theory of hexachords, solmization, and the modal system; a practical application, «Musicological Studies and Documents», 24, 1972;
3. ARLETTAZ, Musica Ficta; MARGARET BENT, Diatonic Ficta, «Early Music History», 4, 1984, pp. 1-48;
4. M. BENT, Musica recta and Musica ficta, «Musica Disciplina», 26, 1972, pp. 73-100;
5. KAROL BERGER, Musica ficta: theories of accidental inflections in vocal polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffo Zarlino, Cambridge, 1987;
6. THOMAS BROTHERS, Chromatic Beauty in the Late Medieval Chanson: An Interpretation of Manuscript Accidentals, c. 1275-1450, Cambridge, 1997;
7. ROBERT TOFT, Aural Images of lost traditions: sharps and flats in the sixteenth century, Toronto and London, 1992;
8. PETER URQUHART, Cross-relations by Franco-Flemish composers after Josquin, «Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis», 43, 1993, pp. 3-41.
9. This is the type which Edgar Sparks calls the «structural cantus firmus» (Cantus Firmus in Mass and Motet, 1420-1520, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963, pp. 83-93).
10. On the fallacy of trying to read early pitch notation with modern rules and defaults, see M. BENT, Diatonic Ficta Revisited: Josquin's Ave Maria in Context, «Music Theory Online», 2.6, 1996, para [5].
11. See, for example, On False Concords in Late Fifteenth-Century Music: Yet Another Look at Tinctoris, in BONNIE BLACKBURN and ANNE-EMMANUELLE CEULEMANS (eds.), Théorie et analyse musicales 1450-1650, «Musicologica Neolovaniensia Studia», 9, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2002, pp. 65-67.
12. BROTHERS, Chromatic Beauty, pp. 21 ff.;
13. and URQUHART, Cross-relations, pp. 27-31. Urquhart takes this view only for matters of vertical sonority, while accepting theoretical evidence for sharp leading tones; it is unclear how such a distinction would be justified.
14. ROB C. WEGMAN, From maker to composer: Improvisation and musical authorship in the Low Countries, 1450-1500, «Journal of the American Musicological Society», 49, 1996, pp. 409-479.
15. Many theoretical quotations appear in BERGER, Musica Ficta; and ARLETTAZ, Musica Ficta.
16. The present study adopts the term from SARAH FULLER, Tendencies and Resolutions: The Directed Progression in Ars Nova Music, «Journal of Music Theory», 36, 1992, pp. 229-258. Although Jacques de Liège and some writers of the 15th and 16th centuries use the term «cadentia» with similar meaning, this is by no means a standard or even common usage. In view of the possible confusion with other definitions of cadence (both early and modern), it seems more convenient to use a descriptive etic term.
17. Kevin Moll, in a generally excellent analytical study, makes the crucial distinction between directed progression and cadence, but then states that leading tones should not be used in directed progressions which lack other cadential criteria (such as coincidence with textual endings). The theorists who discuss the use of leading tones in relation to harmonic or melodic criteria, however, make no statements which would indicate that those cadential characteristics are relevant to the issue. The only justification which Moll offers for his view is that «such indiscriminate application of cadential ficta would distort the grammatical continuity of the composition». Needless to say, the «grammatical continuity of the composition», in this sense, is a rather nebulous concept; furthermore, by describing leading tones as «cadential ficta», Moll implicitly equates two concepts which, while closely related, must remain distinct. See KEVIN MOLL, Voice Function, Sonority, and Contrapuntal Procedure in Late Medieval Polyphony, «Current Musicology», 64, 2001, pp. 26-72, at 62 n. 43.
18. Principale, 3, Cap. 56. EDMOND DE COUSSEMAKER (ed.), Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series a Gerbertina altera, Paris, 1864-76;
19. repr. Hildesheim, 1963, vol. 4, p. 250;
20. quoted in BENT, Musica Recta, pp. 89-90.
21. I have not yet had the opportunity to consult the edition by LUMINITA FLOREA ALUAS, The Quatuor principalia musicae: A critical edition, translation, and commentary, Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1996.
22. For this translation of «vix inter fa et sol semitonium ponunt», I gratefully follow the advice of Leofranc Holford-Strevens, whose reading makes much better sense of the text than that of previously published translations («they scarcely ever place a semitone between fa and sol»). This reading perhaps also reveals another description of the use of extra-sharp leading tones by singers.
23. For the latter interpretation, see BENT, Musica Recta, p. 90. The first view is supported in ARLETTAZ, Musica Ficta, pp. 143-149.
24. Ibid.
25. OLIVER B. ELLSWORTH (ed.), The Berkeley Manuscript: University of California, Music Library, MS. 744 (olim Phillipps 4450), Lincoln, 1984, 242.
26. Pars 1, Tract. 2, Cap. 7. JOHANNES WOLF (ed.), Musica practica Bartolomei Rami de Pareia Bononiae, impressa opere et industria ac expensis magistri Baltasaris de Hiriberia MCCC-CLXXXII: Nach den Originaldrucken des Liceo musicale mit Genehmigung der Commune von Bologna, Leipzig, 1901, pp. 43-44;
27. quoted in TOFT, Aural Images, pp. 25-26.
28. In this case, Arlettaz's rigid translation of the verb pronuntiare as «chanter», with no relation at all to recitation or solmization, would fail to make sense of the passage (Musica Ficta, 144-145). Surely the exact sense of this term is different with various authors and in various contexts.
29. The teachings of the 15th-century sources are examined closely in KARL-WERNER GÜMPEL, Gregorianischer Gesang und Musica ficta: Bemerkungen zur spanischen Musiklehre des 15. Jahrhunderts, «Archiv für Musikwissenschaft», 47, 1990, pp. 120-147.
30. A shorter English version of this article appeared as Gregorian chant and musica ficta: New observations from Spanish theory of the early Renaissance, «Recerca Musicològica», 6-7, 1986-87, pp. 5-27.
31. Gümpel points out that the treatise preserved in the «Berkeley Manuscript» seems to have been well-known in Spain the 15th and early 16th centuries (Gregorianischer Gesang, p. 122).
32. GÜMPEL, Gregorianischer Gesang, p. 120.
33. Ivi, p. 121.
34. Ivi, pp. 143-144.
35. ARLETTAZ, Musica Ficta, pp. 156-159.
36. EDWARD E. LOWINSKY, Secret Chromatic Art Reexamined, in LOWINSKY (ed. Bonnie Blackburn, Howard M. Brown and Ellen T. Harris), Music in the culture of the Renaissance and other essays, Chicago and London, 1989, pp. 754-778, at 760-761.
37. Liber 3, Cap. 13. Practica musice Franchini Gafori Laudensis, Milan, 1496;
38. r; quoted in BERGER, Musica Ficta, p. 235, n. 107.
39. ARLETTAZ, Musica Ficta, p. 202.
40. Ivi, p. 159.
41. BONNIE BLACKBURN, «Hothby, John», in Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn., London, 2001, vol. 11, pp. 749-751.
42. London, British Library, Reference Division, Department of Manuscripts, MS Additional 10336 («John Tucke's notebook»). This manuscript is the subject of a detailed study by RONALD WOODLEY, John Tucke: A Case Study in Early Tudor Music Theory, Oxford, 1993.
43. Blackburn lists two treatises («Hothby», p. 750), but Woodley considers them together to be a single work, and indeed, there is only one explicit (WOODLEY, John Tucke, pp. 50-52).
44. If this section of the manuscript is to be divided into two treatises, then there is no reason to ascribe the first to Hothby. Another manuscript containing this text, London, Lambeth Palace, MS 466, is largely a direct copy of Tucke's notebook.
45. JOHN HOTHBY (ed. Timothy McDonald), La Calliopea legale, «Corpus Scriptorum de Musica», 42, Neuhausen, 1997, pp. 28-29.
46. Arlettaz's assertion that Hothby never formulated the melodic leading tone principle must be due to an oversight of this passage (Musica Ficta, pp. 170-171).
47. The wider context of the second extract (a part of the treatise describing various clefs) also makes it clear diat in this case Hothby is not referring to local inflections, but rather to the consistent use of Fmusical sharp sign (i.e. a fictive hexachord on D) throughout a song.
48. COUSSEMAKER (ed.), Scriptorum, vol. 3, p. 73;
49. quoted in BERGER, Musica Ficta, p. 144.
50. The subject of how sharps were solmized in this period is complex enough to merit a separate detailed study. Besides Ramos and the passage just quoted, there are other 15th-century passages which make it clear that performers did not always call sharps mi. Estevan states explicitly in his Réglas that the flat conjuntas are to be sung with their proper solmization syllables, and the sharps without (GÜMPEL, Gregorianischer Gesang, pp. 131-132).
51. In a number of 15th-century Italian treatises (including one ascribed to Hothby), sharpening of notes is referred to as «rimozione», and the notes affected are called simply ut remote, fa remoto, and sol remote; see PIER PAOLO SCATTOLIN, La regola del 'grado' nella teoria medievale del contrapunto, «Rivista Italiana di Musicologia», XIV, 1979, pp. 11-74, at 38-41. The avoidance of solmizing sharps in the 15th century is probably connected to the differences in function between the square B and the diesis sign, discussed by some theorists.
52. See ROB C. WEGMAN, The anonymous Mass D'ung aultre amer: A late fifteenth-century experiment, «The Musical Quarterly», LXXIV, 1990, pp. 566-594, especially 566-567 and 586;
53. and SPARKS, Cantus Firmus, pp. 119 ff.
54. This manuscript is studied in JUDITH COHEN, The six anonymous L'Homme armé masses in MS VI E 40 of the Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples, «Musicological Studies and Documents», 21, Rome, 1968. Many versions of the song use a round b clef throughout (a «one-flat signature»), and most sources show no thesis signs or square b; a number of minor melodic and rhythmic variants are also common.
55. Furthermore, from a statistical standpoint, one would expect to find Fmusical sharp sign used more commonly than any other sharp in the repertory of this period, followed by Cmusical sharp sign and then Gmusical sharp sign. The reason is that the placing of a round b in the locations b-fa-musical sharp sign-mi or musical sharp sign-mi prohibits the use of Gmusical sharp sign, which also happens frequendy in pieces without a round b signature. Similarly, the less common practice of placing a round b in E-la-mi or E-la eliminates Cmusical sharp sign.
56. Sparks draws attention to the kaleidoscope of cantus firmus manipulation methods employed in this piece, linking the treatment to Tinctoris's famous precept requiring variety in all aspects of composition (Cantus Firmus, pp. 240-241).
57. In all of the examples in this paper which represent extracts from L'homme armé masses, the cantus firmus-bearing voice is boxed, and directed progressions between cantus firmi and other voices are shown with arrows. Measure numbers correspond to those used in Monumenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae Sanctae Ecclesiae Romanae 1, Rome, 1948 (henceforth MPL 1).
58. Liber 2, Cap. 17. ALBERT SEAY (ed.), Johannis Tinctoris Opera theoretica, «Corpus Scriptorum de Musica», 22, Rome, 1975-78, vol. 2, p. 104;
59. COUSSEMAKER (ed.), Scriptorum, vol. 4, p. 127. Seay's classicizing dipthongs have been removed here (permitting the appropriate adverbial interpretation of «aspere»), and the second set of examples has been put into score.
60. Pars 2, Tract. 1, Cap. 1. JOHANNES WOLF (ed.), Musica practica, p. 66;
61. quoted in ARLETTAZ, Musica Ficta, p. 160.
62. This non-diatonic melodic fragment was in fact used in an example demonstrating the same contrapuntal situation by MARCHETTO OF PADUA, in the Lucidarium, Tractatus 2, Cap. 8. JAN W. HERLINGER (ed. and trans.), The Lucidarium of Marchetto of Padua: A Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary, Chicago and London, 1985, pp. 148-150.
63. In some cases, notably where migration of the tune is involved, drawing a distinction between cantus firmus-imitation and actual cantus firmus usage can be very difficult. See, for example, the extract from Tinctoris's mass in Example 2c, where the cantus firmus is incomplete without the phrase repetitions in the top voices, which are also marked out by matching the tenor mensuration where they have the cantus firmus phrase. The resulting extra repetition of the first B phrase is not more unusual than some of the other rearrangements of preexistent material in this mass.
64. It should be noted that the other two masses from this list which use the cantus firmus in canon, Regis and Naples 6, do not sound the B section against itself. Regis only uses the A section of the tune in canon, and the canonic comes in the Naples mass only sounds during the rests of the dux.
65. On the statistical expectation that Cmusical sharp sign will be employed less often than Fmusical sharp sign, see above, n. 34.
66. Measure numbers in Example 3a and 3b follow the edition in JUDITH COHEN (ed.), Six anonymous L'homme armé masses in Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS VI E 40, «Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae», 85, Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1981.
67. Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chigi, C VIII 234, ff. 213v-227.
68. See above, p. 23. Although Ramos disapproves of this type of melodic movement, he does state that it is one of the possible outcomes (all of which are poor) of this contrapuntal situation.
69. Cf. the famous example from the eighth chapter of TINCTORIS's Liber de natura et proprietate tonorum, where it is recommended that a discant voice perform a near-direct melodic tritone in order to retain a perfect vertical 5th with the tenor (quoted in BENT, On False Concords, p. 72).