ANALYTICAL ASPECTS IN MISSA DE BEATA VIRGINE BY JOSQUIN DES PREZ

Josquin des Prez has composed at least 20 masses. This article focuses on the presentation and analysis of compositional techniques in Missa de Beata Virgine used by Josquin des Prez. He used different techniques from the XVI. century: paraphrased cantus firmus melody, tropus, imitative and polyphonic techniques. His early style testifies to the influence of Guillaume Dufay and Jan van Ockeghem. Following his Italian experience he mastered the homophonic compositional technique, which strengthened the text-music relationship in his works

Josquin des Prez na Arte nouamente inuentada pera aprender a tãger de Gonzaço de Baena, 1540

O presente trabalho pretende ser um contributo para o estudo do sistema de intabulação de Gonzalo de Baena através das obras vocais de Josquin des Prez na Arte nouamente inuentada pera aprender a tãger, Lisboa 1540, o primeiro impresso conhecido na Península Ibérica para instrumento de tecla. Procura igualmente ser um contributo para a compreensão da evolução da música instrumental europeia e, em particular, ibérica, durante a primeira metade do século XVI, designadamente a destinada ao instrumento de tecla. Gonzalo cortes de D. Manuel I e de D. João III, deixou-nos uma obra, das muitas que se propunha inventar (”[…] no solo esta/mas las que tengo para fazer/ […]”,) para que se pudesse aprender facilmente a tocar tecla e adquirir alguns princípios teóricos, sem necessidade de dominar o canto de organo. É assim dada uma atenção particular ao carácter pedagógico deste impresso português de 1540, “método” sem tutor, para principiantes ao teclado. Mas o cerne do presente trabalho é uma primeira tentativa de caracterização do processo de intabulação de Baena. Para tal, e tendo em conta que Baena é seguramente uma das fontes ibéricas que nos transmite mais obras de Josquin des Prez, um compositor famoso então e agora, foram escolhidas as 14 obras deste músico entre as 66 intabulações que Baena nos deixou. Procedeu-se a um exercício comparativo entre as intabulações e as respectivas edições modernas de referência da obra de Josquin des Prez (nomeadamente a New Josquin Edition) assim como com outras intabulações coetâneas, procurando identificar quais as opções (e possíveis justificações) tomadas pelo intabulador perante a obra polifónica. Como conclusão do trabalho, apresenta-se uma edição crítica das catorze intabulações atribuídas por Gonzalo de Baena a Josquin des Prez

Auditory Streaming Complexity and Renaissance Mass Cycles

How did Renaissance listeners experience the polyphonic mass ordinary cycle in the soundscape of the church? We hypothesize that the textural differences in complexity between mass movements allowed listeners to track the progress of the service, regardless of intelligibility of the text or sophisticated musical knowledge.  Building on the principles of auditory scene analysis, this article introduces the Auditory Streaming Complexity Estimate, a measure to evaluate the blending or separation of each part in polyphony, resulting in a moment-by-moment tally of how many independent streams or sound objects might be heard. When applied to symbolic scores for a corpus of 216 polyphonic mass ordinary cycles composed between c. 1450 and 1600, we show that the Streaming Complexity Estimate captures information distinct from the number of parts in the score or the distribution of voices active through the piece. While composers did not all follow the same relative complexity strategy for mass ordinary movements, there is a robust hierarchy emergent from the corpus as a whole: a shallow V shape with the Credo as the least complex and the Agnus Dei as the most. The streaming complexity of masses also significantly increased over the years represented in this corpus

The Evolution of the Cadence in the Cyclic Masses of Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin, and Gombert

Four composers have been chosen for this study. They were the leaders of four successive generations of composers influential in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Their masses were written between the years 1420 A.D. and 1560 A.D. Many significant changes took place during this period of one hundred forty years. Older compositional techniques such as the use of formes fixes and isorhythm all but disappeared. Cantus firmus technique was transformed and extended to unify the mass cycle. Aesthetic considerations became more important to the composer than liturgical canons, and composers began to regard themselves as artistic creators not mere servants to the Church. The rise of humanism placed man at the center of his music, making it more expressive and personal then ever before

Boston University Choral Ensembles, February 23, 2002

This is the concert program of the Boston University Choral Ensembles performance on Saturday, February 23, 2002 at 8:00 p.m., at Marsh Chapel, 735 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were "In monte Oliveti," "Tritis est anima mea," and "Ecce vidimus eum" from the "Tenebrae Responsoria" of 1611 by Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa, "Hor che 'l ciel e la terra e 'l vento tace," "Dolcissimo uscignolo," and "Chi vuol haver felice e lieto il core" from "Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi" Book VIII by Claudio Monteverdi, Mass by Igor Stravinsky, "El Grillo" by Josquin des Prez, "Isbruck, ich muss dass lassen" by Henricus Isaac, "Un jour je m'en allai" by Giaches de Wert, "Ojos claros y serenos" by Francisco Guerro, "Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone" by John Farmer, "Mon coer se recommende a vous" by Orlande de Lassus, "O magnum mysterium" by Tomas Luis de Victoria, "Die Primel," Op. 48 No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn, "Fruhlingsfeir," Op. 48 No. 3 by F. Mendelssohn, and "Six Chansons" by Paul Hindemith. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Anne Boleyn's musical life through an examination of Rcm MS 1070

Rcm MS 1070 has fascinated and perplexed musicologists since the 1960s. The manuscript which contains some of the most well-known examples of French court motets and French chansons has received special attention due to the signature of England’s most infamous queen, Anne Boleyn, in the altus of one of these motets. Although Anne Boleyn is a notable historical figure whose musical abilities have been widely remarked upon, little is known about her musical life. Rcm MS 1070, also known as Anne Boleyn’s Music Book, offers insight for scholarship surrounding Anne Boleyn’s musical education and tastes. Consequently, musicologists have debated on the origins of the manuscript, how Boleyn could have come to own it, and what it tells us about her musical activity. Through an examination of the previous scholarship and of the thematic contents of the manuscript, I demonstrate that Rcm MS 1070 was likely a gift to Anne Boleyn from Marguerite d’Alçenon upon her return to England to marry James Butler, Earl of Ormonde. The manuscript, which is filled with pieces that are strongly connected to books of hours, was meant to be pedagogical for Anne by reminding her of her duties as wife and mother and was meant instruct her future court musicians by transmitting the greatest French court motets of the time from Paris to England.Musi

The Western reception of Sergei Taneyev

Sergei Taneyev is not a common name in Western musicology. Short studies of his theoretical writings include Allen Forte’s critical review of New Grove (1982), Ellon Carpenter’s survey in Russian Theoretical Thought in Music (1983), and Catherine Nolan’s chapter ‘Music Theory and Mathematics’ from The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory (2002). However, an English-language monograph on Taneyev has yet to be published. This paper focuses on the missed opportunity of Taneyev’s contrapuntal theory within the theory of Western music. First published in 1909, his ‘Moveable Counterpoint’ treatise pioneered a rigorously theoretical approach to the study of an esoteric contrapuntal device, which substantially precedes parallel thought outside of Russia. I address the following questions: what is the value of this treatise today? And how might Taneyev’s work be developed to heighten our awareness of contrapuntal procedures

Student Ensemble: Normal Community High School Women’s Chorale, Illinois State University Women’s Choir, Illinois State University Early Music Recorder Ensemble

Center for the Performing ArtsNovember 13, 2011Sunday Evening6:00 p.m

Margarete von Österreich, 1480 - 1530, Statthalterin der Niederlande

Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Tochter Kaiser Maximilians I., Margarete von Österreich, Regentin der Niederlande und der Musik am habsbur-gisch-burgundischen Hof in Mecheln um 1500. Die Heiratspolitik der Habsburger führte die junge Fürstin zunächst nach Frankreich, später nach Spanien, von wo sie nach kurzer Zeit als Witwe in ihre Heimat zurückkehrte. In dritter Ehe wurde Margare-te mit dem Herzog Philibert von Savoyen verheiratet. In dieser Ehe verbrachte Mar-garete die glücklichste Zeit ihres Lebens, sie wurde jedoch nach wenigen Jahren er-neut zur Witwe. Alle Pläne ihres Vaters, sie neuerlich zu verheiraten, lehnte sie ener-gisch ab. Im Alter von 27 Jahren übernahm sie 1507 die Regentschaft der Nieder-lande. Margarete führte in Mecheln einen kulturell sehr bedeutenden Hof und betätig-te sich als Förderin aller Künste, der Malerei, der Literatur und vor allem der Musik. Die berühmtesten Komponisten der Zeit verkehrten an ihrem Hof und schufen für sie unvergängliche Werke. Anhand einiger ausgewählter Chansons aus den berühmten Brüsseler Chansonniers soll untersucht werden, wie sich das Leben der Fürstin in ihrer Musik widerspiegelt. So manche Schicksalsschläge ihrem Leben finden in die-sen Chansons ihren Niederschlag. Insgesamt kann festgestellt werden, dass sich die Margarete zugedachten Chansons in den Texten mit ihrem Schicksal befassen, sich aber musikalisch nicht wesentlich von anderen Kompositionen der Zeit unterschei-den. Dessen ungeachtet weist trotzdem manche Passage auf die melancholische Stimmung der Regentin hin. Die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit durchgeführte Forschung kann nur ein erster Schritt sein, weiterführende Forschungen könnten die im Ansatz gefundenen Erkenntnisse weiter vertiefen